Concerning Saints
(No. 1796)
A SERMON PREACHED ON A THURSDAY EVENING IN THE SUMMER OF 1884,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"All Your works shall praise You, O LORD; and Your saints shall bless
You." Psalm 145:10.
Do not throw yourselves back in your seats and say, "This will be a
sermon for saints and, therefore, we may be excused from listening to
it." Do you not see that the first clause gives you a fair word and a
kindly hint? "All Your works shall praise You, O Jehovah." Through this
you may enter, as by an open door, for if you are not Jehovah's saints,
you are His works and are bound to praise His name! In these days of
harvest and full summertime, every created thing appears to praise God
by its very existence. Insect and fern, pebble and rippling brook, star
and cloud, wind and dew–all reflect the wisdom and goodness of the
Most High! Many a man's works are no credit to him and, even in cases
where men have worked well and produced much which is to their honor,
yet certain of their works are not to their credit, but deserve to be
plunged in darkness.
It is never so with a single work of the Eternal–all His works are
perfect! He puts no bad work into them, He uses no base material, He
never makes up with paint and varnish for grievous deficiencies. Set
all His works in the sunlight– yes, put them all under the strongest
magnifier–and they tell no tale against Him, but they all publish Him
as the best of workers, the grandest of thinkers, the most complete of
designers. You may range high Heaven, or descend into the depths of the
sea, or dig into the darkest mines, but you will come upon nothing
which can find fault with Him. You may break God's works in pieces and
examine them in minute detail. You may pass them through the fire again
and again, but tested as they may be, they bear but one witness–
"The hand that made us is Divine," and that Divine hand is excellent in
knowledge and power.
All God's works also praise Him by a sort of intent–they make praise
His glory as of set purpose. We are speaking of the inanimate
creation–we say inanimate–but in this matter they seem to be all
alive to the glory of the Lord! The worlds that roll through space and
the dust that dances in the sunshine; the fire bolt that levels the
tower and the snow-flakes that dance in their wintry courts; the yeast
of the foaming sea, the pollen of the ripening flower and the cleavage
of the crystal–all vie with one another in proclaiming the greatness
of the wisdom and the goodness of the Lord! Not only are the heavens
proclaiming the Glory of God, and the firmament showing His handiwork,
but the earth and the air, the sea and all deep places, the hillside
and the cottage garden are all emulating each other in the blessed work
of praising Jehovah!
How often at sunset has it seemed to us as if God held His court far
away in the west, amid the bright and burning clouds and there the
seraphs bowed as visibly as before the throne above! Looking across the
sea, when the sun has just been rising in the morning, we have seen the
gates of Heaven opened and the skirts of the Lord's robes have been as
visible to us as once they were to Moses! At hush of midnight, when ten
thousand stars are adoring, earth's stillness proves her to be a
profound worshipper. There are a thousand times when Nature keeps her
special Sabbaths and in God's temple does everyone speak of His glory!
Awaken, then, my Friend! You are a creature, if not a new creature in
Christ Jesus. Adore your Benefactor if you do not know your Savior! The
known may be a step to the unknown. In joining God's works in His
praise, you may be led to join with Himself. You have never fully and
properly attended to this first call–you cannot, therefore, complain
if you find yourself too feeble for the second. Have you nothing for
which to praise the Lord? Is not your body a specimen of His handiwork?
Are not the organs of nutrition and the supplies which are given to
them, proofs of His goodness? Your
deliverance from fever and a hundred other deaths is something worthy
of a song! All your domestic hopes, joys and desires, though they reach
not to eternal things and are but draughts from the nether springs, yet
they come from the same hand as the higher gifts! And they may lead you
home, for the prodigal, who came back to his father, was sweetly
tempted there by the remembrance of the bread in his father's house, of
which there was enough and to spare.
Yet I confess that there is, in the text, much that is special for a
chosen people. It speaks to those who dwell within the inner circle,
who, by position, character and privilege are elevated to the highest
form of service. Praise is high as Heaven and lasting as eternity–and
yet there is something that is better, for it is written–"Your saints
shall bless You." Everywhere throughout the Word of God you see a very
clear and sharp distinction between those that fear God and those that
fear Him not–between the two seeds, the seed of the serpent and the
seed of the woman–between those that are living in sin and those that
have been delivered from it, and so are made saints unto God. There are
two peoples and always will be while the present dispensation lasts.
And the difference between them is great and vital. For this reason it
must be difficult, if not impossible, to compose forms of prayer which
shall be suitable for two conditions of men so essentially opposite.
There should be, in our public prayers, as there is in the Word of God,
this distinction clearly made and manifested. There is a line which
divides, today, between Israel and Egypt, even as there will be a line
of fire, proceeding from the Judgment Seat, which will effectually and
finally sever between the heirs of God and the heirs of wrath. At the
very beginning we shall have to remind you that the text suggests this.
We are all God's works. "It is He that has made us, and not we,
ourselves," but we are not all "His people and the sheep of His
pasture."
We have not yet all been brought within the bonds of the Covenant. We
have not yet all been saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation
and, therefore, we are not all His saints! Divide yourselves by a
Scriptural judgment. "Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith;
prove your own selves." Rest in no neutrality! Dream not of communion
between Christ and Belial. "You cannot serve God and mammon." You are
either with God or against Him–and the sooner you know your true
position, the better. I shall never preach to you as if you were all
alike, for I know you are not. Some of you are in Christ and others of
you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity. I shall
not, tonight, forget that I have tares as well as wheat before me–and
I shall try to make that distinction appear all through my sermon.
I shall want you carefully to notice three things. The first is, that
God has a people whom He calls His saints–of these we read in the
text. Secondly, these are placed in the first rank, for while it is
said, "All Your works shall praise You, O Lord," the saints occupy a
special position and are spoken of by themselves. They are put before
all others–"and Your saints shall bless You." Thirdly, these people
render a special homage. While they join in the praise which comes up
from all God's works, they stand in an inner circle and fulfill a
peculiar ministry and, therefore, we read, "Your saints shall bless
You."
I. Come, then, to our work. May the Holy Spirit help us! First, GOD HAS
A PEOPLE WHOM HE CALLS HIS
SAINTS. Who are they? Are they all dead? It is supposed so, for the
usage of the Popery around us is to call men saints who have been long
in their graves, while living men are not regarded in that light. I
notice, even among those who call themselves Protestants, a great many
relics of the old harlot of the seven hills, and among the rest, this
nonsense of dead saintship! Somebody wrote me the other day about his,
"sainted mother." What did he mean? Had the Pope canonized her? Or did
she become a saint by dying? Does death, which came in through sin,
bring sainthood with it?
Assuredly not! If men are not saints before death, they certainly
cannot be made saints after death. Do the coffin and the grave bring
you this canonization? Does corruption in the tomb create an odor of
sanctity? I am sure that it is not so, for it is written, "He that is
unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him be
filthy still. And he that is righteous, let him be righteous, still,
and he that is holy, let him be holy still." Where death leaves us,
judgment will find us! You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing
him. He who does not live as a saint, here, will never live as a saint
hereafter.
When the Apostle Paul wrote letters to the Churches, he called the
members of them saints. They were living men and women of whom he thus
spoke! They were ordinary men and women like ourselves; poor in rank,
greatly deficient in education and often without house or home. In some
respects, they were even inferior to ourselves, for their former
conversation had been so exceedingly lax that they ignorantly tolerated
sins which, in these days, would not be endured for a
moment! I believe that the Church of God at this day, taken as a whole,
is better than the Church at Corinth was. For instance, there is no
Church that I know of, worthy to be called a Church of Christ, that
would tolerate, in its membership, one who had been guilty of incest.
We would be quite sure to deal with such an open and crying crime as
that! We have many faults today and they had a great many faults, then,
for the Apostle had to write to some Churches twice over to warn them
of certain very apparent evils. And yet, for all that, there were
saints in those Churches, and Paul was accustomed to address those who
were joined together in any one place as those who were called to be
saints.
Saints, then, are not people who are dead and buried and are stuck up
in niches for us to admire. There are saints, no doubt, before the
Throne of God and we, too, are saints here below if we are what we
should be–and if we have received that Grace which brings with it
deliverance from the reigning power of sin–and the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit in the heart. These saints are to be met with in our own
country. Many persons have a high esteem for ministers whom they have
never seen, who labor in exceedingly remote districts. Of course these
good men and their churches must be absolutely perfect–a race of
saints! Distance lends enchantment to the view! For my part, I love to
believe in the holiness of those who are round about me, in the
sanctity of my fellow laborers and in the fervent devotion of those who
hold up my hands, from day to day, in my work of faith and labor of
love.
There are as many saints in England as there are in America. I am not
inclined to look to the Plymouth Church, or the Romish Church, or the
Greek Church, or any other Church, for my saints–I find them right
here in the Tabernacle!–
"There my best friends, my kindred dwell, There God my Savior reigns."
It is all very fine to believe in the saintship of the Brethren in the
Sunderbunds, or in Cathay, wherever those regions may be, but it argues
a great lack of faith in the power of the Holy Spirit if we do not
believe in His sanctifying influence upon the fellowship at home! I
look for my saints among the Christian men and women who are busy all
around me in Sunday school teaching, street preaching and other
soul-winning work! It is the pure in heart who see God and I believe it
is the pure in heart who see the saints of God. If we were more
saintly, ourselves, saints would not be half as scarce as they are!
What is it to be a saint? Some people do not want to know, for with
them it is a term of contempt. They say, "Oh, he is one of your
saints!" They lay the emphasis on the word, "saints," as if it were
something very disgraceful, or, at least, despicable and hypocritical!
Whenever I have that said to me–and it has happened more than once–I
take my hat off out of respect to the title. I had rather be a saint
than a Knight of the Garter! Sometimes I have said, "I wish you could
prove your words," for surely nobody need be ashamed of being called a
saint unless he is afraid that he cannot maintain the name. But if you
really are saintly and men apply the title to you in scorn, wear it
upon your sleeve as your honor and make no attempt, whatever, to
conceal the soft impeachment! I suppose that nobody would, as a general
thing, be ashamed to be called a peer of the realm–and, certainly, to
be a saint is a far more honorable thing than to be a Duke! The peerage
the Queen can give–but saintship only God, Himself, can give–and if
you have that, you need never be ashamed of it!
I have sometimes heard of the "Latter Day Saints." I do not know much
about them, but I greatly prefer the, "Every Day Saints." Those people
who are saints anywhere and everywhere are truly saints! And he that is
not a saint everywhere is not a saint anywhere, for this is a thing
that cannot be put off and on like our Sunday dress! Holiness must be a
part of ourselves–it must be our nature to be saintly. Who, then, are
saints? Some will tell us that they are persons who are totally free
from sin in thought, word and deed. But where will you find these
marvelous beings? I have never met with such! I have seen a few
hare-brained enthusiasts who said that they were perfect, but you had
only to watch them for a single day to discover their defects. A man
absolutely free from all tendency to sin I have never seen on earth,
nor have you–I thought we were all sinners and I have not altered the
opinion.
I would not think he was much of a saint who did not confess that he
was still somewhat of a sinner. I would be afraid that he did not know
himself and that his standard of saintship was not as high as it ought
to be. When a man is so good that he cannot be better, I perceive that,
in some respects, he is so bad that he could hardly be worse! For
instance, in the matter of pride, he has gone some few degrees beyond
Lucifer, himself. When a soul is thoroughly saturated with the belief
that it can be no better, it will be no better. That holy restlessness
which makes a man lament his imperfections and pine after something
more Christ-like, is part of the force by which we move upward towards
higher degrees of spiritual-
ity and Grace. Self-satisfaction is the death of progress and, at the
same time, the discovery of falsehood. The very power to become
sanctified has departed from the man who boasts that he is so!
A certain great painter had been accustomed to perform great feats with
his brush, but one day, having finished a picture, he laid down his
palette and said to his wife, "My power to paint is gone!" "Oh," she
asked, "how is that?" "Well," he answered, "up to this day I have
always been dissatisfied with my productions, but this last picture I
have painted, perfectly satisfies me and, therefore, I am certain that
I shall never be able to paint anything worth looking at again." As
long as a man is dissatisfied with himself, he will be capable of great
things. But when he feels that he has attained and is perfectly
satisfied–depend upon it–nothing will come of him during the rest of
his life. He has lost the very faculty of progress!
Oh, Brothers and Sisters, if we know ourselves and our God, every idea
of our being absolutely perfect will make us sick to the death! We know
we are nothing of the sort! Still, we also know that sin does not have
dominion over us and that we are holiness unto the Lord–and in this we
do and will rejoice and bless the Lord our God. Taking all that into
consideration, we again ask the question, who are saints?
Saints, in the first place, are those whom God has set apart for
Himself. He chose them to be His own portion from before the
foundations of the world. He gave them, as men whom He had set apart
for Himself, into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the
people whom Christ speaks of when He mentions, "those whom You have
given Me." These are the saints. These, Christ has effectually and
specially redeemed from among men, according to that text, "These were
redeemed from among men." And again, "Christ loved the Church and gave
Himself for it." Whatever the general aspect of redemption–and it has
a general one, wide as the race of men–yet it has also a special
aspect towards those chosen ones whom God has taken to be His own from
among all the inhabitants of the earth. These people, being thus God's
own, by His electing love, are, in due time, called effectually by His
Grace.
"Come out from among them and be you separate, says the Lord, and touch
not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father
unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord
Almighty." Having been redeemed by blood, they are, in due time,
redeemed by power. The power of the Holy Spirit brings them out of
Egypt's bondage into the glorious liberty of God's dear Son. From that
day, these people become manifestly saints, a people that live in God,
with God, for God, to God, by God–a people that do not belong to the
rest of the world! "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world." "The people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among
the nations." They are a singular people, "a peculiar people." I have
heard it objected, sometimes, "If I were religious, I should be so
peculiar." Of course you would! Scripture says that you would be. "Oh,
but I should be one by myself!" Of course you would! "Know that the
Lord has set apart him that is godly for Himself." These are the
saints, then–a people dedicated unto God through His own rich Grace,
to live for Him–for them to live is Christ! "For you are dead and your
life is hid
with Christ in God."
But who are the saints, again? How shall we know them? Well, they are
known, next, by their holy life. They are not only dedicated to God,
but they are made meet for God's use by the sanctifying power of the
Holy Spirit. Forget not all I have said about our imperfections, but,
for all that, God's people are a holy people! "Without holiness no man
shall see the Lord." A man is described in Scripture, not by his
infirmities, but by the general run and current of his life. We say of
a river, that it runs to the south, although there may be eddies along
the banks which run in an opposite direction to the main stream. Still,
these are an inconsiderable matter. The main stream of the Thames is
running constantly towards the sea and we speak not amiss or
untruthfully when we say that it is so. And the main stream and set of
the current of the life of a child of God runs towards that which is
right, true and holy–both towards God and towards man.
If it is not so with you, dear Friend, I make very short work of
it–you do not know the Lord! You have need to be born again and to be
delivered from the power of sin. "His servants you are to whom you
obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness."
Depend upon it, that which governs you is your king–and if evil
governs you, then you belong to the Evil One! But where there is Grace
in the heart, Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.
"Holiness is imputed," says one. I say it cannot be imputed! The
righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, but holiness is quite another
term and you never find in the Word of God mention made of an
imputation of holiness! That cannot be.
David says, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who shall
stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands and a pure heart; who
has not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." These
are actual qualities, not imputations. God's saints are not drunks.
God's saints are not liars. God's saints are not dishonest. God's
saints are not ungenerous and unloving. God's saints are not a people
that take delight in iniquity and follow after the wages of evil, like
Balaam of old. God's people are a people that follow after holiness and
will never be satisfied till sin is exterminated from their
hearts–root and branch! In fact, they will never get to Heaven till
they get that holiness–and when they get it–they will be in Heaven,
for they will awake in the likeness of their Lord! These, then, are the
distinguishing marks of the saints of God. "Where shall we find these
saints?" asks one. Slander says, "Nowhere," but truthfulness affirms
that there are many of them to be found. They are the ornaments of our
households, the pillars of our churches, the delights of our communion
and the glory of Christ. Oh, that we might be numbered among them!
Now I want to call your mind back to where we started. Our text speaks
of saints, but they are said to be God's saints. "All Your works shall
praise You, O Lord; and Your saints shall bless You." The devil has his
saints and Rome has her saints, and self-righteousness has its saints
and ceremonialism has its saints–but these are not God's saints. God
has His own saints and they belong to Him. They are peculiarly and
especially His. They are as the signet upon His finger. Their names are
engraved upon the palms of His hands. You remember how the Good
Shepherd speaks of those who believe on Him–"My sheep"– notice that
word "MY"–hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I
give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of My hand." They are so completely His that
they shall be His forever and ever–and they can NEVER be taken away
from Him!
II. Well, now, secondly, I want you to notice that THESE ARE PLACED IN
THE FIRST RANK. And the reason is of God's Grace and mercy because He
has done the most for them. "All Your works shall praise You, O Lord,"
and "Your saints shall bless You," because they are, in a very peculiar
and remarkable manner, God's works! God has created all things, but He
has twice created His saints. He brought the world out of chaos, but He
brought His people out of the land of darkness and of the shadow of
death, from under the power and domination of every evil thing–yes,
even from death and Hell, itself! For them He worked a creation and a
resurrection! You that are His people have been made new creatures in
Christ Jesus. Of you He says, "Behold, I make all things new." You are,
"begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead."
The new creation of saints infinitely surpasses the creation of the
world. Saints are even placed higher than the angels who are around the
Throne of God, "for unto which of the angels said He at any time, You
are My son?" But He has said that unto you, so that in the scheme of
creation, you rank above all once-created beings, for you are the
twice-born, the twice-made. As in the king's army of old there was a
bodyguard that always stood around the king, whom they called the
immortals, so in God's great host there is a bodyguard–His holy ones,
His saints, the twice-born, the immortals, of whom Christ says,
"Because I live, you shall live also."
But, again, God's works of Grace are not only created by His own power,
but they stand in great favor, in a covenant relation with Himself.
Behold, He has made the covenant of day and night which shall not be
broken. And He has made the covenant with the earth that He will no
more destroy it with a flood. And He has covenanted that while the
earth endures, seed time and harvest, and summer and winter shall not
cease. After the same fashion has He made a covenant with His own
redeemed that He will not be angry with them, nor rebuke them, world
without end! The rainbow in the clouds is the token of the covenant of
preservation which He made with all His works–but when you come to the
spiritual covenant, that Everlasting Covenant is made of God, in Christ
Jesus, with His chosen–and with them only! None but His own believing
people can be said to be partakers in the Covenant of Grace, ordered in
all things and sure–for the Man, Christ Jesus, was the Representative
of those who are His own body, His own brethren, of whom He says, "I
pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which You have
given Me."
The second Adam is the Head of the new race which is born under the New
Covenant, not according to the works of the Law, but according to the
promise of the Grace of God. Isaac, the happy child of Sarah, the free
woman, born according to the promise, lives at home with his father and
is heir with his father forever. But Ishmael, the son of the bondwoman,
born according to the strength of nature, is banished and cast off, as
it is written, "Cast off this bondwoman and her son: for the son of
this bondwoman shall not be heir with My son, even with Isaac." Oh,
rejoice, you people of God,
that if there is a covenant with God's ordinary works, there is a
higher, better, deeper and more spiritual covenant made with you!
Further than this, God's most tender consideration is given to His
saints. He cares for all the works of His hands. Not a sparrow falls to
the ground without being noticed by our Father. God cares for every
fish of the sea–and even such fish as never see the light, but dwell
in black pools in the monster caverns of the earth–are not forgotten
of Him. But as for His children, what care He gives them! No farmer has
as much care for his barn-door chickens as he has for his own little
chicks indoors. The Lord cares for all those countless multitudes that
wait upon Him, but there is the tenderer care of the Father for all
those who are allied to Him by nature and are heirs with Him by Grace.
Remember that text, "Like as a father pities his children, so the Lord
pities them that fear Him." There is a special fatherly consideration
and pity that the Lord has for all His children!
Let us look back and think how God has loved us long before we thought
of Him and how He has thought of us when we have forgotten Him. One
said to me, the other day, "What will become of Gordon?" I answered,
"He is safe enough, I believe, for he has given himself into the hands
of God, and He will take care of him." To this the questioner replied,
somewhat flippantly, "It may be so but, you see, he is so dashing that
he gives God a great deal to think of and to do." I did not like the
expression, but still, it is exceedingly applicable to many of us, for
the office of "Preserver of Men" is no flippant title in the case of
the Most High. Even a quiet life at home is crowded with the most
spiritual, minute and tender thoughts of God. The Lord's guardian care
extends to everything and to every particle of everything, so that
nothing in the whole of life is left to chance, or regarded as a
trifle!
And how sweetly the Lord cares for us! He does all so quietly, calmly,
perfectly. Martha, you see, cannot go about her little room without
making a fuss and complaining of Mary. But the great Father goes about
His great house and takes care of all His children and never makes a
complaint about the greatness of their needs, or the urgency of their
necessities, or the repetition of their faults! He "gives liberally and
upbraids not." You who are God's saints are first in the Almighty's
care. "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks upon me," says David.
It is worthwhile to be poor and needy, if for that reason we have more
of the thought of God set upon us! See what a special position you
occupy, oh, you sanctified ones–not only in creation and in the
Covenant–but in the tender care of God!
And what a position you have as to God's visits! "You visit the earth
and water it: You greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is
full of water." But the visits of God to creation–what are they
compared with His visits to us, His own redeemed? When He came to
Bethlehem, He did so visit us that He took our nature and became bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh! And He still wears that nature. God
is still Incarnate–
"He is at the Father's side The Man of Love, the Crucified." To none of
His other creatures has He paid such a visit as that! Even now, today,
you who are humble and contrite are nearer to God than kings and
princes. God, in His visitations of men, astounds us. "What is man,
that You are mindful of him? Or the son of man, that You visit him?"
Yet He will come to your cottage, come to your chamber, come to your
sick bed. "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembles at My Word." "You have granted me life
and favor, and Your visitation has preserved my spirit." You see, the
saints have the first seats, all along, and they hold them to the end
of the chapter–for they shall be crowned with glory and honor.
God crowns the year with His goodness. The time is coming when the Lord
will cover the earth with the wheat sheaf and with the barley
crown–and these shall be followed by the ruddy fruits of the orchard.
God shall make glad the heart of man with the varied gifts of His
bounty! The earth has its coronation, but what is the coronation of the
saints? "You shall come to your grave in a full age, like as a shock of
corn comes in in his season." Or, if it is not so with you, you shall
behold your Lord coming here to receive you, for He has said it, "I
will come again and receive you unto Myself."
There is a glory yet to come to the whole of creation, for its groans
and travail will lead up to its new birth. What a zodiac of glory will
flame from the new heavens above the new earth at the latter day! But
what of that? The greatest glory is for us to be fashioned, as we soon
shall be, in the image of the Son of God–and then to dwell at His
right hand forever! Between God and man there seems to be an infinite
distance, yet when you see the God-Man, Christ Jesus, you perceive that
God has made His creature, man, near of kin unto Himself! God has taken
man into the nearest possible
degree of affinity to Himself and has illustrated this by varied
degrees of relationship. He has made us to be His sons and daughters
and, as a corporate body, He has made us to be the spouse, the bride,
the Lamb's wife. The Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren!
Thus are we child, spouse, brother, sister!
The nearness of our kin to Deity ought to overwhelm us with humble
gratitude and intense delight. God has done infinitely more for us than
for all His creatures besides. Rise as you may in creatureship, even
till you reach the cherubim and the seraphim–even above these stands
the Son of God–the Son of Man–and we are one with Him! Oh, the
exceeding riches of the Grace and the Glory of God in His saints!
III. So I finish by noticing, dear Friends, that as God has a people
called saints, and as He has put them in the front rank, THEY RENDER A
SPECIAL HOMAGE to Him. This homage is true praise and yet it has a
certain difference of principle in it, so that it is instructive to
say, "All Your works shall praise You, O Lord," but, "Your saints shall
bless
You."
Praise is a very proper thing to render to God and, in common with all
His works, we do render it. But praise has not in it those elements of
warmth which belong to blessing God. For instance, you can praise a man
and yet have no kind of regard for him. I suppose that when Wellington
defeated the French at Waterloo, there could hardly be found in all the
ranks of Napoleon's army men who did not praise Wellington. They said,
"He must, indeed, be a marvelous warrior to have annihilated such an
army as ours." They could not help praising him, but they could have no
love for him and would, no doubt, have been heartily glad if he had
never existed! In the same way, you probably know men towards whom you
personally have no warm feelings and yet, when you see their works, you
are bound to praise them.
A man is an eminent painter and you exclaim, "His pencil is instinct
with life." Still, the man is no friend of yours– you pronounce no
blessings on his name. It may be that your feeling towards him is that
of deep regret that such abilities should be united with so evil a
character. A certain person is exceedingly skillful in his profession,
but he treats you unjustly and, therefore, though you often praise him
for his extraordinary performances, you cannot bless him, for you have
no cause to do so. I am afraid that there might be such a feeling as
that of admiration of God for His great skill, His wonderful power, His
extraordinary justness–and yet no warmth of love in the heart towards
Him. Cold-blooded philosophers have written of God as if He were some
far-off abstraction–and they have allowed words to fall from their
pens, like masses of ice which, when we have dissolved them, have been
fragrant with reverence. Such men stand like the Israelites, outside
the bounds, and gaze at the fire and smoke of Sinai, awe-struck and
trembling.
As for us, it is our delight to come up unto God, even within the thick
darkness, and to commune with Him as a man communes with his friend!
Others may praise God, but it is ours, with our whole hearts, to bless
His name! "Bless the Lord, O my Soul: and all that is within me, bless
His holy name!" Praise is a form of worship in which we cannot attain
to communion with God of the highest order–for that we must ascend
another step and learn to bless Him! I never read that God praises men.
It may be true that in some sense He does so when He says, "Well done,
good and faithful servant!" But I do not find the expression used in
Scripture. God blesses men. Everybody knows that and, therefore, when
we bless God, we enter upon a singularly happy fellowship with Him. He
blesses us and we bless Him–and herein is communion! I grant you that
between the two blessings there is a very great disproportion, but it
is the same word, with much of the same meaning.
Again, God's works all praise Him. The lily lifts itself upon its
slender stem and displays its golden petals and its glittering ivory
leaves–by its very existence it praises God! Yonder deep and booming
sea rolls up in storm and tempest, sweeping everything before it–and
every dash of its waves praises God! The birds in the morning and some
of them all through the night, can never cease from praising–uniting
with the ten thousand other voices which make ceaseless concert before
the Throne of God! But observe, neither the flower, nor the sea, nor
the bird praises with intent to praise. To them it is no exercise of
intellect, for they do not know God and cannot understand His
worthiness. Nor do they even know that they are praising Him! They
exhibit His skill, His goodness and so forth–and in so doing they do
much–but we must learn to do more. When you and I praise God, there is
the element of will, of intelligence, of desire, of intent. And in the
saints of God, there is another element–namely, that of love to Him,
of reverent gratitude towards Him– and this turns the praise into
blessing!
Oh, do you not feel, sometimes, as you behold the Glory of God, "Let
His name be praised forever and ever"? When you stand at the foot of
Calvary, you are not only astonished at the glorious love of God in
Christ Jesus, but you are
melted down and every beat of your heart is to the tune, "Blessed be
His name!" Your soul goes out towards Jesus. It is not merely the sense
of what He is, but the sense of what He is to you. "He loved me and
gave Himself for me." There is a consequent love and gratitude to Him
who gave these benefits, and then there is a desire that you could do
something by way of expressing your deep gratitude to Him. You have
almost wished that Christ were at your door, hungry, so that you might
feed Him. You cannot do it literally, but He tells you that you can do
it in the person of His poor saints. You have thought, "Oh, that He
were at my door on some cold night, when the snow was drifting, that I
might open unto Him and give Him the best place at my table and my
choicest bed! What a host I would be if He would but be my Guest!" Now
that is blessing Him–an active benevolence towards Him. It is not
merely praising Him, but it is feeling a goodwill, a practical desire.
If it were possible for you to bestow some good thing on Him, you would
rejoice to bestow it. If you could do anything to make Him more happy
than He is, if that were possible, you wish to do it!
It is the end and design of our actions which Christ looks at. It is
not merely the hymn we sing, nor the alms we give, nor the service that
we render–though all that is part of it–but the innermost soul of
blessing God is loving Him! It is the love that bows over His feet and
wets and waters and washes them with tears–that unbinds one's locks to
wipe those feet–that finds the precious alabaster box to break and
pours the contents upon Him! It is that love that is not satisfied
unless it can do something to show its love–this is blessing Him! Such
love thinks nothing of what it does. All its thought is of Him and how
it will please Him. Oh, for a crown to put upon His head! Oh, for a
song to sing at His feet! Oh, for a perfect heart, that I might reserve
it for Him, alone! Oh, that I had a soul as wide as Heaven, that I
might entertain my Lord and Him, only!
No, even that were not large enough! Oh, that I could turn space into a
great mouth with which to speak His praise and make all eternity the
song and infinity the music! We cannot reach half way to our desire and
so we have to wind up by saying, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul." Go in,
dear Hearts, and sit like David before the Lord, and cry, "Why all for
me?" Then go out and talk about Him to your friends–and say great
things and choice things concerning Him! Make Him a glorious God in
their ears! Tell them there never was such a Friend, or Helper, or
Savior, or Father, or Brother, or Husband as your God has been to you!
Make them hear it–that you are the happiest of men because you have
found the blessed God! Make all to know it–that you are the most
content of men because you have chosen the good part, by His Grace,
which is to sit at the feet of Jesus!
Bless Him in secret and then bless Him with the few that are your daily
companions. And if God has given you the tongue of eloquence, bless His
name before the crowds and never be ashamed! Tell them that there is no
life like life for God; there is no joy like joy in Christ; no riches
like the riches of God's Grace; no Heaven like the Heaven of dwelling
forever with Him! Oh, speak well of Him, and when you have spoken your
best of Him, then wish to begin again and speak better! And when you
have reached that, and said your best things, then say, "These are
nothing compared with what He deserves. I will try again and yet rise
beyond the loftiest conceptions of the present!"