The best work of a man's best.
"I will sing and give praise with the best member that I have" (Prayer-book Version). A man's "glory" is his soul-the powers and faculties which belong to him as a rational and spiritual being. A man may join in singing praise, and only do it mechanically. A man may give praise him self as the mere performance of a duty. A man only praises God aright, or acceptably, when he praises with his glory; as a real and sincere expression of his feeling. True praise is the utterance of a man's individuality.
I. THE GLORY OF A MAN IS THAT WHICH DISTINGUISHES HIM FROM THE ANIMALS. The beasts of the field have no uplooking eyes or yearning hearts. No mere animal can sing. It is only in a figurative sense that birds are said to sing. They express nothing intelligent to men in the sounds they make. Man can think; can receive impressions; can discern qualities in things done for him and to him; can feel emotions of love and admiration and gratitude. So with his glory as a man, he can sing and give praise. Man can lead the choir of creation; but man's song differs from all other songs. The tone and meaning in it is put by man's glory.
II. THE GLORY OF A MAN IS THAT WHICH DISTINGUISHES HIM FROM OTHER MEN. It may be true that all men are alike. The bodily limbs, organs, faculties, etc; are the same. But it is even more true that men differ from one another. Each one is strictly an individual. A man may have much in common with his fellows; he has some thing which is peculiar to himself—some faculty, or taste, or preference, or influence, or experience, which is strictly personal. And that, whatever it may be, is his glory. And it is the placing of that on the altar of service to God which is the real "presenting of a man's self as a living sacrifice." The Prayer-book Version seals this in its rendering, "with the best member that I have."—R.T.