The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-06-15
Praise In Heaven
lesson for June II. 1862

LSSSOn IUT June IL, 1907
Some of our hymns about
heaven are well-meant but stu
pid. For example there is one
that contains the couplet:
Where congregations ne'er
break up
And Sabbaths have no end"
What a terrible place! You
would never have a chance to
speak to any one, never any OPP
portunity to do anything. Just
stand and sing, or worse yeti
listen to sermons forever and
ever.
We may be thankful no such
picture is given us in the Bible.
Yet we can understand where
the church-loving author Of the
poem got his idea - probably
from those scenes in the book
of Revelation where voices with
out number join in praise to Al
mighty God. These passages, in
Guiding some of the grandest
WOrd-pictureS in the book of
Revelation, give us a starting
point for some thoughts about
worship. especially that aspect
of worship which we call praise
or alteration.
Praise of God VS.. Praise of Man
First, there is certainly diff
ference between the praise of
God and the praise of man. A
man may or may not deserve
our enthusiasm. we can praise
men too much. But we never
can praise God enough. Fur
thermore, when we praise other
men. we may be doing some
thing for their ego. something
to bolster their self respect,
something to cheer their dis
couragement. We may also pro
vided we don't overdo it, help
along their reputation and their
, career, by judicious praise. A
good and wise te c her. by
praise just at the right time,
may guide boy into a useful
and even brilliant work.
What are recommendations
but sheets of praises?) Some
thing is added to a person by
praise; or when the praise is
mistaken, something may be
subtracted Don't you fe e l
pretty small when someone has
buttered you up beyond recog-
nition?)
God, is. of course. not affected
in this way. He doesn't need to
have His reputation built up. He
doesn't need recommendations,
He does not try to live up to
the nice things said about Him!
He is above these things, above
the loftlest alteration we can Of
fer.
From the Heart
Another important difference
between the praise of God and
of man is this The one who
praises men hopes to get some
thing out of it; indeed even
We praise God we rather sheep
ishly hope He will take special
note of it and remember it when
we need favor. But the praise
OF heaven is not las Samuel
johnson said about gratitude
"a lively sense OF favors to
come. : 1t rises out of CRATE
full heart. it is spontaneous and
sincere, it has no price-tab, yet
it is beyond price. Such praise
is possible even here and now.
The necessities of life more or
less force us to consult our
clocks and calendars to see
when it is time t worship God.
Thus we get into the regret
table habit of putting off our
expressions of gratitude until
after ii am. next Sunday and
II We stay away from church.
then God goes forgotten so far
as we are concerned for an
other week. What we ought to
be doing (otherwise heaven will
embarrass u.s. is to cultivate
the thankful heart at all times
weekdays and Sundays. Thank
you, God. may not be rated an
elegant prayer in Boston; but
When it is heartfelt, God does
not look it over for fancy Ian
guage.
To God and the Lamb
One other. and very impor-
portant, point strikes us as we
read these great lines from
Revelation: alteration is render
ed at the same time to God and
to Christ. We can see how at
the very outset of the Christian
religion, it was natural to think
OF God and Christ sharing the
same Throne. The real test of
whether a person actually be-
lleves in the God-hood of Christ
is whether he offers prayer and
praise to Him. In church he
does, OF course; but does he
quietly in his own private pray