The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 318

was t11ken, 11nd from that day to this the festival has been an annual one." Ah! would that we had men of this spirit, end would make the best, not the worst, of our misfortunes 1 "The bee when in a flower from which it cannot get nectar, gets the golden farina, out of which it builds its cells, and so it rolls up its little legs against the stamens, till they look large and loaded as golden store, and, thanking the flower as sweetly as if it had been full of honey, glarlly humming, it flies home with its wax. Yes, and herein lies God's moral. lf our flowers have no honey, let us be glad of the wax." The same writer who gives the above illustrations tells how the good, thouah self-willed, George III., when he had lost all our American colonies, and thousands°of our troops' had been slain, and millions upon millions of debt incurred, nevertheless, not to be outdone in piety by the Americans, ordered a day of thanksgiving. He was asked by a pious clergyman what the thanksgiving was to be for-was it to be for any of the above-named facts? He pressed the king for an answer, who replied energetically, "Thank God it is not any worse." Yes; there is something to be thankful for in all circum~tances, if we will only be open-eyed to note it, Remember, too, that our evils are but blessings in disguise. "Light afflictions "-so St. Paul called them-" which are but for a moment, and which work for us," etc. Above all, let us give our hearts to Christ. Yield them to him, as he bids us do; and as he will by his blessed Spirit fill them with all other good things, so he will shed abroad in them this grace also, the spirit of thankfulness. IV. REASONS FOR SUCH CULTIVATION. 1. Owr circumstances demand it: we have cause for thankfulness. 2. It will greatly bless others. For a glad, thankful spirit is winsome and attractive Christwards, whilst the opposite spirit cannot but repel. 3. For our own salce. It will brighten all our life, whilst if, owl-like, we dwell in darkness, we shall come to love it, and be as dim-sighted and night-haunting as they. 4. ..dnd does not the Lord our God and Saviour deserve all our praise 1 Therefore, jubilate.-S. C. Ver. 2.-Glad service. "Serve the Lord with gladness." So sings the psalmist, and his teaching has been echoed by the wisest of human teachers. " Give me the man. who sings at his work;" so writes Carlyle. "A merry heart goes all the day, Yonr sad tires in a mile-a." So teaches Shakespeare. Now glad service is what God asks for here. But- I. IT IB ALL TOO BARE. That it is so is evident; for: 1. Look at the countenances of those who profess to serve God. How grave, gloomy, austere, they seem I how seldom they ripple out into sunny smiles! This characteristic of the Puritans has had not a little to do with the disfavour in which they have long been and are stiU held by our countrymen generally. A common epithet for earnestly religious persons was that they were "serious people." Certainly they were not thought to "serve the Lord with gladness." 2. Read their writings. Their hymns, oven, are either sad or stern, and as to their books and sermons, they are fnll of grave, earnest, and often terrible teaching; but "gladness" is conspicuous chiefly by its absence. And their prayers are the same. As if God were a tyrannical Taskmaster, and not our loving Father. 3. Listen to their teachings. How much too dull and sombre these are 1 4. Observe their worship. How bare and uninspiring I how destitute of beauty and brightness! how much too often it depresses rather than uplifts I 5. ..dsk our own conscience:i. Must they not own the general absence of gladness in our service of the Lord? 6. lf it be asked- Why is this gladnebs so rare 1 the answer is that with some the sense of sin, the remembrance of their much transgression, is ever before them; with others, the mystery of life, the presence of earthly sorrow; with others, the tyranny of inward sin; with others, misunderstancling and misreading of the Gospel; and with yet others, aud most, the want of real trust in God. We are so slow to take God at his word, and when he says he has forgiven us, to believe that he has really done so. II. BUT GLADNESS IN THE LORD, THOUGH BO RARE, JS YET MOST REASONABLE, Whether we think : 1. Of the l.ord whom we serve. How good aud gracious he is I 2. Or of the service itself. How healthful, right, blessed both for ourselves and for others I 3. Or of the wages. "The recompense of the reward." We are all little better than eleveuth-hour workers, and yet for us there is the whole day's wage,  THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PB, 0, 1-5.