Praise, The Universal Employment – Charles Spurgeon

MAY I ask you, beloved friends, now to recollect what God has done for you? Thread the jewels of his grace upon the thread of memory, and hang them about the neck of praise. Can you count the leaves of the forest in autumn, or number the small dust of the threshing-floor? Then, can you give the sum of his lovingkindnesses? For mercies beyond count, praise him without stint. Then let your conscience praise him. Conscience once weighed your sins and condemned you; now let it weigh the Lord’s pardon and magnify his grace to you. Count the purple drops of Calvary, and say, “Thus my sins were washed away.” Let your conscience praise the Sin-bearer, who has caused it to flow with peace like a river, and to abound in righteousness as the waves of the sea. Let your emotions join the sacred choir, for you have this day, if you are like the psalmist, many feelings of delight; bless him “who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies, and who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” Is all within you peaceful today? Sing some sweet pastoral, like the twenty-third psalm. Let the calm of your spirit sound forth the praises of the Lord upon the pleasant harp and the psaltery. Do your days flow smoothly? Then consecrate the dulcimer to the Lord. Are you joyful this day? Do you feel the exhilaration of delight? Then praise you the Lord with the timbrel and dance. On the other hand, is there a contention within? does the conflict disturb your mind? Then praise him with the sound of the trumpet, for he will go forth with you to the battle. When you return from the battle and divide the spoil, then “praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals.” Whatever emotional state your soul be found in, let it lead you to bless your Maker’s holy name.