We Christians must be such people. As such we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. The less we have of Christ, the less we will desire to come to the meetings. The more we are filled with Christ, the more we long for the meetings and require the meetings to express something of Him. We need a meeting to say Hallelujah; we need a meeting to shout Amen; we need a meeting to release our spirit. We need to come together, not with itching ears to listen to Doctor so-and-so. Our itching ears must be cut off. The itching ears cause today’s Christianity to pile teachers upon teachers. We need simply to exercise our spirit and open our mouths widely to say Hallelujah, Amen, Jesus is Lord! This is the best way for us to meet. If we meet in this way, our meetings will be full of praises.
The more we praise in the meetings, the more we enjoy the Lord’s presence, for while we are praising, He praises in our praising. I do not believe that in the solos of today’s Christianity Jesus could sing the hymns. That kind of singing is a sorrow to the Lord and a real solo. Whenever we sing, Jesus should sing within our singing—how could that be a solo? The more we praise, the more we sense that we are filled with Jesus and saturated with His anointing. The more we sing in this way, the more we will say Hallelujah! We can never finish our praising, for the more we praise, the more we have with which to praise. This is the right way for us to come together.
I hope that before long the Lord will bring the greatest part of our meeting into praises. There may be just a short message for the inner ear, not for the itching ears. Most of the time will be for praising.
In this matter we need to afford Him the best cooperation. I have already used the illustration of the three-legged race. If my partner is capable and clever, yet I am slow and dull, I cannot cooperate well. He will be bound by me. Have you realized that you have always bound Christ? He is your companion and you are His partner, but what kind of a partner are you? When you come to the meeting and He wants to sing within you, do you offer Him adequate coordination? Or do you shut your mouth and quench your spirit? If so, He is imprisoned by you. How then could He sing hymns of praise in the midst of the church? We may, however, open our mouth and sing in the spirit, and undoubtedly Jesus will sing within us. But our singing may yet be so poor and lacking in adequate content, for we are not yet accustomed to higher praises. We have learned to say, “Hallelujah! O Lord! Jesus is Lord!” This is good, but we must realize that these are simply the ABC’s, the first grade. Could we praise with a psalm like Psalm 68? “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered”; “Thou hast ascended on high and led captive a train of vanquished foes”; “The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee! And the women that tarry at home divide the spoils.” Could we praise like this? I hope that some day we will psalm the whole book of Hebrews.
Brothers and sisters, let us consider our praises. In one sense we are short of praises, and in another sense we are so poor in the utterance of our praises. Not only must we know Christ as everything better than everything, not only must we labor to enter into the good land and all the enjoyment of Christ, not only must we come together filled with His praises, but we must also practice composing our praises from the new vocabulary of our experiences of Christ. We need to practice this. Practice praising Christ out of your experience of Him; then you will become accustomed to it, and when you come to the meeting, you will praise with richer and higher phrases, utterance, and expression. How we need this! This is the best way to strengthen our meetings, uplift our meetings, and make our meetings so convincing and living. Will you practice?
We have been so long in the book of Hebrews. We need to praise the Lord according to such a book; there is so much content for our praises from the first chapter to the last. Through Him therefore, through the Christ of this book, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God. It is comparatively easy to open our mouth and release our spirit in the meeting, but it is more difficult to compose our praises with richer utterance from the experiences of the Christ of this book. We need to practice. If we do, our meetings will be entirely different; we will be delivered from the traditional way of meeting, and we will be like the hundred and forty-four thousand, singing a new song which no other can learn.
Dear Lord, Thou art the Son of God,
His absolute expression;
In Thee God speaks to us today,
Thou art His definition.
The impress of God’s substance true,
Effulgence of His glory,
Thou even art our God Himself,
In Thee is His full story.
By Thee was made the universe,
Subsisting by Thy merit;
The heir, God hath appointed Thee,
That all Thou may inherit.
Since Thou hast purged our sins by death,
In heaven Thou art seated,
Till all Thy foes will be subdued
And all God’s will completed.
A better name than angels have,
From God Thou didst inherit;
As Son of God to us as life,
Thou now art in the Spirit.
Thy kingdom is of righteousness,
Thy throne will stand forever;
God hath in love anointed Thee,
And Thou shalt wax old never.
Thou also art a man indeed,
With all our human nature;
By grace Thou tastedst death for us
That we may have Thy stature.
With glory and with honor crowned,
All things to Thee are subject;
As Captain of salvation full,
Thou art through sufferings perfect.
By death the devil Thou hast spoiled,
And from death’s bondage freed us;
Thou sanctifiest us in life
And dost to glory speed us.
To us, Thy brethren, Thou art here,
The Father’s Name declaring;
Within the Church Thou singest hymns,
God’s praises with us sharing.
Superior Thou to Moses, Lord,
As to the house the builder;
Thou, our Apostle sent from God,
Art worthy of more splendor.
Thou art our real Joshua,
By Thee the rest we enter;
Our full salvation is of Thee,
Our faith on Thee doth center.
Thou art the heav’nly rest to us,
Now dwelling in our spirit,
For us to enter as the land
And all Thy good inherit.
Superior Thou to Aaron too—
Thyself, the offering given,
Thou enteredst, as our Great High Priest,
The holiest place in heaven.
Thou art our true Melchisedec,
With endless life in power,
To minister the “bread and wine,”
In every needful hour.
Thou art the better sacrifice,
Through the eternal Spirit,
Once offered unto God for us,
That we may gain Thy merit.
A better covenant was made
With Thy dear blood in heaven;
By Thee this sure new testament
To Thy redeemed was given.
Thou art its Maker adequate,
For Thou dost have the merit;
Thou art its Giver competent
That we may all inherit;
Its qualified Executor,
By life of resurrection;
Its potent Mediator too,
Fulfilling God’s election.
Lord, Thou art now within the veil,
As our unique Forerunner,
That by Thy life, without the camp,
We’ll in the race be runners.
Thou art the Finisher of faith,
As well its Author perfect;
By faith and love we follow Thee,
And e’er to Thee are subject.
Unequaled is Thy worth, dear Lord,
And all Thou art we treasure;
Thou art so perfect and complete,
Beyond all human measure.
(Hymn #188 in Hymns)