Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; The first thanks of a redeemed creature will always be for Christ. But Christian thankfulness shows itself in joyous acknowledgment of all gifts, great and small. And it finds a new call to its exercise in the fact, that the lesser gifts have their origin in the love which gave us the greatest, and came to us through that greatest Himself. The range of Christian thankfulness becomes, in this way, very wide. "For all things" — for little mercies as well as great mercies — for the gospel first, but also for the humblest truth which enlarges the mind; for things in heaven and things on earth; for whatever is related to our growth and well-being; for the air we breathe, the water we drink, the fire which warms us, and the earth which is the bountiful food grower for us all. "All things." Showers and streams, flowers and trees, bird and beast and creeping things, the wide sea and the lofty hills, sunshine and starlight, light and darkness, clouds and rainbows, waxing and waning moons, seasons and days. "For all things." For things of discipline as well as things of nutriment, for toil and the hardness which toil works, for hunger and cold, for sickness and sorrow, for death itself, for mercy and also for judgment, for riches and also for poverty, for peaceful calm and also for purifying storm. "For all things." For friends and privileges and just laws and liberties; for our native land and our memories of heroic ancestors; for Christian principle and the Christian Church; for life and strength and reason; for our bodies fearfully and wonderfully made; for our place in society, our opportunities for good, our means of usefulness, our knowledge, insight, and growth; and for faith, hope, and charity in ourselves and others. I. In a country like ours, we could make no selection of common mercies in which THE BLESSINGS OF EMPLOYMENT were left out. We are a nation of workers. In our offices, workshops, and studies; at our crafts, domestic duties, and professional tasks, we are all supposed to have some employment. Labour itself is a blessing. It is employment. And anyone who knows the misery of the state indicated by the words "out of employment," also knows the greatness of the blessing. In its results it is worse than bodily disease. It is the sure destruction of self-respect and courage. The joy of life perishes at the roots, and despair commences its evil reign. One of the directest blessings of labour is its healthiness. Other things being equal, it is the busy who are healthy. Idleness enfeebles both mind and body. Movement, activity, fulfilment of tasks — this is the law for every creature made by God. Neglect of this law is death. Another element in this blessing of work is its honourableness. Since work implies service, it is a beneficent endowment that it is honourable. And this is an attribute in all work, in work of the hand as well as work of the mind. When our Maker appointed us to labour, He made labour one of the dignities in His kingdom. A working man is one of God's noblemen. His queens are working women. II. The last of the mercies I undertook to set before you is HOME. And I will begin by naming the homeliness of home. In my home I am at ease, and free to be myself. I am neither merchant, nor student, nor craftsman, nor politician. I am simply a member of the home circle, a citizen of "that country which every man loves." It is a world whose courtesies are those of love. It exacts no etiquette except that which expresses the heart. How entirely it surrounds us. We are born into it, we die in it. We frequent it day and night; we are in it from infancy to old age. We rise in the morning, and find it filled with friendly faces; we retire for the night from amidst a group of the dearest we have. Every way it is a comfort to us. It is our shelter from the weather, our banqueting house, our hospital and place of rest. Next to its homeliness, in matter for thankfulness, is the seclusion of home. Above my summer hut one year was a mountain stream, which I often visited. Rising far up in the marshy hollows of the mountains, it made its way by steep and frequent plunges to the sea. Sometimes it leapt from crag to crag, brawling in a confused way over the sudden breaks of rock in its march. Sometimes it flung its waters in a mass on a lower shelf with an angry clash. At one point it came trailing down the face of the glistening rock behind; at another it tumbled and splashed in fantastic pools within its bed. But here and there, in its descent, it came to solitary spots, quiet basins of stone, where all the hasting and furious turbulence was at an end. And the stream that leapt and churned higher up, lay still as a sleeping child. What those quiet pools were to the life of that mountain stream, home is to the ordinary life we lead. The one life wrestles and leaps onward in endless unrest, the other dwells in calmness and peace. Home is a blessing so common, and we have been all our days so familiar with it, that few realize the full riches of blessing which it is in our life. But there is a blessing in our homes greater than either its seclusion, or comfort. Some of the best discipline of life is there. Home has functions which point to eternity. It is a school to instruct us in the knowledge of God. A revelation of God older than the Bible shines in the home. The parables of the fireside are as Divine as those of Christ. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." As we learn the secrets of that pity in the heart of our earthly father we become acquainted with God. A mother's love is a Jacob's ladder by which we ascend to the love of God. "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." What surrounds us from our infancy is a vision and prophecy of God. (N. Macleod, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; |
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