(Anon.)

1. Witness a few confessions. Text. Solomon (1 Kings 8:22-23; 2 Chronicles 6:14); Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:14-19); Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:3-12); the Levites (Nehemiah 9:4-6); the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:13); Paul (Ephesians 1:3-6; 1 Timothy 1:11-17); Jude (vers. 20-25).

2. How the Lord asserts and claims this glorious prerogative as peculiar to Himself (Deuteronomy 32:39-43; Isaiah 40:25, 26; Isaiah 41:14-16; Isaiah 42:5-8; Isaiah 43:15-17; Jeremiah 5:20-25; Daniel 7:13-14).

II. THE NATURE OF THIS SUPREME DOMINION AND SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY. Observe —

1. Negatively. It is not —

(1)A deputed and delegated authority.

(2)An assumed or usurped authority.

(3)An arbitrary authority.

2. Positively.

(1)It is universal.

(2)Equitable.

(3)Irresistible.

(4)Everlasting.

III. THE ASPECT IN WHICH IT IS TO BE VIEWED BY US.

1. As a most glorious doctrine.

2. As a most humiliating doctrine.

3. As a most alarming doctrine.

4. As a most encouraging doctrine.

5. As a most invigorating and establishing doctrine.

(R. Shittler.)

I. OF THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY.

II. OF THE DIVINE POWER.

III. OF THE DIVINE BENEFICENCE.

(J. Johnson Cort, M. A.)

II. THE MODE OR FORM OF HIS PRAISING GOD. It is an ascribing all excellences to Him. True praising or blessing of God consists in acknowledging that to be God's which is His. When Christ taught His disciples how to pray and how to praise God, this is the mode of praising Him (Matthew 7:18): "Thine is," etc. After the same manner does David here praise Him.

(D. Clarkson.)

1. Those things are His which we have in common with others.

(1)The world in general (Psalm 1:12);

(2)heaven (Psalm 89:11);

(3)the sea (Psalm 95:5);

(4)the earth (Exodus 19:5);

(5)everything in the earth (Deuteronomy 10:14).

2. Those things are His which we think to be properly ours. We may be proprietors in respect of men, so far as none of them may be able to produce any good title or lay any just claim to what we have; but we are no proprietors in reference to God.

(1)Lands (Leviticus 25:28);

(2)the fruits of the land (Hosea 2:9); and cattle (Psalm 50:10, 11);

(3)money and clothes (Haggai 2:8; 1 Chronicles 29:14, 16);

(4)our children (Ezekiel 16:20, 21);

(5)ourselves (1 Corinthians 6:19; Psalm c. 3);

(6)our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20);

(7)our souls (Ezekiel 18:4; 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).

II. WHAT IS THE FOUNDATION OF THE LORD'S TITLE TO A PROPRIETY IN ALL THINGS? He that gave to all their being is clearly the owner of all (Psalm 89:11, 12).

1. He made all for Himself, not for the pleasure of another, as the Israelites wrought for Pharaoh.

2. He made all things of nothing.

3. He made all without the help or concurrence of any other.

4. He upholds all things in the same manner as He created.

III. THE NATURE AND QUALITY OF THIS PROPRIETY.

1. He is the primary and original owner of all. His title and propriety is underived.

2. He is the absolute owner of all, without any condition or limitation.

3. He is the principal owner. All others that have right to anything have it under Him, and in subordination to Him, and are tied to acknowledge it by doing Him service for whatever they have.

4. He is total owner of all. When David gave the possession mentioned (2 Samuel 19:29) between Ziba and Mephibosheth, they had a joint interest therein, so Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah would have had in the navy and adventure if they had joined their ships according to the proposal (1 Kings 22:49). But none has a joint interest with God.

5. He is the perpetual owner of all.

6. He is transcendently the owner of all. He has the greatest right to them. He has more right to all than we have to anything.

7. He is the sole owner of all things.

Use 1. Of information.(1) Herein we may discern the greatness of the Lord whom we serve and whose we are.(2) This may inform us that the Lord hath a right to deal with us or any creature as He will.

Use 2. For exhortation. This truth suggests many duties of greatest moment and consequence.(1) Thankfulness. Whatsoever we have that is good is from Him, and not only the substance, but every degree of it.(2) Self-surrender.(3) Improving all we have for God.(4) Patience.(5) Humility.(6) Self-denial.If God be the owner of all things, He is the owner of us; if He be the owner of us, we are not to own ourselves, and not to own ourselves is to deny ourselves.We must deny ourselves —(a) As to our judgments, We must give up ourselves to the conduct of that judgment which is laid down in Scripture, that which is called the mind of the Lord.(b) As to our wills. The will of the Lord must be our will.(c) As to our ends. The pleasing, and honouring, and enjoying God is the only end we should propose to ourselves, either in holy duties or worldly business.(d) As to our interests. If God be our owner, we ought to own and mind His interest and none else.(e) As to our business and employments. The example of Christ (Luke 2:19; John 4:34; John 9:4).(f) As to our possessions. We ought to look upon all we possess as the Lord's and not ours.

Use 3. For encouragement.

I. This truth affords encouragement in those special cases which are most apt to trouble and deject you. He can supply all your need.(1) Want you wealth, or what you judge to be a competency? (ver. 12). All the riches of the world are in His hands, and He can dispose thereof to whom and in what proportion He sees good (2 Corinthians 9:8; Philippians 4:19).(2) Want you authority to countenance and secure you? (ver. 11). He has the disposing of it all.(3) Want you victory over enemies, those that afflict and oppress your souls? The Lord can give it you; it is His own.(4) Want you strength, outward or inward, to do, or to suffer, or to resist? This He can also give you, for it is all His own (ver. 12).(5) Want you wisdom? (James 1:5).(6) Want you gifts or other graces, or a greater measure of them? (James 1:17).(7) Want you comfort? (2 Corinthians 1:3).(8) Want you friends? All the friends in the world are but cyphers to Him.

2. There is encouragement to undergo or undertake anything for God which He calls you to. He is the owner of all things, and so has enough to requite you, to reward you, if all that is in heaven and in earth be enough to do it.

(D. Clarkson.)

1. Universal.

2. Absolute.

3. Eternal. From this ownership we infer —

I. THE ABSOLUTE SUPREMACY OF GOD. He who owns all has a right —

1. To bestow on any creature whatever He pleases.

2. To withdraw from any creature in any way or at any time whatever He thinks best. "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away."

II. THE MORAL OBLIGATION OF MAN. What is that?

1. To obey His will in everything.

2. To be animated by supreme gratitude.

(Homilist.)

1. The kingdom of nature, with all its productions and materials.

2. The kingdom of providence. As He made all, so His care extends to all.

3. The kingdom of grace. This is a kingdom within the kingdom of nature and providence. It is a mediatorial, a spiritual empire, which is designed to establish the peculiar reign of God, not only over men, but in them.

II. THE GLORY OF THIS KINGDOM. This is seen —

1. In its Sovereign — the Lord Jesus.

2. In its universality.

3. In its prospect (Daniel 2:44; Daniel 7:13, 14).

4. In its subjects: "The excellent of the earth."

5. its privileges: "Eye hath not seen," etc.

(1)Peace.

(2)Liberty: "The glorious liberty of the sons of God."

(3)Plentitude: "The Lord of hosts makes unto all people a feast of fat things," etc. "My God shall supply all your need," etc.

(W. Jay, M. A.)

1. To a few names the world has by general consent appended the title of "the Great" — Alexander, Constantine, Napoleon. These were great men with little aims. Self was the beginning and end of all their plans and labours. Their greatness was like a tree of ample trunk and wide-extended foliage, not spreading a beneficent shade, but distilling a deadly poison on all beneath, and thus killing its own roots and insuring its own decay.

2. A higher order of worldly greatness is that which consists purely in exalted genius and great intellectual power, whatever be the form of its manifestation. This form of greatness has been generally beneficent in its influence. Still it is in itself incomplete and unfinished.

3. The greatness of the Bible is a holy greatness. The fear of God is the source of its wisdom; the love of God is the spring of its activity; the glory of God is the end of its enterprises and labours.

II. THIS GREATNESS IS A PROPER OBJECT OF ASPIRATION AND PURSUIT.

1. Man was made for this greatness. He is born great. Great powers, great duties, great expectancies, a great sphere of action, great hopes and promises, are his. If he becomes little, it is by his own fault and sin.

2. The Word of God exhorts us to it, "calls" us to "glory" as well as to "virtue."

3. We are taught that there will be a distinction in the rewards of eternity, graduated to the different degrees of merit and earnestness in the service of God in the present life.

4. The examples of Scripture are justifications of the highest aim. All history besides contains no such list of heroes as Hebrews 11.

III. THE SOURCE OF THIS GREATNESS. All things are of God. Even the world's heroes have felt and acknowledged this. If it is in God's hands to make great —

1. Then He is to be acknowledged and adored as the author of all the endowments of men.

2. What must be the guilt of those who have perverted and abused their talents to spread disorder, pollution, and misery among His moral subjects!

3. Their greatness is to be solicited and expected from Him.

4. From Him we must derive our idea of greatness. This He has revealed to us —

(1)In His Word.

(2)In the life of Christ.

(John Proudfit, D. D.)

II. GOD MAKES MEN GREAT BY AN EDUCATION, AND BY EVENTS IN LIFE SUITED TO DISCOVER, TO EXCITE, TO ENCOURAGE, TO IMPROVE, AND TO DIRECT THEIR TALENTS. The most luxuriant soil, when uncultivated, often becomes wild and barren, while a soil less favourable richly recompenses the seed sown, and the labours of the husbandman.

1. Early instruction and discipline correct the blemishes, brighten the polish, and increase the excellences of genius.

2. The friends and companions of our early youth contribute not a little to the strengthening and improving our natural talents.

3. Favourable providences expand the faculties, call forth exertions, and discover the extent of talents, which otherwise might have lain dormant, or shone with less lustre. Erpinius the critic, was first stimulated to a proper improvement of his time and talents by looking into Fortius Ringelbergius's treatise on study Franklin was similarly affected by an essay of Dr. Cotton Mathers, on doing good. Great occasions produce great talents. A Frederic and a Washington might have lived obscure, and died forgotten, had the time, place, and circumstances which called forth their abilities been different.

III. IT IS GOD WHO IMPLANTS DISPOSITIONS, AND EXCITES TO CONDUCT, WHICH ENABLE MEN TO IMPROVE THEIR NATURAL ABILITIES, AND PROVIDENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES AND ADVANTAGES FOR BECOMING GREAT. Exercise and activity marvellously improve and increase talents, comparatively small. God makes men great by influencing their tempers and enabling them to govern their spirits and conduct their lives by the rules of reason and religion.

IV. GOD MAKES MEN GREAT BY BRINGING THEM INTO DIFFICULT AND TRYING SITUATIONS, WHICH EXERCISE AND MANIFEST THE GREATNESS OF THEIR DISPOSITION AND TALENTS.

V. GOD MAKES MEN GREAT BY RENDERING THE EXERCISE OF THEIR TALENTS ACCEPTABLE AND USEFUL.

VI. IT IS GOD WHO ASSIGNS TO THE GREAT THE SPHERE OF THEIR GREATNESS.

VII. IN THE HAND OF GOD IT IS TO LIMIT THE DURATION OF HUMAN GREATNESS.Conclusion: Address —

1. Those whom the hand of God hath made great. God made you great for the general good, and not merely for your own pleasure or profit. Distinguished talents were bestowed that, with success, you might guide others to wisdom, to religion, and happiness.

2. Those whom a scanty measure of natural talents or acquired accomplishments confines to a lower and more ignoble and laborious line of life. Beware of envy and discontent.

(J. Erskine, D. D.)

(D. Macleod.)

     8428   example
     8440   glorifying God
     8646   doxology
     8667   praise, examples

1 Chronicles 29:10-19

     5686   fathers, examples

That we Ought to Offer Ourselves and all that is Ours to God, and to Pray for All
The Voice of the Disciple Lord, all that is in the heaven and in the earth is Thine.(1) I desire to offer myself up unto thee as a freewill offering, and to continue Thine for ever. Lord, in the uprightness of mine heart I willingly offer(2) myself to Thee to-day to be Thy servant for ever, in humble submission and for a sacrifice of perpetual praise. Receive me with this holy Communion of Thy precious Body, which I celebrate before Thee this day in the presence of the Angels invisibly surrounding, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

The History Books
[Illustration: (drop cap T) Assyrian idol-god] Thus little by little the Book of God grew, and the people He had chosen to be its guardians took their place among the nations. A small place it was from one point of view! A narrow strip of land, but unique in its position as one of the highways of the world, on which a few tribes were banded together. All around great empires watched them with eager eyes; the powerful kings of Assyria, Egypt, and Babylonia, the learned Greeks, and, in later times, …
Mildred Duff—The Bible in its Making

Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &C.
Concerning Salutations and Recreations, &c. [1273] Seeing the chief end of all religion is to redeem men from the spirit and vain conversation of this world and to lead into inward communion with God, before whom if we fear always we are accounted happy; therefore all the vain customs and habits thereof, both in word and deed, are to be rejected and forsaken by those who come to this fear; such as taking off the hat to a man, the bowings and cringings of the body, and such other salutations of that …
Robert Barclay—Theses Theologicae and An Apology for the True Christian Divinity

Enoch, the Deathless
BY REV. W. J. TOWNSEND, D.D. Enoch was the bright particular star of the patriarchal epoch. His record is short, but eloquent. It is crowded into a few words, but every word, when placed under examination, expands indefinitely. Every virtue may be read into them; every eulogium possible to a human character shines from them. He was a devout man, a fearless preacher of righteousness, an intimate friend of God, and the only man of his dispensation who did not see death. He sheds a lustre on the …
George Milligan—Men of the Bible; Some Lesser-Known

The Exile --Continued.
We have one psalm which the title connects with the beginning of David's stay at Adullam,--the thirty-fourth. The supposition that it dates from that period throws great force into many parts of it, and gives a unity to what is else apparently fragmentary and disconnected. Unlike those already considered, which were pure soliloquies, this is full of exhortation and counsel, as would naturally be the case if it were written when friends and followers began to gather to his standard. It reads like …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

Covenanting a Duty.
The exercise of Covenanting with God is enjoined by Him as the Supreme Moral Governor of all. That his Covenant should be acceded to, by men in every age and condition, is ordained as a law, sanctioned by his high authority,--recorded in his law of perpetual moral obligation on men, as a statute decreed by him, and in virtue of his underived sovereignty, promulgated by his command. "He hath commanded his covenant for ever."[171] The exercise is inculcated according to the will of God, as King and …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament