Verse 18
Praise is loftier than prayer. In prayer, I bow in my own family; in praise, I join the general assembly and Church of the firstborn written in heaven. Prayer isolates me; by my wants and misery it sets me apart. Praise unites me; by my glory and my gratitude it makes me one with the universe of adoring creatures. Prayer is the wail of an imprisoned spirit; praise is the song of the emancipated spirit floating over and through and out of time and space. Prayer speaks of its want; praise, of God's fulness. Prayer centres in self; praise anchors on God. "Thou shalt call her gates Praise;" these gates revolve on four hinges, or rather, to drop the mere allegory, praise is composed of four emotions. These are adoration, humility, affection, and gratitude, all praise strikes these four notes, and includes these as its spiritual elements.
I. Praise is the gate by which we pass out of ourselves. What is religion without thankfulness? There are some persons to whom it seems impossible to take the wings of the morning; their religion seems at best to be a divine kind of grumbling, which would not be if they could but pass through the gates of praise.
II. It is by this path that the believer passes from his old state; it is through these gates that he passes under and into new relations. He enters the Church through the gates of praise. Gratitude is the very bond of our fellowship and union; it is when we speak of our gratitude that we know each other. The Church is a city built of hymns and hallelujahs; its walks are salvation.
III. The gateway by which we pass to higher knowledge and to higher life is praise. A grateful heart is a learned heart, and it is the companion of a thankful mind. The whole universe is a cathedral of praise; its gates revolve on their hinges of melody; they heave and lift themselves with Æolian airs. This idea filled the mind of the Psalmist when he said, "All Thy works praise Thee." In all the wonderful adaptations of the mind to things, and things to the mind, God is praised.
E. Paxton Hood, Sermons, p. 153.
References: Isaiah 60:18 . S. Cox, Expositions, 1st series, p. 79; Bishop M. Simpson, Sermons, p. 279.
Be the first to react on this!
