forth? It is a real help to praising God to practise this duty in your families. Use and practice make praise easy. Oh, did but all families even that worship God morning and evening, try more to introduce praise as well as prayer, the singing of Psalms as well as the reading of the scriptures, how much would the volume of holy praise daily ascending to our God be enlarged through our country! The Lord's day seems especially to call for psalms and hymns of praise as the most suitable and happy improvement of its sacred hours. PRAYER to God is however needful for an enlarged heart in praise. So David found it: he prays, O Lord open thou my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. Psalm li. 15. And so we, wearied and burdened with temptation and sin and the inward conflict, shall find we must pray to be able to praise, as well as praise to be able to pray. The inward effectual help is THE HOLY SPIRIT, who, in accomplishing all his gracious work, fulfils the promise which our Lord made, He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you. And in the view of his aid St. Paul tells us to abound in praise, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always. Ephes. v. 18-20. Prayer for an enlarged view of God's mercies. Lord God of my salvation, pity my most sinful blindness and hard-heartedness, that surrounded as I am with thy goodness, I have so often refused to see and acknowledge thy loving-kindness. Shed abroad, I entreat thee, thy love in my heart, by thine own Spirit; teach me the things thou hast freely given me, enlighten the eyes of my understanding that I may know what is the hope of thy calling, and enlarge my confidence of heart in thee, that I may see love in all thy dealings with me, through Jesus, my Redeemer. 3. ITS EVERLASTING BLESSEDNESS. It may well heighten our view of the excellence of praise to consider that it is the chief joy and occupation of the heavenly and glorified hosts above. Whenever the doors of the heavenly kingdom are as it were open to us, and a sight is given to us of the employment of the blessed inhabitants of those glorious mansions, we find that this is their work. Thus, Isaiah, when he saw the glory of the Lord, heard the songs of Seraphim, and one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. Thus, John, when the door was opened in heaven, heard the new song of the four living creatures and the four-and-twenty elders, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours,Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. He heard also the angelic song from the angels round about the throne, the number of whom was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands; and they too were occupied in the same way; they were saying, with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Rev. v. 9-12. So the great multitude which no man can number, gathered out of the great tribulation, are described as standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and crying with a loud voice, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Rev. vii. The chief command that we read of as given to the heavenly hosts, is praise. A voice came out of the throne saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And with what joyful alacrity that command (inviting to the fullest privilege and the highest joy) is obeyed may be seen in what follows: And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour unto him. Rev. xix. 5, 6. This is the highest glory of man to see and know God, and praise him unceasingly for all his excellent greatness. If searching into the works of God, or into the creatures of God, and their doings, and a deep knowledge of these things be thought honourable, how excellent must it be rightly to know the Creator and rightly to celebrate his praises! The very end of all creation is to glorify God, and of intelligent creation to glorify him, and enjoy him for ever. O praise him therefore for his mighty acts, praise him according to his excellent greatness. Psalm cl. 2. It is the completion of all heavenly graces; faith is realized in sight, hope becomes enjoyment, love has full fruition of the beloved object, when in his presence we come to praise him for ever. There is unceasing gratitude, there is rapturous communion, there is fulness of joy, and that for evermore. The ransomed of the Lord shall come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads. It is worthy of remark, that we only find Hallelujah in the New Testament, at the close, (Rev. xix.) when, as it is believed, the Jews will have been brought in. The last and the perpetual song of the church united and triumphant, is, when Jew and Gentile make the heavenly mansions resound with the mighty thunderings of their Hallelujahs. May you and I, Christian reader, partake of them! Meditation. When shall it ever be? When shall this time of full blessedness and glory really arrive? Now I am in the land of darkness and the shadow of death; afar off from God, my exceeding joy. When shall this body of death be laid aside, and the seeing through the mirror and in the figure, be exchanged for seeing face to face, and knowing in part for knowing as I am known, and the cold faltering Hallelujahs of earth, be turned into the fervent and rapturous Hallelujahs of heaven, and the conflict be changed for the victory; and the tears of sorrow for the songs of joy and the struggles with corruption and flesh and blood, terminate in the spiritual and glorified body, and the perfect likeness to my Saviour's image! Lord! help me more and more to look at the joy set before me, and in the blessed hope of that joy, like my Saviour, to take up my cross daily, and follow him. PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE, The Psalms generally, especially Psalms viii. xxx. xxxiv. ciii. civ. cxi. cxxxviii. cxlv. to cl. Exod. xv. Deut. xxxii. Judges v. 1 Sam. Matt. xi. xxv. Luke i. ii. Ephes. i. Rev. i. iv. v. vii. ii. Isa. xii. xi. xvi. xix. 1 BOOKS ON PRAISE. Scougal's Duty of Praise. on Praise in our language. Is it not a much neglected part of religious instruction at least in publications? |