Laus Deo

Laus Deo

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 29, 1864, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"For of Him and through Him and to Him, are all things: to whom be
glory forever. Amen."

Romans 11:36.

MY text consists almost entirely of monosyllables, but it contains the
loftiest of sublimities. Such a tremendous weight of meaning is
concentrated here that an archangel's eloquence would fail to convey
its teaching in all its glory to any finite minds, even if seraphs were
his hearers. I will affirm that there is no man living who can preach
from my text a sermon worthy of it. No, among all the sacred orators
and the eloquent pleaders for God, there never did live and never will
live a man capable of reaching the height of the great argument
contained in these few simple words. I utterly despair of success and
will not, therefore, make an attempt to work out the infinite Glory of
this sentence.

Our great God alone can expound this verse for He only knows Himself
and He only can worthily set forth His own perfections. Yet I am
comforted by this reflection that maybe, in answer to our prayers, God
Himself may preach from this text this morning in our hearts. If not
through the words of the speaker, yet by that still small voice to
which the Believer's ear is so well accustomed. If thus He shall
condescend to favor us, our hearts shall be lifted up in His ways.

There are two things before us, the one worthy of our observation and
the second of our imitation. You have in the text, first of all,
doctrine and then devotion, The doctrine is high doctrine–"Of Him and
through Him and to Him, are all things." The devotion is lofty
devotion–"To whom be glory forever. Amen."

I. Let us consider THE DOCTRINE. It is laid down by the Apostle Paul as
a general principle that all things come of God–they are of Him as
their source. They are through Him as their means. They are to Him as
their end. They are of Him in the plan, through Him in the working and
to Him in the Glory which they produce. Taking this general principle,
you will find it applies to all things and it is ours to mark those in
which it is most manifestly the case. May the Lord, by His Holy Spirit,
open His treasures to us at this moment that we may be enriched in
spiritual knowledge and understanding.

Meditate, dear Friends, upon the whole range of God's works in Creation
and Providence. There was a period when God dwelt alone and creatures
were not. In that time before all time, when there was no day but, "The
Ancient of Days"–when matter and created mind were alike unborn and
even space was not–God, the great I Am, was as perfect, glorious and
blessed as He is now. There was no sun and yet Jehovah dwelt in light
ineffable. There was no earth and yet His Throne stood fast and firm.
There were no heavens and yet His Glory was unbounded.

God inhabited eternity in the infinite majesty and happiness of His
self-contained greatness. If the Lord, thus abiding in awful solitude,
should choose to create anything, the first thought and idea must come
of Him, for there was no other to think or suggest. All things must be
of Him in design. With whom can He take counsel? Who shall instruct
Him? There existed not another to come into the council chamber, even
if such an assistance could be supposed with the Most High.

In the beginning of His way before His works of old, eternal Wisdom
brought forth from its own mind the perfect plan of future creations
and every line and mark therein must clearly have been of the Lord
alone. He ordained the pathway of every planet and the abode of every
fixed star. He poured forth the sweet influences of the Pleiades and
girt Orion with His hands. He appointed the bounds of the sea and
settled the course of the winds. As to the earth, the Lord alone
planned its foundations and stretched His line upon it. He formed in
His own mind the mold of all His creatures and found for them a
dwelling and a service.

He appointed the degree of strength with which He would endow each
creature, settled its months of life, its hour of death, its coming and
its going. Divine Wisdom mapped this earth–its flowing rivers and
foaming seas–the towering mountains and the laughing valleys. The
Divine Architect fixed the gates of the morning and the doors of the
shadow of death. Nothing could have been suggested by any other, for
there was no other to suggest. It was in His power to have made a
universe very different from this if He had so pleased. And that He has
made it what it is must have been merely because, in His Wisdom and
prudence, He saw fit to do so.

There cannot be any reason why He should not have created a world from
which sin should have been forever excluded. And that He suffered sin
to enter into His creation must again be ascribed to His own infinite
Sovereignty. Had He not known that He would be master over sin and out
of evil evolve the noblest display of His own Glory, He had not
permitted it to enter into the world–but, in sketching the whole
history of the universe which He was about to create, He permitted even
that black spot to defile His work–because He foreknew what songs of
everlasting triumph would rise to Himself when, in streams of His own
blood, Incarnate Deity should wash out the stain. It cannot be doubted
that whatever may be the whole drama of history in Creation and
Providence, there is a high and mysterious sense in which it is all of
God.

The sin is not God's, but the temporary permission of its existence
formed part of the foreknown scheme and to our faith the intervention
of moral evil and the purity of the Divine Character do neither of them
diminish the force of our belief that the whole scope of history is of
God in the fullest sense. When the plan was all laid down and the
Almighty had ordered His purpose, this was not enough–mere arrangement
would not create. "Through Him," as well as "of Him," must all things
be. There was no raw material ready to the Creator's hand. He must
create the universe out of nothing. He calls not for aid–He needs it
not and besides, there is none to help Him. There is no rough matter
which He may fashion between His palms and launch forth as stars.

He did not need a mine of unquarried matter which He might melt and
purify in the furnace of His power and then hammer out upon the anvil
of His skill–no, there was nothing to begin with in that day of
Jehovah's work–from the womb of Omnipotence all things must be born.
He speaks and the heavens leap into existence! He speaks again and
worlds are begotten with all the varied forms of life so fraught with
Divine Wisdom and matchless skill. "Let there be light and there was
light," was not the only time when God had spoken and when things that
were not, were, for aforetime had He spoken and this rolling earth and
yon blue heavens had blossomed out of nothingness.

Through Him were all things–from the high archangel who sings His
praises in celestial notes–down to the cricket chirping on the hearth.
The same finger paints the rainbow and the wing of the butterfly. He
who dyes the garments of evening in all the colors of Heaven has
covered the kingcup with gold and lit up the glowworm's lamp. From
yonder ponderous mountain piercing the clouds down to that minute grain
of dust in the summer's threshing floor–all things are through Him.
Let but God withdraw the emanations of His Divine power and everything
would melt away as the foam upon the sea melts into the wave which bore
it!

Nothing could stand an instant if the Divine foundation were removed.
If He should shake the pillars of the world the whole temple of
Creation falls to ruin and its very dust is blown away. A dreary waste,
a silent emptiness, a voiceless wilderness is all which remains if God
withdraws His power. No, even so much as this were not if His power
should be withheld. That nature that is as it is, is through the energy
of the present God. If the sun rises every morning and the moon walks
in her brightness at night, it is through Him. Away with those men who
think that God has wound up the world as though it were a clock and has
gone away–leaving it to work for itself apart from His present hand!

God is present everywhere–not merely present when we tremble because
His thunder shakes the solid earth and sets the heavens in a blaze with
lightning–but just as much so in the calm summer's eve when the air so
gently fans the flowers and gnats dance up and down in the last gleams
of sunlight. Men try to forget the Divine Presence by calling its
energy by strange names. They speak of the power of gravitation. But
what is the power of gravitation? We know what it does, but what is it?
Gravitation is God's own power!

They tell us of mysterious laws of electricity and I know not what. We
know the laws, and let them wear the names they have. But laws cannot
operate without power. What is the force of nature? It is a constant
emanation from the great Fountain of power, the constant out-flowing of
God Himself–the perpetual going forth of beams of light from Him who
is "the great Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow." Tread softly, be reverent, for God is here, O Mortal, as truly
as He is in Heaven! Wherever you are and whatever you look upon, you
are in God's workshop where every wheel is turned by His hands.
Everything is not God, but God is in everything and nothing works, or
even exists, except by His present power and might. "Of Him and through
Him are all things."

Beloved, the great glory of all is that in the work of Creation
everything is to Him. Everything will praise the Lord–He so designed
it. God must have the highest motive and there can be no higher motive
conceivable than His own Glory. When there was no creature but Himself
and no being but Himself, God could not have taken as a motive a
creature which did not exist. His motive must be Himself. His own Glory
is His highest aim. The good of His creatures He considers carefully.
But even the good of His creatures is but a means to the main end–the
promotion of His Glory. All things, then, are for His pleasure and for
His Glory they daily work.

Tell me that the world is marred by sin and I lament it. Tell me that
the slime of the serpent is upon everything beautiful here and I sorrow
for it. But yet, even yet shall everything speak of the Glory of God.
To Him are all things and the day shall come when with eyes spiritually
illuminated you and I shall see that even the introduction of the Fall
and the curse did not, after all, mar the splendor of the majesty of
the Most High. To Him shall all things be. His enemies shall bow their
necks unwillingly but abjectly, while His people, redeemed from death
and Hell, shall cheerfully extol Him.

The new heavens and the new earth shall ring with His praise and we who
shall sit down to read the record of His creating wonders, shall say of
them all, "In His temple does everyone speak of His Glory and even
until now to Him have all things been." Courage then, Beloved! When you
think that matters go against the cause of God, throw yourselves back
upon this as a soft couch. When the enemy hisses in your ears this
note–"God is overcome! His plans are spoiled. His Gospel is thrust
back. The honor of His Son is stained," tell the enemy, "No, it is not
so! To Him are all things."

God's defeats are victories. God's weakness is stronger than man and
even the foolishness of the Most High is wiser than man's wisdom and at
the last we shall see most clearly that it is so. Hallelujah! We shall
see, dear Friends, one day in the clear light of Heaven, that every
page in human history, however stained by human sin, has nevertheless
something of God's Glory in it. And that the calamities of nations, the
falling of dynasties, the devastations of pestilence, plagues, famines,
wars and earthquakes have all worked out the eternal purpose and
glorified the Most High!

From the first human prayer to the last mortal sigh! From the first
note of finite praise onward to the everlasting hallelujah all things
have worked together for the Glory of God and have served His purposes.
All things are of Him and through Him and to Him. This great principle
is most manifest in the grand work of Divine Grace. Here everything is
of God and through God and to God. The great plan of salvation was not
drawn by human fingers. It is no concoction of priests, no elaboration
of Divines. Grace first moved the heart of God and joined with Divine
Sovereignty to ordain a plan of salvation.

This plan was the offspring of a Wisdom no less than Divine. None but
God could have imagined a way of salvation such as that which the
Gospel presents–a way so just to God–so safe to man. The thought of
Divine Substitution and the Sacrifice of God on man's behalf could
never have suggested itself to the most educated of all God's
creatures. God Himself suggests it and the plan is "of Him." And as the
great plan is of Him, so the fillings up of the details are of Him. God
ordained the time when the first promise should be promulgated–who
should receive that promise and who should deliver it. He ordained the
hour when the great Promise-Keeper should come–when Jesus Christ
should appear–of whom He should be born, by whom He should be
betrayed, what death He should die, when He should rise and in what
manner He should ascend.

What if I say more? He ordained those who should accept the Mediator,
to whom the Gospel should be preached and who should be the favored
individuals in whom effectual calling should make that preaching mighty
for salvation! He settled in His own mind the name of every one of His
chosen and the time when each elect vessel should be put upon the wheel
to be fashioned according to His will. He ordained pangs of conviction
should be felt when the time of faith should come! How much of holy
light and enjoyment should be bestowed–all this was purposed from of
old! He settled how long the chosen vessel should be glazing in the
fire and when it should be taken up–made perfect by heavenly
workmanship to adorn the palace of God Most High. Of the Lord's Wisdom
every stitch in the noble tapestry of salvation most surely comes.

Nor must we stop here–through Him all these things come. Through His
Spirit the promise came at last, for He moved the seers and holy men of
old. Through Him the Son of God is born of the Virgin Mary by the power
of the Holy Spirit. Through Him, sustained by that Spirit, the Son of
God leads His thirty years of perfection. In the great redemption God
alone is exalted. Jesus sweats in Gethsemane and bleeds on Calvary.
None stood with our Savior there. He trod that winepress alone. His own
arm worked salvation and His own arm upheld Him. Redemption work was
through God alone! Not one soul was ever redeemed by human suffering!
No spirit was emancipated by mortal penance. All is through Him.

And as through Him the Atonement, so through Him the application of the
Atonement. By the power of the Spirit the Gospel is daily preached.
Upheld by the Holy Spirit, pastors, teachers and elders still abide
with the Church–still the energy of the Spirit goes forth with the
Word to the hearts of the chosen. Still is "Christ crucified," the
power of God and the wisdom of God because God is in the Word and
through Him men are called, converted, saved. O my Brethren, beyond a
doubt we must confess of this great plan of salvation that it is all to
Him! We have not a note of praise to spare for another!

Silenced forever with everlasting confusion is the man who would retain
a solitary word of praise for man or angel in the work of Grace. You
fools! Who can be praised but God, for who but God determined to give
His Son Jesus? You knaves! Will you rob Christ of His Glory? Will you
steal the jewels out of His crown when He so dearly bought them with
drops of His precious blood? O you who love darkness rather than light,
will you glorify man's will above the energy of the Holy Spirit and
sacrifice to your own dignity and freedom? God forgive you!

But as for His saints, they will always sing, "To God, to God alone be
all the Glory! From the first to the last let Him who is the Alpha and
the Omega have all the praise! Let His name be extolled, world without
end." When the great plan of Grace shall be all developed and you and I
shall stand upon the hilltops of Glory, what a wondrous scene will open
up before us! We shall see more clearly then, than now, how all things
sprang from the fountainhead of God's love. How they all flowed through
the channel of the Savior's mediation and how they all worked together
to the Glory of the same God from whom they came. The great plan of
Grace, then, bears out this principle.

The word holds good, dear Friends, in the case of every individual
Believer. Let this be a matter for personal enquiry. Why am I saved?
Because of any goodness in me, or any superiority in my constitution?
Of whom comes my salvation? My spirit cannot hesitate a single moment.
How could a new heart come out of the old one? Who can bring a clean
thing out of an unclean? Not one! How can the spirit come out of the
flesh? That which is born of the flesh is flesh. If it is spirit it
must be born of the Spirit. My Soul, you must be quite clear about
this, that if there is in you any faith, hope, or spiritual life, it
must have come of God!

Can any Christian here who possesses vital godliness differ from this
statement? I am persuaded he cannot. And if any man should arrogate any
honor to his own natural constitution, I must, with all charity, doubt
whether he knows anything at all about the matter. But, my Soul, as
your salvation must have come out of God–as He must have thought of it
and planned it for you, and then bestowed it upon you–did it not also
come to you through God? It came through faith, but where did that
faith take its birth? Was it not of the operation of the Holy Spirit?
And what did you believe in? Did you believe in your own strength, or
in your own good resolution? No, but in Jesus, your Lord. Was not the
first ray of light you ever had received in this way?

Did you not look entirely away from self to the Savior? And the Light
which you now have, does it not always come to you in the same way, by
having done once and for all with the creature, with the flesh, with
human merit–and resting with childlike confidence upon the finished
work and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is not, dear Hearer,
is not your salvation, if you are, indeed, saved, entirely "through"
your God, as well as "of" your God? Who is it that enables you to pray
every day? Who keeps you from temptation? By what Grace are you led
onward in spiritual duty? Who upholds you when your foot would trip?
Are you not conscious that there is a power other than your own?

For my part, Brethren, I am not taken to Heaven against my will, I
know, but still so desperate is my nature and so prone to evil that I
feel myself floated onward against the current of my nature. It seems
as if all we could do were to kick and rebel against Sovereign Grace,
while Sovereign Grace says, "I will save you. I will have you, whatever
you may do. I will overcome your raging corruption. I will quicken you
out of your lethargy and take you to Heaven in a fiery chariot of
afflictions, if not by any other means. I will whip you to Paradise
sooner than let you be lost."

Is not this your experience? Have you not found that if once the strong
hand of God were taken from your soul, instead of going onward to
Heaven you would go back again to Perdition? It is through God you are
saved! And what do you say, Believer, to the last point? Is it not "to
Him"? Will you take one single jewel out of His crown? Oh, there is not
one of you who would wish to extol himself! There is no song we sing
more sweetly in this House of Prayer than the song of Grace and there
is no hymn which seems more in keeping with our own experience than
this–

"Grace all the work shall crown,
Through everlasting days.
It lays in Hea ven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise."

Let who will extol the dignity of the creature. Let who may boast in
the power of free will–we cannot do it! We have found our nature to be
a very depraved one and our will to be under bondage. We must, if other
creatures do not, extol that unchangeable Omnipotent Grace which has
made us what we are and will continue to keep us so till it brings us
to the right hand of God in everlasting Glory! In each individual,
then, this rule holds good.

Once more, in every work which the Christian is enabled to do, he
should bear in mind the rule of the text. Some of you are privileged to
work in the Sunday school and you have had many conversions in your
class. Others of you are distributing tracts, going from house to house
and trying to bring souls to Christ, not without success, by God's
Grace. Some of us, too, have the honor of being sent to preach the
Gospel in every place and we have sheaves of our harvest too many for
our barns to hold. In the case of some of us, we seem to have received
the promised blessing to its fullest extent. The Lord has spiritually
made our children like the sand of the sea and the spiritual offspring
of our heart like the gravel.

In all this it behooves us to remember that, "of Him and through Him
and to Him," are all things. "Of Him." Who makes you to differ? What
have you which you have not received? The burning heart, the tearful
eye, the prayerful soul–all these qualifications for usefulness come
of Him. The fluent mouth, the pleading tongue–these must have been
educated and given by Him. From Him all the many gifts of the Spirit by
which the Church is edified–from Him, I say, they all proceed. What is
Paul? Who is Apollos, or Cephas–who are all these but the messengers
of God in whom the Spirit works, dividing to every man according as He
wills?

When the preacher has achieved his usefulness, he knows that all his
success comes through God. If a man shall suppose himself capable of
stirring up a revival, or encouraging even one saint, or leading one
sinner to repentance, he is a fool! As well might we attempt to move
the stars, or shake the world, or grasp the lightning flash in the
hollow of our hand as think to save a soul, or even to quicken saints
out of their lethargy! Spiritual work must be done by the Spirit.
Through God every good thing comes to us. The preacher may be a very
Samson when God is with him–he shall be like Samson when God is not
with him only in Samson's degradation and shame!

Beloved, there never was a man brought to God except through God and
there never will be! Our nation shall never be stirred up again into
the celestial heat of piety except by the Presence of the Holy Spirit
anew. Would God we had more of the abiding sense of the Spirit's work
among us! That we looked more to Him! That we rested less in machinery
and men and more upon that Divine but Invisible Agent who works all
good things in the hearts of men! Beloved, it is through GOD that every
good thing comes. And I am sure it is to Him. We cannot take the honor
of a single convert. We do look with thankfulness upon this growing
Church, but we can give the Glory alone to Him! Give glory to the
creature and it is all over with it! Honor yourselves as a Church and
God will soon dishonor you!

Let us lay every sheaf upon His altar, bring every lamb of the fold to
the feet of the Good Shepherd feeling that it is His. When we go abroad
to fish for souls, let us think that we only fill the net because He
taught us how to throw it on the right side of the Church. And when we
take them they are His, not ours. Oh, what poor little things we are
and yet we think we do so much! The pen might say, "I wrote Milton's
Paradise Lost." Ah, poor Pen! You could not have made a dot to an "i,"
or a cross to a "t," if Milton's hand had not moved you! The preacher
could do nothing if God had not helped him. The axe might cry, "I have
felled forests! I have made the cedar bow its head and laid the
stalwart oak in the dust." No, you did not–for if it had not been for
the arm which wielded you, even a bramble would have been too much for
you to cut down!

Shall the sword say, "I won the victory! I shed the blood of the
mighty! I caused the shield to be cast away?" No, it was the warrior,
who with his courage and might made you of service in the battle, and
apart from this you are less than nothing. In all that God does by us
let us continue to give Him the praise–so shall He continue His
Presence with our efforts. Otherwise He will take from us His smile and
so we shall be left as weak men. I have, perhaps, at too great length
for your patience, tried to bring out this very simple but very useful
principle. And now, before I go to the second part, I wish to apply it
by this very practical remark.

Beloved, if this is true, that all things are through Him and to Him,
do you not think that those doctrines are most likely to be correct and
most worthy to be held which are most in keeping with this Truth of
God? Now, there are certain doctrines commonly called Calvinistic (but
which ought never to have been called by such a name, for they are
simply Christian doctrines), which I think commend themselves to the
minds of all thoughtful persons. For this reason, mainly, that they do
ascribe to God everything.

Here is the doctrine of election, for instance. Why is a man saved? Is
it the result of his own will or God's will? Did he choose God, or did
God choose him? The answer, "Man chose God," is manifestly untrue
because it glorifies man. God's answer to it is, "You have not chosen
Me, but I have chosen you." God has predestinated His people to
salvation from before the foundation of the world. Ascribing the will,
which is the hinge of the whole matter, and turns the
balance–ascribing that to God–we feel we are speaking in keeping with
the doctrine of our text.

Then take effectual calling. By what power is a man called? There are
some who say that it is by the energy of his own will, or at least that
while God gives him Grace, it depends upon him to make use of it. Some
do not make use of the Grace and perish. Others make use of the Grace
and are saved–saved by their own consenting to allow Grace to be
effectual. We, on the other hand, say no–a man is not saved against
his will–but he is made willing by the operation of the Holy Spirit. A
mighty Grace which he does not wish to resist enters into the man,
disarms him, makes a new creature of him and he is saved. We believe
that the calling which saves the soul is a calling which owes nothing
at all to man, but which comes from God. The creature being, then,
passive, while God, like the potter, molds the man like a lump of clay.
Clearly the calling, we think, must be through God–for so it coincides
with this principle, "of Him and through Him and to Him are all
things."

Then next, the question of particular redemption. Some insist upon it
that men are redeemed not because Christ died, but because they are
willing to give efficacy to the blood of Christ. He died for everybody
according to their theory. Why, then, are not all men saved? Because
all men will not believe? That is to say that believing is necessary in
order to make the blood of Christ efficacious for redemption! Now we
hold that to be a great lie! We believe the very contrary– namely,
that the blood of Christ has in itself the power to redeem and that it
does redeem and that faith does not give efficacy to the blood but is
only the proof that the blood has redeemed that man. Hence we hold that
Christ did not redeem every man, but only redeemed those men who will
ultimately attain unto eternal life.

We do not believe that He redeemed the damned! We do not believe that
He poured out His life blood for souls already in Hell! We never can
imagine that Christ suffered in the place of all men and that then,
afterwards, these same men have to suffer for themselves–that in fact
Christ pays their debts–and then God makes them pay their debts over
again! We think that the doctrine that men, by their wills, give
efficacy to the blood of Christ is derogatory to the Lord Jesus and we
rather hold to this that He laid down His life for His sheep and that
His laying down His life for His sheep involved and secured the
salvation of every one of them. We believe this because we hold that,
"of Him and through Him and to Him are all things."

So, again, take the total depravity of the race and its original
corruption–a doctrine much abhorred of those who lift up poor human
nature–but is, nevertheless, true. We hold that man must be entirely
lost and ruined, because if there is some good thing in him, then it
cannot be said that, "of God and through God and to God, are all
things," for at least some things must be of man. If there are some
relics of virtue and some remnants of power left in the race of man,
then some things are of man and to man will some things be. But if of
God are all things, then in man there must be nothing–man must be set
down as ruined–hopelessly ruined–

"Bruised and mangled by the Fall," and his salvation must be described
as being from the first to the last, in every jot and every tittle of
that almighty Grace of God, which at first chose him, at length
redeemed him, ultimately called him, constantly preserved him and
perfectly shall present him before the Father's Throne.

I put these doctrines before you, more especially today, because last
Friday many Believers both in Geneva and London met together to
celebrate the centenary of the death of that mighty servant of God,
John Calvin. I honor Calvin, not as teaching these doctrines himself,
but as one through whom God spoke and one who, next to the Apostle
Paul, propounded the Truth of God more clearly than any other man that
ever breathed. He knew more of Scripture and explained it more clearly
than most. Luther may have as much courage, but Luther knows little of
theology. Luther, like a bull, when he sees one Truth, shuts his eyes
and dashes against the enemy, breaking down gates, bolts and bars, to
clear away for the Word!

But Calvin, following in the opened pathway with clear eyes, searching
Scripture, ever acknowledging that of God and through God and to God
are all things, maps out the whole plan with a delightful clearness
which could only have come of the Spirit of God. That man of God
expounds the doctrines in so excellent and admirable a manner that we
cannot too much bless the Lord who sent him, or too much pray that
others like him may be honest and sincere in the work of the Lord. Thus
much then, of doctrine, but one or two minutes by way of devotion.

II. The Apostle puts his pen back into the ink bottle, falls on his
knees–he cannot help it–he must have a doxol-ogy. "To whom be glory
forever. Amen." Beloved, let us imitate this DEVOTION. I think that
this sentence should be the prayer, the motto for every one of us–"To
Him be glory forever. Amen." I will be but very brief, for I would not
weary you. "To Him be glory forever." This should be the single desire
of the Christian. I take it that he should not have twenty wishes, but
only one. He may desire to see his family well brought up, but only
that, "To God may be glory forever."

He may wish for prosperity in his business, but only so far as it may
help him to promote this–"To Him be glory forever." He may desire to
attain more gifts and more graces, but it should only be that, "To Him
may be glory forever." This one thing I know, Christian–you are not
acting as you ought to do when you are moved by any other motive than
the one motive of your Lord's Glory. As a Christian you are "of God and
through God." I pray you be "to God." Let nothing ever set your heart
beating but love to Him. Let this ambition fire your soul! Be this the
foundation of every enterprise upon which you enter, and this your
sustaining motive whenever your zeal would grow chill–only, only make
God your object! Depend upon it, where self begins, sorrow begins. But
if God is my supreme delight and only object–

"To me 'tis equal whether love ordain My life or death appoint me ease
or pain."

To me there shall be no choice, when my eyes singly look to God's
Glory, whether I shall be torn in pieces by wild beasts or live in
comfort–whether I shall be full of despondency or full of hope. If God
is glorified in my mortal body, my soul shall rest content. Again, let
it be our constant desire, "To Him be glory." When I wake up in the
morning, O, let my soul salute her God with gratitude–

"Wake and lift up yourself, my Heart, And with the angels bear your
part, Who all night long unwearied sing High praises to the eternal
King." At my work behind the counter, or in the Exchange, let me be
looking out to see how I may glorify Him. If I am walking in the
fields, let my desire be that the trees may clap their hands in His
praise. May the sun in his march shine out the Master's Glory and the
stars at night reflect His praise.

It is yours, Brethren, to put a tongue into the mouth of this dumb
world and make the silent beauties of creation praise their God. Never
be silent when there are opportunities and you shall never be silent
for want of opportunities. At night fall asleep praising your God! As
you close your eyes let your last thought be, "How sweet to rest upon
the Savior's bosom!" In afflictions praise Him–out of the fires let
your song go up! On the sick-bed extol Him! Dying, let Him have your
sweetest notes. Let your shouts of victory in the combat with the last
great enemy be all for Him. And then, when you have burst the bondage
of mortality and come into the freedom of immortal spirits–then, in a
nobler, sweeter song–you shall sing unto His praise!

Be this, then, your constant thought–"To Him be glory forever." Let
this be your earnest thought. Do not speak of God's Glory with cold
words, nor think of it with a chilly heart, but feel, "I must praise
Him. If I cannot praise Him where I am, I will break through these
narrow bonds, and get where I can." Sometimes you will feel that you
long to be disembodied–that you may praise Him as the immortal spirits
do. I must praise Him! Bought by His precious blood, called by His
Spirit I cannot hold my tongue! My Soul, can you be dumb and dead? I
must praise Him! Stand back, O Flesh! Away, you Fiends! Away, you
Troubles! I must sing, for should I refuse to sing, surely the very
stones would speak!

I hope, dear Friends, while thus earnest, your praise will also be
growing. Let there be growing desire to praise Him of whom and through
whom are all things. You blessed Him in your youth, do not be content
with such praises as you gave Him then. Has God prospered you in
business? Give Him more as He has given you more. Has God given you
experience? O, praise Him by better faith than you exercised at first.
Does your knowledge grow? Oh, then you can sing more sweetly! Do you
have happier times than you once had? Have you been restored from
sickness and has your sorrow been turned into peace and joy? Then give
Him more music! Put more coals in your censer, more sweet frankincense,
more of the sweet cane bought with money. Oh, to serve Him every day,
lifting up my heart from Sunday to Sunday, till I reach the ever-ending
Sunday! Reaching from sanctification to sanctification, from love to
love, from strength to strength, till I appear before my God!

In closing, let me urge you to make this desire practical. If you
really glorify God, take care to do it not with lip-service which dies
away in the wind, but with solid homage of daily life. Praise Him by
your patience in pain, by your perseverance in duty, by your generosity
in His cause, by your boldness in testimony, by your consecration to
His work. Praise Him, my dear Friends, not only this morning in what
you do for Him in your offerings, but praise Him every day by doing
something for God in all sorts of ways, according to the manner in
which He has been pleased to bless you. I wish I could have spoken
worthily on such a topic as this, but a dull, heavy headache sits upon
me and I feel that a thick gloom overshadows my words, out of which I
look with longing, but cannot rise.

For this I may well grieve, but nevertheless God the Holy Spirit can
work the better through our weakness and if you will try and preach the
sermon to yourselves, my Brethren, you will do it vastly better than I
can. If you will meditate upon this text this afternoon, "Of Him and
through Him and to Him, are all things," I am sure you will be led to
fall on your knees with the Apostle and say, "To Him be glory forever,"
and then you will rise up and practically, in your life, give Him
honor, putting the "Amen" to this doxology by your own individual
service of your great and gracious Lord. May He give a blessing now and
accept your thank offering through Christ Jesus. Amen.