CHAPTER VI.

GENERAL DESIGN.

IN the preceding chapter, Jesus has spoken of the higher fulfilment of the law of "righteousness" which he demanded in the relation of man to man through obedience to its principles, especially in those points where it had been impeded in its operation and curtailed in its requirements by the low intellectual, moral, and spiritual condition of the people. He now shows how this same "righteousness," vi. 1, (for "righteousness," not "alms," is the word in the best editions of the New Testament,) is to be fulfilled in the duties which were regarded as more immediately connecting man with God.

Here, as in the previous chapter, v. 17-20, he first, 1, states the general principle, and then, as he had done before, goes on to illustrate it by examples, which, in language that a child may understand, exhaust this whole branch of the subject. In your alms, which were justly regarded as religious duties, ("He that hath pity for the poor, lendeth unto the Lord," Prov. xix. 17; "They cannot recompense thee, but thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just," Luke xiv. 14,) in your prayers and fastings, Jesus says, in substance, you must take heed, lest, looking to the praise of man for your reward, you shall fail of being approved by God. Almsgiving, prayer, and fasting should be dear to you, not as securing the favor of man, but as solemn privileges to be used and duties to be performed in the sight of God, and from motives which He who is unseen, 6, “in secret," will approve and reward.

7-15.- LORD'S PRAYER.

Under the head of prayer without ostentation or vain and foolish repetition, Jesus gave his disciples an example of the sort of prayer which he would have them use. Not that exactly these words were always to be employed by them. The same prayer, as preserved by St. Luke, is not in precisely the same words as here, and in the recorded devotions of Christ and the Apostles there is no evidence that this or any other liturgical form made a part of the service. Yet it was undoubtedly intended by him to serve through all ages as a guide and help to his followers in their devotions. For in it he has condensed into a few simple words all that we should most earnestly ask of God in prayer.

"Whatever from the beginning," says Stier, "since men first, on account of sin and evil, lifted their hearts and hands to heaven, has been in their minds to ask, is here reduced, in the simplicity of the new and everlasting covenant, the last utterance of God to us in his Son, to one word, which will remain man's last utterance also to God, until heaven and earth are divided no more. All the cries which go up from man's breast upon earth to heaven, meet here in their fundamental notes; and are gathered into words which are as simple and plain for babes as they are deep and inscrutable for the wise, as transparent for the weakest understanding of any truly praying spirit as they are full of mysterious meaning for the mightiest and last struggles of the spirit into the kingdom and glory of God."

We may pray in secret; but it is no solitary or unsocial act in which we are engaged. By the word "Our" we are bound to one another more closely as we kneel to offer up our supplications not for ourselves alone, but for all with whom we are connected as children of a common Father. "We do not," says Cyprian, in his com

mentary or homily on the Lord's Prayer, "pray each one for himself alone; for we do not say, 'My Father who art in heaven,' or, 'Give me this day my daily bread,' &c. He who is the God of peace, and the author of unity and concord, would have us pray each one for all." Prayer thus becomes a bond of union, not only with God, but with one another among all his people. Our affections are drawn out more earnestly towards our brethren, and we feel that we are all one community of souls, bound together by common sympathies and wants as we lift up our hearts in prayer to Him, whom we thus address as the common Father of us all.

While the expression "Our Father" gives warmth and strength to this feeling of fellowship and brotherhood towards man, it unites us to God in the closest and most endearing relation. Bringing him down to us as our Father, and binding us to him by all the tender and powerful associations connected with that name, it adds the expression, "who art in heaven," to lift us up into that purer realm with all the fond hopes and affections that cling trustingly and lovingly to him.

Being thus lifted up with Him into his heavenly kingdom, as children with their Father, we ask that his name, here put for Himself, the infinite source of all holiness, may be hallowed, held sacred and holy by all his children, that through his holiness perpetually renewing itself in our hearts by the progress of the divine life in the soul and throughout the world his name may be honored and revered as holy.

But it is not so now. Here is a world of sin and disorder, where injustice and cruelty and evil passions so widely prevail, and human governments and laws have not the power, and oftentimes have not the disposition, to restrain them and root them out. We ask therefore that God's kingdom may come, that in its outward, visible authority, with all its spiritual agencies and powers, it

may come down from heaven and be established on the earth; that everywhere, in each soul and throughout all the world, its supreme authority may be recognized and its commands obeyed, and men give to it the allegiance which is due from loyal and obedient subjects to the divine kingdom which is placed over them.

But the kingdom of God this reign of laws and government does not sufficiently endear itself to us. It does not satisfy the heart. Even in the exercise of God's authority and the advancement of his kingdom, we long for a more intimate personal relation than any which can exist between the laws or the ruling institutions of an empire and its subjects. By the petition, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven," God is brought into this personal relation with us. He is not an Almighty monarch, however righteous, enforcing laws however just, without any regard to the individual wants and personal feelings of his subjects. His personal will, as that of a Father, is brought into a thoughtful, compassionate, all-subduing connection with the souls of his children. Not merely do we say, "Thy purposes be accomplished in those great events, which, ordered by thine infinite wisdom, reach through kingdoms, worlds, or ages for their fulfilment, and before which we would bow down in awe and submission;" but, "May thy will, in all the minute and affecting incidents of life, enter into our hearts, control every thought and emotion there, and bring us into a cheerful, loving, childlike obedience to thee. May thy will, visiting us as a personal presence, and commending itself to all our dearest hopes and affections, be done among us on earth as it is among the angels of heaven, those prompt and willing messengers of his goodness, who delight to "do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." Here," says Claudius, "I picture to myself heaven and the holy angels who do his will with joy, and no sorrow touches them, and they know not what to do for love

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and blessedness; and then I think, if it were only so here on earth!”

It is a great thing to pray that God's will may be done. This prayer was uttered by our Saviour in agony of soul, and we know not how deeply God in his answer to it may strike into the very heart of what is dearest to us. The petition certainly means that we should give up every unjust or unholy object of ambition or gain that we possess or desire to possess, and that we should strive to remove every little resentment and unworthy feeling, every darling habit and propensity which may in any way interfere with our moral and religious well-being. It may be also that in praying that his will may be done, we are asking him to take from us some of our dearest earthly friends or possessions; since the loss of these may be needed, in order that his will may be done in our hearts as it is among his angels in heaven. If we think of these things, and condense them all into this petition with perfect submissiveness of soul, not only as we kneel by a dying friend or child, but in our usual morning and evening prayers when all things are fair and bright around us, there will be no lack of feeling in our devotions, and our prayers will have a holy and uplifting influence on our lives.

"But he who knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust," will condescend to our lowest wants. From these lofty subjects of contemplation and of prayer, the name, the kingdom, and the will of God, our Saviour lets us come down to a sense of our human wants, and teaches us to pray for "our daily bread." Thus, our daily food, asked and received from God, may become a daily motive for intercourse with Him, and a daily source of thankfulness and devotion. The more we learn to connect the thought of God with even the smallest of his gifts, the more constantly will the sense of his goodness and our obligation to him be kept alive in our hearts. But while we ask for our bodily food,