The place of thanksgiving in the religious life.
It is generally agreed by Christians that the religious life embraces a considerable number of separate duties of a strictly religious character. Among these the first place is ordinarily assigned to prayer; the second to reading of the Scriptures; the third, perhaps, to meditation; and so forth. But it is not always, or indeed very often, that a distinct position, or a very prominent position, is assigned to praise and thanksgiving. Prayer is apt to be made the staple of our religious exercises, thanksgiving to be huddled off into a comer. Yet, if we will consider the matter, we shall find that, on all grounds, thanksgiving is entitled to at least an equal place in our regards with prayer.
I. THANKSGIVING IS POINTED OUT BY NATURE AS A DUTY NO LESS THAN PRAYER. It is as the Giver of benefits that man seems first to have recognized God. Worship began with altars and sacrifices (Genesis 4:3-5), which were primarily thank offerings. One of the earliest forms of religion was sun-worship, and the reason for selecting the sun as the object of religious regard was the manifest fact that from the sun man derives so many and such great blessings. Geolatry was another very early form of worship, and took its rise from the feeling that the earth was a nursing mother, comprehending in herself a manifold variety of beneficent influences. The very name "God" is probably a modification of the root gut, or "good," and was given to the Supreme Being by our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, in recognition of his goodness in bestowing upon us so many benefits. The first religious utterances seem to have taken the shape of hymns rather than prayers (Genesis 14:19, Genesis 14:20; Exodus 15:1-18); and hymns or psalms form the most antique portions of all rituals.
II. THANKSGIVING IS, EQUALLY WITH PRAYER, ENJOINED ON MEN AS A DUTY IN SCRIPTURE. If prayer is required in such phrases as, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17); "I will that all men pray everywhere" (1 Timothy 2:8); "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1); "Pray one for another" (James 5:16); thanksgiving is as frequently and as positively enjoined in passages like the following: "Give thanks always for all things" (Ephesians 5:20); "I exhort that … giving of thanks be made for all men" (1 Timothy 2:1); "Offer sacrifices of praises, giving thanks' (Hebrews 13:15); "With thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).
III. THANKSGIVING IS, EQUALLY WITH PRAYER, SET BEFORE US BY THE CHURCH AS A DUTY. The ritual of the Jewish Church was almost entirely one of praise. The Book of Psalms is the Israelite's 'Manual of Devotion.' Our own Church declares the objects for which we assemble in public worship to be
IV. PRAISE IS, IN ITS NATURE, A HIGHER RELIGIOUS EXERCISE THAN PRAYER. In prayer we approach God for our own sakes, desiring something of him. In praise we have no selfish object, but desire simply to honor God by setting forth his admirable qualities and declaring the reasons that we have for loving and adoring him. Praise is the enduring attitude of angels, who have (comparatively speaking) no occasion for prayer. Prayer implies imperfection, want, need, defect of nature. Praise is appropriate when all wants are satisfied, when the nature is no longer defective, when no need is felt. Thus prayer belongs to the probation period of man's existence; but praise will ring on through the vaults of heaven for all eternity. The cry in the heavenly Jerusalem will ever be, "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy Name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest" (Revelation 15:3, Revelation 15:4).
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON