word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom ; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.90 While we use these sacred words, we must remember that it is not the utterance of the lips, but the melody of our heart which is pleasing to God. We are to sing the high praises of God, imploring His grace to tune our hearts to praise Him in truth, while our lips are employed in giving utterance to the words of gratitude and thankfulness for the blessings which His goodness has bestowed upon us. When the affections of the believer are drawn out towards his Lord and Saviour, so that he can rejoice in the salvation of Christ, and the high praises of God are in his mouth,91 there is a happiness felt in the soul such as the world cannot give; a happiness which is a foretaste and anticipation of the blessedness of the redeemed around the throne of God in glory. Who has such reason to be joyful as the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? While he is singing with grace in his heart to the Lord, he has joy with which a stranger doth not intermeddle; 92 joy which the world cannot give or take away. It is the privilege of those who truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to have joy and peace in believing93 the promises of His grace, and in relying upon His merits and

90 Col. iii. 16. 91 Psalm cxlix. 6. 92 Proverbs xiv. 10.

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mediation; and those who do not rejoice in His great salvation, do not live up to their high privilege. With regard to the people of the world, may be truly said, Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness :9+ but the joy of the Christian knows no end. It brings present peace, and it will be consummated in eternity. Praise is therefore comely for the upright.95 The joy of the Lord is their strength9 and their security. While they praise Him, they are happy; and while they sing with grace in their hearts, they will live above the world, and will therefore be holy.

As the Christian's song of praise proceeds from a grateful heart, he is called upon to be giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to cultivate a grateful disposition for the goodness of God to us. We are to regard Him, in Christ Jesus, as our almighty and most merciful Father, who waiteth to be gracious, and is ready to show kindness and compassion to His children; who is rich unto all that call upon Him.93 This paternal character of Almighty God we should not lose sight of. He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort to His children in Christ Jesus. And if we thought more of His goodness and mercy to us, it would lead us to cultivate a more

93 Rom. xv. 13; x. 12. 94 Prov. xiv. 13. 95 Ps. xxxiii. 1. 96 Neh.viii. 10.

grateful disposition towards Him. All the blessings which we enjoy are the gifts of His bounty; and are all of them unmerited on our part. Life and health, and all the comforts of life, proceed from Him. He giveth to all life and breath and all things.98 How many receive these His benefits with ingratitude, instead of thanking the Giver of every good and perfect gift for giving them all things richly to enjoy.99 Let us not, while we receive His benefits, be unthankful for them; lest it should be needful for Him to deprive us of them, in order to make us sensible of their value, and of His goodness in bestowing them. Let us seek for the exercise of His paternal care over us, and beseech Him to overrule all that concerns us for His own glory and for our good. And if, as a Father, He is pleased to visit us with affliction; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? let us bow to His sovereign pleasure, and thankfully say, The will of the Lord be done. He knows what is best for all His children; and He will order all things for the best to them that trust in Him. To the God of all grace their thanks are therefore due, because His mercy endureth for ever.

As God our Creator and Benefactor, He is to be adored by His creatures. But it is because He, from whom all good proceeds, is our recon

97 2 Cor. i. 2. 98 Acts xvii. 27.

99

Tim. vi. 17. 1 Heb. xii. 7.

ciled Father in Christ Jesus, that the Christian especially praises His holy name. As the Father of mercies, praise and thanksgiving is offered to Him in the name, or through the merits and mediation, of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is only in Christ that we sinful creatures can behold the God of heaven as our Father; or as having, with regard to us, the bowels of a tender parent towards his offspring. Man, as a sinner, looks upon God Almighty as an object of dread and terror; he fears His power and His justice; he dreads His vengeance. But in Christ Jesus, for His merits' sake, the guilty transgressor sees the sword of Divine Justice laid aside, or put into its scabbard; and mercy looking down upon him with smiles of kindness and compassion. This fills his heart with gratitude, and his tongue with praise; which is acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, His beloved Son, whom the Father of heaven gave to be our Redeemer and Mediator; to suffer the penalty due to our transgression of His law, to bear the curse due to our sins; and to be our High Priest and Intercessor; through whose mediation we may present ourselves at His footstool; and pleading His obedience unto death for our justification, may look for every blessing we need at His hands. The name of our Lord Jesus Christ ought to be exceedingly pre

2

2 1 Peter ii. 5.

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cious to us, exceedingly valuable in our estimation, when we think of what He has done for us, and what He is to us, and the great and unspeakable blessings which are promised to be bestowed through Him upon the sinful children of men. We well say, Blessed be God for Jesus Christ, and the great salvation made known to us in and through Him. May we love His name, and receive the benefits of which He came into the world to be the Author and Giver to the children of men. If Christ be ours, and we are His, it is our privilege to call God our Father, and to look for the exercise of His mercy and compassion towards us, to give thanks to His holy name, to rejoice in the God of our salvation.

And while we do this, we shall endeavour to fill up the stations in which we are placed in this life with humility, as the apostle exhorts: Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. The fear of God will be the governing principle of our lives, and will actuate us in all our concerns, if we are indeed His children. We shall endeavour to fulfil all relative duties in the fear of God; living in obedience to the laws of God, and of our country, from a principle of regard to the will of our heavenly Father. We shall submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. We shall honour all men; love the brotherhood; fear God; honour the king.3