A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE 25, 1876,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"To record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel." 1
Chronicles 16:4.
DAVID took care of every part of Divine worship. He saw to it that
nothing was neglected in the service of the God in whom he delighted.
Let this stand as an example to us to be careful about everything which
concerns the honor of God. Do not allow any of the duties of your holy
faith to be forgotten, but seek to exhibit harmonious and entire
obedience to the Divine will. Do not merely attend to what are called
religious duties, but with equal religiousness regard your social
duties and present to the Lord, as far as you can, a complete service.
Such David desired to do.
You observe that he had those about him who offered burnt offerings
unto the Lord continually, morning and evening, as God had
commanded–these things were not to be left undone. And then he set
apart certain others to attend to the service of song. Theirs it was to
sound the trumpets and to call the people together–theirs to touch the
harmonious strings of harps, or to sound with cymbals of brass, or to
lift their voices on high in the sweet praises of Jehovah, for God is
to be served with sacrifice and praised with song. Our God accepts us
when we labor for Him and when we praise Him–let both be done
heartily. It were a pity if we worked so hard that we could not sing!
It were equally unhappy if we sang so much that we idled away our time!
There must be a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, music
and fruit, service and song.
There was also a third company set apart for a somewhat extraordinary
work, namely as our text tells us, to record. They were to take notes
of what God had done and was doing. They were to be the chronicles of
the nation and, out of their chronicles, they were to compose the
Psalms and songs. Perhaps that is the meaning of the word, "record,"
here, but the original bears another meaning–"to bring to
remembrance." If they were not to act as historians to record, they
were as minstrels to proclaim what had been written in old times and
bring it to remembrance. I rather prefer the idea that their duty was
to do both–to record the loving kindness of the Lord and to bring to
the remembrance of the people what the Lord's right hand had done in
former times.
Now, if you think a minute, this third class of people, who are placed
between the Levites before the Ark and the singers who thanked and
praised the Lord, would be useful both to those who went before and to
those who followed. Those who had to serve before the Ark of the Lord
are mentioned first. Now, what could so cheer them in their service as
to read of the goodness of the Lord? What could so inspire them to
attend reverently to the service of the Lord's house as to remember the
former loving kindnesses of the Lord? What arguments could they have
for fidelity that would be more powerful than the record of His mercy
which endures forever?
Those who were to conduct the praising and the thanksgiving are
mentioned after these recorders. But what is the raw material of which
praise is made but the record of what God is and of what He has done
for His people? I think whenever they wanted to sing, they would turn
to these remembrancers and recorders and say to them, "Tell us
something of what God has done, for the simple record of Jehovah's acts
is the noblest Psalmody." Do you notice that whenever we praise God
best, we simply declare what He is, for the bare fact about God is the
highest praise–you have only to mention what He does in order to
produce the most sublime poetry–the grateful mention of His glorious
acts is, in itself, adoration! You cannot adore the Lord better than by
devoutly rehearsing His mighty acts–so good is His name, so blessed
are His deeds. "Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can show
forth all His praise?"
Now, from the fact that David set apart certain Levites to record, I
gather three or four thoughts of which I am going to speak tonight. The
first is–it is implied that there is a fault in man's memory. It is
equally clear, in the second place, that we ought to endeavor to assist
memory. Thirdly, it is certain, too, from the appointment of recorders,
that there is a good deal worth remembering. And, fourthly, from the
connection of these recorders with the singers, we see that, to
right-minded persons memory will always produce praise. When we have
recorded the great mercies of the Lord, then we shall be sure to thank
and praise Him.
I. First of all, we may gather, I think, without any straining of the
text, that if recorders were appointed, THERE IS SOME FAULT IN OUR
MEMORY TOWARDS THE LORD. What faults there are in our memory touching
the work and Word of God! Perhaps some of you have very powerful
memories and may be able to treasure up whole volumes as some have
done. It might be said of you as it was of Dr. Lawson, that if the
whole Bible had been destroyed, he could have reproduced it from
memory. This is a great gift and a worthy use for it, but I fear that
few of us have it. It is not likely that men could say of us, as of the
famous Grecian, that out of 10,000 soldiers he knew every one of his
men by name.
I do not find fault with short memories, but with memories which are
treacherous towards Divine things. What I complain of is that memory
may be very strong concerning self-interest, grievances and trials–yet
towards God's mercies it may be very weak. I am not going to speak
about memory in general. I speak only of that faculty as it is
exercised towards the favors and loving kindnesses of the Lord–and I
am sure there is a fault in it, for, first of all, it has been
prejudiced by the Fall. Do you not know that if anything bad ever
reaches your ear you cannot forget it? That lewd song which you heard
in your youth–in your unregenerate times. You would give everything to
forget it, but it will come up–a snatch of it has, perhaps, been
suggested by a hymn sung in worship, or even by the language used in
prayer!
What a grasp memory has for things that never ought to have crossed the
mind at all and which, though they have crossed the mind, ought to be
forgotten! Well said an old Divine, "Man's memory is a pond in which
all the fish die and all the frogs live." I am sure it is so. The bad
remains, but the good–ah, how you have to charge and constrain
yourself to remember a tenth of it! The filth of Sodom is drawn to
shore by memory, but the fair products of Jerusalem are permitted to
glide down the stream to the ocean of oblivion.
The Fall has given a sad bias to memory–like a strainer, it lets the
good liquor run through and only retains the dregs. Again, memory
towards God's mercy has been very much impaired by neglect. Any part of
the body left unused will lose power–and any faculty of the mind which
is never exercised will gradually become weak. You may have very
powerful memories, as I said before, towards earthly things, but I will
venture to say that some of you have never sought to remember the
mercies of the Lord. No, you have not seen them to be God's mercies! It
has never occurred to you to try and remember what God has done for
you.
I would not bring a harsh impeachment, but I suggest the question–Have
you not lived as if there were no God? As if the mercies of everyday
were, indeed, of your own procuring? As if you had no indebtedness to
God and were under no obligation to be grateful to Him? I do not wonder
that your memory towards Divine things is weak, for you have never
exercised it–never thought of exercising it–and consequently, my
Friend, if ever you are to learn to praise the Lord, you will have need
of great help in the work, for your memory will not furnish you with
materials. It has no store of good things with which to feed your
devotion! You have kept its chambers empty by neglect.
Memory, concerning God's mercy, is often overloaded with other things.
Memory can only carry a certain amount, but, oh, what wagonloads of
mischief memory is freighted with! Some of us can remember so little
that it is a pity for us to try to remember anything trifling or of
minor importance. It might be well to dedicate that faculty to the
weightiest things only–to things imperative for this life–to things
essential for the life to come. How foolishly some will stuff up their
memory with rubbish that is not worth harboring. There are songs and
pieces of "poetry," so called, and scraps taken from novels and I know
not what besides, with which poor memory is gorged till it is blown out
as a balloon with foul gas! It is fed upon mere husks till it is
surfeited, stuffed and crammed and labors under indigestion!
I think Aristotle used to call memory the stomach of the soul in which
it retains and digests what it gathers. But men cram it full of
everything that it does not need–upon which the soul cannot really
feed–and thus they ruin it for remembering the best things. Some
people can hardly carry home the text of the discourse. Is it likely
they would? Other thoughts choke up the memory and put the good thing,
the gracious thing, the grateful thing, the right thing, entirely out
of the mind! Unload your memory tonight, if you can, even of your
necessary cares!
It is good when a sermon helps to unload you. You remember the man who
said that generally, when he went to Church, he used to calculate how
many looms the building would hold and how many workmen might be
employed in it? "But," said he, "when I heard Mr. Whitefield, I forgot
that there was a loom in the whole world." I wish it was always so
in God's House! But there, the good woman remembers her household–she
does not know whether she put the guard on the fire–she wonders what
may have become of the baby while she is away. Another misses a ring
from her finger–did she leave it in the basin when she washed her
hands before she came to worship?
The merchant is worrying about that bill which is coming due tomorrow.
He wishes that he could forget it, but the thing will come in. And this
is why you cannot remember God's mercy, because your memory is
occupying itself with a host of earthly things which ought not to
intrude into God's day and into God's worship. Or if they do, should be
treated as Abraham treated the carnivorous birds when they came down
upon his sacrifice. The ravens and the kites came to defile and eat
what he had offered unto God, but we read that, "when the birds came
down upon the sacrifice Abraham drove them away." So must you try to
do. When the time has come to remember God's mercies and to worship
Him, you must keep the birds away, or else they will devour the ripe
fruit of your praise before you can gather it.
Memory has also suffered from another cause, namely, from its
connection with the other faculties. Every power of the mind has been
injured by sin. The evil results of the Fall went through the entire
system and weakened and perverted our entire nature, so that the whole
head is sick. The understanding, among the rest a very noble power, has
been very much darkened and, as every single part of a man operates
upon the rest, the darkening of the understanding has caused a grievous
weakening of the memory with regard to Divine things. You will see this
in a minute, for what a man does not understand he does not readily
remember.
Many forget God's mercies because they do not appreciate them when they
have them. They do not see the mercy of them. They have not the power
to see how much love there is in them and how little they deserve them
and, therefore, they are not impressed by them so as to make a note of
their being received. When daily favors come, such men take them into
stock as wholesale dealers receive parcels of goods and send them out,
again, without so much as opening them, or checking their quantity.
They scarcely know the meaning of the loving kindness of the Lord, for
He is not in any of their thoughts!
And, of course, a man does not remember what he does not understand! If
you set a boy to learn a passage without any meaning in it, he may be
able to repeat it to you the next time he says his lesson, but before
long it must glide out of his memory because he does not understand it.
Becloud the light of the understanding and the image formed upon the
memory will be dull and indistinct, and very apt to vanish in time.
Again, the affections have been perverted, as well as the
understanding. Man, by nature, does not love God. I tremble when I
think of that sad truth, for it seems to me the most awful thing that
can happen to an intelligent being is not to love God. That would be my
Hell! I count it the Hell of Hell not to love God–to be in such a
condition that the infinitely lovable One–so perfect both in His
character and His actions, so fitted to be adored–should not be loved
is horrible! It is death and worse than death! I will not say it is
blindness, deafness and the loss of every honorable moral power–it is
utter death not to love God. It is partly because we do not love Him
that we forget His mercies.
Reflect a moment, and you will soon see. Here is a present which has
been given you by a complete stranger, and though it may be of some
value, you do not think much of it. But there is a ring that was given
you by your mother– your mother now among the angels. Ah, you will not
forget that gift! Love has registered it among your richest
possessions. I have many things that have been given to me by friends
and I value them all. I never forget them–I never can because of my
esteem and affection for those who gave them to me. And so when you
view Divine mercy as given you by your dear and ever-blessed Father in
Heaven, then you do not forget it! But if it is merely regarded as a
passing stranger's gift, you care not for it.
If you think of a blessing as "the gift of fortune," as the world
generally does, or look upon it as a windfall from the tree of luck,
you will not remember it. See in the bread you eat a Father's hand
supplying you. See, even, in the cup of cold water the bounty of your
God. See in the comforts of home and health and the sparing of your
reason, the goodness of Him who loves you and whom you love–and memory
will put forth her strength! Lack of love breeds lack of recollection
in us and so the memory grows faulty. And, alas, one thing more. Our
memory of God's goodness is often crushed down by a sense of present
pain. When you suffer from sharp pains and weary aches and a fevered
brow, you are prone to forget the days of health and strength–and only
remember the sharp intervals of weakness and sorrow.
When you stand over the grave of one you love, you are apt, in the
loss, to forget he was a loan from God. When a dear one is taken away,
the right way to look at it is that a precious loan has been called in
by its Owner. We ought to be
very grateful to have been allowed to borrow the comfort so long. We
ought not to repine when the Owner takes back what He so kindly lent.
The husband to whom you have been married these 10 years, or the child
that has nestled in your bosom two years, or the friend that communed
with you half a lifetime, or the brother who was such a comfort all his
days–when these are gone, do not look at the going, only, but thank
God that you ever had them. Be honest enough to acknowledge the good as
well as to lament the evil. Bless a taking as well as a giving God, for
He takes but what He gave.
It is not so with us as a rule. We are living in the present too much.
We strike a mark of oblivion across the happy past. We look with dread
upon the unknown future and dwell on the troublous present–and so we
forget the Lord's mercy to us. You are getting old, now, and you are
feeble, but bless the Lord you had 50 years of manly vigor! You cannot,
now, do what you once did and your mind is enfeebled, but bless God
there was a time when you could serve Him with body and soul without
fatigue!
Perhaps you are brought low in estate and are afraid of poverty. Be
grateful that you have had enough and to spare for many long years.
Perhaps you are now a little sad. Yes, but remember the days when you
use to praise the Lord on the high-sounding cymbals and stood upon the
high places of the earth! Do not let memory fail you because of the
present crushing sorrow, but bless the name of the Lord for what He has
done. May the Holy Spirit help your infirmities and bring the loving
kindness of past years to your remembrance. Memory is defective–this
is our first inference–and I think it is clear enough.
II. Now, secondly, as David appointed recorders, this proves, in the
second place, that WE OUGHT TO DO ALL THAT WE CAN TO ASSIST OUR
MEMORIES TOWARDS GOD. We should not allow the mercies of the Lord to
lie forgotten in ingratitude and die without praises, if we can help
it. How can we strengthen memory? I conceive that sometimes it is a
good thing to make an actual record of God's mercy–literally to write
it down in your pocketbook, so as to look at it another day. I am sure
it is a proper thing to do and it will often prove to be a very useful
memento. I do not believe in keeping diaries and putting down everyday
what you feel, or what you think you feel but never did feel.
I fear it would become a mere formality, or an exercise of imagination
to most of us, for when I read very pious people's diaries they always
seem to me to have had an eye to the people who would read them and to
have put down both more and less than the truth. I am a little
frightened at the artificial style of experience which it must lead to.
The fact is that we have not a great deal to put down everyday if we
lead an ordinary life! But there are days which ought to have a
memorial. Days of sore trouble and of great deliverance, days of sharp
temptation and of wonderful help–these need to be chronicled.
Some days of brilliant mercy are like seven days in one. There are days
which seem like chips of Heaven, fragments of eternity, stray days of
delight which have broken loose from the days of Heaven and wandered
down to earth. Make a note of the favored days. Put the event down in
black and white just as it occurred. Never mind if nobody else ever
reads it–you will read it one of these days and thank God that it
stands recorded for the strengthening of your faith. Therefore make a
record. "I cannot express myself well in writing," says one. Well, you
know, Jacob used to set up a stone and pour oil on the top of it. That
was his way, though he knew little or nothing about pen and ink. You
can invent some way, surely, by which you can remember choice favors!
You can make a notch somewhere, a mark on an old tree, a line on the
margin of the Bible over against the text that blessed you. You can put
a scratch somewhere of which you shall say afterwards, "I know what
that means. I did not want to forget the Divine goodness–and there is
the record. Glory be to God, it comes fresh to my soul, again, as I
look upon it!" Another help to memory is to be sure to praise God
thoroughly at the time you receive His goodness. You will not forget it
if, when it has come, your mind is in a suitable condition of gratitude
and, indeed, if you use the mercy, at once, to God's Glory, you will do
better, still! Days that are full of thanksgiving will be remembered
and those mercies around which we burned the incense of praise will
leave their fragrance in the heart's secret chambers.
Take care that if your memory is weak, you praise God while the mercy
is newly born in your house. Frequently it will help memory much to set
apart a little time for meditation. A godly man and his wife were
accustomed to take half-an-hour on Saturday evening to go over the
mercies of the week–this is a good example. But, says one, "I could
not spare so much time." No, no, I do not suppose you could, but you
spare hours to grumble over the miseries of the week! Oh, yes, we talk
freely, when we get together, about our pains and our losses and about
the bad times. They are very bad now,
are they not? And you have all talked about them seven days a week for
many a long week together. You have said 50 times, "I never saw such a
season, there is no business, there is nothing stirring–there never
was such stagnation."
Now, as we all know all about that and are pretty well agreed that it
is true, could we now go on to something else, and could not the time
which we waste in telling out our troubles be spent in meditating on
our mercies? See if you cannot spare half-an-hour with your wife for
such an exercise as I have mentioned, and I believe that you would
never spend 30 minutes more happily and profitably. Say, "Come, Wife,
and help me. Help my memory and I will help yours. Let us remember what
God has done for us this week." Then go over your own story and listen
to her pleasant annotations.
I do not hesitate to say that my life story is as full of mercy as a
honeycomb is full of sweetness when it drips with honey. How God has
treated you, I do not know, but He has indulged me with such love that
if He will only let me get into a corner in Heaven and praise Him to
all eternity, I will scarcely ask Him for anything else but the
opportunity to adore Him. I mean to bless Him whatever comes to me–I
cannot help it. I have been so favored of Providence and Grace that if
I were crushed into mortar, I think every little bit and fragment of me
would bless and praise His holy name, "for He is good and His mercy
endures forever." This is my advice, then, and I have not given it
without having tried it my-self–often meditate on what the Lord has
done and that will help your memory.
Then, again, often rehearse His mercy in the ears of others. I like to
get with dear Brothers and Sisters who talk about God's loving
kindness–they are good company. I have noticed the difference between
two farmers, for instance. One of them never did have a good crop,
though, to my knowledge, he had a "middling" one, once, and that was at
the time that he could hardly gather it, for it was too heavy for the
reapers! But then it was a "middling" one. He has never made any money.
I know he was a poor man when he began and I know he has brought up a
large family and is rich, now, but he never made any money–never!
Nobody ever does by farming, or by any other business, as you all know
by common report.
Well, I heard the grumbler's story and I turned to another friend. This
farmer says, "Well, it may not have been a very good year for wheat,
last year, but then there is a capital crop coming on to make up for
it." Another year he said, "Well, I do not think the grain will pay,
but the sheep are turning out uncommonly well." He has always something
to say by way of honoring God's mercy! And is not that as it ought to
be? He says, "Blessed be God, I have always had bread to eat and
clothes to put on. I am a great deal better off, now, than I thought I
would be, and I have my portion to give to the work of the Lord who has
dealt so well with me." That is the way to talk, for it is truthful and
it praises God– and it is the talk that God should hear from us! If
you tell others of your mercies you will not be so likely to forget
them.
Sometimes it will help you to remember your mercies if you use
everything about you as a reminder. How can that be? Have you got a
boy? Look at him and think of what mercy is bound up in that
child–remember when he was little and sickly–and you prayed that he
might live. Remember when he met with an accident and yet he was not
killed, as he might have been. Remember when he went out into life and
God kept him out of temptation. Remember when you saw the first sign of
piety, when you heard his first prayer, when you found that he was
trying to be useful.
Remember when you heard his first address as he tried to speak to
others about the Lord Jesus. I know the joy of such mercy and I cannot
hold my tongue when I think of it, for I am highly favored! And I hope
that you either have had the same blessing on your growing lads or will
have it. Well, the boy will be a reminder of God's mercy. Look at
anybody's child and say, "I, also, was a child once," and then think of
the mercies of God to you from childhood to the present time. Go into
the street and meet a beggar. Should not that make you thank God that
you are not forced to beg for your bread, and wear rags, but are
provided for?
Turn down by Bethlehem hospital and as you pass that institution, thank
God that you have not lost your reason. Look at the Blind School and
thank God that you have not lost your eyesight. Pass by the hospital
and thank God that you are not stretched upon a bed of agony, having
lost a limb. Go into a churchyard and thank God that you are yet alive.
Reflect upon the judgment to come and thank God that you are not in
Hell. Oh, my dear Friends, everything ought to make us praise God! From
the little birds that wake the morning to the twinkling stars that
gladden the night! Every breath of air, drop of rain and gleam of
sunlight ought to refresh our memory and awake us to praise the Lord!
That is the second point–we ought to do our best to assist our feeble
memories.
III. Thirdly–and here I shall ask you to preach to yourselves–WE HAVE
ALL HAD MERCIES TO REMEMBER. I am going to include everybody in these
remarks, first, whether they are converted people or not. We have all
had
common mercies. I have already hinted at them in speaking of those who
are suffering from their losses. From our childhood until now we have
had bread to eat and clothes to put on. Some of us have enjoyed an
abundance of common mercies. We have not had to live from hand to
mouth, nor labor like slaves. Others, who have had a harder lot, should
thank God that there has always been deliverance in the hour of
need–bread has been given and water has been sure. They have not
always had what they might have liked, but there has been enough to
keep them alive, and here they are in good health to prove it!
Oh, to have your reason! To have the use of your limbs! To have your
children about you! Even though you are poor, these are great
blessings! Even these ordinary mercies should awaken your gratitude.
Then, in addition to common mercies, we have had those of special
Providence. Is there one person here who has not been, at times,
favored with remarkable interpositions of God's Providence? Flavel used
to say, "Those who notice Providences will not be long without
Providences to notice." I think it is so. I could remember scores. If I
had time to write them I could mention dozens of remarkable Providences
which have occurred to myself, some of which would not be believed by
anybody else and, therefore, shall not be told, but they are true for
all that. There are matters known only to the Master and His unworthy
servant for which I praise His name in my heart of hearts.
Have you not had some such secrets between you and God–remarkable
things, special things which, if you could write them, men would not
believe? Well, praise His name for the peculiar favors, but do not
forget the more usual ones! Remember what the Puritan said. He and his
son had to ride some 20 miles, each, to meet each other. And when his
son came in, he said, "Father, I have had a most remarkable Providence.
My horse stumbled badly three times and yet he did not fall." "I am
grateful," said the old gentleman, "but I have had a remarkable
Providence, too, for my horse never stumbled all the way." We do not
think of that. If there is a railway accident and we just escape by the
skin of our teeth, we say, "What a wonderful mercy!" Ought you not to
be quite as grateful when you travel without an accident? Should you
not see, as much, the hand of God in your perfect safety as in your
rescue from danger? Remember the hourly Providence of God which watches
over you when you observe it not!
I should like to remind every unregenerate man and woman here present
of the long-suffering mercy of God. You have not loved Him, but He has
blessed you. You have sometimes spoken very sad things against His
Gospel, but He has not resented it. Possibly I speak to some who have
even cursed His name, but He has not cursed you. You have defied Him
and oh, it often seems to me to be an amazing thing that a man should
lift his hand to Heaven and defy God and that God remains quiet in
pitying patience! Do you think that God–the infinite God–is going to
be put into a passion by such a puny thing as you are?
No, He has appointed a day in which He will settle these matters with
you through His son Jesus Christ who will judge the quick and the dead.
He will not stir Himself out of His sublime compassion for you. But
what an amazing thing it is that He does not! Why there are thousands
of men who, if we had done a hundred thousandth part as much evil
towards them as they have done towards God, they would have fallen upon
us with a word and a blow–or rather there would not have been any
word–there would have been two blows! And if it had been in their
power to take our lives, they would not have hesitated! Men could not
have borne such provocation as sinners heap upon the Lord1 You have
provoked Jehovah to His face and thrust your finger into His eye.
"No," you say, "how is that?" Why, when you mock religious people–when
you make jests and mirth about those who fear Him, you do this.
Remember that text, "He that touches you touches the apple of My eye"?
That is an irritating thing enough, is it not? And yet you have touched
the apple of Jehovah's eye–and instead of smiting you into nothingness
in return, or sending you down to Hell, He has still had mercy upon
you! Let us gratefully remember this almighty patience and bless His
name, whoever we may be–
"Lord, and am I yet alive?
Not in torment, not in Hell?
Still does Your good Spirit strive–
With the chief of sinners dwell?
Tell it unto sinners, tell,
I am, I am, out of Hell!"
Furthermore, we should all praise God, or at any rate the most of us,
here, that we have enjoyed Gospel privileges. If you have not believed
in Jesus, yet you have heard of Him. If you have rejected His Grace,
yet the kingdom of God has
come near unto you. The door has been set open even if you have not
entered. And the call of the Gospel has been given though you have not
accepted it. You are still on praying ground and pleading terms with
God. You are still where you are wooed by a Savior's love. Thank God
for this! Thank God that you are not living in the dark ages, or in a
far-off heathen land where the saving name is not known! Thank God you
are where the bronze serpent is lifted high and the message comes to
you–"Look and live!" "To you is the Word of this salvation sent."
Dear Brothers and Sisters, though I have thus spoken to everybody in
the place, there is a special class to whom I must address myself. You,
my Brothers and Sisters in Christ–you have, above all others, ten
thousand times ten thousand reasons for remembering the past and
blessing the name of the Lord! Look back to the hole of the pit from
where you were raised! Remember Him who raised you from there! Look to
the blood that bought you! Look to the Holy Spirit who renewed you!
Look at the pardon which absolved you! Look to the Divine Grace that
changed you! Look to the love that saved you! Look to the wisdom that
has guided you! Look to the power that has upheld you!
The life of a Christian should be unbroken gratitude, for it is a life
of unceasing mercy! While others should praise God as creatures, we
must praise him as new creatures. They can praise Him because He made
them–we must praise Him because He has "begotten us, again, unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."
Therefore, lift up your hearts and voices, Beloved, and praise the Lord
at the remembrance of His goodness!
IV. The last thing is this–that ALL OUR MEMORIES SHOULD TEND TO MAKE
US PRAISE AND BLESS GOD. We can rest but a minute here. Remember
mercies. Remember there is not one you have deserved. That bread which
does not choke the sinner might justly do so, for he is an unworthy
recipient of it. The earth which does not open to swallow you up must
often wonder why it is not commissioned to do so, for you are so
rebellious against God. We do not deserve the air we breathe, or the
water we drink. Everything we have is sweetened with unspeakable mercy!
All the good that we enjoy comes from God. Remember that! Alas, most
men forget it. Rowland Hill used to say that worldlings were like the
hogs under the oak which eat the acorns, but never think of the oak
from which they fell, nor lift up their heads to grunt out a
thanksgiving. Yes, so it is. They munch the gift and murmur at the
Giver. Would God we did begin to remember that every good gift comes to
us from the Divine hand and that, therefore, the Lord is to be praised.
We have received mercies at times, when, if we had not had them, the
absence of them would have ended our lives, or would have involved us
in misery worse than death. Do not, some of you, remember when you said
in your soul, "O Lord, if You do but help me this time, I will praise
You as long as I live"? Yet, when you received the benefit you rendered
no fit return. You were grateful for a time, after a sort, but, as
eaten bread is soon forgotten, so your remembrance of the mercy of God
passed away. It ought not to be so!
I am now going to put a few questions to all present. First, have you
ever lived in gratitude? Are you now living to God's praise? Are you
now conscious of your obligations and anxious to show that you feel
them? If not–if not, I would like you to feel how evil you are. Does
that offend you? I would like you to be offended with yourselves! What
do you think of those who are ungrateful to you when you have been kind
to them? Ah, you look upon them with indignation! Sometimes when I know
that a man has been ungrateful to a friend of mine, very ungrateful, I
cannot help looking upon him with contempt. If you have lived in this
world for 50 years and have never shown any gratitude to God in life,
feel evil. Feel what a miserable wretch you are to be living wholly for
yourself while the God who has fed you and blessed you all your life
has not had the turn of a penny from you in the way of real praise and
true gratitude!
I say again, feel evil, and then go to Jesus' feet and tell Him that
you feel it, and cry, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!" If you have
never been a drunk or a swearer, or unjust, think it bad enough to have
been ungrateful. If you have lived without serving your God, think it
sin, enough, to have made yourself as base as the dirt beneath your
feet and, at the thought of it, humble yourself before your gracious
God!
Next if you are able to say, "Through Divine Grace I have praised God
and I do desire to live entirely to His Glory," yet, dear Brothers and
Sisters, have you or I ever praised Him enough? Have we ever praised
Him as we ought? "Oh, no," you say, "and we never shall." And I agree
with you–we never shall. The poet stretched the words a little, but
his meaning was right enough, when he said–
"But, oh, eternity's too short, To utter all Your praise."
We must feel, we ought to feel the happy burden of the Lord's praise to
be too heavy for us. We confess that we cannot bless the Lord enough,
either as to heartiness, frequency, or service. No human strength can
praise God sufficiently, but still, let us be doing something more for
God than we have ever done!
We sang just now, and we sang, I think, very fairly. But let us act as
well as sing! Let us consecrate ourselves and our substance far more
fully to God. What are you doing for God? What are you doing for my
Lord Jesus? Have you a precious alabaster box at home which you would
like to break, that you might pour the ointment on His head? Do it, and
do it soon! Some are very protective about their alabaster boxes and
keep them under lock and key. They take their friends upstairs and show
them their rare treasures. They ask them to visit their houses to see
their alabaster boxes and they even talk of what will be done with
their choice things when their estate shall go through the Probate
Court.
That is what they are talking about, but as to actually pouring the
costly perfume on the head of the Lord Jesus personally, in their own
lifetime, it has not entered into their heads! God lead you to honor
your Redeemer at once with the best you have! Give God your best–your
very best! Give God yourself–your all–He is worthy of it. And, oh,
count it a high honor if He accepts it at your hands through Jesus
Christ your Savior!
Lastly, if anybody here says, "I would like to begin to remember the
Lord's mercies and to praise His name," then you must begin at the
Cross! The center of everything that is good is the Cross of Christ! No
man begins a life of praise, or a life of prayer, or a life of holiness
aright unless he begins within sight of the Crucified Savior, led there
by the Holy Spirit! Go there with your ingratitude like a burden on
your heart–and look to the flowing of the Redeemer's precious
blood–and the load of ingratitude will roll into His sepulcher and
will never be laid to your charge! And then when you get rid of the
guilt you can begin–yes, you will begin–from that time on, to praise
Him and magnify His name!
God give you a memory capable of treasuring up His favors. May He
enrich you with the benedictions of His Covenant that you may have much
to treasure up. And may the whole of the sweet canes and precious
spices which memory has laid up be used as fuel for the flame of
thanksgiving in life, in death and through eternity! Amen. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–1 Chronicles 16:1-36. HYMNS
FROM "OUR OWN HYMN BOOK"–130, 229, 720, AND THE DOXOLOGY.
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The Little Dogs