“In Everything Give Thanks”
To give thanks to God is a duty. When we remember the multitude of his mercies, our hearts should overflow with gratitude. If our hearts are right, it will be so. Ingratitude is one of the basest conditions of mind. When one who has received many favors from a friend turns selfishly away, and forgets the interests of that friend, he is incapable of true friendship, and is lost to all noble principles. Every good gift is from God. To forget him while enjoying his benefits is a great sin. In the morning when we wake, the first thought should be a thought of the mercy which has kept us through the night. At night before we close our eyes to sleep, we should give thanks to him for the mercies of the day. At the beginning of the year we should thank God for the opportunities which lie before us. At the close of the year we should recount the mercies of the past, and sing praises to our Heavenly Father, who has lengthened out our days and supplied all our need. The Christian has special reasons for thanksgiving. He has more than the ordinary mercies of life. He has that without which life is vain. He has the Christian religion. When the apostle wrote, “In everything give thanks,” he wrote to those who had been converted, for the most part, from heathenism. They had experienced a wonderful change. They had, indeed, been brought from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the living God. But we were never in darkness as they were. We were born in the light. We opened our eyes in a land where Christian truth reigns. From the first we have known much about God and Christ and the gospel of salvation from sin. The Christian walks in the light, and rejoices in hope of the glory of God. How can a Christian be ungrateful? But we are commanded to give thanks in everything. It is easy enough to give thanks when everything goes well. But when afflictions come upon us, are we thankful? Can we give thanks in the fires? This is a test of our faith. In nothing, perhaps, does the difference between a Christian and others appear so clearly as in his behavior in affliction. No philosophy ever taught men to rejoice and be thankful in the fires, and no man by nature ever rose to this exalted experience. But a Christian does not look on affliction as others do. He sees in it a blessing. “Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope.” “All things work together10for good to them that love God.” Therefore we glory in tribulation also. We do not have to wait until the day of eternity dawns to discover that tribulation is a blessing when sanctified by prayer and the Holy Spirit. We have the experience here and now. Some of the richest fruits of life have ripened on these branches. Some of the noblest traits of manhood have been developed in the fires. Men and women who have passed through sore afflictions have become more tender-hearted, more considerate of others, more charitable, more unselfish, more sympathetic, more humble, and more heavenly minded. By the grace of God they have learned lessons, won victories, and acquired dispositions in their trials which they never knew before. Good men would not exchange the good which they have gained through trial for great riches. Their losses have proved to be their greatest gains. What they feared most has become their strongest ally. A hymn from the Scottish Free Church Hymn Book expresses this thought with rare beauty:— “My God, I thank thee, who hast made
The earth so bright,
So full of splendor and of joy,
Beauty and light;
So many glorious things are here,
Noble and right. “I thank thee, too, that thou hast made
Joy to abound.
So many gentle thoughts and deeds
Circling us round,
That in the darkest spot of earth
Some love is found. “I thank thee more that all our joy
Is touched with pain;
That shadows fall on brightest hours,
That thorns remain,
So that earth’s bliss may be our guide,
And not our chain. “For thou who knowest, Lord, how soon
Our weak heart clings,
Hast given joys, tender and true,
Yet all with wings,
So that we see gleaming on high
Diviner things. “I thank thee, Lord, that thou hast kept
The best in store.
We have enough, but not too much
To wish for more;
A yearning for a deeper peace
Not known before. “I thank thee, Lord, that here our souls,
Though amply blest,
Can never find, although they seek,
A perfect rest;
Nor ever shall until they lean
On Jesus’ breast.” — The Christian Advocate.