T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; * * * that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.” I am con vinced that the reason our hearts are not oftener filled with the “glory of the Lord,” is, because we do not often enough made our voices to be “heard in praising and thanking the Lord.” Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.—Ps. 100:4, 5. We can enter into the gates of the Lord more quickly and surely with the key of thanksgiving than with any other key. Try it, dear reader. The next time you feel dead and cold and low-spirited, begin to praise and thank the Lord. Enumerate to yourself the benefits He has bestowed upon you, and thank Him heartily for each one, and see if your spirits do not begin to rise, and your heart get warmed up. Some times you feel/ it may be, too dis heartened to pray; try giving thanks in stead; and, before you know it, you will find yourself “glad” in the multi tude of His loving kindnesses and His tender mercies.—Ps. 92:1-4; Jonah 2:1-10. Even when his soul “fainted within him,” while in the prison of the fish’s belly, Jonah remembered the Lord and gave Him thanks. No depth of misery is too great for thanksgiving. We can not, it is true, give thanks for the mis ery, but we can give thanks to the Lord in the misery, just as Jonah did. No matter what our trouble, the Lord is in it somewhere; and, of course, being there, He is there to help and bless us. Therefore, when our “souls faint within us” because of our troubles, we have only to remember Him and thank Him for His presence and His love. “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good,”
before. An’ by that time, what with Mary’s tellin’ me about them meetin’s, an’ me most always flndin’ somethin’ to put in a penny for, to be thankful that I warn’t it, an’ what with gettin’ inter ested about it all, and sorter searchin’ round a little now and then to think of somethin’ or other to put a penny in for, there really come to be quite a few pennies in the box, an’ it didn’t rattle near so much when I shook it.” How many pennies would some of us have collected during the past year if we had kept count of those benefits for which we have really given thanks? Let the w.ord of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another iin _ psalms .and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesusj giving thanks to God and the Father by him.—Col. 3:16, 17. He that regardeth the day, regardeth .it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth,. eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.—Rom. 14:6. In “whatsoever we do,” we are to give thanks, even when we eat or when we do not eat. Nothing in our lives lies out of the region of thanksgiving, for everything comes to us from God, no matter who or what may be the channel used to convey it. The chil dren of Israel recognized this fact very fully and were always ready to give thanks in “whatsoever they did.” In fact, they often appointed companies of “them that gave thanks.” Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them t that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand Upon the wall toward the dung gate.—-Nell. 12:31. j Wkien they had collected treasures for building the Temple, they gave thanks, and when the Temple was finished, they gave thanks, ( and again when they were laying the foundations of the second Temple, they gave thanks.—I Chrofi. 29:10-13; Ezra 3:10, 11; II Chron. 5:13, 14. I wonder how many of our works are begun and carried on and com pleted after this fashion! I want us to notice the result of their thanksgiving in the last extract. “It came to pass as the trumpeters and
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