the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Mornings and Evenings with Jesus
Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. - 1 Chronicles 16:34.
IF we feel gratitude to our fellow-creatures for their favours, surely we shall not forget the boon of our salvation. There is nothing perhaps so vile as ingratitude in man’s esteem. It is properly said, that if we call a man ungrateful we call him every thing that is vile. The Lacedemonians made ingratitude a punishable crime. There is nothing that we hate so much in others, perhaps, as ingratitude, especially when it is displayed towards us where we expect love, and therefore we soon show our resentment by discontinuing our favours. Why do we not hate it equally in ourselves when we discover its operations towards the blessed God? For, after all, what is the ingratitude of any one of our fellow-creatures, which we resent, compared with our ingratitude towards the Infinite Benefactor? If he were to discontinue his favours, would his sun any more shine? would his rain any more descend upon us,-his mercies any more be new every morning? or should we be daily loaded with benefits? In what a state of destitution and wretchedness should we then be found! But how are we to express our thanksgivings towards God? Gratitude consists in the return of a benefit received.
Among men it may be so expressed as that a full equivalent may be made for any favour we have received,-yea, more than an equivalent. But it can never be so expressed between God and man. We can never discharge our obligations to him. But we are to feel gratitude continually; and, though we cannot make an adequate return, yet we may make a suitable one. Gratitude will appear in this. We may be prompted to ask, “What shall We render unto the Lord for all his benefits?” “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Then this grateful concern will appear in the sentiments of the mind, in the disposition of the heart, in the language of the lip, but, above all, in the language of the life, for this speaks loudest. “Thanksgiving,” says Philip Henry, “is good, but thanks-living is much better.”
When “we show forth his praise, not only with our lips but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to his service, and walking before, him” “blameless in love.” The best way in which we can show our gratitude is in the degree and the quality of the fruit we bear. What is the best way in which a scholar can testify the honour of his tutor? Why, by his proficiency. And our Saviour, alluding to both these images, says, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye also be my disciples.”
It is lamentable to find that there is so little of this thankfulness now. “Oh,” says David, “that men would praise the Lord for his goodness I” We are backward to all the duties of religion, but sluggish as to praise. We are backward enough to pray; but our necessities urge us to pray, our difficulties urge us to the throne of grace, and, when we have succeeded, we are far too prone to act like the lepers:-“Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” Where is Hezekiah? He was restored from his sickness, and was so affected that he wrote a fine hymn, and gave it to the leader of the band, and had it sung in the temple, and said, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do to this day.” But afterwards, it is said, “Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefits done unto him, for his heart was lifted up; therefore there was wrath upon him, and all his children (Judah and Jerusalem.)”
Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. - Ephesians 3:20.
NOTHING is more painful to real affection than inability to help the beloved object-to behold the sufferer’s wants we cannot relieve-pains which we cannot alleviate-to hear the parched lips saying, “Pity me, pity me, oh ye my friends, for the hand of God hath touched me,” and to be able only to shed unavailing tears. But, with regard to our heavenly Friend, “His ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, nor his hand shortened that it cannot save.”
The Syro-Phenician woman in behalf of her daughter cried unto him, “Lord, help me,” and she cried not in vain. The father of the lunatic brought his child to his disciples, but they could not dispossess the evil Spirit. He then cried “Lord, have mercy on my son,” and he succeeded. Thus we see he answers to the declarations of his blessed word. He comes forward as “mighty to save”-able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him.
Speak we of wisdom? His understanding is infinite; he sees the end from the beginning, and always knows what is best for us. Speak we of wealth? His riches are boundless. The world is his and the fulness thereof; all power is given unto him in heaven and in earth. Speak we of strength? Lo! he is strong. “Nothing is too hard for the Lord.” Then he can conquer, and enable us, worms as we are, to vanquish too. “We are made more than conquerors through him that hath loved us.” And he will raise us up at the last day; and therefore believers are looking for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, “who shall change this vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
