Praise in Reflection

Hello my Spiritual friend,

It is during these up and coming weeks: that I ask of you, to provide some of your time to ponder these
words as we are escorted ever closer to the moment, which shall never be repeated.
I want to urge you, dear friends, to observe the goodness of God carefully for your souls' good. There is
a great difference between eyes and no eyes. Yet, many have eyes and yet see not. God's goodness flows
before them, but they say, “Where is it?” They breathe it but ask, “Where is it?” They sit at the table and
are fed upon it. They wear it upon their limbs. It is in the very beating of their hearts, and yet they
wonder, “Where is it?” Do not be so blind. “The ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib”
(Isaiah 1:3). Let us not be slower than beasts of the field, but let us know the Lord and consider His great
goodness.

Let me say, in regarding the philosophy of great praise, we are to observe see this in the second stage of
the process, namely, diligent memory. That is to say, what has made an impression upon the mind by
observation is fastened upon the memory. Memory seems to lie in two things: first, in retaining an
impression, and then in recollecting it at a future time. I suppose that, more or less, everything that
happens to us is retained in the mind, but it is not always readily reproduce the fainter impressions when
you wish to do so. For, I know in my own mind, a great many things that I am sure I remember, but I
cannot always recall them instantly. Give me a quarter of an hour to run through a certain arrangement of
ideas, and I can express, “Oh, yes, I have it. It was in my mind all the time, yet, I could not recollect it at
the time.” Memory collects facts and afterwards recollects them. The matters before us are recorded by
memory, but the tablet may be mislaid. The perfection of memory is to preserve the tablet in a well-
known place from which you can bring it forth at any moment.
Over the years, I have dwelt, at length, with the idea that you may begin correctly from the very outset
by getting vivid impressions, moreover, you may be the better able to retain and to recall them. We
cannot utter what we have forgotten. Thus, we need close observation to establish a strong memory
concerning the Lord's greatness and goodness.
How are we to strengthen our memory about God's goodness? First, we should be well acquainted with
the documents in which His goodness is recorded. An individual may be said to keep, in memory, a fact,
which did not happen in his or her own time, but did hundreds of years before he was born. They shall
remember it because perhaps one has viewed the document in which the fact is recorded. In a certain
sense, this is within the range of memory. It is within the memory of a person, the united memory of the
race, because it has been recorded and can be retrieved. Nevertheless, I ask that you be familiar with the
Word of God. Stock your memory with the ancient records of His great goodness. Drink in the whole
narrative of the evangelists, and despise not Moses and the prophets. Soak in the Psalms, the Song of
Solomon, and other such books until you come to know the well-recorded goodness of the Lord. Have
His words and deeds of goodness arranged and ready at hand. Let them be at your fingertips, as it were,
because they are in your heart's core. Then you will be sure abundantly to utter the memory of His
goodness, for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34). What we have
within and comes out is what defiles us, while equally so; it is what we ponder most upon is what is
within our hearts.
Next, if you would strengthen your memory, diligently observe memorials. There are two in the
Christian church. There is the memorial of your Savior's death, burial, and resurrection as set forth in
believers' baptism, in which we are buried and raised with the Lord Christ. Do not forget that memorial of
His deep anguish when He was immersed in grief and plunged in agony, for He bids you observe it. As
for the Holy Supper, never neglect it; come often to the table, until He returns. He has tasked you and I to
do this in remembrance of Him. Cherish devoutly the precious memorial. Great events in nations have
been preserved in the memory of future generations by some ordained ceremonial. The Lord's Supper is
of that kind. Therefore, observe well the table of the Lord so that you forget not His great goodness. See
how the Jews kept their Exodus in mind by means of the Paschal lamb; how they ate it after the sprinkling
of the blood; how they talked to their children and told them of the deliverance from Egypt, abundantly
uttering the memory of God's goodness; and how after supper they sang a hymn, even as our text bids us
to sing of the goodness of God. Strengthen your memories, then, by reverent attention to the historical
documents and the memorial ordinances.
Still, the most important is the memory of what has happened to yourself, your own personal
experience. I will not give a penny for your religion unless it has taken effect on you. The power of
prayer! What of that? Did you ever receive an answer to prayer? Did you ever wrestle with the angel and
come away victorious? What do you know about prayer if you never did? You are very orthodox, but
unless the doctrines of grace have brought to your soul the grace of the doctrines, and you have tasted and
handled them, what do you know about them? You have nothing to remember.

May these words, my spiritual friend, find a home within your collective memory and may these same
be apart of what you recollect as we come to migrate within this season ever closer. My thoughts and
prayers are with you!

Peace,

Bro. Smith SGS