were of little use, and nothing but the arm of Jehovah could lay the invader low. We know not the secret history of this world's mightiest transactions and its proudest monuments; but from the little that we know we can affirm that the men who have prospered best are the men who have taken time to pray. It was to prayer that Henry IV. of France ascribed his crown, and Gustavus owed his victories. The father of the modern fine arts was wont, before he began any new composition, to invoke His inspiration who in other days taught Aholiab; and the Goliath of English literature felt that he studied most successfully when he had prayed earnestly. And what Michael Angelo and Milton and Johnson found so helpful to their mighty genius cannot hinder us. You have read in our own history of that hero who, when an overwhelming force was in full pursuit, and all his followers were urging him to more rapid flight, coolly dismounted in order to repair a flaw in his horse's harness. Whilst busied with the broken buckle, the distant cloud swept down in nearer thunder; but just as the prancing hoofs and eager spears were ready to dash down on him, the flaw was mended, the clasp was fastened, the steed was mounted, and like a swooping falcon he had vanished from their view. The broken buckle would have left him on the field a dismounted and inglorious prisoner. The timely delay sent him in safety back to his huzzaing comrades. There is in daily life the same luckless precipitancy, and the same profitable delay. The man who from his prayerless waking bounces off into the business of the day, however good his talents and great his diligence, is only galloping on a steed with a broken buckle, and must not marvel if in his hottest haste or most hazardous leap he be left inglorious in the dust; and though it may occasion some little delay beforehand, his neighbour is wiser who sets all in order before the march begins.”— Dr. James Hamilton. It is said of Matthew Henry, that "no journey was undertaken nor any subject or course of sermons entered upon, no book committed to the press nor any trouble apprehended or felt, without a particular application to the mercy-seat for direction, assistance, and success.' "The Lord's Prayer," says Matthew Henry, "is a letter sent from Earth to Heaven. Here is the inscription of the letter-the person to whom it is directed, Our Father; the place where, In heaven: the contents of it are several errands of request: the close, For thine is the kingdom: the seal, Amen and, if you will, the date too, This day." "The end is answered, not when we repeat it once or often, but when we conform the feeling and expression of our prayers to its model; when they have the same fulness of meaning, the same sobriety of words, the same distinctness of conception, the same conformity to the spirit of the divine revelations; when wordiness and tautology are rebuked by the weighty matter which is wrapped up in few words; when adoration is conveyed without adulation, and praise ascribed without flattery; when want is expressed without meanness, and desire urged with hope, and faith breathes through every part of this blessed occupation; when it is an exercise, not of the ingenious mind, but of the believing soul-an utterance, not of the eloquent tongue, but of the speaking heart-a discourse, not for the ear of any audience, but for the all-hearing ear of God."-Edward Irving. "Lord, teach thy servants how to pray QUEST. 100. What doth the preface of the Lord's prayer teach us? ANS. The preface of the Lord's prayer (which is, Our Father which art in heaven) teacheth us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father, able and ready to help us; and that we should pray with and for others. EPH. iii. 20. Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. ROM. viii. 15. Ye have received the Spirit | how much more shall your heavenly Father of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. give the Holy Spirit to them that ask HEB. X. 19. Having therefore, brethren, him? boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, Ver. 20. By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; Ver. 21. And having an High Priest over the house of God; Ver. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. LUKE xi. 13. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: 1 TIM. ii. 1. I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men. ACTS xii. 12. Many were gathered together praying. 1 THESS. V. 25. Brethren, pray for us. I. The preface itself.-It points out the object of worship, and the place where He dwells. II. What this preface teaches respecting ourselves. 1. God is our Father in heaven. This is his most endearing name. He is our Father by creation, and still more by adoption and regeneration. 2. We are to draw near to God with all holy reverence. He is the infinite God, far above us. He is holy, and to be had in reverence: Ps. lxxxix. 7. 3. We are to draw near with confidence: Eph. iii. 12. He is trustworthy, and keeps all his promises. 4. We are to come as children to a father able and ready to help. He is almighty, and can help: Eph. iii. 20. He is love, and therefore willing: 1 John iv. 16. Christ came to show us the Father: John xiv. 8-11. III. What this preface teaches respecting others. 1. That we should pray with others. "Our Father" includes others in the family of God. Members of a family on earth may pray to their Father in heaven; so may friends, so may congregations, so may a nation, so may "all people that on earth do dwell.” 2. That we should pray for others. They belong to the family, need blessings, and claim a share of our sympathy and effort: 1 Tim. ii. 1-3. LESSONS. 1. "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?" Jer. iii. 4. 2. Pity the fatherless, and lead them to say, "Our Father," with you. ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. "Wherever God has been acknowledged, he has been understood and worshipped as a Father. The very heathen poets so describe their gods; and their vulgar names did carry father in them, as the most popular and universal notion."-Bishop Pearson. "Plato, Plutarch, and other heathen sages, speak of the Deity as 'father and maker of all.' Homer's favourite designation of Jupiter is 'father of gods and men.' Horace represents him as the ‘father and guardian of mankind.' And Paul in his address to the Athenians refers to two Grecian poets, Aratus and Cleanthes, as having said that 'we are the offspring of God.'"-Dr. Crawford. Max Müller says that in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, the name of God is "Heaven-Father." Ere these languages were separated, the Aryan nation had one name for God. It was that of "Our Father which art in heaven." "God is frequently spoken of in Scripture as the Father of the nation of Israel, and they are his sons...... This special sonship of the national Israel was typical of the more special relation in which the spiritual Israel-they that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ-stand to God as his children. This special relationship of the believer to God rests entirely on the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ."-Dr. L. Alexander. A Parsee meeting with a Jew one day, asked him what name his people gave to the Supreme Being. The Jew replied, "We call him Jehovah Adonai-the Lord, who is, and was, and is to come.' "That is a grand name," said the Parsee; "but it is awful too." A Christian who happened to be present remarked, "We call him Father." With one accord they all raised their eyes to heaven, said "Our Father," shook hands, and called one another brothers. The night before Dr. Chalmers died he went into his garden, and was overheard by one of his family, in low but very earnest tones, saying, “O Father, my heavenly Father." "To the tender name of God as our Father is added his dwelling-place'which art in heaven;' in order to teach us that when we pray to him our souls should pass into that state of holiness and truth of which heaven is the sure abode; that we should not only lift up our eyes and look upon the azure vault, which is the type of the infinite and the invisible, but that the eye of the soul should look from the earthly region of practical prudence into the heavenly regions of spiritual hope and desire, seeking after the unattained conditions of excellence, and longing for the time and place where they shall be realized and possessed."-Edward Irving. "I love sometimes in prayer to remember even the meanest stranger I have met on the public road, with whom, perhaps, I have not exchanged a word; or to be urgent in my intercessions for some common acquaintance, for whom otherwise I have never felt any interest. It is delightful to remain longer upon my bended knees, and to recall every individual without exception seen during the past day, and to pray for them and all connected with them, though unknown to me."-C. B. Tayler. John Randolph, the eccentric but influential statesman, once addressed himself to an intimate friend in terms something like the following:-"I used to be called a Frenchman, because I took the French side in politics; and though that was unjust, yet the truth is, I should have been a French atheist if it had not been for one recollection, and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hands in hers, and cause me on my knees to say, 'Our Father which art in heaven."" "O Lord, thy sovereign aid impart, To save me from low-thoughted care; Tersteegen translated by Wesley. QUEST. 101. What do we pray for in the first petition? ANS. In the first petition (which is, Hallowed be thy name) we pray, That God would enable us and others to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known; and that he would dispose all things to his own glory. PSALM li. 15. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. Ps. lxvii. 1. God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Ver. 2. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Ver. 3. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. JOHN xii. 28. Father, glorify thy name. ROM. xi. 36. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. I. The first petition is that God's name may be hallowed.-To hallow is to sanctify or glorify. The name of God is that by which he maketh himself known. II. As a prayer this implies that God would enable us and others to glorify him. 1. All our spiritual ability comes from God: 2 Cor. iii. 5. 2. He has promised sufficient grace for this service: 2 Cor. xii. 9. III. We are to seek to glorify God in all that whereby he maketh himself known. 1. In his work of creation: Ps. xix. 1-6. 2. In his works of providence: Ps. viii.; Gen. xxxii. 10. 3. In his works of salvation: 1 Cor. xv. 10. IV. We pray that God would dispose all things to his own glory. 1. This is his own great aim: Rev. iv. 11; Num. xiv. 21. 2. All his intelligent and devout servants seek this. Angels: Isa. vi. 3. The redeemed: 1 Cor. vi. 20. 3. This was the prayer of Christ: John xvii. 1. LESSONS. 1. Man's chief end is to glorify God. 2. God will be glorified in our condemnation, if we seek not to glorify him in our salvation. ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. "This petition is with the utmost propriety placed first, because the name of God, and the honour and glory which belong to it, are most precious in his sight, and ought to be so in ours. If it is not our design above all things to honour the name of God, we cannot use this prayer aright; nor can we with any propriety present unto God the other petitions."-Paterson. The Honourable Robert Boyle, the natural philosopher of his time, paused always before he uttered the name of God, being impressed with solemnity. "It is related of a little girl, who was sitting on a stranger's knee when travelling, that when he took God's name in vain nothing could induce her to retain her seat."-Rev. J. H. Wilson. "My heaven is to please God, and to glorify him, and give all to him, and to be wholly devoted to his glory: that is the heaven I long for, that is my religion, and that is my happiness, and always was, ever since, I suppose, 1 had any true religion; and all those that are of that religion shall meet me in heaven. I do not go to heaven to be advanced, but to give honour to God. It is no matter where I shall be stationed in heaven, whether I shall have a high or a low seat there; but to love, please, and glorify God in all.”—David Brainerd. "It is worthy of remark and remembrance, that in teaching us to pray, in this brief summary of devotion, the same order is observed as in specifying our moral obligations in the Decalogue; that is, the duty which we owe to God takes precedence of that which is due to ourselves and to our fellow-men. Of six petitions contained in this prayer, the first three relate exclusively to God; teaching us to regard his glory as supreme, and as claiming our attention before we even mention what relates to the welfare of his creatures. It ought also to be noted, that when we pray that God would enable us and others to glorify him, we impliedly confess that we are unable to do so without his assistance."-Dr. Ashbell Green. "In praying that God would 'dispose all things to his own glory,' it is especially proper that we take into view those things whose direct and natural tendency is adverse to his glory, but which he can so overrule as to promote it in the most eminent degree. I will mention a few instances of this kind for the illustration of this important point. The most wonderful of all is the sufferings and death of Christ. The sun never shone on another scene of guilt so awful and complicated as was exhibited by those who |