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Do not throw yourselves back in your seats, and say, "This will be a sermon for saints, and therefore we need not attend." For the first clause of our text gives you a fair word and a kindly hint. "All Thy works shall praise Thee, O Lord;" for if you are not Jehovah's saints you yet are His "works." Every created thing appears to praise God by its very existence. "The heavens declare the glory of God," etc. Arouse thee, then. Thou art a creature, if not a new creature, in Christ Jesus. Adore thy Benefactor. Yet the text is mainly for a special people; "Thy saints shall bless Thee." All throughout the Word of God there is kept up a very clear and sharp distinction between those that fear God and those that fear Him not. So note —

I. GOD HAS A PEOPLE WHOM HE CALLS HIS SAINTS. Who are they? Are they all dead? It is supposed so, for it is the usage of the Popery around us to call men saints who have been long in their graves. Somebody wrote me the other day about his "sainted mother." What did he mean? Had the Pope canonized her? Or did she become a saint by dying? When Paul wrote to the Churches he called the members of them saints. They were living men and women of whom he thus spake. They were like ourselves, and often inferior to ourselves. I believe that the Church of God to-day, as a whole, is better than the Church of Corinth. What is it to be a saint? Some people do not want to "know, for with them it is a term of contempt. They say, "Oh, he is one of your saints!" They lay emphasis on the word "saints"; as if it were something disgraceful or at least hypocritical. Whenever I have that said to me (and it has happened more than once), I take my hat off out of respect for the title. I had rather be a saint than a Knight of the Garter. I have sometimes heard of the "latter day saints." I do not know much about them, but I greatly prefer the "every day saints." Holiness must be a part of ourselves; it must be our nature to be saintly. Saints are not perfect people. Some will say of themselves that they are free from sin. But I have never met with such. A certain great painter had been accustomed to perform great feats with his brush; but one day, having finished a picture, he laid down his palette, and said to his wife, "My power to paint is gone! Oh," said she, "how is that? Well," he answered, "up to this day I have always been dissatisfied with my productions; but the last picture I have painted perfectly satisfied me, and therefore I am certain I shall never be able to paint anything worth looking at again." To be dissatisfied with oneself is to be capable of higher things, but to be satisfied is to have lost the very faculty of progress. We cannot, therefore, be satisfied with ourselves; still we know, also, that sin has not dominion over us, and in this we do and will rejoice. But saints are —

1. Those whom God hath set apart for Himself.

2. Called effectually by His grace. And they are to be known —

1. By their holy life. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." A man is described in Scripture, not by his infirmities, but by the general run and current of his life. We say of a river that it runs to the south, although there may be eddies along the banks which run in an opposite direction. Still, these are an inconsiderable matter. The main stream of the Thames, wind as it may, runs ever towards the sea. And the main stream and current of the saint's life is Godward. "But," says one, "holiness is imputed." It cannot be imputed. The righteousness of Christ is, but holiness is quite another term, and God's Word never speaks of the imputation of holiness. Where shall we find these saints? "Nowhere," says slander, but that is not true; there are many. of them, the ornaments of our households, the pillars of our Churches, the delights of our communion and the glory of Christ. And they are God's saints; "Thy salts shall," etc. The devil has his saints, and Rome hers, and self-righteousness and ceremonialism theirs; but God has His own.

II. THEY ARE PLACED IN THE FIRST RANK. All God's works shall praise Him, but His saints shall bless Him, because they are in a peculiar manner God's works. He has twice created them: they stand in a covenant relation with Him. None but Christ's own people can be said to be interested in the covenant of grace. "I pray for them," said our Lord; "I pray not for the world." God's tenderest consideration is given to them. He cares for all His works, but His children, what care He gives to them. No farmer has as much care for his barn-door chickens as he has for his own little chicks indoors. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so," etc. How God has loved us, and does so, even when we have forgotten Him. One said to me the other day, "What will become of Gordon?" I answered, "He is safe enough, I believe; for he has given himself into the band of God, and He will take care of him." To this the questioner replied, somewhat flippantly, "It may be so; but, you see, he is so dashing that he gives God a great deal to think of and to do." I did not like the expression, but still it is true of us all. The office of "Preserver of men" is no sinecure in the hands of God. And how God visits us. He visits the earth and waters it, but how He comes to His people. And at the end they shall be crowned with glory and honour.

III. THEY RENDER A SPECIAL HOMAGE. God's works "praise," but His saints "bless" Him. Praise has not in it those elements of warmth which belong to blessing God. You can praise a man and yet have no kind regard for him. No doubt after Waterloo the French soldiers praised Wellington, but none of them blessed him. They would say, "He must be a marvellous warrior to have overcome Napoleon," but they could have no love for him. Praising God is good, but blessing him is better. The lily lifts itself upon its slender stem and displays its golden petals and its glittering ivory leaves; and so it praises God. And the sea, and the birds. But they cannot bless Him. Only His saints do that. Let us do so more and more.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.

WEB: All your works will give thanks to you, Yahweh. Your saints will extol you.