What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever

1647 · Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Larger Catechism 1

Q. What is the chief and highest end of man? A. Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.

1655–1662 · William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour Part 16. Direction Twelfth. The Duty of every Christian in complete Armour to aid by

Man’s soul is of high, yea royal extraction, for God is ‘the Father of spirits;’ but this child meets his heavenly Father in the dark, and knows him not: ‘He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not,’ John 1:10. And as it is of high birth, so intended for a high end, to glorify and enjoy God its Maker. Now, for want of the knowledge of Christ it can do neither, but debaseth itself to the drudgery of sin and sensual embraces of the creature instead of God, for whom it was at first made; like the son of some great prince, who, not knowing his royal descent, casts himself away in marriage on some beggar’s daughter.

1680–1681 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. VII Several Sermons upon the CXIX. Psalm, Sermon LXVI. I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies

Prov. xvi. 4, ‘God hath made all things for himself,’ for his glory; and so man to glorify him and enjoy him. The beasts were made to glorify him in their kind, but man to enjoy him. This is my end, to seek after God, to please him, to serve him: Ps. xiv. 2, ‘The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.’ God, that hath fixed his end, observeth what man doth in compliance with it, what affection and care they have to find him, please him, glorify him. Reason will tell us as well as scripture that the first cause must be the last end, and we must end there where we began at first: 1 Cor. x. 31, ‘Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.’ Well, then, I was not made for nothing, not to sin away my life, nor to sport it away, nor to talk it away, nor to drudge it away in the servile and basest offices of this life; my end is to enjoy God, and my work and business is to serve and glorify him.

1857 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 3 (1857) 107

THE OLD Assembly’s Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” and its answer is, “To glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.” The answer is exceedingly correct; but it might have been equally truthful if it had been shorter. The chief end of man is “to please God;” for in so doing—we need not say it, because it is an undoubted fact—in so doing he will please himself. The chief end of man, we believe, in this life and in the next, is to please God his Maker.

1874 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 20 (1874) 1197

For what were we created, my Brothers and Sisters? I know no better answer than that of the Assembly's catechism, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." There is a vast amount both of theology and philosophy in that simple answer which our old Divines have put into the mouth of a child. Had man remained what God made him, it would have been his very element to glorify his God! To do the will of God would have been as natural to us as to breathe if we had not fallen from original perfection.

1876 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 22 (1876) 1296

Children owe obedience to their parents and much more do creatures owe a debt to their Creator—that debt is a consecrated life—a debt which is always due since the life is daily being maintained by fresh Divine power. It was for this end that the Almighty made us and for nothing short of this, that we might glorify God and enjoy Him forever. When a man fashions a vessel or a tool, it is that it may answer the purpose for which he designed it. And if it does not answer his design, he casts it away. What man will keep a horse or a cow if it yields him no benefit? And if a dog never acknowledged you as its master, who among you would long call it your own? God has made us that we may glorify Him and if we do not honor Him we miss the end and object of our being. I care not what you do nor what you are—though you should be owners of a score of counties, if you love not God your soul is poor and degraded. Though men should set you on a column high in the air and account you a hero, if you have not lived for God, you have lived in vain.

1889 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 35 (1889) 2067

I learned, when I was a boy, that the chief end of man was to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But I hear now, according to the new theology, that the chief end of God is to glorify man and enjoy him forever. Yet this is the turning of things upside down. The glory of God is still the chief end of the world's existence.

1891 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 37 (1891) 2224

We are led farthest away from God when we doubt the love which He has sealed with the blood of His own heart. It is, therefore, for our own good that we should believe. Here and always, God's Glory and our good are closely joined. To glorify God will be to enjoy Him forever.

1908 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: 2 Chronicles 12.8

It is not for me to attempt here to draw out the contrast between man’s chief end and all other rival claimants of our lives. Each man must do that for himself, and I venture to assert that the more thoroughly the process of comparison is carried out, and the more complete the analysis not only of the rival claims and gifts, but of our capacities and needs, the more sun-clear will be the truth of the old, well-worn answer: ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever.’ The old woman by her solitary fireside who has learned that and practises it, has chosen the better part which will last when many shining careers have sunk into darkness, and many will-o’-the-wisps, which have been pursued with immense acclamations, have danced away into the bog, and many a man who has been envied and admired has had to sum up his successful career in the sad words, ‘I have played the fool and erred exceedingly.’

1908–1909 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms 32.1-2

‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever’; and whosoever in all his successes fails to realise that end is a failure through and through, in whatever smaller matters he may seem to himself and to others to succeed. He only strikes the target in the bull’s eye who lets his arrows be deflected by no gusts of passion, nor aimed wrong by any obliquity of vision; but with firm hand and clear eye seeks and secures the absolute conformity of his will to the Father’s will, and makes God his aim and end in all things. ‘Thou hast created us for Thyself, and only in Thee can we find rest.’ O brother! whatever be your aims and ends in life, take this for the surest verity, that you have fatally misunderstood the purpose of your being, and the object to which you should strain, if there is anything except God, who is the supreme desire of your heart and the goal of your life.

1915 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 61 (1915) 3490

You remember the Countess of Huntingdon, one of the most remarkably gracious women that ever lived—a mother in Israel. Her conversion was, to a great degree, caused by this—she was a happy and worldly lady of noble rank, excellent and amiable, and all that, but she had no thought of the things of God. She was at a ball and the amusements of the evening were engrossing all attention, and suddenly the answer to the first question of the assembly's catechism, which she appears to have learned when she was a child, came forcibly into her mind, "The chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever." She thought to herself, "Why, here am I, a butterfly among a lot of butterflies! All our chief end is to enjoy ourselves, to spend the evening merrily making ourselves agreeable, and so on." She went away smitten in her soul with that thought, "The end that God made me for I am not answering."

1546 · John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, part 1 (chapters 1-14) 1.31

In short, man, brought to nothing in his own estimation, and acknowledging that there is nothing good anywhere but in God alone, must renounce all desire for his own glory, and with all his might aspire and aim at the glory of God exclusively. This is also more clearly apparent from the context in the writings of the Prophet, from whom Paul has borrowed this testimony; for in that passage the Lord, after stripping all mankind of glory in respect of strength, wisdom, and riches, commands us to glory only in knowing him, (Jeremiah 9:23, 24.) Now he would have us know him in such a way as to know that it is he that exercises judgment, righteousness, and mercy. For this knowledge produces in us at once confidence in him and fear of him. If therefore a man has his mind regulated in such a manner that, claiming no merit to himself, he desires that God alone be exalted; if he rests with satisfaction on his grace, and places his entire happiness in his fatherly love, and, in fine, is satisfied with God alone, that man truly “glories in the Lord.”

1551 · John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Peter 4.11

The sense is, that God does not adorn us with his gifts, that he may rob himself and make himself as it were an empty idol by transferring to us his own glory, but that, on the contrary, his own glory may everywhere shine forth; and that it is therefore a sacrilegious profanation of God’s gifts when men propose to themselves any other object than to glorify God.

1640 · Thomas Shepard, The Sincere Convert Chapter VI

There is many seek the honor of Christ; but do you seek his honor only? Is it your last end, where you rest and seek no more but that? If thou wouldest know whether thou makest Christ's glory thy last end, observe this rule:-- If thou art more grieved for the eclipse of thine own honor, and for thine own losses, than for the loss of God's honor, it is an evident sign thou lovest it not, desirest it not as thy chiefest good, as the last end, for thy summum bonum, and therefore dost not seek God's honor in the prime and chiefest place. Sin troubled Paul more than all the plagues and miseries of the world. Indeed, if thy name be dashed with disgrace, and thy will be crossed, thy heart is grieved and disquieted: but the Lord may lose his honor daily by thine own sins, and those that be round about thee, but not a tear, not a sigh, not a groan to behold such a spectacle: as sure as the Lord lives, thou seekest not the Lord's name or honor as thy greatest good.

1646–1690 · John Owen, Sermons of John Owen new.12

] It is not, therefore, necessary that, in every particular action of our lives, of what sort soever it be, natural, civil, or religious, we should actually make the glory of God, or the glorifying of God, to be the immediate especial end of it. It may suffice, in many instances, that their particular ends be not inconsistent therewithal, but such as may be subordinated thereunto. Nevertheless, in greater duties, and such as the glory of God may have an immediate concernment in, such as are all acts of religious worship, there is an actual, especial intention of glorifying him, or of giving glory unto him; for that is the immediate end of all divine worship, which if it fail, the whole is lost. He, therefore, that lives to God, designs the immediate glorifying of him in all acts of his worship, and that by faith and the obedience thereof.

1655–1662 · William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour Part 12. DIRECTION XI.—SECOND GENERAL PART. [How to perform the duty commanded—a

The glory of God is to be the ultimate end, not only in every duty of worship, but in all our common actions also, even to eating and drinking. Those low actions are to be elevated to this high end, I Cor. 10:31. And good reason he should be our utmost end from whom we received our beginning. All things are of him, and therefore fit they should be to him. The river-water empties itself into the bosom of the sea from whence it flows.

1673 · Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory Chapter IV

God is to be man's end, though we can add nothing to him. The highest love supposeth no want in him that we love, but an excellency of glory, wisdom, and goodness, to which all our faculties offer up themselves in admiration, love, and praise: not only for the delights of these, nor only that our persons may herein be happy; but chiefly that God may have his due, and his will may be pleased and fulfilled; and because his excellencies deserve all this from men and angels. When we love a man of wonderful learning, and wisdom, and meekness, and charity, and holiness, and other goodness, it is not chiefly for ourselves that we love him, that we may receive something from him; for we feel his excellency command our love, though we were sure that we should never receive any thing from him: nor is the delight of loving him our chief end, but a consequent, or the lesser part of our end; for we feel that we love him before we think of the delight. The admiration, love, and praise of God our ultimate end, hath no end beside their proper object; for it is itself the final act, even man's perfection.

1673 · Richard Baxter, A Christian Directory Chapter Xvii.directions for Each Particular Member of the Family How to Spend Every

Renew the actual intention and remembrance of your ultimate end, when you set yourselves to your day's work, or set upon any notable business in the world. Let HOLINESS TO THE LORD be written upon your hearts in all that you do. Do no work which you cannot entitle God to, and truly say he set you about; and do nothing in the world for any other ultimate end, than to please, and glorify, and enjoy him. And remember that whatever you do, must be done as a means to these, and as by one that is that way going on to heaven. All your labour must be as the labour of a traveller, which is all for his journey's end; and all your respect or affection to any place or thing in your way, must be in respect to your attainment of the end; as a traveller loveth a good way, a good horse, a good inn, a dry cloak, or good company; but nothing must be loved here as your end or home. Lift up your hearts to heaven and say, If this work and way did not tend thither directly or indirectly, it were no work or way for me. Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God, 1 Cor. x. 31.

1675–1680 · Stephen Charnock, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God 2

In the actual aims men have in their duties. In prayer for temporal things, when we desire health for our own ease, wealth for our own sensuality, strength for our revenge, children for the increase of our family, gifts for our applause; as Simon Magus did the Holy Ghost: or, when some of those ends are aimed at, this is to desire God not to serve himself of us, but to be a servant to our worldly interest, our vain glory, the greatening of our names, &c. In spiritual mercies begged for; when pardon of sin is desired only for our own security from eternal vengeance; sanctification desired only to make us fit for everlasting blessedness; peace of conscience, only that we may lead our lives more comfortably in the world; when we have not actual intentions for the glory of God, or when our thoughts of God’s honor are overtopped by the aims of self‑advantage: not but that as God hath pressed us to those things by motives drawn from the blessedness derived to ourselves by them, so we may desire them with a respect to ourselves; but this respect must be contained within the due banks, in subordination to the glory of God, not above it, nor in an equal balance with it.

1692 · Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Contained in Sermons upon the Westminster Assembly's Catechism 2.1

Everything works to some end in things natural and artificial; now, man being a rational creature, must propose some end to himself, and that should be, that he may lift up God in the world. He had better lose his life than the end of his living. The great truth is asserted, that the end of every man's living should be to glorify God. Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity.

1692 · Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Contained in Sermons upon the Westminster Assembly's Catechism 2.1

It is glorifying God when we aim purely at his glory. It is one thing to advance God's glory, another thing to aim at it. God must be the Terminus ad quem, the ultimate end of all actions. Thus Christ, John 8:80, 'I seek not mine own glory, but the glory of him that sent me.' A hypocrite has a squint eye, for he looks more to his own glory than God's.

1692 · Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Contained in Sermons upon the Westminster Assembly's Catechism 2.1

We glorify God, when we are God-admirers; admire his attributes, which are the glistering beams by which the divine nature shines forth; his promises which are the charter of free grace, and the spiritual cabinet where the pearl of price is hid; the noble effects of his power and wisdom in making the world, which is called ‘the work of his fingers.' Psa 8:8. To glorify God is to have God-admiring thoughts; to esteem him most excellent, and search for diamonds in this rock only. [2] Glorifying God consists in adoration, or worship.

1692 · Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Contained in Sermons upon the Westminster Assembly's Catechism 2.1

Doxology, or praise, is a God-exalting work. Psa 1:23. ‘Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.' The Hebrew word Bara, to create, and Barak, to praise, are little different, because the end of creation is to praise God. David was called the sweet singer of Israel, and his praising God was called glorifying God. Psa 86:12. ‘I will praise thee, O Lord my God, and I will glorify thy name.' Though nothing can add to God's essential glory, yet praise exalts him in the eyes of others. When we praise God, we spread his fame and renown, we display the trophies of his excellency.

1710 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Psalms 50.16-23

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; we have it, v. 23, which directs us what to do that we may attain our chief end. 1. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and we are here told that whoso offers praise glorifies him; whether he be Jew or Gentile, those spiritual sacrifices shall be accepted from him. We must praise God, and we must sacrifice praise, direct it to God, as every sacrifice was directed; put it into the hands of the priest, our Lord Jesus, who is also the altar; see that it be made by fire, sacred fire, that it be kindled with the flame of holy and devout affection; we must be fervent in spirit, praising the Lord. This he is pleased, in infinite condescension, to interpret as glorifying him. Hereby we give him the glory due to his name and do what we can to advance the interests of his kingdom among men.

c. 1714 · Samuel Rosewell, Commentary on Ephesians 1.3-14

The apostle mentions the great end and design of God in bestowing all these spiritual privileges, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ—we to whom the gospel was first preached, and who were first converted to the faith of Christ, and to the placing of our hope and trust in him. Note, Seniority in grace is a preferment: Who were in Christ before me, says the apostle (Rom. xvi. 7); those who have for a longer time experienced the grace of Christ are under more special obligations to glorify God. They should be strong in faith, and more eminently glorify him; but this should be the common end of all. For this we were made, and for this we were redeemed; this is the great design of our Christianity, and of God in all that he has done for us: unto the praise of his glory, v. 14. He intends that his grace and power and other perfection should by this means become conspicuous and illustrious, and that the sons of men should magnify him.

c. 1714 · Daniel Mayo, Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 1.11-12

Why the apostle prayed for these things (v. 12): That the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified; this is the end we should aim at in every thing we do and desire, that God and Christ in all things may be glorified. Our own happiness and that of others should be subordinate to this ultimate end.

1788 · Jonathan Edwards, A Dissertation Concerning the End for which God Created the World 2.3

“Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God.” Concerning which last place may be observed, that God seems to say this to such as supposed, in their religious performances, that the end of all religion was to glorify God. They supposed they did this in the best manner, in offering a multitude of sacrifices; but God corrects their mistake, and informs them, that this grand end of religion is not attained this way, but in offering the more spiritual sacrifices of praise and a holy conversation.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 9 209

The result of all is, that we glorify God by doing our duty, by all actions of worship and obedience to God, and by our repentance in case of sin and disobedience, by doing and by suffering the will of God, more especially by using our Christian liberty, as to things lawful in themselves, so as may make most for the honour and advantage of religion, for the unity and edification of the church, and the salvation of the souls of men, which is the proper notion here in the text of eating and drinking, and doing whatever we do, “to the glory of God.”

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 7 157

By the glory of God, we mean the demonstration, or illustration, or manifestation, of some or all of his perfections, more especially his goodness, and mercy, and justice, and wisdom, and power, and holiness. II. It is plain, that the manifestation of some of these perfections is a thing that may be separated from the happiness of a creature; for his holiness, and justice, and power, may and shall be manifested in the final and eternal ruin of impenitent sinners. III. The manifestation of any of God’s perfections, ought many times to be propounded by us as an end distinct and separate from our respective happiness; such a happiness as respects only some particulars, and some particular duration, in opposition to absolute and eternal happiness.

1876 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 22 (1876) 1296

A great argument for our obligation to glorify God is found in the fact that in this service men find their highest honor and their truest happiness. To serve some beings would be degrading—to be the vessel of the devil is to bring upon yourself disgrace and sorrow. But to serve the Lord is more honorable than to wear a prince's ermine and, as for happiness, the angels find it Heaven and redeemed spirits acknowledge it to be their bliss, while those on earth who most fully do the will of the Lord confess themselves to be the happiest of men! It is a seraph's glory that he gives glory to God and there we must find ours.

1879 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 25 (1879) 1473

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, it is all to be done to the Glory of God! The great thought you are to have in opening your shops, in trading, in toiling, in furnishing your houses, in nursing your children and even in taking recreation, is still to be, "How can I glorify God in all this?"

1887 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 33 (1887) 1978

The very being of a Believer is to the praise and glory of God! It is written, "Whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." But this is still more comprehensive—you are to be to His glory—your very existence is to praise Him. Your being, which is now turned into well-being, is to glorify the God of Grace!

1901 · Andrew Murray, Working for God! 31

This is the glory of God, that He is the alone and ever-flowing fountain of all life and goodness and happiness, and that His creatures can have all this only as He gives it and works it in them. His working all in all, this is His glory. And the only glory His creature, His child, can give Him is this—receiving all He is willing to give, yielding to Him to let Him work, and then acknowledging that He has done it. Thus God Himself shows forth His glory in us; in our willing surrender to Him, and our joyful acknowledgment that He does all, we glorify Him. And so our life and work is glorified, as it has one purpose with all God’s own work, ‘that in all things God may be glorified, whose is the glory for ever and ever.’

1907 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Exodus 25.30

As for the first, whatever a man does for any motive other, and with any end less, than God and His Glory, that act, beautiful as it may be in other respects, loses its supreme beauty, and falls short of perfect nobleness, just in the measure in which other motives, or other ends, than this supreme one, are permitted to dominate it. I do not contend for such an impossible suppression of myself as that my own blessedness and the like shall be in no manner my end, but I do maintain this, that in good old language, ‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God,’ and that anything which I do, unless it is motived by this regard to Him as its ‘chief end,’ loses its noblest consecration, and is degraded from its loftiest beauty.

1907 · Hovey, quoted by Augustus Hopkins Strong, Systematic Theology Chapter IV. The Works Of God; Or The Execution Of The Decrees

Hovey, Studies, 65—“To manifest the glory or perfection of God is therefore the chief end of our existence. To live in such a manner that his life is reflected in ours; that his character shall reappear, at least faintly, in ours; that his holiness and love shall be recognized and declared by us, is to do that for which we are made. And so, in requiring us to glorify himself, God simply requires us to do what is absolutely right, and what is at the same time indispensable to our highest welfare. Any lower aim could not have been placed before us, without making us content with a character unlike that of the First Good and the First Fair.”

1908–1909 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms 1.1

God desires that we should know Him, and so have Eternal Life; He desires that knowing Him, we should love Him, and loving should praise, and so should glorify Him. He desires that there should be an interchange of love bestowing and love receiving, of gifts showered down and of praise ascending, of fire falling from the heavens and sweet incense, from grateful hearts, going up in fragrant clouds acceptable unto God. It is a sign of a Fatherly heart that He ‘seeketh such to worship Him’. He desires to be glorified by our praise, because He loves us so much.

1908–1909 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms 23.1-6

All this is emphatically true of the spiritual life. Its seasons of communion, its hours on the mount, are to prepare for the sore sad work in the plain; and he is not the wisest disciple who tries to make the Mount of Transfiguration the abiding place for himself and his Lord. It is not well that our chief object should be to enjoy the consolations of religion; it is better to seek first to do the duties enjoined by religion. Our first question should be, not, How may I enjoy God? but, How may I glorify Him? ‘A single eye to His glory’ means that even our comfort and joy in religious exercises shall be subordinated, and (if need were) postponed, to the doing of His will. While, on the one hand, there is no more certain means of enjoying Him than that of humbly seeking to walk in the ways of His commandments, on the other hand, there is nothing more evanescent in its nature than a mere emotion, even though it be that of joy in God, unless it be turned into a spring of action for God.

1605–1610 · Johann Arndt, True Christianity 2.43

That the praising of God is a man's greatest privilege, and most valuable treasure, appears (4) hence: because in that exercise is contained the greatest spiritual joy. Hence it is said, “Thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work; I will triumph in the works of thy hands.” Ps. 92:4. And as in this divine joy consists the greatest part of the happiness of eternal life, and the kingdom of God within us, which we are told, “is peace and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17); so whoever desires a foretaste of the happiness of that blessed state, may obtain it by the daily exercise of praise and thanksgiving.

1692 · Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Contained in Sermons upon the Westminster Assembly's Catechism 2.1

Use two: Let this be a spur to duty. How diligent and zealous should we be in glorifying God, that we may come at last to enjoy him! If Tully, Demosthenes, and Plato, who had but the dim watch-light of reason to see by, fancied an elysium and happiness after this life, and took such Herculean pains to enjoy it, oh how should Christians, who have the light of Scripture to see by, bestir themselves that they may attain to the eternal fruition of God and glory! If anything can make us rise off our bed of sloth, and serve God with all our might, it should be this, the hope of our near enjoyment of God for ever.

1746 · Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections 3.2

But I humbly suppose it is for want of consideration that they say so. They argue, that whoever loves God, and so desires his glory or the enjoyment of him, he desires these things as his own happiness; the glory of God, and the beholding and enjoying his perfections are considered as things agreeable to him, tending to make him happy; he places his happiness in them, and desires them as things, which (if they were obtained) would be delightful to him, or would fill him with delight and joy, and so make him happy. And so, they say, it is from self-love, or a desire of his own happiness, that he desires God should be glorified, and desires to behold and enjoy his glorious perfections. But then they ought to consider a little further, and inquire how the man came to place his happiness in God's being glorified, and in contemplating and enjoying God's perfections.—There is no doubt but that after God's glory, and the beholding his perfections, are become so agreeable to him, that he places his highest happiness in these things then he will desire them, as he desires his own happiness. But how came these things to be so agreeable to him, that he esteems it his highest happiness to glorify God, &c.? Is not this the fruit of love? A man must first love God or have his heart united to him, before he will esteem God's good his own, and before he will desire the glorifying, and enjoying of God as his happiness.

1897 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 43 (1897) 2502

We have enjoyed His love. But what will it be to enjoy God, Himself, and to enjoy Him forever? The Psalmist spoke of "God, my exceeding joy," but that was for earth. It will be "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" to enjoy God forever!