p. 2 | HOW TO TAKE BLESSINGS by James Baldwin Brown

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 29, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 39.

HOW TO TAKE BLESSINGS.

By James Baldwin Brown

To take blessings open-handed, with glad and thankful heart, and to get from them all the joy with which God has charged them, is the beginning of praise. God would have you remember, in bidding you praise, that that which you enjoy, that which exhilarates you, is His good gift to you. God puts into it that element which makes it a blessing,—God’s own hand presents the cup to your lips. Praising, you realize this, and confess it. . . . He who can praise makes his joy perennial. The particular pleasure passes, but the fountain endures, and will pour forth fresh and sparkling streams through eternity. He who mingles praises with a glad to-day makes a glad to-morrow. And so all life by praise becomes a sacrament of joy. There are no breaks or pauses in the flow of blessings to those who joy in God.—James Baldwin Brown.