^ F. Kuegele, Country Sermons, iv. 547. ^ Norman Macleod, in Memoir, ii. 21.
324 INGRATITUDE
H If you search the world around, among all choice spices you shall scarcely meet with the frankincense of gratitude. It ought to be as common as the dew-drops that hang upon the hedges in the morning ; but, alas, the world is dry of thankfulness to God ! Gratitude to Christ was scarce enough in His own day. I had almost said it was ten to one that nobody would praise Him ; but I must correct myself a little ; it was nine to one. One day in seven is for the Lord's worship ; but not one man in ten is devoted to His praise.^
(1) Those who frankly believe are not all ready to praise. These ten men did believe, but only one praised the Lord Jesus. Their faith was about the leprosy ; and according to their faith, so was it unto them. This faith, though it concerned their leprosy only, was yet a very wonderful faith. It was remarkable that they should believe the Lord Jesus though He did not even say, " Be healed," or speak a word to them to that effect, but simply said, " Go shew yourselves unto the priests." With parched skins, and death burning its way into their hearts, they went bravely off in confidence that Jesus must mean to bless them. It was admirable faith ; and yet none of the nine who thus believed ever came back to praise Christ for the mercy received.
^ In an address Dr. Wilson once said : " There is a man who has a nickname. In the different parts of the country to which he goes he is known by the rame of ' Hallelujah.' When he stops at a hotel and goes into the commercial room, the travellers say, 'Here comes Hallelujuh So-and-So.' Why? Because he is a praising Christian. I think if I had the choosing of a nickname I would choose that. Supposing that my joy were rightly grounded, I would prefer * Hallelujah ' almost to any other name that could be given to me." ^
•[[ Many of our modern Christian writers are lacking in true rapture. I took up a book of devotion by a saintly Presbyterian — the Eev. George Matheson — Moments on the Mount, a book of real value. There are one hundred and eight meditations in it, but there is not one that passes into rapturous praise. Again, we all love the Christian Year more and more the older we grow, but the sobriety of tone that it claims as its distinctive note does, I think, deprive us of the note of gratitude amounting to rapture. It is the same with Keble's Lyra Innocentium\ wondrous beauty is there, but he does not strike all the chords at once for the great chorus of praise. It is almost true also of
* 0. H. Spurgeon. 2 j^y^ ^ James Hood fFilsan, 433.
ST. LUKE XVII. 17 325
Newman, except in the well-known "Angels' Song." I dare to say it is the same with Tennyson and with Wordsworth : and all these were Christian men, some of them fervently and whole- heartedly so to an extent that makes them wear the title " saintly " with absolute propriety.
I then extended my researches further back in time and at once I discovered the note I sought. They were not greater Christians than those I have mentioned, but their note has more rapture. Spenser, George Herbert, Milton, Henry Vaughan, Addison, Ken, Watts, Newton. You cannot read their poetry or hymns without feeling the thrill of rapture. I do not say it is indispensable to a most noble Christianity ; yet it works miracles because it means intensity. I have reserved one name for separate mention. I have looked over four hundred and fifty hymns of Charles Wesley, and anyone who does so will allow there is rapture there, and gratitude, and praise deep and returning again and again. And in this respect Wesley has a successor in our Heber, whose name I had also kept back as one who may be called a modern, but who certainly has rapture in his music.^
(2) Those who diligently pray do not all praise. These ten men that were lepers all prayed. Poor and feeble as their voices had become through disease, yet they lifted them up in prayer, and united in crying : " Jesus, Master, have mercy on us ! " They all joined in the Litany, '* Lord, have mercy upon us ! Christ, have mercy upon us ! " But when they came to the Te Deum, magnifying and praising God, only one of them took up the note. We should have thought that all who prayed would praise, but it is not so. Cases have been where a whole ship's crew in time of storm have prayed, and yet none of that crew have sung the praise of God when the storm has become a calm. Multitudes of our fellow- citizens pray when they are sick, and near to dying ; but when they grow better, their praises grow sick unto death. The angel of mercy, listening at their door, has heard no canticle of love, no song of thankfulness.
^ It is well to notice that when we draw the closest to God it is not in the exercise of prayer we do so. We draw nearer still in praise, for praise is the eternal and supreme employment of the perfected in heaven. In praise we come to the very foundation of all truth — to that which is deepest in our nature — reverence, love, trust, the overflowing outcome of our whole hearts in