SERMON XIX.

ON PRAISING GOD.

PSALM, cxlvi. 2.

، While I live, will I praise the Lord! I will sing praises unto my God, while I have any being."

SWEET is the harp of David! sweet, touchingly sweet, are all its sacred songs-affectingly mournful its music, when it breathes forth the very soul of penitential sorrow for sin-magnificently sublime its strains, when it chants the glories of God, or the future triumphs of Messiah's reign. But it is when the royal psalmist sweeps all its strings, and awakens all its melody, in one full burst of praise and thanksgiving to his God, that the harp of David seems as if touched by more than mortal hands, and breathing more than earthly music; and we almost think we hear one of the seraph-choir singing one of the songs of heaven before the

throne of God. And in none of his many songs of praise, is this spirit embodied in language more beautiful than the language of the text. It is not merely the grateful love to the God of all his mercies, from which it flows, nor the grateful delight in the work of praise which it expresses, but the grateful determination. which it avows, that while he continues to breathe, he will continue to praise his God-it is this which makes the language of the text sound so sweet now, when repeated in our ears; and made it, I doubt not, sound so sweet, when first uttered, even in the ears of God. It is as if the psalmist had said-to praise the Lord is the very life of my life; it is to me the very charm of existence, that it enables me to sing the praises of my God I have found His praise my happiest employment on earth-I look forward to it as my happiest employment in heaven-the song of praise I have begun here in a world of sin and sorrow, I hope to continue there in a sinless and sorrow less world, for ever, even for ever and ever. And surely if ever there was a determination formed in the human heart, if ever there was language uttered by human lips which ought to be adopted by every child of Adam, (and oh! with what a peculiar depth of emphasis by every child of God,) it is the determination avowed, it is the language breathed forth, in these words. May the Spirit

of God enable each of you with truth to adopt them as your own-I can wish you no higher happiness for time or for eternity, than that David's piety, and David's God, may be yours for ever. These words of the psalmist naturally suggest two subjects for meditation-the materials, and the modes of praise. It is to the latter I would more especially, on the present occasion, direct your attention-merely premising, in regard to the former, that the materials for a believer's song of praise are briefly, but most beautifully, summed up in the exquisite thanksgiving-collect of our church, when we are called upon "to give most humble and hearty thanks to Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, for all His goodness and lovingkindness to us and to all men, and to bless Him for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for His inestimable love, in the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and the hope of glory." Never was there a fuller summary in a smaller compass-comprehending the love of God, with all its accompanying blessings, commencing with creation, continued through grace, and consummated in glory. I will only add, that in the individual history of every believer, each day's experience is continually adding fresh materials for praise, in fresh manifestations of the preserving,

providential, and pardoning love-fresh supplies of the strengthening, sanctifying, and comforting grace of his covenant-God; and as every passing moment of time, a fresh drop of mercy is poured, by the hand of that God, into his already overflowingly-full cup of blessing, and every successive moment throughout eternity will be marked by some fresh mercy, some new blessing, since the demands on his gratitude, the materials for his praise, will be thus eternally accumulating; surely it well becomes him with the psalmist to say— “while I live, will I praise the Lord! yea, as long as I have any being, I will spend it in singing praises unto my God!" We come now to consider the mode of praise, and this we may regard as threefold the praise of the lips, the praise of the heart, and the praise of the life.

I. The praise of the lips. This we may view as two-fold, speaking or singing the praises of Godin other words, conversational and devotional praise. As to the first, I will only observe, that the individual who does not consecrate the gift of speech, (by which man is so preeminently distinguished above the beasts that perish,) to the purpose for which it was bestowed-the glory of the Giver— the individual who does not feel more delight in expatiating on the goodness and loving-kindness, the perfections and praises of God, than in dwelling on any other theme, however attractive to his

intellectual tastes and social feelings, and who has never cordially offered up the psalmist's prayer— "Let the words of my mouth, as well as the meditations of my heart, be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord! my strength and my Redeemer!" that individual has great reason to fear, whatever be the correctness of his creed, or the amiability of his character, that the love of God in Christ has never yet been shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost: and he who so far from taking part, with pleasure, in this hallowed theme, actually feels weariness and disgust when he hears it spoken of by others, must surely deceive himself most strangely, if he can imagine that the love of God is in his heart, when not merely the praise of God is never on his own lips, but he actually dislikes to hear it from the lips of others. The praise of God a distasteful subject! What happiness could the man who feels it so, find in heaven? There is one passage on this point to which I would invite your most serious attention, as it marks God's own judgment concerning it. At the close of the 50th Psalm, Jehovah, after having in the most solemn manner announced that declaration, which I would wish to be for ever sounding in a believer's ears, "Whoso offereth me praise, glorifieth me!" immediately subjoins— "and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God!"