IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET {MT-3) 1= 11.25 20 14 III 1.6 Pm. object indeed. Would to God that all professed worshippers had i in view. But it is not the nuiin objeet. At all events it is not he hrst nbiect. We go to the sanctuary to .mr^hip the Lord It is true that the worship of Gc d will be a service most profitable for ourselves , but then it is the honour of God and not our own profit ha should stand out as the primary objeet in view. And it is impor ant to bea in mind that it is by eontempluting chiefly the honourot God that wc shall most certainly and fully secure our ^'^^'^^J^^^^f ""^T. n,ent. We may rest assured that the less wc think ot our»eUes and the more we think of God in our religious ^^^^'"^'^"[^ profitable as well as delightful will they be. It is indeed the p to a good Christian to have due regard lor his true interests, but it is no the part ofa good Christian to regard even his highest, his eternal iutere8t8.to the exclusion, or even to the subordination ot the glory of God. The self-regardful spirit, of which we speak, may bo seen in the romparative importance wc attach to those parts of worship which bring into prominence the one object or the other-thc honour of God or 1 I the profit of man. Compare for example the relative importance which IS attached to the psalmody and to the preaching of the >rord. The sinking of Psalms is of the highest advantage indeed 10 ourselves, but it aims more directly at the honour of God. The preaching vf the word is honouring to Ood, lut it aims more directly at the good of man. Now if there is to be any prefer^ onceoftlie one over the other, it should surely be for that which aims more directly at the honour of God. Yet the reverse is the almost universal estimate. How many are there, who, if only they hear an instructive or improving or refreshing sermon, when tKey attend the house of God, are quite contented, and are comparatively indifferent whether the singing have been hearty or heartless,~good, bad or in different. It is well, very well, that such should be anxious for their own spiritual improvement ; but it ib not well that they should be so indifferent about the linnour of God. We have much need then to be reminded of our great duty to " worship the Lord in the beauty of hoimess " ■ and we need not wonder that, while in this Psalm there IS reference to the duties of prayer and of the hearing of the word to both of which we are earnestly summoned, yet the first place should be given to the duty of singing the praise of God, and that we should be invited with peculiar earnestness to join with spirit in this deli.^htful exercise : » come let us sing unto the Lord : let us make a ioyful noise to the Eock of our Salvation. Let u« co..c before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with Psalmg". In furtherconsidering this subject we would desire, first, to cdl attention to the Ihct that God has given us the faculty of consciously praising Ilim, or (as we may be permitted to call it) the faculty of conscious praise ; that the possession of this faculty is in fact our highest dignity, and that i^s exercise is our highest joy. God has given us the faculty of conscious praise. All thincs were made for the glory of God. All His works shew forth hIs praise. Many p.aise Him silently; yet with surpassing eloqu- ence, i The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handiwork"-Sun, moon, and stars all utter His praise. "What though in solemn silence all Move round this dark terrestial ball— What, though no real voice, nor sound Amidst their radiant orbs be found - niportancc ing of the age indeed r of God. t it aims my prefer- bat which the almost 7 hear an attend the indifferent )ad, or in- ! for their )uld be 80 d then to le beauty ialm there 5 word, to ;e should ive should ileh'ghtful 3 a joyful ' presence Psalms". t, to call nsciouslj iculty of fact our '11 things >rth His g cloqu- rmament is praise, In reason's ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice, For ever singing, as they shine : ' The hand thai made us is Divine.'" But nature's praise is not all silent praise. There is the rush- ing of the river, and the roaring of the waterfall ; the surging d the waves, and the beating of the surf; the eighing of the wmd, the howling of the tempc.t, the rolling of the thunder. All these are lifeless nature's voices praising God. To these are added he voices of living things : the hum of the insect, the song ot the bird, the roaring of the beast of prey. Such is the praise whic.i arises to God continually from the works of His hands. But between these lower creatures and man there is " a great gulf fixed." Man was made in the image of God, with power to . know God and love Him, to speak to Him, and call Hun Father- He was made with dominion over the creatures. The beauty ot na- ture was made for him ; her song of praise was made to fill his car -^ The lower creatures were made to catch and reflect into the sou ot man the rays of the glory of God, which should there be collected as in a focus, and thence burst forth in a flood of praise to Him who made these lower creatures, and gave to man the wondrous power ol in- terpretiim their language and setting to music their song, iheir praise isdl unconscious ; that of man is conscious praise. 1 hoy all do sinir; but man alone can <'.'iing unto the Lord." And this faculty is the crown of man's dignity : it is his true glory. Man has a series of wondrous faculties rising one above an- other like steps from nature up to God. There is the faculty of sensa- tion, confined within the material frame-work of the body; the wondrous faculty of perception, which brings outside things wilhm the circle of our being, and, so to speak, incorporates them with our life ; the still more wondrous faculty of imagination, which seems to overleap the boundaries of time and space ; the power of remembering, of judging, of reasoning, of discerning our fellow-spirits and ming- ling with them in the interchange of thought and feeling. These are some of the noble faculties with which our Creator has endowed us; but nobler than them all, and better than them all, i- the power ot knowing, and loving, and addressing God. Communion with God is our noblest prerogative, and of that com- 6 luunion praise i.s tho crown. There are three step.H here, and pruist is the highest. There is, fir.-t, meilitation. It is much, very much, to be able to approhend God, to think about Ilim, to dwell upon tin attributes of His eharacter and the munilestutions of If is glory. Tht next step is prayer. It springs from a recognition of II is relation to us We call Ilim Father, and send up to ITim a cry for help. Then come.- the answer to the jjrayer, and wc know that Cod is noar to us, that we are near to (Jod ; wc feci tliat lie has blessed us, and we no longer stand afar oil' and cry to Him as" from the end of the earth," but, boine upwards on the wings of faitli and love and holy gratitude we lift our souls to God in a song of pruine, — we rise above the things uf time and sense, and hold liigh eonimunion with the Eternal, and ■• worship the Invi!-il)lo alone." And the whole soul is thrilled witli u heavenly joy. The joy is indescribable. Those only know it whu have felt it. " Though now we see Ilim not, yet bolioving we rejoice with joy uns[((.'ak;ibl(> .•iiul full ol'glnry." ■' In His presence is fulness of joy." When we think of all tiiis we will not wundcr that the I'salmist should speak of this noble laeulty of praise as /(('*• (jlonj. That i- his name for it : " my (jlory.^' " Tliou hast turned for nie my mournini' into dancing. Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me witii gladness to the end that nu/ glory may sing praise to Thee and not bi' silent." " Awake up, myyhri/" (the faculty of praise) " awake psalter)' and harp," (the instruments of praise.) *' God, my heart is tixed, 1 will sing and give praise cvi^n with ?ny glory." *' ^fy heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth." ►Seeing then that God has given us the faculty of conscious praise, and that the possession of this laeulty is our crowning glory and its exorcise our highest joy, it is appropriate that we proceed in the second place, to consider Oic duty of cultlratlng it. fii proceeding to consider the duty of cultivating the faculty of prais?, we shall iind it convenient first to give a brief analysis of tht; exercise. It is }):vscd on knowledge ; it is educed by meditation , it consists of feeling and expression. To illustrate : conceive of praise as a plant. Knowledge is the soil in which it grows ; medita lion is the root from which it springs ; feeling is the life with whioli it is animated, and ^ouikI the form in which it is invostod. Ox conccivo joy- I hero, and pruist lich, very nmcli, (Jwoll upon tin fis^lory. T\u is relation to us 3. Then coint'.- r to us, that we .1 wo uo longer the earth," but, lioly grutitudf, bovc the thingi ic Eternal, and is thrilled with ly know it whu t bolioving we His presence it tiie I'sulmist 'luri/. That i" \c my uiournin;' rirdod me witii 'hee and not be ' awake psalterj heart is tixed, 1 heart is glad, J of COQSClOUd irowning glory we proceed in t. the faculty of analysis of the ly meditation , e : conceive of ;rows ; medita ife with whicli d. Or conceive „,-p„U».,uui.ccn,c offori,,,. Knowledge -m^^^^^'^^;^ Boaitalio,, ignite, then. Mins U the Bro,»na ,o«n.l .. the n,cu„.. It i, „n„.ccs».ry.o .ak« up time in ,.r„vi„« ..l.»t '••"'"*'j;-; ,eo«,.ry a. u b»si». If « had no knowM,. of -; ^^^ J^^^;. wc couU not aJunro tham ; if wchad no knowl.J. oi ^°^ '' " Hisclaaracter and attribute,, w. could not ador. Il,m. 1^"»" »" ° God l\,on i. indi.pon.al,lc a, a lo.njatiou on «h,oU to bu.ld th,, temple of praise. But knowlod,o i, not cnou;,!.. Thoro must aUo b« "'f ■"«"; :Thcre arc n,„n, ,l>in,, »hicU we know and yet o not tbnk abon , u „bicbcase our knowledge is of no praet.eal use. ^^ I"-"" " ""; ■wouM n,ake our knowledge available, the n.ind must turn to u, nd accordingly, when by means of our knowle :.e of (>od we w,s^. .0 dr» near to Him, we must dwell on what we know of llnu, and as wo _ think there will spring- up in the heart, in that loftiest rcg.on of our irure which ,be Psilmist calls his «lory, those varied en.otrons which form the life, the soul of praise. This leads us to the third, the central requisite, viz . f'-cUny emotion. This is the essence, the kernel, the spirit, the life o praise. The feelings may be of ^^aried kinds, accordmg to the aspec of the character or the nature of the works of Ood wb.ch may be present at the time to the thoughts. The emotions wh.ch w 1 main y enter into the exercise will be those of reverence, gratitude, love and joy. We come now to the last requisite, viz: ^.rp€Ss/o»._ Thi.s is not the essence, but it is essential. It is not the life, but it is the form. It is not the spirit, but it is the body. And though the li o ol a plant is more than its form, yet its form is not to be despised ; and though the spirit of a man is nobler than his body, yet the body is very necessary indeed to those who dwell on this terrestial ball. Man's religion is suited to his nature. It is not a religion tor the body only, as many would seem to wish. It is not a religion for the spirit only, as many wrongly imagine. It is for both. And as is the whole, so is the part. As is our religion, so is our worship. It is not mere bodily service. That would profit nothing. It is not mere spiritual service. That would be quite uusuitod to our present state. It is a service which lays claim to both body and spirit. We arc to 8 present our bo'lies a living gacriCcc. Our bodies are to bo " temples of the Holy Ghost," and our niembora yielded "as instruments ol' rii;hteousnc,'-s unto God." Wc are to <^lorify God with our bodies, and with our f^pirits which are Ilis. There are uianj who imagine that there id an antagonism between lurm and life, between body and spirit. They imagine I'urther that the Mosaic and Christian dispensations are strictly op- posed to each other : the former being an economy of form, the latter an economy of. «pirit. It is u great mistake. Thero was spirit as well as furm in tho old dispcnaation ; there is form as well as spirit in the new. Did those who speak of the Mosaic economy as a dis pen^-ation of forms ever read the Psalms of David ? Is there any lack of life, any want of s»j)irit there? Did those who say that the Christiitn economy is an economy of spirit without form ever consider that it is utterly impossible for us in our present state to unite in a sinj^le net of worship without Ibrm ? The only difference is that the Christian forms are uiainly, thougli not exclusively, addressed to the ear, while the Jewish forms were mainly, though not erclusively, addressed to the eye. So long as wo have bodies as well as spirits, our acts of worship must have body as well as spirit. In the disembodied state, when these fleshly forms of ours are mouldering into dust, wc may be able to present to God a purely spiritutd worship, to offer purely spiritual praise. IJut think you that this would bo tho perfection of praise] Such praise would be imperfect, simply for want of form. It will only be after these bodies shall have been raised again in incor- ruption and glory Mnd power, and these voices shall have been tuned :o tho anthems of the ,-kios, that wc shall be able fitly and fully to join the song of Closes and the Lamb. While then it is true that the more of spirit there is in our praise the better, it is not true that the less of body there is in it the better. Let us not then be content to offer unto God di.^endjodied worship — the mere ghost of praise, Lot our feelings have expression. Let our love burst forth in song. Let us offer the " the fruit of our lips ', when we give thanks to His name. Even in our solitary acts of devotion it is far belter that our feelings sliould find expression. But wJien we unite in worshipping God, it is abi-olutely nec