their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him. After this manner therefore pray ye.' Everyone, however difficult he may find it to make long prayers, however pressing his business may be, morning, noon, and night, may have time for this very short prayer. How long does it take? One minute. How many sentences does it contain? Seven. The youngest as well as the oldestthe busiest as well as the idlest-the most sceptical as well as the most devout-can at least in the day once or twice, if not in the early morning or the late evening, use this short. prayer. There is nothing in it to offend. They who scruple or who throw aside the Prayer Book, or the Directory, or the Catechism, or the Creed, at least may say the Lord's Prayer. They cannot be the worse for it. They may be the better.

6. And now let us look upon the substance of the sentences as they follow one another. We have said that a nation's religious life may be judged by its chief prayers. For example, the Mohammedan religion may fairly claim to be represented by the one prayer that every Mussulman offers to God morning and evening. It is in the first chapter

of the Koran, and it is this

Praise be to God, Master of the Universe,

The Merciful, the Compassionate,

Lord of the day of Judgment.

To Thee we give our worship,

From Thee we have our help.

Guide us in the right way,

In the way of those whom Thou hast loaded with Thy
blessing,

Not in the way of those who have encountered Thy
wrath, or who have gone astray.

Let us not despise that prayer-so humble, so simple, so
true. Let us rather be thankful that from so many devout
hearts throughout the Eastern world there ascends so pure
an offering to the Most High God.
Yet surely we may say
in no proud or Pharisaic spirit that, compared even with

this exalted prayer of the Arabian Prophet, there is a richness, a fulness, a height of hope, a depth of humility, a breadth of meaning in the prayer of the Lord Jesus which we find nowhere else, which stamps it with a divinity all its own.

6

'OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN.' OUR Father, not my Father. He is the God not of one man, or one church, or one nation, or one race only, but of all who can raise their thoughts towards Him. FATHER. That is the most human, most personal, most loving thought which we can frame in speaking of the Supreme Being. And yet He is IN HEAVEN. That is the most remote, the most spiritual, the most impersonal thought which we can frame concerning Him. Heaven is a word which expresses the ideal, the unseen world, and there infinitely raised above us all is the Father whom we adore. HALLOWED BE THY NAME. That is the hope that all levity, that all profaneness may be banished from the worship of God; not only that our worship may be simple, solemn, and reverent, but that our thoughts concerning Him may be consecrated and set apart from all the low, debasing, superstitious, selfish ends to which His name has so often been turned. (0) Liberty,' it was once said, 'how many are the crimes that have been committed in thy name!' 'O Religion,' so we may also say when we repeat this clause of the Lord's Prayer, how many are the crimes that have been committed in thy name!' May that holy name be hallowed by the acts and words of those who profess it! 'THY KINGDOM COME.' This is the highest hope of humanity: that the rule of supreme truth, and mercy, and justice, and beauty, may penetrate every province of thought, and action, and law, and art. It has been said there are some places on earth where we have to think what is the one single prayer which we should utter if we were sure of its being fulfilled. This would be, 'Thy kingdom come.' THY WILL BE DONE. That is the expression of our entire resignation to whatever shall year by year and day by day befall us. Resignation which shall calm our passions, and control our murmurs, and curtail our griefs,

and kindle our cheerfulness. It is, as Bishop Butler has said, the whole of religion. Islam derives its name from it. 'IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.' These are words which lift our souls up from the world in which we struggle with manifold imperfections to the ideal heavenly world, where all is perfect. Party strife-crooked ends—ignominious flatteries-are they necessary? Let us hope that a time may come when they will be unnecessary. "GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD.' Here we turn from heaven back to earth, and ask for our needful food, our enjoyment, our sustenance from day to day. It is the one petition for our earthly wants. We know not what a day may bring forth. Give us only, give us at least what we need, of sustenance both for body and soul. 'Enough is enough'ask not for more.2 6 Enough for our faith, enough for our maintenance when the sun dawns and before the sun sets.' FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US.' Who is there that has not need to forgive some one-who is there that has not the need of something to be forgiven? The founder of Georgia said. to the founder of Methodism, 'I never forgive any one.' John Wesley answered, 'Sir, I trust you never sin.' LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION;' the temptations which beset us. How much of sin comes from the outward incidents and companionships round us! How much of innocence from that good Providence which wards off the corrupting, defiling, debasing influences that fill the earth! Save us, we may well ask, from the circumstances of our age, our country, our church, our profession, our character; save us from those circumstances which draw forth our natural infirmities-sa us from these, break their force. And this is best accomplished by the last petition, 'DELIVER US FROM EVIL;' that is, deliver us from the evil,3 whatsoever it is, that lurks even

2 See Bishop Lightfoot's treatise on the word movσios.

save

3 ало тоÛ Tоνпpoû, 'the evil,' not 'the Evil One.' So it must be translated in Matt. v. 37, 39, as well as in Matt. vi. 13, and in John xvii. 15, where è appears to fix the meaning.

in the best of good things. From the idleness that grows out of youth and fulness of bread-from the party spirit that grows out of our political enthusiasm or our nobler ambition -from the fanatical narrowness which goes hand in hand with our religious earnestness from the harshness which clings to our love of truth-from the indifference which results from our wide toleration-from the indecision which intrudes itself into our caretul discrimination-from the folly of the good, and from the selfishness of the wise, Good Lord deliver us. FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER AND EVER, AMEN.' So Christendom has added its ratification to the words of Christ. It is the thankfulness which we all feel for the majesty and might and beauty which our heavenly Father has shown to us in the paths of nature or in the greatness of man.

Its conclusion.

We have thus briefly traversed these petitions. When our Lord's disciples came and asked for a form of prayer, not as John's disciples had received from their master, they thought, no doubt, that He would give them something peculiar to themselves-something that no one else could use. They little knew what the peculiarity, the singularity of their Master's Prayer would be; that it was one that might be used by every church, by every sect, by every nation, by every member of the human family. It is possible that some may be inclined to complain of this extreme comprehensiveness and indefiniteness, and to say there is something here which falls short of the promise in St. John's Gospel. 'If ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it.' But the answer here, as before, is that this prayer is a striking example of the greatness of the spirit above the letter. In the letter it does not begin or end in the actual name of Jesus Christ. That familiar termination which to our ears has become almost the necessary ending to every prayer, and which is used in every church, whether Unitarian or Trinitarian, is not here. We do not close our Lord's Prayer with the words through Jesus Christ our Lord.' We do not invoke the holy name of Jesus either

at the beginning or end. But not the less is it in the fullest sense a player in the name of Christ. In the name of Christ, that is (taking these words in their Biblical sense), in the spirit of Christ,' according to the nature and the will of Christ,' copied from the lips of Christ, adopted as His one formulary of faith at His express commandment. In this true meaning of the words the Lord's Prayer is more the Prayer of our Lord, is more entirely filled with the name. and spirit of Christ, than if the name of the Lord Jesus Christ were repeated a hundred times over. In Pope's 'Universal Prayer' there is much which is condemned by religious persons, and we do not undertake to defend the taste or the sentiment of it in every part. But assuredly that which is its chief characteristic, its universality, is exactly in spirit that which belongs to the prayer of Christ. It is expressed in those well-known words

Father of all! in every age,

In every clime ador'd,

By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord.

It is this very characteristic of the prayer which makes it to be in His name. It is this very universality which overflows with Himself, and which makes the prayer of the philosopher to be a paraphrase of His Prayer. He is in every syllable of this sacred formula, as He is not equally in any other formula. He is in the whole of it, and in all its parts. Of these, the most sacred of all the words that He has given us, is true what He said of all His words-they are not mere words, they are spirit and they are life.