How to Glorify God
Edward Payson (1783–1827) was an American Congregational pastor. His father, Rev. Seth Payson, and uncle, Phillips Payson, were both life-long pastors. Edward Payson graduated from Harvard College and became the pastor of the Congregational Church at Portland, where he remained until his death in 1827. His daughter was Elizabeth Prentiss. It was said “No man in our country has left behind him a higher character for eminent piety than the Rev. Edward Payson.”
This devotional is adapted from The Works of Edward Payson.
The Duty of Living to the Glory of God:
We were created and redeemed for the sole purpose of praising and glorifying our Creator; and if we refuse or neglect to do this, we transgress the great law of creation, frustrate the end of existence, leave unperformed the work for which we were made, and do all in our power to prove that we were created in vain, and to cause God to repent of having made us.
Should the sun refuse to shine; should the showers refuse to descend; should the earth refuse to bring forth food; or should trees in a fruitful soil continue barren—would you not say that it was contrary to nature and to the design of their creation; and that since they no longer fulfilled this design, they might properly be reduced to nothing again? And do you not see that while you refuse to praise God, your conduct is equally unnatural, and that you may justly be made the monuments of his everlasting displeasure?
What would only be unnatural in inanimate creatures, is the height of folly and wickedness in us; because we are capable of knowing our duty, and are under innumerable obligations to practice it. Let the sun then refuse to shine, the showers to descend, and the earth to be fruitful; but let not rational creatures refuse to praise their Creator, since it is the purpose for which they were created.
How Can Creatures Glorify God?
If it be asked how creatures so feeble and ungrateful as we are, can glorify God, I answer, by conducting in such a manner as naturally tends to make him appear glorious, amiable and excellent in the view of his creatures.
A son, for instance, honors his parents, when he evidently loves, reverences, confides in, and obeys them; because such conduct tends to make those who know him think favorably of his parents. A subject honors his sovereign when he cheerfully submits to his authority, and appears to be contented and happy in his government; because this tends to give others a favorable opinion of his sovereign.
So men honor and glorify God, when they show by their conduct that they consider him the most perfect and best of beings, and love, reverence and confide in him as such; for these things naturally tend to excite a high estimation of God, in the minds of their fellow creatures.