CHAPTER III. IN EVERY THING GIVE THANKS. "Not thankful when it pleases me, As if thy blessings had spare days; But such a heart whose pulse may be thy praise." "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."-1 THESS. v. 18. Now we enter upon the third prescription—"In every thing give thanks; " a prescription that will need explanation in order to convince us that in every thing - on every occasion, and at every circumstance - we are to give thanks. We are not only to pray to God for blessings, but we are also to praise him as the necessary sequel when we obtain those blessings. If we only expressed our wants, there would be something in that extremely selfish; but if while we express our wants we praise him who satisfies them from his fulness, there is something in this extremely Christian. Prayer without praise, is a constant craving for possession; but the absence of praise when we have that possession will soon make it take wings and fly away; for the man who is an unthankful possessor whether of a pound or of a million, will not be a long or a happy possessor. Praise is the tribute that God exacts for his gifts; and if we refuse to render the little tribute, which does not diminish the excellency of the gift, we cannot expect that we shall long continue in the possession of it. The blessings that God gives, are only deepened and endeared to us when we lift our hearts to bless him for his beneficent and unmerited mercies. To be always praying, is to be a Christian when we are in need; but to be never praising, is to be atheists when we have got what we asked for. And therefore very justly is it remarked by an apostle, "Is any man afflicted? Let him pray. Is any man merry? Let him sing psalms." Our afflictions bring us to God, our blessings bring us to God; and thus all things that betide the Christian, whether they be prosperous or adverse, impel him in the same blessed direction; they bring him near to that God who hears his prayer and satisfies his wants; who makes welcome his praises and redoubles his blessings. Gratitude to man is an expression of feeling that most people would be ashamed to be without. Ordinary courtesy will teach us to thank a benefactor; and if we select from the masters of poetry in the English language their opinions upon gratitude, we shall find that the natural man even reprobates ingratitude as one of the basest and the most deforming vices. "I hate ingratitude more in a man Than lying, vainness, babbling, drunkenness, How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child!" The great dramatist justly says, if we call a man ungrateful we brand him with the severest and the most ignominious epithet. But what is this gratitude? It is the responsive or joyous tribute that a man pays for disinterested or unexpected kindness. It is the fragrant incense that a good deed bestowed upon you kindles in the censer of your human heart. And never does that heart appear so beautiful, or exhale so fragrant perfume, as when, acknowledging the good it has received, it praises and thanks its benefactor. If we be ashamed to be unthankful to man, how is it that we can muster courage- no, not courage atheistic daring to be unthankful to God? There is scarcely an individual on earth that will not thank a human benefactor for a blessing; are there as many who can stand up on the proper occasion, and thank God for health, strength, and daily bread? Few feel ashamed in being found thanking a benefactor for a blessing. Shall any be ashamed if found out thanking God for their daily bread? Why should it be thought strange to thank God? Surely, surely! if we bless the cistern we cannot be indifferent to the fountain. If we are not ashamed to thank man, shall we fail to be ashamed of the omission of thankfulness to him who enables man to help and be beneficent to us? "In every thing give thanks." It is not only duty, it is our glory. A thankful heart is one of the choicest gifts, and not the least happy. And very beautifully therefore does the poet say in one of the hymns, at the end of the Psalm Book "Ten thousand, thousand precious gifts My daily thanks employ; Nor is the least a thankful heart, That tastes these gifts with joy." Gratitude is not only duty, it is beauty. We find this illustrated in the very analogies of the world. The deserts of the earth, that receive into their bosom the dews of heaven and the sweet sunshine, but bear no golden harvests, are always to the outward eye bleak and repulsive; fields that receive the showers and the sunshine, and express themselves in responsive tributes of bountiful harvests, ever look the most beautiful and joyous. In other words, barren lands are unlovely; fertile lands, that wave with corn and with the kindly fruits and fragrant flowers, are to the outward eye all beautiful and full of laughter. They shout for joy, they also sing. What is the song of birds, the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep upon their pastures, the hum of bees, the fair foliage, the fragrant flowers, the beautiful blossoms, but the earth thanking God, in her many voiced psalm, that he clothes her every spring with verdure, and forsakes her not in the depths of winter; and giving token of that day, when all earth shall ring with gratitude not only to him who made her, but, when she had unmade herself, redeemed her by his blood, and put her in her right orbit again. While all things praise God, it seems strange that man should fail to do so. Are we thankful? Do we recognize God in mercies? It is too true that true Christians oftener pray than praise. It is too true that the mass of mankind neither pray nor praise. What is the reason that even Christians should oftener pray than praise? In heaven there is nothing but praise, because all is ever accumulating possession; on earth there must be prayer and praise both, because there are wants to be felt, and blessings to be received. But what reason may there be that many do not thank God for the blessings which they enjoy as they ought to do? The first reason we must assign, and one many are conscious of, is pride. It is an odd thing that a human being should be proud. There is much in man to admire; there are remains of his pristine magnificence that show what a noble being he was, and what a noble being he may yet be; but there is nothing in himself or in his history that should pos make him proud. His sins should humble him, for they are his own; his virtues should humble him, for they are not his own; and every thing he looks at should only lead him to God in order to give him the glory, and take nothing to himself. But, notwithstanding this, man likes to see his own dear image reflected in the possessions that he has; he loves to say, My own right hand won this; my own sword clave my way to this; my own power got me that; I have nobody to thank but myself. He likes to hear his own sweet voice, ringing in echoes of self-praise from the blessings that God gives him; he does not like to be obliged to another; he would rather not be a humble recipient of mercies, he would prefer to be able to say, I did something; if God did much, I did little; if he gets glory, I ought not to be without praise. But God will not allow us to be recipients and sessors of his blessings on such terms. He says, I give you all the blessings; but I ask of you all the praise. And the blessing is not diluted in your possession by the praise you render to him that gave it. The wild bee, that feeds upon the fair and fragrant flowers, it has been remarked, nourishes the flower and adds to its fragrance, while it takes away for its own stores what will feed it and its infant brood, and not impoverish any. So it is with the blessing that God gives: we render to him the tribute of praise, which pleases him, and does not impoverish us. Let us lay aside vainglory; let us guard against that pride which would give to our own genius, wisdom, or worth, praise that belongs to him who alone is worthy. But there is another reason for this absence of thankfulness to God. It originates very often in practical atheism. There is no such phenomenon, perhaps, in this present world as a thorough atheist. The man who is, by intellectual conviction, an atheist, is only fit for a lunatic asylum. It is impossible that his can be a sober and |