The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 39

Ir has been truly said that, if the members of our churches were in a right condition of heart, the work of the pastor towards them would be no more difficult than that of a commanding officer to his troops. A general, or a captain, has never to study eloquence; he has simply to give the word of command tersely and plainly, and himself to lead the way. So, if our hearts were right in the sight of God, we should not want illustrations to win attention, and arguments to urge us on; we should only want to know what is the special duty of the hour; and, helped by the Divine Spirit, we should, with alacrity, seek to perform it.

Well, now, let us hope that this is our condition to-night. God grant that it may be! Certainly, it ought to be our condition in reference to the duty which is taught us in the text. Ishall but, as it were, give the word of command in my Master’s name; and I trust that the Holy Spirit will be working in all our spirits, causing each one of us to say, ‘‘ Ready, ay, ready, to bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord.”

You noticed, while we were reading the Psalm, that it contained a piece of cutting sarcasm upon the gods of the heathen, which are unable to do anything for their worshippers. Albeit that they have the outward semblance of the organs of life and sense, yet in those organs there is neither life nor power. Their mouths cannot speak; their eyes cannot see; their ears cannot hear; their noses cannot smell; their hands cannot handle; their feet cannot walk. But our God is declared to be the living God, who is in the heavens, and who hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Well, that being so, a living God should be worshipped by a living people in a living manner. This is one of the rules of Christian worship, which we should never forget. Let us come before the Lord, not as mere bodies, fancying that it is enough to put in an appearance in the place where prayer is wont to be made; but let us bring our living selves, our souls, our hearts, into God’s worship; and whether it be in prayer, or in praise, or in the proclamation of his truth, or in the listening to the gospel message, let us do it with all our life. Let the praise be full of life; let the prayer be full of life; let the ministration of the truth be the lively oracle of the living God; and let the ear, the heart’s ear, be all alive while we listen to the gospel. There is nothing more that is acceptable to God in the mere routine of Christian worship, than there is in the turning of the windmills of the Tartars, when they put their prayers upon the mill, and they revolve with the blowing of the wind. If true life is absent from our service, though we speak with the tongues of men and of angels, though we have the richest music, though we have everything that heart can devise to create a charm, yet it profiteth us nothing, and brings no glory to God. ‘God is not the God of the dead, but of the living,” is a text which may be applied to dead services as well as to dead men. May the Lord, in mercy, send to some religious services a resurrection! May he be pleased to put a living heart and soul into them; for #f there be not these, he will not accept a dead sacrifice at men’s hands! A living God must be worshipped in a living way by a living people.

In the context we see also that, as it is true with the heathen’s idols, that ‘‘they that make them are like unto them, so is every one that trusteth in them,” so ought it to be with us in reference to our God. A living God should have a living people; and a blessing God should have a blessing people. He has blessed us with unspeakable favours. He is always blessing us; it is not possible for us to cczipute the amount of blessing which he is constantly bestowing upon us. Therefore, ‘‘ Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” If he doth exalt thee with his favour, take care that thou dost exalt him with thy praise. If he enriches thee with his blessings, bring thou thy blessings, and offer them at his feet, as the wise men brought their gold and frankincense and myrrh, and laid them as tribute at the feet of the new-born King. Bless a blessing God. What can be more congruous? As the echo answereth to the voice, so let our blessing of God answer to the blessing we have received from God, even as Paul puts it, ‘‘ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.” This, then, is the work that is to occupy us to-night, and the work in which we shall continue, I trust, from this time forth and for evermore. Living unto the living God, time and eternity will be spent in. blessing the blessing God.

Notice, in the text, which is clearly intended to excite us to praise, first, a mournful memory, suggested by the word “but”; secondly, a happy resolution: “we will bless the Lord”; thirdly, an appropriate commencement: “from this time forth”; and then, fourthly, an everlasting continuance: “and for evermore. Praise the Lord.”

I. First, then, there is in the text the trace of A MOURNFUL MEMORY. Read the preceding verse, without which we do not get the sense of this one to the full. ‘The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth.”

The mournful memory is, that of those who, at one time, praised the Lord with us, and exulted in his holy name, during the past year some have been numbered with the dead. There are gaps in our ranks, my brethren, which death has made during the past year. Some have been taken from us whom we could ill spare, as we thought; but they were, nevertheless, wanted up above. He who bought them had a better right to them than we had; and his prayers prevailed over ours, as they always should. We said, “Father, we will that they whom thou hast given us be with us where we are;” but Jesus prayed, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am;” and they have gone. He had the best right to them, and we can only say, “It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.” But, as far as this world is concerned, they who have been taken from us do not praise the Lord; save that, being dead, they speak by the recollection of their holy lives, and their memory is sweet, like incense that has been burned, and leaves a perfume behind. Save for this, ‘‘The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” I know that in heaven they are praising him; they have been added to the orchestra above, and have helped to make it complete. Fresh songsters are there before the everlasting throne; but here they cannot swell our praises. Their bodies sleep beneath the green sward in the silence of the tomb. As I look round the different parts of the Tabernacle, — my eye being better able to distinguish the gaps than some of yours are, because I rather know something of all, and each of you knows but a part of this great congregation, — as I look around, I notice where sat one whose eye was full of glances of delight whenever the name of Jesus was mentioned. I have heard him speak in his Master’s praise most sweetly and yet tearfully; but I shall never hear him here again. I looked into his tomb but a few days ago; he has gone down into silence so far as his body is concerned. There was another dear worker who was always here, I might say that he was always everywhere where there was anything to be done for Christ; and we went to his grave also, and we laid him in the silent tomb. During the year, I suppose some seventy or eighty of our number have gone over to the majority; I mean, seventy or eighty of those who were actually members of the church, besides those who, I trust, loved the Lord, although they had not confessed his name in baptism, and united with his people in church-fellowship. They have gone over to the great host above; and there are so many the fewer here. Well, what saith this tous? I will not imitate Dr. Watts, and say, —

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