Zechariah 1:8  "I saw that night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtles in the valley..."

He sees a grove of myrtles, a beautiful shrub, with glossy, dark green leaves, and white, star-like clusters of fragrant flowers, whose leaves exhaled their richest odor only when bruised. This was a symbol of the theocracy, the Jewish Church and nation. The Church is not a cedar, in its queenly pride, or an oak in its giant strength, but a lowly myrtle, humble, unpretending, and exhaling its sweetest graces when bruised by the weight of affliction. Such was the existing state of theocracy, and hence the despondency of the people, who thought that so lowly a thing must be wholly overshadowed and destroyed by the proud and godless powers of this world.

But in the midst of these myrtles he sees a man on a red horse, whom we afterwards discover to be the angel of Jehovah, that divine person whom we trace all along the history of the Old Testament, in every manifestation of God to man, in visible form, until in the New Testament we find him manifest in the flesh. It is the second person of the mysterious Trinity, the great head of the Church. The fact is thus symbolized that he is in the midst of the Church, unseen and hence though seemingly so feeble and lowly, she has this inhabitation as her glory and defence.

~ from "Zechariah" by Thomas V. Moore (orig. published New York: Robert Carter, 1856; reprinted London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1958, 1961, 1968), 46. The Scripture translation is Moore's own rending.

In the midst of the Xanga 2.0 transition, I've found myself annoyed and upset over the current appearance of my blog – the fact that it is currently so very bare bones. But then I read those words of Thomas V. Moore, after which came the conviction of the Holy Spirit. To explain...

Lately, I've been grieving and mourning over the mass of Western Christianity that has been deceived and is all too readily discarding the simplicity that is in Christ – congregation after congregation and denomination after denomination lapsing...  and, as a result, scores of professing Christians are laboring fervently – not according to the Spirit, but according to the flesh – and unequally yoking themselves with the spirit and wisdom and might of this age, striving to appeal to and attract the natural man, and seeking to appear wise, powerful, and noble in the eyes of the world.

II Corinthians 11:1  Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. 2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (KJV)

I Corinthians 1:26  For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28  God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29  so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30  He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 31  Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (ESV)

As we look at the Church in comparison to the world, it's far too easy for us to be tempted to think, as Moore wrote, that

so lowly a thing must be wholly overshadowed and destroyed by the proud and godless powers of this world.

And I found myself sliding into that very same temptation regarding my blog! (I Cor. 10:12-13)

I do want my blog to be helpful to those who are reading. And it's not that I want my blog to look crummy. Yet I don't want it to look good or to serve others at the expense of diminishing or concealing the glory and the simplicity of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel in any way at all ~ II Corinthians 4:1-7; I Corinthians 2:1-5; Romans 1:16-17. (And yes, in case you're wondering, I do realize some of the quotation marks are displaying incorrectly in this post... and I have no idea why... Quite fitting indeed!)

As pilgrims in this fallen world, Christians are in a constant warfare – we are engaged in battle against our flesh, the world and the devil. It has always been a challenge for God's people to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and not to love the world or the things in the world (including the acclaim of the world), but rather to remain unspotted, as "a lowly myrtle, humble, unpretending," and to stay on the narrow path and to shine as lights amidst the lure of the fleshly aroma of pretentiousness and self-promotion exuding from the world.

I am thankful for one word in particular in that Scripture from Zechariah:  "I saw that night..." – what a wonderful reminder that even in dark, gloomy and benighted days of Christianity such as we are in today, Jesus Christ is still in our midst. But as soon as we begin to lose sight of the truths that our Lord is in the midst of His people, and He is building His Church in spite of all appearances, we will begin to resort to relying on earthly means and jockeying for popularity and position in the world as if we were never born again, and as if we were seeking to please men and not the living God. Instead of continuing to walk in the Spirit, we begin to walk in the flesh. Instead of relying on Jesus Christ as our defense and instead of lifting Him up as our glory, we rely on ourselves, and in the process, we rob our God of the glory due His name. We travel down Asa's foolish path:  our hearts are no longer loyal to our God, and we no longer rely on the LORD as we ought. (See 2 Chronicles 16.)

* * *

"Now 'dove's eyes' set out not only the Bride's affection, and love to Christ, but also the nature of her love, which is the thing here mainly commended, as simplicity, chastity, and singleness, for which the creature is commended, Matt. x. 'Be simple as doves.' And this is the commendation of the love that true believers have to Christ, that it is chaste, single and sincere love: singleness is the special thing Christ commends in his people."

~ from "An Exposition of the Song of Solomon" by James Durham (originally published 1840, reprinted Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1982), 118.

* * *

Lord Jesus Christ, baptize me afresh with Your Holy Spirit, that I might take Your easy yoke upon me, learn from You, and become more like You. May Your grace abound to me so I might rest and rejoice in being a lowly myrtle, humble and unpretending, for You are a Savior who is meek and humble in heart. Yes, You are the Lion of Judah, but You became a Lamb, and You humbled Yourself and You were crucified in weakness and raised to life again by the power of God. Help me to learn to delight to be weak as You were weak, that the power of God might be made perfect in my weakness.

Merciful and gracious LORD of hosts, transform my deceitful, desperately wicked, and covetous heart into a dove-like heart that loves, relishes, guards and glorifies the simplicity that is in the heavenly Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, and His glorious Gospel. Incline my heart to Your holy and heavenly ways, and disincline my heart from corrupt and worldly ways. May the love of Christ so fill my heart that my love for You might be single, and I might be constrained by Your love to put no confidence in my flesh or in earthly wisdom, but rather by Your grace, may I labor in the Spirit with simplicity and godly sincerity in all I do, including blogging. For there is no true rejoicing and no true boasting apart from having such a heart!

II Corinthians 1:12  For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. (KJV)

II Corinthians 1:12  For our boast is this: the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. (ESV)

Related posts:

• Why I blog and the only kind of recommendation I should seek
• Why I write and minister - My credo for being a godly encourager
• Postcards from God in England: the frisking at Heathrow
• dedication 2010 (reflections on God's Word & God's grace ~ no sugar coating...
• dedication 2010 (addendum): may He temper my tongue with love
• blogging, view count, comments, numbers and the glory of God
• "Why Do I Write Poetry"
• blogging to build up the ruined Church of God / expository exultation
• Here I stand & from here I cast (devoted to prayer & the ministry of the Word)
• my desire: "fearless and uncompromising" like Duncan Campbell, Moses, and Paul
• blogging with NO compromise: the article of justification for your joy & God’s glory

Photo credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Myrtus_communis11.jpg / CC-by-SA 3.0

In his sermon "The Importance of Spiritual Growth," Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ML-J) cited these words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon:

"There is a point in grace which is as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling."

On August 21, 2012, as part of a reflective/retrospective post on my birthday, I wrote the following about those words of Spurgeon:

The following spring [of 2008], while away on a private retreat, I listened to a portion of Martyn Lloyd-Jones' sermon on Ephesians 3:16:

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man... (KJV)

There are many ways we can keep track of the Ebenezers in our lives. And included in those for me are my own personal journals and my blogging.

In my post dated May 29, 2008, I'd referenced a quotation which ML-J gave from Spurgeon in that sermon:

"There is a point in grace which is as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling."

This morning, I looked through my journals (my spiral notebooks which are "filed" in a cardboard box in the corner of the bedroom), and I found the notebook from that time with the quotation written down along with some notes I'd taken from the sermon. No, there was no lightning bolt at the time, but a seed was planted: a deeper desire and hunger and thirst for Christ had been imparted into my soul through the Holy Spirit. I vividly remember the day when I sat on the bed in that retreat center and listened to that sermon and then knelt down by the bed. I had heard something that day that did further shaking to my complacent, safe, self-sufficient, works-oriented, lukewarm Americanized Christianity. Even though I knew my present reality at that point in time was so very far from that point in grace, and even though I knew I was approaching holy ground to even consider such a possibility, yet all the same, that possibility began to captivate me and my hunger and thirst grew. I knew there was more to Christianity than I'd imagined... I was slowly coming to the realization, much like Oswald Chambers wrote:  "But I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud." (Please see my post here for more on that.)

* * *

I was only recently able to locate the Spurgeon sermon in which that quotation was found. I've included a few excerpts from that sermon below. (One note on the sermon: regarding the paragraph beginning with "The great policy of Satan..." – it's clear that the threats to the 21st century Church have multiplied beyond those at the time this sermon was first preached in 1869.) Before those excerpts, I've included Scripture, some other quotations, as well as a poem I've written. In presenting all these things to you, my prayer is that God might strengthen you to entreat Him for grace upon grace, that you would not be complacent with having received the former rain – that your Christianity would not be fraudulent – but you would seek God's face in earnest for the latter rain, so you might come to that point in grace which is as much above the ordinary Christian as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling... Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

~ That we might increase our joy in the LORD, Karen

Luke 11:9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 11 If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 

13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Zechariah 10:1 Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; so the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

"See how ready God is to succour and relieve his people, how he waits to be gracious; as soon as ever they humble themselves under this hand, and pray, and seek his face, he immediately meets them with his favours. They prayed that God would spare them, and see here with what good words and comfortable words he answered them; for God's promises are real answers to the prayers of faith, because with him saying and doing are not two things."

~ Matthew Henry on Joel 2:18-27

Psalm 119:58
I intreated thy favour with my whole heart:
be merciful unto me according to thy word.

Once More I Entreat
(the Former AND the Latter Rain)
~ a birthday exultation (August 23, 2013) ~

(based in part upon Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon
"The Former and the Latter Rain" No. 880)

In vain I'd sought shadows and earthly gold,
Then Truest Treasure which waxes not old

Through the Spirit, given second birth,
Sight imparted to see my great dearth

With my whole heart did I entreat
Saving favor from the mercy seat

The former rain dropped at Thy Word
Before I spoke, my plea was heard

By Lamb's blood, the veil was rent
With full acceptance I made the ascent

But this be my greatest and chiefest regret:
Though two decades seated with Mephibosheth,

'Twas but a nominal supping, devoid of flavor,
Had nary a true taste or a sensible savor

Seeing but not perceiving – was this Life!?
Nay, only a pretense, counterfeit in disguise

"Ah! If this is Christianity, 'tis but a fraud!"
In Your kindness came chastening rod

Variegated trials, the whirlwind, Your billows
With Jacob, I struggled, and wetted my pillow

To behold Your Beauty – my one desire
O! To taste the Fount of baptismal fire!

For the latter rain I was importunately intent
I would not let Thee go, till the heavens rent

Achsah's cry ~ "the sure mark of grace":
Having found grace, I seek Thy grace!

With whole heart, once more I entreat
Latter rain from Thy mercy seat

My Rock, burst forth! O! Wellspring of favor!
Blessed are all who seek higher savor!

For my Bridegroom, I pant with mouth open wide:
To know Him - Ah! this is religion bona fide! 

My Beloved, be like a gazelle! O! Make haste!
Fill this thirsty pilgrim with grace upon grace!

Above the ordinary, for all the saints who dare
Welcome cross and brokenness – breathe rarefied air!

Ask, seek, and knock at His celestial door
Alarm you should feel if you desire no more

To prepare the corn for the time of harvest
Beg the latter rain to revive and refresh

Bountiful effusion of Christ, remarkable visitation,
'Tis nothing short of a second conversion!

Wrestling cry of God's elect: sweet incense arising
How can He spurn the groanings of His needy offspring?

For such a point in grace, bow down and earnestly entreat,
Our heavenly Father meets all who diligently seek

With favors in abundance ~ our Lord's delights ~
Succoring His children to leap on the heights!

"It is a sure mark of grace to desire more."
~ Robert Murray M'Cheyne ~

"In Jesus is our store,
Grace issues from his throne;
Whoever says, 'I want no more,'
Confesses he has none.
~ William Cowper ~

Hosea 12:4 Yes, he [Jacob] struggled with the Angel and prevailed; He wept, and sought favor from Him. He found Him in Bethel, And there He spoke to us – 5 That is, the LORD God of hosts. The LORD is His memorial. (NKJV)

Isaiah 29:17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? 18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. 19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Excerpts from Charles Haddon Spurgeon's sermon "The Former and the Latter Rain" (HT: http://www.ccel.org/print/spurgeon/sermons15/xxxiii, emphasis mine)

"Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest." - Jeremiah 5:24

It is very usual in the life of Grace for the soul to receive in later years, a second very remarkable visitation of the Holy Spirit, which may be compared to the latter rain. As I told you, the latter rain was sent to plump out the wheat and make it full and mature, ready for the after-harvest ripening. So there is a time of special Grace granted to saints, to prepare them for Heaven, to make them completely meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. To some, this is given in the form of what has very commonly, and I think correctly, been called a second conversion. "When you are converted, strengthen your Brethren," was Christ's remark to Peter, who was even then a converted man.

My Brothers and Sisters, there is a point in Grace as much above the ordinary Christian, as the ordinary Christian is above the worldling. Believe me, the life of Divine Grace is no dead level, it is not a low country, a vast flat. There are mountains and there are valleys. There are tribes of Christians who live in the valleys, like the poor Swiss of the Valais, who live in the midst of the mist, where fever has its lair and the frame is languid and enfeebled. Such dwellers in the lowlands of unbelief are forever doubting, fearing, troubled about their interest in Christ and tossed to and fro. But there are other Believers, who, by God's Grace, have climbed the mountain of full assurance and near communion. Their place is with the eagle in his eyrie, high aloft.

They are like the strong mountaineer who has trod the virgin snow, who has breathed the fresh, free air of the Alpine regions and therefore his sinews are braced and limbs are vigorous. These are they who do great exploits, being mighty men, men of renown. The saints who dwell on high in the clear atmosphere of faith are rejoicing Christians, holy and devout men, doing service for the Master all over the world and everywhere conquerors through Him that loved them. And I desire—oh, how earnestly I desire you to be such men and women! My craving is that all of you, my Beloved, who have been watered by the former rain, may also be refreshed by a more than ordinary latter rain which shall make you more than ordinary Christians—bringing you beyond the blade period and the ear period—into the full corn in the ear!

The great policy of Satan of late with the Church has been this—not so much to attack her with open infidelity—for really all the infidelity there is in England does not materially affect Churches worthy of the name except to an almost infinitesimal extent. There is a deal more made of skepticism in certain quarters than there is any need for. Skeptics seldom get among our Christian people. At least I do not meet with them in my enquiries, nor do I see them associating with Christians of my association. The plan Satan seems to have adopted is not that of attacking our doctrine, but that of
preventing, as far as he can, our raising in our midst a race of eminent and advanced Christians. Pharaoh said, "Destroy the male children." Satan seems to say, "Stop the male children from fulfilling their growth."

We are well enough in our way after the common run of manhood. We believe in Christ. We love Him and contribute something to His cause, We preach and we pray. We are a respectable sort of people, but we do not grow to maturity or attain "unto the first three." We have in this age but few giants in Divine Grace who rise head and shoulders above the common height—men to lead us on in deeds of heroism and efforts of unstaggering faith. After all, the work of the Christian Church, though it must be done by all, often owes its being done to single individuals of remarkable Grace. In this degenerate time we are very much in need of what Israel had in the days of the Judges—there were raised up among them leaders who judged Israel and were the terror of her foes.

Oh, if the Church, today, had in her midst a race of heroes! If only our missionary operations could be attended with the holy chivalry which marked the Church in the early days! If only we could have back Apostles and martyrs, or even such as Carey and Judson, what wonders would be worked! We have fallen upon a race of dwarfs and are content, to a great extent, to have it so. There was once in London a club of small men whose qualification for membership lay in their not exceeding five feet in height. These dwarfs held, or pretended to hold, the opinion that they were nearer the perfection of manhood than others, for they argued that primeval men had been far more gigantic than the present race and consequently the way of progress was to grow less and less, and that the human race, as it perfected itself, would become as diminutive as themselves.

Such a club of Christians might be established in London and without any difficulty might attain to an enormously numerous membership—for the notion is common that our dwarfish Christianity is, after all, the standard! And many even imagine that nobler Christians are enthusiasts, fanatical and hot-blooded—while we are cool because we are wise and indifferent—because we are intelligent. We must get rid of all this nonsense! The fact is, the most of us are vastly inferior to the early Christians, who, as I take it, were persecuted because they were thoroughly Christians and we are not persecuted because we hardly are Christians at all! They were so earnest in the propagation of the Redeemer's kingdom, that they became the nuisance of the age in which they lived.

. . .

Brothers [and sisters], be encouraged! A latter rain is yet possible. Seek it! That you need it so much is a cause for sorrow, but if you really feel your need of it, be glad that the Lord works in you such sacred desires. If you did not feel a need for more Divine Grace it would be a reason for alarm. But to be conscious that all that God did by you in the past has not qualified you to do anything without Him now—to feel that you lean entirely upon His strength now, as much as ever— is to be in a condition in which it shall be right and proper for God to bless you abundantly.

Please note: In addition to the ML-J sermon cited above, you can access for free over 1600 other audio sermons of The Doctor courtesy of the MLJ Trust here. You can also sign up for the weekly podcast through Living Grace Ministries at oneplace.com: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/living-grace/listen/. They're currently broadcasting sermons from ML-J's Ephesians series.

Related:

• my posts on nominal Christianity
• my posts on true and false religion

In my last two posts Calvinism & missions? Indeed! Ekballo # 1: TULIP & prayer to the Lord of the harvest and "We're not on Christian cruise ships. We are on battleships." David Sitton @ Ekballo # 2," I blogged on the first two plenary talks given at the Ekballo Midwest Conference, held April 19-20, 2013:

Scott Anderson's talk The Essential Nature of Prayer in the Gospel Mission found here:  http://youtu.be/fuA3p5X32sE

David Sitton's talk Propel the Church, Harvest the Nations found here:  http://youtu.be/6JBqc29qmkA

Today, I'd like to present the third and final plenary talk, "Martyrdom and the Eternal Purpose of the Church" given by Dalton Thomas.

First off, in case you might be tempted to skip over Dalton Thomas' opening prayer, please don't! As you listen, you'll hear the humble and fiery heart and soul of a young man who loves Jesus and is sober-minded and vigilant, single-eyed for Christ, zealous for God's name, and seeking to bring glory to God. Thomas is 27 years old, and given that I'm over 50, I am supremely blessed and encouraged whenever I see God raising up such men and women in the next generation in this era when so many are at ease and complacent in Zion, a day of cheap grace, lukewarmness, and small things here in the West.

Thomas' main text was Ephesians 3:7-13, but before he gets to the text, he prefaces it with the following words (boldface mine, throughout):

The call to martyrdom is not the exaltation of death over life. It is the exaltation of Christ over all things... It's not the call to seek death, it's the call to seek Jesus. And the more that we find Him, the more that we find He is more valuable than life, and more valuable than what we lose in death. And so, the more we love Him, the more we love our lives less, and the more the task of global missions becomes very easy to lay hold of. I don't think we have a missions problem in America. I don't think we have an evangelism problem in America. I think we have a knowledge of Jesus problem in America.

I can't express my delight at hearing these words; they are so very relevant. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you've heard the steady drumbeat of our need to be rooted in right doctrine.

As Thomas introduces the main Scripture text, he says:

This is the text we're gonna look at tonight -- Ephesians chapter 3, which you're probably thinking, "This is not a martyrdom passage." It is.

. . . I do believe this is the most important statement in the Bible about the nature of the Church. Paul uses a phrase that we're gonna to look at tonight, that I think just needs to be contemplated for a couple decades, which is this phrase:  "the eternal purpose of God."

Now tonight, before we look at this, you know, it would be interesting, if we passed around a piece of paper to everybody, and a pen, and said, "Write down your definition of the eternal purpose of God. Fold the paper up and send it up here, and we're gonna go through them." Everyone would give good, Biblical answers, Bible verses that stuck. But I found a number of years ago, when the Lord laid hold of me with this passage, I realized is that what I would have written is not even close to what Paul defined as the eternal purpose of God. I think in order for us to rightly reckon and apprehend the call to frontier missions, I think we need to have a perspective on the eternal purpose of God, lest we be disconnected from the center of it all.

As you listen, see how your definition of the eternal purpose of God lines up with the Biblical definition, which the apostle Paul unfolds in Ephesians 3.

WARNING:  Be prepared to have your head blown up –– but by that I mean blown up in a good way –– more particularly, to have your theology blown up, to have your understanding of God refined and purified and renewed and expanded –– I only say that because I felt like my own head was blowing up (in a good sense) as I first heard Dalton Thomas in person, and once again as I reviewed my notes on his talk a couple months ago, and then once more as I've relistened to the whole talk again over the past few days...

Holy Spirit, You are the Spirit of truth. We confess we have a knowledge of Jesus problem in the Church in America, as well as in our own souls. How can we know God as we ought, how can we love God as we ought, how can we serve God as we ought, how can we live to God as we ought, how can we die for God as we ought, how can we glorify God as we ought –– unless we know the truth about God? Our adversary, the devil, is a deceiver. He is a liar and the father of lies. He transforms himself into an angel of light. He wants to keep us from knowing the truth and loving the truth. Holy God, be merciful and gracious to us, and pour out Your Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. Apart from Your opening our eyes, we have no genuine spiritual sight of You and of Your truth. Your Word is right and pure and true. As we read, listen to, meditate upon, and study Your Word, sanctify and cleanse us. Blow up any false, incorrect, impure, and faulty theological understandings we might be clinging to. Blow up any false, incorrect, impure, and faulty theological underpinnings we may be building upon. Lead us into all truth for the sake of Your blessed name, so we might be a delight and a joy to You, and bring praise, honor and glory to You throughout all the earth. Amen.

ecclesia reformata semper reformanda secundum verbum Dei

[the church reformed, always being reformed, according to the word of God]

Photo credits:

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:August_Müller_Tagebucheintrag.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-70}}

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PSM_V56_D0465_Hollow_dynamite_cartridge_elevation_view.png / PD