"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
"I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth."—Matt.
11:25.
A thankful spirit pervaded the entire life of Jesus, and
surrounded with a heavenly halo His otherwise darkened path. In moments we
least expect to find it, this beauteous ray breaks through the gloom. In
instituting the memorial of His death, He "gave thanks!" Even in
crossing the Kedron to Gethsemane, "He sang a hymn!"
We know in seasons of deep sorrow and trial, that
everything wears a gloomy aspect. Speechless nature herself to the burdened
spirit seems as if she partook in the hues of sadness. The life of Jesus was
one continuous experience of privation and woe—a "Valley of Baca," from first
to last; yet, amid accents of plaintive sorrow, there are ever heard subdued
undertones of thankfulness and joy!
Ah, if He, the suffering "Man of Sorrows," could, during a
life of unparalleled woe, lift up His heart in grateful acknowledgment to His
Father in heaven, how ought the lives of those to be one perpetual "hymn of
thankfulness," who are from day to day and hour to hour (for all they have,
both temporally and spiritually) pensioners on God's bounty and love!
Reader! cultivate this thankful spirit, it will be to you a
perpetual feast. There is, or ought to be, with us no such thing as small
mercies; all are great, because the least are undeserved. Indeed, a
really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from everything,
making the most even of scanty blessings. Paul, when in his dungeon at Rome, a
prisoner in chains is heard to say, "I have all and abound!"
Guard, on the other hand, against that spirit of continual
fretting and moping over imagined ills; that temptation to exaggerate the real
or supposed disadvantages of our condition, magnifying the trifling
inconveniences of every-day life into enormous evils. Think rather how much we
have to be thankful for. The world in which we live, in spite of all the scars
of sin and suffering upon it, is a happy world. It is not, as many would
morbidly paint it, flooded with tears and strewn with wrecks, plaintive with a
perpetual dirge of sorrow. True, the "Everlasting Hills" are in glory, but
there are numberless eminences of grace, and love, and mercy below; many green
spots in the lower valley, many more than we deserve!
God will reward a thankful spirit. Just as on earth, when a
man receives with gratitude what is given we are more disposed to give again,
so also, "the Lord loves" a cheerful "receiver," as well as a cheerful
"giver."
Let ours, moreover, be a Gospel thankfulness. Let the
incense of a grateful spirit rise not only to the Great Giver of all good, but
to our Covenant God in Christ. Let it be the spirit of the child exulting in
the bounty and beneficence of his Father's house and home! "Giving
thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ!"
While the sweet melody of gratitude vibrates through every
successive moment of our daily being, let love to our adorable Redeemer show
for whom and for what it is we reserve our notes of loftiest and
most fervent praise. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift!