"Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name." Wake up my _memory_, and find matter for the song. Tell what God has done for me in days gone by. Fly back, ye thoughts, to my childhood, sing of cradle-mercies. Review my youth and its early favors. Sing of long-suffering grace which followed my wanderings, and bore with my rebellions. Review before my eyes that gladsome hour when first I knew the Lord, and tell over again the matchless story of His mercy. Awake up my _judgment_, and give measure to the music. Come forth my _understanding_, and weigh His lovingkindness in the balance. See if thou canst count the small dust of His mercies. See if thou canst estimate the unsearchable riches which God hath given thee in His unspeakable gift of Christ Jesus. Recount His eternal love to thee. Reckon up the treasures of that everlasting covenant which He made on thy behalf, and which was "ordered in all things and sure." Sing aloud of that divine wisdom which contrived, of that love which planned, and of that grace which carried out the scheme of thy redemption. "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" For doth not all nature around me praise Him? If _I_ were silent I should be an exception to the universe. Doth not the thunder praise Him as it rolls like drums in the march of the God of Armies? Do not the mountains praise Him when the woods upon their summits wave in adoration? Does not the lightning write His name in letters of fire upon the midnight darkness? Hath not the whole earth a voice, and shall I, can I, be silent? "Bless the Lord, O my soul." _Love to Christ._ Have you a friend at court--at heaven's court? Is the Lord Jesus your friend? Can you say that you love Him, and has He ever revealed himself in the way of love to you? Oh! to be able to say, "Christ is my friend," is one of the sweetest things in the world. The love of Christ casts not out the love of relatives, but it sanctifies our creature love, and makes it sweeter far. Earthly love is sweet, but it must pass away; and what will you do if you have no wealth but the wealth which fadeth, and no love but the love which dies, when death shall come? Oh, to have the love of Christ! You can take that across the river of death with you; you can wear it as your jewel in heaven, and set it as a seal upon your hand; for His love is "strong as death, and mightier than the grave." _The First Lesson._ The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance. He cannot learn aright who has not first been taught that he knows nothing. It is a good thing for a man to feel that he is only beginning to learn, and to be willing to submit his heart to the teachings of God's Spirit, that he may be guided in everything by Him. The prayer of the quickened soul is, "Teach thou me." We become as little children when God begins to deal with us. _Danger of Prosperity._