Gratitude

“ When we vainly imagine gratitude is a mere expression of thanks, we had better examine our hearts and learn what is there, and this will show us what we are, and is the only honest expression of ourselves. ”

“ Let me not grow overbearing in prosperity nor arrogant because of my success, but let me enjoy Thy blessings with becoming gratitude and humility. Nor let me ever forget that the most acceptable thank-offering is to bring light and joy to those that sit in darkness and affliction, and give heed to the hungry and comfort the broken-hearted. ”

“ Reader, it you have already tasted that the Lord is gracious, you will learn, from what you have been reading, to look upward with gratitude, for the exercise toward you of sovereign distinguishing grace—to look forward with humble confidence, your hope resting on the finished work of Immanuel—to look around you on your brethren in the Lord with fervent, pure, operative love—and on the world lying in wickedness, with tender, earnest, and active compassion.
1. Gratitude to God for his distinguishing grace, is one of the leading features of the Christian character. ”

“ And yet what is devotion, but the highest exercise of these tempers, of duty, reverence, love, honour, and gratitude, to the amiable, glorious parent, friend and benefactor of all mankind? So long, therefore, as duty to parents, love to friends, and gratitude to benefactors, are thought great and honourable tempers; devotion, which is nothing else but duty, love, and gratitude to God, must have the chief place amongst our highest virtues. ”

“ In conclusion, permit me to assure your Highness that if the most heart-felt gratitude on the part of a wretch like me, be in any way a recompense for that bounty which has relieved me from the most woeful state of destitution and want,—then that reward is yours—for I am grateful—oh! God only knows how deeply grateful! ”

“ For more and more am I unwilling to make my gratitude to him what is commonly called "a thanksgiving for mercies,"—for any benefits or blessings that are peculiar to myself, or my friends, or indeed to any man. Instead of this, I would have it to be gratitude for all that belongs to my life and being,—for joy and sorrow, for health and sickness, for success and disappointment, for virtue and for temptation, for life and death; because I believe that all is meant for good. ”

“ Thanks be to you who heard, for you become the messenger who brings His Voice with you, and lets It echo round and round the world. Receive the thanks of God today, as you give thanks to Him. For He would offer you the thanks you give, since He receives your gifts in loving gratitude, and gives them back a thousand and a hundred thousand more than they were given. He will bless your gifts by sharing them with you. And so they grow in power and in strength, until they fill the world with gladness and with gratitude. ”

“ My religious life, my intellectual development, my open door of opportunity for labor, my public reputation—all these, my dear friend, I owe in so great a degree to your own kindness that my gratitude cannot be written in words, but must be expressed only in love. ”

“ Your heart should with gratitude burn.
"Your house and its comforts, your food and your friends,
'Tis favour in God to confer,
Have you any claim to the bounty He sends,
Who makes you to differ from her?
"A coach, and a footman, and gaudy attire,
Give little true joy to the breast;
To be good is the thing you should chiefly desire,
And then leave to God all the rest." ”

“ and again and again confessing my grateful love to Him who had done everything for me—who had saved me when I had given up all hope and even desire for salvation—I besought Him to give me some work to do for Him, as an outlet for love and gratitude; ”

“ To those who themselves have known the longing it is needless to describe my happiness and pride, my gratitude to those who had honoured me, my impetuous thirst for service, my resolve to set heart and soul towards high ideals and thoughts, my solemn boyish prayers that I might conduct nobly in the eyes of all men, for God and King and country. ”

“ View those miseries, then, as the special acts of mercy and commiseration of a beneficent Creator, who with every calamity, melts away a link of that earthly chain that fetters our wishes to this dismal world. Accept his blessings and his goods when he sends them, with gratitude and enjoyment; receive his afflictions too with as joyous acceptance, and as hearty gratitude. ”

“ Lord God, my soul fills with gratitude for the blessings which I have received and enjoyed. Help me to conform to thy will concerning my duties. May I not try to resist thy providence. I pray that thou wilt bless my daily life, and make my home a place to dispense kindness and cheerfulness. ”

“ Be ever grateful to this Great One for the blessings that you have, for through this gratitude shall come great peace and great knowing, for if we are grateful for the small things in life, the greater things are inevitable. ”

“ The Chearfulness of Heart which springs up in us from the Survey of Nature's Works, is an admirable Preparation for Gratitude. The Mind has gone a great way towards Praise and Thanksgiving, that is filled with such a secret Gladness: A grateful Reflection on the supreme Cause who produces it, sanctifies it in the Soul, and gives it its proper Value. ”

“ Thus, then, a heartfelt acknowledgment of the presence and providence of the Divine Being—such real acknowledgment as naturally puts itself forth in prayer—is seen to be not only a duty springing from gratitude, but also a great advantage and benefit, as affording us a protection against our own evil passions within, and consequently from numberless dangers without. ”

“ That real gratitude—that to which the heart surrenders itself without reserve—is the happiest sensation experienced on earth, we have probably all felt at different times, and in a manner adapted to our own habits and associations—some on entering the house of prayer, some on the recovery of a beloved friend from illness, some on returning home, and some on going forth under favorable auspices; while others have found themselves most overpowered by emotions of gratitude, they scarcely know how, or why. ”

“ That you will receive me kindly, and I think I will show you, if you doubt it, that I have a heart to acknowledge gratitude—a heart that feels for others, and willing to alleviate where I can all the evils to which men and women are subject. ”

“ Are we really grateful for the good already received! Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. ”

“ Often have I come for advice to your wisdom, and sympathy to your heart, bearing back with me, in all such seasons, new increase to that pleasurable gratitude which is, perhaps, the rarest, nor the least happy sentiment, that experience leaves to man. ”

“ I cannot therefore for a moment doubt, but that in a mind like yours, the blessed song of praise and gratitude must often have been elevated to the FATHER OF MERCIES, in humble and thankful adoration of the goodness which suggested, of the wisdom which devised, and of the power which constructed so many inlets for the reception of all that is delightful, interesting, and edifying in this lower world. ”

“ “Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.” ”

“ The natural impulse of gratitude is to give its best, and the proper use of healing and new strength is to minister to Him. Such a guest made humble household cares worship; and all our poor powers or tasks, consecrated to His praise and become the offerings of grateful hearts, are lifted into greatness and dignity. ”

“ When we look back on the past history of this people, and see the difficulties they have had to encounter and have overcome, our hearts should swell with joy and gratitude to the benign Providence which has brought us to the position that we now enjoy. ”

“ I am thankful for the blessings that the Lord has vouchsafed to bestow upon His people. If I do not at all times in public express my gratitude to our heavenly Father, yet I feel grateful and thankful for all His favors, whether I utter it or not. ”

“ III. The great duty we owe to the generous donor of the inheritance.—“Giving thanks.” Gratitude is the easiest and commonest duty of a dependent creature; yet is the duty most frequently and grossly neglected. Our hearts should ever glow with an unquenchable flame of grateful praise to the bountiful Author of all our blessings. ”

“ When any original act of charity or of gratitude, for instance, is presented either to our sight or imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable and grateful acts also. ”

“ Gratitude, from the Latin gratitudo, from gratus, kind, is a sense of appreciation of favors received, as indicated by actions. It is the actual feeling, of which thankfulness, or the fulness of thanks, is the mere outward expression. It is therefore quite possible, and indeed often the case, for a person who at one time is full of thanks to show subsequently a want of gratitude. ”

“ No! the first demand of religion on man is the duty of simple gratitude. The truly honorable and just-minded man, conscious of having received, and of daily receiving, the greatest benefits from his Maker and Heavenly Father,—yet conscious of his inability to make any adequate return for that goodness,—rejoices to make the little return that is in his power, that of gratitude and thankfulness. ”

“ GRATITUDE is the emotion of a noble and susceptible heart excited by acts of benevolence, and directed towards a benefactor. It is a gentle affection, softening and harmonizing the mind: it is also an active principle prompting to the exercise of the social virtues, and leading to a mutual interchange of good offices. ”

“ The feeling ought to be that of gratitude, and of the most profound recognition of the goodness and mercy and loving-kindness of our Lord and Saviour, who has walked in our households and in the midst of this artificial Christian family, and has not ceased to do us good, for the past twenty five years. ”

“ The sentiment of gratitude which filled our minds towards the Supreme Being, who had saved us from destruction and supplied us with all things needful, demanded utterance, and on Sundays we might allow ourselves the indulgence of pouring out our hearts in thankfulness. ”

“ However inadequate he may prove to the painful yet pleasing endeavour to express personally his gratitude on the night of his retreat, it is his intention to offer an address of thanks, in which, though mere words may not be equal to paint the depth and sincerity of his feelings, he will hope to gain credit for the heartfelt sensation of dutiful respect which accompanies his last farewell. ”

“ And as there is more hope of attaining a high degree of excellence, if our standard of comparison be high (even if it be beyond our reach) , so I will hope that the more enlarged is our estimate of our subjects for gratitude, the more deep and heartfelt will our gratitude be. It does seem to me, that no being can have more for which to give thanks, than I have in past and present blessings ”

“ Gratitude—I do not know of any, excepting the unpardonable sin, that is greater than the sin of ingratitude. ”

“ It is good to be grateful: gratitude is a Christian virtue, and well-becoming those who by their missions, their literary labours, and their institutions for education, have acquired so much glory to themselves, and rendered such signal services to the Christian world. ”

“ And in the hour of deliverance and joy, a feeling of gratitude pervades the soul--and gratitude, too, not to some 116 blind nature-force, to some unconscious and impersonal power, but gratitude to God. The soul's natural and appropriate language in the hour of deliverance is thanksgiving and praise. ”

“ As the duties of gratitude, however, are perhaps the most sacred of all those which the beneficent virtues prescribe to us, so the general rules which determine them are, as I said before, the most accurate. ”

“ He who receives a benefit with gratitude, repays the first instalment of it. ”

“ Your unflagging solicitudes, too, for my poor waning life have much added to that debt of gratitude, great as it was and is. Let the good Lord be praised for ever and ever that spirits such as yours have been born into the world. ”

“ But mental energy accumulates too; and the sense of its pressure is expressed in what seems to me the greatest word in our language—gratitude. Gratitude is "happiness doubled by wonder," happiness such as anybody may contain almost unconsciously or may let out of him, if he is thoughtful, in action sprung from conscious gratitude. ”

“ A thankful remembrance of past benefits cheers and strengthens the heart under difficulties and disposes the bounteous Donor to confer further benefits. There is nothing in which Christians are more deficient than in a devout and heartily expressed gratitude. Gratitude expands our sympathies for the race. ”

“ In a wide sense, gratitude is the recognition of favors received from superiors, and does not differ from religion, piety and reverence, by which one gives due acknowledgment to God as the first cause of all benefits, to parents as the second cause of life and training, and to rulers as the second cause of direction or guidance or of public and common benefits. ”

“ Lord, for the erring thought
Not into evil wrought:
Lord, for the wicked will
Betrayed and baffled still:
For the heart from itself kept,
Our thanksgiving accept.
II.
For ignorant hopes that were
Broken to our blind prayer:
For pain, death, sorrow, sent
Unto our chastisement:
For all loss of seeming good,
Quicken our gratitude. ”