its in every thing are most
particularly due to God, and most agreeable to him, and which, in the
old law, he was most jealous in exacting of his people. The
acknowledgment of a benefit received, is the least return we can make
for it: the law of nature dictates the obligation of this tribute; God
strictly requires it, and this is the means to draw down new blessings
on us, the flowing of which is by nothing more effectually obstructed
than by insensibility and ingratitude: wherefore, next to the praise and
love of God, thanksgiving is the principal homage we owe him in the
sacrifice of our hearts, and is a primary act of prayer. The book of
psalms abounds with acts of thanksgiving; the apostle everywhere
recommends and inculcates it in the strongest terms. The primitive
Christians had these words, _Thanks be to God_, always in their mouths,
and used them as their ordinary form of salutation on all occasions, as
St. Austin mentions,[2] who adds, "What better thing can we bear in our
hearts, or pronounce with our tongues, or express with our pens, than,
_Thanks be to God_?" It is the remark of St. Gregory of Nyssa,[3] that
besides past benefits, and promises of other inestimable benefits to
come, we every instant of our lives receive from God fresh favors; and
therefore we ought, if it were possible, every moment to make him a
return of thanks with our whole hearts, and never cease from this duty.
We owe a particular thanksgiving for his more remarkable blessings. A
mother regards her safe delivery, and her happiness is being blessed
with a child, as signal benefits, and therefore she owes a {342}
particular holocaust of thanks for them. This she comes to offer at the
foot of the altar. She comes also to ask the succors of divine grace.
She stands in need of an extraordinary aid from above, both for herself
and her child. For herself, that, by her example, instructions, and
watchfulness, she may fulfil her great obligations as a mother. For her
child, that it may reap the advantage of a virtuous education, may live
to God, and become one day a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem:
otherwise, what will it avail her to have been a mother, or the child to
have been born? Now prayer is the channel which God has appointed for
the conveyance of his graces to us. The mother, therefore, must be
assiduous in begging daily of the Father of mercies all necessary
succors for these purposes: but this she should make the subject of her
mo