When do Christians begin to sing in the ways of the Lord? The moment they lose their burden at the foot of the Cross! Not even the songs of angels seem so sweet as that first song of rapture which gushes from the inmost soul of a forgiven child of God.

You know how John Bunyan describes it. He says when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the Cross, he gave three great leaps and went on his way singing: "Blessed Cross! Blessed Sepulchre! Blessed rather be the Man that there was put to shame for me!"

Believer, do you remember the day your fetters fell off? Do you remember the place where Jesus met you and said, "I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, your sins like thick morning mist. They shall not be mentioned against you anymore—forever!"

Oh! What a sweet season when Jesus takes away the pain of sin.

When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyous I could scarce refrain from dancing. I thought on my road home from the house where I had been set at liberty, that I must tell the stones in the street the story of my deliverance. So full was my soul of joy, I wanted to tell every snowflake falling from heaven of the wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief of rebels.

But it is not only at the commencement of the Christian life that believers have reason for song; as long as they live they discover cause to sing in the ways of the Lord, and their experience of His constant lovingkindness leads them to say, "I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth."

See to it, brother, that you magnify the Lord this day. "Long as we tread this desert land, New mercies shall new songs demand."