- "When All Thy Mercies, O My God"

NOT MANY OF THE LITERARY GREAT have attained to prominence in the Church of the Firstborn. There have, however, been a view exceptions. Among those we would put John Milton, George Herbert and Joseph Addison.
Among the gems left us by Addison is a Thanksgiving hymn, “When All Thy Mercies, O My God”. This hymn appears in the better hymnals and is sung wherever men love to bring exquisite poetry to the service of raise.
When all Thy mercies, O my God
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I’m lost
In wonder, love and praise.
The figure of the mercies of God lying outspread like a vast and variegated landscape is beautiful enough in itself, and when we add to it the picture of the soul rising as from guilty sleep to look out in wonder over the boundless expanse, when we see that soul suddenly rapt into transports of delight with everything it sees until it finally sinks down in a kind of delightful swoon, “lost in wonder, love and praise,” we have a mental image that requires music to express.
Again he sings,
Ten thousand thousand precious gifts
My daily thanks employ;
Nor is the least a cheerful heart
That tastes these gifts with joy.
Here is the true spirit of Thanksgiving. Here is understanding of what pleases God in our acceptance and use of His gifts. “A cheerful heart that tastes these gifts with joy” is the only kind of heart that can taste those gifts safely. There is the idea expressed elsewhere on these pages that our indebtedness to God is so great that nothing less than “daily thanks” will be enough to satisfy our hearts or please the heart of God.
While Addison had in mind chiefly the gifts that God showers upon us here below, he was too much of a Christian to think that God’s gifts or his own praise would cease at death. So he sang,
Through every period of my life
Thy goodness I’ll pursue;
And after death, in distant worlds,
The glorious theme renew.
It is quite in keeping with such a spirit that the poet should call his son-in-law to his side at the last and whisper, “See in what peace a Christian can die.