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"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer !"

CHAPTER XX.

ON SINGING PRAISES TO GOD.

THE first of all earthly singers gave this as an inspired rule: "Sing ye praises with understanding." Without spiritual understanding, we can only make a noise. Unless we know how deeply we are indebted to God, and have the sweet sense of his goodness in our souls; we may please ourselves with a tune, but we yield no music to him. Some of old chanted to the sound of the viol, and invented to themselves instruments of music; but, at the same time, they were among those, who were at ease in Zion, and who put far away the evil day, to whom wo was denounced. God never instituted music in his service, however, like other carnal ordinances, he might bear with it under the Jewish economy; but only trumpets and rams' horns, to usher in the seasons and solemnities. It is spiritual harmony which is the delight of heaven, and not outward jingle and sound; and therefore if we are not spiritual, we can have no true notion of this delight, nor make melody in our hearts to the Lord. The thrills of music, and the divine joys of the soul, are very different things. Worldly men have had the first, and thought them from heaven; but they continued no longer than the sound: while the peace of gracious praise, is full, sublime, and abiding. We must indeed be real christians before any of us can say with the apostle, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray

with the understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also."

I cannot but shake my head, when I hear an officer of the church calling upon the people, "to sing to the praise and glory of God;" and immediately half a dozen merry men, in a high place shall take up the matter, and most loudly chant it away to the praise and glory of themselves. The tune perhaps shall be too difficult for the most part of the congregation, who have no leasure to study crotchets and quavers; and so the most delightful of all public worship shall be wrested from them, and the praises of God taken out of their mouths. It is no matter whence this custom arose : In itself it is neither holy, decent, nor useful, and therefore ought to be banished entirely from the churches of God.

When Christians sing altogether in some easy tune, accommodated to the words of their praise, and not likely to take off their attention from sense to sound; then, experience shows, they sing most lustily (as the Psalmist expresses it) and with the best good courage. The symphony of voice and the sympathy of heart may flow through the whole congregation, which is the finest music to truly serious persons, and the most acceptable to God, of any in the world. To "sing with grace in their hearts to the Lord," is the melody of heaven itself; and often brings a foretaste of heaven to the redeemed even here. But jingle, piping, sound and singing, without this divine accompaniment, are grating discordant harshness with God, and vapid wretched insipidity to the souls of his people.

I am no enemy to music as an human art; but let all things be in their place. The pleasures of the ear are not the gracious acts of God's Spirit in the soul; but the effect of vibrated matter upon an outward sense. This may be indulged as an innocent and ingenious amusement; but what have our amusements

to do with solemn and sacred adorations of God? Would not this be carnal, and after the modes of the world, and not after Christ? Surely, no believer will venture to call any thing spiritual, which doth not proceed from the Spirit of life, or tend to mortify the old man, with his affections and lusts.

Neither sounds of air, nor words of sense, alone, however excellent, can please God. "He is a Spirit; and they, who worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth;" for such he seeketh.

Lord, help me, I beseech thee, thus to laud and adore thee! Give me a lively sense of thy mercy to my soul; and then my soul shall offer up her gracious returns of lively praise. Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou requirest not, for no outward thing, even of thine own appointment, when not inwardly understood, can please thee; the music of my voice, without the incense or breathings of my soul, thou wilt not accept: O assist me, then, to praise thee aright; for, without thee, I can do nothing. Thou alone givest occasion to praise; and thou also givest the Spirit of praise to use the occasion. Vouchsafe both unto me. Then shall I one day join the great assembly of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, and sing, with joy unspeakable and full of glory, that ever new song, "Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb! Amen. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God, for ever and ever. Amen!"

CHAPTER XXI.

A CHRISTIAN, IN LOSING HIS LIFE, SAVES IT.

CHRIST hath said, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it."

In doing this, the christian must die daily. He is crucified with Christ in the flesh, that he may live with Christ in the spirit. His mortal body is brought into subjection to the rule of grace; and grace mortifies that body, by crucifying its affections and lusts.

These words are easy and plain; but alas! how few do know them! To die to self is the most painful thing to flesh and blood, that can be. To be stripped of all pretended worth, to renounce a man's own righteousness as well as his sins, to give up in earnest his own will and way, to live in an empty frame of mind, simply upon Christ for strength, wisdom, grace, and salvation, to desire nothing but what may please him, to be contented with the trials he sends, because they are his, to have a heart carried above the world, not to fear man against God, to bear, to believe, to hope, to endure all things as the best, and to maintain a firm view of eternal glory; all this is losing a man's own carnal life, and saving the life of his soul in Jesus Christ. The christian, who hath this in him, may say with the apostle: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life, which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

At first sight, this kind of life appears gloomy and dreadful; but, when once truly tasted, it is sweet and

pleasant to the soul. It grows less difficult and painful, as the carnal life is more and more subdued The life of the flesh can only indulge some poor, base, and vexatious gratifications in earthly and perishing things; but the renewed life of the spirit consists in righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost, which cannot be lost, and which never can cloy. The enjoyment of this renders the christian, in proportion to his enjoyment, a steady man, unshaken or unsubdued by the disorders and distresses of the world, and cleaving the faster to God when they come. A worldly man is often terrified to his wit's end, or to death, where a real christian can be calm and resigned. He hath learned the worth of all life in Christ; and he knows, that what is really worth his anxiety, can never be lost. In throwing all upon God, he loses the fears and terrors of his weak and corrupt flesh, and gains strength and liveliness in his soul. God gives him a tranquility of courage, which the bravest human heart cannot put on. Women of delicate tenderness, by this gracious gift, have met the very king of terrors, with a soberness of triumph unknown to mortal heroes.

These mortal heroes, indeed, may have ventured upon death, despising life and all its enjoyments; but were evidently concerned for their vain glory, and the useless perpetuity of a name. The peculiar distinction of the christian hero is, that he not only can meet death as a vanquished foe, but also can look down upon the infamy of the world with a noble scorn, valuing it and all reputation among worms, as trifling pageantry or idle pride. He can live and die in secret, which none of these ostentatious mortals can either endure or dare to do.

No man can live truly by his own power, but only by power from on high. The christian, therefore, is daily looking up to Jesus, his head of life, for the

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