Article December 7, 1935 Issue

Praising His Name

BERNICE M. POST

"Praise his name"! How significant an exhortation is this, and yet how much of its meaning has become lost through centuries of ritulistic worship! Unless one's thinking is spiritually clear and correct, one is apt to pass over the phrase hastily, with all too scant a recognition of its import. The Psalmist constantly praised God in his writings. So, too, did the prophets. David, after extolling the omnipotence, glory, and majesty of God—as recorded in I Chronicles—said, "Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name." This surely does not refer to hasty lip service, but enjoins upon all a constant realization of the infinite nature of God, good.

But if to us the word "name," like so many other expressions in daily use, has lost vitality and force through constant, unthinking repetition, our thought of it may no longer be a gateway to spiritual realization. Therefore, to obey the command to "praise his name," one must re-endow the word with a freshened sense of its true significance. A dictionary defines "name" as the "title by which any person or thing is known or designated; a distinctive, specific appellation." In thinking of a friend, we are instantly reminded of the qualities and characteristics we associate with him. Throughout history and literature, the names of certain persons have come to stand for high moral or spiritual ideals. The names, for instance, of Washington and Lincoln have become almost symbolic of the qualities of patriotism and justice associated with these characters.

And so it should be with the name "God," which is far more than a mere title of the Supreme Being. The name should bring to thought the qualities of God's infinite nature, His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. On page 258 of "Miscellaneous Writings" our Leader writes: "The name, I am, indicated no personality that could be paralleled with it; but it did declare a mighty individuality, even the everlasting Father, as infinite consciousness, ever-presence, omnipotence: as all law. Life. Truth, and Love."

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