Psalm 78:4 We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength… I. POINT OUT A FEW OF THOSE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE HEARD AND KNOWN, OR WHICH OUR FATHERS HAVE TOLD US, and which we, with the psalmist, may style "The praises of the Lord, and His strength, and the wonderful works that He hath done." II. RECOMMEND AND ENFORCE THE RESOLUTION IN MY TEXT. The great Gad may justly expect that we acquaint ourselves with His ways and works; that we endeavour to trace Him in the natural, providential, and civil world, and in the world of grace; and that we treasure up in our hearts each signal deliverance He hath wrought. But a genuine disciple of Jesus, and a child of God, will neither wish to live nor to die unto himself. What we have known of the wonderful works of God in favour of our fathers, of ourselves, or of ages to come, we should transmit to the rising generation. I am apprehensive that one cause of the languishing state of public spirit, and of pious zeal, in this age, is the want of knowledge. Had the minds of persons in the present day been early and deeply impressed with the conduct of God to this highly favoured country, the privileges they enjoy would be more dear and important in their esteem, and patriotism would not be that empty boast which we have too much reason to apprehend it now is. With the knowledge of those "things we have heard, and known, and which our fathers have told us," transmit, as far as possible, the things themselves. On our part let nothing be left untried, that they who are soon to fill our places in civil and religious life, and that their descendants, even to the world's last period, may stand forth, under God, the guardians of each important and sacred right, and approve themselves the unshaken friends of their country, of Jesus, and of the Gospel. (N. Hill.) Parallel Verses KJV: We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. |
    |