Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3399
“Talk you of all His wondrous works.” 1 Chronicles 16:9.
This sentence stands in connection with exhortations to offer thanksgiving unto the Lord and to make known His deeds among the people. Thus it runs, “Sing unto Him; sing Psalms unto Him; talk you of all His wondrous works.”
The old typical religion of the Jews and the perverse superstition of the heathen made some places sacred and some places unclean—some actions holy and other actions, performed however well they might be—common and not to be connected in any degree with holiness. But the religion of Jesus Christ has once and for all swept away all holy places— wherever man is holy, every place is hallowed! Jesus Christ has consecrated the world by His Presence and wherever man chooses to worship, there is a house for God. The religion of Jesus Christ has also swept away those distinctions which men make as to actions being necessarily religious or irreligious. Some will have it that to sing a Psalm is to worship God—a sacred thing—but to feed the sparrows is, according to them, a secular matter. To come up to a place that shall be set apart for worship and there to bow the knee in prayer is adoration of the Most High—but, according to them, to perform acts of mercy and righteousness is not a tribute of homage to God! Now, the very essence of the Christian religion is just this—that it is not a thing confined to hours, times and places, but it is a thing of spirit It lies not in outward garbs or in mere words, but pervades the whole spirit of man and makes him turn his entire life into worship! Then every action he performs in its spirit and under its influence is holiness unto the Lord! God is worshipped by servants who fulfill the duties of their station. By judges who decree righteousness. By merchants who deal justly. By children who obey their parents, and by parents who train up their children in the fear of the Lord. There is not a line to be drawn anywhere, so that you can say, “Outside of that you go beyond the sanctuary of religion and get into the outer courts frequented by the multitude.” Here has been the great mistake which some Christians have made with regard to politics. They have supposed that a man could not be a Christian and a politician, too. Hence much injustice has been done. The fact is, when a man feels, “There is nothing that belongs to man but what may be consecrated to God,” and when he says, “I, being God’s servant, may take all that belongs to man and devote it as holiness unto the Lord,” he reaches the highest order of manhood and illustrates the highest style of Christianity. We cannot fully exhibit the spirit of Jesus Christ till we have learned that we must carry out in every place—and in every sphere—the spirit of His religion.
I make these remarks because while we are first bid to sing unto God’s praise, we are next told to talk about His wondrous works. There is a praising for the assembly. There is a talking for the fireside—and both are to be holy! The praise is to be hearty, sincere, unanimous, full of animation—the talk is to be equally sincere, equally earnest, equally sacred. You are not to say, “I have done with praising God,” when the hymn is over and you begin to open your mouths upon ordinary topics! But in your ordinary conversation, in the fields, by the wayside, in the streets and in your chambers, you are still to go on praising God and talking of all His wondrous works.
Shall there be a connection established between such a common word as, “talk,” and such grand swelling words as “the wondrous works of God”? We wonder to find the little monosyllable in such a place! “Preach you of all His wondrous works,” would seem well enough. “Show them,” would seem sound theology, but talk you, talk you—in your ordinary, common, everyday conversation—make the wondrous works of God to be your conversation, your familiar talk! We must talk. We seem born to talk! We were, wretched, indeed, if we were forbidden to speak to our fellow creatures! Why, the world seems to be enlivened by continuous, not to say, incessant, talking—from the first blush of morning, on through all the bustling day and far into the shades of drowsy night—how our tongues are occupied! They run morequickly than our feet and carry less, though much mischief, sometimes, comes from their babble. They are sharper than razors, some of them, and cut deeper than swords, and kindle fire enough to set the world in a blaze! Now, this talking to which women are proverbially disposed and in which men indulge as freely as inclination prompts them—to be heard in every street, in every house and in every workshop—this it is which is to be consecrated unto God! The streams of conversation are everywhere to be drawn off from the gutters and channels in which they gather defilement—to be strained, cleansed and purified till they become fresh, clear and sparkling! Then the speech of humans—man with man, saint with saint, redeemed from the beggarly elements of common slander, envy, foolishness and vanity shall be lifted up as on eagles’ wings till it is like the fellowship of the angels realizing the prediction of the Psalmist to the praise of the Lord— “They shall speak of the glory of Your Kingdom and talk of Your power.” Now, first—