created thing—"Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord." Yet
him. In preaching it, we bring you a good report of God, a good report of himself and of his doings; a good report of his free, rich, immeasurable love, that, hearing that good report of him, you may receive it, and give glory to the Lord your God, commencing forthwith a hallelujah which each day of your life will deepen and render more cordial and more intense.
2. By whom is the hallelujah to be sung?—It should be sung by each created thing—"Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord." Yet we know it is not so. There are voices that once sung it, that do not sing it now, and shall never sing it more. I mean the angels that kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. There are voices that might have sung it, but shall never do so—the lost souls in the region of fire and woe. And there are voices here that might sing it; and our appeal to such is, "Oh, will ye not learn!" But, notwithstanding these, there are singers without number. There are the elect angels who, in the Book of Revelation, are represented as thus uttering praise to to Jehovah (5:11, 12). Their number is "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands," and they sing with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." Thus they sing their hallelujah in the heights above; and "Praise ye Jehovah" comes forth from their lips; not merely while surveying that happy heaven from which they never wandered, but while looking downwards upon earth to see the sin-bearing Son of God (though in that sin-bearing they had no share), and to learn from the Church the manifold wisdom of God. Then there are the redeemed from among men, the great multitude that no man can number; these, standing on the sea of glass, or on the Mount Zion, or within the gates of the New Jerusalem, sing a hallelujah louder and more rapturous still: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created;" and again, "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb" (Rev. 4:11; 7:10). And then, as if this were not enough, as if these two classes, the unfallen angels and the redeemed from among men, were not
wholly comprehensive, we read, "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever" (Rev. 5:13, 14).
Thus, the number of creatures above and below, already joining in this hallelujah, is beyond our calculation or conception—thousands, and tens of thousands, and thousands of thousands, of men and angels; but who can tell the myriads more that are yet to be created, and yet to add their voices to this vast multitude?—for we are but the "first-fruits of his creatures" (Jas. 1:18). Each part of creation gives a good report of God; things living or without life, all speak well of him; each atom even of the material universe has something good to say of him; but, especially they who know him best—they who have seen the most of his wondrous character—they who read in the cross the glories of his name, the fulness of his grace—they who have thus seen what riches of being are in him, as Jehovah, the Being of beings, able not only to give being out of nothing, but to give being out of a state far lower than nothing—they who have not merely looked upon redemption as accomplished for others, but tasted it as carried out in themselves—they are, above all others, to be the chief singers in this mighty hallelujah.
There is, however, yet one voice more that is spoken of as joining in the hallelujah. It is the voice of Him who led the praises of his disciples on earth, as on that night when it is said, "When they had sung an hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives;" and that passover hymn was just one of those very hallelujahs with which the Psalms abound. It is the voice of Him who says, "In the midst of the church or congregation will I sing praise unto thee." With Him in the midst, leading the song—with his voice sounding the key-note, and leading the mighty choir of resurrection voices, in the great day of triumph, how indescribably glorious and magnificent will that hallelujah be! Ear hath not heard what shall on that day be heard,