I Believe in the Holy Ghost
Who with the Father and the Son Together Is Worshipped and Glorified
““O comE, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God”’ — such is the repeated summons of the Psalter. It seems as though human voices are not loud or sweet enough to satisfy the Psalmist, and he calls on the heavens with their myriad constellations to be glad, and the earth with all her wealth of life to rejoice. The roar of the full and brimming sea, the branches and leaves of the trees of the wood, the incense of flowers, the hum of insects are all pressed into the blessed minstrelsy of Praise.
There is a great difference between Thanksgiving and Praise. In the former, we bless God for what He has done on our behalf, in the latter for what He is in Himself; and therefore Praise is more and greater than thanksgiving. It is less likely to be vitiated or coloured by the selfish element, which is always so ready to intrude.
Praise is the purest, loftiest, noblest act, and the 182 one most like the employment of Heaven, which is within our human reach. Losing sight of earth and time, borne on strong and steady wing, the soul mounts up as on the wings of an eagle, which makes its straight course to the sun, and seems to seek absorption by its dazzling splendour.
In the service of the Prayer-book, the climax is reached in the noble Te Deum. The suppliant begins with confession and absolution. Tremulous and low his voice, broken its accents, but presently his soul begins to bestir itself, and prune its wings for soaring. ‘‘ Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost” rings like a bugle-call, leading to the further incitement of the con- -gregation to come before God’s presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with Psalms. After Praise has spent itself, there are supplications and intercessions for all men, and specially for the saints.
Praise is Worship, but Worship is probably more than Praise. In Praise the soul utters itself audibly, but Worship is its prostration in the presence of God. Without a spoken word, we sometimes prostrate ourselves at the foot of the jasper-throne, casting our crowns there, and content to leave God to interpret what we can find no words to express.
It is remarkable to notice throughout the Bible that the Ascriptions of Praise and Worship are generally threefold. In Psalm xcix. each of three stanzas ends with a call to worship, and the words, ‘“‘ Holy is He,” or “‘ the Lord our God is holy.” In Isaiah’s sublime vision, one seraph is heard crying to another, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts” (vi. 3). In the Apocalypse, the four living creatures have no rest day and night, saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”
It could hardly be otherwise, when once a true vision has been granted into the nature of the Holy Trinity. Those who have seen the throne, encircled by its emerald rainbow, with its light of sardonyx, its Lamb, and the seven lamps of fire that burn before it, cannot refrain from the Doxology which includes each Person of the Godhead.
It is sometimes asked if we should pray to the Holy Spirit. So far as we can discover, the proper procedure of the Court of Heaven is to pray to the Father, through the Son, by the gracious assistance of the Holy Spirit. ‘‘ We know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered.” No harm is done, if we pray to the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, the hymns in which we address the Spirit, asking Him to descend or come, are prayers addressed to Him. To whichever Person in the Godhead we direct our prayers, they are sure of reaching the right quarter. Address your envelope as you may, the letter will be delivered. But on the whole we must admit that the Spirit is in our hearts, or in the heart of the Church, ennobling, teaching, quickening us, suggesting our petitions, and seeking to glorify Christ, who is ever the supreme object of His activity.
But in Praise and Worship, let us include the Holy Spirit in our ascriptions. Let us worship and glorify Him. Let us bring Gold, and Frankincense, and Myrrh. And let us cultivate the holy habit of Worship. Often when we are sad and depressed, when we are beset by sin and tempted of the Devil, when “the mists hang thick o’er hill and fell,” it will greatly help us to join the great assembly of blessed ones, Angels, Saints, and the Spirits of the just made perfect, in their high worship, contributing our little rill to that mighty current which is ever pouring into the Ocean heart of God.