Practical Meditations on the Lord's Prayer - The INVOCATION Part 2

The INVOCATION

"Our FATHER Who is in Heaven."

1. The Divine FATHERHOOD

We look back with loving remembrance to our first conscious acts of prayer. We think of the kind father who told us of our other Father above the blue sky—or we recall the time when we knelt at our mother's knee, and felt her soft hand hold ours, as she taught our child-lips to say, "Our Father in heaven." So, when the Church was in its infancy, the Savior, acting towards His disciples as to "one whom his mother comforts," taught that infant Church to pray. And now, in its maturity, that Church recalls the early lesson, and treasures those sweet words, and with no epithet so loves to approach God as with this—"Our Father in heaven.""The invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things that are made; even His eternal power and Godhead." But the heart yearns for more. In our own nature there are emotions as well as thoughts. Our relationships and their instincts are more than what we possess or do. Of these none are stronger than the parental. Children know the treasure of a father's, a mother's tender affection, and the happiness of confiding to them every sorrow or desire; and parents know how musical is the voice of the loving child, and their delight to listen and help.Can such feelings be shared by Deity? Not if He be a mere abstraction, a force, a formula—or if, being a Person, He is only calm thought and inexorable will. But why may I not regard Him as Father, if He is known by His works? The noblest of these works is man, and He made man in His own image—therefore in all that we most admire in human nature we may trace the Creator as much as in the flowers and the stars. We may then infer resemblance in the Divine nature to this fatherliness in human nature; the faultless ideal of the copy which, though sin has defaced it, is yet so beautiful.We are not left to speculation. He has made His nature known in the man Christ Jesus. What other form could be so appropriate if man himself was made after the image of God—an image existing therefore from eternity? What if God did not only adopt our nature, but also manifest to men the Eternal Type from which man was originally molded; so that Christ was the very Image of God, because perfect man? And now, God "manifest in the flesh," He who could say, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," is asked by men how they may best approach God, by what name know Him, what relationship claim with Him. And God, incarnate in the man, speaking to men, some of whom felt the tenderness of parental love, all of whom knew the trustful love of children, replied—"When you pray, say, Father"! Not "Great Creator," "Majestic Ruler," "Omniscient Judge"—He is all these—but the idea of Him we are habitually to cherish, the title we are chiefly to use, is one which assures us that our prayer will certainly be heard, for God Himself teaches us to call Him "Father."Some say it is only a figure of speech. They may give it a grand name, and call it an anthropomorphism. But suppose, in using a term adapted to our nature, God employs the exact term adapted to the model on which that nature was framed; so that, instead of borrowing from human paternity, human paternity is only an imperfect copy of His own? How they err who deem they exalt the Divine Majesty by denying it such emotions as this term suggests; "who would make heaven clear by making it cold, and would assert the dignity of the Divine Essence by emptying it of its love, and reducing it into nothingness" (Maurice).Figures of speech are not facts, but may mean much more. Earth's facts must be infinitely inferior to heaven's glories, yet may help us to conceive of them. A figure used by God is not a fiction, but a gracious method to assist our infant powers to attain some faint idea of what exceeds all power of language. He who made the father's heart, and knows what is in man, adopts the title "Father," and bids us so address Him. Indistinctly seen by Old Testament saints, this truth, which is life and immortality, was brought into clearer light by the gospel. The title "Father," feebly felt, was seldom uttered by the lips of worshipers who adored the Almighty God, the infinite "I AM." Now we know that among all other titles there is none He so loves to hear from His children as this. Thus approaching, we recognize His power without trembling, and adore His holiness without shrinking; we can exult in all His perfections as children who share in His honor, and while bowing before Him with reverence may rejoice with confidence.Atheism says there is nothing but what we perceive by our senses; and that all things are the result of law that has no author, and forces that have no originator. Pantheism, with a web of words, would entangle God in His works, and blend the soul itself with Deity. Paganism, admitting personality, represents Him, one or multiform, as a Being whom it is necessary to placate by offerings, and whom we must approach with dread. But the soul, divinely taught, rejoices to recognize a personal God who is not wrath but love, and who bids us approach Him with child-like confidence. Agnosticism has searched the universe and has found many things, but cannot discover God. It says, if such a Being exists, He hides Himself from most diligent search of geologist, chemist and astronomer. If existent, He is unknown and unknowable.How blessed those who are as certain He is their Father as they are that He exists; who by faith see His face, hear His voice, feel His hand and respond to His love; who have daily communion with Him; and ever coming forth anew from such communion are more sure of His Being than they are of that of any earthly friend. He is not to them an "Unknown God."The little child, shrinking timidly from every stranger, flies to its father's open arms. He may be gigantic in form and solemn in feature; and as he returns from field of toil or scene of strife, may be to others an object of fear; but his own little one, as father's step is heard on the threshold, runs to clasp his knee and be folded in his arms. And so the mighty God, before whom angels veil their faces, encourages us to run and welcome His advance, to trust Him, to love Him as "Our Father."

2. Fatherhood by CREATION—

Earthly parents are only links in the chain of dependent causation; but He who made all things is God. Whatever the methods, whether by a separate fiat creating each distinct species in its full maturity, or whether by slow process of evolution from lower forms, a Primal Originator there must be, adequate in power and wisdom to form a universe replete with evidences of strength and design. In all things we trace"The unambiguous footsteps of the GodWho gives its luster to an insect's wing,And wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds.Nature is but a name for an effect,Whose cause is God. . . . Not a flowerBut shows some touch in freckle, streak, or stain, Of His unrivaled pencil." —CowperStrange, that in an age of scientific discovery any should fail to recognize the Designer of works which, the better they are known, inspire the more admiration. Lord Bacon said he would rather believe all the fables of the Talmud or Koran, than that this universal frame of nature was without a God. Of all the evidences of a wise Creator, none are more impressive than those nearest to us—in man himself. Every advance in anatomical and physiological science demonstrates more clearly that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." Any single organ should suffice for proof—the hand, the foot, the ear, the eye; each fitted for special service; the marvelous mechanism within—for all functions necessary for life; the adaptation of these to each other; the intellectual and moral nature in harmony with the physical; and all with the external world—so distinctly speak their Divine Original, that even heathen writers, as the poet quoted by Paul, confessed, "We are also His offspring."I see a portrait and admire the outline, the coloring, the character revealed in eye and mouth. I contemplate a statue, so perfect in its representation of the human form that the marble seems to breathe. Should any suggest that no painter had drawn skillful brush across that canvas, that no sculptor with cunning chisel had shaped that marble, but that both had come into existence without any personal agency, such a critic would be regarded either as joking or as insane. And can I look on the human artist possessing the life of which his productions only wear the semblance, and refuse to recognize in him the handiwork of the Divine Artist, the Father of men?

3. Fatherhood by REDEMPTION and REGENERATION—

Although, as Creator, God is the Father of all men, yet, as "all men have sinned," they have forfeited the higher privileges of sonship, our restoration to which was the object of the mission of Christ. "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." The nature of His mediation, it is not the purpose of these pages to discuss; but the result is stated by the Evangelist—"As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name;" and by Paul—"God sent forth His Son, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Sonship is here restricted to believers in Christ. Sentence of banishment is annulled, and their unfitness for dwelling in God removed. All others remain in a state of alienation. To the Jews who boasted, "We have one Father, even God," Christ replied, "If God were your Father, you would love me—you are of your father the devil." "The good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one." "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," and receive "the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Those who are "dead in trespasses and sins" are "the children of wrath, even as others." The distinction is again clearly drawn by John—"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God! Whoever is begotten of God does not sin. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil." It was only to disciples Jesus said—"I ascend to my Father and your Father."
If, then, all people are children of God, they cannot be so in the same sense. Between them there exists the difference of light from darkness, of life from death. It cannot therefore be scriptural to speak of the unregenerate as needing only to see and recognize a relationship already existing. Our Lord declared with solemn emphasis, "Verily, verily, I say to you, Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Without this new birth he cannot therefore be a child of God. "For you are all sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus." The "all" is here limited to the possession of faith, which implies filial obedience. No one should be buoyed up with the false hope of being saved by virtue of relationship to the Father, while discarding His love and violating His laws.

May we not then appeal to sinners in any sense as His children? Even the prodigal, far from home and feeding on the husks of his own wickedness, still claimed the relationship, saying—"I will arise and go to my father." He knew that his father loved him still, but he could not obtain the allowance of even one of his father's "servants" if he remained away in guilty rebellion. So long he must expect nothing better than swine for company, and husks for food. There is a vital difference between the dutiful child at home and the rebellious profligate in self-chosen exile, although both may have one father. "This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." Sinners are "lost" until they return to God—they are dead until by believing in Christ they live anew. God is still their Father, inasmuch as He created them, has provided a way for their return, and invites them home. "Return, O backsliding children, says the Lord." Sinners may be appealed to as having in
God a Father who has not ceased to care for them, and who, if they return, will see them when far off, and welcome them home; so that none are excluded from the privilege of thus addressing the Most High—"Our Father in heaven."

4. BLESSINGS involved in Fatherhood—

1. Love—That "God is Love" is a grand revelation—that God is "Father" is grander still. This comes home to the heart. It has more beneath it and not less than our loftiest conceptions can picture and our strongest yearnings crave. Earthly parents, the tenderest and best, do not fully realize the Divine ideal of fatherhood, and therefore human experience inadequately represents what God is to His children. How great, then, is the encouragement given us to pray when we address God as Father! All pleas are blended in this one opening word—"Father." Earthly parents love their children before those children love them, in spite of very inaccurate knowledge, feeble affection, imperfect obedience, and even rebellion; they love them unselfishly, hoping for nothing but the response of love, the value of any service by those children being the love that prompts it. So our Father loves us with all the love the word can suggest, and can do all that such love desires.2. Sustenance—An earthly parent provides for the child, which, at least in its early life, would otherwise perish. So our Father in heaven cares for us. "No good thing will He withhold." He who made us "knows our frame." "Your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things." He feeds the fowls of the air; much more His children. Only during childhood do we absolutely depend on an earthly parent—but we never cease to need and experience our heavenly Father's care. In the person of Jesus He appealed to the heart of earthly fathers. If, though degenerate and selfish, they give their children the good things needed, how much more will the perfectly righteous and loving Father act in accordance with His name! If He gives the greater gift of His Spirit, whereby we say "Father," He will not deny those lesser gifts required for the body in which that Spirit dwells.3. Protection—An earthly parent offers a weak emblem of our heavenly Father's guardian care. His omniscience keeps watch over us, His omnipotence shelters us, His providence directs us. "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." "God is our refuge and strength; therefore will not we fear;" for this refuge is "Our Father."4. Education—No wise father neglects the educating of the faculties of his child. He will never allow mere fondness, the pleasure of the hour, to supersede the training needed for the long future of life. So our heavenly Father trains His children for His service and glory. He instructs them by His word and Spirit, and exercises them in all godliness. Many a difficult lesson must be learned, many a hard task performed. Like children at school, we sometimes question the utility and murmur at the difficulty of the lesson. Much that a father insists on in the education of his child can be appreciated only in relation to the enlarging capacity of the child for the work of manhood. So our Father seeks not merely our present comfort, but our permanent well-being. He is training us for immortality. "The ills we see,The mysteries of sorrow, deep and long, The dark enigmas of permitted wrong,Have all one key;This strange sad world is but our Father's school,All chance and change His love shall grandly overrule.How sweet to knowThe trials which we cannot comprehend Have each their own divinely purposed end:He trains soFor higher learning, ever onward reachingFor fuller knowledge yet, and His own deeper teaching.What though todayYou cannot trace at all the hidden reason For his strange dealings through the trial season, Trust and obey.In after life and light all shall be plain and clear." —Havergal5. Discipline—Though reproof is even more painful to the parent than to the child, it would be unkind clemency and pernicious selfishness to withhold it. A child without discipline grows up to be a misery to itself, and a plague to others. So our heavenly Father will permit no child of His to perish through lack of needful correction. "Whom the Lord loves He chastens. God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father does not chasten?" If even the "Captain of Salvation" was "made perfect through suffering," much more is it necessary for God, "in bringing many sons unto glory," to appoint for them the "tribulation that works patience, and patience experience, and experience hope." Sorrows which He sends are among the "all things" that "work together for good;" because He is"A Father, whose authority, in showWhen most severe, and mustering all its force, Is but the graver countenance of love:Whose favor, like the clouds of spring, may lower, And utter now and then a dreadful voice, But has a blessing in its darkest frown, Threatening at once, and nourishing the plant."—Cowper6. Consolation—This idea is bound up in the very words Father, Mother. What earthly comforter can be compared to a mother? Bearing her little one in her bosom, shielding it from the cold, supplying its needs from her own life-stream, soothing its griefs by her tender caresses and the gentle murmur of her voice, "dandling it on her knees" (as the divinely-directed prophet graphically depicts); then, when grown older, entering into all its childish griefs and troubles, not despising them because trifles to her, but patiently listening and earnestly consoling, because to that little one those troubles are real and great—afterwards, when the child has become the man, so making his sorrows her own that the heart, locked up perhaps to all besides, can unburden itself on that bosom where in infancy it first found solace—never wearied by the long enumeration of woes, and by what to others would be the tedious repetition of the same sad tale; cheerfully sharing the trouble even when there may be little hope of lightening it; never treating it with levity or indifference; advising, but at such a time never rebuking! Even when that child may have been the cause of her bitterest grief—when his troubles have come on him by his own folly or wickedness—when he has forsaken his childhood's home and scorned its love, yet, when he comes to her with a heart bursting with anguish, forgetting all his faults in the contemplation of his sorrows, and with undiminished tenderness folding him to her bosom, wiping his tears, palliating his errors, pleading his cause—O how a mother comforts!And God who inspired that maternal tenderness, and who gave the father's heart its pity, says—"As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him;" and, "As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you." How fully assured may we be that the compassion of any earthly parent is surpassed by Him who says, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will not I forget you." All this, and much more than this, was revealed by Him who, as the Word, came to express in His spirit and conduct as man the tender compassion of "the God of all consolation," "Our Father."7. Communion—A father does not treat his children as strangers or visitors, but is on terms of loving familiarity. They are not kept at a distance, as courtiers by a stately monarch, but are "at home" with him. Even so we may draw near to God, not merely on stated occasions of solemn worship, but in our chamber, and amid the varied toils, sorrows and joys of daily life. Not only may we bring to Him our greatest necessities and bitterest griefs, but all our little cares, purposes, hopes and fears, and know He loves to listen.8. Inheritance—A father's wish to lay up in store for his children may be carried to excess, so as to foster idleness in his son. Many a rich heir has been ruined by wealth for which he did not work. And at the best, the inheritance bequeathed lasts but for a little while. But God provides "an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away"—wealth which we could never secure by our own exertions, yet the hope of which stimulates to industry and makes us rich indeed. If we are "children, then heirs; heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ."

5. Universal BROTHERHOOD in the Divine Fatherhood—

Many use the word "OUR" thoughtlessly, forgetting that it implies the individual acceptance of God in this relationship. It is comparatively easy to recognize a general fatherhood in God, without yielding the heart in solemn surrender, saying, "My Father." The prodigal said, "I will arise and go to my Father." Thus all sinners must return one by one. Thus every believer with adoring faith exclaims, "My Lord and my God." So Christ teaches in this very discourse. "You, when you pray, enter into your closet, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, which sees in secret, shall reward you openly."
The "Our" encourages me to say "My." I know God is willing to be Father to me because He is Father to all besides. I shall utterly despair if I am to establish a special personal plea—assurance resulting from my own mind might disappear with tomorrow's clouded sky. It is only as one among mankind that I can begin to call God "my Father." He "so loved the world" as to give His Son to save it. Because Christ is the "propitiation for the sins of the whole world," I put in my claim simply as a sinner. Because God is "Our Father," I claim Him as "My Father."
And now I recognize with new emphasis my relationship to others with whom I share the qualification and the blessing. We are thus taught human brotherhood, while appealing to the Divine fatherhood. "When you pray alone, shut your door—shut out as much as you can the sight and notice of others, but shut not out the interest and good of others" (Leighton). In the very act of asking help for ourselves we are reminded of the aid we owe to one another. We cannot pray acceptably if we pray selfishly. We cannot truly call God "Father" unless we cherish the spirit that would call every man "brother." "Christ says—Bear others upon your heart all through—pray for yourself and them in one—say, 'Our Father,' and prayer is intercession at once. Take your friend with you, your pastor, your Church, your friend—yes, your enemy too, and your slanderer—and kneel with them, as one, in your own prayer and confession. So, at the very spring and fountainhead of your life, you will have cast in the salubrious tree which shall make every Marah of your converse sweetness" (Vaughan).
Thus we are reminded of a corresponding privilege; we share in the prayers of our brethren. What a blessed community of goods! This is indeed the "Communion of saints." All true prayers from filial hearts to "Our Father" bring ourselves into the tide of their benedictions, which help to bear us onward to God. "The most private prayer of the godly is a public good. Every believer has a share in all the prayers of all the rest; for he is a partner in every ship of that kind that sets to sea, and has a portion of all their gainful voyages" (Leighton).
How delightful is the realizing of this fellowship when the whole household—parents, children, servants—gathered round the family altar, seek daily blessings from their Divine Head, and the voices of young and old blend as they invoke the common "Father"! How impressive is it, when a ship's company—officers, seamen, passengers—one family, alike dependent on the care of Him who rides upon the storm, send up from the wide waste of waters this invocation—"Our Father"! And what more impressive part of any service in any congregation, however imposing or however simple the ceremonial, than the blending of the accents of rich and poor, minister and people, in this first word!
This recognition of brotherhood should include all who invoke the one Father. The special interest we feel in "Our Church" should not exclude from our hearts those who, in other organizations and with other forms, call upon "Our Father." How often our Creed has shut Charity out of doors! By whatever term distinguished, all congregations of believers belong to each; and each should regard as brethren "all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." Varieties of form there must ever be; but while holding our own convictions with loyalty to conscience, we should cultivate brotherhood with all who invoke this Fatherhood. To narrow it by human authority, sectional jealousy, or personal antipathy; to cut ourselves off from the fellowship of any who, in the name of Christ and by the Holy Spirit, call God "Father," is a schism which this prayer condemns. How different from the mind of Christ, who said, "Whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all."
This brotherhood in "Our Father" extends to the various conditions of social life. Rich and poor, master and servant, prince and peasant, queen and cottager, unite in one and the same confession, which should abate pride in the lofty and envy in the low, and prompt us to "bear one another's burdens." "This shows how far the equality reaches between the king and the poor man, if in things the greatest we all of us are fellows. No one has anything more than another—neither the rich more than the poor master than servant—ruler than subject—philosopher than barbarian—scholar than unlearned. For to all He has given one nobility, having given to be called Father of all alike" (Chrysostom).
This is the only real equality, the true Christian Socialism; not a bringing down of any, but a leveling up of all into the relationship of sons of God. The writer can never forget the exclamation of a negro woman, amid a congregation of recently emancipated slaves at Richmond, Virginia, to whom he had been preaching from the words, "Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted"—"When I feel the love of God in my heart, I know I belong to the royal family of heaven."
This word "Our" embraces nations. "Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?" The monopoly of the Fatherhood by the Jews to the exclusion of the Gentiles, and the haughty disdain of the Greeks towards barbarians, were grandly rebuked by Paul on Mars Hill, when he told the Athenians that "God has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." All nations! colored and white, are included in the command to each member of the one brotherhood—"All things whatever you would that men should do to you, do even so to them." How would the recognition of this brotherhood influence the foreign policy of so-called Christian nations! There is but one law for us as individuals and as communities. We do not cease to be under the law of Christ when our responsibility is shared in a committee, or a senate, or an executive government. As all the inhabitants of the globe, however different their longitude, are lighted by the same sun in the course of every twenty-four hours; so, all men who pray this prayer, though as regards nationality, station and culture, they are opposites of each other, fix their eyes upon the same Throne of Grace, and invoke the same Father. What a bond to our otherwise dissevered humanity is this word "Our"! It ignores conventional exclusiveness; overleaps sectarian barriers; disregards social distinctions; knows nothing of crowns and coronets, titles and decorations; disdains the boundaries of mountains and rivers; sets at nothing varieties of hue and language; and sees only, springing from the one Fatherhood of God, the one Brotherhood of man. Thus the gospel, by drawing all men to the Father, draws all men to one another.

6. The MAJESTY of the Father—"in HEAVEN"

The Heidelberg Catechism replies to the question– Why is this added? 'In order that there may not be anything earthly in our conception of the heavenly majesty of God.' The word "heaven" is not to be explained as referring to some definite locality to which Deity is confined. The Infinite Spirit cannot be localized. "God is within all things, but is shut up in nothing; outside all things, but
excluded from nothing; beneath all things, but not depressed under anything; above all things, but not lifted up out of the reach of anything" (Augustine). "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" "Behold, the heaven, and heaven of heavens, cannot contain You." But we may conceive of some region where God is specially manifested. Christ's ascended body is beheld and worshiped by angels and saints. "Christ has entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us," still revealing the Father. But we severely miss the purpose of these words if we dwell on ideas of mere locality.
By this word we are taught that God is not a vague abstraction, or unknowable force, but an actual Personality, existing somewhere, distinct from ourselves. We look beyond this earth to the immeasurable regions above us. We soar beyond the clouds and the blue sky; beyond the sun, the planets, and the stars; and we believe that everywhere in that immensity is God our Father. His works we see, but He is not His works. We are His creatures, but we are not God. Between Him and ourselves there are personal and distinct relations. We are His creatures, He is our Creator; we His children, He our Father; we on earth, He in heaven.Agnosticism would ignore God; Pantheism confound Him with His works; Paganism bring Him down from the boundless heaven and limit Him to this visible universe as the God of the sun, moon, ocean, or dry land.
But this word teaches that while we address Him on earth, He is still in heaven. We need not despair of finding Him because throned above—we need not wish to bring Him to earth and detain Him here, in order at all times to approach Him. In the person of His Son He satisfied the yearnings of the race that God should visit man; but in the Resurrection and Ascension we worship the Incarnate One no longer in the cave of the Nativity, nor on the cross of Calvary, but "on the right hand of the Majesty on high." We look above ourselves for help, even to the sublimest heights of Divine glory; without despairing on account of the vast distance, for though in heaven, He is our Father, and we on earth can hold filial communion with Him.
1. The term "in heaven" is suggestive of Dignity—The measureless expanse helps us to the conception of infinity. The beauty of the blue ether; the radiant glory of the sun, the mild majesty of the moon, the varying splendors of the countless stars—all impress the mind with admiration and awe. "Heaven is my throne," "You have set Your glory above the heavens," and He is our Father!2. Power—The resistless winds, the rolling clouds, the lightning's flash and thunder's peal, the revolution of the heavenly bodies by forces so stupendous, suggest Omnipotence. "The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies shows His handiwork." "He meted out heaven with the span." "By His Spirit He has garnished the heavens." "Can you hold back the movements of the stars? Are you able to restrain the Pleiades or Orion? Can you ensure the proper sequence of the seasons or guide the constellation of the Bear with her cubs across the heavens?" Our Father is on the seat of supreme dominion; above all circumstances, and can control them; stronger than all the forces of nature, and can make them serve His fatherly will; mightier than the enemies of His children; His love as Father moves the arm of Omnipotence. Earthly parents often have the desire, but lack the ability to help their children. But our Father is in heaven, and therefore "mighty to save."3. Knowledge—Standing on a plain or in a valley, we see only a little way; but as we climb a tower or a mountain, we extend our view. Still wider is our vision if in an air-balloon we float through our lower heavens. So the idea of knowledge is suggested by the word "heaven." "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any who understand." We are reminded that our Father, who is in heaven, sees and knows all things. He looks through the eternity past and future. He sees the end from the beginning. He knows the secret purposes of all men; all we are, do, need; and can never be unmindful of one of His children, nor fail to listen to their cry, "for God sees under the whole heaven."4. Purity—The perfect clearness of the atmosphere above the region of the clouds is a fit emblem of the character of God. "He covers Himself with light as with a garment;" "dwelling in light which no man can approach." "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." No thought of evil can taint His nature. None of the moral imperfections which often deprive children of the help they need from earthly parents, can for a moment overshadow Him whom angels adore, saying, "Holy, holy, holy!"5. Mystery—The measureless expanse of the heavens, the number and motions of the stars, the phenomena of meteors and comets, the mysteries of wind and weather—these suggest our ignorance in reference to other departments of the Divine government. Order pervades the physical universe notwithstanding the mystery; and so we are sure that though "clouds and darkness are round about" our Father, yet "righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne.""The ways of heaven are dark and intricate;
Our understanding traces them in vain,
Lost and bewildered in the fruitless search,
Nor sees with how much are the windings run,
Nor where the regular confusion ends."
—Addison
6. Constancy—Whatever the mystery, order and regularity are conspicuous with every advance of astronomical science. There is no hurrying and no delay. No efforts of man can interfere with the working of those forces, so sublime both in might and minuteness. And our Father is steadfast in His loving purposes. Earthly parents may be swayed by current opinions, the influence of others, their own caprice; they may become impatient, self-indulgent, or weary of forgiving and assisting; but our Father, because He is in heaven, like the unchanging stars, abides ever. "I the Lord change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed." Earthly parents die—but "when my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." "Our fathers, where are they?"—but "the Lord lives;" for He is our "Father in heaven."7. Nearness—However distant the utmost limit of the heavens, we are at their very threshold. Our littleness always touches the infinite that reaches beyond the stars. We feel its influences, we see its light. And this is the same in every part of the globe. And so we are taught that if God is in the heavens, He is always near to us, and we to Him, and all mankind to Him, and therefore to one another in Him; and so we again are reminded of our Brotherhood in the Fatherhood. Every tiny dewdrop sparkles with the sun's own light, and in its smaller sphere reflects the whole circle of the sky, and brings heaven down to earth–"And the clear region where 'twas born,
Round in itself encloses
And in its little globe's extent,
Frames, as it can, its native element."
—Andrew Marvel
So each individual soul may appropriate the blessings of this heavenly relationship, and shine in the light of its native Home and Father, God. He is reflected in every filial heart. And as the dewdrop equally portrays the heavens, whether radiant from wayside hedge or castle-slope, so, wherever we may be and whatever our earthly station, we may shine in the light of God and rejoice in "heaven begun below."

VII. PRACTICAL LESSONS—

1. Filial Confidence—We should absolutely rely on the representation He gives of Himself. Bible names express qualities—they are descriptions, not mere designations. As "Jehovah" means the Self-existent; and "Jesus" means Savior; so "Father" is an assurance of what God actually is. He who cannot lie will prove Himself to be all He thus expresses, more than all we can conceive. May we not therefore "come with boldness to the throne of grace," when He who sits there is "Our Father"? As "Our Father" He must desire to give us all that is good for us, and being "in heaven" He is able to fulfill all the yearnings of His fatherly heart. To those who can in faith say "Father," the Apostle says "All things are yours." "What will not the Father give to sons seeking Him, who has already bestowed this—that they are His sons!" (Augustine). Never should we doubt the love that prompts, the power that executes, or the wisdom that directs.It is related of three little children, that during a thunderstorm they were asked each to choose a favorite text. One selected "The Lord of glory thunders," and being asked her reason, said, "I once heard a great noise when I thought I was all alone in the house; and I was so frightened, I screamed, and father's voice called out, Don't be afraid, little Margie, it's only father. And now when it thunders very loud, it always seems as if I heard God say, 'Don't be afraid, little Margie, it's only Father;' and I don't feel a bit frightened."
With confidence a loving child tells everything to a loving parent. A secret is a burden until revealed. Joys and sorrows are alike poured forth to listening love. Does some unexpected pleasure present itself, the child says, "I must tell father!" Does somedanger threaten or is pain felt, the ready instinct is at once to tell father. He will soothe the pain, protect from the peril, explain the difficulty, rejoice in the joy. "God's children in all their troubles should run to their heavenly Father as that sick child who cried, 'My head! my head!' So pour out your problems to God—'Father! my heart! my heart! my dead heart—quicken it! my hard heart—soften it in Christ's blood! Father, my heart! my heart!'" (Watson). So let us confide in God. Let our filial trust respond to His paternal love. O for more of the childlike communion which He invites! O for more simplicity in prayer; more habitual, trustful, happy, all-embracing, nothing-withholding outpour of the heart as to "Our Father"!
Let us not fear that such communion will be reproved. If an earthly father loves such signs of filial affection, He who has given us the Spirit of adoption will never be deaf to this appeal—Father! There are times when it is the only word we are able to utter. When we are unable to define what we feel, and can only say "Father!" we utter a word He never fails to hear. There may be more real prayer in that one word than in a whole liturgy. No imperfection in method will nullify its efficacy. An earthly parent never refuses the letter that breathes affection because blotted or misspelled. What blottings are there in our holy things! Yet our Father in heaven accepts us. Says God, 'He is my child; and he will do better.' A prince might stand on ceremony and reject the petition incorrectly drawn up, but no child of God need fear that the imperfections of sincere appeals will ever hinder their entrance to the Father's heart.
No words can adequately set forth the blessedness of those who can thus, however poor, call on God. They have a wealth beyond earth's arithmetic, who look up from humblest hovel or stony pillow and say, My Father! However sick, theirs is a solace beyond all that medical skill or tenderest nursing or boundless treasures can furnish. However unknown in the world, theirs is an honor no earthly prince could confer, in the luster of which all the splendors of royalty pale. How paltry are the prizes some spend their lives and wear away their hearts to win, compared with the real nobility, the deep abiding peace of the humblest of those who can say, "Our Father in heaven."
Does my cup flow over with gladness? I know who fills it—nor less when it is filled with woe. Amid the roaring of the winds and waves I hear Him say, "My child," and I respond and say, "My Father!" no less than when there is a great calm. His reproofs are blessings. His blows are boons. His withholdings are conferrings. He delays only to augment. He impoverishes to enrich.
2. Reverence—If the word "Father" gives confidence—the word "In Heaven" teaches reverence. "O come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." The unfallen angels who need not say, "Forgive us," veil their faces before Him. The Elders in the Revelation "fall down before Him who sits on the throne." Sinners on earth, though privileged to call Him "Father," should not be less reverential. Those who are learning more and more of the meaning of this word, become increasingly humble thereby. It is only in such hearts that the voice of God is heard—it is only in such children that the Father dwells.For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place; but also with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit." Isaiah 57:15. How astonishing that God has two homes—"Eternity" and the contrite, humble heart! The highest heaven is the habitation of His glory! The humble heart is the habitation of His grace!And this reverence is not in spite of the confidence, but is caused by it. Instead of saying, "Notwithstanding our privileges," we say, "In consequence of them." The more intimate we become with some person of eminent wisdom and goodness, the more we respect as well as love him; the more by nearness we are able to detect faults, the more we become impressed with the absence of them. Familiarity, instead of breeding contempt, increases reverence. It was said of Augustus, that those who feared him, did not know his goodness; nor those who presumed, his power. But goodness itself, even more than power, often produces reverence. Some earthly parents are so tender and sympathetic, making such allowance for the weakness and ignorance of their children—that the children have no hesitation in coming to them on all occasions and opening their inmost hearts. This closeness of intimacy so reveals the character of those parents, that with the tenderest love there grows an ever-deepening reverence, so that any omission of dutiful respect would be almost an impossibility.
So will it be with the children of God. When our Lord encouraged Thomas to handle Him and see, this condescension called forth the adoring homage—"My Lord, and my God." The beloved disciple who was permitted to lean on the Savior's bosom was more than all the rest imbued with a sense of His Divine majesty, and left an enduring record of the homage He receives in heaven. Paul rejoiced in saying, "Abba, Father," but He said, "I bow my knees unto the Father, of whom the whole family in earth and heaven is named."
3. Gratitude—"Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!" We "love Him, because He first loved us." The reason why we should "love the Lord our God with all our heart," is this—He is our "Father." Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift—even Himself! What gratitude should be ours to Him who, having given Himself, will surely give us all things else!4. Resemblance—A child often reminds us of its parents by its features, manner and tone of voice. So we should be "Followers (imitators) of God as dear children." Much of a child's obedience is spontaneous. He naturally conforms to the wishes of the parent, the customs of the home. And the more we cultivate filial communion with our Heavenly Father, breathe the atmosphere of His Presence and listen to His voice, the less shall we be alive to external and contrary influences; the more we shall reflect His image, echo His words, think His thoughts, and, as children, become "partakers of the Divine Nature." We are to be "perfect, even as our Father who is in heaven is perfect," by imitating the broad beneficence of Him who "makes His sun to shine on the evil and on the good." We are to be peacemakers, and so obtain the fulfillment of the promise—"They shall be called the children of God." We should "walk worthy of the vocation with which we are called." We should, as children of a king, not degrade ourselves by stooping to anything unbecoming our high birth. Is our Father in heaven? We should set our affections on things above. Does He dwell in the light that no man can approach? Let us "walk as children of light." From His lofty throne does He behold every child of His? Let us "do always those things which are well-pleasing in His sight."5. Assurance—These filial characteristics constitute the only valid evidence of sharing the filial relationship. John said—"Let no man lead you astray—he who does righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous." So we may say, "He who feels and acts as a child of God is a child of God, even as He is Father to such children." "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God." This cannot be a mere persuasion of our own minds. It is fanaticism to think all is right, while the life shows all is wrong. There are here two witnesses—the Holy Spirit and our own spirit, and these concur. They testify that we are children of God. But the Spirit so witnessing is "the Spirit of adoption." "You received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Father! dear Father! the repetition of the name expressing tenderness of affection. Do we thus cry to God? Do we in penitence say, "I will go to my Father"? Do we in submission say, "My Father, Your will be done!"? And is it our desire to do His will? If so, we do cry, "Abba, Father"—"dear Father!" This is our own spirit thus crying out; but it is inspired by the Divine Spirit who is the Spirit of adoption, producing such a temper of mind. Our own spirit expressing sonship, responds to Him who is the Spirit of sonship, and who thus testifies within us that we are the children of God; not that we shall become so, but that we are so now. We need not wish to read our names in the Lamb's book of life; if "Abba, Father," is written on our hearts, that is the seal of the Spirit testifying that "Now are we the sons of God," because now, actually, we think of Him, and feel and act in reference to Him as to "Our Father."6. Hope—This assurance awakens in us those hopes which the sons of God may reasonably cherish. "If children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." Children naturally claim what is their father's. They speak without presumption of his property as their own—"our garden," "our carriage," "our house;" and if God is our Father, there is a sure sense in which all that is His belongs to every child of His. Every one of them, however poor, is thus possessor of the universe, and may say, "All things are mine."His are the mountains, and the valleys his,
And the resplendent rivers. His to enjoy
With a propriety that none can feel,
But who, with filial confidence inspired,
Can lift to heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling say, 'My Father made them all!'
—Cowper
Therefore the heaven where his Father dwells, is his also. Jesus said—"In my Father's house are many mansions; I go to prepare a place for you—where I am, there you shall be also." Amid the toils and trials of the way, let us be encouraged by thinking of the repose, safety, purity and joy of that heaven toward which its God, our Father, is guiding us. Jesus said "I go to my Father and your Father." If He is ours, we also shall go to Him, and we are sure that "in His presence there is fullness of joy, and at His right hand there are pleasures for evermore."7. Prayerfulness—In the new Law Courts in London there is a grand central hall out of which, all around, are entrances to the chambers where lawsuits of various descriptions are tried. And so, having entered into the meaning of this appeal, "Our Father who is in heaven," we are provided with free access in the presentation of every petition! To fix the mind on God as our Father, and in heaven, is the best remedy for wandering thoughts and depressing doubts. We may well pray that such a Name may be hallowed; that the kingdom of such a Monarch may come; that the will of such a Father may be done; we may with confidence ask daily bread, and forgiveness, and help in temptation, and deliverance from evil, at the hands of a God who has taught us to call Him "Father." "This is the golden thread on which all the precious fruits are strung" (Saphir). This is the key to every door in the prayer. This is everywhere a ladder up which our petitions may climb to the highest heaven. We can always scale the skies with this one word—"Father"!The whole prayer is condensed in the first invocation and bears its name—the "Our Father." This is a word easily uttered, but never fully known. "The 'Our Father' is not, as some fancy, the easiest, the most natural of all devout utterances. It may be committed to memory quickly, but it is slowly learned in the heart" (Maurice). How deep its significance! How it enfolds all the promises! It is the very gospel itself—and means pardon, reconciliation, favor, holiness, blessedness, heaven! What encouragement is here held out to every sinner! If God shows us in the light of His love how great our sin must be—His being a Father encourages us to seek forgiveness. We have not to think about 'inducing' Him to be kind. He has not to be turned from being an angry Ruler into a gracious Father. He is this already! As such He is calling us home. "Before you call I will answer." However far we have wandered, if only we desire to come back—"Thus says the Lord, I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears." "Christ says, When you pray—when you first begin to pray—when the thought first comes to you, I am not happy, I am not at peace, I am far from home—say, at once, without waiting for fitness—without raising the question of a satisfactory repentance—without investigating your evidences whether of Christian faith or godly sorrow—begin by saying—'Father,' begin by going straight home" (Vaughan).
Return by the one and only way, Christ Jesus, who taught this prayer, died for our sins, and "makes intercession for the transgressors." Our response, "Abba, Father"—brings us home! Do we seem to dwell in the black shadow of His displeasure? It rests only on the region of alienation—let us leave it by returning to God—and we are at once in the sunshine! Do we dread the thunderbolt of justice? let us come nearer to Him who holds it—He will cast it away, and hold out the golden scepter of mercy! No one desiring to live as a child of God need despair while this word "Father" is inscribed on His throne. No love is so comprehensive, tender, enduring. He is in heaven, and "as the heaven is high above the earth—so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him."
"There is no place where earth's sorrows
Are so felt as up in Heaven
There is no place where earth's failings
Have such kindly judgment given.
Oh, if our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives should be all sunshine,
In the sweetness of our Lord." —Faber

Newman Hall, 1889

Practical Meditations on the Lord's Prayer

Newman Hall, 1889 INTRODUCTION   The prayer which our Lord delivered to the disciples as a model in their approaches to God, and which has been designated "The Lord's Prayer," is recorded by two Evangelists, and was spoken on two different occasions.   In the Sermon on the Mount our Lord was reproving the superstition which regarded the frequent iteration of mere words as acceptable with God, and the Pharisaism which made a public parade of prayer to obtain the praise of men. Luke records that at a later period of Christ's ministry, "As He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." This disciple may have forgotten the earlier instruction. Or he may have regarded it as too brief, or designed for the general multitude to whom it was addressed, and so asked for some counsel specially applicable to the inner circle of the disciples, similar to some teaching so given to the more intimate friends and followers of the Baptist. But our Lord simply repeated the subject-matter of the same Divine model, as containing the essence of all we need to ask, and as showing the spirit and manner of all acceptable prayer. Matt. 6:5-13; Luke 11:1-4. On both occasions the reasonableness and duty of prayer were taken for granted; the Divine authority of our Lord being superadded to that of the older Revelation. Prayer is not simply one of many other features of religion; but is essential to its existence. "There is not among all moral instincts a more universal, a more invincible one than prayer. The child betakes himself to it with ready docility; aged men return to it as a refuge against decay and isolation. Prayer rises spontaneously from young lips that can scarcely lisp the name of God, and from expiring ones that have scarcely strength left to pronounce it" (Guizot). Human nature is so constituted, that the acknowledgment of a superior Being by adoration and petition, harmonizes with our intellectual and moral instincts. "The widely-spread belief, that man may draw near to God, that he may transfer his thoughts and wishes to the mind of the Eternal, proclaims his sense of a Divine relationship between himself and God. As the magnetic needle points to the unseen pole, so the soul, before it is hardened or demagnetized by the crude blows of the world, will point to the home and heart of the Great Father" (H. R. Reynolds). We feel it is befitting that we render adoration to Him on whom we are dependent for breath and all things, extolling His greatness, expressing our dependence, seeking His favor, and thanking Him for His gifts. DIRECT BENEFITS OF PRAYER The almost universal practice of prayer is proof of a general belief in its utility. Its reflex benefit to mind is not disputed; but we pray, expecting some direct advantage, not because of the wholesomeness of the exercise. Digging a garden may improve the health, but the hope of produce speeds the digging. Holy Scripture and the authority of Christ encourage us to expect direct and positive benefits, from prayer. OBJECTIONS That God knows already whatever we can tell Him—Yes, and He knows far better than we do, what we really need. But He would also know our wishes from ourselves. An earthly parent may know many the child's desires and griefs, but likes to hear them from the child's own lips, because they interest the parent, and the habit of telling them cultivates filial affection in the child. In prayer we are not instructing God, but communing with Him, and lifting up our minds into the region of His own. That we cannot improve God's Methods nor alter His Decrees—These co-exist with our moral nature. His Will does not destroy the freedom of our own. Benefit to us from action of His may depend on a corresponding fitness in ourselves. The gift, to be beneficial, needs certain qualities in the recipient. The purpose of God may therefore embrace the prayer of man, the object of which is not to improve His plans, but only to complete their manifestation. God may, in answer to our prayer, change His methods without any fluctuation of purpose. A sailor alters his tack to reach his port. A father carries out his abiding intention by altering his treatment according to the child's conduct. A physician varies his medicine with varying symptoms, in order to accomplish his unvarying purpose of cure. And so, though by prayer we cannot improve the Divine plans, prayer may so alter our own moral condition as to render suitable a change of method on God's part, which will bring us the very blessing we ask. Though all God's purposes are eternally fixed and unalterably sure, everyone tries to guard his body from accident, improve his estate, and secure the comforts of life. If we think we can improve our condition by exertions of our own, is it foolish to hope God may improve them in answer to our prayer? That if God is willing to give all good, asking is superfluous—Our asking may be a necessary condition of His giving. Good seed will be wasted unless the soil be prepared to receive it. Without healthy appetite, wholesome food may injure. The soul must "hunger and thirst after righteousness" before it can be filled; and prayer stimulates as well as reveals this spiritual appetite. So also gifts of Providence may require the receptivity which prayer cultivates, to render those gifts beneficial. By prayer we come into the Divine storehouse where God's gifts are waiting for us. "Those things which God intends for us, we bring to ourselves by the mediation of holy prayers" (Jer. Taylor). God's light is always shining, but into the region of it we must come as He has ordained. "Thus prayer becomes the turning of the heart to Him who is always prepared to give, if we will receive what He gives. Unto a fountain so vast, the empty vessel must be moved" (Augustine-Trench). No place for Prayer in the realm of Law—It is alleged that all existing things are subject to definite forces which operate uniformly and irresistibly, so that prayer can have no influence in bringing to pass any desired event. But among natural forces that of Will cannot be omitted. It is the force of which we know most, because we know it by our own consciousness. By our will we can influence that of others, through instruction and persuasion, and prompt them to set in motion a train of physical causation which may bring to pass events otherwise impossible. I may by personal influence (call it prayer) induce the crew of a lifeboat to save shipwrecked seamen, whom otherwise the waves, by natural law, would destroy. I may by persuasion (prayer) induce a physician to go to a man seemingly at death's door, and he, not by miracle, but by working within the sphere of law, may save a life which otherwise, by physical law, would have been the victim of disease. I may, by the exercise of my own will, hold out my arms to catch, when falling from a window, the child whom otherwise the law of gravitation would have killed. If then even I, by the exercise of my will, can interpose to bring about results in the operation of natural law, and can influence other wills to do the same, it cannot be impossible that the Author of Nature, without any interference with order, may do, in answer to prayer, what my fellow-creature can do on my request, and what I can do myself. Must the Divine order shut out the operation of the Divine will? Shall the uniform working of natural law be consistent with the exercise of freedom on my part, and not with that of freedom on God's part? We do not believe that the "Reign of Law" excludes the agency of the "Lord of Law." Whence came the laws but from the Divine Mind? "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth," and not in eternal forces without thought, emotion, or character. He is free to act in modes novel to us, yet in harmony with law. Seeming changes may be law's developments, and my prayer and His response may be parts of the eternal order; God working according to prearranged principles which are developed whenever their appropriate sphere of operation unfolds. Thus our prayers may bring about the very conditions in which the results we ask may come to pass, in harmony with the higher order which includes moral as well as physical forces. This argument assumes the universal reign of Law. But we also believe in the reign of Grace. Such objections have been current in all ages; yet in all ages prayer has been offered; and the worshipers have included the wisest and best of men. Poets, statesmen, heroes, prophets have prayed. Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel brought petitions to God, habitually, earnestly, and in full assurance of faith. They have had numberless counterparts up to the present day. Have all men who in all ages and lands have thus gratified the special yearning and employed the highest faculties of the mind been mistaken? If so, "the whole human race has a lie enshrined in its inmost heart; and this lie perpetually emerges age after age, generation after generation, in the child and the philosopher, in the heathen and the Christian. If it be so, the most noble are the most deceived; those who have risen highest, and who have in the largest extent blessed their fellow-men, have been the most entirely baffled and deluded; while, on the other hand, the sensualist, the barbarian with the fewest ideas, the imbecile who is most like the brute that perishes, has made, in a matter that is fundamental to happiness, honor, and usefulness, the nearest approach to the truth of things" (Reynolds). O men of science! all honor to you in your own sphere. Show us the beauty, the wisdom, the beneficence of God, by showing us the order that pervades His works. But do not shut Him out of His own creation. Do not say that your experiments with microscope and telescope include all the facts of the universe, when the facts of Christianity and the facts of consciousness are not within your induction. There are facts which are incapable of being subjected to scientific scrutiny. God will not, at your bidding, come into your laboratory, cross the field of your telescope, or enter the wing of some hospital which you may choose to designate for experiments upon His handiwork. "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." REFLEX BENEFITS OF PRAYER Humility—In the presence of the Infinite we feel our insignificance. In proportion as by prayer we have really met with God, we are less disposed unduly to exalt ourselves over our fellow-creatures, since we are all alike but "dust and ashes" in His sight. When we see God, we "abhor ourselves." Dignity—There can be no greater honor than personal communion with God. We cannot leave the Presence Chamber of the Infinite feeling we are mere grains of sand in a desert; unnoticed, uncared for, hopeless. No! we are living people, and are in direct communion with a personal God, who hears our voice, reads our heart, helps our need. This produces a grand humility, a self-abasing dignity, which will make us respect both ourselves and all our fellows, and should keep us from dragging our nobility in the mud of sinful indulgence. Sincerity—We are apt before our fellow-men to wear a mask, to hide our defects, to magnify our merits, or simulate those we do not possess. Before Him who knows the secrets of all hearts, the mask must be thrown off. In prayer we learn to know ourselves, to discover our hidden faults, to test the true nature of our motives and conduct. Holiness—It is one thing to credit the fact that God is holy; it is quite another thing to feel that we are in the very presence of that holy God. Thus it is that the habit of praying induces the habit of obeying. It conveys no new truth, but it strengthens holy impulses. We cannot come direct from an interview with the king and violate his laws; from converse with our Father, and forget the claims of His love. Moderation of Desire—Longings which may become passions, poisoning our whole life, must be checked when we try to bring them before God in prayer. When we wish for some questionable pleasure, some unrighteous gain, the gratification of vanity or revenge; and by the heating of this internal furnace of wrongful desire are in danger of some explosion which might be our ruin, the expression of such desire to God will reprove and possibly destroy it. There is so much we cannot ask God to give! We should be ashamed, afraid to ask it. Trust and Courage—If we have any real faith in prayer, hope of needful help will enable us to bear our trials more patiently; to brace ourselves anew for difficult duty; to continue the fight we were ready basely to surrender. Peace and Consolation—By the mere telling our troubles to a sympathizing friend, the burden is lightened, the bitter cup sweetened, the wound half healed. Much more should this be the result of pouring forth our heart-sorrows before a compassionate God, our Father. If "by prayer and supplication we make known our requests," we need "be anxious in nothing, and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall guard our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus." Gratitude—Prayer cultivates gratitude, by linking benefits with Him from whom they are asked. Recognition of the giver enhances the gift. Gratitude prompts to willing service, stimulates obedience, and promotes our own happiness. They who do not pray are not likely to praise. "In the earnest asking is the needful preparation for receiving with due thankfulness; while, on the contrary, the unsought would often remain the unacknowledged also." Prayer thus elevates earthly benefits into Divine blessings, so that the humblest fare of God's providing yields greater delight than costliest dainties regarded as the result of accident, or of our own unaided efforts. Does an objector say that all this reflex benefit is only the natural effect of certain ideas? Then it is evident that our moral organization is adapted to this exercise, and we infer that our Maker and the Being to whom we pray are one and the same; for He who bids us pray has so constituted us that compliance with His law corresponds with our moral nature, satisfies, purifies, exalts and gladdens it. CHRIST'S AUTHORITY FOR PRAYER Though Divine He prayed, because He was also human, and shared our weaknesses and wants. He prayed for a blessing on the bread He broke, for help in the miracles He wrought, for comfort in the sorrows He endured. He retired to mountain solitudes for prayer. He prayed in the upper chamber for His disciples; in the garden and on the cross for Himself and for His murderers. He has gone up to heaven to pray, and sits on the right hand of God to intercede. If He, without stain of sin, and in perfect accord with God, needed to pray, how much more must we! And this He enjoined on His followers by precept and promise. "Ask, and you shall receive." "If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?" His great work was to help man's approach to God. His mediation was to remove the obstacle of our guilt. His Spirit was to remove the disinclination of our hearts. He was "the Way;" and He said, "No man comes to the Father but by me." Acceptance of His salvation brought men at once into the presence of their Father. Faith in Him was life; and the evidence and exercise of the Divine life in the soul was prayer. He brought men into a condition in which prayer was a necessity. He so guided the stream that it must fall into and flow along with the great river. He taught His disciples "always to pray, and not to faint." If they are to conquer in the strife with sin, the armor of God will not avail unless they "cry day and night unto Him." When our Lord gave this prayer, He ignored all objections. There was no question as to whether the disciples prayed or not. Of course they did. All devout Jews did. The only question was as to the matter and manner of prayer. "When you pray." Our Lord knew all the objections that ever had been, that ever could be, raised against prayer, yet He said, Pray! He was the Author of Nature, the Creator of the worlds, the Head of the universe of Law, knowing the operation of all forces, yet He said, Pray! He was from eternity in the bosom of the Father, sharing the Father's counsels and eternal purposes, yet He said, Pray! He who conquered death and the grave can, should He so please, suspend the order of Nature in answer to prayer. Nothing is impossible with Him to whom is given "all power in heaven and earth." With full assurance we may pray, when He, who is the only-begotten Son, Himself pleads with the Father on our behalf. THE METHOD OF PRAYER Form or Freedom?—"When you pray, say," etc. The desires of the heart are to be expressed. Meditation is liable to pass off in frivolous thoughts or mental drowsiness. It is true that God regards fervent desire as prayer, and that no words avail without it; yet our Lord teaches us to express the desires of the heart, which are increased and made definite by utterance. "Take with you words, and return to the Lord—say to Him, Take away all iniquity, so will we render as bullocks the offering of our lips." And there are times when the believer is conscious that "the Spirit makes intercession within him with groanings which cannot be uttered." Yet these are exceptional seasons. If all prayer were to be denied vocal utterance, little prayer would be left. Our Lord Himself, holding ineffable Spirit-communion with His Father, expressed His divinely-human longings in human words. This our Lord taught us to do. But in what words? Surely sometimes in the very form prescribed. But did He mean that we should be restricted to this? Were this so, the two versions would be identical. But they vary. In the Revised Version of Luke we have simply "Father," instead of "Our Father in heaven." "Your will be done" is omitted. Instead of "Give us this day," we have "Give us day by day." Instead of debts, we have sins; and instead of "as we also have forgiven our debtors," we have "for we ourselves also forgive every one that is indebted to us." These variations show that not the precise form was prescribed, but the substance. Ours is the dispensation not of the letter but of the Spirit. Dean Alford says—"It is very improbable that the prayer was regarded in the very earliest times as a set form delivered for liturgical use by our Lord. The variations are fatal to the supposition of its being used liturgically at the time when these Gospels were written. Add to this, that we find very few traces of such use in early times. Yet this very prayer, though not imposed as an obligatory form, must ever be specially dear to Christian hearts. We feel encouraged when we use a petition drawn up by Himself. But to regard it as of itself efficacious, as though the mere utterance would bring down some blessing; and to repeat it many times, as if the reiteration would more effectually win regard, is to debase what was intended to cure superstition, as an instrument for promoting it. But the question arises, whether, by giving this prayer, our Lord enjoined or sanctioned the use of forms of prayer, in preference to free utterance. There are two extremes; some advocate the exclusive use of forms, others condemn them altogether. In private prayer the spontaneous expression of desire is most natural, and best fitted to promote devotion. Prayer should begin in the heart and find utterance by the lip. In the "chapel which every man can build in his bosom, himself the priest, his heart the sacrifice, and the earth he stands on the altar," there is no need to regard any other mind than our own. No form ever composed can meet all the needs of any one soul. There are sins to confess, sorrows to utter, desires to express, constantly new and varied. The heart cannot be satisfied with mere generalities when the child is alone with its father. The most stammering petition which is the genuine utterance of the heart, is better in private devotion than the most perfect composition of another mind. For public prayer in a prescribed form the following arguments are urged—The needs of the congregation as a whole are more likely to be expressed by a form carefully prepared by the concurrence of many minds, than when one individual prays according to his own feelings and circumstances. There is less intellectual excitement when the language is familiar, than when it comes as a novelty, possibly startling by strangeness, bewildering by obscurity, provoking criticism, and suggesting wandering thoughts. There is less of human performance when prayers previously prepared are simply read, than when the leader in worship has to exercise his own powers of conception and utterance. He is less tempted to obtrude himself, and to consider what others may think of him, than when originating prayers which, though addressed to God, are listened to and judged of by men. The people are better able to take their part in responses when they know what the prayers will be, than when they have to listen and judge before they can intelligently say, Amen. The psalms were inspired forms of prayer and praise, used by the Jews in the temple-worship. Against the use of forms, and in favor of free prayer, it may be urged—Forms are apt to promote formalism. Familiar expressions are heard listlessly. The lip may utter the words unconsciously, while the thoughts may be wandering far away. Forms cannot express the varied needs of the people; nor be applicable to constantly changing circumstances. Forms confine the thoughts, repress the feelings, and restrain the motions of the Divine Spirit. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." There are many examples in Scripture of free prayer being offered according to the special circumstances and needs of the worshiper. There is force in both sets of arguments. Either Form or Freedom is objectionable when one is prescribed to the exclusion of the other. In Christ's religion of liberty, things in themselves lawful become unlawful when what was left optional by the Master is made obligatory by His servants. He sanctioned the liturgic use of the Psalms by His own example at the Passover. Every form of prayer cannot be consistently condemned by those who habitually employ prayers artistically arranged in verse, and sung to elaborate tunes. Every free prayer is a form, except to the person speaking it. If he utters it from the fullness of his heart at the moment, it is only his own spontaneous prayer. To all who listen it must be form—as regards the speaker, the emotions prompt the words; but as regards the hearer, the words precede the desires, and do not necessarily produce the prayer in others, though John or Paul were the speaker. For the exclusion of forms it has been said, that "a hungry beggar does not ask alms by set form." It is also true that a community, presenting a united request to Government, agree together the wording of their petition. Dean Vaughan says—"Christ prohibits not other forms. He forbids not to pray without forms. All that is from the heart is welcome in heaven. But unquestionably He silences here the silly tradition that nothing can be prayer but that which is extemporaneous and sudden. Neither with regard to prayers nor to sermons does the question lie between written and unwritten, but between formal and spiritual." Archbishop Leighton says of forms—"We are not to be bound to their continual use in private or in public; nor is there anything in the word of God, or any solid reason drawn from the word, to condemn their use." A learned and devout Principal of a Nonconformist College (Dr. Reynolds) says—"God does not listen to our words at all, but to our spirits. There is nothing in a form, when rightly used, inconsistent with the spirituality which is the indispensable condition of acceptable prayer. Sympathy with the blessed dead, communion with those who have passed within the veil, and holy fellowship with all who claim this rich inheritance of the Church, is possible in the use of hallowed, time-honored forms of praise and prayer; but the refusal to any man of the right to pour out his heart to God in words, fresh-coined there by his own personal sense of infinite need, seems like deliberately quenching the Holy Spirit, and resisting His mightiest operation in the heart of man." The author of the Pilgrim's Progress says, "In prayer it is better to have a heart without words, than words without a heart." Each method has its advantages, and therefore neither should exclude the other. To make human forms binding on the Church which Christ has left free; or to bind the Church not to use forms which He has not forbidden, is equally a restriction of Christian liberty. Forms may degenerate into formalism; and the absolute forbiddal of forms may deprive the Church of much help from the piety and wisdom of past ages, and of the special advantages furnished by concerted prayer, as well as concerted praise. Why should not the Church avail itself of all the help both methods may afford, and rejoice that "all things are ours"? But in vain do we pray, whether in words of our own, or in forms composed by the holiest men and sanctioned by centuries of worship, or in these very words taught by Christ Himself, unless the heart ascends to God. Alas! how often we have to confess— "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below; Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go." —Shakespeare Another question arises. Our Lord gave us, as a model, a prayer characterized by brevity. Did He mean that no prayer should be longer? His own example is opposed to such an idea. We read of His continuing "all night in prayer to God." In the garden He was long in prayer, "saying the same words." After His ascension the disciples "continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." Paul exhorts Christians to "pray without ceasing," and to continue instant in prayer." The Scribes were condemned, not for long prayers, but because they made them "for a pretense." The Lord censured mere verbal utterances in place of heart-desires; prayer, to be noticed by man instead of to be accepted by God. "It is a bad sign when the prayers made before men are longer than those heard only by God." Every prayer, however few the words, is long if it comes not from the heart; no prayer is long which is the soul's true expression. Its Authorship Some critics have said, that as the several petitions may be found in Jewish writings, the prayer is not original, and therefore not "the Lord's." Tholuck says that the agreement which has been asserted between this prayer and prayers of the Rabbis is wholly null. Our Lord expressly said that He had come, not to destroy the older revelation, but to fulfill; not to ignore any portion of truth already known, but to supplement it. Accordingly, His teaching abounded with allusions to the Old Testament. He often quoted its words as expressive of His own feelings. He died with them on His lips. It would indeed be strange if the petitions in a form solemnly given as being specially in accordance with the Divine will, had no parallel whatever in the thoughts and devotions of the Old Testament Church. Thus, although the character of God as Father was not prominent, yet it was known. "Doubtless You are our Father;" "If then, I be a Father, where is my honor? says the Lord Almighty." The hallowing of the Name was commanded through Moses—"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain;" illustrated by David—"From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised;" and guaranteed by Jehovah—"I will sanctify my great name." The kingdom was portrayed and prayed for by David, and predicted by Daniel. The doing the will of God was the subject of frequent petitions—"Teach me to do Your will;" "Incline my heart to Your testimonies." Agur prayed—"Feed me with food convenient for me." Forgiveness was assured by "The Lord God is merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity;" and for it the Israelites were encouraged to pray, "Let the wicked return to the Lord, and He will abundantly pardon." To be delivered from temptation and saved from evil was the theme of many of David's prayers—"Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments. Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things. Let not any iniquity have dominion over me." And this was answered by the Divine promise—"The Lord will preserve you from all evil. He will preserve your soul." There was no need, therefore, for our Lord to search the writings of Jewish Rabbis in order to compile this formulary. Its truths were already revealed by His own Spirit through the prophets. What He did was to gather into a focus the scattered rays; to bring out into clearer light what had been indistinctly seen; to give prominence to what had been in the background; to arrange in progressive order what had hitherto existed in disjointed fragments. It is this combination, this concentration of so much into a space so small, this taking up of gems which had lain about amid the general stores of the Church, and setting them all together in this circlet of purest gold; it is not only what is included but what is omitted; it is not the separate petitions, invaluable as they are, but their combination in a prayer unrivaled not only for its substance, but for "the full brevity, the deep plainness, the lovely simplicity of expression" (Barrow)—it is all this which constitutes its superiority to all more human utterances of devotion. "The Lord's Prayer, for a succession of solemn thoughts, for fixing the attention upon a few great points, for suitableness to every condition, for sufficiency, for conciseness without obscurity, for the weight and real importance of its petitions, is without an equal or a rival" (Paley)—these features entitle it to be called "The Lord's Prayer." The General Scope As the Ten Commandments are a summary of our duties, so the Lord's Prayer is a summary of what ought to be our desires. The Decalogue begins with duties we owe to God, and passes on to those we owe to one another. The prayer begins with desires for God, and ends with desires for ourselves. The first four commands, to have no other God, to worship no image, to reverence the Name, and to observe the Sabbath of God, correspond with the prayers that His name may be hallowed, His kingdom come, and His will be done. The next command and the next petition may be regarded as transitional in order. The claims of God are illustrated in those of parents; and our duties to parents have their origin and highest illustration in the honor we owe to God. The command to honor earthly parents suggests the title of God in the Prayer, reminding us both of duty and privilege. The parental relation is Divine, and involves mutual functions; and the bread we ask is the gift of God in heaven for His children's needs on earth. Thus both in the Law of Moses, and the Prayer of Jesus, we are here brought down to the human level. The rest of the commandments forbid the sins to which our lusts expose us. The rest of the petitions seek deliverance from the evils into which sin brings us. We ask God first for His own good things, and then for deliverance from our own evil things. And as the Decalogue is prefaced by a statement of His claims on the obedience of the Israelites as their Deliverer from Egypt, so the Prayer is prefaced by the comprehensive plea—"Our Father in heaven." It might be expected that there would be resemblances between the Prayer and the Beatitudes which had just been pronounced. The Prayer teaches that God is our Father, and the Beatitude declares that "peacemakers shall be called the children of God." His name is hallowed by the humble and "meek." The privileges of the kingdom belong to "the poor in spirit;" for even now, "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." The will of God is done only by "the pure in heart." The prayer for daily bread has a spiritual as well as physical application, and they realize it who "hunger and thirst after righteousness." Sorrowing for sin, we pray that our trespasses may be forgiven, and are assured that "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." We profess that we who ask forgiveness, practice it towards others, and we are taught that "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." We ask to be delivered from temptation and all evil, and are assured that, even though persecuted for righteousness' sake, we shall not only be preserved from harm, but that "great shall be our reward in heaven." Matt. 5:1-12. The prayer is not formally 'in the name of Jesus'. He had not yet fully developed His mediatorial character and work. Subsequently, on the eve of offering Himself as the sacrifice for sin, He distinctly taught His disciples to pray in His name. "Verily, verily, I say to you, If you shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it to you in my name. Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name—ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled." It is not only in accordance with His teaching that we should thus come before God, but it would be difficult for anyone who loved Him as Savior, to omit His name in any prayer to the Father. Yet much more than the mere use of the word is required if we would pray in His name. We must come to God relying on His mediation, asking what He has taught us to desire, seeking His glory and to be aided by His Spirit, else the formula alone will not fulfill the condition. Thus the apostles prayed. Some of their petitions were offered directly to Christ. Other prayers, without the formula at their close, contained the name of Christ, expressing reliance, homage, service, adoration. Prayer and praise to God, as "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," were offered in this name. That this method of appealing to God was uniform and constant, we may gather from the words of Paul—"Through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father." From these examples it is evident, that it is not so much the mention of Christ at the end of the prayer, as the breathing through the whole of it of faith and love towards Christ, which constitutes praying in His name. It is this reliance on Him while we pray, and this blending of our will with His in our petitions, which, without the customary clause, render a prayer more truly Christian than any number of repetitions of the mere name in the absence of this spirit. And therefore this prayer, because taught by Himself, as the very essence of what we should ask for, is eminently a prayer in His name, when, without the formula, we offer it in obedience to His teaching, and relying on His mediation. "After this manner" means, if not by this very form, yet in this spirit, and for these benefits. Adoration of every kind, prayer for the Divine glory, for the spread of truth, holiness, and happiness, and for help to do and suffer the will of God, are embraced in the first portion of it. Supplication for every real necessity of our nature, the satisfaction of every pure instinct, bodily, mental, social, is involved in asking for daily bread; the confession of all sin, and the plea for all pardon, are in the prayer "Forgive;" grace to bear with and to forgive others, in the condition annexed; help in all temptations, trials, sorrows, and final deliverance from every form of evil, in the closing petitions. Whatever it is lawful to pray for is embodied here; and therefore at all times, and under all circumstances, all mankind may pray "after this manner." They who use liturgies never omit this. They who repudiate the pre-composed prayer of men, with few exceptions avail themselves of this prayer of the Lord Jesus. Whatever the difference of Church government, whatever the variation of creed, all blend their voices harmoniously here. Surely they must be really united, however seemingly divided, who from the heart send up to heaven such requests. In the words of the Dean of Llandaff, "They who can pray together the Lord's Prayer in spirit and in truth, must be substantially one. The Church of all space and of all time meets and is one in the Master's Prayer." Thus it is a Divine bond of brotherhood for all who use it. It is a fulfillment of the condition joined to the promise, "If two of you agree as touching anything you shall ask, it shall be given." It may be urged with full confidence that, "If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us;" and the prayer He Himself taught must be according to His will. We may be sure that His intercession in heaven blends with our prayers on earth, when we pray "after this manner." It is a prayer capable of ever varied enlargement. We may crowd a volume into each clause. We may, in protracted supplication, "continue all night in prayer to God," and yet keep within its limits and be guilty of no vain repetitions. It is suitable for seasons of safety and peril, joy and sorrow, health and sickness, festival and funeral. We may offer it amid the activities of life, and when drawing near to the gates of death. It is suited to all ages and all minds. There are depths in it which the most thoughtful intellect cannot fathom, and shallows where little children may lave their feet—heights which the strongest climber cannot scale, and valleys where the weak and wounded may rest and be refreshed. It was given for the Church universal, in every stage of development, both as a whole and in each member. The newborn child of God may acceptably present it, though he only understands as a child; the matured believer finds increasing help in it as he puts away childish things. What the poet so beautifully says of prayer in its various utterances, may be said of this one particular prayer, this one and the same utterance, according to the different thoughts and emotions of those who offer it: "Prayer is the simplest form of speech That infant lips can try; Prayer the sublimest strains that reach The Majesty on high."

THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONTEMPLATED

"And to know the love of Christ." Eph. 3:19 On no other subject did the mind of the apostle Paul dwell with so much delight, as on that of the redeeming love of Christ. This was his favorite theme. It was his ardent desire to exhibit to a lost world, the grace of the Lord Jesus, which had been so abundantly manifested to himself, once a great sinner. It was the love of Christ that sustained him amid all his trials, and distresses, and persecutions, and enabled him to finish a glorious career. Neither the threats of the Jews, nor the terror of the Romans, could separate him from the love of Christ, or in the least abate his zeal for spreading the news of salvation, and the wonders of redeeming love through a lost world. Writing to the Romans, he boldly exclaims, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The same apostle, writing to the Ephesians, desires and prays that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith, that they being rooted and grounded in love, "may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge." Let us contemplate the love of Christ in all its extent, and in all its vastness. When did it commence? In the past eternity. The love of Christ to his people extends from eternity. Though it was manifested in time, yet it existed from eternity. "Then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men." Christ says to each of his chosen ones, "I have loved you with an everlasting love therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn you." Oh! wonderful thought, everlasting love! Who can comprehend the import of these words– everlasting love? Christ loves us, and his love is everlasting. Yes, dear believer, Christ loved you before the world was created; before you had an existence. From all eternity he thought upon your lost condition by nature; and oh! how willingly, how gladly, he left the throne of glory to bring salvation to you. His love never had a beginning. "This river of love began to flow before the world was; from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever the earth was. Christ's love to us is as old as the Father's love to the Son. This river of light began to stream from Jesus towards us, before the beams poured from the sun; before the rivers flowed to the ocean; before angel loved angel, or man loved man: before creatures were, Christ loved us. This is a great mystery; who can fathom it? This love passes knowledge." (McCheyne) The love of Christ will reach into eternity; will extend throughout its immeasurable ages it has no end. This is the sweet declaration of Christ, with regard to his love, that "For the mountains may depart and the hills disappear, but even then I will remain loyal to you. My covenant of blessing will never be broken," says the Lord, who has mercy on you." O, to be among that happy number, who will enjoy in heaven the eternal favor of Christ's love, which will make eternity itself one joyous unclouded day of everlasting light and immortal felicity! Blessed Jesus! Give us a saving interest in your unchanging loving-kindness, which is better than life. O, let one ray of your most wonderful love light on our benighted hearts: soften them by the manifestation of your grace. Of the vastness of the love of Christ, we can form no adequate conceptions; much less can we, by any power of the understanding, comprehend it. To use the emphatic language of Rutherford, "it is as if a child could take the globe of earth and sea in his two short arms." The love of Christ is like a great ocean, whose depths are unfathomable. There is a height in this love, to which no human intelligence can soar; a depth which no created mind can penetrate. In viewing the love of Christ, there lies a wide unbounded prospect before us. The mental vision wanders at liberty over this illimitable range. The love of Christ is circumscribed by no limits; it is bounded by no horizon: it is one vast expanse in which the soul may lose itself in wonder, delight, and admiration. The pious McCheyne, whom we have already quoted, has the following beautiful remarks on the love of Christ– "Paul says: 'The love of Christ passes knowledge.' It is like the blue sky into which you may see clearly, but the real vastness of which you cannot measure. It is like the deep, deep sea, into whose bosom you can look a little way, but its depths are unfathomable. It has a breadth without a bound, length without top, and depth without bottom. If holy Paul said this, who was so deeply taught in divine things; who had been in the third heaven, and seen the glorified face of Jesus; how much more may we, poor and weak believers, look into that love, and say, It passes knowledge!" If we cannot comprehend the love of Christ; if we cannot fathom it, let us contemplate and admire it. It was the love of Christ that led him to assume human nature, in order that he might suffer and die, and thus atone for the sins of his people. It was this love that induced him to leave the bosom of his Father, and the adoration of the angelic host, and to sojourn among guilty, worthless mortals. It was love that led him to exchange the throne of glory for the manger of Bethlehem and the cross of Calvary. It was love that made his whole life, from the manger to the cross, one of grief and sorrow. Love made him "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." Well might the blessed Jesus have exclaimed, "Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, with which the Lord has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." It was love that made him suffer and die for sinners. Yes, love led him to the gloomy garden of Gethsemane; love drew him to the judgment hall; love nailed him to the cross; and love enabled him to exclaim with his expiring breath, "It is finished." "Greater love has no man than this." The love of Christ is wonderful love: it is surpassing, boundless love. Look at that amazing love which Christ has manifested to sinners; and may you be able to comprehend with all saints what is its breadth, and length, and depth, and height! When you intently contemplate that redeeming love which brought Christ from his throne, to live and suffer, and die for sinners, does not your breast heave with emotions of gratitude? Does not your soul rise in adoration, and is it not lost in wonder, love, and praise? Have you a heart so cold as not to be warmed by such unbounded love; a heart so hard as not to be softened by such grace as is here set before the eyes of a wondering world? No feeble mortal can express the vastness of the love of Christ to sinners! It is a mystery which eternity itself will never fully unravel. "God only, knows the love of God." We know that it is great love, and that it is manifested to sinners, but it is love too boundless for the most capacious mind to grasp. None can comprehend its vastness: none can measure its immensity; language fails to describe it; human thought cannot fathom it; time cannot disclose its depths; and vast eternity itself will roll away in its continual and delightful contemplation. How transcendent is the love of Christ! It passes knowledge. O my soul, are you not lost in wonder and admiration when you contemplate this divine love– the love of Jesus? And love so amazing, love so boundless as the love of Christ should call forth our loftiest strains of praise, and exercise our highest powers of mind in devout contemplations. It should be the constant theme of our meditation here, until we come to possess its full and eternal enjoyment in that world where all is love. And if we possess the love of Christ on earth, it will cheer our hearts, brighten our prospects, alleviate our sorrows, mitigate our afflictions, and emit a ray of hope that will enable us to rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, even in this valley of tears. To be the object of Christ's love is desirable, and it is a blessed attainment to know that you enjoy it; to say with Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." There is nothing so much calculated to drive from sin, or excite to good works, as a ray of the love of Christ darting into the sinner's heart! This will more effectually melt it, than all tide terrors of the law, or the thunders of Sinai. The love of Christ fills the soul with immortal joys. There is nothing so reviving to the believer, as the sweet thought of Christ's love to him. There is no subject stored with such an exuberance of divine consolation, and heavenly joy, as that of redeeming love– the love of the Son of God to a lost world. Every other subject loses its luster when contrasted with this sublime, soul-reviving theme; and nothing tends so effectually to expand, elevate, and purify the soul, as that faith "which works by love." And what do we not owe to the love of Christ? All the comforts and happiness of life, and all the joys of a blissful eternity flow from this love. You should meditate much upon the love of Christ; and may that love ever glow within you, and be like a perpetual fire burning upon the altar of your heart. "The love of Christ is a subject too lofty for a seraph's harp. The soul, renewed by the spirit, is often incapable of expressing the sublime feelings which pass through the mind, when thinking on this glorious subject. The love of Christ conveys a joy to the believer's heart, which is unspeakable and full of glory. The tongue cannot express the delight of heart which arises from the manifestation of this love. The joy of harvest, the joy of the bridegroom on his wedding day; the joy of victory, and taking great spoils from the enemy; the joy of a poor man in finding great treasures; all these are not worthy to be compared with the joy and exultation of the believer's heart, on the manifestation of this love to his soul." (Vincent) What does the blessed Jesus deserve for such unbounded love to sinners? All our hearts should be devoted to his service, and all our affections should be placed upon him. We should love him, because he first loved us. "Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." O to be made like the adorable Redeemer, and to praise him throughout the countless age's of eternity, for the wonders of his redeeming love! May this be the desire of every reader; and may each be enabled to exclaim with the Psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven but you? There is none upon earth that I desire besides you!" "One there is, above all others, Well deserves the name of Friend His is love beyond a brother's; Costly, free, and knows no end. They who once his kindness prove, Find it everlasting love. Which of all our friends to save us, Could or would have shed their blood! But our Jesus died to save us Reconciled, in him to God; This was boundless love indeed Jesus is a friend in need." David Harsha, 1827-1895