LECTURE I.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

ONE of the highest honors conferred on man, perhaps the very highest, is, that he is enabled to hold communion with his God by prayer. Certainly the question may be asked, Why should we pray at all, seeing that God, if there be a God, must know all our words before we express them, and works all things according to the determinate counsel of his own will? But we do not pray in order to inform the Divine Being of our necessities and desires, yet we thus acknowledge our dependence upon him, and profess our trust in him. He has himself ordained this method of holding communication with him; and however men may choose to perplex themselves in reasoning upon the philosophical bearings of this subject, prayer seems to be almost an instinct of the human heart, a law of our nature, which, however it may be kept in abeyance under ordinary circumstances, often comes into striking operation in great emergencies, such as a terrific storm at sea, a severe illness, or the danger of losing a much-loved friend. On such occasions, men pray who never prayed before; and scepticism itself, in times of deep distress and fearful apprehension, often bends its (17)

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stubborn knees, and would fain take refuge beneath the shadow of God's throne.

In the exercise of this great privilege, we need instruction. We ought to know the character of Him to whom we pray; we ought to know the nature of those requests which it is right to offer at his footstool. In that form of supplication generally known as the Lord's Prayer, Jesus Christ has given us this instruction; and in offering the requests which that prayer contains, we may rest assured that we offer nothing unwise, nothing unacceptable. The King of Heaven has here given us, in his own handwriting, the very petition which we are to present at his throne, as expressive at once of our wants and of his will. This prayer is often uttered in a formal, and even in a superstitious spirit, as if in the mere words there were some mysterious charm; and it is frequently offered by persons who are perfectly sincere and earnest, but who are not at all aware of its great compass and marvellous amplitude of meaning. To understand this prayer in all its fullness, it must be carefully studied. It is so simple, that it may be intelligently offered by a child; it is so profound, that the wisest men have never exhausted its stores of meaning. I have no doubt that this justly venerated prayer is often presented by many of my hearers: I would fain hope that it is sometimes uttered by them all; and my object on this occasion is to rescue this glorious model of prayer from the formality and superstition which in many minds are associated with it, to explain it in as brief and intelligible a manner as I can, and to point out some of those less obvious but very valuable truths which the prayer

contains, but which, in consequence of your not having given much attention to the subject, may have escaped your observation. I invite you, therefore, to join with me, for a short time, in listening to the greatest of all instructors, as he teaches us how to pray. For this, it is worthy of notice, is what he teaches. He does not tell us that we ought to pray, or why we ought to pray; he does not urge us to engage in this work; no, he takes it for granted that we, as reasonable creatures, and not brute beasts, are quite sensible that prayer is a duty and a privilege; he takes it for granted that there is no unwillingness to pray: just as the Bible never enters into arguments to prove the existence of a God, because it assumes that no man will be such a fool as to doubt God's existence; so it is remarkable that Christ assumes a general, if not universal, conviction and sense of the reasonableness of prayer; he pays respect to the dignity of human nature by making this assumption, and therefore proceeds to tell us, not why we should pray, but in what manner this recognised duty should be performed, this acknowledged privilege exercised.

And first he tells us how we are to address God, "Our Father which art in heaven." See what light these words throw upon the character of the Divine Being. They tell us that he is not the angry, cruel, vindictive tyrant whom most of the heathens consider him to be; they tell us that this world and its inhabitants are not under the dominion of some cold, heartless, iron-bound necessity or fate, as many philosophers have taught; they tell us that while God is our Creator, our King, and our Judge, he is also our Friend, and more than our

Friend, our Father. It ought to be a source of unspeakable satisfaction to have from such an authority such a statement, as to the character of God, and his relationship to us. A thoughtful man may well be astonished as he reads these words, and finds that he, a poor, weak, ignorant, sinful creature, has a right to call the glorious Deity his Father. He will very naturally ask on what this right is founded; and the foundation of this right, I believe, you will find to be this, the fact that "God sent forth his Son" Jesus Christ for this purpose, amongst others, that, he taking our nature, and becoming one of us, we might through him "receive the adoption of sons." There are some who, leaving Christianity aside, venture to call God their father, because he created them, or because of man's mental and moral resemblance to God; but these seem to be very insufficient reasons, and the only satisfactory principle upon which I can venture to stand upon such intimate terms with the Divine Being, and upon which I can dare to call God my Father, is this: "Ye are all the children of God, through faith in Christ Jesus." It is through recognising him as "the Brightness of the Father's glory and the express Image of his Person," through recognising him as our elder brother, that we are enabled, without presumption, without impudence, to address God as our Father in heaven. Taught by Jesus Christ thus to think of God, let this endearing name assure us that we are the objects, not of his wrath, but of his love; that he pities us; that, like every other right-hearted father, he is willing to forgive his children when they express contrition for their sins; and that, like every other wise father, he will subject us

to such discipline and chastisement as will correct and improve us; for "he that spareth the rod, hateth his son, but he that loveth him, chasteneth him betimes." And let this name of Father teach us the duty of confiding in God, of loving him, of obeying him. Moreover, it is to be observed that we are taught to call God our Father; Christ will not have us pray for ourselves alone. The plural pronoun runs through this prayer. It is not, Give me this day my daily bread, but, "Give us this day our daily bread;" it is not, Forgive me my trespasses, but "Forgive us our trespasses;" it is not, Lead me not into temptation, but, "Lead us not into temptation;" it is not, Deliver me from evil, but, "Deliver us." And so I am not to think of myself alone, but, when I pray for my daily bread, I am to pray as earnestly that every poor fellow-creature may have sufficient food; and when I pray that I may be forgiven, I am taught to pray with equal fervor for the forgiveness of others. There may be some one whom you despise, some one whom you hate; unless you cease to despise and hate him, you cannot pray this prayer, for the word our associates that man with you, compels you to pray for him, teaches you that it is no use praying for yourself, unless you are prepared to pray also for him; and so this plural pronoun is as a golden thread of charity and love, so closely woven with the prayer, that no man with hatred in his heart, no man who does not love his brother, and is not in charity with all men, can in sincerity offer up these supplications at the throne of God. Further, we address God as our Father who is in Heaven; and this allusion to Heaven is added probably to remind us of our Father's greatness