pmfB. 
 
 
13V 
 
 Q4-7 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Date Due 
 
 JUN1 
 
 -mr 
 
 . w^ 
 
 i<^p::iS 
 
 |,]9&sh: ^ 
 
 tja 
 
 li 
 
 ■^^m 
 
 i^f^ 
 
 14 
 
 %#- 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029326570 
 
PERFECT PRAYER. 
 
 EOW OFFERED: HOW ANSWERED, 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. CHAUNCEY GILES. 
 
 " Teach ue to pray." — Luke ii. 1. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, 
 1903. 
 
 1 
 
Copyright, 1883, ty J. B. Lippincott & Co. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. — Bppioaciods Prater 11 
 
 II. — Natuhe ahd Use of Pkayeb 27 
 
 III. — Hypocritical and Vain Pbavbr 43 
 
 IV. — Conditions and Nature of Genuine Prater . . 69 
 V. — The Proper Object of Worship . . . .75 
 
 VI. — Hallowing the Lord's Name 91 
 
 VII. — The Lord's Kingdom ; What it is : How to Pray for 
 
 it 107 
 
 VIII. — Doing the Lord's Will in the Earth as in Heaven. 123 
 IX. — Daily Bread ; What it is : How to Pray for it . 139 
 
 X. — The Forgiveness of Sin 155 
 
 XI. — Temptation; Its Cause, Nature, and Use . . 171 
 
 XII. — Deliverance from Evil ; How to Pray for it, How 
 
 to Obtain it 187 
 
 XIII. — The Kingdom, Power, and Glory op the Lord ; What 
 
 they are; How we can ascribe them to Him . 203 
 XrV. — Summary View of the Lord's Prayer. The Logical 
 
 Relation op the Special Petitions . . . 219 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The use of Prayer and the manner in which it operates 
 to produce its effects is a subject which has awakened 
 unusual interest in the Christian world in the last few 
 years. As men become better acquainted with the sub- 
 stances and forces of the material world they see more 
 clearly that all things proceed according to immutable 
 laws. Storms, droughts, wars, famines, and pestilences, 
 which it was formerly believed were sent upon men by 
 an angry God to punish them for their sins, are now seen 
 to be the effects of natural causes which are constant in 
 their operation, and which in a great degree are under 
 human control. Why, then, should we ask the Lord to 
 interpose and prevent effects which His own forces acting 
 according to His own laws produce ? Why should we ask 
 the Lord to save us from the consequences of our own 
 wicked actions, when it can only be done by a change in 
 ourselves ? The more clearly men see that human suffer- 
 ing is due to their own ignorance of the laws of life, or to 
 their wilful disobedience to them, the more they will be 
 disposed to doubt the propriety of asking the Lord to 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 avert a calamity which is caused by a violation of the 
 laws and order of infinite wisdom. 
 
 All the happiness and blessings we enjoy are also the 
 effect of immutable causes. Man was made for happiness. 
 All his faculties of body and spirit are organized to be the 
 subjects of pleasurable sensations and the most exquisite 
 joys, and all the forms and forces of the material and spirit- 
 ual worlds are adjusted to this infinitely complex organiza- 
 tion with the most delicate and the most exact precision 
 for the purpose of ministering to human happiness, the 
 essential purpose for which the Lord works. Why, then, 
 should we ask the Lord to do that for ourselves or others 
 which He is in the constant effort to do ? He regards uf 
 with infinite love now ; can any appeal from human lips 
 move Him to an intenser love ? He is employing all the 
 means in His infinite power directed by His infinite wisdom 
 for our highest good now ; can He be persuaded to do 
 more or better by our importunities ? It is impossible in 
 the nature of things. Why, then, should we pray ? The 
 answer evidently must be that our asking is one of the 
 means, one link in the chain of causes and effects by 
 which the evil is averted or the good bestowed. 
 
 Another cause of doubt about the efiBcacy of prayer 
 lies in the fact that many earnest and importunate prayers 
 are not granted. The Lord says to men, " Ask and it 
 shall be given to you." Humble and sincere Christians 
 do ask, in words at least, and their request is not granted. 
 Then doubts of many kinds arise. Does not the Lord 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 keep His promises ? Is there any use in asking if there 
 is no certainty of receiving an answer ? It is generally 
 supposed that the Lord can grant our requests immediately 
 by a direct exercise of omnipotent power, and when the 
 answer does not come we fall into doubt about His willing- 
 ness or power to do it. Yet He may be answering us the 
 most directly even when He seems to be deaf to our en- 
 treaties. There may be obstacles in the way of which we 
 have no knowledge, which can only be removed according 
 to the laws of the Divine order and with our co-operation. 
 and it may require much progress in spiritual life before 
 we are willing to give that. 
 
 There is a prevalent misconception about the end to be 
 obtained by prayer. It is generally supposed that the office 
 of prayer consists in working some change in the mind of the 
 Lord by which He can be induced to save us from evils, or 
 grant us blessings which He would not otherwise have 
 done. But this cannot be its purpose. There is no neces- 
 sity for any change in Him. The only permanent ob- 
 stacles to our complete happiness lie in ourselves ; conse- 
 quently the only change required is in ourselves, and the 
 principal use of prayer is its agency in bringing us into a 
 state in which the Lord can save and bless us. It has 
 been objected with much emphasis to this view of the pur- 
 pose of prayer that it makes our petitions a mere pretense. 
 We ask the Lord to render us a service which we know 
 He desires to grant ; we implore a gift which we refuse to 
 receive when offered to us. But even when we know this 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 we may be sincere in our petitions, because we need 
 Divine aid to remove the obstacles which exist in our own 
 minds, as much as to bestow the gift. In all genuine 
 prayer there is behind the special request an acknowledg- 
 ment of our dependence upon the Lord for the power to 
 receive as well as to ask, and a surrender of the inmost 
 causes of thought and affection to His guidance. How- 
 ever desirable the special blessing we seek may seem to 
 us, the condition " not as I will, but as Thou wilt," is 
 always implied. Sincere, genuine prayer tends to bring 
 us into such relations to the Lord that we can receive 
 what He gives us the power to ask. It is a state of 
 humiliation in which our own evil desires are heJd \ 
 abeyance ; it is turning to the Lord and opening ou 
 affections to a fuller reception of the Divine life ; it is 
 yielding ourselves up in affection and thought to the Divine 
 guidance. So far as we do this we come within the 
 sphere of the Divine power, and the Lord can do more for 
 us than we can ask or conceive. 
 
 It is the aim of the author of the following pages to 
 give the answer of the New Church to some of the ques- 
 tions which are now frequently asked concerning the natur8 
 and use of prayer, to show in what genuine prayer 
 essentially consists, and to set forth the conditions on 
 which it can be answered. It will be seen that much 
 stress is laid upon the fact that man is only a form capable 
 of receiving life, and consequently that his essential rela- 
 tion to the Lord is that of a recipient of life to the Giver of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 it. This central truth is the key to some of the most diffi- 
 cult problems of existence. It shows us that prayer is not 
 merely a matter of words, that it is an actual turning to 
 the Source of life, and the opening of the organic forms of 
 the mind to its influx. The discourses were first published 
 separately as they were delivered, and in that form they 
 have been widely circulated. So many acknowledgments 
 have been received from inquiring and devout minds of the 
 help they have derived from them in removing their doubts 
 about the efficacy of prayer, and in gaining assurance that 
 every genuine prayer will be answered when the conditions 
 arfi fulfilled on which the Lord's promises are made, that 
 it is hoped their use may be continued by publication in 
 a more permanent form. In the exposition of the " per- 
 fect prayer" which our Lord gives to all who come to Him 
 with the request, " teach us to pray," it has been the en- 
 deavor to give some help in raising it above a mere for- 
 mality, to show the richness of its vital power and its 
 perfect adaptation to all human needs. Infinite Wisdom 
 is its author, and it must contain infinite treasures of 
 goodness and truth. That all who are seeking a heavenly 
 life and a more intimate communion with the Lord may 
 find some assistance in the following pages, is the sincere 
 prayer of the 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
I. 
 
 EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 
 
 " If ye, shall ash anything in my name, I mil do it."— 
 John xiv. 14. 
 
 The nature and use of prayer is a living question. It 
 touclies the hopes and fears, the customs and the heart, of 
 humanity. All religions, Christian and Pagan alike, teach 
 the duty and the use of prayer. The Sacred Scriptures 
 of both the Old and New Testaments commend it by ex- 
 ample, enforce it by precept, encourage it by promises, and 
 illustrate its nature and use by numerous and impressive 
 examples. Our Lord taught His disciples how to pray, 
 exhorted them to do it earnestly and faithfully, encouraged 
 them by the most solemn promises of a full and speedy 
 answer, and gave to them and to the world His own Di- 
 vine example. He prayed often with fervor and sometimes 
 with agony. Surely there is testimony sufficient to show 
 the nature and use of prayer and to incite to its faithful 
 practice. It is a want implanted in the human mind ; it 
 is in harmony with the laws of the Divine order. 
 
 But still there are many doubts about its efficacy. Mul 
 titudes of apparently sincere and fervent prayers are not 
 answered. We are brought face to face with this question 
 
 11 
 
12 EFFICACIOUS PRATER. 
 
 to-day in a direct and forcible manner. Millions of sin- 
 cere and earnest prayers, from day to day and week to 
 week, were offered to the Lord to preserve the life of 
 our beloved President. Days were set apart and specially 
 dedicated to this service by our public magistrates. Chris- 
 tians in foreign lands united in the petition. It is hardly 
 an exaggeration to say that the whole Christian world was 
 on its knees before the throne of grace, imploring the 
 mercy of our Heavenly Father to spare this precious life 
 to us. But the prayer was not answered in the sense it 
 was generally offered. After a long and painful struggle 
 the illustrious martyr passed away from earth to his final 
 home. Why was not the prayer of so many millions of 
 people answered ? The prayers were sincere, fervent, for a 
 noble purpose, and oft-repeated. Such a conspicuous in- 
 stance of the apparent inefficacy of prayer cannot fail to 
 awaken doubts in the minds of many sincere Christians, 
 even about its use and power to prevail with the Lord. 
 These doubts ought, if possible, to be removed, for they 
 tend to unsettle the faith of man in the Divine Providence, 
 in the goodness and mercy of the Lord, and in His faith- 
 fulness in keeping His promises. 
 
 The Lord promises to answer prayer. These promises 
 are direct, positive, and repeatedly made in the most solemn 
 manner. The Old Testament is full of such promises. 
 They are reiterated, if possible, with more emphasis and 
 solemnity in the New. The Lord calls Himself the hearer 
 of prayer. His ears are ever open to the cry of His 
 people. He encourages us to ask freely, fully. " I say 
 unto you," He says, " Ask, and it shall be given unto 
 you." " For every one that asketh receiveth." " If ye 
 shall ask anything in my name, I will do it" " If ye 
 
EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 13 
 
 abide in mt, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what 
 ye will and it shall be done unto you." " Ask, and ye shall 
 receive, that your joy may be full." We are invited, ex- 
 horted to ask, and the promise is explicit that we shall 
 receive what we ask for. But oftener than otherwise our 
 prayer is not, or does not seem to be answered. Why is 
 it ? Does not the Lord keep His promise ? Before we 
 answer that question in the negative we ought to examine 
 the question in all its bearings. We ought to be sure that 
 we ask. Prayer is asking. 
 
 What is asking ? It must be something more than re- 
 peating a prayer by rote ; something more than articulate 
 breath. Millions of prayers may be repeated without 
 asking a favor of the Lord. The words employed are 
 empty sounds. They are not the expression of any desire ; 
 they are not the form of any thought. Asking is turning 
 to, the Lord, opening the heart to Him. It is the turning 
 of the soul to the Lord and the opening of its inmost 
 forms to the quickening breath of the Holy Spirit, as the 
 plant turns to the sun and opens every cell and pore to 
 the light and to the quickening breath of his heat. Gen- 
 uine prayer is not merely a matter of terms. We may( 
 use the most appropriate and eloquent words and not ask 
 for a blessing. On the other hand, we may ask in the 
 most effective form and not utter a sound. The will and , 
 the affections may lie prostrate in profound humiliation 
 and entire self-surrender to the Lord to be penetrated by 
 His life, and led by His wisdom. The heart asks, and He 
 who looks upon the heart sees the desire before it is formed 
 into thought. He hears the cry of the spirit before it 
 gains vocal utterance, and answers before we call. We 
 find in the body perfect examples of real asking. Ai 
 
14 EFFICACIOUS PRAYER 
 
 hanger is the body's prayer for bread ; thirst, its prayer 
 for water ; so desire is the soul's prayer for the means to 
 satisfy its wants. 
 
 There is often entire contrariety between the prayer of 
 the heart and the prayer of the lips. We do not desire 
 what we formally ask, and we would stoutly resist receiv- 
 ing it if it were offered to us. How many millions of 
 men and women will repeat the Divine petitions to-day, 
 "Thy kingdom come. Forgive us our trespasses as we for- 
 give those who trespass against us," while they are oppos- 
 ing the coming of the Lord's kingdom in their own hearts, 
 and in the world ! If it should come, and the Lord's will 
 should be done on the earth as it is in heaven, it would 
 defeat their purposes, destroy their business, blast their 
 hopes. IIow many would dare to ask the Lord to forgive 
 them as they forgive others? As much, and no more. 
 Would it not be equivalent to asking Him not to forgive 
 them ? Genuine, complete, effective asking is an action 
 of the whole nature ; it is the consenting voice of every 
 faculty. It begins in the heart, it is formed in the un- 
 derstanding, it is merely expressed with the lips. 
 
 Such being the nature of genuine prayer, let us consider 
 the conditions on which it is answered. Every JDivine 
 promise is made upon conditions, and no prayer can be an- 
 swered unless those conditions are complied with. These 
 conditions are always the same, though variously expressed. 
 At one time the condition is faith, " Whatsoever things 
 ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and 
 ye shall have them." " All things are possible to him that 
 believeth." The condition on which our Lord wrought 
 His miracles of healing was faith in Him. " Believest 
 thou that I can do this ?" was almost invariably His ques- 
 
EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 15 
 
 tion. ' He did not many mighty works" in Hia own 
 country, " because of their unbelief." 
 
 In our text asking in His name is the condition. What 
 are we to understand by His " name" ? There has been 
 the most remarkable misconception by religious teachers 
 of what is meant in this and many other passages by the 
 " name" of the Lord. It has been supposed that it meant 
 " for His sake." Consequently, prayer is generally ad- 
 dressed to the Father, and He is asked to grant the peti- 
 tion for the sake of the Son. In this way two distinct 
 persons are recognized as God, and one is asked to grant 
 a favor, not because He delights to confer blessings upon 
 man, which He must do if He is a being of infinite love ; 
 not for man's sake, because he is poor and perishing and 
 needs Divine mercy and aid ; but for the sake of His 
 Son. There is but one instance in the whole Bible where 
 it is said that God confers any blessing upon men for 
 Christ's sake, and that is a mistranslation, which is cor- 
 rected in the new revision. In this passage the Apostle 
 exhorts the Ephesians to forgive one another even as God 
 " in Christ,'' which is true doctrine, " has forgiven them," 
 and not as in the old version, " for Christ's sake," which 
 is neither Scripture nor true doctrine. 
 
 A glance at the use of " name" in the sacred Scriptures 
 will show that it must mean more than a mere epithet ap- 
 plied to the Lord, as we give names to children. One of 
 the commandments forbids us " to take the Lord's name 
 in vain." The Lord warns the children of Israel to be- 
 ware of the Angel whom He would send before them, 
 " for," He says, " my name is in him." They are re- 
 peatedly forbidden to profane His holy name. Solomon 
 built a house unto the name of the Lord. The Psalms 
 
16 EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 
 
 and prophets are full of similar expressions. The Lord 
 is implored to pardon, to quicken, to bless for His name's 
 sake. The Psalmist calls upon men to honor, praise, 
 glorify, and bless the Lord's holy name. Our Saviour 
 taught His disciples to pray " Hallowed be thy name." 
 He calls His own sheep by name, writes His name upon 
 their foreheads, gives to His people a new name. They 
 who believe will have life in His name. These and a 
 multitude of other passages show that name stands for the 
 Lord Himself. It involves all the Divine attributes, and 
 embodies all the laws of the Divine order. It compre- 
 hends His love, wisdom, power, and all the methods of 
 carrying His purposes of good to men into effect. 
 
 To ask in His name, therefore, is to ask according to 
 His will and wisdom. It is to ask that the Lord shall de- 
 cide whether the request itself is a wise one, and whether 
 it will be for our good, or not, to have it answered in our 
 own way. We are always asking for favors which it 
 would be to our injury, and to the injury of others, to have 
 granted. We ask for success in every undertaking ; for 
 exemption from all pain and sorrow ; for wealth, pleasure, 
 honor, power. But all these attainments for every one are 
 impossible in the nature of human society. We do not 
 ask them in the name of the Lord ; we ask them in our 
 own name ; according to our desires, and the measure of 
 our wisdom, or the degree of our folly. 
 
 The conditions on which we shall receive what we ask 
 are expressed in another way, which throws much light 
 upon the subject. Our Lord compares His relation to 
 men to that which exists between the vine and its branches. 
 " I am the vine," He says, " ye are the branches." " If 
 ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask 
 
EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 17 
 
 what ye will and it shall be done unto you." Here the 
 conditions of obtaining whatever we ask are, " If ye abide 
 in me, and my words abide in you." They are without 
 doubt the same as asking in His name, and believing in 
 Him with undoubting faith. No one truly believes in the 
 Lord who does not abide in Him, and in whom the Lord's 
 words do not abide. Nor can any others ask in His name, 
 because they do not know what it is. Here, then, we have 
 the conditions on which the Lord promises to answer 
 prayer, and the only conditions on which He can give us 
 what we ask. They are that the request shall be in accord 
 with all the laws of the Divine order, and the purposes of 
 infinite love and wisdom. 
 
 It is absurd to suppose that He would answer any other 
 petitions, or could grant our requests in any other way. A 
 wise parent will not grant the request of the child he 
 loves, even though it would give him great present satis- 
 faction, and save from momentary pain, if he knows that 
 it would harm the child. If it were necessary that a 
 broken bone should be set, or a limb amputated, to pre- 
 vent lasting deformity, or to save the child's life, he would 
 insist on the operation, however earnestly the child might 
 plead against it, because he loves his child, and looks to 
 its permanent and greatest good. Is it not absurd to sup- 
 pose that the Lord, who sees the end in the beginning, 
 who knows the bearing of success and defeat, of joy and 
 sorrow, upon individual and national happiness, should 
 grant every request which men, who are blinded by selfish 
 and worldly afiections, and who judge mostly by appear- 
 ances, may make ? Will He annul or suspend the laws of 
 His Divine order, and act contrary to the ordinations of His 
 Divine Providence, at the request of one man or of a mil- 
 2 
 
18 EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 
 
 lion of men ? How could He govern the univeroe and 
 preserve order in its movements if He did ? Large bodies 
 of men often pray for directly opposite things. Two na- 
 tions are at war. Each one prays for its own success. Both 
 are equally fervent and sincere, and have equal faith. To 
 grant the prayers of one nation would be to reject the 
 petitions of the other. It would be impossible to grant 
 the prayers of both. The Lord does not promise to 
 answer every prayer. He only promises to answer those 
 which accord with certain prescribed conditions. 
 
 These conditions operate in two ways. They determine 
 the nature of the request, as well as of the answer. Our 
 prayers are the outgrowth and expression of ourselves. 
 They depend upon our character, our intelligence, our pur- 
 poses in life. We ask only for those things which we be- 
 lieve to be favorable to us. We seek escape from some im- 
 pending calamity, or for the bestowal of some fancied good. 
 But what we regarded as a calamity might prove a blessing, 
 and the seeming good might prove to be a curse. Every 
 aifection asks for gratification. A wicked man will not ask 
 for the same things as a good man. One who is ignorant of 
 the Lord, or who has misconceptions of His true character, 
 will not pray in the same way, or for the same objects as 
 the man who has some true knowledge of Him and His laws. 
 The man who believes that the Lord is a being of infinite 
 love who only seeks to bless His children, will not pray to 
 be saved from His wrath, for He knows that He has none. 
 He will not implore in abject fear the Lord to have mercy 
 upon him, for he knows that He is in the constant effort 
 to do it. The history of religions, and our own experi- 
 ence, show that what men desire and pray for is determined 
 by their own knowledge and character. 
 
EFFICACIOUS FRAYER. 19 
 
 When we abide in the Lord and His words abide in us 
 we shall be filled with His love ; we shall be imbued with 
 His spirit ; we shall be directed by His wisdom ; His way 
 will be our way. As His words abide in us, they will be- 
 come the living springs of our action. We shall desire to 
 have no will or way of our own which is contrary to His 
 will. Would it be possible for a man in this state to ask 
 for the gratification of any selfish desire ? It would be 
 contrary to every principle of his nature. His mind could 
 not conceive such a prayer ; his lips could not utter it. 
 Could he ask, without reservation, to be released from any 
 labor, to be saved from any trial, however strongly he may 
 shrink from it ? We cannot help shrinking from pain and 
 sufi'ering of every kind ; and when the suffering is great 
 we cannot restrain a desire to be free from it. Our Lord 
 Himself did. But it may be for our good to suffer it, 
 and, therefore, from a higher point of view, we could not 
 ask to be saved from it. When in more than mortal 
 agony our Lord prayed, " my Father, if it be possible, 
 let this cup pass from me," He added, " Nevertheless 
 not as I will, but as Thou wilt." " If we abide in Him, 
 and His words abide in us," we can pray in no other way. 
 Every prayer will be put up in the spiri*^, and with the 
 reservation, " Not as I will, but as Thou wilt." As we 
 come into union with the Lord, and are imbuod with His 
 spirit, and trust Him with implicit confideno^, we shall 
 have no desire for anything contrary to His will. The 
 quality of our prayers will change. We shall only ask 
 directly and positively for spiritual good ; for help to over- 
 come our evils ; for light in our darkness, and for f.he love 
 of heaven in our hearts. If we pray for particular, natu- 
 ral blessings, or to be saved from the difficulties and dan- 
 
20 EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 
 
 gers and trials of this life, it will always be with the reser- 
 vation, " Nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done." 
 So far as we cherish this spirit, and pray in this manner, 
 our request will be answered. 
 
 In the light of these principles let us look at some re- 
 cent events in our own history. Probably no more sincere, 
 fervent, and persistent prayers were ever offered to the 
 Lord for any special favor than that the life of our late 
 President should be spared to the nation. So far as these 
 petitions were oiFered up in the name of the Lord they 
 were granted, so far as they did not comply with those 
 conditions they were not granted. How can this be, it 
 will be asked, when both prayed for the same thing ? But 
 both classes did not pray for the same thing. There was 
 the widest difference in their requests, — difference in 
 principle, and in the object sought. Both parties agree 
 in one point, that the life of the President may be spared ; 
 but one class asks that it may be done, if it he consistent 
 with the laws of the Divine order, and the highest good of 
 our nation, and of the world. Their prayer is breathed 
 in the Lord's name, and with the implied reservation, 
 " Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." The real 
 prayer is that the Lord will do what in His infinite wisdom 
 He sees to be best. The answer is left with Him. Their 
 prayer is answered, is it not ? The Lord has done what 
 in His infinite wisdom He knew to be best for our nation, 
 for our beloved President, for his family, and for the world. 
 His wound was mortal. All the forces stored up by the 
 Divine Providence in his mind and body, in the skill of 
 his physicians, and in the remedies applied for his relief, 
 were not sufiicient to save him. His life could only have 
 been prolonged by a violation of the laws of the Divine 
 
EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 21 
 
 wisdom ; and that was not asked for by those who prayed 
 in the Lord's name. They did not ask Him to do any- 
 thing contrary to Himself; anything opposed to His pur- 
 poses. They asked for a special favor only on the condi- 
 tion that the Lord should see that it was a favor. If it 
 was not, they did not ask for it. Their prayer was an- 
 swered. 
 
 The prayer of those who did not pray in the Lord's 
 name was not answered. They asked in their own name. 
 They asked for a specific object without conditions ; they 
 did not look beyond the event itself; they made their own 
 wisdom the test of what was best for all. They prayed, 
 " Let it be as I will." Such a prayer could not be offered 
 in the Lord's name. Such a petition could not be made 
 by one who dwelt in the Lord, and in whom the Lord's 
 words were an abiding life and a guiding light. Their 
 prayer was not granted. It could not be in the nature of 
 things. If it were possible, it would involve all human 
 affairs and the whole creation in ruin. 
 
 But some one may say, This is a mere quibble. How 
 can two persons ask for the same favor, and the request of 
 one be granted and the other denied, when neither of 
 them get it ? From a superficial view it does seem im- 
 possible. But let us regard the subject in the light of a 
 familiar illustration. A wise and kind father says to his 
 two sons, " I desire to do everything in my power for your 
 highest good. Come to me freely ; ask me any favor you 
 please, and if, in my judgment, it be for your happiness, 
 I will grant it." Encouraged by this promise both ask 
 for the same thing. One of the sons says, " This favor 
 seems to me very desirable ; I think it will help me and 
 conduce greatly to my prosperity and happiness. But I 
 
i;2 EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 
 
 do not desire to rely upon my own judgment. Ton know 
 better than I. If you think it is not best, I desire to 
 abide by your judgment." The other comes in his own 
 name. He pleads for it ; tries to persuade his father to let 
 him have it. He looks only to the favor. He judges of 
 its value wholly by his own estimation. He does not make 
 any condition. 
 
 The father decides that it is not best to grant his sons' 
 request. He sees many ways in which it might be injuri- 
 ous to them. Is it not true that, when the whole question 
 is taken into account, the prayer of one of the sons is an- 
 swered, and of the other not, though neither of them re- 
 ceive the particular thing asked ? The one asks for it on 
 certain conditions, and unless those are present, he desires 
 that his request be not granted. Those conditions are not 
 present, and, therefore, his request for the special favor is 
 not granted ; but as a whole it is. The larger request, 
 which embraced and qualified the other, is granted. He 
 gets what he asks, according to the conditions. The 
 other son made no conditions, and when the special favor 
 was denied his whole prayer was rejected. 
 
 J So it is with all the favors we ask of the Lord. When 
 
 'we ask in His name the conditions are always implied. 
 
 ; We do not desire the Lord to grant our request, whether 
 He sees that it is best for us or not. We ask it if He 
 sees that it would be good for us and for all, and can be 
 granted without violence to the laws of the Divine Provi- 
 
 , dence. The Lord keeps His promises. He answers every 
 prayer offered according to the prescribed conditions, and 
 He answers no others. He has not promised to answer 
 any others. He could not answer any others ; and if we 
 could see all the bearings of giving or denying to us our 
 
EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 23 
 
 requests as the Lord in His omniscience sees them, we 
 should not desire to have the decision otherwise than He 
 makes it. 
 
 But the Lord often answers the prayers of His people 
 when He seems to deny them. He answers them so largely 
 and fully ; does so much better by us than we can ask or 
 think, that the particular favor is lost sight of in the pro- 
 fusion of blessings. Our prayer is answered in spirit, while 
 it is not granted in the letter. Our people prayed with 
 united voice and heart that the life of our President might 
 be spared to us. Why was this prayer so general and so 
 earnest ? Was it not because there was so much confi- 
 dence in his ability and integrity ? Was it not because 
 of the general hope and belief that he would reform abuses, 
 purify the currents of political thought, and improve the 
 condition of civil service ? The prayers were not so much 
 for him personally as for the country. The intense in- 
 terest in his life was excited by the hope of the use he 
 would render the nation and the world. Are these hopes 
 blasted ? Has his influence ceased ? Has he gone beyond 
 the limits of his power to serve us ? 
 
 No. His influence has not ceased. He is more alive to- 
 day than ever before. He lives in more hearts to-day than 
 ever before. He is a living power in more minds to-day 
 than he would have been four years hence, after the most 
 successful conduct of our national afiairs. His principles 
 are more widely known, and they will have more weight 
 in forming the opinions of our people. They are beyond 
 the reach of friend or enemy. No power can change them. 
 No mistakes in policy ; no calumny of enemies ; no cun- 
 ning of political artifice ; no blindness of party zeal can 
 weaken their power, or obscure their brightness. Sancti- 
 
24 EFFICACIOUS FRAVER. 
 
 fied by his martyrdom in the prime of his manhood, his 
 memory will be cherished in the hearts of our people, and 
 handed down from generation to generation. He lives and 
 will continue to live. His memory will be kept green and 
 fruitful by a tender sympathy, by a reverent admiration 
 and a profound respect for the principles which he lived 
 and died to maintain. Such men never die. Their prin- 
 ciples enter into the heart of humanity and become per- 
 manent forces, which awaken affection, mould thought, 
 and direct action. Every prayer offered for the preserva- 
 tion of his life has been answered. 
 
 But there is another respect in which the prayers of our 
 people were really answered when it seemed as though 
 they were not. Without doubt many hearts were touched 
 with pity that he who had won his way from such low 
 conditions, up through every grade of employment and 
 office to the highest position in his country, if not in the 
 world, should be hurled from it just as he was entering 
 ipon its duties and beginning to reap its rewards, and they 
 prayed for him, — prayed that he might be spared to enjoy 
 his well-earned success. From the point of view of earth 
 and time, it did appear as though the cup was dashed from 
 his lips before he could taste of the joy of success. His 
 sun went down while it was yet day. But if it sunk be- 
 tow the horizon of this life, it rose above the horizon of 
 the other into a brighter day, and better conditions for 
 serving his country and family and attaining the true 
 blessedness of life. 
 
 He has lost nothing personally. He is the same man, 
 in the same noble form, the embodiment of the same 
 principles. He is to-day what he became by the knowl- 
 edge he gained and the principles which were wroight 
 
EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 25 
 
 into the fabric of his spiritual nature, and became char- 
 acter. Not a single truth, or principle, or affection, or re- 
 ward will be lost. He possesses all those qualities which 
 excited admiration, created confidence, awakened sympa- 
 thy, and won the heart. He is reaping, and will continue 
 to reap in larger measures, his reward. He has risen to 
 higher honors, which will be freely accorded to him with 
 liberal hands, according to the full measure of his deserts. 
 
 Nor is he personally lost to us. He lives not only as a 
 memory, a sentiment ; not only by the truths he taught 
 and by the influence of his example. He lives a.s a man. 
 He is not removed from country, wife, and home. He is 
 merely transferred to another province of the Lord's king- 
 dom. He has not gone away from us. He has come 
 nearer to the secret springs of our national life. He has 
 been promoted from a lower to a higher and more interior 
 plane of power, in which he can do more to guide out 
 action and control our destiny than he could have done as 
 our Chief Magistrate. 
 
 We are justified in the conclusion, therefore, that every 
 sincere prayer to the Lord that He would preserve the life 
 of our President, that he might continue to serve and 
 bless his country, and reap the reward of his deeds, has 
 been answered. Not, indeed, in the special way asked and 
 hoped for ; but in a wiser, fuller, and more efficient way. 
 Shall we not be content with that ? Shall we, who cannot 
 see so much of the consequences of any act as a mole in 
 the ground sees of the material universe, dictate to infinite 
 (wisdom in what specific form our prayers shall be answered ? 
 If a hungry man asks us for a crust, will he complain that 
 his request is not granted when we give him a loaf ? Our 
 request may be of such a nature that it cannot be granted 
 
26 EFFICACIOUS PRAYER. 
 
 without our co-operation, and much labor and sorrow ; and 
 the Lord may be answering our petition while He seems 
 to us to be denj ing it. 
 
 Suppose we honestly pray that our sins may be for- 
 given, and that we may be admitted into heaven. We 
 may think only of the penalty, and believe that the Lord 
 can forgive sin as a magistrate can pardon a criminal, and 
 that we can be admitted into heaven by personal favor, as 
 we might be to a feast. The Lord begins to answer our 
 prayer. He suffers us to be tried and tempted that we 
 may see our evils, see their vile and unclean nature, and 
 put them away. Afflictions come upon us ; the love of 
 world and self is assaulted, and instead of the rest and 
 peace of heaven, we come into infernal torment. Why is 
 this ? Has the Lord turned a deaf ear to our prayer ? 
 We asked for peace, and we find war ; we prayed for rest, 
 and we are wearied with labor and goaded by conflicting 
 passions. If in our agony we should cry unto the Lord, 
 " Lord, hear me, answer me, save me I" His reply 
 could truly be, " I do hear you, I am answering you, I am 
 saving you." So the Lord leads us in a way we kaow 
 not and could not have chosen, to the end we seek. He 
 answers our prayer while He seems to us to reject it. 
 
XX. 
 
 THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 
 
 " Ask, and it shall h" given you." — Matthew vii. 7. 
 
 The subject of prayer deeply concerns the vital interesta 
 of every human being. There is embodied in man's nature 
 a tendency to look to the source of his life, which creates 
 a necessity for prayer. If man had retained his original 
 perfection it would be as natural for him to pray as it is to 
 eat when he is hungry, to seek relief when he is in dis 
 tress, or to communicate his thoughts and affections to 
 those whom he loves. There is a sense in which every 
 creature prays. But how prayer helps us, and in what 
 way the good attained by it comes, remains one of thosfi 
 open secrets about which there is much discussion, anu 
 but little generally known. 
 
 When the opinion prevailed that the Lord acted in an 
 arbitrary way like an irresponsible sovereign, there was 
 no difficulty in believing that He could be moved by en- 
 treaty, and give a direct and immediate answer to any pe- 
 tition that pleased Him. But as men learned that the 
 universe was governed according to immutable law, that 
 all things are related, and that effects are dependent upon 
 their causes, questions began to arise about the efficacy of 
 prayer for special objects. 
 
 There are other causes of doubt, also, about the use of 
 
 27 
 
28 THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 
 
 prayer. If the Lord is a being of infinite love and desires 
 to confer blessings upon His children, why should He with- 
 hold them until He is asked, and even importuned? If 
 He will only give us what seems to Him to be best how- 
 ever fervently we may pray, and will give it whether we 
 ask Him or not, what is the use of praying ? 
 
 These questions cannot be answered without some true 
 knowledge of our relations to the Lord. We must know 
 what asking is. Millions of prayers are spoken in which 
 no good is asked. They are merely the mechanical actions 
 of the memory, repeated from habit without any thought 
 of their meaning. 
 
 If we desire a rational answer, we must go beneath ap- 
 pearances, and gain a broad and comprehensive idea of 
 prayer. We must know something of the state of the soul 
 in the act of prayer, and of its attitude towards the Lord. 
 We must have some knowledge of the Lord's purpose in 
 our creation, and how His purposes and our purposes can 
 be united. We must see how life is received, or repelled. 
 In the measure and degree we can understand our true re- 
 lations to the Lord we may be able to discover the essen- 
 tial uses of prayer. To get the subject fairly before us, 
 however, it may be necessary to clear away some false 
 ideas which have prevailed with regard to the nature and 
 efficacy of prayer, by considering what they are not. 
 
 1. It is not the use of prayer to give the Lord informa- 
 tion, or to remind Him of His knowledge or promises. 
 He knows our sins, and how vile and false we are. He 
 knows how blind and ignorant and foolish we are infinitely 
 better than we do. He knows what hindrances lie in oui 
 path to heaven, how poor and miserable and weary and 
 faint-hearted we are. He knows our spiritual condition 
 
THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 29 
 
 in all its causes and relations. Our knowledge of our- 
 selves is as nothing compared with His. It is useful to 
 us to confess our sins, but not for the purpose of giving 
 the Lord information. We cannot tell Him anything He 
 does not know infinitely better than we do, or ever can. 
 
 2. It is not the use of prayer to change His feelings or 
 purpose towards us. If it were possible to do that, it 
 would harm rather than help us. He has only one pur- 
 pose with regard to every human being, and that is to do 
 him all the good in His power. What the Lord can do 
 for us, however, depends upon our willingness and ability to 
 receive good from Him. If the Lord seems to be hostile to 
 us, it is because we propose to ourselves ends of life which 
 are selfish and worldly, and, therefore, destructive of our 
 highest good. We identify ourselves with those purposes, 
 and think our happiness depends upon our success in effect- 
 ing them. The Lord opposes them because He knows 
 how harmful they are, and we conclude that He must be 
 hostile to us because He opposes our selfish and worldly 
 desires. But this is a fatal fallacy, which has caused the 
 most unjust and cruel misconceptions of the Lord's char- 
 acter, and of His attitude towards sinful men. We regard 
 the infinitely perfect and merciful Lord through the per- 
 verting medium of our false principles and evil passions, 
 and attribute to Him the distortions caused by them. 
 But " The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are 
 over all His works." 
 
 3. It is not a use of prayer to persuade the Lord by our 
 importunities to grant our requests. There is a feeling, 
 if not a clearly defined belief by Christians, that the Lord 
 is somewhat reluctant to bestow blessings upon men ; that 
 He regards them with some degree of indifference, and even 
 
30 THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 
 
 aversion, and that His indiiference can only be overcome, 
 and His ear gained, by the most urgent and importunate 
 entreaties. But this is a mistake. While the Lord re- 
 gards every human being with infinite and unchanging 
 love, He has none of the weaknesses of natural parents, 
 who yield to the importunities of their children, and grant 
 requests which are hurtful to them. Swedenborg says the 
 Lord does not hear prayer in temptation on account of the 
 end. He means that the Lord does not remove the temp- 
 tation and save us from the conflict and suffering at our 
 request while we are in it, but permits us to go through it, 
 and sustains us in it, that we may see the evil which causes 
 the conflict, learn its true nature, and voluntarily overcome 
 it. The prayers of the universe could not change the 
 purposes of infinite love, the methods of infinite wisdom, 
 or win a more prompt and favorable regard or tender and 
 helpful service from the Lord than He constantly accords us. 
 
 If prayer has no avail in giving information to the Om- 
 niscient, if it cannot change the purpose or methods of 
 the Immutable, if it has no power of suasion to win a 
 more favorable regard, and gain more efficient help in time 
 of need from infinite love and wisdom, what is the use of 
 it ? What does it efi'ect ? Whom does it affect ? How 
 are its effects produced? Mere assertions in regard to 
 these questions are of no special value. They may be 
 true, or they may be false. We need some rational knowl- 
 edge upon the subject ; we must regard these questions 
 from some central point of view ; we must see them in the 
 light of our relations to the Lord. Let us, therefore, con- 
 sider, for a moment, what those relations are. 
 
 Man is primarily and essentially related to the Lord aa 
 a recipient of life to the source of life. He has other rela- 
 
THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 31 
 
 tions which are important, but they are secondary. This 
 one is primary. Man is related to the Lord as the stream 
 to the fountain, as the motions of an engine to the force 
 which propels it. This relation is constant. " In Him 
 we live and move and have our being." We have no in- 
 herent, underived power of any kind, spiritual, mental, or 
 physical. All the prevalent theories of man's relation to 
 the Lord are based on the assumption that man has some 
 powers of his own. They may have been the gift of the 
 Lord to the first man, but they are not constantly given to 
 every man. They are like money or an estate bequeathed 
 by a father to his sons. The act of transfer was a simple 
 one, and when once completed, needed no repetition. The 
 father dispossessed himself, and his sons came into abso- 
 lute ownership and control of the inheritance. 
 
 But this is not a true idea of our relations to the Lord. 
 Everything we possess is a constant gift, a constant trans- 
 fer. It is like the gift of a fountain to a stream. If the 
 fountain withholds its gift, the stream disappears. It is 
 like the gift of the sun to the plant. The plant has no 
 power stored up in itself to grow independently of the 
 action of the sun. If the sun should withhold his light 
 and heat, the growth of every plant would be instantly 
 arrested. 
 
 Look at another fact. The quantity of life, or power, 
 or substance of any kind a vessel or an organic form re- 
 ceives, is measured by its capacity. It is impossible to 
 put into any vessel more than it will contain, or a sub- 
 stance which it cannot hold. The effect of a constant 
 cause will vary, therefore, with the nature and capacity of 
 the recipient form, and will always be determined by it, 
 Let me illustrate. Take the atmosphere as one example. 
 
32 TEE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 
 
 When it flows into the lungs it produces a very different 
 effect from what it does when it flows into the ear, or into 
 the pipe of an organ. The air is a constant cause. It 
 must act every moment or the effect ceases. The effect, 
 also, varies with the recipient form. Take the light as 
 another example. The colors of all objects are caused by 
 the light constantly acting. Put out the light and color 
 is annihilated. The color varies, also, with the quality of 
 the object which reflects it. In all these cases the cause 
 is constant, but the effects are various, and the variety de- 
 pends upon the recipient vessel. 
 
 Let us apply these analogies to man. The Lord is tht 
 constant cause. All life, all power to exist, to grow, to 
 feel, think, love, act, comes from the Lord, as light and 
 heat from the sun, by a constant inflowing. But it is 
 variously received, according to the capacity and organic 
 form of the mind, for the mind is an organic form in the 
 same sense that the lungs and the heart are. 
 
 As no change in the plant increases or diminishes the 
 heat and light of the sun, as the air remains the same 
 whether the lungs are sound or diseased, whether the pipes 
 of an organ are large or small, few or many, so the Lord 
 remains the same whether men are good or evil, whether 
 they receive life in large or small measures. The use of 
 all means for the improvement of human character, and 
 the increase of human happiness, must, therefore, consist in 
 its effect upon men. If we desire to improve the quality 
 of a plant we do it by better culture, not by changing 
 the quality of the sun ; if we desire to get richer har- 
 monies from an organ, we change its pipes and not the 
 air. So we can only remove human imperfections, im- 
 prove the quality of human character, and gain larger 
 
THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 33 
 
 measures of human happiness by acting upon man him- 
 sslf. All changes must be made in the recipients of life, 
 none in the life itself It is from this central, organic, 
 substantial, and constant relation of man to the Lord that 
 we can discover the use of prayer, and see whom it helps, 
 and how it renders its service. Let us consider the sub- 
 ject from this point of view. 
 
 Prayer is asking. Can you not think of any other kind 
 of asking than with the lips ? The eye can ask, the face 
 can ask, the hands can ask, the whole body can ask. A 
 dumb man can ask, a dog can ask, even a plant can ask. 
 The postures of the body and vocal utterance only express 
 the real prayer within. Everything that receives asks, 
 and it only receives what it asks, and it does receive what 
 it asks. Every one that asketh receiveth. Asking is not 
 merely making known a want, it is an effort to gain the 
 means of supplying it. But what a man is will determine 
 his prayer and the answer. 
 
 Prayer is converse with the Lord. Take the lowest 
 and most external form of it. It is an expression of some 
 thought or affection, if it is not wholly mechanical. In 
 this act we do think of the Lord. We turn, for the mo- 
 ment at least, to Him. There is some acknowledgment 
 of Him. Is there no use in that ? Take the prayer of a 
 little child, for example, who has only the most natural 
 conceptions of the Lord. Is it not of some use to the 
 child to turn its thoughts to a being above itself? Does 
 it not turn its face and set its tender feet in the right 
 direction ? Does it not have some effect in making its 
 nature, while it is soft and yielding, pliant to the sweet 
 attractions of the Divine love ? The influence may be very 
 slight, it may be no more than a tendency ; but it must 
 3 
 
34 THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYEh. 
 
 have some effect, and that effect must be useful. It must 
 tend to place the child in a state to receive more and 
 richer blessings from the Lord. 
 
 Is there no relief and no help in expressing our thoughts 
 and affections to others? We go to dear friends and 
 tell them our difficulties, trials, wants, sorrows ; not, it 
 may be, with any expectation of getting direct help from 
 them. We unburden our souls. What does that mean, — 
 unburden ? It means to cast off our burden. Does it not 
 lighten the weight a little ? Even if our friends cannot 
 remove it, we get strength from their sympathy to support 
 it. How many sorrowing souls would have given up in 
 despair, their life crushed out of them, if it had not been 
 for the sympathy and encouragement of friends ? If we 
 find such help from converse with our fellow-men, shall we 
 get none from the Lord when we " pour out our souls" to 
 Him? 
 
 Here it is important to observe that the use does not 
 consist in giving information, even to our friends, much 
 less to the Lord. The use consists in its effect upon us. 
 It loosens the hold of sorrow upon us ; it lifls up the bur 
 den and throws it from our shoulders. It brings us into 
 a state in which the Lord in some measure can help us. 
 
 All genuine prayer is attended with humiliation. It 
 has a tendency to humble us, and it does it in the degree 
 that we have any true feeling and conception of our con- 
 dition and needs. As the true light begins to shine into 
 our understandings and hearts, it reveals the darkness 
 which prevails there. It shows our ignorance, our stupid- 
 ity, our deformities, our enmities, and impurities, and no 
 man or woman can see their own evils and falsities with- 
 out some degree of shame and humiliation. The more 
 
THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 35 
 
 clearly we see them in heavenly light the deeper must be 
 our self-abasement. Our alienation from the Lord, and our 
 spiritual deformities are too great for utterance. We feel 
 more like putting our " hands upon our mouths, and our 
 mouths in the dust." Instead of justifying ourselves, we 
 cannot lift our eyes to heaven. We can only smite upon our 
 breast and cry, " God be merciful to me a sinner." We come 
 as prodigals, and our prayer is, " I am no longer worthy to 
 be called thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants." 
 This is a state of surrender to the Lord. So far as we 
 come into it, we yield ourselves to His guidance and 
 power. We cease to dictate to Him ; we cease to claim 
 anything for ourselves ; we give up our wills and under- 
 standings to be governed and moulded by the Divine Wis- 
 dom. In this denial of our own self-derived intelligence, 
 and surrender of ourselves to the Lord, consists the use 
 of humiliation. The Lord has no desire to see us pros- 
 trate and terrified like slaves before Him. On the con- 
 trary, He desires to make us sons, and not slaves or hired 
 servants. He desires to have us stand upon our feet and 
 act like free men. Humiliation is the abasement of the 
 natural man ; it is putting the sensual desires and passions 
 under our feet ; it is the denial of our love of self and the 
 world, and abhorrence of error and sin. So far as we do 
 that we come into a state in which the Lord can help us ; 
 we remove the obstacles to the reception of those forces 
 which give us life. Humiliation is really the effect of 
 some true knowledge and love of the Lord ; it is due to 
 heavenly principles and powers. They drive out the vile, 
 disorderly, corrupt inhabitants of our mental house, and 
 open the door for the Lord to come in and " sup with oa 
 and we with Him." 
 
36 THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 
 
 Prayer has a tendency to cause this humiliation. It 
 brings us face to face with the Lord on the one hand and 
 our own corrupt natures on the other. We see the con- 
 trast, and in the degree we see it we must abhor the evil, 
 we must be humbled at the thought that we have loved 
 and cherished and become the embodiment of principles 
 which are repugnant to everything which is good and true. 
 So prayer tends to bring us into such relations to the Lord 
 that He can forgive our sins, wash us and make us clean, 
 and remove all obstacles to the full possession of our souls. 
 
 Prayer is lifting up the eyes and turning the heart to 
 the Lord. The natural plane of our natures, in which 
 resides our consciousness, and which is the theatre of our 
 acquired and habitual life, has become inverted. It has 
 been turned away from heaven and the Lord, and bent 
 downward to the earth ; it has been closed to the direct 
 and orderly influx of Divine, sanctifying, and living forces, 
 and opened to the world. The mind is an organized form, 
 and is subject to all the laws of organization. When I speak 
 of it as inverted, bent from its original uprightness, its ves- 
 sels closed to the inflowing of the pure water of life, and 
 opened to the standing pools and polluted streams of sen- 
 sual and worldly influences, I do not use a figure. I utter 
 a fact. Prayer is an effort to restore it to its original 
 order ; to lift it up from the earth ; to open its closed and 
 withered vessels to the vivifying power of the Holy Spirit. 
 This is a slow and painful process. It can only be gradu- 
 ally effected, especially when the natural mind has become 
 hard and fixed by habit. It musst be bent, not broken. 
 We could not bear the strain of a sudden conversion. 
 
 Is there no use in this effort ? If we can turn our 
 thoughts towards the Lord and raise them from the earth 
 
THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 37 
 
 a little, is there no use in that ? If we can catch a glimpse 
 of the heavenly light ; if we can inhale a vivifying breath 
 of the heavenly atmosphere ; if we can even get a taste 
 of the pure water of the river of life ; if we can get a 
 drop of its water on our parched tongues to cool the fever 
 of earthly passions even for a moment, is there no saving 
 efficacy, no gain in that ? 
 
 If we consider the source of the influence which leads 
 us to the closet and bends our knees in prayer, we may 
 see some possibility of its use. The prayer is due to 
 Divine influence. The moving cause in the soul is the 
 Divine life working there in its secret closets, brooding 
 tver the chaos of worldly affections struggling through 
 the dense clouds of sensual illusions. The prayer we 
 voice comes from the Lord, and is given to us to make our 
 own. It is His voice speaking with our lips. He teaches 
 us how to pray, and we cannot pray without His teaching 
 How faint the voice from within is I It is almost drowned 
 in the clamors of our worldly passions. It may come from 
 the fading memories of childhood ; it may seem to be an 
 echo from a mother's influence ; it may seem to come from 
 without ; but it is the Divine love calling to us ; it is the 
 power of His Spirit working in us, to mould our distorted 
 natures into the Divine likeness ; it is the attraction of His 
 power lifting us up and bending us towards Him. Every 
 true prayer voices the working of the Lord in us. Do we 
 Bay " Our Father" with any filial affection, we co-operate 
 with the Lord in making Him more fully our father. Do 
 we implore with any sincerity, "Forgive us our debts," we 
 express what He is trying to do, and by the expression help 
 Him in His work. Do we pray, " Thy kingdom come," 
 with an honest desire. It is coming. We could not ask 
 
38 THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 
 
 it if it were not, and by asking we hasten its coming 
 Prayer is a revelation ; it shows what the Lord is doing, 
 or trying to do in us and for us. Prayer welcomes His 
 coming, prepares a place to lay His Divine head, and helps 
 Him in His work of saving and blessing us. 
 
 Prayer is communion with the Lord. This is some- 
 thing more than speech. It may exist without it. Com- 
 munion is exchange of gifts ; it is the sharing of a com- 
 mon blessing ; it is the blending of the life of one being 
 with another while each preserves its distinct personality. 
 This is the relation of the branch and the vine. This is 
 what our Lord means when He says, " Abide in me, and 
 I in you." " If ye abide in me and my words abide in 
 you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto 
 you." There is an actual opening of the inmost vessels 
 of the affections to the Divine forces which give us life. 
 Those forces, which are in reality the substances of which 
 our spiritual bodies are woven, are received and appro- 
 priated ; they are taken up and become a part of our 
 being, as the substances of which the blood is composed 
 are taken up by the various organs of the body and be- 
 come a part of them. This communion is eating the 
 Lord's flesh and drinking His blood by which we have 
 eternal life. The Divine life is communicated to us. It 
 penetrates our life, softens the hardness of our spiritual 
 natures ; imbues them with some of its own qualities 
 finites in them some of its infinite perfections ; tends to 
 impart its motions and order to their activities, and to 
 bring their forms and movements into voluntary accord 
 with its infinite harmonies. So far as we yield to the brood- 
 ing warmth of these influent Divine forces, we receive 
 refreshment and vigor from them. They vitalize our 
 
THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 39 
 
 affections and clarify our understandings, and we carry 
 this renewal of our strength into all our duties and rela- 
 tions of life. We get help in resisting evil and power to 
 overcome in temptation ; our understanding becomes so 
 luminous and true that we can see the path which leads to 
 eternal life through all the labyrinths of worldly interests 
 and the illusions of sensual desires. The Lord has gained 
 such a powerful hold upon us that He can raise us up by 
 the attractions of His love and draw us towards Himself, 
 as the magnet separates the particles of iron from the sand 
 and draws them to its own embrace. , 
 
 This communion may come to our consciousness as a 
 caliii, inward joy, as peace and rest. But the effect may 
 not be discernible immediately. These Divine forces, re- 
 ceived when we open our hearts to the Lord in sincere 
 prayer, may require many years before they can speak 
 loud enough to be heard amid the discords and clamors of 
 worldly passions ; before they can soften the hardness of 
 our natures sufficiently to make an impression upon them 
 which can be felt. But every sincere prayer is a yielding 
 to them ; gives them a little advantage ; and the ground 
 they gain they hold. As they advance in bringing our 
 natures into harmony with the Divine nature, the seasons 
 of peace and rest become more frequent and of longer 
 continuance, the rest is more complete, and the peace sinks 
 into blessedness. This is the rest and peace of heaven. It 
 comes by communion with the Lord. We taste, and we 
 do see that the Lord is good. We experience the gi-eat 
 peace which those enjoy who love the law of the Lord. 
 It is a rest, and a peace, and a joy, which fills the soul 
 when it comes into the harmonies of the Divine order. 
 
 If prayer puts us into the proper attitude to receive 
 
40 THE NATURE AND USE OF PRATER. 
 
 such influences, to obtain sucli help in our conflicts with 
 evil, and opens the door of entrance into such pure and 
 endless blessings, is it not a most powerful means of our re- 
 generation, and of inestimable use in gaining heaven ? It 
 prepares the way and leads to the end for which all other 
 things are given us. In answering the prayer that our 
 sins may be forgiven, and that we may become one with 
 the Lord, does He not answer all prayers ? 
 
 These are the real uses of prayer. They comprehend 
 all particulars. They accord with the Lord's purpose in 
 our creation. Their real efiect Js not upon the Lord, but 
 upon ourselves. They tend to put us into such relations 
 to the Lord that He can do more for us than He could if 
 we did not pray. They may cause such a change in us 
 that those around us, both on the spiritual and the natural 
 side of life, can help us. The Lord provides everything 
 possible for our highest good. But what He can do for 
 us depends upon our capacity of receiving good from Him. 
 He cannot do for the infant just born so much as He can 
 for the youth. He cannot give to the youth the affec- 
 tions and thoughts and physical strength of an adult man. 
 He cannot give to a rock the virtues and graces, the tran- 
 scendent beauty and glowing love of an angel. He can- 
 not give to a false, perverted, corrupt nature the sweetness 
 and purity, the wisdom, joy, and peace which He can be- 
 stow upon those who bear His own image and likeness. 
 Any act or attainment by man which removes the obsta- 
 cles to the reception of the Divine life, or enlarges his 
 capacities, is of great use to him. 
 
 As man is the only one who requires to be changed, it 
 is not difficult to see that it may be far more useful to man 
 that his prayers should be answered through his instru- 
 
THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 41 
 
 mentality than directly without it. The answer may be 
 more effective and lasting. Take a pestilence as an ex- 
 ample. The belief was once general that plagues and 
 cholera were scourges sent by the Lord in anger as a 
 punishment for man's sins, and prayers were offered up 
 in all churches that they might be stayed by a direct in- 
 terposition of almighty power. Suppose such prayers 
 could have been, and had been answered. It would have 
 caused a thousandfold more suffering and death than the 
 pestilence. It would have prevented men from looking 
 for the natural causes of disease, and removing them. 
 Thousands of lives are gradually destroyed by filth and 
 the violation of the laws of health to one which is swept 
 away by pestilence. Carry out the principle into all human 
 relations, and it would take away from man all prudence, 
 all foresight, all motives to obtain knowledge, all stimulus 
 to human effort. If the Lord will stay a pestilence at the 
 request of men, why should he not heal all diseases ? or 
 prevent them in the beginning? If He will send rain, 
 moved by the prayers of Christians, why will He not reg- 
 ulate the seasons with special reference to every location 
 and every want ? Why will He not keep all men in per- 
 fect health, and supply all human needs and desires with- 
 out any effort or thought on man's part ? Why will He 
 not correct all wrong, save from all suffering, however 
 unwise and sinful men may act ? 
 
 ITie answer is evident. If the Lord made such special 
 provisions for every human want, and protected man 
 from the consequences of ignorance, error, and sin. He 
 would destroy all the pleasures of activity, all the rewards 
 of wise conduct. He would reduce every man to the same 
 level, and all to the condition of the brute. 
 
42 THE NATURE AND USE OF PRAYER. 
 
 Our prayers and the Lord's method of answering them 
 are a part of this universal method of the Divine order. 
 1 He incites us to ask that we may come into a state to re- 
 ' ceive an answer. But He answers us through our own 
 efforts, when those efforts are of such a nature that He can 
 grant our request by means of them. Millions of prayers 
 ' are offered every day for the salvation of men. The Lord 
 is answering them as fast and as fully as He can. We 
 pray that the " Lord's will may be done on the earth as it 
 is in heaven." It is useful to us to make the prayer, be- 
 cause if we offer it in sincerity, it will lead us to do what 
 we can to aid in the establishment of the Lord's kingdom 
 upon the earth. He is answering the prayer as fast as 
 possible ; but He can only do it by means of the men and 
 women who constitute that kingdom. 
 
 From these considerations we conclude that the use of 
 : prayer consists in awakening our own interests in the ob- 
 \ ject of our petition, in calling forth our efforts to obtain 
 it, and in bringing us into such orderly and intimate relar 
 \ tions with the Lord, who is the source of all power and 
 \ life, that He can work through us and bless us in granting 
 our requests. 
 
III- 
 
 HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 
 
 "And when tJiou prayest, thou shall not be as tlhe hypo- 
 erites are : for they love to pray standing in the synagogues 
 and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of 
 men. Verily J say unto you They have their reward. 
 
 " But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the hea- 
 then do : for they think that they will be heard for their 
 much speaking. 
 
 " Be not ye therefore like unto them, : for your Father 
 knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him." 
 — Matthew vi. 5, 7, 8. 
 
 The Lord not only bestows upon us every good which 
 we possess, but He instructs us how to get it, how to use 
 it, how to increase it, and how to avoid the obstacles which 
 hinder its reception and enjoyment and cause us to miss 
 the true ends of life. As man is in evil and falsity by 
 nature, the first essential truth for him to learn is, what to 
 dvoid. When we are going in the wrong direction, we 
 must discover our error and change our course before we 
 
 43 
 
44 HTPOGRITIGAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 
 
 can reach the goal we seek. The Lord, therefore, begins 
 His instruction concerning alma, prayer, and fasting by 
 telling us what we must avoid. Eight of the ten com- 
 mandments are prohibitory. In the work of regeneration 
 and the formation of a spiritual and heavenly mind, thou 
 shalt not must always precede thou shalt. 
 
 In considering the subject of prayer let us follow the 
 same order, and first learn how we must not pray. It will 
 be a great help to us to understand the false forms and evil 
 motives of prayer. It will free the subject from miscon- 
 ceptions, and false methods, and forms, and simplify it in 
 every respect. When we know what to avoid we can easily 
 learn what to do. There is no part of religious worship, of 
 private or of public devotion, which is more misunderstood 
 than prayer. Its nature is not generally known ; there 
 are many misconceptions of its use, and of the manner in 
 which that use is effected. Let us try to discover what 
 these false notions are ; then we shall be able to learn how 
 to pray, for what to pray, and what good we may hope to 
 gain by prayer. 
 
 First, our Lord instructs us with regard to the motives 
 of prayer. We must not pray from any selfish or worldly 
 motive. " When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the 
 hypocrites :" they pray " to be seen of men." What is a 
 hypocrite? A hypocrite is one who feigns to be what 
 he is not ; he assumes a character which he does not pos- 
 sess. He acts from different motives from those which he 
 professes. When he pretends to worship God, he is wor- 
 shipping himself. When he appears to be seeking the 
 Divine favor, he is looking for the favor of men. He 
 is seeking to gain credit for a love and a regard for the 
 Lord which he does not possess. Hypocrisy has many 
 
HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 45 
 
 forms and degrees of baseness, but a religious hypocrite is 
 the vilest and most contemptible of all. He -assumes the 
 highest and purest virtues for the lowest ends ; he clothes 
 himself with the spotless garments of heaven to cover the 
 deformities and malignities of hell. He comes to his 
 Divine Master in the character of a devoted and loving 
 disciple, but betrays Him with a kiss. But our Lord 
 has given us some of his characteristics and methods 
 which, when analyzed and unfolded in spiritual light, will 
 exhibit his animus and genuine nature in true colors, and 
 reveal the wickedness and the uselessness of vain repetitions 
 and a merely formal devotion. 
 
 Hypocrites love to pray. No men are more devout in 
 attitude, deferential in tone, earnest in manner, and punc- 
 tilious in the performance of their devotions. They love 
 to do it. It gives tnem the odor of sanctity ; it gratifies 
 their vanity ; it lulls their consciences to sleep ; it makes 
 them conspicuous in the public eye ; it tends to gain the 
 favor of men. See what a devout and holy man I the 
 multitude will exclaim. But this love is not the love of 
 God or of man. It is the love of themselves. They pre- 
 tend to be worshipping the Lord, but in reality they are 
 adoring themselves. They give homage to the Lord with 
 their lips, but they are claiming it for themselves in their 
 thoughts. They ask favors of the Lord in form, while 
 in their intentions they are seeking them from men. The 
 apparent purpose of their prayers is to gain a hearing and 
 favorable notice from the Lord, their real end is to be seen 
 of men. What mockery must such a prayer be ! To stand 
 up conspicuously in an assembly of men and with the lips 
 offer supplications to our heavenly Father, while we are 
 thinking only of the praise of men ! With what infinite 
 
46 HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRATER. 
 
 pity must the Lord regard tlie mere semblance of man who 
 is guilty of such folly and wickedness. Whatever may be 
 the success in deceiving men, and gaining a momentary 
 reputation for a sanctity which they do not possess, must 
 not the inevitable and final result be a greater damnation ? 
 
 Hypocrites love to pray " standing in the synagogues." 
 The natural meaning and the reason for selecting a public 
 and conspicuous place for their prayers is evident when 
 we know what favor they hope to gain by them. But these 
 words have a spiritual and consequently a universal mean- 
 ing. Every human being who has any religion, or who 
 pretends to possess any, has a synagogue in his own mind, 
 in which he offers his prayers and performs his devotions. 
 These words therefore apply to us as well as to the Phari- 
 sees who lived in Jerusalem when our Lord trod its streets 
 with weary feet, and taught in the synagogues of the Jews 
 with a wisdom and power which filled the dead formalists 
 with amazement. 
 
 A synagogue was a house devoted to worship and re- 
 ligious instruction. By a very common law of the human 
 mind the material instrument becomes a symbol of the use 
 to which it is applied. We see an example of this law in 
 the common use of the word church. Its material mean- 
 ing is the building in which the men and women who con- 
 stitute the church assemble. The people are the real 
 church ; but they are only so far a church as they have 
 become the embodiment and living forms of the doctrines 
 which make those who acknowledge and live according to 
 them a church. A synagogue, then, in its universal and 
 genuine meaning, is the doctrine which men believe. To 
 stand and pray in them is to pray according to the doc- 
 trines of religion they have learned and accepted. There- 
 
HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 47 
 
 fore it is that we all have our synagogue where we offer 
 our prayers. Standing at the corners of the streets has 
 the same general meaning, only a more external and special 
 one. A city as well as a synagogue represents doctrine, 
 and a street is some special truth which, with others, com- 
 poses the doctrine. A corner is formed by the intersection 
 of the streets, and represents their connection with one 
 another. This conjunction affords the means of seeing and 
 of being seen in material streets. In spiritual streets, which 
 are the paths our thoughts and affections pursue to the 
 attainment of their ends, they show the relations and con- 
 firmations of the various truths which taken together con- 
 stitute our doctrine. Therefore corners denote firmness. 
 As they bind together the sides of a building and give 
 firmness and stability to it, so they are the points where 
 truth is joined to truth in logical order, and give solidity 
 and strength to the whole system of faith. They are also 
 centres towards which various truths converge, and from 
 which those who accept them can see and be seen. To pray 
 standing in the corners of the streets, represents a state of 
 mind in which we act according to principles which we 
 have adopted from various considerations. We take our 
 mental position where truths or falsities converge and con- 
 firm one another, where their relations can be seen, and by 
 means of which the love of self and the world can win 
 over the understanding to its delusions. 
 
 Doctrine teaches us whom to address, how to pray, and 
 what to pray for, because doctrine teaches us concerning 
 the Lord, our own natures, and our relations to Him. 
 Every one must, therefore, pray in the synagogue or in the 
 corners of the streets in his own mind. He must do it in 
 a good sense, even when he enters his closet and shuts the 
 
48 HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRATER. 
 
 door. But hypocrites pray only from doctrine or faith 
 alone, and every prayer offered from truth or doctrine 
 alone is more or less hypocritical. There are various 
 forms and degrees of such prayer, which it may he well to 
 consider : 
 
 1. Intellectual prayer. Prayer consists essentially in 
 ashing. It is a sincere, earnest desire for some good, or 
 what seems to the suppliant to be good. It is a turning 
 of the soul to the Lord, as the plant turns to the sun. It 
 is an opening of the affections to the reception of the 
 Divine Love. It can be made without words, without 
 distinct thought even. A true prayer is before thought, 
 before speech. Thought is only the form of it ; speech 
 is only the expression of it. A petition made from doc- 
 trine alone, from a merely intellectual conception of the 
 Divine nature and our relations to the Lord, lacks the 
 essential elements of prayer. It is merely the form of it, 
 the clothing of it put on for the occasion. The intellect 
 cannot pray ; it cannot ask. Asking is not its office. Its 
 business consists in seeing, in collecting materials to give 
 body and form and permanent existence to the affections. 
 Such is the nature of the human mind that the form can 
 exist without any life in it. 
 
 All prayer from doctrine or from truth alone is hypo- 
 critical. It is not what it appears to be. There may be 
 appropriate ascriptions of praise to the Lord, but no praise 
 is given to Him. There may be the most humble confes- 
 sion of sin in words, but no sins are confessed. There is 
 no humiliation of heart, no shame for sins committed, no 
 loathing of a vile, corrupt nature, no sorrow because we 
 have sinned against infinite love and wisdom. On the 
 contrary, the hypocrite is proud of his verbal humility. 
 
HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 49 
 
 Men will think well of him, because he pretends to think 
 so meanly of himself. The form of the prayer may be ap- 
 propriate to the occasion, beautiful and eloquent ; but it ia 
 addressed to the audience and not to the Lord. We some- 
 times hear it said of ministers and others that they are 
 gifted in prayer. It is probable that from a human and 
 merely intellectual point of view the praise is worthily 
 bestowed, and that the subjects of it think so too. But 
 viewed from the Lord, no prayer may have been offered 
 to Him. If it was made to be eloquent, if the suppliant 
 was well pleased with it, it was offered standing in the syna- 
 gogue, or in the corners of the streets to be seen of men. 
 
 Prayer to the Lord must have the Lord, not self nor 
 man, in view. It must go to the point. There must be 
 some special favor desired, and that must be sought with 
 simplicity and directness. Earnestness and sincerity do not 
 seek for elegant phrases ; they do not deal in vague gener- 
 alities. Elegant phrasing and a skilful play of words are 
 contrary to its nature. The Lord is not moved by elo- 
 quent verbiage, especially when He does not enter into the 
 thought of the supplicant. If He were not infinitely 
 merciful and kind, He might be moved to indignation by 
 such hypocrisy. 
 
 Perhaps we can more fully appreciate the essential 
 quality of a merely doctrinal prayer, however beautiful in 
 form it may be, by regarding it from the relations of 
 parent to child. Suppose a child who had been disobedi- 
 ent and desired forgiveness, or who sought a favor, should 
 address his father in the language and style of many of 
 the prayers we read in books of devotion and hear in 
 public worship. He begins with ascriptions of praise ; 
 tells his father how kind and wise and good he is ; ex- 
 4 
 
50 HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 
 
 presses his astonishment that he has borne with him 
 as long as he has ; prays that he will forgive him and his 
 brothers and sisters, and all the bad little boys and girls in 
 the whole world and make them obedient and good, aud 
 finally bestow all his property upon them and make them 
 happy. Suppose a prayer to this effect was written out 
 or committed to memory and repeated every morning and 
 evening, repeated with roving eyes and wandering thoughts, 
 or with an air of conceit and an evident regard for its 
 effect upon others, could any quality be found in such 
 a devotional exercise to commend ? Would it indicate 
 any love for the father, any sorrow for disobedience? 
 Would there be any heart, any sincerity, in it? Does 
 the child really ask anything? What would you, as a 
 father or mother, think of such a child, especially if he 
 went on in the same course of disobedience and praying 
 from week to week and year to year? Such a practice 
 could not appear otherwise than absurd, hypocritical, and 
 wicked. Is not that what multitudes of professed Chris- 
 tians are constantly doing ? They ask nothing, they con- 
 fess nothing, they desire nothing which the words they 
 use imply. They stand in a false attitude before the Lord 
 and men. " When ye pray be not as the hypocrites." 
 
 2. Prayer from doctrine, or faith alone, becomes formal 
 and mechanical and essentially hypocritical, though there 
 may not be any conscious desire " to be seen of men.'' 
 It is hypocritical because there is no meaning in it. We 
 continue to pray because we have formed a habit of pray- 
 ing, or because others pray. Neither the affection nor 
 the thoughts rise to the Lord. No honor is ascribed to 
 Him, no sins are confessed to Him, no help is asked from 
 Him. There is no spiritual, and but little, if any, natural. 
 
HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 51 
 
 life in this formal devotion. If the words could have 
 been uttered by a machine there would have been just as 
 much prayer in them. They are repeated by machines. 
 
 But even in this mechanical and soulless prayer there 
 is some regard for the opinion of men. Multitudes go to 
 the house of prayer to see and to be seen, not to worship 
 the Lord, or to learn anything concerning their obligations 
 to Him, and how they may fulfil them. They go because 
 their acquaintances go ; they go because it is respectable 
 to do so. They read and respond, or sit in respectfti 
 silence, because it is the fashion, because it is the rigl t 
 and proper thing to do. It has the appearance of bei' ig 
 devout ; it saves them from the suspicion of unbelief or 
 of indifference to religion. It is also often a passpor( by 
 which they gain entrance into coveted social circles, it a 
 means of securing financial favors, or influences favo; able 
 to professional success. In some way they desire < a be 
 seen of men rather than to be seen of the Lord an'l gain 
 heavenly blessings from Him. 
 
 3. There is a prevalent opinion that there i j some 
 efficacy in prayer itself to procure the Divine fav jr ; that 
 prayer commends us to the Lord, and induces Him to 
 bestow blessings upon us which He would otherwise with- 
 hold. According to this idea, when we have goae through 
 with the routine of our devotions, we have done our duty ; 
 we have shown our respect for the Lord ; we have given 
 Him the tribute of our praise ; we have confessed our 
 sins, and disposed Him to forgive us. V/e have satisfied 
 our consciences, and we can rest with some degree of 
 gratification and peace. We may not have had a motion 
 of gratitude in our hearts for favors received ; there may 
 not have been a pang of sorrow, or a sense of shame for 
 
52 HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRATER. 
 
 an idle, frivolous, and evU life ; there may not have been 
 an aspiration for meekness, humility, purity, and a genuine 
 spiritual character. But we have repeated the prescribed 
 prayers in a perfunctory way ; we have complied with the 
 prescribed forms ; and the Lord must regard us with some 
 degree of favor. 
 
 Herein lies the danger of a ritualistic form of worship, 
 whether public or private. Whatever we do habitually, 
 we are in danger of doing without thought or affection. 
 We act mechanically. There is but little room for doubt 
 that much of our public worship is of this character. It 
 can be seen in the listless manner of the worshippers, in 
 the roving eye, in the automatical way in which the prayers 
 and responses are repeated. Words, the most weighty 
 and solemn the lips ever utter, do not express a thought 
 or embody an affection. If we addressed the same words 
 in such an indifferent manner to a human being, we should 
 at once be regarded as hypocrites. And yet there is a 
 feeling of self-satisfaction in such formal worship, as 
 though we had performed some worthy service. 
 
 On the other hand, it is supposed by many that the ef- 
 ficacy of prayer depends upon natural fervor and vocifer- 
 ation. Consequently those who are of this opinion work 
 themselves up into an artificial excitement. They pray 
 loud and long in forced and unnatural tones. They ago- 
 nize, or try to do it ; they beseech and implore for favors 
 which, at heart, they do not want. They wrestle with the 
 Lord, as they suppose, like Jacob. But there is no agony 
 in their hearts ; there is no burning love of the Lord or 
 the neighbor exalting and intensifying their desires. The 
 Lord is not so remote or deaf that He cannot hear. He 
 is not reluctant to forgive our sins and bestow the blessings 
 
HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 53 
 
 of His love and wisdom upon us. This forced fervor and 
 apparent earnestness is hypocritical. It does not flow 
 from the heart. Let us heed the Lord's words, " When 
 thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites." 
 
 4. Our Lord also warns us against multiplying words 
 in our prayers. " But when ye pray, use not vain repeti- 
 tions, as the heathen do : for they think they shall be 
 heard for their much speaking. Be ye not therefore like 
 unto them : for your Father knoweth what things ye have 
 need of before ye ask Him." In these words our Lord 
 teaches us that the effect of praying is not in the volume 
 of it, nor in the repetition of our requests. The practice 
 of repeating many prayers may not be hypocritical, but it 
 is the result of a total misconception of the Lord's charac- 
 ter and of His relations to men. There is no necessity of 
 telling Him what He knows for the purpose of giving 
 Him information. He understands our condition infi- 
 nitely better than we do. There is no necessity for impor- 
 tunity. He is not like a weak or selfish earthly parent 
 who must be persuaded to grant a favor. He is more 
 willing to give the richest blessings than we are to receive 
 them. He does not need to be won over to regard us 
 with favor and to forgive our sins by incessant pleading. 
 He is in the constant effort to forgive us. No change is 
 required in Him. 
 
 If we had a true idea of the Lord and knew how He 
 regards every human being, the uselessness and folly of 
 using " vain repetitions" and of " much speaking" would 
 appear in the most convincing light. We should see that 
 it would be impossible for any man or woman with such 
 knowledge to pray as multitude do at the present day. 
 How can we implore the Lord to regard us with favor 
 
54 HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRATER 
 
 when we know that He loves us with an infinite and un- 
 changing aflfection ? How can we beseech Him in varied 
 phrase to forgive our sins, when we know that there is 
 nothing in the universe He so ardently desires ? How can 
 we ask the Father to have mercy upon us, and then turn 
 to the Son and beg Him to have mercy upon us, and 
 then beseech the Holy Spirit to have mercy upon us, 
 when we know that there is but one Divine Being? 
 It is as absurd as it would be for a child to ask her 
 father's heart to grant her a favor, and then to beseech his 
 head to have mercy, and end by imploring his power oi 
 life to grant the request. A child has too much sense to 
 do this. How could we ask the Father to grant us a 
 favor for the sake of His Son ? How could we ask the 
 Son to intercede for us with the Father, when there is 
 only one Divine Being in existence ; when in Jesus 
 Christ " dwells the fulness of the Grodhead bodily" ? 
 When we see Him we see the Father ; when we address 
 Him we address the Father, as we see the man in his 
 material body and address him in it. When we worship 
 Him we adore the only proper object of worship. There 
 is no access to the Father but by the Son, as there is no 
 access to a man's affections but. by his body and intellect- 
 ual faculties. But even if there were three Divine Per- 
 sons in the Trinity, what reason, propriety, or sense can 
 there be in asking one Divine Person to do a favor for the 
 sake of another, when each one must be equally desirous 
 of conferring the blessing? Can there be any vainer 
 repetitions than appealing to one and then to another, and 
 then to another, when by the verbal confession of all 
 Christians there can be only one God ? 
 
 It is " a vain repetition" to ply the Lord with motivea 
 
SYPOCRITIGAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 55 
 
 or reasons for granting the favors we ask. In the famous 
 Litany which is repeated every week in all Christian lands, 
 the Good Lord is implored to deliver us, " by the mystery 
 of His holy Incarnation, by His holy nativity and circum- 
 cision ; by His Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation ; by His 
 Agony and Bloody Sweat ; by His Cross and Passion ; by 
 His Precious Death and Burial ; by His glorious Resur- 
 rection and Ascension ; and by the coming of the Holy 
 Ghost." These, it would seem if they have any meaning, 
 are presented as motives by the suppliant to excite the 
 Divine compassion and secure a favorable hearing. The 
 ground for this enumeration of incidents in the life and 
 death of our Lord, must be that they will have a cumula- 
 tive effect upon Him ; that He will be more moved, and 
 disposed to grant deliverance from evils mentioned by being 
 reminded of what He has suffered and done for us. This 
 is the motive of the whole Litany. The Father, Son, and 
 Holy Spirit are implored separately and then together, and 
 many particulars are enumerated, some of which, at least, 
 are founded upon total misconception of the nature of the 
 Lord, of our relations to Him, and of what is essential to 
 our salvation from sin and eternal happiness. 
 
 5. Our Lord warns us against the frequent repetition of 
 the same prayer. In some rituals His own prayer is re- 
 peated several times, and in a rapid mechanical manner 
 clearly indicating that the words do not express any desire 
 of the hearts of those who use them. If there is any 
 motive for such repetition, it must be the belief that there 
 is more efficacy in repeating a prayer twice than once, and 
 that whatever good is gained by it comes as a reward for 
 repeating it, and not in answer to any sincere desire of the 
 heart. In one branch of the Christian Church it is cuh- 
 
56 HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 
 
 tomary to keep an account of the number of times certain 
 prayers are repeated, and the supposition is that the greater 
 the number the greater the virtue. They think they will 
 be heard for their " much speaking.'' 
 
 This is the opinion and practice, our Lord says, of the 
 heathen or Grentiles. The Jewish nation represented the 
 Church. All other nations they called heathen or Gen- 
 tiles. The Gentiles, therefore, represent those who do not 
 belong to the Church. They may be external members 
 of it, but if the principles and life of heaven are not in 
 them, they are not really members of it ; they are Gen- 
 tiles in principle and practice ; they are heathen. These 
 vain repetitions, therefore, and the idea that those who 
 make them will be heard for their much speaking, are 
 heathenish. Those who practice them are ignorant of 
 the true principles of Christianity. They are essentially 
 idolaters, and their prayers and worship are based upon 
 the same principles as those who worship idols, — the prin- 
 ciple that the Being whom they worship is hostile to them 
 and needs propitiating : that He regards His worshippers 
 as servants, and is pleased with servility and adulation ; 
 that He punishes those who neglect Him, and bestows 
 His favors upon those who are assiduous in their devo- 
 tions ; that He loves to see the people prostrate before 
 Him, and to hear His own praise and glory sounded from 
 their lips ; that He is reluctant to bless, easily irritated 
 by neglect, and enraged by opposition. 
 
 A great number of the prayers offered in our churches 
 to-day are the outbirth and expression of this idea of the 
 Lord, of the service He exacts of men, and the way to 
 secure His favor. According to this idea, prayer is not the 
 communion of a loving child with a revered and beloved 
 
HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRATER. 57 
 
 parent ; it is not an outpouring of gratitude for favors 
 constantly received ; it is not ascriptions of praise from a 
 reverent and adoring heart ; it is not the confession of 
 sic from sincere penitence ; it is not a petition for help to 
 overcome evils which are clearly seen and abhorred ; it is 
 not an aspiration of the soul for a higher, purer, sweeter, 
 nobler life. If it were, the petitions could not be multi- 
 plied and wordy, and repeated in a cold, mechanical man- 
 ner. Sincere, deep, and earnest feeling does not express 
 itself in that manner. A deep and loathing sense of sin 
 cannot reiterate in measured tones, in varied and precise 
 form, a petition for mercy. It is more likely to be mute 
 or an inarticulate cry, or with the eyes bent to the earth 
 for shame, the appeal of the publican, while smiting upon 
 his breast, an appeal wrung from a breaking heart, " God 
 be merciful to me a sinner." 
 
 There is no warrant in reason, in the nature of man, or 
 of the Lord for the roundabout indefinite praying for all 
 sorts and conditions of men to be saved from evils and 
 calamities which do not threaten us, for blessings which 
 we do not desire, for graces which we will not receive, for 
 the accomplishment of objects to effect which we will not 
 lift a finger. We never ask men for grace or favor in this 
 way. There are no such examples of prayer in the Sacred 
 Scriptures. When our Lord was upon the earth, and men 
 came for favors, they had something definite to ask. 
 Blind Bartimeus knew what he wanted, and to the ques- 
 tion, " What wouldst thou that I should do unto thee ?" 
 his prompt and earnest cry was, " Lord, that my eyes may 
 be opened." Jairus knew what he wanted. He knew 
 that his beloved daughter, the light of his house and the 
 joy of his heart, was dying. When he saw the Lord he 
 
58 HYPOCRITICAL AND VAIN PRAYER. 
 
 fell at His feet and besought Him greatly, saying, " My 
 little daughter lieth at the point of death ; come and lay 
 thy hands upon her that she may be healed, and she shall 
 live." There was nothing hypocritical in their prayers. 
 They did not pray to be seen of men. They had no formal 
 and stereotyped and indefinite request to make. They 
 used no " vain repetitions ;" they were not heard for their 
 " much speaking." It was their sincerity and confidence 
 in the Lord which brought them into such relations to 
 Him that His Divine power could take effect upon them. 
 This subject is one of present, personal application to 
 us. Our Lord says to each one of us to-day, " When thou 
 prayest, thou shall not be as the hypocrites." " When ye 
 pray, use not vain repetitions." Those who pray in these 
 ways against which our Lord warns us, have their reward. 
 The hypocrite is seen of men, and for a brief space gains 
 a reputation from those who only see him standing in the 
 synagogue, or at the corners of the streets, for sanctity 
 and devotion. Those who use vain repetitions get their 
 reward. But with both classes it is a poor and transitory 
 one. It comes from men who cannot assuage our sor- 
 rows, save from death, or raise us up into everlasting life. 
 " When ye pray be not like the hypocrites," the formalists, 
 the ignorant and misguided Gentiles, and think not that 
 He who looks only upon the heart, and can answer only 
 those prayers which come from the heart, can be influenced 
 by lip service or " vain repetitions." 
 
IV. 
 
 CONDITIONS AND NATURE OF GENUINE PRATER. 
 
 " BxU when thou prayest, enter in>o thy closet, and when 
 thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in 
 secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward 
 thee openly."— Matthew vi. 6. 
 
 In these words the Lord, our infinitely wise teacher 
 and unchanging friend, instructs us concerning the condi- 
 tions and nature of sincere, genuine, effective prayer. He 
 teaches us where we must offer it, what precautions we 
 must use to guard against the disturbance of our thoughts 
 and affections while we are engaged in it, and to whom we 
 mast direct it. He tells us where to find our Heavenly 
 Father, how to get access to Him, and encourages us to 
 look into the infinite secrets of the Divine love and wis- 
 dom, with the assurance that the Lord will reward us 
 openly for every step we take in the knowledge of Divine 
 truth, and the life of the Divine love. 
 
 As the Lord is infinitely wise, this instruction must be 
 given in an infinitely wise way ; it must be adapted to all 
 
 59 
 
60 CONDITIONS AND NATURE 
 
 states of progress from the first steps of spiritual disciple- 
 ship to the wisdom of the highest angels. It must be 
 adapted to all times and adequate to all wants. A part of 
 the natural directions are simple and easily understood. A 
 child knows what it is to enter a closet and shut the door 
 and pray to the Father, but the wisest may not fully com- 
 prehend what is meant by the Father in secret, by His 
 seeing in secret, and how He will reward us openly. 
 When (re penetrate beneath the surface of the natural 
 meaning, we come into the wide realm of causes. We 
 pass out of the shadows and illusions of the material 
 world into the light of the permanent and the real. 
 Taking the doctrines of spiritual truth for our guide and 
 light, let us see to what secret treasures of love and wis- 
 dom they will lead us, and what rewards they will openly 
 reveal to us. 
 
 1. First let us find the closet we are directed to enter. 
 The word translated closet means an inner chamber, or 
 a treasury where the most precious things are kept. It is 
 the most retired and secret room in the house, where its 
 occupants are hidden from outward observation. Such a 
 closet is to a house as the heart, or the wUl and the affec- 
 tions, are to the human mind. The heart is the treasury 
 of the soul. There are deposited all our most precious 
 treasures ; there are the ends and motives of life which 
 are the standards by which we measure all values, — " out 
 of the heart are the issues of life." There we have laid 
 up our treasures of money and lands, of knowledge and 
 position. There are all whom we love. Enter and look 
 around. You will see their faces, though some may be in 
 other lands and some in other worlds. There, also, and 
 only there can we find the Lord. The kingdom of God 
 
OF GENUINE PRAYER. 61 
 
 is within us. The Lord can only dwell in His own king- 
 dom, in the love and wisdom which are akin to His own 
 nature and which are from Himself. The closet into 
 which we are directed to enter is formed by our inmost 
 affections, the primary ends of life. There our Heavenly 
 Father dwells in secret. 
 
 2. How do we enter that inner, secret chamber of the 
 soul ? By a severe scrutiny of the real ends we seek in 
 prayer. The hypocrite does not enter the closet ; he stands 
 in the synagogue or in the corners of the streets. He is not 
 seeking the Fathei in secret, but the popular ear without. 
 Those who pray in a merely formal and mechanical man- 
 ner do not pass into the inner chamber of the soul ; they 
 stand without in the memory or doctrine alone, and pray 
 to empty space. Those only enter the closet who go down 
 to the inmost recesses of their motives ; who form some 
 distinct idea of what they desire ; of the august and glori- 
 ous Being whom they have come to meet, and whose for- 
 giveness and blessing they desire to implore. Search the 
 motives which lead you to pray. When you enter the 
 closet take the Divine truth with you as a light. Let it 
 reveal your worldly and selfish aflfections ; let it throw its 
 pure and searching light into every corner and hiding- 
 place of your most hidden motives. In thought, guided 
 by the light of Divine truth, we enter the closet. 
 
 3. " And when thou hast shut thy door." What door? 
 The door of entrance into the closet, the door which sepa- 
 rates the inmost recesses of the soul from the more exter- 
 nal principles of our nature. Truth is a door because it 
 gives us access to the principles, laws, and order of the 
 causes and substances to which it relates. Love is a door 
 which admits us into the secret and most exquisite bless- 
 
62 CONDITIONS AND NATURE 
 
 ings of life. Every false principle and evil desire is a 
 door which opens into the realms of darkness, sorrow, and 
 death. To enter the chamber and shut the door is directly 
 contrary to the practice of the hypocrite, or of those who 
 think they will be heard for their much speaking. It 
 consists in acting without regard to the opinions, the cen- 
 sure, or the applause of men. The hypocrite prays to be 
 seen of men : the true Christian to be seen of the Lord. 
 We are naturally in evils and false principles which lead 
 us to look outwardly to men and to ourselves for the grat- 
 ification of our selfish and worldly desires. These desires 
 will struggle to keep possession of our thoughts and afieo- 
 tions, and when we shut the door against them they will 
 clamor for admission. The door is formed by truths which 
 reveal their true character, and we must be faithful and 
 resolute in shutting it. 
 
 4. How can we shut this door ? Evidently by ceasing 
 to think falsely and to act wickedly. A truth or falsity is 
 shut when we cease to acknowledge it, or to think of it. 
 A good or evil affection is shut when we cease to act ac- 
 cording to it. The mind, like the material body, is a series 
 of organic spiritual forms. They open or close according 
 to the influences which act upon them. They are under 
 the control of the will, like the eye, and we can open or 
 shut them at our pleasure. When we enter our closets to 
 pray we should shut the door against all worldly and selfish 
 considerations. This means more than at first may appear. 
 It implies that we exclude worldly and selfish motives from 
 our prayers ; that we ask primarily only for spiritual and 
 heavenly blessings, and that we desire natural blessings 
 only so far as they can be kept subordinate to our regener- 
 ation 3,nd the development of a heavenly character. 
 
OF GENUINE PRAYER. 63 
 
 These directions are not limited to formal and stated 
 prayer, though they apply specifically to it. They ap- 
 ply to the whole of life. We carry this inner chamber 
 with us into all our business, into our recreations and 
 pleasures. Our real prayer is the motives from which we 
 act. From those motives arise constant aspirations. We 
 really " pray without ceasing." The lovers of self and the 
 world are more devout and assiduous in their devotions 
 than Christians. They enter their closets and shut their 
 door against the light of truth, against their neighbor, 
 against the Lord, and open it wide to every breath of in- 
 fluence which favors their selfish and worldly designs. If 
 we desire to gain heaven and win the blessings of eternal 
 life, we must be as careful to shut the door against evil and 
 falsity ; we must exclude the desire to be seen of men, and 
 we must open the door wide to the Lord, to our neighbors, 
 and to every heavenly influence. It must be our highest 
 and habitual aspiration to be useful to others in whatever 
 station or employment we may be placed, to be obedient to 
 the Divine truth, and submissive to the Divine will. 
 
 5. " And when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy 
 Father in secret." We have entered the inner chamber of 
 the soul and shut the door. We have shut out our natu- 
 ral thoughts and afiFections ; we have left the labor and 
 the strife, the vain ambitions and foolish vanities of the 
 world ; we have ceased to think how men will regard us ; 
 we have shut the door behind us, and we are alone. No, 
 not alone. There is a veiled presence filling the chamber 
 with all the light and love we can bear. Who is He? 
 He is not an inconceivable and iofinite Being of whom we 
 can form no conception. He is not a stern, majestic, and 
 awful Sovereign, impatient with our ignorance, wearied 
 
64 CONDITIONS AND NATURE 
 
 with our follies, and burning with fierce indignation against 
 us for our sins. He is not an inexorable judge demand- 
 ing vengeance upon us as enemies, and exacting the utter- 
 most farthing for our transgressions. Who, then, is He ? 
 He is our Father. Father ! — a name which, even with 
 our earthly imperfections, embodies the tenderest and 
 noblest qualities of human nature. Our father watched 
 over us in infancy and childhood ; labored from day to day 
 and year to year to provide us with food and clothing and 
 a comfortable and pleasant home ; rejoiced at every indi. 
 cation of awakening intelligence ; his heart trembled with 
 fear at every danger which threatened our life ; he mourned 
 over our waywardness and youthful follies ; he provided us 
 with teachers, and freely gave care, time, and money to 
 prepare us to perform the duties and to gain the rewards 
 of life. There is no other name, unless it be that of 
 mother, — and the Divine Fatherhood combines all the 
 qualities of both father and mother, — which embodies so 
 much kindness, patience, forbearance, and devotion ; so 
 much tenderness, wise care, efficient service, unselfish af- 
 fection, and unchanging love. But the most perfect human 
 father is but a faint shadow, a hint of the infinite perfec- 
 tions of the Father we enter the closet to meet. 
 
 6. " Pray to thy Father in secret." If we have fol- 
 lowed our Lord's directions we have shut the door against 
 all selfish, worldly, and merely natural considerations ; we 
 have excluded all desire to be seen of men ; we have en- 
 tered into the most secret and hidden motives of our life, 
 into the centre and source of our actions. In those and 
 according to those secret desires we must pray. The at- 
 titude and the words, and the outer courts of memory and 
 intelligence are regarded only as means of expression. 
 
OF GENUINE PRAYER 65 
 
 The prayer is in the secret purpose. It is an internal 
 speech. " Prayer," says Swedenborg, " considered in itself 
 is speaking with God, and at such time there is a certain 
 internal intuition of those things which are the objects of 
 prayer, to which corresponds something like influx into 
 the perception or thought of him who prays, so that there 
 is a kind of opening of man's internals towards God." 
 When we consider that all our life is a constant gift from the 
 Lord, and that it flows into the soul in ceaseless currents 
 from the fountain of life as the warmth of the sun into 
 the secret germs of the seed, we can see something of the 
 nature of genuine prayer, and how it becomes the means 
 of refreshing and vitalizing all our spiritual faculties ; we 
 can understand why our Lord spent so much of His time 
 in prayer. When we pray in secret there is an opening 
 of the most interior organic vessels of the will and the 
 affections to the reception of life influent from the Lord. 
 The germ-vessels which when formed become affections, 
 understanding, thought, and act, and all the intellectual 
 and moral faculties which constitute the human mind, 
 open to the Lord and become penetrated, imbued, and 
 quickened with finer qualities and more potent forces of 
 life. It is an enlargement of the vessels which first re- 
 ceive and then conduct the currents of life. 
 
 The Lord dwells within us ; it is from within that He 
 gets access to us, and builds up His kingdom. Here the 
 work of regeneration begins ; we are born from above or 
 within. He stands at every door in this inner chamber of 
 the soul, and knocks for admission. When we open the 
 door by sincere and earnest prayer. He comes in and 
 Bups with us and we with Him ; that is. He communicates 
 the life of His love to us, and we receive it and recipro- 
 6 
 
66 CONDITIONS AND NATURE 
 
 cate it. This inner chamber is the large upper room 
 where the Lord directs us to make ready that He may eat 
 the passover with us. Hers we commune with the Lord. 
 Here we eat the bread which cometh down from heaven 
 and giveth life unto the world ; here we drink of that water 
 which becomes in us a well of water springing up into 
 eternal life. The Lord dwells in a region of the soul 
 entirely above our consciousness. There the transfer of 
 the forces of life from the Lord to us takes place ; there 
 His love becomes our love, His wisdom our wisdom, His 
 good our good. The work which is done in these secret 
 chambers of the soul, therefore, is of more importance to 
 our spiritual growth and happiness than all outward attain- 
 ment and possessions. If the doors of this inner chamber 
 are open to the Lord He can flood the soul with the quick- 
 ening forces of His life. If they are closed He can only 
 reach us in a roundabout external way, and with forces 
 far weaker and containing less of the pure elements of 
 life. Let us heed the Divine directions, and pray to the 
 Father in secret. 
 
 7. But " in secret" applies to the Lord as well as to 
 man. " The secret things belong unto the Lord our God." 
 There are infinite treasures of love and wisdom in Him 
 of which we know nothing, and can know nothing except 
 so far as they are revealed to us, and they can only be re- 
 vealed to us as we come into a state to receive them. We 
 are surrounded with secrets and mysteries on every side. 
 The wisest have penetrated but little beneath the surface of 
 things. How little we know of the secret processes which 
 are going on in ceaseless order and harmony within our 
 material bodies I How much less of the still more complex 
 and wonderful movements in our mental organism, by 
 
OF GENUINE PRAYER. g? 
 
 which we are able to love and know, to increase in knowl- 
 edge, and preserve a consciousness of our being I 
 
 When we begin our existence we know nothing of the 
 peace and rest, the keen and thrilling ecstasy of the joys 
 which are hidden in the secret qualities of love. We 
 catch glimpses of it in the blessings we enjoy, it brightens 
 our understandings and rejoices our hearts. But there 
 are infinite treasures of it in the secret chambers of the 
 Divine nature, which the Lord desires to bestow upon His 
 children, and which He does bestow upon all in as large 
 and rich measures as they can receive. We enter into 
 the secrets of knowledge by learning, and there are no 
 limits to the worlds of truth which lie before us and whose 
 secrets it will be a joy to explore. We enter into the 
 secrets of the Divine love by receiving that love into our 
 hearts and passing it on in kind and useful deeds to men. 
 The more unselfishly, purely, ardently we love, the more 
 fully and deeply we shall enter into the secrets of the 
 Divine love and taste of its blessedness. 
 
 8. " And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward 
 thee openly." " Who seeth in secret." The quality and 
 efficacy of every prayer is measured by the degree that it 
 is offered in secret. The Lord is present in the secret 
 chambers of the soul, which, as I have said, are the es- 
 sential ends and motives of all our actions. The Lord 
 looks to the motive, and sees in it all the effects which 
 will result from carrying it into operation. He does not 
 listen to the words uttered, whether they be few or many ; 
 whether they flow in eloquent periods, or are stammered 
 forth in broken sentences from the igoorant publican, or 
 the lisping lips of infancy. His ear is in the secret 
 chambers, and He hears only what is uttered there. He 
 
68 CONDITIONS AND NATURE 
 
 does not hear the affected tone. He does not see the def- 
 erential air, the bowed Lead, the bended knee, the pre- 
 scribed forms. He is looking in the heart, and He sees 
 only what takes place there. Even the angels who are at- 
 tendant upon man to guard him from evil and lead him to 
 good do not hear his words, or see his deeds, or know his 
 thoughts. They act only upon his affections, they see 
 only his purposes, and seek to guide him by them. How 
 much more must this be true of the Lord who dwells in 
 the inmost and first principles of thought and deed, and 
 by purifying and elevating the ends of life, and imbuing 
 them with heavenly love, seeks to lead man into heavenly 
 happiness ! 
 
 " He sees in secret." He sees all the effects and con- 
 sequences which must follow from every inmost principle 
 of life. All effects are stored up in their causes. The 
 ends, purposes, motives of action, are the closets or treas- 
 uries in which all the good we shall ever enjoy, or the 
 sorrows and torments we shall ever suffer, are stored up, 
 and the Lord sees them there. They are there as the 
 tree with its leaves, blossoms, and fruit are in the seed. 
 From one grain of wheat all the harvests in the world 
 could be produced. Some of the lower and microscopic 
 forms of animal life are remarkably rapid in their propa- 
 gation. But the germs of spiritual fruits, whether they are 
 good or evil, are much more prolific, and they multiply to 
 eternity. They combine with other causes to purify or cor- 
 rupt them, and their effects become varied and multiplied 
 without end. These results, whether good or evil, are not 
 effected by any arbitrary or mechanical action. They are 
 not bestowed as rewards nor inflicted as punishments. 
 They are orderly and necessary effects from legitimate 
 
OF GENUINE PRAYER. 69 
 
 causes. They grow out of them as the plant out of the 
 seed, according to immutable law. We know that there 
 is something in the secret closets of every seed which 
 determines the kind of fruit it will bear. So there is in 
 every affection or purpose of the will the germs of deeds, 
 the causes of joys or sorrows, which can be multiplied 
 without limit. 
 
 We cannot see even natural fruit in the germ. We 
 learn from observation and experience that like produces 
 like in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. But give to 
 the most learned scientist a seed wholly unlike any one he 
 has ever seen or heard of before, and he cannot tell you 
 what fruit it will bear. He may weigh it, analyze it, 
 decompose it, examine it with the most powerful micro- 
 scope, but he cannot discover the form of the plant which 
 will grow out of it, or the quality of the fruit it will pro- 
 duce. Much less can we see all the results which will 
 flow from cherishing any affection in the inner chambers 
 of the soul. We look at effects ; we judge by appearances, 
 and consequently we are subject to constant illusions. 
 
 But the Lord " sees in secret." He sees in every in- 
 nocent and heavenly principle the forms and forces and 
 causes of all the pure and lovely affections, all the sweet 
 and fragrant influences, all the bright joys and blissful 
 rest which will grow out of it. Take, for example, love to 
 Him as a motive of action in all the duties and relations 
 of life. He sees in it the germs of every good it is pos- 
 sible for a flnite being to possess and enjoy. He sees in 
 it openness to reception of life from Himself; He sees in 
 it the essential principles of heavenly order ; He sees in it 
 conjunction and communion with Himself, a readiness to 
 yield to the Divine attractions of His own love, by which 
 
70 CONDITIONS AND NATURE 
 
 we are drawn into more intimate and vital relations witli 
 Him and closer to His infinite heart ; He sees in it beauty 
 of person such as mortal eyes have never beheld, power 
 of which we have never dreamed, intelligence of which the 
 highest angel has no knowledge, joys beyond all human 
 power to conceive, an order, a harmony, a rest, a peace, a 
 blessedness which surpasses all human vision or capacity 
 of hope. He sees infinite blessings of which we have no 
 idea and no name ; delights which cannot be expressed in 
 human language. They are secrets to us which we can 
 only penetrate as we receive that love, and according to the 
 measure of our ability embody it in deeds. But they are 
 all clear in the light of His infinite intelligence. Oh, that 
 we were not so blind, and stupid, and inexpressibly fool- 
 ish as to close our hearts against that love which contains 
 in its very substance and nature the promise and potency 
 of all the good which it is possible for infinite love and 
 wisdom to give, or man with his limitless possibilities to 
 receive 1 
 
 9. And thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward 
 thee openly." There is a profounder meaning and a richer 
 promise emhodied in the words, " shall reward thee openly'' 
 than appears upon the surface. The word our Lord used 
 and which is translated " reward" means much more than 
 compensation for a service arbitrarily bestowed. It means 
 to make a complete and adequate return ; to grant all that 
 is claimed or looked for ; and when spoken in relation to 
 the Lord it means to give all that is asked and hoped for ; 
 all that it is possible for the suppliant to receive in the 
 present and in the future. When we go into our closets, 
 shut the door to self and the world and open them to the 
 Lord, we bring ourselves into vital conjunction with Him, 
 
OF GENUINE PRAYER. 71 
 
 and the currents of His life begin to flow into the organia 
 forms of our natures. We may be able to receive but a 
 small measure of that life at first. But it is essentially 
 creative in its nature ; it enlarges the vessels which re- 
 ceive it, and makes them more capacious to receive larger 
 measures of life. It tends to perfect the quality of the 
 inmost forms of our being and give them the power of 
 receiving finer forms of life. Consequently the reward is 
 constantly increasing, and it will continue to do so forever. 
 Suppose you ask in humble and heartfelt sincerity that tho 
 Lord's kingdom may come in you, and that His will may 
 be done on the earth of your natural mind as it is in the 
 heaven of the spiritual mind ; you place yourself in such 
 relations to the Lord that He can begin to answer the 
 prayer. He answers it according to the measure of your 
 ability to receive the answer. It may take Him all your 
 life to answer it fully, even according to your own expecta- 
 tions. It will take Him to eternity to answer it according 
 to His. But He begins the answer ; He makes a full re- 
 turn of all you ask ; but in making it He gives you power 
 to ask and to receive more. And this process will con- 
 tinue to eternity. We always receive as much as we ask. 
 I do not mean as much as we ask in words. Millions of 
 prayers are ofiered every day with the lips for the sancti- 
 fication of the heart and the regeneration of humanity. 
 But very few are offered in the closet, and those that are 
 offered there are answered in the degree that man can 
 receive the answer. 
 
 10. But the Lord not only promises to reward the sin- 
 cere prayer, but to do it openly. You will observe thai 
 there is a parallelism and contrast between hypocritical 
 and genuine prayer. The prayer of the hypocrite is made 
 
72 CONDITIONS AND NATURE 
 
 in the most conspicuous places, to be seen of men, and the 
 reward is expected from them. The genuine prayer is 
 made in the closet, to the Heavenly Father, and the prom- 
 ise is an open reward. The vain prayer is made with 
 many words, with the hope of being heard for much speak- 
 ing. The sincere prayer is made in secret ; may not be 
 voiced ; may be a mute appeal, a despairing cry, an internal 
 effort to turn to the Lord, an aspiration of the heart for 
 a higher life, a more intimate communion with Him. 
 Both have their reward. One comes from without, and 
 gives a momentary delight which turns in the end to a 
 curse. The other comes from within, from perennial 
 sources, and increases in richness and fulness forever. 
 But you may desire to know in what way the Lord re- 
 wards us openly. He does it according to an immutable 
 law of His divine order, a law which we see in our own 
 lives in everything we do. All the forces of life, all the 
 causes of our joys and sorrows, come from within. Every 
 deed is first an affection, then a thought, then a natural 
 act. The springs of conduct rise in the secret closets of 
 the soul as the streams which refresh and beautify the 
 earth gush forth from the secret chambers of the hills. 
 When we open the affections to the Lord in sincere prayer, 
 He imbues them with new and finer qualities ; He en- 
 larges and purifies them, and they flow down through all 
 the degrees of the mind, enriching and enlarging them. 
 They give delicacy, acuteness, and perception to the 
 understanding. Thought is affection formed, affection 
 brought out into distinct consciousness. Every thought 
 which passes through our minds is the form of some affec- 
 tion to which it gives body and existence. The affection 
 dwells in the thought or in truth, and uses :t to come 
 
OF GENUINE PRAYER. 73 
 
 out more openly into speech and deed. When our afiFeo- 
 tions become enlarged and purified, we gain a new de^ee 
 of vital power ; and the new purpose gives a new direction 
 and a new quality to our deeds. A heavenly affection 
 gives tone to the voice, beauty to the face, loveliness to 
 our actions, and a new charm to every faculty of mind and 
 body. You cannot go into your closet and shut the door 
 and offer a sincere prayer to the Lord for any heavenly 
 good, and conceal from your friends the reward you will 
 receive. Your face will begin to shine as the face of 
 Moses did when he came down from the mount. You 
 have been in the mount with the Lord. You will be 
 more earnest and unselfish in purpose ; you will have 
 wider and more tender sympathies with every form of 
 human suffering; you will be more devoted to your friends; 
 more faithful in your employments ; wiser and more gen- 
 erous in your charities ; and your influence on all around 
 you will be purer and more elevating. 
 
 We can see many beautiful effects in this life of the 
 transfiguring power of these spiritual and Divine influ- 
 ences. But while we are clothed in the garments of clay 
 we can see but little more than the shadow of them. 
 Their harmonies come faintly to our dulled ears, and their 
 lovely forms are seen but dimly through the clouds of 
 sense. But when we are released from this imprisonment 
 in the material body and rise into the clear light of the 
 spiritual world, then every heavenly affection which we 
 had made our own by life, and which is stored up in the 
 secret chambers of the soul, will come out into open mani- 
 festation. These secret communings with our Heavenly 
 Father will determine the heaven we enter, the society 
 which will welcome us to its association, the friends who 
 
74 CONDITIONS OF GENUINE PRAYER. 
 
 will greet us, and the home we shall dwell in forever. A 
 new influx of the Divine love, which enters our souls 
 when we open their secret chambers in prayer, will con- 
 tinue to work in us and come out openly without and 
 around us forever. It will add force to the attraction 
 which draws us to the pure and good, and which conjoins 
 us with the Lord ; it will be a new light in our sky, a new 
 beauty in our home, a new charm in every object which 
 adorns it, and it will endow us with a finer and more deli- 
 cate sense, with a keener perception and a larger capacity 
 for enjoyment. It will be a deeper peace, a brighter joy, 
 a sweeter communion, a more blissfiil rest. 
 
v. 
 
 THE PROPER OBJECT W WORSHIP. 
 
 " After this manner there/ore pray ye : Our Father 
 which art in the Heavens." — Matthew vi. 9. 
 
 In the preceding verses which we have already consid- 
 ered, our Lord has taught us what motives and methods 
 to avoid in prayer, when and how to offer our petitions, 
 and He has given us the assurance, if we follow these 
 directions, of a full and open reward. He offers every 
 encouragement to come freely to the " Father who seeth in 
 secret," and open our inmost desires to Him. He seeks 
 to win our confidence, and with paternal kindness He 
 asks us to make known to Him our wants, our sorrows, 
 and our joys. He sympathizes with us in all our difficul- 
 ties, labors, and temptations ; helps us in every struggle 
 with evil, and rejoices with us in every victory over our 
 selfish and worldly desires. If we could realize, even in 
 a remote degree, how forbearing, how patient, how gentle, 
 how kind He is, how deeply He desires to help and bless 
 us, we should not be so reluctant and formal in going to 
 Him for sympathy and guidance, and pouring into His 
 
 75 
 
76 TBE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 
 
 compassionate ear the sorrows and the joys of our hearts. 
 We all need help ; we all long for sympathy. There is no 
 greater comfort in this cold and selfish world, no treasure 
 more precious than a friend who fully appreciates us, and 
 to whom we can unhosom ourselves with the perfect assur- 
 ance of being understood, and from whom we can get the 
 wisest counsel and the deepest consolation. The Lord is 
 such a friend, though infinitely wiser, tenderer, truer, and 
 more considerate than any earthly friend, — than the wisest 
 father or the most loving mother. These qualities will 
 appear more clearly as we enter into the deep and genuine 
 import of the prayer He has taught us. 
 
 " After this manner therefore pray ye." We are not 
 to understand by this direction that we are to limit our 
 petitions to these words. The Lord gives us the manner, 
 the spirit, the scope of our prayers. We must pray in this 
 simple, direct, and unostentatious way. We may make 
 our prayers as specific as we please. Sometimes one want 
 will press upon us and absorb our whole thought. We are 
 in distress, in the agony of some conflict ; we are over- 
 whelmed by some great sorrow and we can only say, " If 
 it be possible, let this cup pass from me.'' We are in 
 despair ; we seem to be deserted by men f,nd forsaken by 
 the Lord, and we can only cry, " My Grod, my Grod, why 
 hast Thou forsaken me !" Then, again, we have met with 
 some great deliverance by which the soul is filled with 
 peace and rest, and our lips can but feebly express the 
 gratitude and praise which thrills our hearts. But every 
 want which we can feel, every desire of which the heart 
 is capable, every good it is possible for the human mind 
 to conceive, or the lips to ask, is comprehended in the few 
 brief petitions of this prayer, and the more fully we enter 
 
THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 77 
 
 into its infinite depths, the more clearly we shall see that 
 it comprises all our needs, from the lowest to the highest. 
 First, the Lord teaches us to whom we must offer our 
 prayers, and how we are to conceive of Him. " Our 
 Father." We are to think of Him as our father. There 
 is nothing more simple, tender, and kind than this. Every 
 child can understand it. The Lord does not ask us to 
 conceive of the inconceivable, to think of Him as He is 
 in Himself; that no finite being can do. He does not 
 ask us to know the unknowable, to comprehend an infinite, 
 essence. He comes to us in what we know. He comes 
 to us in the simplest and most familiar form. The rela- 
 tion of father is one of the first conceptions by which the 
 little child distinguishes one man from another. There 
 is a class of learned men at the present day who call 
 themselves agnostics, or spiritual know-nothings. They 
 do not deny that there may be a Grod, and a spiritual 
 world, and a life after the death of the body, but they 
 have no belief upon these subjects, because they do not 
 know anything about them, and they conceive all knowl- 
 edge of them in our present state to be impossible. They 
 cannot conceive of an infinite Being, and, therefore, they do 
 not believe in one. The principle which lies at the root of 
 their denial seems to be, disbelief in what we cannot fully 
 comprehend ; but, if this principle was made of universal 
 application, we should not believe in anything, for we can- 
 not fully comprehend the simplest things. The most pro- 
 found scientist cannot comprehend how we see or hear ; 
 how a blade of grass grows. He may know much of 
 the means by which these effects are produced ; but why 
 they produce them he cannot tell. We only look upon 
 the surface of things. The most learned man is as igno- 
 
78 THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 
 
 rant of inmost causes as the little child. We cannot fully 
 comprehend one another ; but we can know something, 
 and know that with certainty. A little child knows but 
 little about its father ; but it knows enough to initiate 
 and define its relations to him. As its understanding 
 ami affections become enlarged, it will know more. The 
 little serves the present purpose and leads to more. 
 
 The Lord takes the simple, universal relation of father- 
 hood, and by means of it leads us to Himself; instructs us 
 to think of Him as a father. We can form no idea of 
 God except by means of what we know of men. If there 
 is no likeness, no inherent and essential relation between 
 the Lord and man, we can gain no idea of Him. What 
 do we know of love, or mercy, or wisdom, or of any of the 
 attributes we ascribe to the Lord, but from what we have 
 learned of their nature as they exist in ourselves, or as we 
 have seen them manifested in others ? Nothing. To 
 ascribe these qualities to Him, therefore, unless they are \ 
 of the same nature as they are in us, conveys no idea of ■■ 
 Him. They do not apply to Him ; they are an empty 
 sound signifying nothing ; they are worse : they are mis- 
 leading ; they deceive us. In our thought we attribute to 
 the Lord qualities which do H' t belong to Him. All that 
 we can say or think of Him is simply a delusion. 
 
 But if man was made in the image and after the like- 
 ness of God, if the Divine nature was finited in man, then 
 human qualities give us a hint of Divine qualities ; human 
 relations give us a true idea of our relations to the Lord, 
 and by means of them the Lord can instruct us in Divine 
 knowledge, and lead us to know Him " whom to know 
 aright is life everlasting." In this Divine prayer He in- 
 structs us to think of Him as a father, to pray to Him as 
 
THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 79 
 
 a father, to trust Him as a father, and we must give to the 
 word, father, its genuine meaning. If we hegin by divest- 
 ing it of all the forms, qualities, and relations which belong 
 to a human father, we vacate it of all meaning. Let us 
 take this human relationship, then, and follow its essential 
 qualities to their legitimate conclusions. If we do we must 
 find the Being to whom we are to direct our prayers. 
 
 A father is a personal being in the human form. He 
 is one being in one person. The Father in the heavens 
 must be one Being in one Divine Person, and that Person 
 must be in the human form. It is impossible to conceive 
 of a father in any other form, or as a mere abstract es- 
 sence. The father of a human being must be a man, and 
 a man without the human form is impossible. The Father 
 whom we are to love, and whom we are to meet in prayer 
 in the inner chamber of the soul, must be in the human 
 form, and He has revealed Himself to us in that form in 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 By the Father is generally understood Jehovah, the Di- 
 vine Being as He is in Himself. Consequently Christians 
 generally address their prayers to Him. But the human 
 mind is incapable of forming any idea of Jehovah, as He 
 is in Himself. We cannot approach Him in thought or 
 affection. There is no access to Him possible except 
 through His Divine Humanity. Jehovah as He is in 
 Himself is above the heavens, above all created and finite 
 forms, beyond all human conception. We must keep in 
 mind that prayer is not merely a matter of words. One 
 may repeat all the words ever addressed to the Lord, and 
 not offer a prayer. Prayer is a real communion of the 
 human soul with the Lord ; it is the opening of the affec- 
 tions to the reception of the forces of life from Him. There 
 
80 THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 
 
 must, therefore, be conjunction of mind with mind. To 
 effect this there must be adaptation and adjustment. But 
 there can be no direct contact between the Divine as it is 
 in itself and any finite form. Even the sun, as it is in 
 itself, cannot come in direct contact with the plant in a 
 way to produce vegetable growth. It must be modified 
 and adapted ; its rays must be tempered by atmospheres 
 and by the earth, before they take effect upon the seed and 
 cause it to grow. How much more impossible it must be 
 for man to approach and to receive into himself the awful 
 forces of the Divine life ! 
 
 We cannot approach or conceive of a human being as 
 he is in himself. We can only form some idea of men and 
 women as to their inmost and essential character as it is 
 revealed to us through the medium of the material body. 
 How much less can we form any conception of the uncre- 
 ated Divine life as it is in itself? We cannot gain any 
 conception of the nature of a fruit even as it exists in the 
 seed. The inmost forms must clothe themselves with the 
 flesh and blood, the pulp and juices of the fruit, before 
 we can tell whether they are sweet or sour, good or harm- 
 ful. If we cannot judge of the essential qualities of the 
 lowest things until they clothe themselves with a proper 
 medium by which they can act upon our senses, and in 
 that way reveal themselves to us, how much less can the 
 infinite First Cause of the creation and of all created be- 
 ings, reveal Himself to our consciousness without appro- 
 priate mediums ? 
 
 No. When we look at the subject as it is, we can see 
 that we cannot pray to Jehovah, the Father above the 
 heavens. We can use words ; we can say Jehovah, Grod, 
 but the words are not the prayer. The prayer is the 
 
THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 81 
 
 process which goes on in the closet ; the internal turning 
 and opening of the affections, and the perception, the 
 thought, the idea which results from the entrance of the 
 Lord into the closet. 
 
 We can form some idea of Jehovah as He has revealed 
 Himself to us in the human nature which He assumed 
 and made Divine. Jesus Christ is the Father in a human 
 form, adapted to human conception. The Father and Son 
 are one person, as the soul and body are one man. The 
 Father and Son are not the same plane or degree of the 
 Divine personality, as the soul and body are not the same 
 plane or degree of our personality. It requires many de- 
 grees and forms to make a man. Look at the material 
 body for example. It is composed of many bodies in the 
 human form. The bones, the arteries and veins, the 
 nerves, are all in the human form. Each one constitutes 
 a body by itself. But it requires them all to make the 
 human body. And besides these material forms, it re- 
 quires the soul and the spiritual body to make a man. All 
 these different spiritual degrees and organic forms are 
 parts of the one being. 
 
 So the Father and the Son are not two persons, two 
 beings ; nor is one a Divine being and the other simply a 
 human being. Both make one Divine Being. This our 
 Lord Himself declares in the most positive manner. " I 
 and my Father are one." One what ? One man ? or orxf 
 God ? If they are one man, then there is no God. If 
 they are one God, then we have a God who is the centre 
 and source of life, in His inmost nature entirely above all 
 human conception, but who has also a human nature in 
 which He reveals Himself to human consciousness, in 
 which He comes down to human apprehension. " He 
 6 
 
82 THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 
 
 that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. How then say- 
 est thou, Show us the Father." This is the same as to 
 say. Where will you look for Him except in me ? In what 
 form do you expect to find Him except in the one in 
 which He has appeared to you ? " Believe in me," He 
 says ; " I am in the Father, and the Father in me." The 
 Divine and the human interpenetrate each other in my 
 person, as the soul and body interpenetrate each other in 
 every man. The soul, as we all acknowledge, is in the 
 body. So our Lord's soul, which is called by the name 
 Father, dwelt in His body. A man's body is in his soul, 
 also, though not in precisely the same sense as the soul is 
 in the body. The body is not in the soul, as water is in a 
 vessel, as blood is in the arteries. It is in the sphere of 
 its active forces. It is in it as a plant is in the heat of the 
 sun, and the heat of the sun is in it. It is penetrated, in- 
 filled, sufiused with it. So the Human nature was pene- 
 trated, infilled, suffused, glorified, and became one with the 
 Divine nature : and both together, each within the other, 
 make one Divine Being. " Our Father in the Heavens" 
 is this glorified Humanity, in which the infinite First 
 Cause, the incomprehensible and primal Source of all 
 being, comes out from His infinity and manifests Himself 
 to His children in a personal, glorious. Divine, human form. 
 We are not, then, to think of the Father to whom we 
 pray as a diffused essence, as an omnipresent force, but as a 
 glorious Divine Man in the human form ; as the same 
 Being who was incarnated, who healed human diseases, 
 who instructed the ignorant, who as to His human nature 
 suffered, and was crucified. When He dwelt in a material 
 body He was our Father on the earth. Now He is risen 
 and glorified, He is our Father in the heavens. 
 
THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 83 
 
 The necessity for liaving a distinct object, a distinct per- 
 sonal form in our minds when we pray, is vastly more 
 important than we generally suppose. It is for the want 
 of this that prayer is so unmeaning and ineffectual. As 
 Swedenborg has said, there can be no conjunctioQ with an 
 invisible, abstract essence. The thought has nothing to 
 rest upon. It passes off into empty space, like the light 
 which does not reach any recipient object. Think of a 
 child asking help, or a blessing, from the abstract qualities 
 of a father ! In what a different state of mind we ask a 
 favor of a man from that in which we ask blessings of 
 the Lord ! If we have a distinct personal being in our 
 minds of whom we know something, to whom we are 
 related, who possesses what we want, whose character we 
 know, whom we know where to find, and how to address, 
 the way is clear before us, and our praying will have some 
 purpose. 
 
 All these requisites to genuine prayer we have, when 
 we go to the Lord Jesus Christ, and think of Him alone, 
 without any mental reservations, or any effort to go behind 
 Him, and to think of some being distinct from Him. We 
 can fix our thoughts upon Him, as He appeared to Peter, 
 James, and John when he was transfigured before them, 
 when " His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment 
 was white as the light." 
 
 Having gained a clear and distinct idea of the personal 
 Being whom we are to address in prayer, the next of 
 inquiry which demands our attention is, what paternal 
 qualities we shall attribute to Him. Father is not a gen- 
 eral term implying no more than that the Lord is the 
 creator of the human race. Every word of Scripture has 
 a universal meaning ; that is, it applies to every particular 
 
S4 THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 
 
 to which it relates ; to the least things as well as to the 
 greatest. It is not limited by time or place or special re- 
 lation. We are to take the term Father in its universal 
 sense ; we are to infil it with all the qualities, and with 
 the highest qualities of fatherhood we can conceive, and 
 when we have done that, we shall fall infinitely short of 
 the reality. But let us particularize : 
 
 1. Our natural fathers are only instruments in the Lord's 
 hands to perpetuate and enlarge the creation of human 
 beings. In this respect, as in all acts of natural creation, 
 we are merely instrumental means. In the production of 
 our harvests, the husbandman is only one link in the vast 
 chain of causes and effects by which the end is reached. 
 The Lord is the Creator and Father of every form of vege- 
 table and of animal life. If, therefore, we take the lowest 
 idea of fatherhood, the Lord is our primary and real father, 
 our father upon the earth. 
 
 2. But before we can enter the kingdom of heaven we 
 must be born again, born from above ; the spiritual degrees 
 of the mind must be formed ; the new heavens and the 
 new earth must be created ; and this is effected without 
 any special, direct intervention of others. In the forma- 
 tion of this heavenly mind, the Lord is more especially our 
 Father ; we are born of God. In this degree of our being 
 we are created into His image and likeness ; we bear the 
 impress of His form and character which show our lineage ; 
 we become His children and heirs of His infinite riches. 
 Oh that we could gain such a clear conception of this glo- 
 rious truth that it would seem to us to be as it is, a most 
 positive reality I How proud men are of noble descent 1 
 How delighted they are to know that they have blue hlood 
 in their veins I We do not see so much of this ancestral 
 
THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 85 
 
 worship as is found in those countries where a titled nobil- 
 ity exists. But the principle is native to the human heart. 
 And there are just grounds for it. It is fortunate to be 
 well born. Blood tells. The virtues as well as the iniqui- 
 ties of the fathers descend to the children. 
 
 Now apply this law of the Divine Order to the case 
 before us. The Lord teaches us to call Him " our 
 Father," and what He directs us to call Him He seeks to 
 become. Here open to us the grand possibilities of our 
 being. Let us not pass the subject by as an unmeaning 
 one, or the possession as unattainable. The Lord is our 
 Father ! We can claim our descent from Him. We can 
 become the finite forms of His love. That love which is 
 the infinite source of all life can become our life, the 
 germinal principle of our characters ; our hearts can beat 
 responsive to it, our affections can be animated with its 
 warmth ; imbued with its purity, our understanding can 
 be moulded into the form of the Divine wisdom, become 
 the embodiment of His beauty, and illuminated with His 
 truth. Our whole spiritual forms can be so impressed with 
 the infinite perfections of the Divine Character that our 
 parentage will be evident to every beholder. It can be 
 seen in the clear and lovely lines of the face. It can be 
 proclaimed in pure tones in the voice. It can be discerned 
 in every motion of the body swayed to grace and dignity 
 by the indwelling spirit hereditarily derived from our 
 Father in the Heavens. 
 
 There can be no nobler birth than this. What is the 
 ancestry of kings and emperors compared with this ? If 
 it is a cause for gratitude and joy to be able to look back 
 through a long line of progenitors and find in it great and 
 wise men, pure and lovely women, how much greater cause 
 
86 THE PROPER OBJECT OP WORSHIP. 
 
 have we to rejoice that we can claim the Lord for our 
 Father, and become heirs to the everlasting and ever-in- 
 creasing glory and blessedness which He delights to bestow 
 upon His children ; and which He does bestow upon them, 
 just in the degree that they become His children and are 
 able to receive His blessings ! 
 
 Having thus gained a distinct idea that the Lord is 
 our Father, essentially the Father of our bodies and natu- 
 ral minds, and specifically the Father of our souls, if we 
 have " been born from above," let us try to fill that term 
 with all the perfections of the paternal relation possible to 
 our conception. We shall find them all in Him, and in- 
 finitely more. 
 
 1. A good father will provide according to the best of 
 his ability for the support and physical comfort of hia 
 children. Has not our Heavenly Father done this ? He 
 has filled the world with substances for the support of the 
 body ; for its sustenance, clothing, and comfort. The 
 harvests of the world are His gifts. In what lovely forms 
 He presents these provisions of His love ! He is not con- 
 tent to give us the substance alone in a shapeless mass : 
 He gathers His gifts into purple clusters ; He moulds 
 them into beautiful fruits ; He dyes them with lovely 
 colors ; He fills them with delicate aromas ; He makes 
 them savory, and sweet. In supplying one want He gratifies 
 every sense ; He makes every step of their creation beautiful. 
 The stem which bears them is beautiful in form, and then 
 He clothes it with a garniture of green, glorifies it with 
 the beauty of blossoms, and crowns it with a diadem of 
 fruit. Is He not a provident and bountiful Father ? 
 
 2. A good father will provide for the instruction of hia 
 children. Our Heavenly Father has so arranged Hia 
 
THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 87 
 
 provisions for our natural support that they shall be the 
 constant means of intellectual and moral cultivation. All 
 our industrial, domestic, social, and civil relations are 
 means of developing our affections and enlarging our un- 
 derstandings. Our best lessons are learned in the school 
 of the family, in the school of labor, and in the school of 
 society. But, besides these schools and teachers. He haa 
 given us His prophets, and He has come Himself to teach 
 us the lessons we could not learn from nature and from 
 each other. He has left nothing untried or undone which 
 it was possible for infinite love and wisdom to do to teach 
 us our true nature and destiny and the best means of at- 
 taining it. Does He not, therefore, possess this paternal 
 excellence in the highest degree ? 
 
 3. A good father is patient and gentle, kind and wise. 
 He will withhold as well as give ; he will restrain and 
 guide. The Lord is infinitely kind and gentle and patient. 
 " His mercy is forever." " As a father pitieth his chil- 
 dren, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." He waits 
 for us with an infinite patience ; He loves us with an in- 
 finite love ; He watches over us with an omniscient eye, 
 and omits no occasion to confer upon every one of His 
 children the greatest blessings He can persuade them to 
 receive. Take any parental quality you choose and exalt 
 it to the greatest excellence you can conceive, and our 
 Father in the Heavens is all that and infinitely more. 
 There is no quality which could entitle Him to the name 
 of Father which He does not possess. 
 
 But there is one respect in which He is entitled to the 
 claim in an eminent degree. Our earthly parents become 
 less our parents as we advance in life. Children become 
 less dependent upon them. Parents can do less for them. 
 
88 THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 
 
 The ties which bind them together grow weaker, and parent 
 and child grow away from each other. But our Father in the 
 Heavens will become more and more our Father to eternity. 
 We shall be growing into His likeness ; we shall become more 
 fully His children. He will continually create us anew. 
 The marks of our lineage will become more distinct. We 
 shall become larger embodiments of His love, and contin- 
 ually advance into the beauty of His image and the glory 
 of His wisdom. There is no other hope so grand ; no 
 other possibility of attainment so blessed as this. 
 
 " Ov.r Father." The Lord does not teach us to say my 
 Father, but our Father. There is a grand significance in 
 this. It sweeps away human distinctions and reverses 
 human judgments. When we offer this prayer, we place 
 ourselves on the level of a common parentage, we confess a 
 common humanity. The king in his palace, clothed in rich 
 attire and surrounded with elegance and beauty and abun- 
 dant means to minister to every desire, kneels at a cush- 
 ioned altar and says, " Our Father." The peasant in his 
 hut, clad in coarse and soiled garments, sheltered from 
 storms only by rough and naked walls, in the midst of rude 
 and scanty furniture, clasps hands hardened by toil and 
 utters the same words, " Our Father." The most learned 
 scientist, the most skilful artist, the genius, the hero, 
 whose praise is upon all lips, and the little child whose 
 eyes are just opening to the wonders of the universe, or 
 the most unlettered laborer, must address the same Being 
 in the same words : they must say, " Our Father." The 
 rich and the poor, however widely separated by external 
 conditions, must ignore them all when they enter the 
 closet or kneel in the house of worship. They must utter 
 the words which confess a common parentage, a common 
 
THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 89 
 
 nature, and fraternal relations. The artificial and merely 
 natural distinctions which men and women estimate so 
 highly, and on the possession of which they assume so 
 much superiority, do not appear before the Lord. He 
 looks only upon the heart, and estimates us by what He 
 sees there. We are His children ; we are brethren, and 
 nobly born, in the degree that we are created in His like- 
 ness and partake of His nature. In the light of this 
 truth, how all merely natural distinctions fade away I Can 
 you pray this prayer ? You can say the words with your 
 lips. Can you enter the closet, and shut the door against 
 all natural and artificial distinctions and say, with the 
 understanding and from the heart, " Our Father" ? Only 
 in the degree you come into this state do you pray " after 
 this manner." 
 
 " Our Father who art in the Heavens." Why, heavens ? 
 Because there is more than one heaven, and we can 
 only pray to the Father in the heaven in which we 
 are. Every human being has in possibility three planes, 
 or degrees of his spiritual nature, entirely distinct from 
 one another. These degrees of the mind constitute the 
 heavens within him. The one which becomes opened and 
 formed is the one in which the Lord dwells ; it is the one 
 in which we think, in which we love and live. The 
 heaven we shall consciously enter when we throw aside the 
 veil of flesh will correspond with the one which has become 
 formed within us. It is in the heavens within us that the 
 Lord becomes our Father. As these heavens are formed 
 by learning the truth and living according to it. He comes 
 in and dwells with us and we with Him. Our real worship 
 consists in the opening and creation of one of these degrees 
 of the spiritual mind. There He builds the mansions in 
 
90 THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 
 
 which we are to dwell with Him forever. If only the 
 lowest degree is opened, we shall enter the corresponding 
 heaven. We shall find our home there, and the Lord will 
 be our Father there, according to the measure of our 
 knowledge and love. If the second degree of the mind 
 is opened, we shall rise into the light and glory of the 
 second heaven and live and love and worship our Father 
 as He can manifest Himself to us in that degree. If the 
 inmost degree is opened, we shall live in that, and enter 
 into the fullest and most blissful joys it is possible for a 
 finite being to experience. 
 
 It is not, therefore, without a meaning specifically appli- 
 cable to us that our Lord teaches us to address Him as 
 Our Father in the Heavens. It is an acknowledgment of 
 His Fatherhood by every one in the degree he is becoming 
 regenerated. Every angel can use it with special applica- 
 tion to himself. It is also a prayer that we may become 
 His children ; that we may become more inn(><!ent, more 
 childlike, more pliant to the brooding power of His love ; 
 that we may become gentler in spirit, stronger iin afiFection, 
 nobler in action, purer in life, and in all respects "nore like 
 our Father in the Heavens, into whose image an(? likeness 
 He is in the constant effort to create us. 
 
VI. 
 
 HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 
 
 " Hallowed he Thy Name" — Matthew vi. 9. 
 
 The Lord's instructions concerning prayer are based 
 upon a perfect knowledge of man's nature and relations to 
 the Source of his life. They are complete in every re- 
 spect ; they are adequate to every human condition and to 
 every human want. This perfection of instruction is not 
 limited to guiding us to the Person whom we must address, 
 nor to the petitions we offer : they extend to the order and 
 relative importance of our requests. The first in impor- 
 tance is the first in desire and thought. Prayer necessarily 
 implies a Personal Being to whom we offer our supplica- 
 tions. It implies some knowledge of that Being, and 
 some belief that He can hear and answer our prayers. 
 We are, therefore, first directed to the true object of wor- 
 ship ; we are taught where to find Him, and how to con- 
 ceive of Him. We are taught to regard Him as " our 
 Father ;" and not only as our Father as a First Cause, as 
 an incomprehensible essence, or an omnipotent force, but 
 as our Father in the heavens, as the Author and Giver of 
 
 91 
 
92 HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 
 
 every good and truth, of every blessing which it is possible 
 for man to receive. We are taught to come to Him with 
 the freedom and trust of children in a revered and wise 
 and loving father, freely make known our wants, and ask 
 for the help, consolation, and guidance we need. 
 
 Then He teaches us the primary and essential end of all 
 prayer. He reveals the spirit in which we should come to 
 our Father, the motives which should lead us to pray, the 
 first and essential good which we should desire and seek 
 above all others. That law of the Divine order, that root- 
 principle and essential cause of all true knowledge of the 
 Divine nature, of our own nature, and of the means of 
 complete and enduring happiness, is revealed in the words, 
 " Hallowed be Thy Name." That is the first heavenly 
 grace to seek, the first good to ask, because every other 
 good is contained in it, and grows out of it as an eflfect 
 from its cause. The Lord's kingdom cannot come, either 
 in our own souls or in human society, until we hallow 
 His name. His will cannot be done on the earth as it is 
 in heaven until His name is hallowed on the earth as it is 
 in heaven. He can only give us our daily bread as we 
 hallow His name. The life we shall live, and the good we 
 shall receive in this world and through eternity, will be de- 
 termined in quality and degree by the measure in which 
 we hallow the Lord's name. It becomes, therefore, of the 
 utmost moment to know what is meant by His name, 
 and how we can hallow it. To this subject your devout 
 attention is invited. It is a matter of so much importance, 
 and we are so prone to rest in mere appearances, and find 
 it so difficult to rise above them, that it will richly repay 
 the most careful examination and the best means of illus- 
 tration we can command. 
 
HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 93 
 
 I. Let us consider the essential meaning of the word 
 " name." It is familiar enough, and we may think we 
 fully comprehend it. But it has a profound significance 
 when applied to the Lord. It means much more than a 
 simple word employed to designate Him, as we give names 
 to persons and things. Names are arbitrary or real. An 
 arbitrary name is an epithet applied to persons or things 
 without any reference to its meaning, as the names we 
 give our children. A real name describes the person or 
 thing to which it is applied. A perfect name would ex- 
 press all the qualities of the object to which it was given. 
 It is derived from the object rather than given to it ; that is, 
 the object suggests the name. All names had their origin in 
 some condition or circumstance or quality of the person or 
 thing named. This is the case with many if not all the 
 names of persons mentioned in the Word. Names were 
 sometimes given to persons by Divine direction, as in the 
 case of John the Baptist and of our Lord. The names of 
 many of the principal men were given to them from some 
 circumstance connected with their birth, or the work they 
 performed, or the character they represented. Names 
 were changed to denote some change in the special rela- 
 tions of those who bore them. We apply to men names 
 to represent their office and character, and we change them 
 to denote any change in these respects. 
 
 All the names applied to the Supreme Being are real 
 ones ; that is, they express some quality or attribute of the 
 Divine character, or some relation to the universe or to 
 men. He is called Jehovah, which means the same as 
 I AM, and expresses inmost, essential, self-existing Being. 
 And as He is love itself, Jehovah denotes the Divine Love. 
 God denotes the Divine existence, which is love in form ; 
 
94 HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 
 
 and as love gains existence, stands forth to view by means 
 of truth, God is the name of the Divine truth or wisdom. 
 These names are often used together ; then they denote 
 the Divine Love and Wisdom. The Lord is called Father 
 with reference to the human nature, by the assumption 
 of which He came into the world. Clothed with that na- 
 ture He becomes Eedeemer, Saviour, Immanuel, or God 
 with us. Regarded from His human nature He is called 
 Son of God and Son of Man. Jesus Christ is the name 
 of Jehovah God clothed with a human nature, by means 
 of which He came down to men, modified the Divine forces 
 of His love and wisdom, and adapted them to the weak- 
 ness and waywardness of human afi'eotions corrupted by 
 sin, and the blindness of the human understanding per- 
 verted by error. That human nature filled with heredi- 
 tary tendencies to evil and distorted by many generations 
 of falsity. He glorified or made Divine, and a perfect 
 medium of communicating the life of His love and the 
 truth of His wisdom to men. That Divine Humanity 
 Jehovah made one with Himself. It is, therefore, the 
 Divine body in which He dwells ; it is the Divine name 
 by which He is to be known among men. In that form 
 He is the " Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last." 
 When His human nature was glorified the prophecy was 
 fulfilled. " In that day there shall be one Jehovah and 
 His name one," and that name is Lord. " Ye call me 
 Lord and Master, and ye do well, for so I am." 
 
 A perfect name is one which expresses all the qualities, 
 attributes, and relations of the person to whom it is given. 
 It is impossible for any word of material origin to do this. 
 A material name only calls our attention to the person 
 Jusignated, or to some special quality which belongs to him, 
 
SALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 95 
 
 This is all the help it can give us. A word, or the sound 
 which it represents, is not the real name. The real name by 
 which every person is truly known is his deeds, the forms 
 in which his character manifests itself " By their fruits 
 ye shall know them." " Actions speak louder than words." 
 A man's deeds express his real character more fully and 
 truly than words. The words we use only serve to call 
 our attention to the deed. 
 
 By name, then, we are to understand all that the name 
 suggests and carries with it, not merely the person which 
 it calls up to the consciousness, but all the qualities of the 
 person. This large idea of the meaning of name throws 
 much light upon the significance and use of the term in the 
 Sacred Scriptures. The Lord's name is constantly put for 
 the Lord Himself, and for the attributes of His character. 
 The Lord's name is called excellent, blessed, glorious, 
 reverend, righteous, holy, terrible. Men are called upon 
 to exalt, to praise, to fear, to sanctify, to bless the Lord's 
 name. The most remarkable power is attributed to His 
 name. Enemies are overcome by it, devils are cast out, 
 diseases are cured, deliverances are wrought, and salvation 
 is effected. The Lord gives a name to His people, knows 
 them by name, calls them by name, gives them a now name, 
 writes their names in the book of life ; engraves them 
 upon the palms of His hands, and writes His name upon 
 their foreheads. We are taught to ask in His name, and 
 for the sake of His name, and the promise is, that we shall 
 receive everything we ask in His name. The Lord com- 
 manded the disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, 
 the Son, and the Holy Spirit. By these examples of the 
 use and meaning of name in the Sacred Scriptures, we are 
 led to the conclusion that by name we are to understand 
 
96 SALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 
 
 all the attributes and qualities of the Divine Being to 
 vrhom it is applied. 
 
 II. We are now prepared to consider the second part 
 of our subject, Hallowed be Thy Name. What are we to 
 understand by hallowed, and how can we hallow the Lord's 
 name ? To hallow is to set apart from common use and con- 
 secrate to the Divine service. The original word is trans- 
 lated hallow, or holy. Hallow expresses the action and 
 holy the quality of it. The special questions for consider- 
 ation, then, are. What quality or state of any being or 
 thing is holiness ? How shall we conceive of it ? How 
 can we hallow or make holy the Lord's name ? The Lord 
 has taught us to pray, " Hallowed be Thy Name." We can 
 not do this without a definite and distinct meaning of the 
 words we employ. You have used the words this morning. 
 What idea did you attach to them ? What desire did you 
 express ? What request did you make to the Lord ? If 
 you had no desire in your heart, and no distinct thought 
 in your mind, you oflFered no prayer. It was a merely 
 mechanical performance. Let us try to gain a distinct and 
 true idea of the meaning of the words we employ, and use 
 them with that meaning when we pray. 
 
 We may regard the subject from a negative, or a positive 
 point of view. Negatively, holiness is freedom from any 
 stain, any taint or imperfection. It is a state in which 
 there is no evil, or falsity. Positively, it is a state of order, 
 harmony, perfection of form, relation and adaptation to all 
 uses, and adequate power to perform them. Purity of 
 character in a human being is freedom from all admixture 
 of evil and falsity. The mind is an organic form as well 
 as the body. Purity of mind, then, is a mental state in 
 proper form and order ; a mind in which all the parts act 
 
HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. Q^ 
 
 in perfect harmony with each other, and the whole in per- 
 fect harmony with the inflowing life of the Lord. There 
 IS no discrepancy, no discord. It is a perfect instrument, 
 and if the result of the activities of this instrument were 
 tones they would be pure tones. The results are aflfec- 
 tions, thoughts, and actions, and if the mind is pure in 
 form, the affections, thoughts, and actions will he pure. 
 
 We may consider the question in another way. We 
 use the term pure blood with reference to descent. A 
 pure African is a man or woman who has no white blood 
 in the veins. We apply the same terms with the same 
 meaning to animals. Now man was made in the likeness 
 and image of God ; he was made in the same form. He 
 gets the human form from the Lord, and not the Lord the 
 human form from him. The Divine attributes are finited 
 in man. Man as to his spiritual nature was organized by 
 the Divine life, that all the flow of his activities might 
 move in perfect harmony with the Divine activities as one 
 instrument vibrates in harmony with another, so that man's 
 life should be in accord with the Divine life ; so that man's 
 love should be a finite form of the Divine love in all its 
 qualities ; so that man's understanding should be a finite 
 form and perfect recipient of the Divine truth, and all his 
 thoughts and feelings and actions should accord with the 
 Lord's. He had pure blood in his veins. So long as he 
 maintained his integrity his descent was uncontaminated. 
 He was pure ; he was holy in a finite degree, and his 
 purity of form, internal as well as external, and all the 
 attributes of affection, thought, and action, answered to 
 the holiness of the Lord as the finite answers to the infi- 
 nite. We conclude, therefore, that Holiness in the Lord 
 is wholeness, integrity, infinite perfection of every form. 
 7 
 
98 HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 
 
 quality, degree, state, and activity, and this holiness be- 
 comes wholeness, soundness, integrity, purity, holiness in 
 man when life is received in the same relative form aa 
 that in which it comes from its Divine source. 
 
 Having thus endeavored to get a true idea of holiness, 
 let us proceed to consider what is meant by hallowing the 
 Lord's name, or making it holy. By name we understand 
 all the Lord's attributes in a Divine human form. How 
 can we make that name holy in Him ? What can we do 
 to make it holy ? It is holy now. We cannot add to it, 
 or take from it in the slightest degree. What, then, does 
 the petition mean ? What does our Lord teach us to ask 
 when we repeat the words ? 
 
 1. He teaches us to acknowledge the holiness and 
 Divinity of His Humanity. This is the essential princi- 
 ple of true Christianity. We can get no true idea of 
 Jehovah God except as He is embodied and revealed to 
 us in His Human nature made Divine. On the other 
 hand, we cannot get a true conception of Jesus Christ if 
 we regard Him as a merely human being. The Divine 
 must be regarded from the human, and the human from 
 the Divine, both of which make the complete and only 
 Divine Being, as we must judge of man's spiritual nature 
 from its manifestations in and by means of the material 
 body, and of the origin, nature, and use of the activities 
 and functions of the material body, from the soul. The 
 spirit must be viewed in the body, and the body in the 
 light of the soul, before we can get a full and complete 
 idea of a man. We hallow the Lord's name when we set 
 it apart, or regard it as distinct and above a merely human 
 finite nature, when we attribute to it all the infinite per 
 fections of Divinity in a human and conceivable form. 
 
HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 99 
 
 The name of Our Father in the heavens is Jesus Christ, 
 or the Divine Humanity. That this is His new name is 
 evident, as He Himself calls it in the Revelation, and as 
 He expressly declares in John, when He says, " Father, 
 glorify Thy name. Then came a voice from heaven, say- 
 ing, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." At 
 another time He says, " I have manifested Thy name unto 
 the men which Thou gavest me out of the world." " I 
 have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it." 
 Here we have a distinct declaration that the Son of God is 
 the name of Jehovah in the humanity, and that it is in 
 and by means of this human nature that the Divine is re- 
 vealed to men. To declare the name of Jehovah does 
 not mean simply to speak the word, or to tell men that 
 that is the name of the Supreme Being, but to reveal His 
 character and attributes and relations to men. And that 
 is the special purpose for which Jehovah clothed His 
 Divine with a human nature. By " Thy name," then, we 
 are to understand the Divine love, wisdom, power, and all 
 the Divine attributes, as they are manifested in His human- 
 ity. We are to conceive of them and think of them as 
 they are revealed to us in Jesus Christ, in all their ten- 
 derness, and gentleness, and patience, and perfect adapta- 
 tion to all man's spiritual needs. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance to our spiritual progress 
 and life that we should get this idea of the Lord in as 
 clear and forcible a form as possible. If our conception 
 of the Divine character was clearly and wholly such as it 
 is manifested in Jesus Christ, without any exception, with- 
 out thinking that there is any other Divine being, or any 
 other Divine qualities, or any other way of regarding men 
 than such as we see revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we 
 
100 HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 
 
 should come to Him witli more assurance. We should feel 
 that every quality and faculty of the Divine nature was 
 wholly on our side. Not merely His mercy, while His 
 justice stood aloof, making demands which we can never 
 satisfy. But that the whole of the Divine nature is fav- 
 orable to our highest good, and is always ready to save 
 us from sin and to confer upon us every blessing we will 
 receive. If we could feel that when we go to Him we go to 
 an infinite friend whose love can never change, whose 
 wisdom and power have no limit, whose patience we can 
 never exhaust, and who is infinitely more considerate for 
 us than we are for ourselves, — if we could get such a con- 
 ception of our Father in the heavens, how delightful it 
 would be to go to Him, to pray to Him, to commune 
 with Him, to call Him our Father, and to pour forth all 
 our secrets and our sorrows and our joys into His ear, and 
 to surrender ourselves implicitly to His guidance ! If we 
 could get such a conception of His Divine and glorious 
 character without any blur or modification from old and 
 false ideas, what a delight it would be to think of the 
 Lord ! what a joy it would be to worship and serve Him 1 
 When we said " Our Father" the whole soul would be 
 upon our lips, the whole heart would be warmed and glad- 
 dened, and there would be the impulse of every afi'ection 
 to rush into His arms and to hide ourselves in Him, as it 
 is the impulse of a little child in all its sorrows and in all 
 its joys to be folded in the maternal arms and be drawn to 
 the maternal heart. 
 
 This is the form in which the Divine character is re- 
 vealed to us in the Divine Humanity. It is loving, kind, 
 gentle, patient, considerate of human weakness ; it is 
 human ; it is touched with a feeling of our infirmities ; it 
 
HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 101 
 
 sympathizes with us in all our labors and our sorrows, and 
 rejoices in all our joys. Think how the Lord went about 
 doing good when He dwelt with men in a material body ; 
 how humble and gentle He was, and how ready to grant 
 any favor ! He is the same now in His glorified Hu- 
 manity. He is our Father, not above the heavens but in 
 the heavens. He is conceivable, accessible, and nigh to 
 every one who calls upon Him, and His name is the syno- 
 nym and complex of all that is lovely, wise, and good. 
 
 2. He teaches us to hallow His name in our lives. We 
 do this when we sincerely desire that those qualities which 
 constitute His Divine character may become finited in us 
 and make us in our degree perfect as our Father in 
 heaven is perfect. Every sincere desire to become trans- 
 formed into His image and likeness, to become imbued 
 with His spirit ; every efi'ort to obey His commandments, 
 and do His will, is a prayer that His name may be hal- 
 lowed in us. It is a comprehensive petition ; it embraces 
 all the qualities of a heavenly character and the means of 
 forming it. 
 
 The Lord's name is Jehovah, which denotes His Divine 
 Love. We hallow that name when we receive His love in 
 its own quality and character, without any admixture of the 
 love of the world, without any contamination from the love 
 of self We hallow it when our motives and purposes 
 accord with His, — and that is when we seek the happiness 
 and the highest good of others. Hallowing this name of the 
 Lord implies a love for all that is good and true and pure ; 
 a sincere desire that His love, which flows into our hearts, 
 may flow down into all our afi'ections and pass on to others 
 in the forms of friendship, of social, civil, conjugial, 
 parental love, unchanged from its Divine character, so that 
 
102 HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 
 
 vo. us and through us His love will only be finited and 
 directed to accomplish His infinite purposes. 
 
 The Lord's name is God, which denotes the Divine 
 truth. We hallow this name when we desire to hallow 
 the Divine truth, to receive it in its unchanged, unper- 
 verted form, without any admixture of human prudence ; 
 to make it our light, and our guide, and our way. We 
 hallow the Divine truth when we open our understandings 
 to its reception, as we hallow the light when we open our 
 eyes to receive it. We hallow it when we make our action 
 conform to it, whether it accords with our feelings or not. 
 We hallow the Divine truth when we make it our guide in 
 our business, in society, in politics, in the family, in the re- 
 lations between husband and wife, parent and child. We 
 hallow the Lord's name just so far as we become the em- 
 bodiments of all those principles which constitute it, — so 
 far as His love becomes our love, His truth our truth, His 
 purpose our purpose. His way our way. 
 
 3. The Sacred Scriptures are His name. The Lord is 
 Divine love and Divine truth. He is the Word. " The 
 Word became flesh and dwelt among men." The Sacred 
 Scriptures are the Word in another form. Therefore our 
 Lord says, " Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think 
 ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of 
 me.'' They were given to reveal to men the Divine exist- 
 ence and attributes, and to instruct them concerning the 
 laws and possibilities of their own spiritual nature and the 
 means of obtaining eternal life. They were given in a form 
 adapted to the states of every human mind, from the little 
 child to the highest angel. In its inmost sense, every word 
 relates to the Lord, and expresses in human language some 
 attribute of His nature, some motive and mode of His 
 
HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 103 
 
 uction, or some relation to men. However devoid of spir- 
 itual and Divine meaning the words may seem to be in the 
 letter, they are the words which the Lord has spoke a : 
 " they are spirit and they are life." 
 
 We hallow this name of the Lord when we set it apart 
 as distinct from all human compositions ; when we re- 
 gard it as the Word of the Lord and the embodiment of 
 His infinite love and wisdom. We hallow it when we 
 regard it as the Lord speaking to us ; when we honestly 
 endeavor to understand what He says, and faithfully to do 
 what He commands. We hallow it when we go to it with 
 docile minds to learn what the Lord teaches, not to con- 
 firm our own opinions. We hallow it when we look be- 
 neath the surface of the letter and rise above the illusions 
 of appearances into the clear light of spiritual truth, and 
 the eternal verities of spiritual laws. We hallow it in the 
 degree we imbibe its spirit, and make its precepts and com- 
 mandments the rule of our lives. We hallow it when we 
 regard it as the testimony of a revered and loving Father, 
 who regards us with infinite mercy, to whom we are in- 
 debted for all the comforts and blessings we possess, and 
 the power to enjoy them, and whose final purpose in all 
 this is to bless us and make us happy forever. If we hal- 
 lowed this name according to its worth we should make it 
 our daily study ; we should take it for our daily guide in 
 all our labors and enjoyments, and it would be our con- 
 stant efibrt to regulate our motives and our actions by its 
 precepts, with the perfect assurance that when we make 
 the law of the Lord the law of our life we are guided by 
 infinite wisdom. 
 
 4. The material universe is the Lord's name. " The 
 heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament show- 
 
104 HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 
 
 eih His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and 
 night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech 
 nor language where their voice is not heard." How grand 
 and beautiful this name is ! The Divine love and wisdom 
 are embodied and expressed in everything the Lord has 
 created. Human science is merely the knowledge of the 
 forms, relations, and qualities of the material universe. 
 Human language is composed of the names we give to the 
 various objects in nature. The objects themselves are the 
 real name of " our Father in the heavens." Sun and 
 moon and star, mountain and ocean, valley and stream, 
 rook and tree, blossom and fruit, insect and fish, bird and 
 animal, in their infinite varieties of character and form are 
 letters and syllables in this great name, and they express 
 each in its own form and use something of the infinite 
 wisdom of Him who created them ; they give us some 
 hints of the infinite love of our Heavenly Father. 
 
 We hallow this name of the Lord when we see His love 
 and wisdom in the beautiful and useful forms of nature ; 
 when the thought passes from the material object to the 
 Divine Creator, and the affections, awakened by the con- 
 templation of such rich profusion and tender, provident 
 care, rise in devout and grateful emotions to their Author. 
 We hallow this glorious and wonderful name when we use 
 all these material objects for the end they were designed. 
 We hallow the beauty of the earth and the grandeur of 
 the heavens when we see in them the beauty and glory of 
 Him who created them ; we hallow our food and cloth- 
 ing, and the rich abundance of all things provided for our 
 physical needs, when we use them temperately, wisely, 
 gratefully, to supply our natural wants and preserve a 
 strong and healthy body as the basis for a sound and in- 
 
HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 105 
 
 telligent mind. We hallow this name when we use it to 
 gain ideas which may become the basis and receptacles 
 of spiritual truth, and to develop good natural affections 
 which may become the basis of spiritual affections. We 
 hiiUow this name, we set it apart and consecrate it to its 
 highest and holiest purpose, when we use it as a means 
 of expressing our love to the neighbor, and our grati- 
 tude, our reverence, our obedience, and devotion to the 
 Lord. 
 
 5. Every angel, every man and woman, and every child 
 is the name of the Lord, so far as they have become the 
 embodiments of His love and wisdom, and have been created 
 into His image and likeness. The new-born infant has 
 capacities in their germs, larger than the material universe, 
 to become the embodiment of the Divine attributes in 
 finite forms. Man is the crowning work of the Lord, the 
 fullest and clearest expression in finite forms of His own 
 Divine nature. In man He has embodied all the forms 
 and qualities of the material universe, and He has made 
 him capable of endless progression. 
 
 We hallow this name of the Lord when we look for the 
 good and true in every human being. We are too prone 
 to look for the evil and false. We hallow this name when 
 we respect and love others in the degree that the Lord 
 " has put His law in their inward parts and has written it 
 in their hearts." We hallow this name when we do all 
 in our power to teach those truths and cherish those affec- 
 tions which constitute it. We hallow this name in our 
 own persons when we regard ourselves as spiritual beings, 
 when we shun evils as sins against God, when we are dili- 
 gent in learning spiritual truths, when we cherish heavenly 
 afl'ections and day by day, diligently perform the duties 
 
106 HALLOWING THE LORD'S NAME. 
 
 which devolve upon us from love to the neighbor and to 
 the Lord. 
 
 These are hints of what is meant by hallowing the 
 Lord's name. Is it not a comprehensive prayer ? Is it not 
 full of infinite meanings which touch us on all sides, from 
 within and without ? Is it not full of practical wisdom for 
 the guidance of our daily lives ? If you have learned to 
 pray in this manner, when you enter the closet and shut 
 the door, even though it may be in a feeble degree, " the 
 Father, who seeth in secret, will reward you openly." 
 Then learn how to offer it. Think it ; lisp it ; stammer 
 it ; work for it ; practise it. Put away every evil desire 
 which hinders your asking and reception of its blessing. 
 Ask the Lord to teach you how to say " Hallowed be Thy 
 Name'' with the understanding and the heart, and you wUl 
 find it answered in a clearer knowledge of the Divine 
 wisdom and in a fuller reception of the Divine love. His 
 name will be hallowed in you, and you will become the 
 blessed instrument of hallowing it in others. 
 
VII. 
 
 THE LORD'S KINGDOM, WHAT IT IS; HOW TO I'lUf 
 FOR IT. 
 
 " Thy Kingdom Gome'' — Matthew vi. 9. 
 
 The subject to which I invite your attention this morn- 
 ing is one of surpassing grandeur and supreme impor- 
 tance. All earthly kingdoms for whose possession the great 
 men of the earth have studied and labored, and struggled 
 and died, are insignificant in extent and trivial in value 
 compared with the kingdom of our Father in the heavens. 
 Earthly kingdoms rise and fall and pass away : but the 
 Lord's kingdom, when once established, will continue to 
 increase in riches and power and glory forever. There are 
 but few who can gain the possession of an earthly king- 
 dom, and the number who can retain it and enjoy it, is stil! 
 smaller. But every one can gain a heavenly kingdom who 
 will accept it, and every one who becomes established in it 
 will become endowed with its power, enriched with its treas- 
 ures, and blessed with its joys more fully forever. No one 
 will ever dispute his royal title, no one will seek or desire to 
 drive him from his throne. But all the good and true on 
 earth and in heaven will unite with the Lord Himself to 
 
 107 
 
108 THE LORD'S KINGDOM, WHAT IT IS; 
 
 secure him in his possession, to extend his dominion, and to 
 make his reign enduring, peaceful, and glorious. Such a 
 kingdom is oflfered to every one of us by the Lord ; such a 
 kingdom we are to ask for ourselves and our children ; such 
 a kingdom the Lord is in the constant effort to bestow upon 
 us. Let us try to learn its nature and laws, and what we 
 must do to secure its possession. 
 
 The petition, " Thy kingdom come," follows in a natural 
 order the one which precedes it. That kingdom can never 
 come to us until we hallow the Lord's name, because it is 
 composed of the principles which constitute the Lord's 
 name, and established by a knowledge and application of 
 them to life. We hallow our Father's name when we wor- 
 ship Him in His Divine Humanity ; and we worship Him 
 when we regard the love and wisdom, the order and use of 
 all the Divine forces and principles embodied and revealed 
 to men in the Divine Humanity as sacred and holy, and the 
 only way of gaining eternal life. In the degree we come 
 into this state the Lord's kingdom can come to us. Our 
 hearts are open to welcome it ; our understandings gain ca- 
 pacity to receive its light, and power to comprehend its 
 laws and order. The Father's kingdom is composed of the 
 same principles as His name. It is His name organized in 
 form and brought down to man's comprehension and use. 
 The kingdoms of nature are His name written in rock and 
 plant, in the glory of the heavens and the beauty of the 
 earth, in the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, 
 and in the kingdoms of men. His glorious name is written 
 in clearer lines and more lovely forms in the church on the 
 earth, and the angels in the heavens : but it exists in its 
 infinite perfections only in the Divine Humanity. The 
 questions, however, which specially concern us, at the pres- 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 109 
 
 ent time, are, What the Lord's kingdom is, and How we can 
 effectively pray for its coming. 
 
 The general conception of a kingdom is that of a number 
 of human beings associated in one government, under one 
 ruler who is called a King. This is a civil kingdom. The 
 kingdom of the Lord is generally and truly regarded as His 
 Church. The members of the Church are His subjects, and 
 taken together, constitute His kingdom upon the earth. To 
 pray for the coming of His kingdom, therefore, is to pray 
 for the extension of His Church. This, in a general sense, 
 is the true idea. But it involves more than we may from 
 a casual observation suppose. The Lord's kingdom does not 
 consist merely of a collection of men and women under one 
 government, but of men and women of a certain character. 
 
 A civil kingdom is determined by a natural boundary. 
 All who live within that boundary belong to that kingdom. 
 But in the Lord's kingdom it is not so. All who are ex- 
 ternal members of the Church do not belong to the Lord's 
 kingdom. It is a kingdom of principles, and citizenship in 
 it is determined by the spiritual principles embodied in the 
 character. Here is an entirely new test of citizenship. The 
 lines which enclose the kingdom and distinguish it from 
 any other are not material or natural, but spiritual. A man 
 may be naturally within the lines and spiritually without 
 them; he may be naturally beyond them and yet spiritually 
 within them. 
 
 The true idea of the Lord's kingdom is best illustrated by 
 what are called the kingdoms of nature. All natural sub- 
 stances and objects are divided into the three kingdoms, 
 called mineral, animal, and vegetable. These kingdoms 
 exist together and depend upon each other. You cannot 
 draw a line around any given space and say all within this 
 
110 THE LORD'S KINGDOM, WHAT IT IS; 
 
 line is animal, vegetable, or mineral. The lines which 
 divide them are of a very different character. They enter 
 into the forms and qualities of the structure jf the indi- 
 vidual objects, and the degrees of life which they embody. 
 So it is with men. They belong to the Lord's kingdom 
 who contain its principles and are the spiritual subjects of 
 the Divine government. Before we can intelligently ask for 
 the coming of that kingdom we must have some knowledge 
 of its principles, and it is to this subject your attention i.s 
 first invited. 
 
 The kingdom of our Father in the heavens consists essen- 
 tially of the Divine love and wisdom as they exist in His 
 Divine Humanity. The Lord rules by the love and wisdom 
 derived from Him. He created human souls in His own 
 likeness and image that they might receive the love and 
 wisdom which flow from Him as light and heat flow from 
 the sun, and thus become His subjects ; not the subjects of 
 an arbitrary government, but the subjects of the Divine in- 
 fluences ; the subjects whom He created to bless, whom He 
 delights to bless; the subjects of His paternal care and all 
 His providential arrangements. Unlike most human rulers, 
 our Father governs men for their good. His purpose is to 
 bring them into a state in which He can do the most for 
 them, and not to get the most service from them. He is a 
 Father with a heart full of infinite tenderness, and not an 
 exacting tyrant. He seeks to make all the subjects of His 
 government children and not servants, freemen and not 
 slaves ; heirs of His power and glory and the riches of His 
 love and wisdom, and not pensioners with a bare pittance. 
 He seeks to establish a kingdom which shall embody His 
 own love and wisdom, be continually enlarging, and whose 
 subjects shall be more and more closely allied to Him and 
 
HOW TO PRAT FOR IT. HI 
 
 to each other. His kingdom as it exists in its causes and 
 principles in His Divine Humanity consists of all the sub- 
 stances, forms, forces, and qualities that are possible to cre- 
 ative power and to human attainment ; it combines all that 
 it is possible for infinite love and wisdom to give, and all 
 that it is possible for created beings to receive. 
 
 It is a kingdom of love. It has its origin in the Divine 
 love, which is infinite, and embraces every form which it is 
 possible for love to assume, and every degree which it can 
 attain. It descends to the lowest, it rises to the highest. 
 It may be so weak that it cannot bear a feather's weight, a 
 mere tendency ; and it may be so deathless and strong that 
 no force can destroy or resist it. We see the shadow of it 
 even in the material world, in those forces which we call 
 attraction, the bonds by which the material universe is held 
 together. We see it in a little less shadow, in the vege- 
 table kingdom, in those forces which organize each vege- 
 table form, and carry on the processes of creation until it 
 has produced itself in seed. We see it in a little clearer 
 form in the instinct of animals, by which they know their 
 kind, are drawn together in pairs, in flocks and herds, seek 
 the companionship of men, and protect and provide for 
 their offspring. 
 
 But we are specially concerned with this kingdom as it 
 is formed and exhibited in man as a spiritual being, for it 
 is the heavenly kingdom for whose coming our Lord taught 
 us to pray. Here we find two distinct degrees of it, the 
 love of love, and the love of truth, or the love of the Lord 
 and the love of the neighbor, celestial love and spiritual love. 
 The love of love is the highest, the inmost, the purest, the 
 most perfect state of existence. It is life, free, full, spoc- 
 taneous, blissful life. In that state we act from love and 
 
112 THE LORD'S KINGDOM, WHAT IT IS; 
 
 love only. We are lifted up and borne onward to the 
 attainment of the highest good in the current of the affec- 
 tions. There is no resistance, there is no failure, there are 
 no obstacles, there are no discords, there is no death. All 
 is life, pure, vivid, peaceful, blissful life. 
 
 The second and lower degree of this love is the love of 
 truth, the love of learning it, and of living according to it. 
 This, also, is a pure and heavenly affection. It is the 
 love of knowing what the Divine laws are, for the purpose 
 of regulating the life by them. Those who belong to this 
 kingdom delight to study the Word and the works of the 
 Lord to learn His methods and order of working ; and 
 when they have learned a truth they delight to carry it out 
 into all the practical details and relations of life. 
 
 These two degrees of the kingdom of love, as they come 
 down into the natural plane of life, assume an indefinite 
 variety of forms, and become the motive forces of all 
 action. They are related to all human activities as heat to 
 the material world, as steam to the engine. Where the 
 love is feeble the action is feeble. Love awakens interest ; 
 it gives keenness and power to all the intellectual faculties. 
 We all know how easy it is to do what we love to do. 
 Love lightens labor, and when no obstacles lie in its way 
 life is a holiday and a delight. Look over the wide field 
 of human activities, and you find every man, woman, and 
 child, so far as they are not constrained by necessity, car- 
 ried along in the current of their affections, and seeking 
 their gratification. 
 
 This is true, whatever be the quality of the love, whether 
 good or evil. But the Love which is the life of the Lord's 
 kingdom is holy and good in all its degrees and forms. 
 This is the excellence of it. The more we have of it the 
 
EOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 113 
 
 better we are ; the more we give ourselves up to its im- 
 pulses, and allow ourselves to be carried along in its cur- 
 rents, the higher will be our attainments and the greater 
 our happiness. The Lord has so constituted us that the 
 motive force of life, when it is pure, should carry us in the 
 right direction to attain the highest possibilities of life. 
 
 This is the point I wish to make. The underlying, vivi- 
 fying, and controlling forces of the Lord's kingdom all tend 
 to righteousness, to human good in its highest form. They 
 all tend to draw us nearer to Him, and to enlarge our ca- 
 pacities for the reception of life from Him, and to increase 
 our happiness. They all tend to draw us to each other, to 
 form us into orderly, harmonious societies ; to make us help- 
 ful and a blessing to each other, to make each one a blessing 
 to all, and all a blessing to each. Where there are no hin- 
 drances, as in heaven, this end is attained. The whole king- 
 dom of heaven pours its concentrated life into each member 
 of it, and every one of its blessed inhabitants gives out its 
 life to all. Where there are hindrances to a holy and happy 
 life, as in this world, this Divine force tends to remove them. 
 It is its tendency, its nature, both in general and particular, 
 to give to man the largest measures and the highest degrees 
 of life it is possible for created beings to receive. 
 
 The Lord's kingdom in a specific sense is His Divine 
 truth. Here it is important to get as correct and clear an 
 idea as possible of what truth really is. " It appears to 
 man," says Swedenborg, " as if the Divine truth were not 
 such as to be capable to cause anything to exist, for it is 
 believed that it is as a voice, which being uttered with the 
 lips, is instantly dissipated ; but the case is altogether other- 
 wise. The Divine truth proceeding from the Lord is the 
 veriest reality, and such a reality that all things have existed 
 8 
 
114 TEE LORD'S KINGDOM, WHAT IT IS; 
 
 from it, and subsist by means of it, for whatever proceeds from 
 the Lord is the veriest reality in the universe. Such is the 
 Divine truth, which is called the Word, by which all things 
 were made." We are to conceive of truth not as an abstrac- 
 tion, but as a substance which the Divine love uses to embody 
 itself, and to attain its ends. It is the Divine and spiritual 
 substance out of which the spiritual world and all human 
 souls are formed. Truth is related to love as unorganized 
 matter to those spiritual forces which clothe themselves with 
 it, and mould it into their own forms. It comprises all the 
 laws, order, and arrangement by which the Lord seeks to 
 create a universe of intelligent human beings. 
 
 These substances are perfectly adapted in every respect 
 to the nature of the Divine love, and contain within them- 
 selves every quality which is essential to make them the 
 perfect instruments of love. Love is life ; truth is a sub- 
 stance which yields itself to the plastic forces of life, to 
 be moulded into its form, and to take its perfect impress. 
 Love is spiritual force ; truth is perfectly adapted to the 
 reception and transmission of that force to accomplish the 
 ends of love. It is the nature of love to communicate 
 itself, and to conjoin itself to others ; it is the nature of 
 truth to receive love, and to be conjoined with it ; to 
 become one with it. It is the nature of love to bless, to 
 make others alive with its own happiness ; it is the na- 
 ture of truth to receive life and to be blessed by it, to be 
 the instrument of communicating that blessing to others. 
 Truth is a perfect conductor of love. It is the flesh and 
 bones of love, cast into its own image ; married to it, one 
 with it. 
 
 Heavenly love, as we have seen, in all its qualities, in its 
 very nature, seeks to give itself to others, to be one with 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 115 
 
 them, to bless them. Truth is a perfect means in the 
 hands of love for accomplishing its purposes. And the 
 two together, in their action and reaction upon each other, 
 are the substances and means which the Lord has created 
 to fonn His spiritual kingdom in the heavens. Truth com- 
 prises all the laws, forms, substances, activities, relations, 
 and modes of operation necessary to carry into full and com- 
 plete effect the purposes of love ; to display all its qualities ; 
 to communicate all its good. 
 
 The result of the combination and interchange of activi- 
 ties between these two component factors of the Lord's 
 kingdom is the kingdom itself in the form of human 
 beings, who are the embodiments and forms of this love, 
 and the constant recipients and communicators of this life. 
 The Lord's kingdom in the heavens, in its concrete form, 
 is composed of human beings, of angels who were once 
 men, women, and children upon the earth, who are the em- 
 bodiments of His love and wisdom. As we have seen, 
 there are two elements which enter into the formation of 
 these human beings, which are perfect in themselves and 
 perfectly related to each other. The Lord, therefore, has 
 made the most ample provision for the establishment of 
 this kingdom. It is His sole occupation to establish it, to 
 provide for it, to extend it, to bless it. Everything which 
 He has created, from the least to the greatest, from the 
 lowest to the highest, was created to promote the interests 
 of this kingdom, and has a direct reference to it. Here, 
 then, the Lord directs us to pray for the accomplishment 
 of the purposes for which He lives, and in which He em- 
 ploys His infinite love and wisdom and omnipotent power. 
 
 Having endeavored to gain a true idea of what the Lord's 
 kingdom is, and of the principles which compose it, the 
 
116 THE LORD'S KINGDOM, WHAT IT IS; 
 
 question naturally arises, How can we effectively pray for 
 its coming ? If our prayer is not a hypocritical or a vain 
 prayer, merely an empty sound, the question is equivalent 
 to asking, What can we do to aid in its coming ? This is 
 the only question of practical value, and the one to which 
 I desire to call your special attention. It is a kingdom of 
 love. What can we do to bring that love down to earth, 
 and make it the motive power of human action ? It is a 
 kingdom of Divine truth. What can we do to bring its 
 light down into the darkness of human error, and make it 
 the guide of human action ? It is a kingdom composed of 
 men and women who are becoming the embodiment of the 
 love and wisdom which constitute the Divine character. 
 How can we become the living form of these principles, 
 and the loyal subjects of the King, our Heavenly Father? 
 It is evident that there are many obstacles to the estab- 
 lishment of this kingdom in our own minds, and among men 
 on the earth. 
 
 There is a kingdom to subdue and extirpate before the 
 kingdoms of this world can become the kingdoms of our 
 Lord. This kingdom has become established in us, and it 
 must be overthrown. There must be many conflicts and 
 many victories. The theatre of the warfare is not only 
 without but within ourselves. We must be in the daily 
 and constant effort to restrain our selfish and worldly affec- 
 tions. We must lay down our natural, selfish, worldly lives, 
 and take up the cross and follow the Lord. The promised 
 land in which this kingdom is to be established is in the 
 possession of enemies. Thsy must be driven out, and this 
 can only be done " little by little." 
 
 This order of procedure is universal. If we desire to 
 build a new house on the site of an old one, the old one 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 117 
 
 must oume down. When a farmer desires to raise corn in 
 a field covered with a forest, his first work consists in clear- 
 ing away whatever cumbers the ground. He must pray 
 for the coming of the new kingdom with his axe and fire 
 and plough. If we desire to have the Lord's kingdom come 
 in our own souls, or in the world, we must clear away the 
 rubbish which preoccupies the ground. If we moved into a 
 house whose windows were covered thick with dust and cob- 
 webs, and we desired to have the kingdom of light come to us, 
 we should not fall upon our knees, and with much solemnity 
 and earnestness cry, Lord, let thy kingdom of light come 
 into these dark rooms, and into the rooms of every one in the 
 world. We should not continue this prayer from day to day, 
 while we made no effort to remove the obstacles which pre- 
 vented the entrance of the light. If our servant should try to 
 get the light by counting her beads and repeating her Pater- 
 nosters, we should soon teach her a more effective way of 
 praying. We should teach her to pray with brush and 
 water. Why should we not use the same good sense in 
 spiritual things ? 
 
 We daily repeat the words, " Thy kingdom come." 
 But how can it come to a nature in which there is no 
 room for it ? How can it come when the kingdoms of self 
 and the world have full possession ? How can purity live 
 with impurity and preserve its sweetness ? How can truth 
 dwell with error, discord with harmony, light with dark- 
 ness, health with disease, love with hate, life with death ? 
 The first step in becoming the Lord's kingdom, or in 
 establishing it among men, consists in clearing away the 
 obstacles to its coming ; it is a destructive, laborious, pain- 
 ful work. This is one reason why we shrink from it, try 
 to content ourselves with repeating words, and seek to 
 
118 THE LORD'S KINGDOM, WHAT IT IS; 
 
 take the second step before we have taken the first. We 
 hope to become good before we cease to be evil. But we 
 can never succeed in this way. The kingdom of sin and 
 falsity are first established in us, and that kingdom must 
 be extirpated. Our holy land is filled with enemies who 
 must be put to the sword, whose cities must be levelled 
 with the dust before the Lord can establish His kingdom 
 there. This removal of the obstacles is our work in es- 
 tablishing the Lord's kingdom, and a most important part 
 of it. It is a work that can only be done by us. The 
 Lord does not ask us to create heavenly affections, to 
 originate the principles which constitute His kingdom : 
 He only asks us to receive them. They are of such a 
 nature that they cannot be forced upon us. We must ask 
 for them ; we must open our hearts and understandings 
 to receive them. But we cannot receive them passively as 
 an empty vessel receives water. We must take hold of 
 them; we must welcome them. The Lord does not ask 
 the farmer to make his crops grow. His first and essential 
 work consists in preparing the ground. We cannot create 
 light : we can only remove the obstructions to its inflow- 
 ing. We must shut our door and open the one at which 
 the Lord knocks. If men would pray as sincerely, and 
 wisely, and energetically for spiritual blessings as they do 
 for natural ones, how quickly and largely their prayers 
 would be answered 1 How rapidly the Lord's kingdom 
 would come to us ! Its love would fill the soul with the 
 pure, quickening breath of heaven ; its light would stream 
 upon us with noonday brightness ; every affection would 
 become vivified by its life, and every thought moulded into 
 its order and loveliness. 
 
 This order in the establishment of the Lord's kingdom 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOIt IT. 11<J 
 
 applies to our efforts to extend it among men, as well as to 
 its upbuilding in our own souls. We must first " cast the 
 beam out of our own eyes before we attempt to cast out the 
 mote out of our brother's eyes.'' One of the most effec- 
 tive ways to influence others is to become a centre of in- 
 fluence. Words are not the only means of influence. 
 Character is more potent than words. When the hearts 
 of men and women are filled with heavenly love, and their 
 understandings are radiant with heavenly light, a power 
 which " makes for righteousness" constantly emanates from 
 them. They are magnets which attract homogeneous 
 natures and repel the evil and false. They are a harmo- 
 nizing and unifying power. An influence flows from them 
 which tends to quicken into life the germs of good in 
 others. Their light shines in their deeds. Every word 
 such a man or woman says is weighted with an influence 
 greater than the words they utter or the ideas contained in 
 them. In the degree that the Lord's kingdom comes to 
 ns we shall be the means of its coming to others. We 
 may see some of the laws which constitute it, and we may 
 talk about them and commend them, but what we say will 
 have but little weight with others unless we give to them 
 the testimony of our lives. Those who pray with their 
 lives offer the most effective prayer, even though they do 
 not utter a word. They carry the Lord's kingdom with 
 them ; they are examples of it ; they are building it up 
 while engaged in their business, in their leisure, their rec- 
 reations, at home or abroad. Let us, then, begin the build- 
 ing of the kingdom in our own minds. Let us seek it first 
 in all our activities ; then our lives will be a constant 
 prayer for its coming. 
 
 The next distinct step in this prayer consists in learning 
 
120 THE LORD'S KINGDOM, WHAT IT IS; 
 
 the laws of this kingdom, all of which are Divine truths. 
 We are not to understand by this that we are to wait until 
 the old kingdom of evil and falsity is destroyed before we 
 begin to learn these laws. The work of destruction and 
 building up must go on together. We must learn truths 
 to discover errors ; to see what to shun and how to shun 
 it. We need truths as weapons to combat our evils. 
 Truth is a sword, a shield, a wall of defence. We cannot 
 meet the assaults of our spiritual enemies and overcome 
 them without it. But no truth becomes ours until it is 
 applied to life ; and we cannot apply it to life until we 
 begin to shun evils and false principles as sins against God. 
 
 The Lord has given us in the Sacred Scriptures a full 
 code of the laws of citizenship in His kingdom, illustrated 
 by innumerable examples. They are so plainly stated that 
 a child can understand their essential principles. They are 
 all summed up in the Golden Rule, to do to others as we 
 would have them do to us. They are more distinctly and 
 particularly stated in the Ten Commandments, and they 
 are unfolded in an endless variety of forms, in statutes and 
 precepts, and specially illustrated and enforced by the ex- 
 ample of our Lord Himself. We must learn these laws for 
 the purpose of knowing what to do to become members of 
 this kingdom and to aid others in doing the same thing. 
 
 These laws are not theories, or speculations, or doctrines 
 to be received by faith, with the idea that there is any 
 virtue in a merely intellectual knowledge of them. One 
 of the greatest hindrances to the coming of the Lord's 
 kingdom, even among those who study its laws, is that they 
 do not learn them for the purpose of knowing what to do 
 so much as what to think. But the law of life is the same 
 in spiritual as in natural things. If we desired to become 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 121 
 
 citizens of an earthly kingdom, we should seek to know 
 what steps to take with the purpose of taking them. Our 
 knowledge would be of no use to us unless we acted according 
 to it. A kingdom cannot be established by abstract laws. 
 The law only points out the way to secure the end. We 
 must use the same practical good sense in spiritual that we 
 do in natural things. The Lord has taught us to pray that 
 His kingdom may come. "We know that it is the purpose 
 of His love to establish His kingdom on the earth. If we 
 desire to become citizens of that kingdom we must learn 
 its laws. 
 
 The next and final step consists in doing what they re- 
 quire. If they only required a formal assent to them, the 
 work could be quickly and easily accomplished. But we 
 must not only assent to the laws, we must become their 
 embodiment. The law must be put in our inward parts, 
 and written in our hearts. The kingdom of God is within 
 us, and only as it is established within us can we become 
 members of it. Love to the Lord and the neighbor must 
 become the ruling motives of our lives. Our understandings 
 must become the recipients of Divine truth, and our lives 
 must be employed in some kind of useful service. By ex- 
 ercising heavenly affections and doing heavenly work the 
 Lord's kingdom will gradually become established within 
 us, we shall become members of it, and our whole nature 
 will be transformed into the image and likeness of the Lord. 
 
 There is no higher honor and no greater good possible 
 to created beings than to become members of the Lord's 
 kingdom. The King of kings and Lord of lords does 
 not regard the members of His kingdom as subjects, but 
 as children. The King is our Father, and He desires 
 to have us partake of His nature, bear the beauty and 
 
122 THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 loveliness of our parentage, and become heirs of His riches, 
 power, glory, and blessedness. Such is the nature of 
 spiritual power and riches that they are not diminished by 
 division. Our Father can give to all His children as much 
 and even more than He could if there was only one. As 
 the numbers of His kingdom increase, the portion which 
 every one will receive will be enlarged and multiplied. We 
 have every conceivable motive to offer this petition in word 
 and deed. In His Divine Providence the Lord has sup- 
 plied us with the most abundant means and opportunities 
 to co-operate with Him, and with all the good and true on 
 earth and in heaven in establishing His kingdom. Let us 
 be diligent and faithful in removing all the obstacles in our- 
 selves and in others to its coming ; let us be earnest and 
 docile in learning its laws, and scrupulous in regulating our 
 thoughts and in living according to them. Then His king- 
 dom will come to us, we shall become citizens of it, and 
 partakers of its power and glory, its peace and rest. 
 
VIII. 
 
 DOING THE LORD'S WILL IN THE EARTH AS IN 
 HEAVEN. 
 
 " Thy vnU he done in earth as it is in heaven." — Matt, 
 vi. 10. 
 
 This clause of the Divine Prayer, short and simple as 
 it is, reveals the Lord's purposes in the creation of the 
 material universe, and in all the operations of His Divine 
 Providence. The Lord created the material universe to 
 be the basis of His spiritual universe. The heavens rest 
 upon the earth as the mind upon the body. Earth is the 
 seminary of heaven. The creation of human beings who 
 are to people the heavens, takes place upon the earth. 
 All distinct and permanent creation is in ultimates. This 
 is so, not only in general, but in particular. We all ac- 
 knowledge that the beginning of our existence takes place 
 in this world, in the earth. It is equally true that every 
 spiritual faculty which we shall possess, every affection we 
 ehall ever exercise and enjoy, and every idea we shall 
 gain through the coming eternity, has its beginning in the 
 earth. We gain the materials here, the germs are cre- 
 
 123 
 
124 DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 
 
 ated here. They will blossom and bear fruit and be ia- 
 definitely multiplied and perfected to eternity. But only 
 those principles will be perfected which are implanted 
 here. It follows as a necessary consequence that the 
 broader we lay the foundation, and the greater the variety 
 of truths we learn and of the affections we exercise, and 
 the more excellent their quality, the greater room there 
 will be for increase and perfection in the spiritual world. 
 
 There are three distinct and complete degrees of the hu- 
 man mind, natural, spiritual, and celestial, just as in every 
 seed there are the germs of leaves, blossoms, and fruit ; 
 only in man these degrees of life are more complete and 
 distinct. The two higher degrees, the spiritual and the 
 celestial, may be opened, and they may not. If they are 
 ever opened the beginning of the process must be made 
 while we are on the earth. If only the natural degree is 
 opened we shall live in that plane of our faculties forever. 
 If the beginning of a genuine spiritual life is made here, 
 we shall rise to that plane and live in it, acquiring its truths 
 and enjoying its blessings. If the celestial degree of the 
 mind is opened we shall live in the highest heaven and 
 enjoy the sweetest peace and the deepest blessedness it is 
 possible for finite beings to attain. In the degree that we 
 lay the foundations for doing the will of the Lord on the 
 earth shall we continue to do it in the heavens. This is 
 the law of relation between this life and the life to come. 
 
 The organization of the material body before our birth 
 bears the same relations to its capacities to see, hear, re- 
 ceive sensations, and perform the functions of a human 
 being in this world that the spiritual body, while clothed 
 in the garments of flesh, bears to its capacities to know, 
 love, and enjoy when it is raised up into the spiritual 
 
DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 125 
 
 world. As spiritual beings we are in an embryonic state 
 while we dwell in the earth of the material body. If a 
 child is born into this world without eyes there is no way 
 in which it can be endowed with the power of seeing. 
 According to the same law, when we are born into the spir- 
 itual world by resurrection from the material body, we can 
 only see, hear, and gain a consciousness of those spiritual 
 objects, and love, know, and enjoy other beings and things 
 in the form and according to the degree and capacity of 
 the spiritual organs which were formed in the earth. 
 There is, therefore, a principle of momentous importance 
 involved in this clause of the Lord's Prayer. When we 
 offer it, we pray for our eternal future ; we pray that the 
 beginnings of an immortal life may be made here, and that 
 these beginnings may be the germs of capacities for the 
 varied, rich, and complete happiness of heaven. There 
 are a few obvious inquiries which we need to make to 
 bring the subject clearly before us. 
 
 We must first get a clear idea of what is the will of 
 the Lord in heaven. It is His will. His purpose, that 
 men may have eternal life. He created man for the ex- 
 press purpose of blessing him. The Lord's will is His 
 love, and it is the nature of heavenly love to give all its 
 own to be another's. It is the essential nature of the 
 Divine character to bless, to give itself in as large meas- 
 ures and perfect quality as possible. This is the purpose 
 for which everything in the universe was created. Every- 
 thing, from the least to the greatest, is exactly adapted to 
 this end. The Lord could not create a finite form better 
 adapted to receive His love and wisdom, and be blessed by 
 them, than the human. Man can receive the Divine love 
 and wisdom in their highest finite forms, and there is nc 
 
126 DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 
 
 assignable limit to his capacity to receive and enjoy. It 
 is the Lord's will that every human being should receive 
 the largest possible measures of happiness. There is no- 
 thing too great, or too beautiful, or too good for the Lord 
 to give. 
 
 It is His will, also, to make it cost us as little as possi- 
 ble. He desires to give us the most for the least. In 
 this respect His will is directly the reverse of selfish men. 
 They desire to get the most for the least. The Lord de- 
 sires to give the most for the least. He desires to have us 
 get the highest good in the easiest way. He is so desirous 
 of this, that He helps us all He can : He came into the 
 world to point out the way, to be the way. " This is the 
 will of the Father, that every one who seeth the Son, and 
 believeth in Him, may have eternal life.'' The Lord does 
 not exact the least thing of us which is not essential to the 
 attainment of the end. 
 
 I do not know of anything in which men who claim to 
 be Christians have more misunderstood the Lord's char- 
 acter and purpose than in His infinite desire and efibrt to 
 give the largest and richest good to His children. It 
 is the common opinion that the Lord is " a hard master, 
 reaping where he has not sowed." But this is an entire 
 mistake. If He asks us to deny ourselves, it is because 
 His will cannot be done in us until we make room for the 
 operations of His spirit. If He commands us to pluck 
 out the right eye if it offends us, it is because it blinds us 
 to something far more beautiful than can be seen by our 
 natural sight. So it is in every case. He never asks us 
 for any self-denial except for the purpose of doing us a 
 good which He could not give us without it. He never 
 takes anything from us, or permits anything to be taken 
 
DOIN& THE LORD'S WILL. 127 
 
 from us, except, for the purpose of giving us a greater 
 gooa in Its place. What a comiort it would be if we could 
 keep this truth clearly before us, in our daily labors and 
 trials : " The Lord is seeking to give me the highest good 
 I can receive, and if He takes anything away it is to make 
 room for it." 
 
 It is the Lord's will that we should live according to the 
 commandments, shunning what they forbid, and doing what 
 they enjoin, because they are laws of life, because they are 
 the paths which lead to life, and any deviation from them 
 is the way to death. The Lord did not give the command- 
 ments to men because He desired to lay any restrictions 
 upon them. He did it to point out the way to the attain- 
 ment of the highest good. When we obey them we fol- 
 low the directions of infinite wisdom. The Lord teaches 
 us to pray that His will may be done in the earth as it is 
 in heaven. The next question which it is important to 
 know is. How is His will done in heaven ? We can only 
 mention some of the general principles which regulate the 
 life there. 
 
 In heaven they keep the commandments, the first of 
 which is, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
 heart." The heavenly inhabitants do this. Their hearts 
 are open to the Lord, and their faces are turned towards 
 Him. This love is not a mere sentiment, an impulse of 
 the afifections ; it is a principle, a rule of life. The test 
 of it is not an outburst of passionate emotion, breaking 
 forth into song. " He that hath My commandments, and 
 keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me." The Lord has 
 not one rule of life for heaven, and another for the earth. 
 Life, according to the commandments, is heaven, and when 
 men keep them as well as the angels it will be heaven 
 
128 DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 
 
 npon the earth. All the angels love the Lord in the de- 
 gree that their affections were opened in this world. Some 
 love Him in a celestial way, some in a spiritual degree, 
 and some in a natural. The power to love differs in 
 every one. They love Him with all their hearts ; but 
 some hearts are much larger than others. Their love 
 manifests itself in keeping His commandments. Those in 
 the first heaven keep them from the love of obedience ; 
 those in the second heaven from the love of the truth. 
 They see that they are laws of life ; they see their beauty, 
 harmony, order, and they love to carry them out in all 
 their relations to each other. Those who dwell in the 
 highest heaven do them unconsciously and spontaneously. 
 These laws are engraved upon their hearts, the celestial 
 inhabitants are the forms of these laws, and all their ac- 
 tivities flow according to their harmonies. They keep 
 them just as the tree keeps them when it blossoms and 
 bears fruit. Their affections and thoughts flow in the cur- 
 rents of the Divine order, and their whole being is filled 
 with light, love, and blessedness. 
 
 The second great law of heaven, and the way the Lord's 
 will is done there is, the inhabitants love one another. 
 Some love others as themselves ; others more than them- 
 selves. This love also is something more than a senti- 
 ment ; it is done. It is carried out into all the relations 
 of life. They do all they can to help each other, to make 
 each other happy. We cannot conceive of an angel being 
 envious, or jealous, or unkind, of bearing false witness, or 
 of finding fault with his fellows. We cannot conceive of 
 an angel coveting another's place or possessions, or of 
 neglecting the uses of his own to criticise the work of 
 another. Every one loves to be in his own place, and to 
 
DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 129 
 
 do his own work in the best manner he can, and in every- 
 thing he does he has primary regard to the good of 
 others. 
 
 As a result of this love for the Lord and the neighbor, 
 there is perfect harmony in all the domestic, social, civil, 
 and spiritual relations of the heavenly inhabitants. Each 
 one is living for all. The whole heaven is giving its ser- 
 vice to each one of its inhabitants. How lovely and 
 beautiful those relations must be ! The feelings are kind, 
 the speech is pure and gentle, the sympathies are warm 
 and sensitive, the hands are gentle and strong to help. 
 The only ambition to be great is to serve. Every one is 
 in his place, desires to be in his place, does that which he 
 can do best, and loves to do it. 
 
 Heaven is a society of human beings associated together 
 according to mutual tastes and character. Those who love 
 each other the best, who are of homogeneous natures, and 
 consequently can be of the greatest service to each other, 
 live in the most intimate relations. Supreme love to the 
 Lord and unselfish love of the neighbor are the govern- 
 ing principles of action, and these principles are carried 
 into all the details of life. That is the way the Lord's 
 will is done in the heavens. 
 
 It is also done in another way. It is the Lord's will 
 that every human being should have everything which 
 will promote his happiness in the fullest and highest 
 degree. The inhabitants of heaven possess everything 
 necessary to their happiness. Their clothing, habitation, 
 climate, situation equal the highest ideals of every one in 
 every particular. The blessed inhabitants cannot ask for 
 anything which the Lord will not give them. The prom- 
 ise which our Lord made to His disciples is perfectly 
 9 
 
130 DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 
 
 fulfilled. "If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will 
 do it.'' There is nothing to disturb, annoy, offend ; every- 
 thing to comfort, satisfy, and bless. 
 
 The Lord teaches us to pray that His will may be done 
 in the earth as it is in heaven. The earth, as it is used 
 in the Word, has large and various meanings. And the 
 Lord desires to have His will done in it in every sense. 
 By earth, in its lowest sense, we are to understand the 
 material world. The Lord seeks to have His will done in 
 it as it is in the heavens. He seeks to have it perfectly 
 adapted to man's condition while he lives in the material 
 body. He created it to be our home in the infancy of 
 our being, and He has supplied it with all the materials 
 necessary for our food and clothing and habitation. How 
 beautiful and grand He has made it ! How richly He has 
 supplied it with everything which is conducive to our com- 
 fort and pleasure I Look at His provisions for one want, — 
 food for the growth and sustenance of the material body 1 
 What an infinite variety 1 How delicious it is ! How 
 nicely adapted to all tastes, and to the upbuilding of the 
 whole physical structure ! In what beautiful forms He 
 presents it to us ! How attractive He makes every step 
 of the process of its preparation 1 Take one fruit as an 
 example, — the apple. The tree itself is beautiful, and 
 stretches out its motherly arms near the earth as if hand- 
 ing its blessings down to us. The leaves are beautiful, 
 and what a glory of blossoms crowns the tree ! How deli- 
 cate and lovely their crimson tints 1 How, pure as an 
 angel's smile, they open their lips, whose speech is fra- 
 grance, filling the whole air with its sweetness. The old 
 orchards I roamed in when a boy I They smile on me yet. 
 I feel their benedictions now. I did not think then that 
 
DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 131 
 
 they were doing it in obedience to the Divine will ; but 
 I see it now, and I shall see it more and more clearly 
 forever. 
 
 When this rich dower of beauty and fragrance has 
 served its use in introducing and cherishing the tender 
 germs of the fruit it passes away, and the old arms gradu- 
 ally bend towards the earth with the increasing weight of 
 their precious burden. How lovely in form and color the 
 fruit ! How delicious to the keen appetite its taste ! How 
 much comfort and pleasure and sustenance it supplies 1 
 I did not see the Lord's goodness in this bounty then ; 
 but I see it now, and the lovely pictures of His working 
 for me when I knew it not fill my heart with gratitude 
 to-day ! This is one example of the many ways in which 
 the Lord is expressing His love, is doing His will in the 
 earth as it is in the heavens. I know that no earthly trees 
 or earthly fruits can compare with those which blossom and 
 bear fruit in the paradise above. But they are adapted to 
 our states in this world. They supply our present wants, 
 and they are the best the Lord can do for us with such 
 rough materials. 
 
 But He can do better for us the more earnestly and 
 intelligibly we pray to Him to do it. Here we may see 
 the true use and nature of prayer. It is a well-known 
 fact that all fruits have been much improved in size and 
 flavor by culture. The varieties and abundance have 
 also been much increased. So great has this improve- 
 ment been, that we should regard our most delicious 
 fruits as hardly fit to eat in their wild, primitive state. 
 How have they been changed ? By prayer 1 By the 
 only effectual prayer. Men have prayed with the plough 
 and the hoe, and the pruning-hook. They studied the 
 
132 DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 
 
 Divine commandments written in the soil and in the cli- 
 mate, and in the sun and winds, and in the plant itself. 
 They studied diligently to discover what the plant loved, 
 what materials it could use to the best advantage, and aa 
 fast as they discovered these laws they kept them. They 
 prayed for a better and more abundant fruit, and they 
 prayed in the right way ; and their prayers were answered. 
 The Lord is doing His will on the earth as it is done in 
 heaven in a larger and different way from what is generally 
 supposed. The material universe, and every useful and 
 beautiful material object is cast into the mould of heavenly 
 forms. There are three kingdoms in nature because there 
 are three kingdoms in the spiritual world to which the 
 material kingdoms correspond. They are the effects of 
 spiritual causes. There are minerals, plants, birds, and 
 animals on the earth because there are minerals and plants, 
 birds and animals in heaven. The Lord is carrying the 
 great purposes of His love into effect according to the 
 same laws, and by the same means in the earth as He 
 does in heaven. He creates the same objects that they 
 may perform the same use to men in the material body 
 that they do on a higher plane to human beings in a 
 spiritual body. The earth and all material objects are 
 shadows of the spiritual earth which we shall inhabit 
 when we have served our apprenticeship here, and the 
 material objects in their various forms of mineral, plant, 
 and animal are only the rough casts and rude outlines of 
 corresponding spiritual objects in heaven. When we pass 
 from earth to heaven, we shall not pass from the known 
 to the entirely unknown. We shall find the same objects 
 in general that we have left behind us. The difference 
 vrill not consist in unlikeness and opposites, but in greater 
 
DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 133 
 
 variety, in surpassing beauty and grandeur, in supreme 
 excellence in quality, and in a more complete adaptation 
 to every human condition. 
 
 The Lord is doing His will on the earth as He is doing 
 it in heaven. When we study science, and learn the laws, 
 forces, qualities, and relations of one object to another, we 
 are learning how the Lord accomplishes His will, what 
 means He employs, and in what form His will becomes 
 embodied. We find also that He employs human agency. 
 He does the best He can by working from within accord- 
 ing to general laws to give man food, clothing, and habi- 
 tation. But to carry out His purposes of good to man in 
 the most complete manner He needs our co-operation. By 
 working through us He can obtain better results than He 
 can by working through nature alone. He takes His chil- 
 dren into partnership, gives them abundant materials, and 
 teaches them how to use them, to improve them. He 
 teaches us how to be creators, and gives us opportunities 
 to work for others, and do good to them, as He works for 
 and blesses us. By these means the affections are en- 
 larged, and all our intellectual and spiritual faculties are 
 developed. The Lord desires to have all His children 
 well fed, well clothed, to have them dwell in comfortable 
 and beautiful habitations on the earth as well as in heaven. 
 For this end He works, for this end He desires to have us 
 work with Him. 
 
 The Lord desires to have His children live in domestic 
 comfort, love, and peace. Those who are trying to bring 
 their own families into this condition are offering this 
 prayer. When husband and wife tenderly and truly re- 
 spect and love one another, and seek each others' happi- 
 ness ; when children love their Barents, and are obedient 
 
134 DOIN& THE LORD'S WILL. 
 
 to them, and try to make them happy ; when they love and 
 respect each other, and try to serve each other ; when all 
 the members of a family combine to live for each other, 
 according to the measure of their success, they are doing 
 the Lord's will on the earth as it is done in the heavens. 
 They are praying for it without ceasing, and their prayer 
 is answered. The same principle applies to all the social, 
 civil, and industrial relations of men. Every man and 
 every woman who is trying to improve the condition of 
 humanity in this world is offering this prayer, and is do- 
 ing it in the only way in which the Lord can answer it. 
 Oh, that the prayers of men were more fervent, and more 
 intelligent, and more constant 1 It is a blessed sign, full 
 of promise, that men's prayers are coming down from the 
 abstract and ideal into the practical and real. 
 
 But we pass on to notice another meaning of earth, 
 which has a most important bearing upon our personal 
 happiness and excellence. By the earth is meant the 
 natural mind which is the subject of all our natural 
 thoughts, desires, passions, and attainments. In this pe- 
 tition the Lord teaches us to ask that His will may be 
 done in the natural degree of our life as it is in the spir- 
 itual. The spiritual degree of the mind is first regener- 
 ated. We learn spiritual truth which teaches us how we 
 ought to live. We have aspirations after a heavenly life. 
 We resolve to live it and we make efforts to do it. It is 
 not difficult to acknowledge the beauty and excellence of 
 a heavenly life, and when the passions are at rest and we 
 are not exposed to temptations, to dream of living it. 
 
 But when we bring these heavenly principles of supreme 
 love to the Lord and equal love to the neighbor down into 
 natural affection, thought, and deed, we find they come 
 
DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 135 
 
 into conflict with all our selfish and worldly desires, and a 
 long and weary conflict must be waged before the heavenly 
 gains full lodgement in the earthly, subdues its obduracy, 
 moulds it into its own likeness, and moves it to harmony 
 with itself. The Lord teaches us to pray that all our nat- 
 ural affections may be clarified into heavenly purity ; that 
 a heavenly love may imbue and control our natural wills ; 
 that heavenly light may illuminate our understandings ; 
 that heavenly kindness and gentleness may characterize 
 all our actions ; that our speech may be gentle, and true, 
 and helpful, and all our actions useful and good. 
 
 When we are trying to bring heaven down into the 
 earth ; when we are learning the truth ; when we are per- 
 forming some use, from love to others, we are offering this 
 petition continually. Husband and wife are praying this 
 prayer when they are living a true married life. The mer- 
 chant, and the mechanic, and the seamstress, and the 
 teacher ; the cook, and the mistress of a household ; the 
 lawyer, and the physician, and the minister, and every one 
 in any useful office is offering this prayer who is working 
 from love to others. He is translating it into deeds ; is 
 working for the accomplishment of the Lord's will both 
 in himself and in others, and just so far as he offers it 
 fervently, patiently, persistently, it will be answered. 
 
 We must not expect the whole work to be done in- 
 stantly. The farmer does not expect an immediate answer 
 when he prays to have a harvest of wheat where there is 
 a forest of giant trees. He must pray long with his axe, 
 with fire, with ploughshare driven through the hard earth, 
 with seed cast into the ground. Then he must wait for 
 the Lord to come with light and warmth, with rain and 
 dew, before he can see His will accomplished. So must 
 
136 DOING TBE LORD'S WILL. 
 
 we diligently pray, and faithfully labor, and patiently wait 
 for the coming of His spiritual kingdom into our own 
 hearts and understandings. It is a great work, and we 
 must pray without ceasing and faint not. If we do, our 
 prayer will be answered. The natural and the spiritual 
 mind will become one. The Lord's will will be done on 
 the earth in us as it is in the heavens within us. But we 
 must not forget that we never offer this prayer, however 
 often we may repeat the words, until we try to do it. 
 
 By earth is also signified the Church in the world. Here 
 we might expect to find the Lord's will done as it is in 
 heaven. Its members profess to be followers of the Lord, 
 to believe in His Word, and to live a heavenly life. But 
 it is often difficult to discover in the societies of the Church 
 any similarity to the societies in heaven except in form. 
 We do not find the great law of love to be the controlling 
 principle of action. We do find bigotry, pride, hypocrisy, 
 hatred, love of self and the world, ignorance of heavenly 
 laws, and indifference to them. In business, in social and 
 civil life, in the privacy of home, and in public affairs, it is 
 difficult to distinguish the members of the Church from 
 those who make no profession of religion. But our Lord 
 teaches us to pray that the earthly society may be animated 
 by the same spirit, guided by the same principles, and en- 
 gaged in the same work as the heavenly societies. They 
 have the same Father ; they are members of the same 
 family ; heirs to the same inheritance. They only dwell 
 in different provinces of the same kingdom. As the earth 
 is the ground in which the heavenly seed is planted and 
 the germs of heavenly blessings take root, we must be dili- 
 gent in planting, faithful in cultivating and protecting them. 
 Every genuine member of the Lord's kingdom is an em- 
 
DOING THE LORD'S WILL. 137 
 
 bodiment of a heavenly force and a medium of transmitting 
 it. We stand between heaven and the society to which we 
 belong. We communicate what we are ; and the character 
 of every society is the sum of the intelligence, energy, love, 
 order, purity, and devotion its members contribute to it. 
 Let us who are members of this society pray this prayer, 
 and constantly, patiently, and faithfully labor to make it a 
 vigorous and thriving branch of the Lord's kingdom. 
 
 There is much thought and said in the Church about 
 going to heaven. Wearied with the labors and contradic- 
 tions of this life, tormented by its cares, disappointed by its 
 illusions and unsatisfying joys, we long for the freedom and 
 rest, the joys and peace of heaven, which we hope to gain 
 only by escaping from the world. But our Lord teaches 
 us to pray that His will may be done in the earth as it is 
 in heaven. He reverses the order of our purposes. We 
 are to aim and to labor to bring heaven down to earth ; to 
 make every society a heavenly society. It is not by es- 
 caping from the labor, but by putting a heavenly purpose 
 into it and giving it a heavenly direction ; it is not by 
 withdrawing from societies and withholding our hands and 
 closing our hearts to its work, that we can gain heaven here 
 or hereafter, but by bringing the principles of heaven into 
 our work and worship ; by uniting with others and extend- 
 ing our influence as widely as possible. It should be our 
 aim and our constant effort, as far as lies in our power, to 
 make this society a living, vigorous member of the Lord's 
 kingdom. We should seek to make ourselves a medium of 
 transmitting the principles, the light, the order, the har- 
 mony, the purity, the vital power, and the peace of heaven 
 to the whole body of the society. 
 
 The essential principle of heaven is love to the Lord. 
 
138 DOING TBE LORD'S WILL. 
 
 Let us try to bring this law of a heavenly life into all our 
 relations with one another as members of a society of the 
 Lord's kingdom. Let us desire and labor that His will, 
 not ours, except so far as it coincides with it, may be done 
 in our society ; that His way may be our way. His purpose 
 our purpose. May we look to Him, keep the door of our 
 hearts open to Him, that He may guide us by His wisdom, 
 vivify us by His love, and make us willing instruments in 
 His hands of doing His will and helping others to do it. 
 
 The members of the Lord's kingdom in heaven love one 
 another with an unselfish and devoted afifection. Let us 
 bring this love into all our relations with one another. Let 
 us feel kindly towards all. Let us give to every one all 
 the aid we can in overcoming evil, learning truth, and living 
 a heavenly life. Then we shall pray this prayer without 
 ceasing. Every aspiration will ascend as incense to the 
 Lord, and will return to us as a purer love, a clearer light, 
 and a larger capacity to do His will ; and through us, ac- 
 cording to the measure of our ability, we shall become a 
 society which is a branch of the heavenly kingdom, and 
 which is doing the Lord's will upon the earth as it is done 
 in heaven. 
 
ix:. 
 DAILY BREAD: WHAT IT IS: HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 
 
 "Give us this day our daily bread." — Matt. vi. 11. 
 
 In every prayer something is involved of far more 
 value to ub as spiritual beings than the special good we 
 seek. All asking implies dependence upon others for the 
 help we desire, and in this acknowledgment of our de- 
 pendence upon others for aid in supporting life and gain- 
 ing its highest blessings lies one of the essential condi- 
 tions of human progress. Human brotherhood, and all 
 the blessings of industrial, social, civil, and domestic life 
 grow out of this interdependence of one human being 
 upon another. If we had no need of one another, if we 
 could do nothing for one another, human society could not 
 exist. There could be no more intercourse between human 
 beings than there is between one stone and another. All 
 the activities, uses, and delights of human society grow out 
 of human wants. The knowledge and acknowledgment 
 of our dependence upon the Lord for life and all its bless- 
 
 139 
 
140 DAILY BREAD: WHAT IT IS.- 
 
 ings is still more important. In the degree we feel it we 
 shall constantly look to Him and seek to come into such 
 relations with Him that He can give and we can receive 
 the blessings we need. Unless we acknowledge Him ; 
 unless we feel some want and know that He has the power 
 and the disposition to supply it, we shall not go to Him. 
 For this reason He is in the constant effort to reveal Him- 
 self to us, to bring us into such relations with Him that 
 we can ask and receive what we need. When we really 
 feel our dependence upon the Lord and understand His 
 willingness to bestow upon us the highest good we tsm 
 receive, we shall go to Him, and our asking will not be a 
 hypocritical or a vain prayer. It will be sincere, ardent, 
 and earnest. 
 
 All the preceding petitions of this Divine prayer lead 
 up to the one we are considering. They are natural 
 and orderly steps to it. When we know the Lord as our 
 Father in the heavens, kind, loving, tender, and watchful 
 over His children, and ready to abundantly supply us with 
 all we need ; when we are disposed to hallow His name 
 by regarding all the attributes of His nature as pure and 
 holy, as love and wisdom themselves ; when from this 
 knowledge of the Lord's nature we desire to have His 
 kingdom established in us, and His will done in us in all 
 our natural affections, thoughts, and activities, then we 
 come into a state in which we see and delight to feel our 
 dependence upon the Lord. We begin to see something 
 of the beauty and perfection of the Divine character, and 
 we desire to obtain the means of growing into the likeness 
 and image of our Heavenly Father. We desire to be 
 sustained, guided, fed by Him. We feel our need of His 
 support, and we can sincerely and humbly ask Him to give 
 
HOW TO PRAT FOR IT. 141 
 
 us our daily bread. Every sincere prayer is the voice of 
 a want : it is the want speaking. If we Bray to our 
 Heavenly Father, it is an acknowledgment of our depend- 
 ence upon Him, and of our belief that He can help us. 
 The faith may be weak, but it is strong enough to lead us 
 to ask. The Lord teaches us to ask Him for our daily 
 bread. Let us consider what is meant by daily bread; 
 why we should ask for it ; how we should ask ; and what 
 wUI be the effects of receiving it. 
 
 I. What are we to understand by bread ? Every child 
 knows its specific and natural meaning. But it is some- 
 thing more than the specific substance we call bread. It 
 is a general term embracing all food of all kinds. It com- 
 prises every substance which appeases hunger and supplies 
 materials to repair the ever-wasting tissues of the body. 
 When we pray for bread, then, we ask the Lord for nat- 
 ural food of all kinds for the supply of our natural wants. 
 But why should we ask the Lord to give us what He is 
 constantly providing in some measure, whether we ask 
 Him or not ? Those who deny His existence have as rich 
 and varied an abundance of food as the most devout. 
 All food products grow according to immutable laws. 
 Prayer does not strengthen or weaken or change the 
 law. The Lord gives no special favors to the good in this 
 respect. " He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on 
 the good, and sendeth His rain on the just and the unjust." 
 The Lord provides for every living thing. "Behold the 
 fowls of the air," He says, " for they sow not, neither do 
 they reap nor gather into barns ; yet your Heavenly Father 
 feedeth them." Why should we ask Him to do what He 
 is doing ? Because by asking we acknowledge that we are 
 dependent upon Him for our bread by whatever agencies 
 
142 DAILV BREAD: WHAT IT IS: 
 
 He sends it to us. Our Heavenly Father feeds tlie fowls 
 of the air and the beasts of the field ; He clothes the 
 lily -with beauty, and makes the hills and valleys smile 
 with harvests. The fact that He gives to all creatures 
 their food according to a universal law, does not detract 
 in the least from His agency in making the provision. 
 Natural law is simply His wise way of giving us our daily 
 bread. Human agency in producing fruits and food does 
 not diminish His providence in their creation. He gives 
 us the privilege of co-operating with Him for our own 
 culture and pleasure ; but all our power to do it is mo- 
 mentarily derived from Him. Our food of every kind is 
 as truly and as fully the Lord's gift as it would be if He 
 placed it upon our table at every meal. 
 
 But our agency in procuring our bread hides from us 
 the Lord's providence and working. We attribute to the 
 universal laws according to which the Lord works the cre- 
 ative power. We mistake the instrument or method for 
 the Being who employs it. In this way we are led to 
 forget and deny the Lord and trust to ourselves alone, and 
 to live only a natural life. But our Heavenly Father de- 
 sires to have us know Him " whom to know aright is life 
 everlasting." He desires to have us see His goodness and 
 mercy. His love and wisdom, in all the provisions He has 
 made for our natural good, for our protection and the sup- 
 ply of all our material wants. He desires to win our love 
 that He may open the interior planes of our minds, and 
 come to us and bestow upon us larger and more precious 
 spiritual blessings. It is not for Himself that He asks us 
 to pray to Him or desires to have us acknowledge Him, 
 but for our own good. In the degree He can get us to 
 look up to Him and open our hearts to Him, He can bless 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 143 
 
 us. If we rogarded our food as a daily gift, from the Lord, 
 we should not eat it as the animal does ; our thoughts 
 would rise to the Lord at every meal, and our hearts would 
 be filled with gratitude for His provident and loving care. 
 Every morsel of food would have a more precious value 
 than its power to supply a natural want ; it would lead us 
 to know and love our Heavenly Father, and to become 
 more fully His children. 
 
 How shall we pray for our daily bread ? Not alone in 
 words. We cannot get it in that way, because the Lord 
 cannot give it to us in that way except in a most meagre 
 and imperfect manner. One of the conditions of a full 
 and varied supply is wanting. He has made our co-oper- 
 ation necessary in gaining our bread. We cannot do 
 much, but the little is one link in the chain of causes by 
 which the end is accomplished. We must, therefore, do 
 our part. We must prepare the ground, cast the seed 
 into it, protect the growing plants from harm, cultivate 
 them, and gather the harvest when it is ripe. The most 
 devout and persistent urgency of words, the most rigid 
 formalities would not procure a morsel of bread for us. 
 The husbandman knows how to worship, and what sacri- 
 fices to ofier that will be efficacious in filling his granaries 
 and loading his table with food. But while he is doing 
 his work and in doing it, he should acknowledge that all 
 his labor would be vain without the Lord's co-operation ; 
 he should be in the constant acknowledgment of his de- 
 pendence upon Him. He should feel his absolute depend- 
 ence upon his Heavenly Father for these precious gifts. 
 He should pray without ceasing and with perfect faith, 
 " Give us this day our daily bread." If we worked in 
 this frame of mind, we should be living near the Lord ; 
 
144 DAILY BREAD: WHAT IT IS: 
 
 we should be in constant communion with Him while en- 
 gaged in our daily employments, and our hearts would over- 
 flow with gratitude and praise. Our prayer, also, would 
 be answered because it would be offered in His name ; that 
 is, according to the laws of His Divine order. If all men 
 prayed in this spirit and worked in this way there would 
 be no want. The Lord would bless their basket and their 
 store. 
 
 II. But man has a higher plane of faculties than the 
 animal, and he needs bread of a corresponding excellence. 
 By bread we are to understand all the substances which 
 support and nourish his spiritual nature. All conscious- 
 ness of life is gained by organization. The spirit is an 
 organic form as well as the body. It is a spiritual body 
 subject to spiritual laws. A mental, or spiritual faculty 
 is a spiritual organ, in the same sense as a material faculty 
 is a material organ. The faculty of seeing is the eye ; of 
 hearing, the ear ; of feeling, the nerves of sensation. The 
 faculty of knowing, of thinking, of loving, are spiritual 
 organs. They have their origin, their laws of develop- 
 ment, the substances of which they are formed. They 
 must have their daily bread. " Man doth not live by 
 bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
 mouth of the Lord doth man live." 
 
 The spirit is the real man in every respect. It is in 
 the human form. The material body is cast into its 
 mould. It is organized within and without, in every least 
 and greatest part, as the material body. It has bones, 
 arteries, veins, nerves, flesh and blood, heart and lungs, 
 eyes and ears, and every organ necessary to perform all 
 the functions of a human being. But the substances of 
 which they are formed are spiritual, and as distinct from 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 145 
 
 matter as the mind is distinct from the body, and as su- 
 perior to it as love and knowledge are superior to heat and 
 light. This spiritual organism requires food to supply 
 its wastes and to develop its powers. The organic forms 
 of the material body are constantly wasting away, and 
 must be constantly supplied with food to repair the waste. 
 The same process in principle is going on in the spiritual 
 body. The forces which operate upon it from within and 
 without dissipate its substance, and would destroy if the 
 waste was not supplied and the organization constantly 
 renewed. 
 
 This analogy between the material and the spiritual 
 bodies gives force, a distinct, literal, and comprehensible 
 meaning to many passages in the Sacred Scriptures which 
 have been regarded as figurative and to have only a vague 
 and inferential application to practical life. When our 
 Lord says, " I have meat to eat that ye know not of," 
 " My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to 
 finish His work," He reveals a great law of universal ap- 
 plication : He states a Divine fact. His human nature, or 
 the human plane of His being with which He clothed 
 His Divine nature and with which He identifies Himself, 
 did receive its existence, its growth, its support, and all its 
 power from the essential Divine within Him which He 
 constantly refers to as the Father. Life, which is sub- 
 stance itself, was constantly supplied from the uncreated 
 fountain within. When He says, " The Father that dwell- 
 eth within me, He doeth the works," He states a literal 
 truth, applicable to His human nature before it was glori- 
 fied or made Divine. He assumed it to make it a medium 
 of communicating His Divine life to men in forms which 
 they could receive and appropriate. Therefore He calls 
 10 
 
146 DAILY BREAD: WHAT IT IS: 
 
 Himself "the bread of life," and declares that we must 
 eat His flesh and drink His blood. " I am the living 
 bread," He says, " which came down from heaven ; if any 
 man eat of this bread he shall live forever, and the bread 
 that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life 
 of the world." " Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh 
 my blood hath eternal life." He does not mean by these 
 words that He is going to suffer vicariously for man, and 
 by that means save him from spiritual death. He means 
 just what He says. He is the bread that came down 
 from heaven. He is the living water which becomes in 
 those who drink it " a well of water springing up unto 
 everlasting life." The life which constantly flows from 
 Him is a substance which bears the same relation to the 
 spiritual body that natural bread bears to the material 
 body, and renders it the same service. In perfect accord- 
 ance with this plain statement of our Lord, Swedenborg 
 says, " The life of angels and spirits is not supported by 
 any food like that of this world, but by every word which 
 comes forth from the mouth of the Lord, as the Lord 
 Himself teaches when He says, ' Man shall not live by 
 bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the 
 mouth of God.' The fact is that the Lord alone is the 
 life of all. From Him come all and everything which 
 angels and spirits think, speak, and do. Thus the univer- 
 sal heaven and the universal world of spirits live by every- 
 thing which proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord, and 
 every one has thence his life ; nay, this is the case not 
 only with the heaven and the world of spirits, but also 
 with the whole race of mankind. If angels, spirits, and 
 men were deprived of this meat they would instantly ex- 
 pire." 
 
sow TO PRAY FOB IT. 147 
 
 By the words which proceed out of the mouth of the 
 Lord we are not to understand mere verbal expressions, 
 but those Divine and substantial forces of love and truth 
 which constantly flow from Him, and which are to all 
 spiritual life as the heat and light of the sun to vegetable 
 life. 
 
 One of the great difficulties in understanding this sub- 
 ject consists in our utterly inadequate and false notions 
 concerning love and truth. Love is regarded as a feeling 
 and truth as a matter of words, when in reality love is the 
 cause of all feeling and of all the activities of life ; and 
 truth is the veriest reality and substantial existence in the 
 universe. Words are only the signs or names of truths. 
 Love and truth are the substances from which all things are 
 derived, and out of which they are created. God is love. 
 Love is His flesh, the bread with which He feeds all intel- 
 ligent beings. His blood is Divine truth, which cleanses 
 from sin the soul that drinks it ; truth sustains, enlarges, 
 invigorates, and builds up the human soul. Truth is the 
 blood of the spiritual body, and carries in its red cur- 
 rents the substances of which it is organized. It is real, 
 genuine, substantial drink. With regard to this subject 
 Swedenborg, speaking of man's nature and quality, says, 
 " His spirit is greatly delighted with knowledge, insomuch 
 that it seems of all things the most desirable ; it is his 
 food whereby he is refreshed, as is the external man by 
 terrestrial food. This food, which is that of the spirit, is 
 communicated to his external man, to the end that the ex- 
 ternal man may be adapted to the internal. But the dif- 
 ferent kinds of food succeed each other according to the 
 following order : celestial food is every good principle of 
 love and charity from the Lord ; spiritual food is every 
 
148 DAILY BREAD: WHAT IT IS : 
 
 trutli of faith. On these kinds of food the angels live. 
 From these exists a food, which is also celestial and spirit- 
 ual, but of an inferior angelic nature, on which live angelic 
 spirits. From this again exists a food, celestial and spirit- 
 ual, still inferior, which is that of reason and of science 
 thence derived. On this live good spirits. Lastly comes 
 corporeal food, which is proper to man while he lives in 
 the body. These kinds of food correspond with each 
 other in a wonderful manner." 
 
 It is not, therefore, a figure of speech which our Lord 
 uses when He calls Himself the " bread of life." He 
 states a universal fact. Every substance which gives and 
 sustains life is a form of His love and wisdom in that 
 plane of the creation in which it exists. The harvests of 
 wheat and corn which clothe our prairies and cover our 
 hills; the delicious fruits which nestle among the leaves, 
 hang in purple clusters from the vine, and load the 
 trees with their precious burdens, embodying odors and 
 savors and substances for the sustenance and delight of 
 man, are all forms, each after its own kind, of the Lord's 
 love and tnith. The loaf of bread upon our table is the 
 Divine love in material form and substance as truly as 
 those forces which kindle into holy ardor the affections of 
 the angels. We know from our own experience that love 
 gives us strength, excites to action, and sustains us in the 
 most protracted labors of body and mind. We know that 
 there is no thought and no action where love is wanting. 
 The Divine love, which is life, sustains ; power is the 
 bread we are to daily ask the Lord to give us. How are 
 we to ask ? 
 
 1. By repeating the words the Lord has given us. 
 There is a great and precious use in regular, stated prayer. 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 149 
 
 Our children should learn this prayer and form the habit 
 of using it. They may not think much of its meaning ; 
 they may not understand its full import. No man and no 
 angel does. But it is the true form of thought and alFec- 
 tion, and it becomes the means of conjunction and com- 
 munication between those who use it and the angels and 
 the Lord. It is a vessel for the reception of spiritual 
 life ; it is an instrument of transmitting heavenly influ- 
 ences to the soul. It becomes " remains" in the secret 
 chambers of the heart which may be vivified in some 
 critical and favorable moment, and be the means of turn- 
 ing the balance of influence in favor of heaven. Even if 
 no positive good is gained, some evil may be prevented. 
 The habit of lifting up our thoughts to the Lord in any 
 time of temptation, of joy or sorrow ; when we are in 
 doubt what course to pursue ; when we feel our need of 
 strength and guidance, will have a most important influ- 
 ence upon our progress in spiritual life. 
 
 2. We must ask by diligently seeking to secure the 
 means of obtaining the bread which we need. We must 
 procure and bring to the Lord the vessels which can re- 
 ceive and retain the bread we ask. The beggars who go 
 from door to door provide a basket in which to receive 
 what is given them. Divine truths are the only vessels 
 which will receive and retain the bread of heaven. We 
 must learn these truths from the Word. Spiritual truths 
 are the only vessels which can receive and retain spiritual 
 life. Natural truths will not. A man might know all the 
 facts and principles and laws of the material world, if such 
 an amount of knowledge were possible, without having a 
 spiritual idea, or anything in his mind capable of receiv- 
 ing and being acted upon by the Holy Spirit which ia 
 
150 DAILY BREAD: WHAT IT IS : 
 
 Divine truth. The memory must be stored and the na- 
 derstanding formed by Divine truths before the Lord can 
 make us spiritual. He operates upon us by means of a 
 force, an influence. There must be something in us to 
 receive the force and be aiFected by it. The Lord cannot 
 communicate a heavenly affection to a stone or to an -ini- 
 mal, because there is nothing in them to receive it. The 
 istone can be acted upon by heat and light ; the animal 
 ean receive affection and sensation in low forms because 
 it has an organization adapted to the forces which produce 
 those effects. But sensation cannot be communicated to 
 the stone, and a rational love to Grod and man cannot be 
 given to the animal for the same reason. The ear does 
 not ask for light, and light cannot be given to it, because 
 it is not a vessel organized to receive it. The law is of 
 universal application. We cannot think upon any subject 
 or love any person of whom we have no knowledge. 
 
 If, therefore, we desire to receive the love of the Lord, 
 which is the bread of life, we must learn truths which re- 
 late to Him. Divine truths are called in the Word spirit- 
 ual riches. They are to man's spiritual progress and at- 
 tainment as gold and silver and precious stones to supplying 
 his natural wants and ministering to his natural delights. 
 He should, therefore, be more eager and diligent in ob- 
 taining them in great abundance and variety than he is in 
 acquiring natural wealth. He should seek for them as for 
 hid treasure. He should pray for them morning, noon, 
 and evening. He should store his memory with them. 
 No two truths are exactly alike, consequently they do not 
 receive precisely the same form of good. The bread will 
 differ in quality ; will be more or less adapted to sustain 
 spiritual life ; will differ in flavor and delicious power to 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 151 
 
 nourish and enlarge our spiritual faculties as the truths 
 which receive it differ in quality. As water takes on the 
 form of the vessel which contains it, so the Divine love 
 takes on the qualities of the truth which receives it. 
 When we are learning Divine truths and storing on 
 minds with them we are praying for our spiritual bread. 
 
 3. But a vessel will remain empty and render us no 
 service unless we take it to the fountain and fill it. No 
 asking is effective, and no prayer is complete until it be- 
 comes embodied in the deed. We may have an abundance 
 of vessels and know where the bread is, but unless we put 
 the bread into the basket ; unless we eat it, it will not sus- 
 tain and nurture our souls. We fill the truth with heav- 
 enly bread when we do what the truth tells us to do. 
 When we begin to obey the commandments the love flows 
 in. The Lord fills them with the bread of heaven ; He 
 gives us His flesh to eat. This is the most difficult part 
 of the prayer ; but it is the part which gives fulness and 
 effect to the others. An illustration from natural bread 
 will show this. We pray for material bread when we feel 
 the need of it, when we learn how to get it and actually 
 procure it. But the hunger, which is the prayer of the 
 body for bread, is not answered until we eat it and it 
 becomes a part of its tissues. So the prayer of our spirit- 
 ual bodies is not fully made and answered until we appro- 
 priate the love of the Lord, and it becomes a component 
 part of our spiritual organism. The Divine love must be 
 in us ; it must be flowing through our spiritual arteries 
 and conveying life to every organ, and become life as it is 
 incorporated into it. This reception and appropriation of 
 the Divine love takes place in the exercise of the affections 
 which this love creates. We pray for this bread in every 
 
152 DAILY BREAD; WHAT IT IS: 
 
 act of keeping the commandments and in every effort to 
 keep them. We pray this prayer when we shun evils as 
 sins against God, and when we do good because it is from 
 God and of God. We offer this petition when we perform 
 any useful service to others from regard to their good. 
 
 Finally, let us consider more fully what is meant by 
 " this day'' and " daily'' in its application to our spiritual 
 sustenance and growth, for it is a most important part of 
 the petition. Day, when translated into spiritual lan- 
 guage, means state. It can have no reference to time or 
 space, as there are no fixed times and spaces in the spirit- 
 ual world, and these qualities of matter have no relation 
 to the spirit. By daily is not meant simply enough bread 
 for to-day, but support and nourishment for every possible 
 state and degree of affection. The real meaning of this 
 clause of the prayer is, Give me to-day what I need to- 
 day. It is not a request that our Heavenly Father will 
 give us to-day what we need for to-morrow and for all 
 coming time, but what we need now. There is much 
 more implied in this petition than appears upon the sur- 
 face. 
 
 4. It implies entire trust in the Lord. It implies the 
 conviction that He will do the best He can for us at 
 all times and in all conditions. There is in the very 
 nature of self-love a disposition to depend upon ourselves 
 and to distrust the Lord. This is the cause of all our 
 regrets for the past, all our corroding cares for the 
 present, all our anxieties about the future. As we 
 look back over the past and see how many of our 
 plans have failed, how many mistakes we have made, how 
 much suffering and sorrow have been caused by our igno- 
 rance, our wilfulness, our perversities, we sometimes feel 
 
HOW TO PRAY FOR IT. 153 
 
 disposed to distrust the goodness and constant care of our 
 Heavenly Father. Why did He not prevent us from 
 taking some step which led to loss of health or property 
 or friends, and to a long train of miseries ? Why did He 
 permit us to do a deed, to form some acquaintance, to 
 make an alliance which has made life a failure and caused 
 years of suffering and sorrow ? There is a feeling that 
 the Lord might have prevented these evils if He were 
 disposed to do so. But He could not. He did the best 
 He could for us at the time. He could not restrain us 
 by principles which had no existence in our minds. He 
 could not guide us by knowledge which we did not pos- 
 sess. He could not lead us by motives and affections 
 which had never been awakened in our hearts. He 
 cannot guide the ignorant by heavenly intelligence. 
 He cannot lead the perverse and malignant will by 
 heavenly affections. He restrained us from evil as fully 
 as we would be restrained. Do we know how much He 
 restrains us ? How much sin, sorrow, and agony we 
 should rush into if His restraining hand was not con- 
 stantly laid upon us ? We know nothing of what is pre- 
 vented. What might have been if we had pursued a 
 different course we can never tell. There are infinite 
 paths leading from every point. Endless consequences 
 result from every act. Every truth or falsity we learn, 
 every good or evil affection we exercise, every deed we 
 do modifies to some extent our eternal future. The Lord 
 does the best He can every moment to restrain us from 
 evil, to lead us in the wisest way, and to give us the bread 
 we need. 
 
 We look upon great events as the controlling agencies of 
 life, and as those which are specially under the direction 
 
154 DAILY BREAD: WHAT IT IS. 
 
 of the Divine Providence. But this is not so. It is the 
 little, daily constant acts and influences which cause the 
 great events and become the controlling forces of life. 
 The greater is made up of the less. The Lord acts in the 
 leasts, and by means of them in the greatests. He feeds 
 and sustains our spiritual life as He does our physical life 
 momentarily, and in every least, infinitesimal point. He 
 provides in the least parts for the whole and in every point 
 of time for eternity. The whole of life is in every part. 
 If we trust the Lord in the present we trust Him always. 
 If we do our duty to-day according to our highest knowl- 
 edge and ability we establish the strongest safeguards 
 against evil and sorrow, and we make the surest provisions 
 for our eternal good. To-morrow is the flower and fruit- 
 age of to-day ; eternity, of time. " He that is faithful in 
 that which is least is faithful also in much." The present 
 is the only time in which we can act. The love and wisdom 
 we possess is the only love and wisdom we can use. Let us 
 then learn this prayer, " Give us this day our daily bread." 
 Let us cease to mourn over the past ; let us cease to fear 
 or hope for the future ; let us live in the present ; let us 
 do the work of the present; let us enjoy the good of the 
 present ; let us trust in the Lord for our bread to-day, 
 and we shall trust Him forever ; we shall not know any 
 want ; we shall be guided by the highest wisdom and we 
 •jhall obtain the greatest good. 
 
THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 
 
 "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 
 
 " For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly 
 Father will also forgive you. 
 
 " £ut if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will 
 your Heavenly Father forgive your trespasses." — Matt, 
 vi. 12, 14, 15. 
 
 In ttese words our Lord brings us face to face with the 
 only obstacles which oppose our complete and eternal 
 happiness. The Lord created all worlds, all living beings, 
 and all material things to minister to human good ; and He 
 gave to man capacities to receive good in some form and 
 measure from everything He has made. He created man 
 in a Divine order ; made all his faculties both physical and 
 spiritual, to harmonize with all substances and forces, so 
 that they can act upon him and flow through him, be- 
 come component parts of his own nature, call all his facul- 
 ties into harmonious play, and by their own action enlarge 
 their capacities and perfect their qualities for the reception 
 of more exquisite happiness. 
 
 Sin has disturbed this order, changed these harmonies 
 into discords, arrayed force against force, and brought man 
 
 165 
 
156 THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 
 
 into conflict with nature and the Lord. It has induced weak- 
 ness, paralysis of his spiritual faculties, disease, pain, misery, 
 and death. Sin has inverted the whole order of his nature, 
 and perverted the essential form and substance of his being. 
 As man stood in the heavenly order of his creation he was 
 endowed with a keen and delicate perception, a kind of 
 spiritual instinct, by which he gained intuitive knowledge 
 of the relations of all things to himself and the service 
 they were created to render him. The hot breath of sin 
 has withered and destroyed that faculty. In his normal 
 condition man's heart was full of love to the Lord and man, 
 and all his faculties were vivified, made fresh and sweet, 
 and filled with a serene and joyful activity ; sin has changed 
 that love into enmity, poisoned the currents of that " river 
 of life,'' and turned it into an instrument of torment and 
 death. Man was made to be a help, a comfort, and a joy 
 to man ; sin has made him an Ishmaelite, a tyrant, and a 
 curse. Every evil which human beings suffer is caused 
 by sin ; every good from the immeasurable fountain of life 
 which man fails to obtain is withheld by sin. Sin opens 
 the gates of hell, sin shuts the gates of heaven, sin is the 
 only bar between man and the Lord. 
 
 Such being the hostile and deadly nature of sin, there is 
 no question of so vital interest to every human being as 
 how to escape its power and destroy this deadly enemy. 
 Our Lord directs us to the only sufficient Helper, and He 
 gives us the only conditions on which that help can be ob- 
 tained, " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." 
 Let us try to understand what this prayer is ; what desires, 
 what knowledge, what action it implies ; what we ask of the 
 Lord, and what it demands of us. 
 
 Sin is called by different names to designate the different 
 
THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 157 
 
 points of view from which it is regarded. It is called a 
 debt because we are all the subjects of immutable law. We 
 are a part of the order of the universe, and only by acting 
 in obedience to the laws of this order can we obtain happi- 
 ness. These laws have their origin in the Divine nature ; 
 they are the order and methods according to which the 
 purposes of the Divine love and wisdom are carried into 
 effect. Man is folded in their arms ; they are the paths of 
 the Lord, in which He comes to man and sends him life 
 and good. Man owes them obedience because he can only 
 gain the true end of his being by living according to them. 
 So far as he fails in obedience he becomes a debtor to the 
 law and the Lawgiver. He does not give what he owes to 
 them. This relation of debtor to the law is generally acknowl- 
 edged, and is familiar to every one. We say a man owes 
 his success to his industry, to his talents, to his skill, or he 
 owes his failure to the want of these qualities or to some 
 mistakes he has made. Health is due to obedience to the 
 laws of man's physical nature. Disease and pain are due 
 to violations of those laws. Thus the idea of debt runs 
 through all human relations. But we must guard against 
 the fatal error of taking commercial indebtedness as the 
 measure and form of all debt. When we violate a law of 
 the Divine order embodied in our natures, or in human 
 society, we do not owe the penalty to the law or the lawgiver 
 in any other sense than we owe the good we receive to the 
 same cause when we obey a law. The penalty is not in- 
 flicted for violating it, nor is the reward conferred for obe- 
 dience. Each follows as a necessary consequence. What 
 every human being really owes to the Lord, and conse- 
 quently to all the laws of His order, is obedience. It is 
 not penalty or reward. We owe allegiance to the Lord 
 
158 THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN 
 
 because that is the only way in which He can bestow upon 
 us the blessings He created us to receive. When our Lord 
 teaches us to ask Him to forgive our debts, then, He does 
 not instruct us to ask for the remission of the penalties of 
 sin, but for the remission of the sin itself. 
 
 Sin is also called a trespass. To trespass a rule or law is 
 to go beyond it, to do what it does not allow. Transgression 
 has the same meaning. But the word which our Lord used 
 means stumbling. It does not seem to be so much a direct 
 and positive determination to live contrary to the Divine 
 laws, as ignorance of their nature and requirements, and a 
 lack of spiritual power to walk erect and with a firm step, 
 without any deviation or stumbling in the paths of the Lord. 
 We are drawn aside by the illusions of the senses, we have 
 never been taught what these laws are, we have become 
 cramped by evil habits, we are weighted with many cares 
 under whose burden we bend and fall. There are many 
 obstacles in the way over which we stumble. How often 
 those who are trying to live a good life stumble and fall, 
 like little children who are learning to walk. How many 
 are groping around in the dark I They stumble over un- 
 seen obstacles, they are led astray by others. We all have 
 to learn to walk twice, first naturally, then spiritually, and 
 the second lesson is by far the most difficult. But the dif- 
 ficulties consist wholly in our sins. They are the only 
 stumbling-blocks. If man had never sinned it would have 
 been as easy for him to live a heavenly life as it is for 
 flowers to blossom and birds to sing. He would have been 
 led on in the paths of the Divine truth, he would have been 
 borne along in the currents of the Divine forces. All his 
 faculties would have unfolded in a natural order by processes 
 of delight. Sin is the only hindrance. 
 
THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 159 
 
 We must distinguish between sin and sinful acts. Sin 
 is a disease of man's moral nature ; it is derangement and 
 perversion of the faculties of his spiritual organism, pro- 
 ducing the same relative eflfects upon them that natural 
 diseases cause in our physical organs. The real, essential 
 prayer, then, must be that Our Father will restore us to 
 spiritual health. The remission of the penalty is not the 
 forgiveness of sin; it has no relation to it. The penalty 
 of sin cannot be remitted while the sin remains, because it 
 is inseparably connected with it. The penalty cannot be 
 borne by another. That is as impossible as it would be for 
 one man to be afflicted with disease and another to bear 
 the pain and suffer the weakness. It is true that the sins 
 of one man will bring suflFering upon many others. It is 
 true that we may undergo many hardships, endure severe 
 labor and suffer pain of body and agony of mind in our 
 efforts to relieve others from the penalties of their sins 
 both physical and spiritual, but our sufforings do not help 
 them. It is what we do for them, and not what we suffer. 
 Society is organic. Individuals are members of the same 
 body, and if one member is diseased, every member suffers ; 
 but the suffering does not cure the disease. 
 
 Our Lord suffered and died for us, but not in our stead. 
 He took upon Himself our diseased and perverted nature. 
 He went from village to village, from city to city, healing 
 diseases, instructing the ignorant, and comforting the sor- 
 rowful. He wrestled in agony with man's spiritual enemies 
 in Gethsemane, was crucified on Calvary, died, and rose 
 again. It was necessary that He should assume our nature, 
 for in no other way could He come into the material world, 
 gain access to human beings, and bring His Divine and sav- 
 ing power to bear upon them. Only through this perverted 
 
160 THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 
 
 organism could He come in conflict with the hosts of 
 man's spiritual enemies and overcome them. The conflict 
 and the agony were in the plane of the imperfect nature He 
 assumed from Mary. That conflict was waged during His 
 whole life upon the earth, and was attended with the most 
 acute and awful agonies, agonies which forced the blood 
 from His veins and wrung from Him the despairing cry, 
 "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" By 
 these conflicts He glorified the nature He assumed, and made 
 it the perfect medium of communicating His Divine power 
 and life to men. The suffering did no more effect the work 
 than the pain of a surgical operation contributes to its 
 success. The suffering was caused by the work; it was 
 itself an effect of it. Suffering has no saving efficacy; but 
 the conflict with sin cannot be waged and the victory won, 
 without exhausting labor and intense pain. The Lord's 
 sufferings and death were not vicarious in the sense of 
 being a substitute for the penalties which man brings upon 
 himself by violating the laws of his nature. 
 
 What, then, is the forgiveness of sin ? The answer to 
 this question will depend upon what we understand by sin 
 and its forgiveness. If we regarded sin simply in a com- 
 mercial way, payment of the debt would be forgiveness, 
 and this could be done by any one as well as by the debtor. 
 If the penalty of sin is arbitrarily affixed by the lawgiver, 
 like that which is attached to an act of the Legislature, it 
 can be remitted by the same authority that enacted it, and 
 on any conditions the legislator may determine. If a man 
 commits murder and the law condemns him to death, the 
 executive in whom is invested the pardoning power may 
 remit the penalty. But the effect upon the man's charac- 
 ter, the moral penalty, cannot be remitted by the mere good 
 
THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 161 
 
 pleasure of man or the Lord. If one man assaults another, 
 and in the conflict loses one of his eyes, he might be im- 
 prisoned, and afterwards pardoned ; but no executive 
 clemency or power could restore his eye. That is a penalty 
 of the conflict which cannot be forgiven. A legal penalty 
 may be forgiven, but those penalties which follow as the 
 efiects of violating an organic law of man's nature cannot 
 be borne or remitted by others. 
 
 If we regard sin as a spiritual disease, as corruption in 
 the will, blindness and disorder in the understanding, de- 
 rangement and perversion of man's moral nature, then the 
 forgiveness of sin consists in curing him of his spiritual 
 diseases. It is the purification of his affections, it is the 
 restoration of the understanding to its original order and 
 normal condition, it is curing his spiritual blindness, giving 
 him ears to hear the words of the Lord, and eyes to per- 
 ceive the delicate and exquisite harmonies of the Divine 
 order ; it is putting all his faculties into right relations to 
 each other and to the source of life. When this is done, 
 and so far as it is done, the penalty also is remitted, for the 
 penalty goes with the disease. When a musical instru- 
 ment is out of tune the penalty is discord. Tune it and 
 the penalty disappears. The Lord came into the world to 
 restore our disorderly faculties to their normal condition, 
 to bring them into harmony with the order of His own 
 nature, to conjoin them to Him, as the branch to the vine, 
 that the life-giving forces of His own nature might flow into 
 them, cleanse them of their impurities, vivify them with 
 His love, and cause them to bear fruit abundantly. When, 
 therefore, we pray to the Lord to forgive us our debts, we 
 must think of our own sinful natures, of our diseased and 
 dying condition, and the burden and purpose of our prayer 
 
 n 
 
162 THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 
 
 must be that the Lord will heal our diseases, save us from 
 the death they threaten, and conjoin us to Himself. 
 
 We must ask the Lord to forgive our sins, because He 
 is the only Being who can do it. He is the Author of our 
 nature, He organized its faculties and adjusted all their 
 relations to one another, to the outward world, and to Him- 
 self. He only has the wisdom and power to restore them 
 to their original soundness and order. He knows the only 
 remedies that are eiiioacious, and the only conditions in 
 which those remedies can be effectively applied. He is 
 the only Physician who can cure us. We must go to Him 
 in the spirit, with the same directness and urgency that we 
 go to a physician when we are suffering from some severe 
 bodily disease. When a man is filled with pain which has 
 come upon him as the penalty for violating some law of his 
 physical nature, he does not go to his physician as a mere 
 formality, and ask him for help in the lifeless and mean- 
 ingless way we too often utter the words of our text ; he is 
 in earnest. He knows what he wants. When the physi- 
 cian has heard his prayer, and tells him what to do and 
 how to do it, he listens attentively, asks him to repeat 
 the directions if he has any doubt about them, and then 
 obeys them. We should go to the Lord in the same spirit, 
 and be faithful in doing what He tells us to do. Let us 
 take heed to the only conditions on which the Great Phy- 
 sician declares we can be forgiven. He does not ask us to 
 pray for unconditional forgiveness. " Forgive us our debts, 
 as we forgive our debtors." He does not teach us to say, 
 " Forgive us our debts," because the Saviour has cancelled 
 them. He does not teach us to say, "Forgive us our 
 debts," because the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered and 
 died for us. There is no intimation of any vicarious work 
 
THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 163 
 
 having been performed, no appeal foi mercy on the 
 ground of the merits of another person. The only condi- 
 tions are that we forgive others : 
 
 " For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly 
 Father will also forgive you ; But if ye forgive not men 
 their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive 
 your trespasses.^' 
 
 From this declaration, which is presented in an affirma- 
 tive and a negative form to make it as clear and strong as 
 possible, we are taught that the Lord will only forgive us 
 as we forgive others. It is of essential importance, there- 
 fore, that we understand what is meant by the forgiveness 
 of others. Our salvation depends upon it. We cannot 
 suppose that nothing more than the common idea of for- 
 giveness is implied in these conditions ; that the Lord will 
 not punish us for our offences against Him if we do not 
 punish others for their offences against us. There must 
 be some law of the Divine wisdom involved in this condi- 
 tion, some reasons founded in the essential relations between 
 the Lord and man. Let us try to discover what they are. 
 It will help us to come to just conclusions if we keep in 
 mind what forgiveness essentially is not. It is not the remis- 
 sion of the penalty. The Lord does not say to men, If 
 you will not punish others, I will not punish you. The 
 forgiveness of sin has no direct reference to its penalty. 
 The penalty is the effect, the mere shadow of the sin. It 
 does not consist in cherishing a feeling of complacency and 
 friendship for those who have injured us; we cannot do 
 that. We are, indeed, commanded "to love our enemies, 
 to bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, 
 and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute 
 us." But we may love our enemies without feeling a 
 
164 THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 
 
 personal affection for them. We really love others when 
 we desire to restrain them from evil and help them to over- 
 come it. The form our love takes will depend upon the 
 condition of others. We may seek their punishment from 
 the kindest regard to them. To forgive others consists 
 "in regarding them from a principle of good," that is, 
 from a sincere desire to do them good, and, so far as lies in 
 our power, in doing them good as we have opportunity. 
 
 We must forgive their trespasses. By trespasses, as we 
 have seen, are meant stumblings in the way of life, falling 
 into error, wandering from the true path, failure in duty. 
 To forgive others when they stumble consists in removing 
 the cause of stumbling, whether that cause is in ourselves, 
 as is often the case, or in them. This is the essential part 
 of the work, and it should begin with ourselves. We sin- 
 cerely and effectively offer this petition when we so regulate 
 our actions by the commandments that they will not be the 
 cause of offence or stumbling to those with whom we as- 
 sociate. By our conduct we exercise a much greater 
 power over others to help or hinder them in the way to 
 heaven than we do by our words. A good life is the best 
 sermon ; it is a constant influence which tends to restrain, 
 to guide, to cheer ; it is generally regarded as the best 
 evidence and test of the truth of the doctrines professed. 
 On the other hand, men and women who do not live up 
 to their profession, or are not in the constant efforts to do 
 so, are a stumbling-block to every one within the circle of 
 their influence. They cause the value of truth to be de- 
 preciated, they awaken doubts with regard to the value of 
 a religious life, they cause the simple to err, the irresolute 
 to falter, the weak to fall. Every one who lives a pure, 
 truthful, upright, and useful life is forgiving the trespasses 
 
THE FORCflVENESS OF SIN. 165 
 
 of others, is offering this petition in a sincere and effective 
 manner, and is complying with the only conditions on 
 which his own trespasses can be forgiven. 
 
 But we must not only set good examples, we must do all 
 in our power to communicate the truth to others. Genuine 
 truth is the path which leads to heaven. It is a luminous 
 path shining with its own light. Ignorance is darkness, 
 error is a false way, and those who follow it wander in 
 darkness. Trespasses are specifically sins against the truth, 
 they are false principles. The only effective way to forgive 
 men their trespasses is to lead them into the truth. Parents 
 offer this prayer for their children when they instruct them 
 in the doctrines of the church. Every faithful Sunday- 
 school teacher is laboring to forgive the trespasses of the 
 children he teaches. Whenever we converse with others 
 for the purpose of correcting an error by giving the truth, 
 every book we lend, every tract we distribute for the pur- 
 pose of making known the truth, we are trying to forgive 
 the trespasses of others. 
 
 But everything we do or say will be far more efficient in 
 forgiving others when we act from love to them. Love 
 gives warmth, power, life to what we say and do. It gives 
 wings to our words, it endows our example with a winning 
 and attractive power, it disposes the mind to listen to our 
 words, to read attentively what we offer, it gains the listen- 
 ing ear, and tends to soften and open the affections to 
 receive what we have to give. The ways in which we can 
 forgive others are innumerable, and some of these ways are 
 within the reach of every one. As we use the means we 
 have, we are complying with the conditions on which the 
 Lord will forgive our trespasses. 
 
 Such being the clear and emphatic teachings of the Lord 
 
166 THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 
 
 in His Word, every thoughtful and rational mind must de- 
 sire to know why the Lord makes these conditions ? Does 
 He base His action upon ours? Does He make our love 
 for others the measure of His love for us, our action towards 
 others the guide of His action towards us ? He is love ; 
 we are only the contracted and perverted forms of receiving 
 it. Our love to His is not so much as the drop to the ocean. 
 His wisdom is infinite ; our light compared with His is not 
 so much as the faintest ray to the unclouded sun. He 
 possesses infinite power ; we are weak and frail, the most 
 helpless of created beings. Why, then, should He condition 
 His action on ours, and measure what He will do for us by 
 what we do for others ? A satisfactory answer to this ques- 
 tion can only be found in a true knowledge of what we are 
 and of our relations to the Lord and to men. 
 
 We are only recipients of life. All our faculties are or- 
 ganic vessels for the reception and transmission of life in 
 the forms of power, wisdom, and love. No vessel can re- 
 ceive more than it can contain. No organ can receive a 
 difierent quality of life than that which it was formed to 
 receive. The eye cannot hear, the tongue cannot see, the 
 heart cannot admit the atmosphere. The Lord cannot give 
 us any more than we can receive. As He cannot give us 
 any more light than the eye can admit, so He cannot give 
 us any more truth than the understanding can receive. 
 The limit of every material organ to bear the influx of 
 heat is soon reached. If we pass beyond it, the organization 
 is destroyed. So, if the Lord should pour His Divine love, 
 which is substance and power in their very essence, with 
 full intensity into our affections, we should be consumed in 
 a moment. He cannot give us any more love than we can 
 receive. He cannot give it to us in any higher and purer 
 
THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 167 
 
 forms than we can receive it. He is, therefore, limited both 
 in the quality and quantity of His gifts or of what He 
 can do for us, by'our capacities of reception. Omnipotence 
 cannot give us what we cannot take. 
 
 We are not merely passive recipients of life ; if we were, 
 the Lord would fill every vessel full to the extent of its 
 capacity. We are voluntary recipients; we can close our 
 hearts against the currents of the Divine love ; we can shut 
 our understandings against the truth, as we can close our 
 eyes against the light. The Lord has endowed us with 
 this power. He has made us free agents. Moral freedom 
 is essential to our humanity. The Lord always respects it. 
 He teaches us the truth, and He tries to lead us to a 
 heavenly life by all the influences He can bring to bear 
 upon us; but He always leaves us in freedom to act of 
 ourselves, for only what we do in freedom is our own act. 
 If we will not live according to the commandments which 
 are laws of life, He cannot compel us. Here again we can 
 see that there is a limit to what the Lord can do for us. 
 He can only give us what we are willing to receive. Let 
 us consider another point and then we may be able to see 
 why the Lord will not, or cannot, which is the same, for- 
 give us our trespasses unless we forgive others. It is 
 evident that, if man receives all his life from the Lord as a 
 constant gift, his faculties must be adjusted to the influent 
 forces of life with the most exquisite precision. Any devi- 
 ation from their true order would interrupt or derange the 
 currents of these forces and disturb their normal efiects. 
 It would destroy their qualities ; it wciuld change good to 
 evil, truth to falsity, light to darkness, harmony to discord; 
 it would invert the order of man's life, bring him into 
 hostile relations to the Lord. This must be so in the 
 
168 THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 
 
 nature of things. Man's spiritual faculties are adjusted to 
 spiritual forces, in the same way that his material faculties 
 are adjusted to material forces. Any derangement or 
 deviation from the order of its forms fills the eye with 
 pain, and if the trespass continues entirely incapacitates it 
 to receive the light. The same law applies to every organ 
 in the body. How can the eye be forgiven its trespasses? 
 Evidently by restoring it to its normal condition and true 
 relations to the light. There is no other way. The same 
 wise and inexorable law of the Divine order applies to the 
 mind, which is a spiritual organism. If its forms are 
 deranged by misuse, its trespass can only be forgiven by 
 restoring them to their true order and tone. The two 
 fundamental laws of spiritual life are love to the Lord and 
 man. This is the true order of his life. Our faculties were 
 made by infinite wisdom to act in that way. And our 
 Lord declares this in the most explicit manner : 
 
 ^^ Jesus said, The first of all the commamdments is, Hear, 
 Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord : And thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
 soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. 
 
 '^And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang 
 all the Law and the Prophets." 
 
 When a man loves himself supremely he sins, he 
 stumbles and falls away from true order; he trespasses 
 against the Lord and his neighbor ; he inverts the whole 
 order of his nature, makes that the supreme end of life 
 which was intended, in the constitution of his faculties, to 
 be secondary and instrumental. His affections become 
 corrupted, his understanding darkened. Disorder, confii- 
 sion, and anarchy are introduced into the mind. The 
 
THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 169 
 
 ideas are distorted, and all the oriterions of right are 
 destroyed. We become subject to illusions, we wander 
 from the true path, we stumble and fall. This disorderly 
 and evil condition can only be changed by a change in the 
 organization of the mind. These trespasses against 
 perfections of the Divine order embodied in man's nature 
 can only be forgiven by replacing the diseased faculties 
 with new, sound, and orderly ones. We must be bom from 
 above, we must be regenerated and made anew. 
 
 But this can only be done by our co-operation. We are 
 not in the Lord's hands like a block of marble in the 
 sculptor's. Our freedom must be respected; we must be 
 led by sufficient motives "to cease to do evil," and we 
 must learn to do well. This is the process and condition 
 in all changes in our characters. We must learn the truth, 
 and then we must cease to think and do what it forbids, 
 and we must understand and do what it commands. In 
 this way the old, perverted, corrupt forms of the mind are 
 removed, and new faculties, fashioned according to the laws 
 of the Divine order, take their place. As this work of 
 transformation goes on our iniquities are blotted out, our 
 debts, trespasses, transgressions are forgiven, our sins are 
 remitted. This work of healing and restoration is effected 
 by the Lord, by the forces of life which constantly flow 
 from Him, as light and heat from the sun. But it can 
 only be effected while man co-operates with Him. He 
 cannot forgive our sins while we continue sinning; He can- 
 not fill our hearts with love to Him and the neighbor 
 while we continue to love ourselves and the world su- 
 premely. It is evident that He can only forgive — that is 
 give up and put away — our sins as we turn to Him and try 
 to put ourselTes in right relations to Him. 
 
170 THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. 
 
 Now we may be able to see why the Lord can only for- 
 give us as we forgive others. When we begin to regard 
 others from love and a sincere desire to help them to over- 
 come their evils, to teach them the truth, to lead them 
 back into the path of life, to remove so far as lies in our 
 power all causes of stumbling, to lift them up when they 
 fall, to strengthen them in their weakness, to encourage 
 them when they despair; when we feel kindly towards 
 others, whatever may be their character and condition, 
 and stand ready to help them according to their needs and 
 our ability; in a word, when it is the purpose and effort of 
 our lives to forgive the trespasses of others, we are coming 
 into true relations to them and the Lord. The currents 
 of the Divine love, which, like the blood in the body, con- 
 tain all cleansing, healing, invigorating, and perfecting 
 substances and forces, begin to flow through us, and forgive 
 our trespasses. They organize a new will, create a new 
 understanding, and restore to us the lost likeness and 
 image of our Heavenly Father. This is the way in which 
 the Lord forgives us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 
 We offer this prayer when, and only when, we forgive the 
 debts of others, and the Lord forgives us our trespasses as 
 much and as little as we forgive others. Our forgiveness 
 of others is the measure of His forgiveness of us. 
 
TEMPTATION. 
 
 "And lead us not into temptation.^' — Matt. vi. 13. 
 
 The instruction whioli our Lord gives us in these words 
 is of supreme importance ; it touches our vital and eternal 
 interests. In some form and in some degree every one is 
 tempted, and no one can be regenerated without passing 
 through its fires, enduring its torments, resisting its allure- 
 ments, and subduing the enemies who cause it. It is a 
 subject about which little has been known or can be known 
 without some true knowledge of the sources of our life, the 
 spiritual forces which are continually operating upon us, and 
 the spiritual beings who are intimately associated with us 
 on the spiritual side of our nature, and who, consequently, 
 touch the secret springs of thought and affection, and exer- 
 cise a controlling influence in the formation of a wicked or 
 a heavenly character. 
 
 The New Church has truths to teach upon this subject 
 which throw much light upon it. They place us in a cen- 
 tral point of view above the illusion of appearances, where 
 
 171 
 
172 TEMPTATION. 
 
 we can see effects in their causes ; where we can learn the 
 origin and understand the nature of temptations, and see 
 the foes who assault us. They put weapons into our hands 
 which the tempters cannot resist, teach us how to wield 
 them, and where to find wisdom to foil their most cunning 
 strategy, and strength to resist their most powerful attacks. 
 I ask your devout and earnest attention to what our doc- 
 trines teach upon this subject. We cannot offer this peti- 
 tion with our hearts and understandings without a clear and 
 true knowledge of what temptation is. The first point for 
 our consideration must, therefore, be, What is temptation ? 
 The doctrines of the New Church give a clear and spe- 
 cific answer to this question, an answer founded in the na- 
 ture of the human mind, of man's relations to the spiritual 
 beings with whom he is associated, and the teachings of 
 the Lord in the Sacred Scriptures. Temptations are the 
 conflicts of the internal man with the external, or of the 
 spiritual man with the natural. Some knowledge of the 
 organization of the human mind is essential to a clear under- 
 standing of this definition. The human mind is composed 
 of three planes or degrees entirely distinct from each other, 
 as distinct as the bones, flesh, and nerves in the material 
 body. They were made to act together as one, as all the de- 
 grees of organic forms in the material body act together 
 as one. But still they are so distinct that they can act 
 separately ; they can even act in opposition to one another. 
 Each degree is so full and variously organized that it is a 
 man in itself, and is capable of performing all the functions 
 of a man. It has a will and understanding, affections, de- 
 sires, thoughts, and acts appropriate to that degree of life. 
 These degrees or planes are called the natural, the spiritual, 
 and the celestial man respectively. The natural man is not 
 
TEMPTATION. 173 
 
 the material body which constitutes no essential part of our 
 nature, but the lowest degree of the human mind. The 
 complete man is, therefore, a threefold or trinal being. 
 
 These three degrees of the mind exist in potency in every 
 human being ; but the natural degree is first in the order of 
 creation. This is necessarily so, because it forms the basis 
 for the higher degrees of the mind, and through its instru- 
 mentality the means are provided for their creation, as the 
 material body is the instrument by which the natural man 
 lives in this world and can use material things for the for- 
 mation of natural ideas and affections. The natural man 
 was intended to be the servant of the spiritual man, and 
 the spiritual man of the celestial, and in a true order of 
 life these three planes of the human mind act in perfect 
 harmony with each other, and all with the Lord. But the 
 natural man has become wholly evil. The organic forms 
 of his nature have become wholly deranged and inverted. 
 This degree of man's nature he derives from his parents, 
 and it is full of hereditary evils. This is the part of man's 
 nature which has fallen. The spiritual and celestial degrees 
 have never become false and evil ; they have never lost 
 their purity and heavenly perfection, because they remain 
 as a mere possibility in every one so long as he continues 
 in sin, like the germ of a seed which never grows. This 
 is the new man who is born from above. This degree of 
 man's nature is organized according to all the substances and 
 forces and order of heaven, as the natural man and the 
 material body are organized with relation to the substances 
 and forces and order of the material world. They are en- 
 tirely distinct in their capacities, they dwell in distinct 
 worlds. They are as distinct as the eye and the ear. The 
 eye dwells in the world of light, the ear in the atmospheric 
 
174 TEMPTATION. 
 
 world, and neither of them can perform any of the other's 
 functions, or know anything of the other's joys. 
 
 As the natural plane of the mind, which, as I have said, 
 was created to be the servant of the spiritual mind and to 
 act in subordination to it, has become evil and false, full of 
 the love of self and of the world, and seeks its own gratifi- 
 cation in all its desires and activities, it is hostile to the 
 spiritual mind. It is directly opposed to it in all its ends, 
 methods, and desires. The natural man hates what the 
 spiritual man loves. All their principles, ideas, and ac- 
 tivities are diametrically opposite. Consequently, as soon 
 as the spiritual man begins to manifest any life, and to take 
 possession of the natural man and use him as his servant, 
 bring him into obedience, and direct his affections, thoughts, 
 and actions, there arises a combat, and this combat is temp- 
 tation. It is a conflict between evil spirits and angels for 
 the possession of man's soul. Man's own nature is the 
 battle-field, and the weapons the combatants wield are the 
 evils and falsities, on the one hand, and the good affec- 
 tions and truths on the other, which they can find in his 
 own mind. 
 
 All our life comes from a spiritual origin. We are so 
 intimately connected with spirits and angels that all power 
 of thought and affection is due to their influence. Man 
 has no more self-derived power to will, think, and act than 
 a statue of marble. If his connection with the spiritual 
 world and its inhabitants was entirely severed, he would 
 have no more power to perform any mental or natural act 
 than the material body has when the spirit has left it. This 
 combat is waged, therefore, by the spiritual beings who are 
 in the most intimate connection with him, who touch by 
 heir influence the most secret springs of his nature. It 
 
TEMPTATION. 175 
 
 is not a conflict of words, an argument for and against cer- 
 tain dogmas or courses of action, but of influence over 
 man. The evil spirits act upon liis lusts and false princi- 
 ples ; endeavor to excite them into activity and lead man 
 to act wickedly. They breathe into his love of self and 
 try to kindle it into a consuming flame. They flow into his 
 love of the world and awaken an intense desire for wealth 
 and power. They excite his natural passions and appetites, 
 and stimulate his ambition, his vanity and pride, and by the 
 most cunning arts blind him to the truth ; make the false 
 appear as the true, and the true as the false. They labor 
 to fix his attention upon some natural or sensual delight, 
 and then they magnify it and glorify it to make it appear 
 to be essential to happiness. They offer a present delight, 
 and hold it so closely before the mind's eye that it conceals 
 the inevitable and terrible consequences. They solicit with 
 edmost superhuman skill, and weave enchantments around 
 the soul with surpassing cunning. They quiet fears, they 
 kindle hopes, they promise the kingdoms of this world 
 with their power and glory, they offer bread for stones, and 
 protection from every harm. They are constantly present, 
 and unremitting in their efibrts to destroy us body and 
 soul, under the guise of ministering to our happiness and 
 making us as gods. It is not great crimes alone which are 
 due to their influence. They awaken pride, they foster 
 vanities, they inflame hatreds, they excite revenges, they 
 taint the innocent souls of boys and girls with impurities, 
 and urge them along in the currents of their natural de- 
 sires. Could young men and women see them as they are 
 in all their horrid deformities ; could they know that the 
 power which excites their love of self and the world was the 
 hot and rank breath of infernal beings who, under the guise 
 
176 TEMPTATION. 
 
 of friends leading them to happiness, are poisoning their 
 souls and planting in their affections the seeds of ruin, sor- 
 row, and despair ; could they see this they would stop their 
 ears against their siren voices, they would cry out to them, 
 " Get thee behind me, Satan ;" they would flee from them 
 as they would flee from pestilence and eternal death. 
 
 The angels, on the other hand, seek to awaken every 
 good affection, and to place before the attention every 
 genuine truth. Some act directly upon the affections, the 
 secret springs of life. They seek to bring into conscious- 
 ness the innocent affections implanted in the mind in infancy 
 and childhood. Many a young man and woman has been 
 saved from spiritual death by the memory of a mother's 
 love and unselfish devotion. In some critical moment, when 
 the decision hung in even balance, the scale has been turned 
 in favor of heaven and eternal life by the recollection of 
 some tender ministry of a mother's quenchless love, or some 
 truth gained from a father's instruction. Do you suppose 
 that influence came of itself? Did that recollection leap 
 from the memory where it had been buried for years under 
 the dust and decaying forms of false principles and evil 
 deeds ? No. Some angel came in the guise of the mother's 
 patient loveliness, and spoke in the tones of her remem- 
 bered voice, brought into vivid light some Divine truth 
 learned from the Bible or taught in the Sunday-school, or 
 lisped at the mother's knee, called into activity all the in- 
 nocent affections associated with it, and the tempter was 
 foiled and the soul was saved. 
 
 It is the office of other angels whose genius fits them 
 for the special service, to act upon the intellectual faculties. 
 With bright and keen intelligence they run through the 
 mind and discover every idea of truth existing there, and 
 
TEMPTATION. 177 
 
 by heavenly skill bring it out from the dark reiiesses of the 
 memory, and place it in bright and clear distinctness before 
 the attention that it may gain recognition, and that the mind, 
 darkened by error, may see as in a mirror some glimpses of 
 the order and beauty and substantial good of heaven. They 
 are diligent and faithful in their office, for they delight in 
 it. They love us with an unselfish and an unchanging love, 
 and it is the joy of their hearts to render us any service. 
 
 Their influence and service does not, however, come to 
 the attention with the distinctness and gross power of the 
 evil spirits, because they operate upon the more interior 
 and unconscious parts of our nature ; but their influence is 
 none the less powerful. The reluctance which is at first 
 generally felt against the commission of sin, the drawing 
 back of the thoughts and the afiections as by some attrac- 
 tion, the fears which are excited, the shame which follows 
 detection, the resolutions to shun the evil, and the manifold 
 influences which operate upon the mind to awaken and 
 develop heavenly affections, to fill the understanding with 
 the light of heavenly truths, as the sun quickens to life 
 every seed by its warmth and reveals the beauty of ma- 
 terial objects by its light, is due to the influence of the 
 angels. When we are striving to suppress the love of self 
 and the world, when we feel ashamed of our vanities, our 
 unkindness, our indifference to the wants and unhappiness 
 of others ; when we feel kindly towards others, and seek to 
 render them a service, when we try to elevate our thoughts 
 and affections to the Lord, and desires are awakened to do 
 His will, we may know that the angels are present with us 
 with as much certainty as though we could see their faces 
 glowing with heavenly love, and hear their voices sweet 
 and winning, with heavenly melodies. 
 12 
 
178 TEMPTATION. 
 
 0, my friends, we are girt about by awful mysteries. 
 Every human being is beleaguered by hosts of spiritual 
 beings who are contending for his possession. The evil 
 spirits would blast every hope and destroy every capacity 
 for heaven, drag us down to hell, and make miserable slaves 
 of us forever. The angels seek to develop every germ of 
 goodness, and unfold every faculty in the order and beauty 
 of heaven. They seek to restore the lost image and like- 
 ness of our Heavenly Father, and make us His children 
 and heirs of His infinite wealth of goodness and truth. 
 
 Such being our position, the questions naturally arise : 
 Are we then the passive objects of these contending hosts? 
 Are we simply a neutral territory with no agency in the 
 conflict ? By no means. We decide the battle. Neither 
 devil nor angel can take possession of us without our con- 
 sent. The Lord constantly gives us this power. When 
 evil spirits inflame the lusts and passions of the natural 
 mind and incite us to evil, we can refuse to follow their 
 counsels. We can refuse to cherish the evil afi'eotions, to 
 indulge in the impure and false thoughts, and especially to 
 do the wicked deeds they incite us to commit. When we 
 resist these enemies they leave us for a season until they 
 can find some new avenue of approach. As they recede 
 the angels draw nearer and take a firmer and more secure 
 possession of our natures, and imbue them with the love 
 and wisdom, the purity and harmony of a heavenly life. If, 
 on the other hand, we consent to the wiles and allurements 
 of our spiritual enemies, they grasp us with a more relent- 
 less power, they darken our understandings and weave 
 around our affections a web of influences which seem soft 
 as silk at first, but which in the end harden into fetters of 
 iron. They benumb our spiritual faculties and close their 
 
TEMPTATION. 179 
 
 doors against influx from the a«gels, and through them 
 from the Lord. Every time we resist the efforts of our 
 spiritual enemies to gain possession of our affections which 
 constitute the citadel of life, we weaken the force of their 
 hold upon us ; every time we yield to their solicitations we 
 come more fully into their power. We stand between 
 these two contending hosts as Moses stood upon the hill 
 during the battle between Israel and Amalek. When we 
 hold up our hand, that is when we use the power the Lord 
 has given us, and lift up the standard of Divine truth, 
 our enemies are discomfited ; when we let down our hand, 
 Amalek, which is only another name for our most subtle 
 enemies, wins the victory. Our hands often grow weary 
 in this conflict, and we should utterly fail if we were not 
 supported by the Divine truth, represented by the stone 
 upon whiou Moses sat, and " Aaron and Hur who stayed 
 up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the 
 other side." 
 
 Such, in general, is the nature of temptation. It is not 
 merely allurement to evil ; that is only one side of it. It 
 is not merely a conflict between the abstract qualities of 
 good and evil, truth and falsity. There is no power in 
 external objects, in themselves, to excite the lusts of selfish 
 and worldly affections ; they are only the instruments which 
 intelligent beings use to accomplish their purposes of good 
 or evil. Abstract qualities have no existence separate and 
 distinct from their subjects. Good and evil, truth and 
 falsity, have no existence except in personal and intelligent 
 beings. I present this subject, therefore, as it is, as a con- 
 flict between human beings for the possession of a distinct 
 object. The conflict of two nations for a boundary-line, 
 or a piece of territory, or dominion over the other, is not 
 
180 TEMPTATION. 
 
 more personal, distinct, and real than the hostile hosts who 
 are contending for the dominion of every human soul. It 
 is a real conflict waged by substantial human beings on the 
 spiritual plane of life, with art and skill and strategy, and 
 weapons of keener edge than Damascus blades, and it is a 
 conflict that is waged to decisive victory. It is a conflict 
 for dominion over a larger and more precious kingdom than 
 the whole world. Yes, my friends, we are the objects 
 aimed at in this war. One party desires to make every one 
 of us, our sons and daughters, miserable slaves and consign 
 us to hopeless bondage. The other, to free us from every 
 burden, and hindrance, and sorrow, and bring us into perfect 
 freedom, and endow us with the beauty, the order, the riches, 
 the joy of heaven, and the companionship of the angels. 
 
 Temptation is of various degrees ; its special quality is 
 determined by the plane of the mind on which the battle 
 is fought. There can be no real temptation until the dis- 
 tinctly spiritual degree of the mind begins to come into 
 actual existence. Natural allurements are not properly 
 temptations. " Misfortunes, sorrows, and anxieties which 
 arise from natural and corporeal causes and bodily pains 
 and diseases" are not temptations, though they serve in 
 some degree to subdue and break the life of man's pleasures 
 and cupidities, and determine and elevate his thoughts to 
 interior and pious subjects. But there is no internal con- 
 flict between good and evil, truth and falsity, for there are 
 no grounds for it. If there is any conflict it is between 
 the natural gratification and natural fears of punishment, 
 or loss of reputation, or favor, or some natural good. 
 
 Spiritual temptation takes place in the understanding, 
 and is a conflict between truth and falsity, or between those 
 evil spirits who act specifically upon man's intellectual 
 
TEMPTATION. 181 
 
 faculties, and the angels in the corresponding plane of the 
 mind. The evil spirits bring forth all man's falsities, and 
 erroneous opinions and dogmas, and endeavor to persuade 
 him that they are truths. They change truths into falses, 
 and by the most alert and cunning legerdemain defend 
 error, and make the true appear to be false and the false to 
 be true. Herein lies the great difficulty in gaining a recep- 
 tion for a new truth. It cannot be done until the old error 
 is removed. But our opinions and doctrines are intrenched 
 in habits of thought, and entwined with associations from 
 which it is difficult to break away. This temptation is 
 often very severe, and the conflict continues for many 
 years. Many of you, doubtless, have passed through this 
 warfare and know by experience what it is. You were 
 educated in a different faith from the one you now accept, 
 and the transition has been more or less painful. First 
 arose doubts about the truth of the old faith. It did not 
 seem rational ; it did not answer your questions, or satisfy 
 the wants of your heart. So you doubted and feared, 
 clung to the old faith and tried to make it appear to be 
 true ; turned here and there ; fled for refuge to some new 
 phase of thought, to find it untenable, and it may be, after 
 many fruitless efforts, settled down in a state of despair of 
 ever finding the light. But it came, as it always will come 
 to every earnest and sincere seeker for it. All these varied 
 experiences did not spring up spontaneously in the mind. 
 They were the effects of spiritual conflicts between tho 
 angels of truth and error for the possession of the under- 
 standing. 
 
 The third and most severe temptation takes place in the 
 will and the affections. The evil spirits excite man's appe- 
 tites, desires, and carnal lusts ; they inflame and intensify 
 
182 TEMPTATION. 
 
 tbe love of self and the world, and so involve his whole con- 
 sciousness in them that he cannot see any other good than 
 their gratification. On the other hand, the angels defend 
 and protect him by calling into activity the good and inno- 
 cent affections that were awakened in infancy and child- 
 hood, and the truths which had been stored up in the 
 memory. They turn the light of these truths directly 
 upon the evil and false principles excited by wicked spir- 
 its, and in every possible way seek to disclose their impuri- 
 ties, deformities, and the terrible consequences which must 
 result from their indulgence. This temptation is often at- 
 tended with the most exquisite suffering, for it touches 
 the most sensitive part of our nature. It is described in 
 the Word by the most intense physical pain and the sur- 
 render of the most precious possessions. It is selling all we 
 have and giving to the poor ; it is leaving father, mother, 
 houses, and lands, and following the Lord. It is cutting 
 off the right hand, plucking out the right eye, taking up 
 the cross, and laying down the life. With every regenerate 
 soul it continues until he comes into states of despair, and 
 the prayer is wrung from the tortured spirit, " If it be 
 possible, let this cup pass from me," or the more despairing 
 cry, " My Grod, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" 
 
 Such being the nature of temptations, it is evident that 
 no one can be regenerated without undergoing them. The 
 distinctly spiritual plane of our being can be brought into 
 substantial existence and conscious activity only as the loves 
 of self and the world are subdued, and the natural mind, 
 with its thoughts, affections, and cupidities, submits to be 
 guided by the spiritual and heavenly. This conquest can 
 only be effected " little by little," as the native inhabitants 
 who represent our evils and falsities were driven out of the 
 
TEMPTATION. 183 
 
 land of Canaan, and after many severe and terrible conflicts. 
 Temptations, which are not merely allurements to sin, but 
 actual conflicts with those who inflame our evil passions, 
 are an essential means of regeneration. By temptations 
 the diseased, inflamed, and perverted forms of the natural 
 or external man are separated from the internal man, as 
 the hard and coarse shell of a nut is separated from the 
 internal and essential part of it by the power of frost. 
 Temptations tend to give the good in us dominion over 
 the evil, and the true over the false. They give us a 
 clearer apprehension of truths, and lead us to practice 
 them, while at the same time they subdue our evil affec- 
 tions and disperse the false principles derived from them. 
 The spiritual man gains strength by the conflict. The or- 
 ganic vessels which compose the spiritual degree of the 
 mind are developed and opened for the reception of larger 
 currents of power from the angels and the Lord. The 
 hardness and obduracy of the natural mind is softened 
 in the fires of the conflict, and the loves of self and the 
 world are subdued. The evil desires and cupidities become 
 quiescent, and when the conquest is fully completed the 
 heavenly man reigns supreme in the plane of natural life. 
 Love to the Lord and man become the dominating motives 
 in all natural pursuits ; the Lord's will begins to be done 
 on the earth of the natural mind as it is in the heaven of 
 the spiritual mind. 
 
 But while it is true that we cannot be regenerated with- 
 out temptations, the Lord never tempts us or leads us into 
 them. He is in the constant effort to lead us out of them, 
 and to deliver us from evil. He never assaults the wicked, 
 nor do the angels who are His agents and ministers in 
 leading men to heaven. They protect and defend man 
 
184 TEMPTATION. 
 
 from the assaults of his enemies ; but they never com- 
 mence the attack. When evil spirits assault us and try 
 to rob us of our priceless treasures, those who defend us 
 do not lead into the conflict and are not responsible for it. 
 Our Lord was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be 
 tempted, but the temptation was caused by the devil. 
 Every action must be judged by the motives of the actor. 
 But it may be asked, " If the Lord never leads us into 
 temptation, why did He teach us to ask Him not to do that 
 which He never does ?" This is a question which there 
 have been many unsatisfactory attempts to answer. The 
 answer doubtless is that this is spoken according to the 
 appearance to us from a natural point of view, and is of 
 the same character as a multitude of other passages in the 
 Word in which qualities of character and changes are at- 
 tributed to the Lord which take place in men. The fiercest 
 passions which rage in the human heart are attributed to 
 the Lord. He is represented as jealous, angry, revengeful, 
 furious, as hating, tormenting, sending famine, pestilence, 
 and war, and punishing with eternal death. He is also 
 said to perform human and finite actions. He comes and 
 goes, hides and manifests Himself; sends messengers to 
 inquire as though He were ignorant, resolves and repents, 
 and performs many other actions which would be wholly 
 inconsistent with an omnipresent, omniscient, and infinitely 
 wise Being. In all these cases the Lord is represented as 
 He appears to man, and not as He is in Himself. The 
 changes and actions which take place in us are attributed 
 to the Lord, because it so seems to us. The Scriptures 
 are written from a human as well as a Divine point of 
 view. If they had not been, man could not have under- 
 Btood them in any sense, and they would not have been a 
 
TEMPTATION. 185 
 
 revelation to him. The genuine truth is that the Lord 
 does not lead man into temptation. He is in the constant 
 effort to lead us into the peace and rest of heaven. But 
 this cannot be done without temptation. The obstacles 
 which lie in the way must be removed, the enemies must 
 be overcome. From a natural point of view the trial, the 
 conflict, the self-denial are all we can see. He says we 
 must forsake father, and mother, and earthly possessions, 
 and take up our cross and lay down our life. It seems to 
 the natural mind that He is leading us into these priva- 
 tions and trials, and we can see no light, no peace, no good 
 beyond them. They are the limits of our vision. It is 
 natural that we should shrink from the sacrifice and con- 
 flict. Our Lord Himself did, and prayed that if possible 
 He might be spared from drinking the bitter cup. The 
 Lord has accommodated His Word to our limited appre- 
 hension. But in other places He has revealed the genu- 
 ine truth, by which we can correct the natural appearance 
 as science corrects the illusions of the senses. 
 
 From our point of view, and according to our limited 
 vision, the form of the petition is the true one ; it is 
 adapted to our state, it is the form which the Divine love 
 and mercy must take in coming down to our apprehension ; 
 it is the negative side of the positive truth, expressed in 
 the next clause, " but deliver us from evil." That is what 
 the Lord is in the constant effort to do. He does not lead 
 us into temptation, but He leads us while we are in it, He 
 protects and supports us while we are undergoing it, and 
 though He seems to have forsaken us and left us to strug- 
 gle alone, yet He is really nearer to us than at any other 
 time. He sympathizes with us, for " He was tempted in 
 all points as we are." He has passed through every pos- 
 
186 TEMPTATION. 
 
 Bible form of temptation, He has been where we are, and 
 He knows how to succor and lead us. We cannot be de- 
 livered from evil until we overcome the enemies who cause 
 it. The Lord is on our side in this conflict, and He is 
 fighting against our enemies. We cannot find peace until 
 the evils which disturb our repose are removed. The 
 Lord is constantly saying to us, " My peace I leave with 
 you, my peace I give unto you," and He employs every 
 possible agency to bestow it upon us in the fullest and 
 richest form. 
 
 How, then, shall we offer this prayer? By avoiding 
 every allurement which leads to evil, by rejecting from our 
 thoughts every suggestion of evil. When such thoughts 
 arise in our minds we must attribute them to the presence 
 of some evil spirit. Our thoughts are the words of the 
 spiritual beings who are present within, and we must give 
 them a prompt and indignant rejection. We must arm 
 ourselves with weapons from the Word, and use them as 
 our Lord did. A "thou shalt not" from the Lord is a 
 sufficient reason for rejecting every evil suggestion. We 
 must ask the Lord to deliver us from the evils or wicked 
 beings who tempt us. In the degree we do this, we shall 
 pray to our Father in secret, and He will reward ua 
 openly. 
 
2CII. 
 
 DELIVERANCE FROM EYIL. WHAT IT IS, AND HOW 
 EFFECTED. 
 
 " And lead us not into temptation, but deliver im from 
 ew7."— Matthew vi. 13. 
 
 It was the purpose of the discourse upon the first clause 
 of this petition to show what temptations are, what causes 
 them, and what purpose they serve in our regeneration. 
 We found them to be combats between the internal and the 
 external man, or between evil spirits and angels who operate 
 upon these planes of man's nature for the possession of his 
 soul. They are caused by their efforts to take possession 
 of our wills and intellectual faculties, and bind us to them 
 and to the societies with which they are associated by those 
 spiritual ties which are stronger than any natural or mate- 
 rial bonds. Temptation is not a conflict of words, or ar- 
 guments, or personal strength, but of power over those who 
 are tempted. The evil spirits act upon our worldly and 
 selfish aflFections ; they excite our appetites and inflame our 
 passions ; they seek to immerse our whole nature in vile 
 
 187 
 
188 DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 
 
 and corrupting influences. The angels, on the other hand, 
 act upon all that is innocent, true, and good in us. They 
 call up truths from the memory and present them bright 
 and clear to our awakened attention ; they breathe warmth 
 and life into our languid spiritual affections, and by the 
 attractions of their love they lift us up and draw us toward 
 heaven and the Lord. 
 
 These opposing forces take effect upon us and draw us in 
 two opposite directions ; they come to our consciousness as 
 distinctly as do opposing forces acting upon the body, and 
 seem to us to spring up spontaneously within us and to be 
 our own in their causes as well as in their effects. They 
 are felt as doubts and fears, as anxieties and pains of con- 
 science and stings of remorse. When these opposing forces 
 which are struggling for dominion are powerful, and the 
 theatre of the conflict is the more interior and sensitive 
 planes of our nature, the pain is intense ; we become dis- 
 tracted, literally drawn asunder ; we are in agony, and fall 
 into despair. Such was the experience of our Lord in 
 G-ethsemane and upon Calvary. This conflict and all the 
 pain of it is caused wholly by evil, or by the evil spirits 
 who seek to gain possession of our souls. They are the 
 cause of all our pain, suffering, and sorrow of every kind. 
 There is no abstract evil ; there are no abstract causes. 
 Evil is not a vague, indefinite, and unsubstantial entity. It 
 has its origin in personal beings ; it has no existence sepa- 
 rate from them. There can be no murder without a mur- 
 derer; there can be no theft without a thief; there can bo 
 no drunkenness without drunkards ; there can be no envy, 
 malice, pride, hatred, cruelty, or vice of any kind without 
 human beings who exercise these evils. So there can be 
 no temptation without personal and intelligent beings who 
 
DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 189 
 
 tempt. Whenever we feel the movements of any desire 
 to think falsely, or to act wickedly, if we attributed it to 
 the influence of some evil being who was near us, inciting 
 us to sin, we should regard the temptation in a very differ- 
 ent manner from what we do when we think of it as a 
 spontaneous action of the soul. If a man or woman met 
 us on the street and openly solicited us to do what some- 
 times comes to us in inclination and thought, we should 
 shrink with horror from the tempter. But the inclination 
 and thought is as surely due to personal influence by per- 
 sonal beings, by men or women who have put off the gar- 
 ment of the material body and can now approach us directly 
 on the spiritual side of our nature, as the temptations which 
 come from human beings in a material body. They are all 
 due to evil spirits, though in one case they are clothed in 
 a material body, and in the other they are not. 
 
 With this idea of the personal nature of sin we can see 
 the force of the petition, " Deliver us from evil." We do not 
 look off into vacuity for some vague and incomprehensible 
 help for deliverance from some abstract enemy. We go to a 
 personal Being and implore help to rescue us from the power 
 of personal enemies. There is something tangible, substan- 
 tial, and definite for the thought to rest upon. If your little 
 son or daughter had been stolen from you and carried into 
 some den of infamy and cruelty, where it would become 
 polluted and destroyed body and soul, your prayer for that 
 child would not be a mere formality for its deliverance 
 from some vague and imaginary danger. You would not 
 be content to offer a petition in a cold and formal manner 
 to some abstract power called the state, or the police. You 
 would go to persons who are the embodiment of the power 
 you invoke. Our sons and daughters are beset by spiritual 
 
190 DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 
 
 enemies who are seeking to decoy them from their Father'e 
 house, to rob them of their inheritance of heavenly posses- 
 sions, and make them the miserable slaves of sin. If we 
 believed this, should we not pray in a more direct and ef- 
 fective manner for their deliverance from the power of 
 these enemies ? 
 
 Every human being must desire to be delivered from 
 evil, but there is the widest diversity of opinions concern- 
 ing what evil is. Every one judges from his own point 
 of view, and that point of view is his dominant love, or 
 principle of action. Everything which opposes this love, 
 or the essential end for which he lives, he regards as evil, 
 and every being who stands in the way of the attainment 
 of that end he regards as an enemy. We cannot, there- 
 fore, make any human standard the absolute criterion of 
 good or evil ; we must have a universal and immutable 
 and perfect rule. Such a standard can only be found in 
 the Lord, who is " the way, the truth, and the life," and 
 who " is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.'' " I am 
 the Lord ; I change not." Let us then regard the subject, 
 as far as possible, from a P'vine point of view as revealed 
 in the Sacred Scriptures, and in the doctrines of the New 
 Church which are derived from them. So far as we can 
 do this we shall come to just conclusions. 
 
 As the Lord is infinite love and wisdom, His final end 
 in the creation of the material universe and of intelligent 
 beings, must be the communication of happiness to them 
 in the largest measures and the most excellent forms. 
 Love could have no other end and wisdom could provide 
 no other means than those which would conduce in the 
 most direct and efficient manner to its accomplishment. 
 The human mind must be organized to receive the good 
 
DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 191 
 
 the Lord desires to communicate, and every material and 
 spiritual substance and form must be created and perfectly 
 adapted to be an instrument in communicating it. There 
 must be a perfect order according to which all things and 
 beings are related, and a perfect method according to 
 which they act and react upon each other. Everything 
 which stands in this order, and acts according to the 
 method prescribed in the Divine mind, is good ; every- 
 thing which is contrary to this order, and tends in any 
 way to oppose and prevent the Divine purpose, is evil. 
 Evil, therefore, is disorder in the relations and activities 
 of the human and Divine forces ; it is discord in their 
 action and reaction upon one another ; it is the inversion 
 and perversion of the forms of the human mind which was 
 created to receive life and power from the Lord. Its organic 
 forms are distorted, and the influx of life from the Lord 
 is obstructed. Instead of flowing on in smooth and or- 
 derly currents, filling every organic form of the miod with 
 power, life, and delight, they are turned out of their 
 course, the inmost forms of the afiections obstruct them, 
 react against them, and this collision of opposing forces 
 causes disease, misery, and spiritual death. 
 
 Evil in the mind is caused in the same way as disease in 
 the body. The mind or spirit is a body in the human form ; 
 it contains in distinct order all the organic forms within and 
 without which belong to the material body. Life is not a 
 mere idea or an emotion ; it is a substance and force flow- 
 ing into the arteries and nerves and veins of the spiritual 
 body as the nervous fluid and the blood flow through the 
 channels of the nerves and arteries of the material body. 
 Disease, which is evil in the physical plane of man's being, 
 is caused by the derangement, obstruction, or excessive and 
 
192 DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 
 
 abnormal action of some of the organic forms of the body, 
 The result is pain and weakness, and unless the normal order 
 which we call health is restored, the body becomes wholly 
 incapable of performing its functions, and the spiritual body 
 throws it off as we do a worn-out garment. Moral and 
 epiritual evil is of exactly the same nature in the spiritual 
 plane of our being, with only this difference in the results. 
 Spiritual death is not the actual dissolution of the spiritual 
 body. It is only such a change in its organization that it 
 does not act in harmony with the forces of life which oper- 
 ate upon it. It is like a weak or inflamed nerve, or a con- 
 gested muscle, or a constricted blood-vessel, or an ulcerated 
 fibre. The forces of life still press upon every part of the 
 spirit, as the light upon the eye or the atmosphere upon 
 the lungs. As the spiritual body is diseased, the forces 
 which give it life and preserve its existence, so far as they 
 gain entrance, are opposed, turned out of their course ; the 
 vessels of the mind do not act in harmony with them, and 
 the result is spiritual weakness, blindness, fear, sorrow, and 
 those insane hallucinations which flow from the supreme 
 love of self and the world, and lead us to regard the dust 
 of sensual delights and the transitory possessions of natural 
 \\£e as more precious than heavenly and imperishable trea- 
 sures. The faculties of the mind become so deranged that 
 one wars upon another, and there is discord, confusion, dis- 
 traction, and the wildest conflict ; or indifference, stupidity, 
 and unconsciousness of the most excellent and distinctly 
 human qualities of our nature. We even lose the noblest 
 and most beautiful features of the human form, and become 
 debased into reptiles and beasts. 
 
 In the degree that the organization of the mind be- 
 comes deranged and departs from the perfection of its origi- 
 
DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 193 
 
 iiiil order, all its relations to other human beings and to the 
 outward world are disturbed. Here again the analogy be- 
 tween the spiritual body and the material body is perfect. 
 When the eye is inflamed, the light becomes a torment to 
 it ; when its various parts are diseased, or so deranged that 
 they cannot act in harmony, the vision becomes dim, the 
 images of objects are no longer seen in their true form, and 
 all relations to the outward world are disturbed. Analo- 
 gous results take place when the understanding, which is 
 the spiritual eye, becomes diseased. When it is inflamed 
 by passion, all the laws of the Divine order appear dis- 
 torted. The Lord who is love and mercy appears as the 
 direst enemy. It cannot bear the clear light of truth ; it 
 can only see its shadows in distorted forms. It cannot see 
 in man a brother who is to be loved and helped, and whose 
 interests are to be regarded and cherished as our own. He 
 appears as an enemy, rather, whom we are to assail and 
 subject to our own will. Hence arise the gigantic evils 
 of war which have stained the earth with blood, filled 
 nations with widows and orphans, with famine and pesti- 
 lence, with desolation and woe. All social strife, the 
 fierce competition between labor and capital, the destruc- 
 tive rivalries in every employment and phase of human 
 action originate in these insanities, and cause such misery 
 that men of cultivated minds seriously discuss the question 
 whether life, which the Lord intended to be full of con- 
 tentment, peace, and joy, is worth living. The mind is so 
 darkened that it cannot see the higher uses and loveliest 
 forms of the material world, and the afi'ections have be- 
 come so torpid that they are unconscious of the finer at- 
 tractions and harmonies which pervade nature, and which 
 were intended to lift us above the material plane of life, 
 13 
 
194 DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 
 
 and win our souls to a higher knowledge, to purer aiK; 
 more exquisite joys. 
 
 All evil of every degree and form is, in its cause, a de- 
 parture from the Divine order into wiiioh man and the 
 universe were created. You cannot conceive of a physical 
 or a spiritual evil which it is possible for a human being 
 to suffer which did not originate, and whose existence is 
 not continued, by a violation of the Divine order organized 
 and embodied in man. There is not a domestic or social 
 evil, a corrupt influence, a foolish or wicked custom or 
 practice which is not caused by some derangement and 
 violation of domestic and social life. Labor is a weari- 
 ness, a slavery, and a curse, because selfishness and world- 
 liness make it so. Civil life has been the theatre of ambi- 
 tion, rivalry, hatred, cruelty, and deadly conflict from the 
 love of power and glory ; and even the church has been 
 corrupt, ignorant, contentious, domineering, worldly, and 
 neglectful of her high mission. The fiercest of human 
 passions have found refuge and full scope for their exercise 
 within her fold. Every human relation has been the sub- 
 ject of evil, and become so by a violation of those laws 
 of the Divine order which, obeyed, would have made them 
 ministers o^ good. Such is the nature of evil when re- 
 garded from the point of view of the Divine order. 
 
 But this is not the point of view of the natural, unre- 
 generate man. Every human being has a supreme, domi- 
 nant love, which is the centre of his life. That love is the 
 end which he seeks, and to which he makes every posses- 
 sion, force, and circumstance bend ; it is his watch-tower 
 from which he observes everything within his horizon ; it 
 is his oracle which he consults in every undertaking ; it is 
 ^he standard by which he measures every value, and deter- 
 
DEIylVERANCE FROM EVIL. 195 
 
 minss every relation. Everything is good which favors 
 that love, every obstacle to its attainment is a misfortune ; 
 every man, woman, spirit, angel, and even the Lord Him- 
 self, is regarded as an enemy who opposes it. That love is 
 the god we worship, and bow down to, and to whom we 
 delight to sacrifice all that we possess. This prayer, " De- 
 liver us from evil," is the constant aspiration of every man, 
 woman, and child ; of every devil and angel. He who 
 loves himself supremely, offers it with devout and sincere 
 devotion. Ho is not content with the prayer of the lips ; 
 he enters into his closet, and shuts the door upon every 
 other motive, and prays in secret. The fire of self-love is 
 constantly burning upon his altar. But he not only prays 
 with his lips and his heart ; he prays with his hands, and 
 with every physical and intellectual faculty. Those who 
 love the world supremely are equally loyal to their god, 
 and devout in their worship. They observe no dead for- 
 malities, they employ no obsolete and useless rituals ; they 
 do not pray as the hypocrites except when they come into 
 the churches ; they do not expect to be heard for much 
 speaking. Their hopes aie based upon vigorous action. 
 
 But there is a fatal principle in their worship. They 
 regard every being, possession, and relation from a wrong 
 point of view ; they estimate all values by a false standard 
 which reverses the order, the quality, and use of every 
 being and thing in the universe. They make the instru- 
 mental primary, as though a mechanic should worship his 
 tools instead of using them to do his work ; they mistake 
 the shadow for the substance; they invert the Divine order 
 in the universe and in the human mind, regarding that as 
 first which the Lord made to be last ; they esteem that the 
 lowest which He intended to be highest, the most precious 
 
196 DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 
 
 that which, weighed in the balances of infinite wisdom, is 
 the least valuable. They mistake the fleeting appearances 
 and the wild illusions of the senses for the most substantial 
 realities and genuine wisdom. In a word, they put dark- 
 ness for light and light for darkness ; error for truth and 
 truth for error ; evil for good and good for evil. They 
 pray for that which, if obtained, will be their ruin, and ask 
 to be delivered from the means and conditions which will 
 secure their eternal joy and blessedness. 
 
 As we all are in some degree in this unregenerate state, 
 and subject to these natural illusions, it is a question of 
 vital importance how to gain the true point of view, and 
 offer the effective prayer for deliverance from evil. We 
 must know what evil is when measured by the Divine 
 standards, and how to escape from it. We can only gain 
 the right point of view and secure a perfect criterion of 
 judgment by a knowledge of Divine truth. We cannot 
 find it in our own understanding, for that has become 
 perverted, its vision impaired, its judgment warped by the 
 influence of a depraved will. We cannot find it in our 
 natural desires and affections, for they are the offspring of 
 the same blind and corrupt parent as the understanding. 
 We cannot find it in ourselves ; we must go out of our- 
 selves ; we must rise above ourselves ; we must deny our- 
 selves ; we must distrust our own judgment; we must go 
 contrary to our natural desires. We must go to the Lord 
 and put our trust in Him. We must learn Divine truth 
 from Him, and then we must make it the guide of our lives. 
 
 This is old and trite advice, it may be said : Can you 
 give no other ? No. There is no other. Divine truth is 
 the sum and substance of the Divine order ; it is the law 
 of the creation. Its principles are organized in the human 
 
dJELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 197 
 
 mind ; it is the Divine method of bestowing happiness 
 upon man ; it is the embodiment of the Divine har- 
 monies ; it has its origin in the Divine nature ; it is the 
 form of the Divine love and the embodiment of every 
 principle of order and harmony ; it is the path and the 
 only path that leads to heaven and the Lord. What other 
 directions can be given ? There are no other that can be 
 trusted. So far as our wills and affections become subject 
 to the Divine truth they come into harmony with the Di- 
 vine will, and our hearts beat in harmony with the Divine 
 heart. We are in the currents of the Divine order, and 
 we are lifted up and carried on in them toward the infinite 
 ocean of Divine love. 
 
 We must, therefore, learn the Divine truth from the 
 lips of the Lord as He has spoken it in the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures ? Have you ever thought of it in this simple, prac- 
 tical way ? Have you ever seriously reflected upon the 
 comforting truth that the sure way and the only way of 
 gaining deliverance from every evil is clearly revealed in 
 the Bible ? Are you not indulging the secret hope, almost 
 unknown to yourself, perhaps, that there is some other 
 way? — that you can regulate your affections and guide 
 your actions by false principles, and yet escape their con- 
 sequences? The natural degree of the mind is the em- 
 bodiment of false principles, it is immersed in evils and 
 inflamed by them, and there is no hope of deliverance in 
 any other way than that pointed out by Divine truth. We 
 are spiritually blind ; the truth alone can restore our sight. 
 We have wandered from the true path, and are lost in the 
 mazes of error ; the truth alone can show us the way, be- 
 cause it is the way. We are wearied with labor ; we are 
 distracted by conflicting desires ; our hearts are full of 
 
198 DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 
 
 unsatisfied aspirations ; we are sick and dying ; the truth 
 will lift our burdens, appease our longings, heal our dis- 
 eases, and raise us up from the grave. Truth is the way 
 that leads from confusion to order ; truth is the light that 
 shines with clear and steady radiance upon the way. Truth 
 is power adequate to all our wants. Truth is freedom and 
 health. Divine truth is order, and leads to every possi- 
 ble good. If, then, we desire to be delivered from evil, 
 we must learn the way of deliverance, and that way is re- 
 vealed to us in the commandments. It is a way so plain 
 that " the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err 
 therein." 
 
 But, it may be said, there are so many conflicting opin- 
 ions, theories, and doctrines concerning sin and salvation 
 that we do not know which to believe. There is such a 
 complicated maze of paths, each of which is declared to be 
 the only true one, that we are lost in our efforts to find the 
 way. But the Lord does not require us to adopt any spe- 
 cial theory of salvation. He does not say that we must 
 conform to any special ritual. The splendid and compli- 
 cated offices of the Roman Catholic Church, and the hard 
 and naked forms of the Quakers are alike powerless to de- 
 liver us from evil. The Lord has given us a few simple 
 rules which every one can understand, and He tells us to 
 follow them. He does not ask us to form opinions, or 
 construct theories, but simply to do what He commands. 
 He says to every one of us, " If thou wouldest enter into 
 life, keep the commandments ;'' " Cease to do evil, learn 
 to do well," and " Though your sins be as scarlet, they 
 shall be white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, 
 they shall be white as wool." 
 
 Here then is the practical way to offer this prayer. We 
 
DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 199 
 
 must learn the truths which show us what our evils are, 
 give us weapons to combat them, and then we must do 
 what the truths teach us. This is so self-evident that it 
 seems almost absurd to say it ; and yet it is necessary to 
 say it, and if it could be said in a way to awaken attention 
 and lead to action, it would move the world to its centre. 
 " The children of this world," our Lord has told us, " are 
 wiser in their generation than the children of light." If 
 we desire to see how men who really believe in their reli- 
 gion pray to be delivered from evil, we have only to look 
 around us, or to reflect upon our own motives, and the 
 efforts we make to gain deliverance from evils which hin- 
 der the attainment of the ends we seek. Look at those 
 who seek to excel in physical strength, the pugilist, the 
 runner, the oarsman. How severe the training to which 
 they submit 1 How diligently they practise I How rigid 
 in their diet I How vigilant in guarding against every 
 evil which may endanger their success ! and how almost 
 superhuman their efforts for victory. Think of those who 
 excel in art or song, or stand foremost in the world as mu- 
 sical performers. The excellence they reach is only gained 
 by years of constant devotion and practise. They put 
 themselves under the direction of the best masters ; they 
 shun the evils they point out, they follow the directions 
 they give. They do not wrangle about opinions, they do 
 not complain that the lessons are difficult ; they do not ex- 
 pect to gain perfection by one effort. They are content if 
 they find some advance from month to month. Look at 
 those who seek for place or power, the devotees of fashion 
 and pleasure 1 How they labor 1 what sacrifices they 
 make I what devotion they practise I How loyal they are 
 to the god they worship 1 
 
200 DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 
 
 We may learn from them how to offer this petition and 
 seek deliverance from the evils of sin and error. The mere 
 utterance of the words has no power. We must learn 
 what our specific evils are one by one. A general ac- 
 knowledgment that they do exist will not save us. We 
 must put our finger upon one and another, and avoid it. 
 We must fight against it and try to overcome it as we 
 would strive to overcome any false method or evil practice 
 in our natural work. We must watch the tendencies of our 
 affections and desires, the currents of thought into which 
 we easily glide and delight to indulge. If we find them 
 selfish, worldly, or evil in any of their tendencies or forms, 
 we must change them. They are the effects of our spir- 
 itual enemies, who are constantly on the watch to work our 
 ruin, and they are near us and their presence affects us be- 
 cause they find something in our natures which is congenial 
 to them. They have found their way into the citadel of 
 life, and we ought to take alarm at once and vigorously 
 resist them. We must watch against them, and when dis- 
 covered we should drive them away with the scourge of 
 Divine truths as our Lord drove those out of the temple 
 who made it a house of merchandise. 
 
 Especially should we guard against giving form and per- 
 manence to any evil suggestions by word or deed. We 
 cannot prevent evil thoughts and affections from entering 
 the mind, but we can reject them when they do come, and 
 refuse to act according to them. When we accept an evil 
 affection or a false thought as our own and act according to 
 it, we make it our own ; we adopt it, and it becomes a part 
 of our being, as the food we have digested and assimilated 
 becomes a part of our material bodies. We have built a 
 home for evil spirits to dwell in, a citadel in which they 
 
DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 201 
 
 intrenoli themselves, and from which they sally forth to 
 renew their attacks upon us. A wicked deed is not a sim- 
 ple and single thing by itself. It is the concretion and em- 
 bodiment of innumerable evil forces which lie behind it 
 and dwell in it. As a plant or a mineral contains myriads 
 of forms and forces, and by the finer laws which interpene- 
 trate all things and bind them together, is connected with 
 all other material objects, so a false thought or a wicked 
 deed is the embodiment of myriads of evil forces and evil 
 beings, and it conjoins us with them. When we commit 
 an evil deed we open the doors to a myriad of evil influ- 
 ences and permit them to become anchored in our natures. 
 On the other hand, when we shun a wicked act, we shun, 
 we reject, and repel the hosts of wicked spirits and evil in- 
 fluences which were the cause of it. When we do this we 
 pray in a most effectual manner to be delivered from evil. 
 
 Man in and of himself has no power to resist the evil 
 spirits who are seeking to destroy him. They can refute 
 his arguments ; they can draw him on into sin by allure- 
 ments which he has no desire to resist ; they can approve 
 his scruples by convincing him for the moment that there 
 is no harm in the evil they solicit him to commit ; they 
 can quiet his fears by keeping his attention fixed on the 
 immediate delight, and concealing from him the more re- 
 mote but inevitable consequences. Good resolutions, formed 
 in our own strength, are no barrier to their power. 
 
 What then can we do ? Must we remain passive ? By 
 no means. We must do what we would if we were in the 
 presence of natural enemies who were too powerful for us. 
 We must avoid the outward occasions of their influence. 
 We must shun the companions who are their instruments ; 
 we must avoid the sights and sounds which they use tw 
 
202 DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. 
 
 beguile us. We must fortify and arm ourselves with those 
 Divine truths which take eflfect upon them. And when 
 they make an assault upon us, we must call upon the Lord 
 to protect and defend us. But we must not rely upon our 
 own strength ; if we do we shall utterly fail. 
 
 Our doctrines teach us that when we shun an evil in 
 outward act, the Lord can remove the myriads of evils 
 which lay behind it. When we shun evil we put ourselves 
 into the Lord's hands ; He can bring His Divine power to 
 bear upon our spiritual enemies, and He can deliver us. 
 But He can only work this deliverance for us as we co- 
 operate with Him. When we do our part He will not fail 
 to do His. It is a work on which hangs our eternal des- 
 tiny. All other gains, all other deliverances are nothing. As 
 we are cleansed from evil good will take its place. All the 
 influences which disturb our peace and cause us pain will 
 be removed. We shall be " delivered from the hands of 
 our enemies and all who hate us,'' the angels will draw 
 near to us, and we shall come more fully into the light, 
 the joy, and the peace of heaven. 
 
2CIII. 
 THE LORD'S KINGDOM, POWER, AND GLORY. 
 
 " For tJiine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the 
 Glory, forever. Amen." — Matt. vi. 13. 
 
 The Divine Prayer which our Lord teaches all His dis- 
 ciples commences with acknowledging Him as our Father, 
 and ends with the humble confession that the kingdom, the 
 power, and the glory belong to Him, thus completing the 
 circle of thought and life. The first conception of God 
 should be an idea of Him as a wise, loving, tender Father. 
 We should impress this idea upon our children ; we should 
 keep it fresh and clear in our own minds ; it should enter 
 into, qualify, and dominate every conception we form of 
 Him as we advance in spiritual knowledge. It is a Father's 
 name we should desire to hallow ; it is a Father's kingdom 
 we should desire to see established ; it is a Father's will, 
 kind and tender and solely regardful of our happiness, we 
 should pray to have done on the earth of our natural minds 
 and in all human relations, as it is done in heaven ; it is to 
 
 203 
 
204 THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 a provident Father, and not to some abstract law or unfeel- 
 ing official, we look for daily bread ; it is to a Father's mer- 
 ciful heart, and not to some arbitrary and relentless tyrant, 
 we appeal for forgiveness ; it is a Father tried and true to 
 whom we trust for help in the conflicts of temptation, and 
 from whom we seek deliverance from evil, and it is to Him, 
 to our Father, we are ready to ascribe the kingdom, and the 
 power, and glory, forever. How beautiful and happy life 
 would be if we could keep this conception of the Father- 
 hood of the Lord constantly in our minds ! 
 
 The acknowledgment that the kingdom, power, and glory 
 are the Lord's is a logical consequence from the preceding 
 petition. When we are delivered from evil, and so far as 
 we are delivered from it, we shall ascribe the kingdom, 
 power, and glory to Him. We shall see that it is by His 
 power we are delivered from evil ; that His kingdom does 
 come as the kingdom of evil is subdued and destroyed. 
 Our Lord teaches us to pray for that which He desires and 
 intends to grant. Let us, then, endeavor to understand 
 what is meant by the kingdom, power, and glory of the 
 Lord, and how we are to acknowledge in heart and life that 
 they are His. 
 
 " For thine is the kingdom." A kingdom is a country 
 or people governed by a king, or, when regarded abstractly, 
 it is the government of a king. It is also one of the pri- 
 mary divisions of natural history, a province of nature, 
 composed of distinct forms and subject to special laws, as 
 the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdom. Here, 
 in the material world, we get a clear example and repre- 
 sentation of what a kingdom essentially is. Theologians 
 have taken civil government, with an arbitrary and irre- 
 sponsible ruler at its head, as the true type of the Divine 
 
THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 205 
 
 government. But nature is a better representative. It is 
 a province of the Lord's kingdom, and in it we can see how 
 He governs and works. We can see that everything, from 
 the least to the greatest, stands in a perfect order, and pro- 
 ceeds according to immutable law. Nature is not first cre- 
 ated by an almighty fiat, and then brought into subjection 
 to an arbitrary will. It is evolved according to laws which 
 it embodies, and which constantly operate. 
 
 The Lord's spiritual kingdom, which is composed of 
 human beings, is created and governed in the same way. 
 The Lord did not create men and then impose laws upon 
 them. He created them in His own likeness and image. 
 He embodied in them the laws and principles of His own 
 nature. The human soul is the organized form of the 
 Divine nature ; it was made to be a receptacle of the Divine 
 life and to live by a constant reception of that life. Human 
 life is the Divine life in us in finite forms. Even when 
 outward laws or commandments were given to men, as on 
 Mount Sinai, or when they came from the Lord's own lips 
 in the flesh, they were only a statement of the laws which 
 had been enacted in man's nature. " The kingdom of Grod 
 is within us." All its substances, forms, activities, princi- 
 ples, and laws are embodied in potency in every human 
 being, and when our natures are developed into actual ex- 
 istence according to these laws and principles, we become 
 a kingdom of God in its least form ; we become units in 
 that kingdom. 
 
 A heavenly society, whether on the earth or in the 
 spiritual world, is a kingdom in a larger form. All the 
 regenerated in heaven and the regenerating on the earth 
 constitute the Lord's universal kingdom. But, as every 
 plant is the embodiment of all the principles of the vege 
 
206 THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 table kingdom, so every human being contains within him 
 self all the principles of the heavenly kingdom. This is a 
 kingdom of immutable law, of absolute order, and perfect 
 relation. All its motions are harmonies ; all its activities 
 tend directly with the most exquisite precision to accom- 
 plish the Divine purpose, which is the communication of the 
 greatest amount of the purest happiness to man, to make 
 man the embodiment of the largest and richest joys. Every 
 substance, every force, every activity which conduces to this 
 end belongs to His kingdom. 
 
 This is the kingdom we must acknowledge and for whose 
 coming we must pray. To do this implies much more than 
 is generally supposed. It stands in direct contrast and op- 
 position to the kingdom to which we belong by natural 
 inheritance. The natural degree of the mind which we 
 inherit from our parents, and which is first established in 
 us, is a kingdom of evil affections and false principles. 
 They are organized in the natural mind. It is called 
 the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of Satan, our 
 kingdom. This kingdom must be destroyed, or brought 
 into subjection to the kingdom of heaven. Both cannot 
 exist together in active power in the same mind at the 
 same time. " No man can serve two masters.'' The 
 Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of order ; Satan's is a king- 
 dom of confusion ; the one is a kingdom of harmony, the 
 other of discords ; the one is a kingdom of light, the other 
 of darkness. Evil is the embodiment of all that is impure, 
 low, vile, corrupt, and destructive ; goodness and truth are 
 the substance and form of all that is innocent, lovely, ele- 
 vating, noble, and pure. Evil is the kingdom of death ; 
 the Lord's kingdom is the form and embodiment of life. 
 It is a state of peace. In it " all things celestial and spir- 
 
THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 207 
 
 itual are as it were in their morning, in their spring-tide 
 flower, that is, in their essential happiness." 
 
 We can see from this contrast the logical sequence of our 
 text, " Deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom." The 
 acknowledgment that the kingdom is the Lord's implies an 
 entire change in the organization of our minds. It is prop- 
 erly called heing born again ; it is the creation of new 
 heavens and a new earth within us. It is the entire re- 
 versal of our motives and ends of life. " Thine is the 
 kingdom." It is easy enough to repeat the words, but 
 diflScult to comprehend the full force of their meaning, 
 and still more difficult to utter them from the heart. It is 
 denying ourselves ; it is abdicating our kingdom ; it is for- 
 saking all we have ; it is laying down our natural, evil life ; 
 it is praying, struggling, working to be delivered from evil, 
 and to be introduced into the kingdom of order, truth, and 
 love. " Thine is the kingdom" falls from the lips in a 
 moment, without effort, and too often without thought or 
 comprehension of its meaning. How difficult to say it 
 with the understanding, and to adopt it as the sincere 
 desire of our hearts and the aspiration of our lives ! Can 
 you conceive of a higher or nobler aim in life than to be- 
 come an embodiment of the Lord's kingdom ; to have all 
 your intellectual faculties fashioned into the perfect simili- 
 tude of the order and beauty of the Divine original ; to 
 have all the affections imbued with the Divine love and 
 move in accord with the harmonies of the Divine order? 
 We are all striving to gain something which we call good ; 
 we are all seeking to attain an ideal, if it is no higher than 
 that of a brute. What is our aim ? We can tell what we 
 desire to obtain and possess. Have we any clearly formed 
 and definite idea of what we desire to become ? Reflect 
 
208 THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 upon it. By the knowledge we gain, the affections we ex- 
 ercise, and the deeds we do, we are becoming a kingdom, a 
 kingdom of evil with all its discords, malignities, darkness, 
 deformities, vileness, conflicts, hopeless sorrow and endless 
 agonies, or a kingdom of truth, order, light, harmony, peace, 
 joy, constant attainment, and ever-increasing happiness. 
 Let us set these two kingdoms distinctly before us. It 
 may help us to pray with our hearts as well as with our 
 lips, " Deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom." 
 
 Having considered what a kingdom really is, we have 
 gained the true point of view to understand what we ask 
 when we say thine is " the power." Every human being 
 loves power. We love to possess it, we love to exercise it. 
 This affection manifests itself in infancy and childhood, it 
 increases with age, "grows with our growth, and strength- 
 ens with our strength." Yes, we all love power ; and the 
 Lord loves to have us possess it and exercise it. He cre- 
 ated us for this purpose. Scientists resolve all material 
 substances in their last analysis into force. We may go 
 still further, and resolve all human beings into the same 
 substance. What is a man or a woman but an organized 
 force? We call the various modes of motion of the mind 
 and body faculties. What is a faculty ? It is organized 
 power. The eye is the faculty or power of seeing, the ear 
 is the power of hearing, the lungs of breathing, the brain 
 of thinking. Every organic form in the body is a faculty 
 or power. The whole material body is a series and conge- 
 ries, a kingdom of faculties, and when any one ceases to 
 perform its functions we feel its loss. 
 
 The mind is organized in the same way as the body. 
 The mind is a spiritual body, organized to live in a spiritual 
 world, and to become the embodiment of spiritual power. 
 
THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 209 
 
 It corresponds to the material body, organ to organ, in the 
 least and in the largest forms. Every intellectual faculty 
 IS an organ. It would be as impossible to gain ideas, to 
 think, to know, to compare, to reason, and to understand, 
 to exercise any affection, or to be the subject of any pleas- 
 urable or painful emotion without spiritual organs, as it is 
 to see without eyes, to hear without ears, to breathe without 
 lungs, or to perform any physical act without the organ 
 devoted to that use. Man is an organized power in every 
 plane of his being, spiritual as well as material. 
 
 But whence comes the power ? How does it originate ? 
 What are the conditions of its possession and exercise ? 
 Man does not create himself. He did not form the won- 
 derful series of organs which constitute the human body. 
 He can destroy the eye, but he cannot make one. It is 
 impossible, in the nature of things, for any being or thing 
 to create itself. We see this when we look at the works 
 of our own hands. Show a child a watch and tell it that 
 the watch made itself, and it would see the absurdity of the 
 statement in a moment. The supposition that any faculty 
 of the human mind or body originates its own power is 
 just as absurd. The organ does not create the power; nor 
 does the power of which it is the form and instrument origi- 
 nate in it. The power of seeing does not originate in the 
 eye. The eye of itself cannot see. The same is true of 
 every faculty of the material and of the spiritual body. 
 The organ is in itself merely a form for the reception of 
 power. We talk of the power of an engine ; when we do 
 it, we speak according to the appearance, and not with sci- 
 entific accuracy. The absolute truth is that the largest 
 engine has no more power than the smallest, and that is 
 none at all. It is made to receive and distribute power. 
 14 
 
210 THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 So it is with man in the spiritual as truly as in the mate- 
 rial plane of his being. He is organized to receive power 
 in manifold and miraculous ways, but not one particle of 
 it originates in himself. It is a constant gift to him by the 
 Lord ; but it is so given that it seems to be man's own. So 
 far as our consciousness is concerned, it is our own. We 
 cannot feel its currents flowing into us. It seems to spring 
 up spontaneously within and to make us independent 
 beings. 
 
 The distinction between this seeming and the genuine 
 truth is a most important one. It is the ground and pos- 
 sibility of all evil. All error and sin originate in mistaking 
 the appearance for genuine truth and acting upon it. Man's 
 fall from his original innocence was caused by this fatal 
 mistake. Every evil originates in claiming that as our own 
 which belongs to another, and this is the essential evil from 
 which we should pray to be delivered. We ought not to 
 attribute either good pr evil to ourselves. Power in itself 
 is neither good nor evil. It gets its quality from the use 
 we make of it. All power originates in the Lord. He is 
 omnipotent ; that is, He has all power, and there is no other 
 power but His. All the forces of nature and of human 
 beings, are the Lord's power working in and by means of 
 the forms He has created, and these forces are constantly 
 given. This is a truth we are slow to acknowledge. We 
 talk of the forces of nature, of the power of an engine, of 
 the strength of materials, of intellectual and moral power, 
 as though all these varied forms of force were inherent in 
 the forms which manifest them. We attribute to the in- 
 strument the power of the principal ; to the vessel the 
 precious substances which it contains. We forget the Cre- 
 ator in our admiration of His works. We claim for our 
 
THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 211 
 
 own the power which is His constant gift. Do you not see 
 the terrible danger that lies in this illusion ? Do you not see 
 how it begets pride, vanity, arrogance, self-love, the lust of 
 dominion ? Do you not see how it arrays man against man, 
 and causes suspicion, strife, hatred, and revenge ? When 
 we claim any intellectual or moral quality as our own, we 
 desire to have our claim recognized, to have our merits 
 acknowledged and appreciated. If they are not, we feel 
 injured, wronged ; angry and resentful feelings arise in our 
 minds. Why will not others respect me ? Why will they 
 not accord me the place to which my talents, my wealth, 
 my skill, my ancestry, my personal qualities or possessions 
 entitle me ? Does not this principle lie at the heart of all 
 the antagonisms and conflicts, all the pain and misery of 
 life ? Look into your own hearts, and watch the move- 
 ments of your own affections, and you will see. 
 
 Suppose, on the other hand, you saw and acknowledged 
 that every capacity of every kind you possess was the gift 
 of the Lord, would it not reverse all your ways of think- 
 ing of yourself and of Him ? You may be beautiful in 
 person ; instead of being vain of it you would be thankful 
 to the Lord for it. You may possess some peculiar talent 
 in which you excel many others. Did you create it? Did 
 you endow yourself with it ? No ; it is the Lord's gift, 
 and if you recognized His hand in it, instead of claiming 
 superiority for yourself, you would be humble and grateful 
 to the Lord for it. But the multitude will say we have no 
 special gifts of excellence or superiority over others. How 
 does the principle apply to us ? In this way. Every power 
 you possess is the Lord's free gift to you : it is His power 
 constantly operating in you. Take the lowest form of His 
 gifts, which multitudes regard as the highest. You can 
 
212 THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 enjoy a good dinner. Who gave you the power of taste? 
 Did you originate it? You can see and hear. Who formed 
 the eye and the ear and constantly gives them the power to 
 perform their functions ? You are a mother and love your 
 child. Did you endow yourself with this power ? You are 
 a mechanic. Who gives you the power to make a shoe or 
 to build a ship or an engine ? You are a merchant. Who 
 gives you the power to buy and sell ? You are an artist. 
 Whence comes your skill ? You are a student. Who gives 
 you the ability to learn, to remember, to know, to under- 
 stand ? The Lord, the Lord, and He alone. It makes no 
 difference through what channels the gift comes, it is the 
 Lord's. The smallest, the commonest, as well as the largest 
 and the rarest, is the gift of our Heavenly Father. Sup- 
 pose we kept this grand and living truth before us, and our 
 hearts were sensitive and quick to respond in every activity, 
 in every enjoyment, in every acquirement, " Thine is the 
 power" ! Would it not keep us near to the Lord? Would 
 it not fill our hearts with gratitude and draw us closer to 
 Him ? Would it not keep us under the shadow of His 
 protecting wings where He could guard us against all 
 harm ? Think of it as you go the round of your daily 
 duties. Think of it in the quiet joys of home. Think of 
 it in social and public life. Think of it in all you suffer or 
 enjoy, " Thine is the power." 
 
 But this phrase in the Divine prayer does not stand 
 alone : it is most intimately connected with what precedes 
 and follows it. The Lord not only gives us all the power 
 we possess but He desires to give us more. There is no 
 limit to the power He desires to bestow upon us, but it can 
 only be done according to the laws of His kingdom. His 
 kingdom is the method He has provided to bestow His 
 
THE LORD'S KIN&DOM. 213 
 
 gifts upon man, and there is no other way in which they 
 can be given or received. How can the Lord give us the 
 faculty of sight except by means of the eye, wliioh is one 
 of the provinces of His kingdom ? How can He give us 
 the power of hearing except through the ear, which is the 
 kingdom of harmony? How can He give us the power 
 of knowing in any other way than by the intellectual 
 faculties ; by memory, thought, reason, perception ? How 
 can He confer upon us the power of loving, with all its 
 joys and exquisite delights, without the kingdom of the 
 affections ? There is no other way. The Lord's kingdom 
 is the organized form and infinitely wise method by which 
 He bestows His blessings upon man. Only, therefore, 
 as we are inserted into this kingdom and become a part of 
 it, can the Lord bestow His power upon us. " I am the 
 vine," He says, " ye are the branches. He that abideth in 
 me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit ; for 
 severed from me ye can do nothing." All power and life, 
 all capacity for sensation, is as impossible to man when 
 separated from the Lord's kingdom as growth and the 
 production of fruit to the branch when severed from the 
 vine. 
 
 Evil is not power, it is weakness. Error is not power, 
 ignorance is not power ; they divert it, and destroy man's 
 capacity for receiving it. We know that this is true in 
 natural things, why can we not acknowledge it in spiritual 
 things ? We love power and desire to possess it. Why 
 cannot we see that the only way to gain it and enjoy it is 
 to put ourselves into orderly relations with the source of 
 it? The most stupid mechanic knows that he must keep 
 his wheels in connection with the motive-power or they 
 cannot do his work. The child knows that it must open 
 
214 THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 its eyes to see. Why should men and women, intelligent 
 in many ways, be so foolish and stupid as to believe 
 that the Lord can confer upon them the power of seeing 
 heavenly truths, and the charm, the grace, the bliss of 
 heavenly joys, when they close the gates of their minds 
 against the currents of the Divine forces which carry these 
 blessings in their bosom ? 
 
 We have no adequate conception of our capacities to 
 become the receptacles and embodiment of the Lord's 
 power. Our ideas of power are too material and physical. 
 There is a popular maxim that knowledge is power ; and so 
 it is in one sense, and in another it is not. Knowledge 
 does not create power ; it only shows us where to find it 
 and how to use it : how to adjust ourselves to its inflowing 
 forces. Knowledge does not create the power of gravity, 
 of steam, of electricity, of wind and wave. Herein we may 
 find a solution of what seems to be a contradiction and an 
 enigma. Our doctrines teach us that the more completely 
 we confess that we have no power of any kind, that it all 
 belongs to the Lord, the more powerful we shall become, be- 
 cause the Lord can give us more. Do you not see that this 
 is the condition on which every step has been taken in utiliz- 
 ing what we call the forces of nature ? The scientist and 
 inventor do not claim any of the forces of nature as their 
 own. They do not think of changing one of the laws of 
 nature. On the contrary, they direct their eflforts to dis- 
 cover what those laws are ; how natural forces act ; the 
 paths they love to follow ; their attractions and repulsions ; 
 and when they have discovered them, they adjust all their 
 movements and mechanisms to their immutable laws. Their 
 constant prayer is, " thine is the power," and their constant 
 desire iji to bring themselves into such lawful and friendly 
 
THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 215 
 
 relations to this power that it can become their own ; and 
 it does become their own just so far as they discover its 
 secrets and adapt themselves to its laws. 
 
 The same principle rules in the spiritual realm of the 
 Lord's kingdom. All spiritual power is the Lord's. All 
 the power to know, to love, to enjoy, is the Lord's, and can 
 only be communicated to man according to the immutable 
 laws of His kingdom. If we acknowledge this as the 
 scientist and inventor do in their plane of action, we should 
 become endowed with a spiritual power of which we now 
 have but little conception. If the prayer, " thine is the 
 power,'' was as genuine, fervent, constant, and practical in 
 the churches as it is in the halls of science, in the labora- 
 tory, and the workshop, they would become endowed with 
 a spiritual power which would soon make " the kingdoms 
 of this world the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." 
 They would gain finer and higher qualities of power. But 
 the love of self and the world will not say it. " Mine is 
 the power" is their constant claim and the cause of all 
 their weakness and their shame. Give up the claim ; it is 
 false. It is contrary to all the laws of the Lord and of 
 His kingdom. Confess in heart and thought, in speech 
 and deed, " thine is the power," and just in the degree you 
 confess it and desire that it should be so, will you become 
 the embodiment of spiritual forces ; of the power to know 
 the finer qualities of the Divine character ; to come into 
 more intimate relations with the Source of all life ; to be- 
 come imbued with a keen perception of the Divine goodness, 
 and a richer, larger, higher embodiment of Divine love and 
 wisdom. In our cold and torpid affections and feeble un- 
 derstandings we get but the faintest and feeblest idea that 
 there is infinite power at our service, power to overcome 
 
216 THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 evil, to see the true, to enjoy the good, if we will but ac- 
 cept it. Here we stand poor, blind, dumb, torpid creatures, 
 in the midst of an infinitude of riches offered for our ac- 
 ceptance ; in a world of light if we will open our eyes to 
 see it ; in a universe of harmony if we will lend our ears 
 to hear, and surrounded within and without by living forces 
 for whose reception we have only to open our hearts. We 
 will not go to the Lord that we may have life. 
 
 But we must pass on to a brief consideration of the next 
 truth revealed in our text. For thine is the " glory." What 
 is glory? How can we ascribe glory to the Lord? By 
 glory is meant Divine truth, because truth is spiritual light 
 which fills the heavens with splendor. There is nothing of 
 self-love, or of a desire to he honored and worshipped in 
 the Divine nature. The Lord does not desire to be wor- 
 shipped and to receive honor and praise from men for His 
 own sake, but for man's sake. When man is in humilia- 
 tion he is denying himself, he is laying down his life, he is 
 praying to be delivered from evil, he is opening his heart to 
 the Lord. When he does this he puts himself in the Divine 
 hands, and the Lord can fill his whole being with love and 
 light. " Glory for the sake of self," says Swedenborg, "is 
 grounded in self-love, and heavenly love differs as much 
 from self-love as heaven from hell, and infinitely more the 
 Divine love." Our Lord Himself says, " Herein is my 
 Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." To bear fruit 
 is to bring love to the Lord and man down into actual life, 
 and embody it in our words and deeds. Every man, how- 
 ever humble his position, however servile his work, is ascrib- 
 ing glory to the Lord if he acts from love to Him. Every 
 woman, however obscure her position and apparently trivial 
 her office, is praying " thine be the glory" in svery phase 
 
THE LORD'S KINGDOM. 217 
 
 of domestic and social life, if her heart is alive with love 
 from the Lord which she is in the effort to transmit to 
 others. A child honors its parents by learning their will 
 and acting in obedience to them. So we honor and give 
 glory to our Heavenly Father by learning His will and 
 doing it. We give glory to the Lord by receiving the 
 gifts of love and wisdom He is in the constant effort to 
 bestow upon us. He desires to bless us, and when we allow 
 Him to do it, we honor and glorify Him, just as we honor 
 and praise a human being when we help him to effect his 
 purposes. Therefore we offer this prayer when we receive 
 the Divine truth into our wills and understandings. Divine 
 truth is light itself; the more we receive of it the more lu- 
 minous we become. The wisest angels are the embodiment 
 of a glory which flows from them as light from the sun. 
 This light is so intense and powerful that weak and infe- 
 rior natures cannot bear it. Their faces shine with a glory 
 surpassing our conception. We sometimes see men and 
 women with luminous faces even in this world. The light 
 of love shines in their eyes and flows from every feature 
 even through the thick veil of the flesh. How dazzlingly 
 brilliant must be the faces of those who have cast off the 
 veil and who have become the embodiments of heavenly 
 light 1 We get a hint of the possibilities of the regenerate 
 spiritual body to receive and transmit the Divine glory from 
 the description of the angel of the Lord who descended and 
 rolled back the stone from the door of the sepulchre. " His 
 countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as 
 snow." 
 
 Such is the nature of the kingdom, and the power, and 
 glory of the Lord, and such are the rewards of ascribing 
 them to Him. It ia not, as you see, an unmeaning act ; it 
 
218 TSE LORD'S KINGDOM. 
 
 is not a mere motion of the lips ; it is not merely the hu- 
 miliation and denial of ourselves. That may be the ap- 
 pearance, but, in reality, it is becoming the kingdom ; it is 
 receiving the endowment of the Divine power ; it is be- 
 coming the embodiment of the Divine light, and shining 
 with it ; and it is the attainment of all these blessings for- 
 ever. 
 
 What are we to understand by that word, forever? Does 
 it mean without end? Yes; it implies that, and much 
 more. But, strictly speaking, it has no direct reference to 
 time. There is no time in the spiritual world. What, then, 
 does it mean ? Through the ages, — that is, from age to 
 age, from step to step, in our advancement through every 
 phase of life in eternity. We are to ascribe the kingdom, 
 the power, and the glory to the Lord, according to the 
 state of our love and the measure of our knowledge. The 
 more completely we can do this the more fully and per- 
 fectly we shall become His kingdom, be endowed with His 
 power, and illuminated with His wisdom. Amen. We 
 can say it easily with the lips. Can we say it with the 
 heart ? Can we say it with the understanding ? Can we 
 say it in our deeds ? Our life, and not our lips, will give 
 the true answer. 
 
THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW 
 
 " After this manner^ therefore, pray ye." — Matt. vi. 9. 
 
 Divine truth is revealed to us in the Sacred Scriptures 
 in a perfectly logical manner, and this order exists in the 
 Divine nature, and in all the Lord's works. It is the form 
 in which the human mind is organized, and according to 
 which all its developments proceed. The relations of ono 
 truth to another are those of cause and effect. This logical 
 sequence exists not only in the lowest plane of truth, where 
 one event is followed by another, but it is a progression by 
 distinct steps from inmost principles to outward effects. 
 The first truth revealed is the cause, the germ, and all the 
 particulars are evolved from that in orderly succession, as 
 we see in every act of creation around us. There is, " first, 
 the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." 
 The prayer which our Lord taught His disciples is not a 
 collection of unrelated petitions, like a book of maxims. 
 Their order could not be changed without breaking up the 
 
 219 
 
220 THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 
 
 coherence and weakening the spiritual force and life of the 
 prayer. There is very little evidence of this essential coher- 
 ence between one part and another in the letter of the 
 Word. Regarded from without, from a natural point of 
 view, there does not appear to be any essential connection 
 between the parts and the whole. Subjects are often intro- 
 duced which, in their natural meaning, have no relation to 
 what precedes or follows them. But this is owing to the 
 Divine manner in which the Word is written. The nat- 
 ural acts and objects mentioned are signs of spiritual truths 
 which are revealed by them. The connection exists in the 
 spiritual laws revealed, and the natural expressions are con- 
 nected by means of the spiritual laws embodied in them, 
 and not directly with one another. We find a perfect illus- 
 tration of this fact in every plant. The leaves, blossoms, 
 and fruit are not connected with one another by outward 
 contact, but by inward paths which originated in the 
 germ. 
 
 Such being the manner in which the Word is written, we 
 must try to get the central point of view and regard every 
 particular from that ; then we can see the relation of the 
 parts to the whole and the whole to the parts. We have 
 considered the various petitions of the Lord's Prayer sepa- 
 rately; let us, in conclusion, regard them in their con- 
 nections and relations, and get, as far as possible, a com- 
 prehensive view, collecting the rays of each particular truth 
 into a focus, and pouring the concentrated light upon all. 
 
 " Our Father." These are the first words, and they re- 
 veal the central truth. They direct the mind to the Divine 
 Person to whom we must direct our prayers, and in one 
 word teach us how to regard Him. He is our Father, 
 The idea is so familiar and simple that the little child can 
 
THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 221 
 
 gain some true conception of it, and so comprehensive and 
 profound that the highest angel cannot fully fathom and 
 exhaust it. It includes all parental qualities. It comprises 
 fatherhood and motherhood both. It teaches u.s that all 
 wise and provident care, all gentle and tender ministries, 
 originate in Him. It implies the deepest sympathy with 
 us in all our sufferings and sorrows, help in our needs, for- 
 giveness for our sins, and a love which changes not, and 
 which desires to give itself with all its infinite riches to 
 every human being. It is a conception of the Lord which 
 commands respect, wins our confidence, and tends to draw 
 out our affections to Him. He is our Father, not an almighty 
 and inaccessible sovereign. The little child can go to Him 
 with confidence and filial affection, ask its little blessings, 
 and pour its little, transient sorrows into His patient ear ; 
 the ignorant can seek wisdom, the forsaken and lonely can 
 find companionship, the widow and the fatherless protection 
 and help. 
 
 This idea of the kind, tender, loving, wise fatherhood of 
 the Lord must enter into our conceptions of all His relations 
 to us. Is He in every principle of His nature opposed to 
 evil and error ? It is our Father who runs to meet and 
 opens His infinite arms to the returning prodigal. Is He our 
 Judge? A father's love enters into every decision and 
 every sentence He pronounces. It is our Father whose 
 name we must hallow, for the coming of whose kingdom 
 we pray, whose will we seek to have done on earth as it is 
 in heaven. It is our Father, and not some cold and heart- 
 less dispenser of public charity, from whom we ask our 
 daily bread. It is our Father, loving, patient, forbearing, 
 tender, and true, and not some inexorable tyrant, whose 
 forgiveness we implore. It is a Father whom we beseech 
 
222 THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 
 
 to stand by us in temptation, and deliver us from evil. It 
 is a Father, our Father, to whom we ascribe all honor, 
 power, and glory, in all states and conditions of life. Could 
 we keep this loving, tender conception of the Lord in our 
 minds, so distinct and powerful that it dominated every 
 other, how delightful it would be to go to Him, to trust, to 
 obey, to love Him I 
 
 But we are taught to think of Him not only as our 
 Father, but as " our Father in the heavens," where we 
 hope to find our eternal home. We are not to try to think of 
 Him as some inconceivable essence above the heavens, but 
 as " our Father in the heavens." There is something more 
 important in this idea than merely locating Him in some 
 place. He is in every truth and affection which constitutes 
 heaven. He is in every pure affection, in every true 
 thought, in every good deed ; He is in every genuine good 
 we enjoy. He makes heaven. He is the soul and life of 
 all the sweet and lovely relations of the angels, of all their 
 glowing activities, their glorious conceptions of the Divine 
 nature, and the deep peace which fills their souls. Yes, 
 He is our Father in the heavens, and will be forever. 
 
 With this idea of God clear in our minds, and the love 
 which gives birth to it glowing in our hearts, we are pre- 
 pared to say, " Hallowed be Thy name." It is not a dead 
 formula ; it is the spontaneous expression of our hearts. 
 But what is the name of our Father in the heavens ? It 
 is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Divine Humanity which Je- 
 hovah assumed and by which He came into the world and 
 redeemed His children from the hand of their enemies and 
 saved them. Our Lord Himself declared, " I and my Father 
 are one ;" "I am in the Father and the Father in me ;'' " He 
 that hath seen me hath seen the Father." And addressing 
 
THE LORD'S PRATER, SUMMARY VIEW. 223 
 
 the Father, He says, " All mine are thine, and thine are 
 mine.'' By these words is expressed that reciprocal rela- 
 tion and personal unity which exists between the soul and 
 the body. In another place He declares, " The Father 
 dwelleth in me ;" " No man cometh to the Father but by 
 the Son ;" " No man knoweth the Father save the Son and 
 he to whom the Son revealeth Him." The Father and Son 
 are one person, as man's soul and body are one person; the 
 Father and Son are one God, as man's soul and body are one 
 man. The human nature assumed and glorified, or made Di. 
 vine, made one with the Divine, became the embodiment of 
 all the Divine qualities in a form adapted to human com- 
 prehension. The Divine as it is in itself is above all finite 
 consciousness. In the Humanity it is brought down to 
 human conception. This truth is perfectly illustrated in 
 man himself. His unclothed spirit is above the power of 
 the senses. The spirit must be clothed with a material 
 body before it can reveal itself to other human beings in 
 this world. The material body is the man on the material 
 plane of being. The spirit dwells in it, and it dwells in 
 the spirit. It can say to the spirit, all mine are thine, and 
 thine are mine ; no man can gain access to you but by me ; 
 my name is your name and your name is mine. 
 
 But name implies much more than an epithet applied to 
 the Lord ; it comprises all the Divine qualities, all the love 
 and wisdom of Jehovah, and the infinite variety of forms in 
 which they are embodied and manifested. To hallow our 
 Father's name, then, is to regard as holy and sacred all the 
 Divine attributes as they are revealed to us in Jesus Christ. 
 It is to revere His person, to cherish His spirit, to obey His 
 commandments, to follow His example. In doing this we 
 hallow our Father's name ; we open our hearts to the re- 
 
224 THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 
 
 ception of His love ; we receive His truth into our under- 
 standings, and we become more fully His children. 
 
 In the degree we hallow our Father's name His kingdom 
 will come, and we shall desire to have it come with increas- 
 ing power and glory. We regard as sacred the principles 
 which constitute His kingdom ; we love and adore the 
 Being who is establishing His kingdom in the world and 
 in human minds. In the degree we hallow our Father's 
 name we place ourselves in such relations to Him that He 
 can establish His kingdom in us ; we open our understand- 
 ings to the reception of the truths which constitute His 
 kingdom. Whenever we regard a truth as supremely pre- 
 cious, every faculty of our nature seeks it, welcomes it, and 
 cherishes it when gained. If it is a truth relating to our 
 business, which teaches us how to succeed, with what joy 
 we welcome it I How reverently we hallow it 1 How scru- 
 pulously we obey it I Suppose your father was sovereign 
 of a rich and powerful kingdom which you were certain to 
 inherit if you complied with some specified conditions. 
 How eagerly you would seek to know the conditions 1 and 
 when you had learned them, how faithfully you would pre- 
 serve and obey them 1 They are your charter, your guide 
 to power ; they are the paths by which the kingdom comes 
 to you. We can see how this principle operates in natural 
 things, and how prompt the natural man is to hallow the 
 name of every truth which will lead him to wealth and 
 power. The same law governs in the spiritual realm. Our 
 Father is a King ; He is King of kings and Lord of lords. 
 There are immutable conditions on which His kingdom will 
 come to us, and we shall be endowed with its riches, power, 
 and glory. The kingdom will come to us in the exact degree 
 we hallow the name of our Father. The coming of the king- 
 
THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 225 
 
 dom is the logical sequence and effect of hallowing the Lord's 
 name. 
 
 " Thy will be done on the earth as it is in heaven." The 
 Lord's will cannot be done until we know what it is. This 
 is revealed to us in the truths which constitute His king- 
 dom. We must, therefore, first learn the principles of His 
 kingdom before we can do His will. This petition, there- 
 fore, follows in logical order from the preceding one. The 
 Lord's will is His Divine love which is the purpose or end 
 He constantly seeks. His kingdom is the government and 
 order, and methods of His Divine wisdom. He seeks to 
 establish His kingdom that it may become the embodiment 
 of His love and the means of communicating it. He seeks 
 to have His will done on the earth as it is in heaven. The 
 Lord is in the constant effort to establish a heavenly king- 
 dom on the earth. Heaven is heaven from the fact that 
 the Lord's will is done in it. The societies of heaven are 
 organized according to the Lord's will. Perfect order, subor- 
 dination, and harmony reign there. It is the Lord's will 
 that we should love Him supremely and our neighbor as 
 ourselves. That is the law which reigns in heavenly so- 
 cieties. He teaches us to pray that it may be done in the 
 earth. 
 
 This law of the Divine order has a personal application. 
 The Lord teaches us to pray that His will may be done in 
 the natural mind and on the earth of the material body as 
 it is in the heaven of the spiritual mind. The Lord teaches 
 us to pray that heavenly love may imbue all our natural 
 affections, and purify and exalt them ; that heavenly wisdom 
 may guide our thoughts and control our actions in our busi- 
 ness, in our social relations, and in all the activities of 
 natural life. We are to pray to have the natural mind and 
 15 
 
226 THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 
 
 our material actions dominated by heavenly principles. The 
 practical and effective way to offer this petition is to apply 
 it to ourselves, and to begin to do our part of the work in 
 establishing the Lord's kingdom on the earth of our own 
 natural minds. As men and women do this, the Lord's 
 will will be done on the earth as it is in heaven. Civil 
 governments will be organized in a heavenly form and pub- 
 lic affairs will be conducted on heavenly principles ; domestic 
 and social life will be reduced to heavenly order, pervaded 
 by a heavenly spirit, and arranged in heavenly forms ; and 
 grimy, servile, exhausting, ill-requited labor, will be ani- 
 mated by heavenly motives and become a form of heavenly 
 use. 
 
 So far the petitions have looked directly to the Lord. We 
 have asked nothing specially for ourselves. We are first 
 raised to the highest, the inmost, the centre of all being, 
 and from that point we begin to descend by means of the 
 Divine Humanity, and according to the laws of the Divine 
 order, to the earth. We return from the Lord to man, but, 
 so far as we have offered the prayer with intelligence and 
 sincerity, we bring with us the fatherhood of the Lord, and 
 A reverent feeling for His holy name ; we have learned what 
 that name is, and we have gained a distinct idea of our 
 Father as a Divine man in the person of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. So far as we have gained any true knowledge of 
 His Divine character and purposes, we are prepared and 
 incited to ask that His kingdom may come and His will 
 be done on the earth as it is in heaven. If we have any 
 just conceptions of what this implies, of the immensa 
 changes which must take place in ourselves and in human 
 society before His will can be done, and our agency in 
 effecting it, we shall feel the need of Divine aid. 
 
THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 227 
 
 This leads us to pray, " Give us this day our daily bread." 
 As the Lord's will is done, we begin to see our dependence 
 upon Him, and our need of help. There is an immense and 
 difiBcult work put into our hands. It is the establishment 
 of a kingdom among a hostile people, against the power of 
 marshaled hosts, in the face of the most wily enemies ; it 
 is to be done with labor, and conflict, and pain ; with the 
 surrender of what we have held most precious ; we are to 
 take up the cross and even lay down our life. We have 
 occasion then to ask our Father to give us our daily bread. 
 As we begin to do our work in the establishment of His 
 kingdom, we shall gain a wider and higher idea of what is 
 meant by bread. The little child and the natural man may 
 regard it as food for the body only. But we shall soon dis- 
 cover that we need meat of a different kind of which the 
 body knows nothing, meat that will feed our souls, nourish 
 our affections and support us in our conflicts and labors in 
 preparing the way for the coming of our Father's kingdom. 
 As we begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness we 
 shall ask for the means of supplying our wants. As we 
 gain a truer knowledge of the Lord's kingdom and of our 
 relations to Him, we shall see that our life, and the means 
 of sustaining it, are a constant gift from Him, and we shall 
 go to Him with filial trust that He will supply our daily 
 needs according to their nature and degree. 
 
 The Lord's kingdom is to the natural mind as the sun to 
 the material world. As its organization advances and it 
 becomes established in our minds, its light dispels the dark- 
 ness which has brooded over them, and reveals the diseased 
 and disorderly conditions of our affections and the distorted 
 forms of our intellectual faculties. " The light shineth in 
 darkness." Our true condition and relations to the Lord 
 
228 TBE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 
 
 are revealed. We are confroated with the terrible fact that, 
 before we can really become the children of our heavenly 
 Father, bear His image and likeness and become heirs of 
 His power and glory, before we can hallow His name, be- 
 fore His kingdom can really come to us and His will be 
 done on the earth of the natural mind as it is in heaven, 
 there is a difficult and painful work to be done. This light 
 reveals to us powerful enemies to be combated, evil and 
 false principles to be eradicated, habits of thought and feel- 
 ing and action which have become organized in our nature 
 to be broken up. We awake to the fact that, instead of 
 being children of our heavenly Father, and legal heirs of 
 His kingdom, we are hopelessly insolvent debtors. Instead 
 of claiming rights and enjoying possession, we must humbly 
 supplicate for the forgiveness of our debts. Instead of being 
 raised to heaven and taking our places in the Father's king- 
 dom, of being clothed with princely apparel, and entering 
 with shining faces into its noble activities, we must humble 
 ourselves in the dust, we must confess our poverty, our in- 
 debtedness, our absolute dependence. Before the light for 
 which we prayed came, we thought we were rich ; now we 
 find ourselves utterly destitute. Elated with the love of 
 self and the world, we gloried in our independence ; now 
 we begin to see that we have no power of our own ; every 
 faculty and the ability to exercise it is a constant gift from 
 the Lord. Where can we turn ? What can we do ? What 
 else can we say than utter the Divine words which our Lord 
 puts to our lips, " Forgive us our debts" ? We are led to 
 it by a logic of cause and effect from which there is no 
 escape. 
 
 Suppose we have offered this petition with a sincere 
 desire to have it granted. The Lord begins to answer it ; 
 
THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 229 
 
 He begins to forgive us. But how ? In the way we have 
 asked Him ; in the only way it can be done, and that is, 
 " as we forgive our debtors." Now all our selfish and 
 worldly loves are aroused. The mind becomes the arena 
 of fierce conflicts. Wars are waged in it ; earthquakes 
 shake it ; tempests of passion sweep over it ; our hearts are 
 rent with conflicting emotions ; the mind is filled with con- 
 fusion and pain and despair. This was not what we prayed 
 for. We asked for forgiveness. We prayed to have our 
 debts cancelled, and to become a member of the Lord's 
 kingdom. We prayed for freedom and peace. Now we cry, 
 Lord, " lead us not into temptation." Save us from this 
 conflict and pain. " Deliver us from evil." 
 
 Could we hear His answer it would be, " I am forgiving 
 your debts; I am delivering you from evil. I am doing it in 
 the only way in which it can be done, four evil affections 
 stand between you and heaven, and they must be subdued ; 
 they are enemies which must be driven out of the promised 
 land befoie you can gain possession of it. The principles 
 you have adopted as the rule of life are false ; they are con- 
 trary to every law of my kingdom, and they must be rejected. 
 ' You cannot serve God and mammon.' Sins cannot be up- 
 rooted, and the hard ground of the natural mind prepared for 
 the seeds of heavenly principles without commotion and pain. 
 You are a captive ; you are in the hands of your enemies ; 
 you are a miserable slave, though they charm you by their 
 illusions and persuade you that you are free. They promise 
 you the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and 
 you have yielded to their enchantments. These illusions 
 must be dispelled, and you must be rescued frcm their 
 power before you can be delivered from evil. So long as 
 you are wholly in evil you do not come into conflict. But 
 
230 TBE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 
 
 when you seek deliverance from these enemies, then cornea 
 the conflict. My hand is in the struggle though you see it 
 not. The pain which rends your soul is caused by the strain 
 of heavenly forces withdrawing your affections from the 
 grasp of your enemies. I am answering your prayer. Yield 
 to me, and I will deliver you from all evil ; I will forgive 
 every debt ; I will create you into my likeness and image ; 
 I will make you my child and heir to all my riches. The 
 forgiveness of sin is not a remission of its penalties. It ia 
 the uprooting of its principles and the recreation of the 
 human soul." 
 
 Suppose this work to have advanced so far that you can 
 see its principles and necessary conditions. You see that 
 the Lord's kingdom cannot be established in the human 
 mind and His will be done on the earth of your own natural 
 mind, or in human society, until the kingdom of evil and 
 falsity is destroyed, and you begin to feel and to understand 
 your utter helplessness to do this work alone. You see that 
 you are a part of it ; you are enslaved by its illusions, and 
 subject to its dominion, and you can no more extricate your- 
 self from its bondage by your own unaided power than you 
 can change the organization of the material body, or the 
 nature of the human mind. You are helpless in the toils 
 of merciless enemies, and your Heavenly Father is the only 
 being who can save you. 
 
 What would be the spontaneous utterance of one who 
 understood the danger of his condition ; the impossibility 
 of escape from hopeless bondage by any power of his own, 
 and who saw his bonds gradually loosening, the illusions 
 disappearing, light breaking forth from the darkness, the 
 hope of freedom and joy dawning, and who knew the 
 Source from whence came his help ? Would it not be : 
 
THE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 231 
 
 " Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory" ? 
 I owe my deliverance, I owe all I have and am to my 
 Heavenly Father. 
 
 But the order and logical sequence of its parts is only 
 one of the wonderful qualities of this Divine Prayer. It 
 is a golden key which unlocks the doors of the inmost 
 closets of the mind and admits light and love from heaven. 
 Swedenborg's experience of the wonderful power of this 
 prayer is worthy of our attention, for his mind was con- 
 sciously open to heavenly influences and a knowledge of the 
 means by which they operate. The processes which go on 
 in the secret chambers of the mind may be the same with 
 others as with him, though we are not conscious of them. 
 " While I was reading the Lord's prayer, morning and 
 evening," he says, "the ideas of my thought were con- 
 stantly open towards heaven, and innumerable things flowed 
 in, so that I perceived clearly that the ideas of thought 
 conceived from the contents of the prayer were filled from 
 heaven. And such things were also infused, as it is im- 
 possible to utter, and also impossible for me to comprehend, 
 only I was sensible of the general affection thence resulting. 
 And what is wonderful, the things which flowed in were 
 varied every day. Hence it was given me to know that in 
 the contents of this prayer there are more things than the 
 universal heaven is capable of comprehending; and that 
 with man more things are in it in proportion as his thought 
 is open towards heaven." Does not this give us a glimpse 
 of the profound activities which may be going on in the 
 secret chambers of the soul when we enter the closet and 
 shut the door against selfish and worldly influences, and 
 open it to the Lord ? We pray to our Father in secret. 
 We use the words He has given us, and we make them the 
 
232 THE LORD'S PRATER, SUMMARY VIEW. 
 
 vehicle of the desires of our heart. We perceive no power- 
 ful eflFects ; the soul is not filled with exalted and glowing 
 affections, the understanding is not flooded with light, be- 
 cause the operations are in secret. And yet the ideas of 
 thought may be opened towards heaven, and innumerable 
 things may flow in ; influences may be exerted upon us 
 which will have a controlling power in this life to protect 
 us from evil and lead us to good. The highest forms of 
 the will and the understanding, which are the most sensitive 
 to the Divine forces, which give us our life, and which con- 
 tain within them the promise and potency of every human 
 endowment and attainment, are penetrated and imbued 
 with life, the germs of heavenly affections are implanted 
 in the will, and the power of perception, understanding, 
 and thought is deposited in the intellect. The Lord draws 
 nearer to us, gets a flrmer hold upon the primary motives 
 of life by means of which He can exert a more powerful 
 control over our actions. We may have no conscious knowl- 
 edge of these operations which are set in motion by a hum- 
 ble and reverent utterance of this prayer ; but the germs 
 of every good received in this act of communion with the 
 Lord will come out into distinct consciousness when we pass 
 into the spiritual world, and will give us new and larger 
 capacities for the reception of the Divine life, create new 
 forms, and add new charms to every relation and possession 
 through the endless cycles of the ages. 
 
 We teach this prayer to our little children as soon as 
 they are able to lisp it. It may not seem to us to be of 
 much use. They can have only natural ideas of its mean- 
 ing. But if we could see its real influence as revealed in 
 the writings of the New Church, we should regard it of 
 supreme importance. Speaking of the nature of an infant's 
 
THE LOnD'S PRATER, SUMMARY VIEW. 233 
 
 mind in the other life, Swedenborg says, " At several dif- 
 ferent times, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, there were 
 sent to me infants in choruses, and it was also granted to 
 me to read to them the Lord's prayer, and at the same time 
 it was given to perceive on such occasions how the angels 
 in whose consort they were insinuated into their tender 
 and novitiate ideas the sense of the things contained in that 
 prayer, and filled their ideas according to their capacity of 
 reception ; and afterwards how it was given to the infants 
 to think the same things as of themselves." Again he says, 
 " While I was praying, the Lord's prayer and infants 
 at the same time flowed into the ideas of my thought from 
 ♦heir intellectual faculty, which was so tender that they 
 "carce received anything but the sense of the words ; neverthe- 
 less, it was manifest that their ideas in that state of tender- 
 ness were open even to the Lord, — that is, from the Lord . 
 for the Lord flows into the ideas of infants in a moi<^ 
 especial manner from the inmost plane of their being, inas- 
 much as nothing has as yet closed their ideas, as with the 
 adult." 
 
 Do not these disclosures concerning the nature of the in- 
 fant mind withdraw the veil and show us the power of this 
 prayer, and the incalculable importance of teaching it to our 
 children ? While the mother with reverent and loving care is 
 teaching it to her child and hearing it repeated by its innocent 
 lips, angels are present who insinuate into its tender and sensi- 
 tive mind the sense of the things contained in that prayer. 
 A sphere of pure and heavenly influences flow from them 
 which tend to mould the child's spiritual nature into heav- 
 enly forms, and to awaken in all its faculties heavenly ac- 
 tivities. There is a power in this prayer of which we have 
 no adequate conception. It is composed of living truths in 
 
234 TBE LORD'S PRAYER, SUMMARY VIEW. 
 
 a heavenly order. These truths are vessels for the recep- 
 tion of the Divine life, and when incorporated into the 
 mind and cherished by the affections they are open to the 
 Lord. Life from Him constantly broods over them, and 
 according to their capacity flows into them, moulding them 
 into the Divine image and likeness, arranging them into a 
 heavenly order, and moving them to heavenly harmonies. 
 It comprises all we need, all we can ask for, from the least 
 to the greatest. It contains infinite things, because it is 
 the embodiment of all the Lord desires to give us, and all 
 that any created being can receive. Let us, therefore, teacli 
 it to our children ; let us study it in its particular and re- 
 lated meanings ; let us try to understand it, and to fill its 
 ideas with genuine aifection ; let us repeat it with reverent 
 hearts ; let us ask the Lord to teach us how to pray it in an 
 intelligent, fervent, and efficacious manner, that our aftee- 
 tions may be penetrated and purified and exalted by its 
 spirit, our understanding enlightened by its truth, ana :vi. 
 sotions guided by its wisdom. 
 
BV215 .G47"*" ""'^'''">' ^""""^ 
 
 ''^'^iHliiiiiPiimXmiii-ii.te.,,?.^?,''^'' : how answe 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 326 570