p. 9 | Thanks Due to God by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 25, 1912

Thanks Due to God

By C. M. S.

WHEN the work of God is finished in the earth; when the long story of oppression and misery and sorrow is done, and the saints of God are sealed to eternal life—then the angels of God unite in a grand chorus of rejoicing over the completed work, ascribing “blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, . . . unto our God forever and ever.”

Having witnessed through thousands of years the struggle between right and wrong, liberty and oppression, loyalty and disobedience, it could not be otherwise than that thanksgiving should form a part of that mighty symphony of praise over the complete triumph of righteousness.

Anticipating that glorious consummation, it is the Christian’s privilege now to render unstinted thanksgiving to the One who is now accomplishing for him that wonderful work. It is now going forward. God is in Christ “reconciling the world unto himself.” For that we should render him thanks, honor, and praise. We can do that for the accomplishment of that work for the whole race, for the whole realm.

But included in that glorious work is the triumph of the individual, and that from day to day, and then the reward of the individual in the consummated work. That work is not completed without the triumph of the individual man, through Christ. That great reward is to be distributed in severalty to individual men and women. “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Those who take part in that song of thanksgiving over the accomplished work will take part here in the work which makes possible the singing of that song. God’s work will triumph in men; for in men the great transgression came that made redemption’s work necessary. Then in place of disobedience will be loyalty; in place of hatred, love; in place of variance, brotherly kindness; in place of strife, peace; in place of sorrow, joy; in place of discord, harmony; in place of discontent, contentment and fulness of satisfaction forever.

Eternal years will not be long enough to empty the heart of redeemed man of all its thanksgiving to God, or to enable man to tell the wondrous depths of God’s love in the sacrifice he made and the work he wrought.

If we expect to take part in the ascription of praise and thanksgiving to him there, we will not withhold praise and thanksgiving from him here and now for what he is to us, as well as for what he is to be to us. We can thank him that he emptied heaven of its richest Gift to make us happy subjects of his realm; that he dwelt in temptable flesh so he might the more keenly sympathize with us in our temptations. He endured the pangs of hunger, that he might sympathize with the hungry, as well as to conquer where man fell. He suffered poverty, to sympathize with the poor. He became poor voluntarily that we might share in the riches of heaven and the earth made new. Should it not cause praise and thanksgiving to well up in our souls when we realize that he has promised to take us into this wonderful and everlasting partnership? He has done his part to bring it about. Let us thank him that he has, and then go and do ours.

But what of the temporal things? He has promised seed-time and harvest, and they have never failed. Year by year we have planted seed, and he has given rain and sunshine to bring it to the harvest. We sowed one, and God made it thirty; we planted one, and God made it fifty. We labored in sun and rain and cold to provide food for the household; but God alone could make any good come out of all that we did. He crowned our efforts with success, filled our plowed land with waving grain, and our fruit-trees with their bounty. Is there nothing in all this to cause us to render praise and honor and thanksgiving to God?

Thank God that he has set before us the hope of an eternal inheritance in an everlasting kingdom. We were full of the deadly virus of sin; he has promised to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. We have thrown ourselves open to the surest weapons of the enemy; he has promised to take us under the wings of his protection, and to shield us from everything that could do us harm. And when we have truly thanked him for all his precious gifts, we will then only have begun to realize how much there is to thank him for—how more than worthy he is of all the thanksgiving and honor it is in our power to give. In the midst of this world’s alarms, he is our safety. While terror and dread are spreading over the world, we can see the entrance to the harbor of perpetual peace and safety and consolation. While doubt and dismay are met with on every hand, we have a certainty and an assurance as firm as the everlasting hills, a trust that can not be shaken, a hope sure and steadfast. We know whom we have believed and are persuaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed unto him against that day. Let us thank God and take courage.

C. M. S.