The lie that flatters I abhor the most."

Now, praise, which is one of the best and sweetest things in human life,
so soon passes over into flattery, which is one of the worst things, that
something must here be said and laid to heart about praise also. But, to
begin with, praise itself must first be praised. There is nothing nobler
than true praise in him who speaks it, and there is nothing dearer and
sweeter to him who hears it. God Himself inhabits the praises of Israel.
All God's works praise Him. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me. Praise
waiteth for Thee, O God, in Zion. Enter into His gates with
thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Violence shall no more be
heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou
shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. And such also is
all true praise between man and man. How deliciously sweet is praise!
How we labour after it! how we look for it and wait for it! and how we
languish and die if we do not get it! Again, when it comes to us, how it
cheers us up and makes our face to shine! For a long time after it our
step is so swift on the street and our face beams so that all men can
quite well see what has come to us. Praise is like wine in our blood; it
is new life to our fainting heart. So much is this the case that a
salutation of praise is to be our first taste of heaven itself. It will
wipe all tears off our eyes when we hear our Lord saying to us, "Well
done!" when all our good works that we have done in the body shall be
found unto praise and honour and glory in the great day of Jesus Christ.

At the same time, this same love of praise is one of our most besetting
and fatal temptations as long as we are in this false and double and
deceptive world. Sin, God curse it! has corrupted and poisoned
everything, the very best things of this life, and when the best things
are corrupted and poisoned they become the worst things. And praise does