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What Shall I Render?

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 15, 1870

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 35, No. 13.

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What Shall I Render?

By Sarah E. L. Pierce

“WHAT shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?” Ps. 116:12. Thus questions the grateful psalmist after recounting some of the mercies of the Lord. What more appropriate question could he ask? And as I meditate upon the goodness of God to me and mine, I feel from the depths of my heart to make the same inquiry. “He hath heard my voice and my supplications.” “Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.”
Who of us, dear brethren and sisters, cannot unite in the same strain? It is good to give thanks unto the Lord. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth him. “Praise is comely,” etc. But with the “sacrifice of thanksgiving” shall we pay our vows unto the Lord? In times of affliction or distress we have sought unto him with importunity and found him precious to our souls. We have felt to praise him that “his hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear.” We have tried to bow in humble submission to his will, saying like one of old, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”
“Thy way, not mine, O Lord, However dark it be.”
But did we not feel that if the Lord in his mercy should grant unto us the desire of our heart, surely we would live to his glory? We would be more faithful. We would ever keep in mind so great a blessing, and love and serve him in return.
Perchance it was that life and health might be spared unto us, or the life and health of some dear one. Or, perhaps, that God would so overrule as to save us from some threatening difficulty.
Time passes on, and perhaps we are spared the sorrow that we feared.
The Lord has granted unto us even more than we dared to ask. What shall we render? What wilt thou render, O my soul? Shall it be forgetfulness of God, his love and mercy, and his requirements? Shall it be a life devoted to self, the world and worldly pursuits? My God, forbid. Let me not be guilty of such base ingratitude; rather let me glorify him in my body and spirit which are his.
But how great the danger that the enemy will take the advantage of my deceitful heart, and cause me to neglect duty, and so stray away from the Lord instead of following him more closely. It is only by constant watchfulness and prayer that I may hope to be an overcomer. I desire to render willing obedience to all his requirements, overcome all my sins, that I may be permitted to join with the redeemed in their final song of victory, upon Mount Zion.
Your sister in hope, SARAH E. L. PIERCE, New Haven, Oswego Co., N. Y.