faculties are at present capable of apprehending of his greatness and glory.

In the character of God, as drawn out upon the page of Scripture, there is every thing calculated to render him an object of delight and grateful affection to all virtuous creatures: there is every quality to command esteem and love-a constellation of amiable features-an array of the most marvellous moral excellence. There is nothing of good of which we can conceive, but what may be found in him, and existing in the highest state of fulness and perfection. Hence, to angels-to pure and perfected natures, whose intellectual vision is dimmed by no cloud of error and of sin,—he is "the fairest among ten thousand," "exalted far above all blessing and praise ;" for in his mind they behold a blaze of excellence and glory, in which, as in the garden of Eden to the ancestor of our race, every thing is "pleasant to the eye, and good for food.".

But the moral depravation of our nature has incapacitated man from offering "sacrifices of praise;" his soul clings to the dust; he loves earth, with its vanity and sin; his appetite and taste are essentially vitiated; and hence, in vain is the beauty and glory of the Divine character unfolded before him-the picture has no attraction to his eye, and wins no admiration from his lip. Owing to a dark and clouded mind, we are naturally incapable of appreciating the character of God: and under the guilt, and subject to the condemnation incurred by manifold offences, we are not in a condition to join

It is not with

in any gratulatory act of devotion. pleasure, but with pain, that we recur to the thought of the Divine Being; his name and his attributes, in such circumstances, pour no balm into the heart; we "remember God, and we are troubled;" and when he breaks in upon us in his providence, by affliction or by death, instead of the intrusion being welcome, it produces shame, remorse, and apprehension; and the guilty spirit, if compelled to give expression to its feelings, would exclaim, when thus arrested by its Maker, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy !" There must be some great and decided change wrought in our character and condition before we can derive any pleasure from the contemplation of God, or offer him sincerely any praise. We must not be "conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds," in order to prove "the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God." Till then he is no object of delightful contemplation; and when he crosses our paths, in nature or in providence, it is with a culprit-feeling that the thunder of his chariot-wheels is heard:

his may be the power that awes, and the greatness that overwhelms-his may be the holiness that dazzles, and the wisdom that astonishes, his angel subjects but the exhibition of this perfection to us produces no complacency, excites no satisfaction, and inspires no praise, so long as we are subject to "the law of sin and death."

It is when the truths of the gospel are experienced by us, when the scripture ground of pardon

and acceptance is embraced and trusted in, when God is apprehended by us "forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin," that we derive comfort from him, and are disposed to offer thanksgiving to him. A "new song is put into our mouths, even praises to our God:" we "love him, because he has first loved us:" we "joy in him through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the atonement :" "believing in Jesus, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Praise is then the offering of a pardoned and renewed soul to Him who has "wrought us for this selfsame thing:" it is founded upon a knowledge of him, and a sense of reconciliation to him; an acquaintance with him as our friend and portion; an apprehension of him as that great Being who, at the same time that he is maintaining in happiness and bliss an innumerable company of angels, and feeding the universe from the resources of his own nature, is redeeming our souls from death, our eyes from tears, and our feet from falling. It takes cognizance of his character and unsearchable perfection-his dealings in providence, and his dispensations in grace-his daily mercies, and his nightly blessings-his goodness in seedtime and harvest-his wisdom in appointing "the moon for seasons," and the "stars to rule the night;" in short, all that is beautiful in nature and valuable in social life, every temporal comfort and spiritual gift, will be attributed, by the devout heart, to the Father of Mercies; and acknowledged with feelings and expressions of

gratitude. Such views had the Psalmist of the worthiness of God, and of the goodness that pervades his administration, that he calls upon all animate and inanimate existence to unite with him in this service: "Fire and hail; snow and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word-Mountains and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars-Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things and flying fowl-Let them praise the name of the Lord."

Plutarch, one of the most pleasing of the Greek writers, advances it, as the sacred duty of mankind, to "hymn the gods," who alone have endowed them with an articulate voice. This sentiment has met with universal recognition; for all nations acquainted with either poetry or religion, have songs and verses devoted to the powers and attributes of their divinities. The poetry and mythology of the Greeks were intimately connected; the former was the tongue of the latter; it entered deeply into the celebration of its rites, gave popularity to its festivals, and immortality to its fictions. The hymns of Homer and Callimachus may have been intended merely for individual recitation; but the choral song early accompanied the sacred ceremonial: the solemn and swelling tone of the dithyrambic hymns was heard in the religious festivals of the Athenians; and whilst the scenic exhibitions delighted the sight, the union of music and verse ravished the ear. The literature of the Orientals exhibits the same harmony between religion and verse-the same union between the "

sons

of God" and the “ daughters of men;" and the Arab, even now, sits down at the door of his tent chanting the moral apophthegms and luscious dreams of the followers of the prophet. It is, however, especially in Judea that we see devotion and the muse dwelling together in unity-twin-sisters that God hath joined-going up to his house in company, worshipping hand in hand at the throne, weeping at the altar, and bowing in silent adoration before the glorious cloud, flashing in awful brightness from the holiest place. It is no extravagant assumption, that the lyre of Jubal was attuned to the harmony of verse; and our great poet indulges the imagination, that the singing of the birds in Paradise initiated our first parents into the art of sacred song.

The duty of addressing praise to God, may be performed in various ways. Besides the simple acknowledgment, by the tongue, of his glorious attributes and bountiful dealings, the practice of connecting the acknowledgment with a musical accompaniment, commends itself to our attention by an express divine sanction. In the Jewish church, singing was ordained as a part of public worship an appointment which the practice of the Saviour, and the precepts of the apostles, render obligatory upon us. "Is any merry? let him sing psalms." Speaking to yourselves," observes the apostle, "in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual

* James v. 13.