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| That It Becomes the Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him.
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Chapter I.—That It Becomes the
Soul to Praise God, and to Confess Unto Him.
1. Accept the
sacrifice of my confessions by the agency of my tongue, which Thou
hast formed and quickened, that it may confess to Thy name; and
heal Thou all my bones, and let them say, “Lord, who is like unto
Thee?”352
For neither
does he who confesses to Thee teach Thee what may be passing within
him, because a closed heart doth not exclude Thine eye, nor does
man’s hardness of heart repulse Thine hand, but Thou dissolvest
it when Thou wiliest, either in pity or in vengeance, “and there
is no One who can hide himself from Thy heart.”353
But let my soul praise Thee, that
it may love Thee; and let it confess Thine own mercies to Thee,
that it may praise Thee. Thy whole creation ceaseth not, nor is it
silent in Thy praises—neither the spirit of man, by the voice
directed unto Thee, nor animal nor corporeal things, by the voice
of those meditating thereon;354
| 354 St. Paul speaks of a “minding of the flesh” and
a “minding of the spirit” (Rom. viii. 6, margin), and we are prone to
be attracted and held by the carnal surroundings of life; that is,
“quæ per carnem sentiri querunt id est per oculos, per aures,
ceterosque corporis sensus” (De Vera Relig.. xxiv.). But
God would have us, as we meditate on the things that enter by the
gates of the senses, to arise towards Him, through these His
creatures. Our Father in heaven might have ordered His creation
simply in a utilitarian way, letting, for example, hunger be
satisfied without any of the pleasures of taste, and so of the
other senses. But He has not so done. To every sense He has given
its appropriate pleasure as well as its proper use. And though this
presents to us a source of temptation, still ought we for it to
praise His goodness to the full, and that corde are
opere.—Bradward, ii. c. 23. See also i. sec. 1, note 3, and
iv. sec. 18, above. | so that our souls may from their
weariness arise towards Thee, leaning on those things which Thou
hast made, and passing on to Thee, who hast made them wonderfully
and there is there refreshment and true strength.
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