DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, APRIL 13, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great goodness, and
shall sing of Your righteousness." Psalm 145:7.
THIS is called "David's Psalm of praise" and you will see that all
through it he is inflamed by a strong desire that God may be greatly
magnified. Hence he uses a variety of expressions and repeats himself
in his holy vehemence. Run your eyes down the Psalm and notice such
words as these–"I will extol You." "I will bless Your name." "Every
day will I bless You." "I will praise Your name forever and ever."
"Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised." "One generation shall
praise Your works to another." "I will speak of the glorious honor of
Your majesty." "Men shall speak of the might of Your terrible acts" and
other words of the same meaning down to the last verse–"My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless His holy name
forever and ever."
David is not content with declaring that Jehovah is worthy of praise,
or with pleading that His praise ought to be felt in the heart, but he
will have it publicly spoken of, openly declared, plainly uttered and
joyfully proclaimed in song. The inspired Psalmist, moved by the Holy
Spirit, calls upon all flesh, yes, and upon all the works of God to
sound forth the praises of the Most High! Will we not heartily respond
to the call? In following out his design of praise, David had spoken in
verse five of the majesty of God, the glorious King. His eyes seems to
be dazzled by the glorious splendor of the august Throne and he cries,
"I will speak of the glorious honor of Your majesty." Then he thinks of
the power of that Throne of majesty and of the force with which its
just decrees are carried out and, so, in verse six he exclaims, "Men
shall speak of the might of Your terrible acts and I will declare Your
greatness."
Here he speaks briefly both as to the majesty and the might of the
dread Supreme, but when he turns his thoughts to the Divine goodness,
he enlarges and uses words which indicate the stress which he lays upon
his subject and his desire to linger over it. "They shall abundantly
utter," says our text, "the memory of Your great goodness." Now, our
desire, this morning, is that we, also, may praise and magnify the name
of the Infinite Jehovah without limit and may especially have our
hearts enlarged and our mouths opened wide to speak abundantly of His
great goodness. O that in the whole of this congregation the text may
become true–"They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great
goodness"–and having uttered it in plain speech, may we all rise a
stage higher and, with gladsome music, sing of His righteousness!
You see our objective, an objective in which, I trust, you all
sympathize. Come, one and all, and praise the Lord! Is the invitation
too wide? Observe the ninth verse–"The Lord is good to all: and His
tender mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall praise
You." I will not limit the invitation of the Lord since you all drink
of the river of His bounty! Render to Him, all of you, such praises as
you can. But there is a special invitation to His saints. Come and
bless His name with spiritual, inward, enlightened praise. "Bless the
Lord, O house of Israel. You that fear the Lord, bless the Lord." In
your heart of hearts, extol, adore and make Him great, for it is
written–"Your saints shall bless You."
Verily this shall not be written in vain, for our souls shall bless the
Lord this day as the Holy Spirit shall move within us! We shall speak
upon two things that we may promote the objective we have in view. The
first is, the method of securing the abundant utterance of God's praise
as to His goodness. And, secondly, the motives for desiring to secure
this abundant utterance.
I. THE METHOD OF SECURING THE ABUNDANT UTTERANCE OF THE DIVINE PRAISE
CONCERNING HIS GOODNESS. Our text gives us the mental philosophy of
abounding praise and shows us the plan by which such praise may be
secured. The steps are such as the best mental philosophy approves.
First, we shall be helped to abundant praise by careful observation.
Notice the text–"They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great
goodness." Now, in order to memory, there must first of all be
observation. A man does not remember what he never knew! This is
clear to all and, therefore, the point is virtually implied in the
text. In proportion as a fact or a truth makes an impression upon the
mind, in that proportion is it likely to abide in the memory.
If you hear a sermon, that which you remember afterwards is the point
which most forcibly strikes you while you are listening to the
discourse. At the time you say, "I will jot that down, for I should not
like to forget it, for it comes so closely home to me." And whether you
use your pencil or not, Memory obeys your wish and makes a record upon
her tablets. It is so with the dealings of God towards us. If we want
to remember His goodness, we must let it strike us–we must notice it,
consider it, meditate upon it, estimate it and allow it to exert its
due influence upon our hearts–then we shall not need to say that "we
must try and remember," for we shall remember as a matter of course.
The impression being clearly and deeply made will not easily fade away,
but we shall see it after many days.
The first thing, therefore, towards the plentiful praising of God is a
careful observation of His goodness. Now, see what it is that we are to
observe–God's goodness. Too many are blind to that blessed object.
They receive the bounties of His liberality and are in His care, but
they attribute all that they receive to themselves or to secondary
agents. God is not in all their thoughts and, consequently, His
goodness is not considered. They have no memory of His goodness because
they have no observation of it! Some, indeed, instead of observing the
goodness of God, complain of His unkindness to them and imagine that He
is needlessly severe.
Like the unprofitable servant in the parable, they say, "I knew You,
that You are an austere man." Others sit in judgment upon His ways, as
we find them recorded in Holy Scripture, and dare to condemn the Judge
of all the earth! Denying the goodness of Jehovah, they attempt to set
up another god than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who for this
enlightened 19th Century is a god much too just. In this house,
however, we worship Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob–the
God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ–and none other than
He. In many a place of worship this day they adore new gods, newly come
up which our fathers knew not–not like the God of the Old Testament,
who, in the opinion of modern philosophers, is as much out of date as
Jupiter himself.
This day we say with David, "This God is our God forever and ever." "O
come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before Jehovah our
Maker. For He is our God and we are the people of His pasture and the
sheep of His hands." As we find the Lord revealed both in the Old and
the New Testament, making no division in the Revelation, but regarding
it as one grand whole, we behold abundant goodness in Him! Mingled with
that awful justice which we would not wish to deny, we see surpassing
Grace and we delight that God is Love. He is gracious and full of
compassion. He is slow to anger and of great mercy. We have no
complaints to make against Him! We wish to make no alteration in His
dealings or in His Character! He is our exceeding joy–our whole heart
rejoices in the contemplation of Him. "Who is like unto You, O God?
Among the gods who is like unto You?"
We are, then, to consider what many will not so much as believe–that
there is great goodness in Jehovah, the God of Creation, Providence and
Redemption–the God of Paradise, of Sinai and of Calvary. We are to
thoroughly acquaint ourselves with Him as He has made Himself known and
we are continually to consider His great goodness, that we may retain
the memory of it. If we are willing to see, we shall not lack for
opportunities of beholding His goodness every day, for it is to be seen
in so many acts that I will not commence the catalog since I should
never complete it! His goodness is seen in Creation–it shines in every
sunbeam, glitters in every dewdrop, smiles in every flower and whispers
in every breeze.
Earth and sea and air, teeming with innumerable forms of life, are all
full of the goodness of the Lord! Sun, moon, and stars affirm that the
Lord is good and all terrestrial things echo the proclamation. His
goodness is also to be seen in the Providence which rules over all. Let
rebellious spirits murmur as they may, goodness is enthroned in
Jehovah's kingdom and evil and suffering are intruders! God is good
towards all His creatures and especially towards the objects of His
eternal love for whom all things work together for good.
It is, however, in the domain of Divine Grace that the noblest form of
Divine goodness is seen. Begin with the goodness which shines in our
election and follow the silver thread through redemption, the mission
of the Holy Spirit, the calling, the adoption, the preservation, the
perfecting of the chosen–and you will see riches of goodness which
will astound you! Dwell where you may within the kingdom of redemption
and you will see rivers, yes, oceans of goodness! I leave your own
minds to remember these things and your own lips to abundantly utter
the memory of the Lord's great goodness in the wonders of His
salvation! It is not my design to speak for you, but to stir you up to
speak for yourselves!
The point which struck the Psalmist and should strike us all, is the
greatness of the goodness. The greatness of the goodness will be seen
by the contemplative mind upon a consideration of the person upon whom
the goodness lights. "Why me?" will often be the utterance of a
grateful spirit. That God should be good to any of His people shows His
mercy, but that He should make me to be one of His and deal so well
with me–here His goodness exceeds itself! Why me? Is this the manner
of man, O Lord? What am I, and what is my father's house? It is great
goodness because it visits persons so insignificant, yes more–so
guilty and so deserving of wrath! Blessed be God that He is good to
persons so ungrateful– to persons who cannot, even, at the best, make
any adequate return–who, alas, do not even make such return as they
could! Ah, Lord, when I consider what a brutish creature I am, it is
easy to confess the greatness of Your goodness!
The greatness of the goodness becomes apparent when we think of the
greatness of God the Benefactor. "What is man that You are mindful of
him, or the son of man that You visit him?" That God Himself should
bless His people. That He should come in the form of human flesh to
save His people. That He should dwell in us, walk in us and be to us a
God–a very present help in trouble–is a miracle of love! Is not this
great goodness? I can very well understand that the infinity of His
benevolence should commit us to the charge of angels, but it is amazing
that it should be written, "I the Lord do keep it: I will water it
every moment lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."
Oh, the greatness of such personal condescension, such personal care! O
heir of Heaven, from the fountain of all goodness shall you drink and
not only from its streams! God Himself is your Portion and the lot of
your inheritance! You are not put off with creatures–the Creator,
Himself, is yours! Will you not remember this and so keep alive the
memory of His goodness? The greatness of the goodness is, on some
occasions, made manifest by the evil from which it rescues us. Nobody
knows so well the blessing of health as he who has but lately been
tortured in every limb–then for his restoration he blesses Jehovah
Rophi, the healing Lord. None know what salvation from sin means like
those who have been crushed beneath the burden of guilt and have been
racked by remorse.
Did you ever feel yourself condemned of God and cast out from His
Presence? Did the pangs of Hell commence within your startled
conscience? Did your soul long for death rather than life, while thick
clouds and darkness shrouded your guilty spirit? If so, when the Lord
has put away your sin and said, "You shall not die." When He has
brought you forth from the prison, broken your bonds asunder and set
your feet upon a rock, then has the new song been in your mouth, even
praise forevermore! Then have you known it to be great goodness which
thus delivered you. We may imagine what the bottom of the sea is like
and conceive what it must be to be borne down to the lower deeps where
the weeds are wrapped about the dead men's brows, yet, I guarantee you
that our imagination but poorly realizes what Jonah experienced when
the floods compassed him about and he went down to the bottom of the
mountains!
When the Lord brought his life up from corruption, then he had a strong
and vivid memory of the great goodness of God, seeing he had been
delivered from so great a death! It is in the storm that we learn! O
praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the
children of men! If I might have it so, I could wish my whole life to
be calm as a fair summer's evening when scarcely a zephyr stirs the
happy flowers. I could desire that nothing might again disturb the
serenity of my restful spirit–but were it to be so, I suspect I should
know but little of the great goodness of the Lord. The sweet singer in
the 107th Psalm ascribes the song of gratitude not to dwellers at home,
but to wanderers in the wilderness–not to those who are always at
liberty, but to emancipated captives–not to the strong and vigorous,
but to those who barely escape from the gates of death. Not to those
who stand upon a sea of glass, but to those who are tossed in tempests
upon a raging ocean. Doubtless so it is–we should not perceive the
greatness of goodness if we did not see the depth of the horrible pit
from which it snatches us.
You were almost ruined in business, Friend, but you escaped with the
skin of your teeth–then you praised God for His great goodness! Your
dear child was given up by the physicians; your wife apparently
sickened for death–but both these have been spared to you and herein
you see the heights and depths of mercy! Now, therefore, lay up this
great goodness in your memory to be the material for future Psalms of
praise! Nor is this the only way of estimating God's great
goodness–you may estimate it by the actual greatness of the benefits
bestowed. He gives like a king! No, He gives like a God! Behold, your
God has not given you a few minted coins of gold, but he has endowed
you with the mines, themselves! He has not, as it were, handed you a
cup of cold water, but He has brought you to the flowing fountain and
made the well, itself, your own. God Himself is ours! "The Lord is my
Portion, says my soul."
If you must have a little list of what He has given you, ponder the
following items–He has given you a name and a place among His people.
He has given you the rights and the nature of His children. He has
given you the complete forgiveness of all your sins and you have it
now. He has given you a robe of righteousness and you are wearing it
now. He has given you a superlative loveliness in Christ Jesus and you
have it now. He has given you access to Him and prevalence at the Mercy
Seat. He has given you this world and world to come. He has given you
all that He has! He has given you His own Son! And how shall He now
refuse you anything? Oh, He has given like a God!
The greatness of His goodness this tongue can never hope to tell and so
I ask you to think it over in a quiet hour at home. As for myself, I
will speak of my Lord as I find Him, for the old proverb bids us do so.
Whatever you shall say, Brothers and Sisters, I have nothing to speak
but what is good of my God, my King from my childhood until now. He
amazes me with His mercy! He utterly astounds me with His loving
kindness! He causes my spirit to almost swoon away with delight beneath
the sweetness of His love! Yet He has not spared me the rod, nor will
He and, blessed be His name for that, also! "Shall we receive good at
the hands of the Lord and shall we not also receive evil?" asked the
Patriarch.
But we will go beyond that and assert that evil is no evil when it
comes from His hands! Everything is good which He ordains. We may not
see it to be so at the time, but so it is. Our heavenly Father seems to
rise from good to better and from better to yet better in infinite
progression! He causes the roadway of our life to rise higher and
higher and carries it over lofty mountains of loving kindness. Our life
path winds always upward to yet higher summits of abounding
mercy–therefore let His praise increase and the name of the Lord be
still greater and greater!
I want to urge you, dear Friends, to observe the goodness of God
carefully for your souls' good. There is a great difference between
eyes and no eyes–yet many have eyes and see not. God's goodness flows
before them and they say, "Where is it?" They breathe it and they say,
"Where is it?" They sit at the table and they are fed upon it! They
wear it upon their limbs! It is in the very beating of their heart and
yet they say, "Where is it?" Be not blind! "The ox knows his owner and
the ass his master's crib"–let us not be more crude than beasts of the
field–but let us know the Lord and consider well the greatness of His
goodness!
I have said that the text contains the philosophy of great praise and
we see this in the second stage of the process, namely, diligent
memory. That which has made an impression upon the mind by observation
is fastened upon the memory. Memory seems to be in two things–first in
retaining an impression and then in recollecting it at a future time. I
suppose that, more or less, everything that happens to us is retained
in the mind, but it is not easy to reproduce the fainter impressions
when you wish to do so. I know in my own mind a great many things that
I am sure I remember, but yet I cannot always recollect them
immediately. Give me a quarter of an hour to run through a certain
arrangement of ideas and I shall say, "Oh yes, I have it. It was in my
mind, but I could not recall it at the time." Memory collects facts and
afterwards recollects them. The matters before us are recorded by
memory, but the tablet may be mislaid–the perfection of memory is to
preserve the tablet in a well-known place from which you can fetch it
forth in a moment.
I have dwelt rather long upon observation with the view that you may
begin aright from the beginning and, by getting vivid impressions, may
be the better able to retain and recall them. We cannot utter what we
have forgotten and, therefore, the use of close observation to make a
strong memory touching the Lord's great goodness. How are we to
strengthen our memory as to God's goodness? First, we should be well
acquainted with the documents in which His goodness is recorded. A man
may be said to keep in memory a fact which did not happen in his own
time, but hundreds of years before he was born–he remembers it because
he has seen the document in which the fact is recorded.
In a certain sense this is within the range of memory–it is within the
memory of man, the united memory of the race. Beloved, be familiar with
the Word of God! Store your memory with the ancient records of His
great goodness! Drink in the whole narrative of the Evangelists and
despise not Moses and the Prophets. Soak in the Psalms and the Song of
Solomon and such Books till you come to know the well-recorded goodness
of the Lord! Have His Words and deeds of goodness arranged and at your
fingertips because they are in your heart and then you will be
abundantly sure to utter the memory of His goodness, for "out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."
Next, if you would strengthen your memory, diligently observe the
memorials. There are two in the Christian Church. There is the memorial
of your Savior's death, burial and resurrection which is set forth in
Believers' Baptism, wherein we are buried and risen with the Lord
Christ. Forget not that memorial of His deep anguish when He was
immersed in grief and plunged in agony, for He bids you observe it. And
as for the Holy Supper, never neglect it, but be
often at the table where, again, you set forth His death till He comes.
He has bid you do this in remembrance of Him– devoutly cherish the
precious memorial!
Great events in nations have been preserved upon the memory of future
generations by some ordained ceremonial and the Lord's Supper is of
that kind. Therefore observe well the Table of the Lord that you forget
not His great goodness. Look how the Jews kept their Exodus in mind by
means of the Paschal Lamb–how they ate it after the sprinkling of the
blood–how they talked to their children and told them of the
deliverance from Egypt, abundantly uttering the memory of God's
goodness and then after supper they sang a hymn, even as our text bids
us sing of the righteousness of God. Strengthen your memories, then, by
reverent attention to the historical documents and the memorial
ordinances.
Still, the most important is the memory of what has happened to
yourself, your own personal experience. I will not give a penny for
your religion unless it has taken effect upon yourself. The power of
prayer! What of that? Did you ever receive an answer to prayer? Did you
ever wrestle with the angel and come away victorious? What do you know
about prayer if you never prayed? You are very orthodox? Yes, but
unless the Doctrines of Grace have brought to your soul the Grace of
the doctrines–and you have tasted and handled them–what do you know
about them? Nothing certainly to remember! O, dear Heart, were you ever
born again? Then you will remember His great goodness! Were you ever
cleansed from your sin and justified in Christ? You will remember His
great goodness! Have you been renewed in heart so as to hate sin and
live in holiness? If so, you will remember because you know something
which flesh and blood have not revealed unto you. Let every personal
mercy be written upon your personal memory!
I have heard that the science of mnemonics, or the strengthening of the
memory, for which I have not a very high esteem, lies in the following
of certain methods. According to some, you link one idea with
another–you remember a date by associating it with something that you
can see. Practice this method in the present case. Remember God's
goodness by the objects around you which are associated with it. For
instance, let your bed remind you of God's mercy in the night watches
and your table of His goodness in supplying your daily needs. My
garments, when I put them on this morning, reminded me of times when my
hands were unable to perform even that simple task. All around us there
are memoranda of God's love if we choose to read them.
The memory of some deed of Divine goodness may be connected with every
piece of furniture in your room. There is the old armchair where you
wrestled with God in great trouble and received a gracious answer. You
cannot forget it– you do not pray so well anywhere else as you do
there–you have become attached to that particular chair. That thumbed
Bible, that particular one I mean–it is getting rather worn, now, and
is marked a good deal, but, nevertheless, out of that very copy the
promises have gleamed forth like the stars in Heaven and, therefore, it
helps your memory to use it. I remember a poor man giving me what I
thought great praise. I visited him in the hospital and he said, "Ah,
you seem to have hung this room round with your texts, for everything
reminds me of what I have heard you say, and as I lay here I recollect
your stories and your sayings." In much the same way we should remember
what God has done for us by looking at all the various places,
circumstances, times and persons which were the surroundings of His
mercy. O for a clear remembrance of the goodness of God!
Memory is sometimes helped by classification. You send a servant to a
shop for a variety of articles–she will forget some of them unless you
so arrange the order that one suggests another. Take care, then, to set
God's mercies in order before you and reckon them up in number, if you
can, and so fix them in your memory. At other times, when persons have
very bad memories, they like to write down on a piece of paper that
which is important to remember. I have often done so and have placed
the paper where I have never found it again. A thread around the
finger, or a knot in a handkerchief and many other devices has been
tried. I do not care what it is, so long as you try and remember God's
mercy to you by some means or other. Do make some record of His
goodness.
You know the day in which you lost that money, do you not? "Yes, very
well." You remember the day of the month of Black Friday, or Black
Monday, up in the City. You have evil days indelibly noted in the black
pocketbook of memory–do you remember, as well, the days of God's
special loving kindness to you? You should! Take pains to make notes of
notable benefits and to mark remarkable blessings and so you shall, in
future days, utter the memory of God's great goodness! The first two
processes for securing abundant praise are observation and remembrance.
The next is utterance "They shall abundantly utter." The word contains
the idea of boiling or bubbling up like a fountain. It signifies a holy
fluency about the mercy of God. We have quite enough fluent people
about, but they are, many of them, idlers for whom Satan finds abundant
work to do. May the Lord deliver us from the noise of fluent women–but
it matters not how fluent men and women are if they will be fluent on
the topic now before us. Open your mouths! Let the praises pour forth!
Let rivers of it come! Stream away! Gush away all that you possibly
can! "They shall abundantly utter the memory of Your great goodness."
Do not stop the joyful speakers–let them go on forever. They do not
exaggerate–they cannot!
You say they are enthusiastic, but they are not half up to the pitch
yet! Bid them become more excited and speak yet more fervently. Go on,
Brother, go on! Pile it up! Say something greater, grander and more
still fiery! You cannot exceed the Truth of God! You have come to a
theme where your most fluent powers will fail in utterance. The text
calls for a sacred fluency and I would exhort you to exercise it
liberally when you are speaking of the goodness of God. "They shall
abundantly utter it"–that is, they shall constantly be doing it–they
shall talk about God's goodness all day long! When you step into their
cottages they will begin to tell you of God's goodness to them! When
you bid adieu to them at night you shall hear more last words upon
their favorite theme!
Very likely they will repeat themselves, but that does not matter, you
cannot have too much of this truly good thing. Just as the singers in
the temple repeated again and again the chorus, "His mercy endures
forever," so may we repeat our praises! Some of God's mercies are so
great and sweet that if we never had another thought throughout
eternity, the recollection of the single favor might forever remain!
The splendor of Divine Love is so great that a single manifestation of
it is often all that we can bear! To have two such revelations at once
would be as overpowering as though God should make two suns when one
already fills the world with light! Oh, praise the Lord, my Brothers
and Sisters, with boundless exultation! Awaken all your faculties to
this Divine service and abundantly utter the memory of His goodness!
You cannot praise abundantly unless your memory supplies materials and,
on the other hand, your memory will lose strength unless you utter what
you know. When you went to school and had a lesson to learn, you found
out that by reading your lesson aloud you learned it more quickly, for
your ears assisted your eyes. Uttering the Divine goodness is a great
help to the memory of it! By teaching we learn–by giving the Truth of
God expression, we deepen its impression upon our minds.
Now I come to the last part of this admirable process. When we have
abundantly uttered, then we are to sing. In the old Greek mythology,
Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, is the mother of the Muses and surely
where there is a good memory of God's loving kindness the heart will
soon produce a song! But what is surprising in the text is that when
the joy is described as mounting from plain utterance to song it takes
another theme–"Sing of Your righteousness." When the heart is most
adoring and selects the grandest theme for reverent song, it chooses
the meeting of goodness and righteousness as its topic. How sweet is
that canticle–"Mercy and Truth are met together, and Righteousness and
Peace have kissed each other." The Atonement is the gem of the heart's
poetry. Do not your hearts burn within you at the very mention of the
glorious deed of Jesus, our great Substitute?
Parnassus is outdone by Calvary! The Castalian spring is dried and
Jesus' wounded side has opened another fountain of song! The goodness
of the Lord to us in all the blessings of His Providences we gladly
chant, but when we tell of the Grace which led our Lord Jesus to bleed
and die, "the Just for the unjust to bring us to God," our music leaps
to nobler heights! Incomparable Wisdom ordained a way in which God
should be righteous to the sternness of severity and yet should be
good, illimitable good, to those that put their trust in Him! Lift up,
then, your music till the golden harps shall find themselves outdone!
Thus, we have explained the method of securing an abundant
utterance–may the Holy Spirit help us carry it out.
II. In the second place, we shall very briefly note THE MOTIVES FOR
THIS ABUNDANT UTTERANCE. These
are right at our fingertips. The first is because we cannot help it.
The goodness of God demands that we should speak of it. If the Lord
Jesus, Himself, should charge His people to be silent as to His
goodness, they would scarcely be able to obey the command. They would,
like the man that was healed, blaze abroad the mighty work that He had
done. But, bless His name, He has not told us to be quiet–He allows us
to abundantly utter the memory of His great goodness! The stones of the
street would cry out as we went along if we did not speak of His love!
Some of you good people seldom speak of the goodness of God! Why is
this? I wonder how you can be so coldly quiet. "Oh," said one in his
first love, "I must speak or I shall burst" and we have sometimes felt
the same when the restrained testimony was as fire within our bones! Is
it not a sacred instinct to tell what we feel within? The news is too
good to keep! Indulge to the fullest the holy propensity of your
renewed nature! Your soul says, "Speak," and if etiquette says, "Hush,
they will think you a fanatic," regard it not, but speak aloud and let
them think you are a fanatic if they please! Sir, play the organ very
softly when the subject is your own praise, but when you come to the
praises of God, pull out all the stops–thunders of music are all too
little for His infinite goodness!
Another motive for abundantly uttering the praises of God is that other
voices are clamorous to drown it. What a noisy world this is with its
conflicting and discordant cries. "Lo here," cries one. "Lo there,"
shouts another. This uproar would drown the notes of God's praise
unless His people uttered it again and again! The more there is said
against our God, the more should we speak for Him. Whenever you hear a
man curse, it would be wise to say aloud, "Bless the Lord." Say it
seven times for every time he curses and make him hear it. Perhaps he
will want to know what you are doing and you will then have an
opportunity of asking what he is doing–and he will have more
difficulty in explaining himself than you will in explaining yourself.
Try, if you can, to make up for the injuries done to the dear and
sacred name of God by multiplying your praises in proportion as you
hear Him spoken ill of. I say unless you give forth abundant utterance,
God's praise will be buried under heaps of error, blasphemy, ribaldry,
nonsense and idle talk! Abundantly utter it so that some of it, at
least, may be heard! Praise the Lord abundantly because it will benefit
you to do so. How bright the past looks when we begin to praise God for
it. We say, "I am the man that has seen affliction," and we are to fill
the cup of memory with gall and wormwood–but when we see the goodness
of God in it all, we turn the kerchief with which we wiped our tears
into a flag of victory–and with holy praise, in the name of our God,
we wave the banner!
As for the present, if you think of God's mercies, how different it
seems. A man comes to his dinner table and does not enjoy what is there
because he misses an expected dainty. But if he were as poor as some
people, he would not turn his nose up, but would bless the goodness
which has given him so much more than he deserves! Some I know, even
among Christians, are growlers in general and always finding fault. The
best things in the world are not good enough for them. Ah, my Brother,
abundantly utter the memory of God's goodness and you will find nothing
to grumble about–nothing to complain about–but everything to rejoice
in! As for the future, if we remember God's goodness, how joyfully we
shall march into it. There is the same goodness for tomorrow as for
yesterday and the same goodness for old age as for youth–the same God
to bless me when I grow gray as when I was a babe upon my mother's
breast. Therefore, forward to the future without hesitation or
suspicion, abundantly uttering the loving kindness of the Lord.
Again, I think we ought to do this because of the good it does to other
people. If you abundantly talk of God's goodness you are sure to
benefit your neighbors. Many are comforted when they hear of God's
goodness to their friends. Draw a long face and lament the trials of
the way–sit down with somber brethren and enjoy a little comfortable
misery and see whether crowds will ask to share your vinegar.–
"While here our various needs we mourn, United groans ascend on high,"
says Dr. Watts, and I am afraid he speaks the truth, but very few will
be led in this way to resolve–"We will go with these people, for we
perceive that God is with them." Is it good reasoning if men say,
"These people are so miserable that they must be on the way to Heaven"?
We may hope they are, for they evidently need some better place to
live, but then it may be questioned if such folks would not be wretched
even in Heaven!
You smile, dear Friends, as if you said you would not be much attracted
by sanctimonious misery, nor do I think you would. Therefore do not try
it yourselves, but, on the contrary, talk much of the goodness of the
Lord! Wear a smiling face! Let your eyes sparkle and go through the
world as if you are not slaves under the lash, or prisoners in bonds,
but the Lord's free men! We have glorious reasons for being happy–let
us be so and soon we shall hear persons asking, "What is this? Is this
religion? I always thought religious people felt bound to be down in
the dumps and to go mourning and sighing all their days." When they see
your joy they will be tempted to come to Christ! There is a blessed
seductiveness in a holy, happy life. Praise, then, His name! Praise His
name forevermore! Abundantly utter the memory of His great goodness and
you will bring many to Christ!
Such happy utterance will help, also, to comfort your own Christian
friends and fellow sufferers. There is a deal of misery in the
world–just now more than usual. Many are sorrowing from various
causes. Therefore, my dear Friends, be happier than you ever were. That
venerable man of God, now in Heaven, our dear old father Dransfield,
when it was a very foggy morning in November, used to always come into
the vestry before the sermon and say, "It is a dreary morning, dear
Pastor. We must rejoice in the Lord more than usual. Things around us
are dark, but within and above all is bright. I hope we shall have a
very happy service today." He would shake hands with me and smile till
he seemed to carry us all into the middle of summer. What if it is bad
weather? Bless the Lord that it is not worse than it is! We are not
altogether in Egyptian darkness–the sun does shine now and then–and
we are sure it is not blown out.
So, when we are sick and ill, let us thank God that we shall not be ill
forever, for there is a place where the inhabitants are no more sick.
And now, today, if your harps have been hanging on the willows, take
them down! If you have not praised the Lord as you should, begin to do
so! Wash your months and get rid of the sour flavor of murmuring about
bad trade and bad weather! Sweeten your lips with the pleasant
confection of praise. I will tell you this, Brothers and Sisters, if
any of you shall confess to me that you have sinned by going too far in
blessing God, I will, for once, become a priest and give you
absolution! I never tried my hand at that business, before, but I think
I can manage as much. Praise God extravagantly if you can. Try it! I
wish you would say within yourself, "I will go beyond all boundaries in
this matter," for there are no boundaries to the deserving of an
ever-blessed God!
Lastly, let us praise and bless God because it is the way in which He
is glorified. We cannot add to His Glory, for it is infinite in
itself–but we can make it to be more widely known by simply stating
the truth about Him. Don't you want to give honor to God? Would you not
lay down your life that the whole earth might be filled with His Glory?
Well, if you cannot cover the earth with His praises as the waters
cover the sea, you can at least contribute your portion to the flood!
Oh, keep not back your praises, but bless and magnify His name from the
rising of the sun to the going down of the same!
It will lift earth upward and heavenward if we can all unite in
praise–we shall see it rising as it were beneath our feet–and
ourselves rising with it until we shall stand as upon the top of some
lofty Alp that has pierced the vault of Heaven! And we shall be among
the angels, feeling as they feel, doing as they do and losing ourselves
as they lose themselves in the eternal hallelujah of, "Glory, and
honor, and majesty, and power, and dominion, and might be unto Him that
sits upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever."
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Prayer Perfumed with Praise
A Sermon