I Must Praise More

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 3, 1865

I Must Praise More.

Dr. Nevins, of Baltimore, once wrote an article with this heading, which had a wide circulation, and stirred many Christian hearts to praise. Some parts of it are well worth republishing, as setting forth a Christian duty too often neglected. He says:

It strikes me that we ought to praise more as well as pray more. I do not know how it is with others, but I know that I have a great deal for which to be thankful and to praise God. I feel that it will not do for me to spend all my breath in praying. I should thus, it is true, acknowledge my dependence on God; but where would be the acknowledgement of his benefits conferred on me? I must spend a part of my breath in praise. God has been very good to me. Yes, he has exercised goodness toward me in all of its various forms of pity, forbearance, care, bounty, grace, and mercy; or, to express all in one word, ‘God is love,’ and he has been love to me.

I do not know why he should have treated me so kindly. I have sought, but can find no reason out of himself. I conclude it is because He ‘delighteth in mercy.’ I think I shall be able, without weariness, to spend eternity on the topic of Divine love and goodness.

Shall we not praise God? Shall all our devotion consist in prayer? Shall we be always thinking of our wants and never of his benefits—always dwelling on what remains to be done and never thinking of what has already been done for us—always uttering desire, and never expressing gratitude—expending all our voice in supplication, and none of it in song. Is this the way to treat a benefactor? No! it is not just so to treat Him; neither is it wise. It is very bad policy to praise no more than Christians in general do. They would have more success in prayer if one half the time they now spend in it were spent in praise. I do not mean that they pray too much, but that they praise too little. I suspect that the reason why the Lord did such great things for the Psalmist was, that while he was not by any means deficient in prayer, he abounded in praise. The Lord heard his psalms, and while he sung of mercy, showed him more. And it would be just so with us, if we abounded more in praise and thanksgiving. It displeases God that we should be always dwelling on our wants, as if he had never supplied one of them.

How do we know that God is not waiting for us to praise Him for a benefit he has already conferred, before He will confer on us that other which we may now be so earnestly desiring of Him? For one who offers genuine praise there may be found ten who pray. Ten lepers lifted up their voices together in the prayer, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us,’ but only one of the ten returned to give glory to God. The rest were satisfied with the benefit—this one only thought gratefully of the benefactor.

Praise is altogether the superior exercise of the two. Prayer may be altogether selfish in its origin, but praise is ingenuous. Praise is the employment of Heaven. Angels praise. The spirits of the just will make perfect praise. We shall not always pray, but we shall ever praise. I charge thee, my soul, to praise Him, and He will never let thee want matter for praise. ‘While I live will I praise the Lord; I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.’