m ■ n • ''■•'• ■HB0BE m gifrmg 0f §mpm UNITED STATES OP AMEEICA. # C- $vf $ .A\ THE Model Prayer A Course of Lectures on the Lord's Prayer. By GEORGE C. BALDWIN, D.D., AUTHOR OF " REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN," " REPRESENTATIVE MEN, "SERMONS," ETC., ETC. BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD. 1871. V A* Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, By LEE & SHEPARD, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Rand, Avery, & Frye, Stereotypers and Printers, Boston. TO "THE YOUNG MEN'S COVENANT BAND," AND "THE YOUNG WOMEN'S COVENANT BAND," ©f tfje JFtrst Baptist Cfjurdj, GTroj, tf.g., UNDER WHOSE AUSPICES THESE LECTURES WERE DELIVERED, AND AT WHOSE REQUEST THEY ARE PUBLISHED, THEY ARE SPECIALLY DEDICATED. |)«;r J'R%r fo{rijr|r art in ty&bm, jjallobnb ht tjjg nana. &jrg hingfrom mxxxt. CJjjr toill fo irons in mxfy as it is in jjcabm &xbt ns tfris irag axxx bailjr bxeao. ^,no f0r0iir^ ns onr toots, as to* forgifxe onr ireotors. lino leao ns not into temptation, jjnt 0,dib*r ns from *oiI. r or fyxm is % kinojtrom, ano % notour, ano % glorg, for tbtx. OO^TE^TS, THE MODEL PRATER. What is proposed in this Course of Lectures. — Unbelief in Prayer. — The Christian Doctrine. — Lamentable Ignorance of it. — Con- firmations of Reason and Experience. — Bishop Taylor.— Tenny- son.— Henry Ward Beecher. — Analysis. — Origin and Design of the Lord's Prayer.— Why there is no Reference to our Lord himself in it, or to his Merit. — Ecclesiastical History. — Justin Martyr. — Tertullian. — The Unwritten History of this Prayer. — Its General Acceptance. — Prof. Muller. — Pope Pius.— Coquerel. — Maurice. — Its Influence on the Character of Washington. — Literature. — Booth the Actor. — "Bleak House." — Its Testi- mony to the Truth of the Bible and the Divinity of Christianity. — Its General Use.— Its Marvellous Depth, Breadth, and Capa- bilities. —Worthy of Fresh Study from the Stand-point of To-day 15 II. THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. Madame De Stael. — Mission of Christ. — Analysis. — Rev. Dr. Wil- liams. — What in God constitutes Fatherhood ? — Parentship. — The Development Theory. — Dr. Young. — The King of Prussia. — Providential Provision. — Love. — Poetry. — Human and Di- vine Fatherhood compared. — The Jew, the Priest, and the Christian. — Truths involved. — What constitutes Sonship in Us ?— The Vital Point. — Relation and Character. — Shakspeare. ' — A Lamentable Fact. — A Glorious Truth. — Regeneration a Spiritual Necessity. — The Experience of a Troy Officer in our 7 8 CONTENTS. late War. — Results of Christian Truth aud Grace.— Testimony of Paul. — Lei ghton. — Privileges of Childhood.— Witness of the Spirit. — Freedom of Access. — Special Promises. — Protection. — Corregio. — Special Duties arising out of Fatherhood in Him and Childhood in us. — "Dear Children." — The Father's House. — The Final Gathering at Home. — Caiaphas. — Transcendent Prospect. — Poetry 43 III. HIS NAME. Prof. Muller on Names. — Bible Use. — Exposition. — Socrates. — Plato. — Demosthenes. — Howard. — Garibaldi. — Exponents of Position. — Shakspeare. — Wordsworth. — A Blasted Name. — Outgush of Childhood. — The Prayer. — Dr. Barrow. — The Pro- priety of this Petition. — The Relationship. — Reason and Con- science. — Poetry. — Divine Requisition. — Influence of a Name. — Solomon. — God's regard for His Name. — Cardinal Buona- venture. — Our Welfare identified. — How His Name may be hallowed. — Influence of Words. — The Temple Chants. — Un- due Familiarity. — Profanity. — Prevalence of this Vice. — Rev. Dr. Chapin. — Hebrews and Heathen. — Washington's Order- Book. — The Heart. — The Law. — Jeremy Taylor. — Cyprian. — Luther and the Reformation. — Robinson of Leyden. — Our Lives. — Wider Range of Influence. — How Earthly Parents are honored or dishonored. — Pathetic Exclamation. — Recapitula- tion. — Prayer. — Rare Old Hymn, by Thomas Cotterel . . 73 IV. HIS KINGDOM. What is a Kingdom ? — Democracy. — The Three Kingdoms, — Mate- rial, Providential, Spiritual. — Rebellion. — Scriptural Use of 14 The Kingdom of God." — Elemental, Aggregate, Fruitional. — Leighton. — Is God out of, or G<>d u in Christ," King over the Soul-Realm? — Prophecies. — Prerogatives of Royalty claimed by Christ. — The Crown of Thorns. — Royal Proclamation. — Laws of His Kingdom. — Philosophizing about Soul-Duty.— Rights of Subject. — Hyacinth. — Manning. — Claims of the Pope. — Huss the Martyr. — Basis of Christian Union. — Character- istics. — Lawful Authority. — Rectitude. — Omnipotence. — Love. — Permanency. — Glory.— Nature of this Petition. — Can We CONTENTS. 9 pray It? — Dare we? — Extent of this Prayer. — The Mission- ary Spirit. — The Time of the Coming. — Reasons why it should come immediately. — Exhortation. — The Decree. — Opposition Futile. — Direction. — Nothing Lost. — Poetry. — Words of En- couragement. — Progress. — Maxwell. — Blood of Martyrs. — Na- poleon at Helena. — Wonderful Testimony. — The Crucified to be Universal Conqueror. — 1683 95 HIS WILL. Unity of this Prayer. — Logical Relation. — Vast Importance of this Subject. — What is the "Will" of any Being? — Law. — Mean- ing of "Testament." — Speculations concerning the Basis of Moral Obligation. — Newton. — Dr. Adam Clarke. — The Apostle John. — The Assumption of this Petition. — Fallacies. — True Theory. — Rebellion in the Soul-Realm. — Old Theologians. — Prophecy. — Testimony of New Testament. — Fatalism. — Testi- mony of Facts. — Philosophy of Religious Experience. — Why offer this Prayer? — Necessity of Divine Aid. — The Grace of Obedience. — Promises. — Augustine. — Sabbath-school Fact. — Baxter. — Archbishop Usher. — How Angels do His Will. — Our loved Ones in Heaven. — True Aim. — Submission to His Will. — G-ethsemane. — Example. — Our Gethsemanes. — Whom He loveth He chasteneth. — Augustine's Mother. — Shakspeare. — Invasion of Rome by the Huns. — The Best Soldier. — The Old Prophet. — Poetry. — The Inevitable Future. — The Happiest Man in the World. — Whittier's Hymn . . . . . .123 VI. DAILY FOOD. The Strongest Evidences of the Divinity of Christianity found in the Lord's Prayer. — Beza. — The Syriac Version. — Analysis. — As- sumption of Relation between God and our Daily Food. — Con- firmations of Faith. — The a priori Argument. — The Miracle. — Argument from Fatherhood. — Mysticism. —Materialism. — Wonderf ulness of the Human Body. — Bible View. — Nature and Extent of this Relation. — Paul at Athens. — Secondary Causes. - — Essentialities beyond Human Power. — Bishop Heber. — Story of a Scotch Pastor. — Ability to use Means. — Divine Warnings concerning Human Proclivity. — Providential Blessings. — Es- 10 CONTEXTS. tablished Laws. — Industry. — " Bread of Violence. " — Toil a Benefit to the Toiler. — Doubling the Grift. — Economy. — Les- sons Taught. — Daily Recognition of God. — Rebuke.— Solo- mon. — Moderation of Desires. — Causes of Disease. — Prayer of Agur. — A Merchant's Experience. — Distrustfulness of Provi- dence. — Inconsistency. — Extent of Promises. — Exhortation. — The Future Guaranteed 147 " VII. FORGIVENESS OF SIN. The Spiritual Soul-Realm. — Its Superiority to the Physical. —Cy- prian. - Spiritual Necessities. — Exegesis. — " Debts," " Tres- passes," and" Sins." — Reasons for preferring the Word" Sins." — The Subject of this Petition. — Human Philosophies. — What is Sin? — A Condition and an Act. — Decision of the Supreme Court. — Universal Fact. — Truths about "Our Sins."— The two Propulsions. — The Object of this Petition. — Our Lord's Ad- vice. — Courses which Men propose. — Heaven's Anthem. — Two Mysteries in the Divine Government. — Atonement Defined. — The Real Gospel. — P re-requisites to the Acceptable Offering of this Petition. — Realization of Sin. — How a True Understand- ing of the Lord's Prayer is adapted to produce such Realizations. — Two Questions. — What to do if we have no Sense of Sin. — What to do if we have. — Precious Promises. — Their Certain Fulfilment. — Encouragement. — "Flee as a Bird to the Moun- tain." ... 175 VIII. THE LIMIT OF OUR PLEA. The General Law of Limitation. — Its only Exception. — Its Applica- tion to this Petition. — The Beneficent Justice of this Limitation. — Gospel Illustrations. — Poetry. — A Serious Difficulty. — Its Explanation. — Forgiving but not Forgetting. — Frederick the Great. — How God Forgives. — Shakspeare. — What disposes and enables us to do this. — German Infidels. — " The Grace of a Beaten Hound." Treating Others as they treat Us. — The two Antagonistic Spirits. — What it is to be a Christian. — Poetry. — A Colonel in our Army. — The Test. — Scripture Testimony. — Importance of this Christly Spirit. — Condition of our own Par- don.— Effect of Unforgiven Sin. — Poetry.— The Unforgiving CONTENTS. 11 Unforgiven. — Enjoyment and Usefulness dependent. — The Heathen Philosopher. — Pliny. — Shakspeare. — An Unknown Writer. — Solomon.— Sir Matthew Hale. — Archbishop Cran- mer. — Desales. — Dryden. — Subjective and Objective Power. — What broke a Wicked Soldier's Heart. — God's Ordination . 199 IX. TEMPTATION. Difference in Words as spoken by Different Persons. — The Fact which invests this Petition with Deepest Interest. — Exposition. — Double Meanings. — Adam. — Abraham. — Perplexing Diffi- culty. — Positions assumed. — Direct Relation of God to our Temptations. — Probation. — Bishop Butler. — Hezekiah. — Providential Arrangements for testing Character. — Aaron Burr. — Primitive Fathers. — The Two-fold Design. — A Charleston Banker. — Dr. Chapin. — Job. — David. — Indirect Relations of God to our Temptations. — Hebraistic Mode of Speaking. — Moral Necessity. — Elements within Us. — Process of Tempta- tion. — St. Bernard. — Alchemy of Depravity. — Dangers with- out.— Power of the Devil. — Social, Business, and Political.— Startling Facts.— What shall be done ?— A Little Child. — Poe- try. — Realization of Danger. — Pray this as never before. — Encouragements. — The Great Exemplar. — Promises. — Keep- ing out of the Way of Temptation. — Best Society to be Sought. — Warnings from Experience and the Bible 228 DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL. Epitome of Christian Experience in the Lord's Prayer. — Evidence of Forgiveness. — Augustine. — What is Evil? — A Condition and an Experience. — Relation between Sin and Misery. — Im- portance of this Petition. — World full of Evils, but only One Essential Root. — Dr. Barrow's Exhaustive Statement. — Unbe- lief of Men. — The "Ruined Man." — Commercial Nomencla- ture. — Deduction of Reason. — Testimony of God. — Poetry. — Inability for Self-deliverance.- Struggles of Humanity. — Cae- . sar. — Byron. — Rev. Dr. Williams. — Experiences of the Best of Men. — Encouragements. — That He taught us thus to pray who cannot err. — His Sympathy. — Quotation from Dr. Wil- 12 CONTENTS. liams.— Divine Ability to Deliver. — The Title given God Sev- enty Times in the Bible. — The Columbia River as described by the United-States Expedition Party. — The Help that never failed. — Poetry. — So Many have been Delivered. — Their Testi- monies to the Efficiency of Grace.— The Lion of the Tribe of Judah. — Promises 249 XL THE ARGUMENT. Ascending and descending a Mountain. — Is this a Portion of the Original Prayer ? — Omissions in Manuscripts. — Reasons for re- ceiving this. — Syriac Versions. — Greek Liturgies. — Calvin. — Causal Preposition. — God has always permitted Arguments in Prayer. — Elijah. — Jehoshaphat. — Job. — Leighton's Fine Fig- ure.— Unity and Logical Force of the Argument. — Analysis. — Points in the Argument. — God's Sovereignty. — The Roman's Boast. — The Ecumenical Council. — Fulfilment of Prophecy. — Danger from Democracy. — Divine Almightiness. — Deifica- tion of Nature. — Argumentative Power. — Alexander the Great. — The Logical Culmination. — Divine Glorification the Ultimate. — The Conqueror's Reply. — The Crowning Chapter. — The Closing. — "Amen." — Martin Luther. — Concluding Words. — Depths Unreached. — Need of Gracious Aid. — Address to Prayerless People. — The Judgment. — Sorrow against the Day of Sorrow. — The Prodigal. — Final Words to those who do pray 275 THE MODEL PRAYER. " &fter tijis manner, therefore, prag ge.' Matt. vi. 9. LECTURES ON TIE LORD'S PRAYER. THE MODEL PRAYER. " Our God is a Spirit; and they who aright Would perform the pure worship He loveth, In the heart's holy temple will seek with delight That Spirit the Father appro veth. Bernard Barton. rj^RAVELLERS who are about to examine -L a renowned edifice, rare in its architect- ure, venerable from its antiquity, and rich in its associations, before entering its portals are wont to take views of its external features. So let us, who propose to study the sacred structure of " The Lord's Prayer," before passing within its hallowed precincts, occupy ourselves, for the present, with considerations more or less external to it, and preparatory to our future examination of its contents. 15 16 THE MODEL PRAYER, I. The object before us is a Prayer, only a Prayer, and one with which we have been familiar since our childhood. Are there those who say, " We do not believe in prayer at all : we hold that all things are controlled by unchangeable laws; that Deity himself is immutable, and that therefore all prayer is useless " ? I will not stop to notice the bitterness of the reflection which such utterances cast upon the character of our Lord Jesus Christ, who set us the example, and taught us the duty, privilege, and manner, of prayer; but content myself, in this connection, with merely stating what the Christian doctrine concerning this subject is. The general ignorance in regard to it is lamentable. Most of those who reject this doctrine do not know what it is ; at least, such is the result of my observations. Chiefly because science teaches that all events are linked to adequate causes, and that the relation between such causes and effects is unchangeable, therefore these objectors con- clude that there is no place left for prayer in the economy of human life. THE MODEL PRAYER. 17 But what will such say when told that the Christian doctrine is, that in the spiritual world it is an immutable law, enacted by the immuta- ble God, that he will hear and answer accept- able prayer ; that he has established just such an unchangeable relation between praying and receiving as we find between sowing and reap- ing in nature, or between effort and success in business; that between prayer as a cause, and its answer as an effect, exists the same connec- tion as is found obtaining between causes and effects elsewhere in the world ? Whatever may be said in reply to this state- ment of our belief, it seems just to insist, that the objections referred to do not hold against the true Christian theory of prayer, but are based upon ignorance of it, and are, consequently, as unreasonable in our day as were the gibes of Voltaire, the sneers of Gibbon, or the sophistries of Hume, in a former period. Moreover, the Christian theory of prayer is confirmed by Tmman experience. One of the profoundest thinkers in America has said, " The best answer to all objections against prayer is found in the fact, that, in certain circumstances, 2 18 THE MODEL PRAYER. man in all ages, in all relations, in all degrees of civilization, has prayed; that in circum- stances of need he cannot help praying: his nature spontaneously cries out for God." With this basis in revelation and experience, nothing can be more rational, appropriate, or beautiful than prayer. Why, what is this exercise ? It is the act of a creature bowing before the Creator ; the finite supplicating the Infinite ; the subject doing homage to his King ; the child addressing his Father ! What is it ? It is the uplift of thought, the plea of the heart, the outgo of desire, the cry of need, the aspiration of hope. It is dependence bowing before sovereignty ; ignorance seeking knowledge from wisdom ; weakness imploring strength from omnipotence ; gratitude acknowledging mercies from supreme beneficence ; sorrow pouring its griefs into the' ear of infinite compassion ; conscious guilt ask- ing pardon from boundless mercy. Bishop Taylor beautifully remarks, " Prayer is the key to open the day, and the bolt to shut in the night. But, as the clouds drop the early THE MODEL PRAYER. 19 dew and the evening dew upon the grass, yet it would not spring and grow green by that con- stant and double falling of the dew unless some great shower, at certain seasons, did supply the rest : so the customary devotion of prayer, twice a day, is the falling of the early and the latter dew ; but, if you will increase and flourish in works of grace, empty the great clouds some- times, and let them fall in a full shower of prayer." Friend, whatever you may think, I tell you that it is one of the sublimest facts of the spirit- ual world, that God is the " hearer of prayer; " that, to millions of the most intelligent of earth, prayer is the vital breath of their spiritual na- tures ; that its efficacy is to them a matter of personal consciousness. 6 True piety has found friends in the friends of science ; and true prayer has gone up from lips wet with Castalian dew." Say what men may, think what they will, the world's thinking associates 'prayer fulness with goodness. No one understood this better than the wicked Charles II., who planned that the Englishmen who visited him on the Continent should overhear 20 THE MODEL PRAYER. him praying in his closet : they were thus de- ceived into forming a wrong estimate of his true character. The most intelligently devout of all lands say, with Tennyson, — " More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of. ... For what are men better than sheep or goats, That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not holy hands in prayer, Both for themselves and those they call their friends ? For so the whole round earth, in every way, is Bound by golden chains around the feet of God." But do any say, " We are entirely familiar with ' The Lord's Prayer : ' we have repeated it hundreds of times ; and it therefore seems in- credible that we should be much interested in it now " ? Do any ask, " Why did not the preacher select some more popular, more sensational subject for a course of lectures? " To this I reply, that the preacher has preached too long, and had too much experience, to care much for merely sensational effects ; that his THE MODEL PRAYER. 21 view of the pulpit is, that it has higher minis- tries than to cater to a desire for them. As to your familiarity with ' this prayer, all I care to say just here is, that, if you patiently accompany me through its exposition, I hope to show you that it has higher heights, deeper depths, broader and more comprehensive ranges of truth, than you have dreamed of. You are all familiar with flowers, trees, leaves, stones, rocks, water, clouds, sky, and stars ; and yet science can show you, in the smallest as really as in the greatest of these, wonders of wisdom, power, and goodness which will amaze you. Henry Ward Beecher has said, " I used to think the Lord's Prayer a short prayer; but, as I live longer and see more of life, I begin to believe that there is no such thing as getting through it. If a man, in praying it, were to stop at every word until he had thoroughly comprehended and prayed it, his lifetime would be consumed. 1 Our Father : ' there would be a wall one hundred feet high in just these two words to most men. ' Thy will be done : ' you say to f ourself, ; Oh ! I can pray that ; ' and all the time your mind goes round and round in im- 22 THE MODEL PRAYEB. mense circuits and far-off distances ; but God is continually bringing the circuits nearer to you, till he says, ' How is it about your tem- per and your pride? How is it about your business and daily life ? ' This is a revolu- tionary petition. It would make many a man's shop and store tumble to the ground to utter it. Who can stand at the avenue along which all his pleasant thoughts and wishes are blossoming like flowers, and send those terrible words, ' Thy will be done,' crashing through it? I think it is the most fearful prayer to pray in the world." Look for a moment at its grand proportions, and you will see a justification of Mr. Beecher's words. Firsts we have our attention directed to the Being to whom prayer should be addressed, — to Giod, in the glory of universal fatherhood. Thus our Lord in a single utterance demolishes Atheism, which says there is no God ; and Pan- theism, which denies his personality ; and Posi- tivism, which at best ignores his existence ; and Epicurism, which teaches that God has no care for his creatures ; and Polytheism, which affirms that there are many gods. THE MODEL PBAYER. 23 Next) we have three facts in relation to Him brought before us, — His name, His kingdom, and His will. Then, we have three truths descriptive of our own state, — Our physical necessities, Our spiritual needs arising out of our sins, and Our dangers. Finally, we have presented the sublime argu- mentative ascription which ought to go tip from all souls to God. It has been well said that " this prayer embodies a catholic spirit, developed in 6 Our Father ; ' a reverential spirit, in 4 Hallowed be thy name ; ' a missionary spirit, in ' Thy king- dom come ; ' an obedient spirit, in 4 Thy will be done ; ' a dependent spirit in ' Give us, this day, our daily bread ; ' a penitent and forgiving spirit, in ; Forgive as we forgive ; ' a cautious spirit, in 6 Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil ; ' an adoring spirit, in its sublime ascription, ; Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.' " 24 THE MODEL PRAYER. II. The Origin and Design of the Lord's Prayer. — Strictly speaking, this is not his prayer; for he never prayed it, and indeed could not do so, because he was sinless. The prayer which he offered as his own is recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel. That he alone could offer. It is emphatically his. This is his only in the sense of being originated by him, as part of his spiritual in- struction to us. As such, it is inestimably precious; for while prayer is an instinctive exercise of our moral natures, as well as the subject of a divine command, humanity has always felt it to be one of the most difficult as well as one of the most solemn services it ever tries to perform. Mankind have felt the need of guidance and instruction in order to pray aright; for we may pray wrongly, just as we may do any thing else wrongly. And herein is found the reason for the common failures in praying: " Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss." Accordingly, before the advent, numerous forms of prayer were in use among the Jews. Indeed, it came to pass that every great reli- THE MODEL PRAYER. 25 gious teacher drew up prayer-forms for his followers. Hence we read, "that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." In compliance with this request, our divine Teacher pointed out what must be avoided in acceptable prayer. He specifically warns his disciples against the publicity, ostentation, repeti- tion, and "much speaking," which were so preva- lent in the prayers of Pharisees and Scribes ; and then added, " After this manner pray ye." It has been affirmed that this formula given by our Lord was merely selected from existing forms of Jeivish prayer. Such is not the truth. De Wette has well observed, that " it derogates in no way from the Lord's Prayer that it em- bodies and expresses devotional ideas which had been breathed into pious souls by the Holy Ghost, and used by them in prayer." Indeed, under the circumstances, this is just what we would expect. The fact is, that our Lord demonstrates the identity of true piety in all ages by gathering up and unifying the inspired petitions of the saints of the Old Testament, 26 THE MODEL PRAYER. and casting them in the mould of his own divine mind, stamping them with the impress of his own originality, as the model of prayer for the saints of the New Testament. There- fore it is that we can trace the former use of each of these petitions singly, or of their dis- tinct ideas, — doctrines which are here embodied into one sublime whole. It may interest you to hear the direct proof of this. " Our Father who art in heaven : " in Isa. lxiv. 8 we read, " O Lord ! thou art our Father ; " in Eccles. v. 2, " God is in heaven." "Hallowed be thy name:" Psa. xlviii. 10, " Ac- cording to thy name, O God ! so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth." " Thy kingdom come : " Psa. xxii. 28, " For the kingdom is the Lord's : and he is the governor among the nations." " Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven : " Psa. xl. 8, "I delight to do thy will, O my God ! " Psa. ciii. 20, " Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word." " Give us, this day, our daily bread : " Prov. xxx. 8, " Feed me with food convenient for me." " And forgive our sins: " THE MODEL PRAYER. 27 Exod. xxxiv. 9, " Pardon our iniquity and our sin." "As we forgive those who sin against us : " Lev. xix. 18, " Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people ; but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- self." " And lead us not into temptation : " Gen. xxii. 1, " Audit came to pass that God did tempt Abraham." " But deliver us from evil : " Psa. 1. 15, " Call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." " For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." 1 Chron. xxix. 11, " Thine, O Lord ! is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine ; thine is the kingdom, O Lord ! and thou art exalted as head above all." We thus find the identical ideas, which are scattered disconnectedly through these and hundreds of similar passages, gathered up, and incorporated into this one brief, yet all-compre- hensive prayer. To the accomplishment of such a project, none but Immanuel was ade- quate. Just as in the production of a perfect plant or tree, God does not create new elements, 28 THE MODEL PRAYER. but only combines those already existing, and produced by himself, so our Lord constructed the model prayer out of divinely originated doctrine, already familiar to his people, because they were all that were needed to that end. WHAT WAS OUR LORIES DESIGN? Did he purpose to initiate the use of set, in- variable forms of prayer ? Was this " the first instalment of a liturgy " ? Did he design to prepare the way for that custom, which so largely prevails, of. never offering any but written prayers ? Did he even intend that this prayer "should be perpetually used ? Instead of answering these questions directly myself, I prefer to present some facts, and leave you to answer them yourselves. 1. On another occasion, recorded in the eleventh chapter of Luke's Gospel, our Lord is reported, by that evangelist, as giving the same prayer in substance, with important changes and omissions, which I shall notice at greater length hereafter. Does not this imply that he designed this to be " a model rather than a mould " ? THE MODEL PRAYER. 29 2. In neither of the Gospels is there a record of this prayer having been used on a single occa- sion by any one of the disciples. 3. On other occasions, he gave additional in- structions as to the matter of prayer. In noth- ing was he more explicit than in teaching that it must be offered in his name. " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." " If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." " Hitherto, ye have asked nothing in my name : ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." Now, in the prayer before us, there is no allu- sion to his name at all ; and this fact, taken in connection with the above specific instructions, proves to my mind that he designed in it merely to give an illustration of the manner of accepta- ble prayer. 4. In neither the Acts nor Epistles of the New Testament is there the record of the use of this precise form, or even of any allusion to it, or other forms. The learned Dr. Alford, himself devoted to a liturgy, says, " It ij very improbable that the Lord's Prayer was regarded 30 THE MODEL PRAYER. in the very early ages as a set form, delivered for liturgical purposes by our Lord." 5. It is affirmed, by those who have made the most thorough researches into ecclesiastical histo- ry, that such an expression as " reading prayers" is not found in the records of the first four cen- turies of the Christian era, and that the posture of primitive Christians would seem to make it an impossibility ; for " They stood with arms crossed on their breasts, their heads back, and their eyes often closed." Dr. Spring says, " The most eminent ritualist the Church of England has produced for an hundred years confesses that the public services of the primitive church were all performed extempore, or memoriter, and that no one office was reduced to writing until the fourth century." Justin Martyr, in describing the worship of the second century, says, that " The officiating minister offered up prayer and thanksgiving ac- cording to his ability. In the same century, Ter- tullian says, " We pray without a monitor, be- cause we pray from the heart." With these facts before us, I submit to you that our adorable Lord's design is obvious. He THE MODEL PRAYER. 31 would illustrate the difference between the man- ner of spiritual prayer and the cold formalities which were so popular. They were obtruded on public attention : such must not be the method of true prayer. Jews generally prayed with their faces towards the temple ; while it was a common thing for Pharisees to arrange it so that their fixed times for prayer would find them on the corners of streets or other public places, where they " might be seen of men," during their devotions. They were ostentatious; the true prayer must be humble, reverential, and devout. They were vainly repetitious ; this must be com- prehensive, but sententious. They were long, employing "much speaking;" this must be brief and reverent. Thus our Lord warns against the two great evils in prayer, — the " vain ostentation of hypocrites," and " the vain repe- tition of the heathen." Behold, then, the Christ-model, " after " which our prayers should be formed ; the " manner af- ter " which we ought always to pray. • III. Meditate upon the unwritten history of this prayer. Eighteen hundred years have passed away since, on a hillside in Palestine, it fell 32 THE MODEL PRAYER, from the lips of Him " who spake as never man spake ; " and, during all these centuries, it has been a mighty power among men. No other portion of the Bible has obtained such general acceptance as this. Other portions have been assailed by fierce criticisms, and have given rise to bitter controversies ; insomuch that it has been said, that the Bible is like the plains of Europe, — it has had a battle upon almost every chapter. But so slight has been the criticism on this ; so general has been its acceptance by all sects, all churches, orthodox or heterodox ; so impressed has the world been with its sublimity, beauty, breadth, and appropriateness to souls everywhere, — that, amid all ecclesiastical storms, wranglings, and oppositions, it, with unchallenged sacred- ness, has moved down the ages, like a sacred psalm, breathing blessings upon the generations, and constituting a point of almost universal har- mony and unity. In fact, time, change, prog- ress, development, only discover new richness and fresh adaptability to human needs in this inspired petition. Prof. Miiller, in his " Science of Language," says, " The Lord's Prayer was published in 1548 THE MODEL PRAYER. 33 in fourteen different languages by Bibliander ; in 1591, in twenty-six languages by Roccha ; in 1592, in forty languages by Megiserus ; in 1593, in fifty languages, by the same author. Pope Pius IX. lately made a distinguished marquis of England a present of a copy of this prayer, printed in two hundred and fifty differ- ent languages and dialects. It has attracted the attention of both states- manship and scholarship throughout modern Europe and America. Dr. Williams says, "Co- querel, an eloquent Protestant preacher of Paris, a member of the Constituent Assembly which framed the last political constitution of that country, published, not long since, his discourses on ' The Lord's Prayer,' with an evident bearing, throughout his remarks, upon the theories of social reform which have been so eagerly and boldly presented by some of the thinkers of his nation." In England, numerous are the writings pub- lished upon this subject ; among the older of which are those of Jeremy Taylor, Barrow, and Leighton. Among the later is a volume by Rev. F. D. 8 34 THE MODEL PRAYER. Maurice, professor in King's College, London, and lecturer at Lincoln's Inn, — a' position which brings him in connection with the bar and bench, where are found some of the mightiest intellects of the realm. In Paulding's " Life of Washington," we are informed that his noble mother daily read to her household the " Contemplations of Sir Matthew Hale." That book has a long and interesting series of meditations upon the Lord's Prayer ; and it has well been said, that how much of the sobriety, balanced judgment, calm dignity, and stern religious virtue, which shone so serenely amidst the fierce conflicts of the Revolution from the character of our great chieftain, were due to the influences of those sweet, sacred reflections, only the revelations of the final day can disclose. Could the full history of mankind be truly written, it is believed that all would be amazed at "how much of earth's freedom and order and peace would be found to have distilled through quiet and secret channels from the full and exhaustless fountains of this single prayer. It has hampered the wickedness which it THE MODEL PRAYER. 35 did not" altogether curb ; and it has nourished individual goodness and greatness in the emi- nence of which nations and ages have rejoiced.' ' Of its intrinsic power to arrest general atten- tion, and move the universal heart, we are poor judges, simply because of our familiarity with it, and our ignorance of its capabilities. In illustration of this, I give you the following incident, whose truth is vouched for by one of the leading journals of our country. In the palmy days of the great Booth, before his genius had been marred by dissipation, he was invited by a pious old gentleman in Balti- more to dine. The host, though disapproving of theatre-going, had heard so much of Booth's wonderful powers, that curiosity overcame his prejudices ; and his invitation was cordially given and accepted. After dinner, lamps were lighted, the company seated in the drawing- room, and Booth was requested as a special favor to repeat the Lord's Prayer. Slowly and reverently he arose, and became pale, while tears gushed to his upturned eyes. The silence was profound, almost painful ; until at last the spell was broken, as if by an electric shock, as 36 THE MODEL PRAYER. his rich-toned voice, from white lips, Syllabled forth " Our Father which art in heaven," &c, with a pathos and fervid solemnity that thrilled all hearts. He finished. The silence con- tinued. Not a voice was heard from the rapt audience, until from the corner of the room a subdued sob broke the silence ; and the old gentleman tottered forward with streaming eyes, and, seizing Booth by the hand, in tremu- lous accents exclaimed, " Sir, you have afforded me a pleasure for which my whole future life will be grateful. I am an old man, and have repeated that prayer every day since my boy- hood; but I never heard it before, — never." " You are right," responded Booth : " to read that prayer as it should be read has cost me the severest study and labor for forty years; and I am far from being satisfied with my ren- dering of that wonderful production. Hardly one in ten thousand comprehends how much beauty, tenderness, and grandeur can be con- densed in a space so small, and in words so simple. That prayer of itself illustrates the truth of the Bible, and stamps upon it the seal of divinity." U 4 THE MODEL PRATER. 37 Perhaps the most pathetic passage in the vo luminous writings of Dickens occurs in " Bleak House," where he describes the death of poor, neglected " Jo." The dying boy exclaims to his companion, " ' It's turned wery dark, sir ! Is there any light a-comin' ? ' It is coming fast, Jo.' 'Jo, my poor fellow ! ' " i I hear you, sir, in the dark ; but I'm a- gropin', a-gropin' : let me catch hold of your hand.' " ' Jo, can you say what I say ? ' " ' I'll say anythink as you say, sir ; for I knows it's good.' " ' Our Father,' — " ' Our Father : yes, that's wery good, sir.' " ' Which art in heaven,\ — " ; Art in heaven. Is the light a-comin', sir?' " ' It is close at hand. Hallowed be thy name.' " c Hallowed — be — thy ' — 44 The light is come upon the dark, benighted way. Dead ! " Oh, what a history this immortal utterance 38 TEE MODEL PRAYER. has had ! It has been uttered by the budding lips of thousands of children in every age ; and it is breathed from thousands of households every day. O man, my brother ! you may not pray at all now. Years and years may have passed since you bowed knee or soul before your God. Per- haps you sneer at prayer now; perhaps your lips are soiled by profanity now : but you can never, never forget, how, when you were a pure, innocent little boy, you knelt beside your mother's knee, and when, with her soft hand on your head, she taught you to say, " Our Father which art in heaven." This prayer has been offered by stalwart manhood, fair womanhood, and decrepit age. It has gone up to God from beneath the crown and the helmet, as well as the mitre. It has ascended from palaces and dungeons, as well as the home of poverty and the churches of Christ. It has been prayed in almost every clime, — from mountain-tops and from valleys, jungles and deserts, villages and cities, and from many, many points on seas and heaving oceans. From amid the perpetual ices of the THE MODEL PRAYER, 39 north and the sweltering heats of the south, from the bamboo huts of the Orient and the log-cabins of the Occident, it has been wafted to heaven ; and in all the future of time, through the progress of the world and all the developments of humanity, it will hold its divinely-appointed place, and be the Christ-model of acceptable praj^er, immutable in its unity, inexhaustible in its variety, and universal in its adaptability. Such, friends, is the subject to which I shall ask your protracted attention. Could one have been selected embodying more of intelligent religious interest, or permanent profit ? Famil- iar as you may be with it, perhaps you have never made a study of it ; but I submit to you, that its intrinsic merit makes it eminently worthy of studious attention, and that it is due its divine Author and ourselves that we patiently inves- tigate it from the luminous stand-point of to- day. n. HIS FATHERHOOD. "<&ux JFatfjer fofjtcfr art in p!eaben." Matt. vi. 9. THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. " O Father-Eye, that hath so truly watched, O Father-Hand, that hath so gently led, O Father-Heart, that by my prayer is touched; That loved me first, when I was cold and dead ! ■ Still do thou lead me on, with faithful care, The narrow path to heaven, where I would go, And train me for the life that waits me there, Alike through love and loss, through weal and woe." MADAME DE STAEL, one of the most eminent of French women, has been quoted as saying, that "if the Founder of Christianity had done no more than to teach the human race to bow before one God, and all pray, ' Our Father who art in heaven,' he would have conferred an inestimable boon, and given proof of the divinity of his religion." It would be difficult to compress more truth in the same space than is here embodied. Such was the sublime ideal of our Lord Jesus Christ. He saw humanity disintegrated on 43 44 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. earth, and alienated from heaven. He saw in the darkened human mind false conceptions of God ; and, in the human heart, selfish isolation from its own kindred. Combining in himself both the divine and the human, profoundly in sympathy, therefore, with God and with man, he came to re-unite men with, each other and with their common Father. As one means of securing this end, he taught them to pray, " Our Father," &c. ; and the divine adaptation of this means to that end will impress us more and more as we study this sacred composition. Analyze with me the opening sentence, which alone is before us now. Observe the title we are here taught to ascribe to God. It is not Creator, Preserver, Governor, but "Father." How touchingly, tenderly, expressively beautiful ! This, I think, is the sweetest name, after "mother," in our language. It takes years of growth and of experience to enable us to comprehend, in any good degree, what " Father " means. Thus we have, at the beginning, the father- hood of God recognized. THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 45 Next observe that we are taught to pray, not my, but " our Father." Here our selfish- ness receives its first rebuke. Thus our. Lord teaches us to acknowledge the brotherhood of humanity, and, when we pray, to place ourselves in vital relation to it and say, "Our Father" An old divine has said, "These two words comprehend the law and the prophets, inasmuch as this recognition of fatherhood in God implies love towards him ; and this recognition of brother- hood implies love to our neighbor as ourselves." Finally, we have the character and special residence of our Father revealed. " In heaven " implies both of these ideas. It reveals him as subject to none of the limitations and frailties which are necessarily associated with the best types of earthly fatherhood, — as " heavenly "in his nature and character. Moreover, with the idea of a father i$ con- nected the idea of a home ; and this phrase re- veals to us that his abode is not amid the mutabilities of this changing world, but amid the eternal immutabilities of heaven. And surely the Father's home ought to be the object of chief interest and desire to his children. 46 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. . By this analysis, then, you see Divine Fatherhood recognized, Human Brotherhood acknowledged, and The Character and Home of the Father revealed. Rev. William R. Williams, D.D., in com- menting on these words, remarks, " They may be regarded as grouping together the three principles which settle man's just relation to this world and the next, — the filial, the frater- nal, and the celestial; for, though we are now of the earth, we were not originally from it, nor are we to be forever upon it. We are of heaven, and for heaven; for there, and not here, our Father is ; and, where he is, our true home is." By this method, you readily perceive that we have discovered by far too much truth for one lecture. I am therefore compelled to pass by all else, and speak to you only of the father- hood of Grod, and some of the truths which it involves. I. What in him constitutes his fatherhood? With every distinct divine title, distinct truths are associated. What are associated with this ? THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 47 1. He is out Parent, — the Originator of our existence. He is " our Father," because " we are his offspring," — a fact which is affirmed of no other existences. Of us alone it is said with respect to God, that " he is the Former of our bodies, and the Father of our spirits." While mere creation does not necessarily involve fatherhood, still, of humanity, and of humanity alone, the Triune God said, " Let us make man in our image ; " and "in the image of God created he him." All other inanimate and animate forms were created after ideals in the divine mind ; but man was made in God's own likeness. Humanity came direct from Divinity, trace its origin back as far as you please. Human life is not, therefore, as some scientists of our day would make out, a mere develop- ment from lower phases of animate existence, but a direct creation, bearing the image of the Creator ; with a body erect, whose brow faces the sun ; and with a soul endowed, in a finite degree, with the very powers possessed by the divine Parent in an infinite degree. 48 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. Verily, as to original endowment, every soul is divinity in miniature. Hence the poet sang, — " How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful, is man I How passing wonder He who made him such ; Who centred in our make such strange extremes ! From different natures marvellously mixed I Connection exquisite of distant worlds ! Distinguished link in Being's endless chain I Midway from nothing to the Deity ! A beam ethereal, sullied, and absorbed ! Though sullied and dishonored, still divine ! Dim miniature of greatness absolute ! An heir of glory ! a frail child of dust ! Helpless immortal ! insect infinite ! A worm ! a god ! " This transcendent fact invests our -humanity with imperishable interest. It encircles it with a glory that gathers not around a material world. Verily, whatever the color of his skin, whatever the nature of his circumstances, whatever the degree of his culture, whatever his moral character, every human being may look upon all other human beings, and say, THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 49 " Have we not all one Father ? " Deny it who may, ignore it who may, the tremendous fact remains, that, as to origin and endowment, every man was " made in the similitude of God," and is a child of the All-Father. The story is told of the King "of Prussia, who, welcomed by the school-children, asked, " To what kingdom does this orange belong ? " — " Vegetable." — " To what does this gold coin belong ?"—■•" Mineral." — " To what kingdom do I belong?' The child waited a moment, and replied, " To God's kingdom, sir ; because God created man in his own image." The answer touched the king's heart. This corresponds with the universal confession recorded by Isaiah : " We are all unclean ; we do all fade as a leaf : but still, O Lord ! thou art our Father. We are the clay, and thou our potter ; and we are all the work of thine hand." 2. With this title are associated ideas of provision for and protection over offspring. A parent who should withhold these, you would all say, was no father. " In Him we live and move, and have our being." Re built this world for our temporary 50 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. dwelling-place. He fitted it up in order to administer to our necessities and enjoyment. All things above, beneath, around, were made for us. Hence each may sing, — " For me kind Nature opes her genial power, Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower ; Annual for me the grape and rose renew The juice nectareous and the balmy dew ; For me health gushes from a thousand springs ; For me the mine ten thousand treasures brings ; Seas roll to waft me, suns to light me rise, — My footstool earth, my canopy the skies." And all this is merely the materialized thought of our Father's care for his children. It is his power acting upon dead matter, through laws of his own enacting, that "cover- eth the heavens with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth ; " " maketh grass to grow for the cattle, and herbs for the service of man, and bringeth food out of the earth ; " causeth " his sun to shine upon the evil and the good," thus demonstrating, that " in his hands is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind," and justifying the title, given him THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 51 thousands of years ago by the man of Uz, when with gratitude he exclaimed, " thou Preserver of man ! " How wonderful is his paternal providence over the world ! What prodigious power it must take to uphold all things in such marvel- lous equipoise ! What infinite wisdom it must require to maintain the precise proportions of the elements which constitute the air we breathe, and the water we drink, so as to keep them healthful, and preserve them from becom- ing deathful ! What constant supervision it must demand, in order to produce, in every lati- tude, just what is needed by his children who live there ! What a perpetual outflow of om- nipotence must be requisite in order to keep the complicated and delicate machinery of the world from becoming disordered, from wearing out, or breaking down ! Verily, in the richness of his providential provision for, and sheltering pro- tection of, mankind, he is " our Father." 3. Finally, with this title is associated more than parentage or protection. It requires the idea of tender love and yearning interest in offspring to fill up our conception. 52 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. He who should merely provide for and extend protection to children might be a parent; but he would not be worthy of the sacred name of father. Our heavenly Parent not only makes such ample providential provision for the necessities and comforts of his children, not only extends over them the broad protective shelter of his care, but he loves them, feels for them, with a depth of yearning solicitude which none but a God can feel. His works, his laws, his gospel, are the demonstration of the reality and tenderness of this. All the forms of pitying, sympathizing, appreciative affection found in the purest type of earthly . fatherhood are developed in his character and dealings with us, in measures beyond our full comprehension. These three ideas, then, Parentage, Protection, and Affection, constitute fatherhood in God. Pause now, and, combining these ideas, and applying them to the attributes of the divine nature, behold how resplendent fatherhood in THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 53 him is ! Is lie spiritual and eternal, omnipo- tent and omniscient, immutable and immacu- late ? Is he infinite in love, justice, and truth ? O wondrous fact! then fatherhood impreg- nates, envelops, directs, and subordinates all these to its beneficent purposes. Think of the best human father in the whole world, — the most loving, the kindest, wisest, wealthiest, and most powerful ; and, precious, beautiful, noble as he is, what is he compared with our Father in heaven? Only what shadow is compared with substance, the temporal as compared with the eternal, the finite as compared with the infinite ! For myself, when I think of him merely as Creator, I am confused with ideas of omnipo- tence. When I think of him merely as provi- dential Controller, I am overwhelmed with con- ceptions of wisdom and general beneficence. When I think of him merely as Law-giver, su- preme Ruler, and Judge, I am inspired with awe ; but when Christianity reveals to me his father- A(w^, and teaches me that I and all my brothers and sisters, however poor, weak, and unworthy, may look up and pray, " Our Father which art in 54 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. heaven," then my whole being is subdued, melted, until it penitently bows and adores. Krummacher relates the following fact, which is deeply interesting in this connec- tion : — " A Jew entered a Parsee temple, and beheld the sacred fire. He spake . to the priest : 4 How ? ye adore fire ? ' — ' Not the fire/ answered the priest, ' it is the image of the sun, and its quickening light.' — ' Then,' asked the Jew, ; do ye worship the sun as your deity? Do ye not know that he is but the creature of the Almighty ? ' — c We know that,' replied the priest ; ' but sensitive man requires a sensible sign to comprehend the Highest : and is not the sun the image of the invisible and incomprehensible Fountain of Light, which sustains and blesses all things ? ' Then the Israelite answered : ' Do your people, then, discern between the image and the original? They call the sun their God, and descend from him lower still, kneeling before an earthly flame. You charm their opt ward, but blind their inward eye, and, whilst placing before them the earthly light, withdraw from THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 55 them the heavenly. Thou shalt make no image or likeness.' " c How do you describe the Supreme Being ? ' asked the priest. " The Jew answered, 4 We -call him Jehovah - Adonai ; that is, the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come.' " 4 Your word is great and glorious,' said the Parsee ; ' but it is terrible.' " Just then a Christian joined them, and said, ; We call him Abba, Father.' " Then the heathen and Jew looked at one another with wonder, and said, ' Your word is the highest and nearest. But who gave you courage to call the Eternal thus ? ' " ' Who else,' said the Christian, ' but he, the Father himself?' Upon this he declared to them the mystery of the manifestation of the Fathej in the Son, and the word of reconcilia- tion ; and, as they heard this, they believed : and, raising their eyes to heaven, they spake, full of fervor and devotion, 4 Father, beloved Father ! ' And then they joined their hands, all three, and called themselves brethren." 56 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. II. Truths involved in this doctrine. 1. Fatherhood in him involves childhood in us. Most assuredly if he is " Our Father," we are his children. As we have seen what constitutes the former relationship, let us now inquire what constitutes the latter. By virtue of the facts that we are his off- spring, provided for by his providence, and are also the objects of his affection, a natural rela- tionship is established ; but I submit to you, that there may be — there often is — the mere nat- ural relationship of offspring between man and God without their possession of any of those moral qualities which go to make up the true character of children. There are human fathers and mothers — God pity them ! — whose hearts are full of bitter sorrow because their offspring neither exhibit nor possess any of the charac- teristics of true childhood. Mournfully they cry, " Our sons and daughters are no children to us." What do they mean ? What did our adorable Lord mean, when he said of certain Jews, " Ye are of your father, the devil; " and when he said to his own disciples, " Love j T our enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 57 them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father ivho is in heaven"? or, when it is said, " He came unto his own, and his own received him not ; but unto as many as received him, unto them gave he power to become the sons of Grod, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God ? " I answer, by calling your attention to the fact, that childhood stands for both a relation and a character, just as we have seen that fatherhood does. Let us now inquire what these elements are which constitute the character of children. 1. Recognition of fatherhood. Is not this essential? Can you conceive of any one being worthy of the name of a child who voluntarily and habitually ignores his rela- tion to his parent ; and who, even when that parent is full of goodness, and is daily loading him with benefits, and manifesting the tenderest interest in his welfare ? Still suppose, that per- sistently, in thought and action, he lives as if he had no parent, — suppose such an one should 58 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. thus not merely refuse to recognize the relation, and fail to develop gratitude in view of it, but in every way practically deny this relationship, — would you not all say, " He is no child " ? Nothing is more despicable than ingratitude. Hence Shakspeare makes King Lear exclaim, — « Ingratitude ! thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou show'st thee in a child, Than the sea-monster." " How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child ! " Is not this precisely true of mankind? Do they not voluntarily, habitually, and persist- ently ignore fatherhood in God ? Are there not multitudes who in their hearts say, " There is no God " ? and multitudes more whose phil- osophies deny both his personality and all present relationship on his part toward us. and, who, of course, never thank him for any of his mercies ? Of such, — and their name is Legion, — it is, alas ! true that they are " without God in the world." 2. Love of the Father is another element of THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 59 childhood. All must admit this. Is he worthy of the name of child who neither feels nor ex- hibits any affection for the author of his being ? But, suppose, that instead of possessing or ex- hibiting love for his good father, he should possess and exhibit hatred, opposition, antagon- ism toward him, — what then ? You say that would be horrible ; that would be not only un- childlike, but diabolical: yet this is precisely the case with our depraved humanity toward God. Is it not true, that, naturally, the " love of God is not in us ; " but that we find within us a dislike of his holiness, — in our u carnal minds " enmity toward his spirituality, and in our obdurate hearts rebellion against his will, which have made us " aliens," even " ene- mies " ? 3. Submissive obedience is the last of these elements I care to mention. Who denies this ? No one will maintain that willing obedience to the righteous will of a righteous father is not essential to the character of a child. Then, solemnly I ask, how have we acted, in this regard, toward our Father ? Is it not consciously true, that mankind practically 60 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. deny his authority, and that human nature, in all the ages, has said with Pharaoh, " Who is the Lord, that I should obey him " ? It is the testimony of every record of the past, that disobedience has characterized the whole history of our fallen race ; that God's will has been resisted, his law violated, his love spurned, his invitations slighted, his threat- enings disregarded. Thus we see that as, Parentage, Protection, and Affection, in Grod constitute his Father- hood, — so Recognition, Love, and Submission in us are requisite to constitute spiritual childhood. And so we reach two important truths, the one glorious, the other lamentable, viz., — Fatherhood has remained perfect in him ; but the character of childhood has departed from us. Hence that infinitely pathetic exclamation of our God, "If I am a Father, where is mine THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 61 honor ? " " Hear, O heavens ! and be aston- ished, O earth ! for I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me!" From these considerations, two conclusions follow, — First, oftentimes the Lord's prayer is offered by those who are incapacitated for more than a mere utterance of its words ; for they are utterly destitute of the characteristics of spiritual child- hood which are essential to its acceptable use ; and therefore it must be to him as " sounding brass," or " tinkling cymbal," — it must be sheer, heartless, cruel mockery of his father- hood. Next, the pressing need of a spiritual change in the human soul becomes apparent. Our divine Lord, we now see, did not utter an arbitrary command, but stated a spiritual necessity, when he said, " Ye must be born again ; " for by these words he only indicated such a change as would free our natures from their alienship and rebellion against him, and restore to them'that grateful recognition of love for, and submission to, "our Father," which 62 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. constitutes spiritual childhood. Oh, what an era that is in the history of a human soul, when it is quickened to a realization of this truth ! — when it sees the necessity expressed by our Lord, who said, " Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into * the kingdom. of heaven ! " In illustration of this, I give you a fact which transpired during the late war, in connection with members of our own congregation, the parties to which are our personal friends. An officer of the Troy regiment which was cap- tured at Harper's Ferry, while on his way with the regiment, which had been parolled, from Baltimore to Chicago, wrote the following to his devoted Christian wife : " Oh the grandeur of the Alleghany Mountains ! — the power of the Creator, as seen in their formation, and the still greater power displayed in the production of man, — a being capable of conceiving and executing the gigantic design of crossing these huge mountains by means of the subdued and controlled elements of fire and water ! I found myself in tears before this display of the works of the Deity. Then I read in my Bible of the THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 63 wondrous works of the same God, and was again melted. But, oh ! I have seen the Deity in his mysterious majesty in Nature ; I have seen him presiding in gracious providence on the battle-field : but, alas ! / have not seen him as my Father, — I have not felt toward him as a child. Oh for the simplicity of faith, the character of a child ! God give it to me." Friends, the workings of Christian truth and grace produce exactly this experience : it makes us children in character ; its birth-cry is, " Father." So that, whilst creation at- tached us to God, and the fall detached us from him, regeneration re-unites us to him ; and when the spirit of adoption within us cries, " Abba, Father," then, oh, then, with an emphasis, a meaning, a fulness, a tenderness, a lovingness, we never dreamed of before, we tremulously but joyously exclaim, " Our Fa- ther which art in heaven ! " See you not now what the apostle meant when he said, " Ye are children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus; " and when he said, " God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem those who were under the 64 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. law, that we might receive the adoption of sons ; " and what mystery of grace he unfolded, when, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, he speaks of God's " having predestinated us unto the adop- tion of children, by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved " ? Thus you see how scripturally truthful this sentence of Leighton is : " The sonship that emboldens us to draw near unto God, as our Father, is derived from his only-begotten Son. He became the Son of man, to make us anew sons of God." Because of our connection with him, we cry, " Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not. Thou, O Lord! art our Father, our Redeemer \ from everlasting is thy name." Another truth involved in this doctrine relates to the privileges which are associated with father- hood in God and childhood in us. All that was lost by the loss of our spiritual character is restored; for, " where sin abound- ed, grace doth much more abound." " The THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 65 ■ Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God ; and, if children, then heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Freedom of access to him is ours at all times, and in all places. " We would no longer lie Like slaves beneath the throne : Our faith would ' Abba, Father/ cry, And then the kindred own." Special promises are ours. "I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord God Almighty." " Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ? Yea, she may forget ; yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands ! " " Like as a Father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." Is there one among you who will not join me in exclaiming, " Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God"? "Beloved, now are we the sons of God \. and it doth not yet 5 66 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. appear what we shall be : but we know, that, when he shall appear, we shall be like Mm ; for we shall see him as he is." " Beneath his watchful eye, His saints securely dwell : That hand which bears all nature up Shall guard his children well. " Why should an anxious load Press down your weary mind ? Haste to your heavenly Father's throne, And sweet refreshment find." Corregio stood before a grand painting, en- raptured; and as he gazed, grasping the sublime conception, amazed at the wondrous execution and coloring of the picture, ex- claimed, " Thank God ! I, too, am a painter." So, when a Christian looks steadily at what it is to be children of our Father, with sublime thrills of joy he can say, " Thank God ! I, too, am a child of the Lord God Almighty." O children of God ! let us recognize, love, and ohey ' our Father ' with our whole ransomed and renewed natures ! Let us submissively bow to his will, submit to all his dealings ; for " we THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 67 have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us ; and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of our spirits, and live f They, verily, for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure ; but he for our profit, that we might be par- takers of his holiness." Among those who really are his children, there may and do exist different degrees of the child-spirit. Some are better " children," than others, — more con- stant in their recognition of dependence upon the fatherhood of God, more deep and fer- vent in their love, more implicit in their obedience. What hind of children are we ? Is our recognition of him dim and infre- quent ? Is our love faint and fickle ? Is our obedience spasmodic and unwilling? In his Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul says, " Be ye therefore followers (imitators) of God, as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savor." Who "dear children" are, we all know. And, while a parent loves all his children, still, do not such excite in him peculiar affec- 68 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. tion ; and are not such sources of peculiar joy ? Let us not, then, beloved, rest satisfied with merely possessing the elemental character, but study, strive, and labor to become worthy of the title of " dear children" of our infinitely good Father. Finally, project your thought into the future, as you remember the purpose of " our Father " to gather all his children together in his own house of many mansions. His " family " is one. Verily, — " One family we dwell in him, One church above, beneath ; Though now divided by the stream, The narrow stream, of death. " One army of the living God, To, his command we bow : Part of the host have crossed the flood, And part are crossing now. K Some to their everlasting home This solemn moment fly ; And we are to the margin come, And soon expect to die." The chief priests in council, devising means to resist the triumphant Messiah, heard deeper THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. 69 truth than they dreamed of, when Caiaphas,the high priest, "prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation ; and not for that nation only, but that he also should gather together in one the children of Grod which are scattered abroad." They are scattered abroad over the whole earth now ; but he has been gathering them " together in one " heaven, — one Father's home, — during all the ages; and he has promised, " Fear not; for I am with thee : I will bring thy seed from the East, and gather thee from the West. I will say to the North, give up ; and to the South, keep not back : bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, — even every one that is called by my name ; for I created him for my glory. I have formed him ; yea, I have made him." Oh, transcendent purpose ! Oh, glorious, in- effable prospect ! Oh, gathering of gatherings ! when the saints of all ages in harmony meet, when the children all get home, when all are safely sheltered in the house not made with hands, — "the building of God, eternal in the heavens," — where " there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying : neither shall 70 THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. there be any more pain ; for the former things are passed away, and they shall go no more out forever." " My Father's house on high ! Home of my soul ! how near At times, to Faith's foreseeing eye, Thy golden gates appear ! Ah ! then my spirit faints To reach the land I love, — The bright inheritance of saints, — Jerusalem above. Yet clouds will intervene, And all my prospect flies : Like Noah's dove, I flit between Bough seas and stormy skies. Anon the clouds depart, The winds and waters cease ; While sweetly o'er my gladdened heart Expands the bow of peace. I hear, at morn and even, At noon and midnight hour, The choral harmonies of heaven ; Earth's Babel-tongues o'erpower. Then, then, I feel that he, Bemembered or forgot, The Lord, is never far from me, Though I perceive him not." frtfrn*^ EI. HIS NAME. Matt. vi. 9. HIS NAME. " Him in whom they move and live, Let every creature sing ; Glory to their Maker give, And homage to their King. Hallowed be his name heneath : As in heaven, on earth adored. Praise the Lord in every breath ; Let all things praise the Lord." IN his work on the " Science of Language," Prof. Max Miiller says, " Analyze any word you like, and yon will find that it expresses a general idea, peculiar to the individual to which it belongs. What is the meaning of ' moon ' ? The measurer. Of 4 sun ' ? The begetter of earth. The primitive idea of a 4 name,' " he adds, " is preserved in our language, in the actual signification of the word. For name, and its kindred terms, — nomen in Latin, o-nom-a in Greek, and nama in Sanskrit, — are derived from a root, which is in fact the same as the 73 74 HIS NAME. English word to know." " Name," therefore, means that by which any thing or being is known. You readily perceive the relation of this quotation to the theme before us, " The name of God." It denotes his attributes, is identical with his character, stands for himself, is that by which he is known. All familiar with the Bible must remember how it everywhere hallows the name of the Deity. On Mount Sinai, " The Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with Moses, and pro- claimed the name of the Lord, — the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth." The Psalmist prayed, " The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble ; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee." " For thy name's sake, O Lord ! pardon my iniquity." " Do not abhor us, for thy name's sake." " We will remember the name of the Lord." " Save me, O God ! by thy name, and judge me by thy strength." " I will wait on thy name." " The name of the Lord is a strong tower." " They that know thy name will put their trust in thee." In Isaiah we read, " Behold the name of the Lord . HIS NAME. 75 cometh from afar, burning with his anger." In Micah, fourth chapter, we read the remarkable words, " We will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever." In our Lord's memorable prayer, he ex- claimed, " I have manifested thy name to the men that thou gavest me out of the world." And when an apostle wrote, that Go.d the Fa- ther had given to his dear Son " a name that is above every name," we understand him to affirm, that the Father recognized the divinity of the Son, and the propriety of paying divine honors to him. With these scriptural references before us, we are prepared, I trust, to study the petition, Hallowed be thy name." ;; I. Let us attend to its exposition. " To hallow " means to make holy, to conse- crate, to treat as sacred, to honor, and devoutly reverence. You perceive that this old Saxon term substantially means just what the more common word " sanctify " expresses. I think, however, that we are aided in getting at the radical signification of this word by a reference 76 HIS NAME. to the Greek, of which it is a translation. Our Lord used the word " ayiuaOrftw" which is com- pounded of " a " negative, and the Greek word for " earth." Thus we see that its radical mean- ing is, "not of earth," — above the earth, exalted, magnified, hence religiously reverenced, held sacred, adored. Therefore our petition saith, "Hallowed be thy name ; " because, as we have seen, God's name stands for himself : it distinguishes him from all other beings and all imaginary gods. Moreover, a name often stands for character. " Socrates has almost no personality ; but he signifies philo- sophic common sense. Plato means pure thought and imagination ; Demosthenes, eloquence ; Cato, stern integrity ; Nero, cruelty; Napoleon, military genius ; Washington, patriotism ; Howard, philan- thropy; Graribaldi, the friend of the common people." Thus we see that names epitomize his- tories and characters. Accordingly we speak of some who have great, and of others who have small ; of some who have good, of others who have bad ; of some who have honored, of others who have dishonored, names. Such titles indicate the positions men occupy in society, in their HIS NAME. 11 business, literary, political, and religious rela- tions ; and so it comes to pass, that in no way- can you harm a man more than by injuring his name. Shakspeare truly says, — " Good name, in man or woman dear, Is the immediate jewel of their souls." And Wordsworth as truly wrote, — " Who swerves from innocence, who makes divorce Of that serene companion, a good name, Recovers not bis loss ; but walks with shame, With doubt, with fear, and haply with remorse." But what specific name or title is here referred to, which, as the exponent of so much, is to be "hallowed"? In the opening phrase, a title had been applied to God which is intwined with the dearest associations of the human heart, — " our Fa- ther; " and, in the same sentence, he taught us to pray, "hallowed be thy name," — that name of the infinite God which bathes the whole array of his attributes in the mellowed glory, tender radiance, of fatherhood ! 78 HIS NAME. Thus expounded, you see in this petition the first outgush of a soul, which, by the spiritual experience of Christianity, has become a child of God in character ; one who has received the spirit of adoption whereby he cries a Abba, Father ; " one in whom recognition of, love for, and submission to the divine fatherhood have been produced ; one out of the depths of whose nature, as spontaneously as perfume from a flower, or light from the sun, springs the ador- ing exclamation, " Hallowed be thy name ! " Finally, there is in it also a prayer, that by all beings, in all places, and at all times, this pre- cious name may be thus reverenced, honored, held sacred, adored, " hallowed." Dr. Isaac Barrow thus developed the meaning of this petition, " By a rare complication, this sentence doth involve both praise and petition ; doth express both our acknowledgment of what is, and our desire of what should be. We do, I say, hereby partly acknowledge and praise the super-eminent perfections of God above all things, in all kinds of excellency, joining in that seraphical doxology, ; Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty ! ' and we do HIS NAME. 79 also declare our hearty wishes, that he may be everywhere had in the highest veneration ; that all honor and praise, all duty and service, may, in a peculiar manner, be rendered to him by all beings ; that all minds may entertain worthy opinions of him, — all tongues speak his praise, all creatures obey his will, adore his name, and wor- ship him in sincerity, with zeal and fervency.*' II. The propriety of this petition. The follow- ing considerations will, I trust, make this suffi- ciently apparent : — 1. Natural justice dictates that fatherhood should be honored, hallowed, by childhood. Does it not ? Think of this relationship. The father is the author of the very existence of the child : he supports, sustains, and protects it during all the years of infancy and youth. His love for and interest in his offspring is deep, tender, self-sacrificing, and perpetual. Ought not, therefore, the child to honor, reverence, hallow, that father's name ? Verily, reason and con- science affirm that not to do so is unnatural, — a high crime against Nature. If this be so with regard to the merely human 80 HIS NAME. relationship, how much more ought it to hold true in regard to our relationship to God, of whose fatherhood we have seen that the high- est earthly type is only a weak and imperfect shadow? We all feel that Shakspeare may be pardoned for the seeming exaggeration, when he says, — " To you, your father should be as a god ; One that composed your beauties : yea, and one To whom you are but a form in wax, By him imprinted, and within his power To leave the figure, or disfigure it." Then, assuredly, he who is (rod, and is our Father, ought to receive the highest veneration of which we are capable : his name ought to be 44 hallowed " to the full degree of our capacity. 2. He requires it. Nothing is more commendable in men and women, especially the young, than care for, watchfulness over, solicitude about, their names in the communities where they live ; for, as we have seen, their names are the exponents of themselves, — the indices of their reputations. Thus understood, as their names are held, so are HIS NAME. 81 they honored or dishonored, influential or unin- fluential, sought or avoided. As are their names, so are their social, intellectual, financial, and moral positions, in general estimation. A dishonored name is one of Life's greatest calami- ties. Hence the wise man said, " A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. ... It is better than precious ointment." Similar in nature, but infinitely greater in degree, is " our Father's " regard for his name. Therefore, amid the sublimities of Sinai, in his perpetual moral law, as one of the ten com- mandments, he wrote, " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." Hence, on other occasions he said, " I will sanctify my great name ; " " My name shall be great among the Gentiles ; " " How should my name be polluted ? " Jehovah thus explains his fearful dealings with Egypt, — " I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom ye were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing you forth out of the land of Egypt." " According to thy name, 6 82 HIS NAME. so is thy praise." " They that know thy name will put their trust in thee." To this attitude of the divine fatherhood, our adorable Lord appealed in his prayer, when he cried, " Father, glorify thy name ! " and we read in the twelfth chapter of John's Gospel, that, " Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again" Behold in all this the requisition of our God, and the depth of his desire that his name should be " hallowed " ! With it, his honor, his de- clarative glory, and his government are identi- fied. With such regard for " that by which he is known," with what righteous indignation he must have beheld that work of Bona venture, a cardinal of the Papal Church, who prepared a Litany for the Virgin Mary, by taking portions of the Psalms of the Bible, and substituting her name in place of that of Jehovah ! And yet the Romish Church has canonized Bonaventure, who thus sinned most grievously, insulted Deity most traitorously. The Lord God is a jealous God ; and he will not allow his glory to HIS NAME. 83 be given to another. The vast interests of the universe demand that his name should be kept exclusively "holy and reverend." Jehovah hath sworn by himself, "As I live, the whole earth shall be filled with my glory ! " 3. Our welfare demands it. In the realm of souls, as truly as in that of matter, there are established orders of cause and effect, antecedent and consequent. One of these connections is, that only as we have such knowledge of and love for God as our Father, as will lead us to hallow his name, shall we either properly appreciate or obey him. With this regard for his name, therefore, is associated submission to his will ; and, with such submission, all of our well-being for time and eternity is connected. So, also, just in the ratio that we thus hallow his name, in that ratio will we be impressed with himself, his character, his attributes, his authority, his righteousness, his love for us, his care over us, and the identity of his glory with our welfare. And just in the degree that our natures are thus impressed will our judgment bow to his decisions; our affections intwine about him, 84 HIS NAME. and go out towards all tliat he loves ; our will sweetly yield to his will ; " our feet run in the way of his commandments ; " and our entire natures be conformed to his image. When, therefore, we hallow his name, we fundamen- tally promote our own highest good ; and, when we do not, we injure ourselves. " Oh, utter but the name of God Down in your heart of hearts, And see how from the world at once All tempting light departs ! " III. How we may " hallow " the holy name. 1. By our words. What power there is in words ! How much you can elevate or depress, honor or dis- honor, a name, by what you say about it. by the manner in which you use it, by the tone of voice and expression with which you speak of it !' So, by never triflingly, but always rever- ently speaking the sacred name, in conversation, in prayer, and in hymns of praise, we honor, sanctify, hallow it. No chants of the olden time were more grand or more appropriate than those in which Jeho- HIS NAME. 85 vah's name was magnified ; and the temple rang with the words, " Give glory due his name ; " 44 Let us exalt his name together ; " 4t Praise ye the name of the Lord ! ' ! 44 Who shall not fear thee, and glorify thy name, O Lord ? for thou art holy." No promise is more explicit than this, 44 Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise." This is an essential part of 44 the sacrifice of our lips," which is well- pleasing to our Father. And the spirit of this forbids all senseless repetitions, undue familiarity, and irreverent use of His name, either in conversation, prayer, or praise. Is there not occasion for attention to this point? Are there not many, 44 who are called by his name," who in their use of it employ the same familiarity as when speaking ^of one who is their equal ? Do they not forget who he is, and what he is ? that " holy and rev- erend is his name " ? that 44 he is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders"? and that angels veil their faces before him ? The same spirit most emphatically condemns pro- fanity, which, instead of hallowing, desecrates .86 HIS NAME. his name. How lamentable the prevalence of this vice ! How inexpressibly sad to hear men, young men, and sometimes mere boys, indulging in this low vulgarity and abominable sin ! Dr. Chapin said truly, that, " Despite all refinement, the light and habitual taking of God's name betrays a coarse nature and a brutal will. Profaneness is an awful vice. Whose name is it you so lightly use? That name of God! Have you ever pondered its meaning ? Have you ever thought what it is that you mingle thus with your passion and your wit ? It is the name of him whom angels adore, and whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain ! " " Among the Hebrews, the name 4 Jehovah' was never pronounced, except by the high priest once a year ; and, in reading the Scrip- ture aloud, it was passed over in reverent silence, or the word ' Lord's substituted for it." " It chills my blood to hear the blest Supreme Rudely appealed to on each trifling theme/' Will you tell me what is more distressing to a spiritually intelligent mind than the evidence HIS NAME. 87 that some young men think it manly, brave, smart, to swear ? Are such so ignorant that they do not know that profanity is vicious, that it is ungentlemanly, that the lower men descend in degradation the more they swear ? Do they not know, that, while other vices have pallia- tions, this has none ? Necessity often leads to theft ; revenge to murder ; and other sins plead strength of inclination, force of appetite, prom- ise of reward, or the power of temptation in some tremendous form. But what gain, what gratification, what pleasure, what conceivable benefit, can come to any one from the defiant, profane use of that name which angels speak only with adoring awe ! Young men, profanity is an unnatural, profit- less, low, Heaven-defying sin, — a sin of such magnitude that it violates the command which God put third in the order of the moral law, where he said, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy Grod in vain ; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." Why ! in many cases, even the heathen do not dare to use the names of their gods when they swear, but employ obscene words instead. 88 HIS NAME. Blaspheming and cursing are the employment of devils. In " Washington's Orderly Book," uiyler date of April 3, 1776, the following is recorded: " The general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice hitherto little known in an American army, is growing into a fashion. He hopes the officers will, by example as well as influence, endeavor to check it ; and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have but little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms if we insult Him by our impiety and folly : added to this, it is a, vice so mean and low, with- out any temptation, that a man of sense and character despises it" 2. In our hearts. There may be no reverent, adoring, prayerful words spoken, and yet the heart, that life-throb- bing centre of our nature, may hallow His name. Such words are good, appropriate ; but they may be on the lips and only there. How many are satisfied with having " said " prayers, or " sung " hymns ! how many merely repeat the Lord's prayer! But " the Lord seeth not as man HIS NAME. 89 seeth ; for man looketh at the outward appear- ance : the Lord looketh on the heart." His spiritual law says nothing about solemn words or tones of voice, bowing of the head or genu- flexions of the body ; it says nothing about im- posing ritualistic performances : but it says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and might." He must be worshipped in the " beauty of holiness." He says, " My son, give me thine heart ; " for " with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Jeremy Taylor prayed, " Let thy name, thy essence, and glorious attributes be honored and adored in all the world, believed by faith, loved by charity, celebrated with praise, thanked with the eucharist ; and let thy name be hallowed in us as it is in itself." Cyprian said, " In praying this, we pray that his name may be hallowed in us." And when he is thus hallowed in our hearts, not only as Creator, Upbuilder, Controller, Law- giver, and Judge, but as our Father, — when he is loved as such, when his authoritative will is submitted to, — then his name is hallowed as it can be by no mere words. 90 HIS NAME. Then sometimes the love and adoration of the heart become too great for words : no language can express them; but, though un- uttered, they rise to his fatherhood richer than the music of rolling spheres, or the songs of angels who never fell. Then is felt the tenderest concern for the divine glory, associated with the most sincere self-abasement. Luther felt this, when, near his death, he deplored and denounced the growing disposition to call the Reformation his work, and not God's. The same spirit was developed by Robinson of Leyden, when, bidding the Puritans farewell as they were about to go to the West- ern world, he warned them against the error which had made "the Lutheran refuse to go be- yond Luther, and the Calvinist beyond Calvin," and w^hich had gathered around those worthy names a glory and an honor which belonged only to the God whom both of them worshipped. Finally, by our lives. Reverent, adoring words, and reverent, ador- ing heart-emotions, hallow his name ; but the spheres of both of these are limited, — the for- mer to those who hear the words ; the latter to God, who alone seeth the heart. HIS NAME. 91 There is a wider range of influence than that possessed by either of these ; viz., the sphere of our daily life. By it we tQUch the world, and exert our widest influence. If, through our spirit and by our conduct everywhere, we develop the character of children of God, then shall we best hallow the name of our Father who is in heaven. What so honors a good earthly father as to have his children grow up pure, pious, and noble ? What sheds such lustre on a parent's name as virtuous worth and deserved respectability in his children ? What brings such blood-red shame to a father's cheek, what so stabs to its centre a father's heart, what so bows in despair a father's head, what brings down his gray hairs in such grief to an untimely grave, as unworthy, wicked con- duct in his children ? But all this only shadows forth the similar emotions in the heart of divine fatherhood over sinful children, which are expressed in that in- finitely pathetic exclamation, " Hear, O heavens, and be astonished O earth ! for I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me ! " " Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ? " 92 HIS NAME. Allow me, in closing, to outline to you the thought already presented in this lecture. I have expounded to you this petition, demonstrated to you the propriety of it, and shown you how His name may be hallowed by lip, by heart, by life. May he who has taught us thus to pray, give us grace that will enable us to reduce this divine theory to faithful, constant practice ! Let us join in singing this rare old hymn by Thomas Cotteril. " Thee we adore, eternal Lord ! We praise thy name with one accord. Thy saints, who here thy goodness see, Through all the world do worship thee. To thee aloud all angels cry, And ceaseless raise their songs on high ; Both cherubim and seraphim, The heavens, and all that dwell therein. The apostles join the glorious throng; The prophets swell the immortal song ; The martyr's noble army raise Eternal anthems to thy praise. Thee, holy, holy Father, King ! Thee, thee, Lord God of hosts, they sing ! Thus earth below, and heaven above, Resound thy glory and thy love." IV. HIS KINGDOM. Gtfjg fttngtoom tome* Matt. vi. 10. HIS KINGDOM. " The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away ; But fixed thy word, thy saving power remains, Thy realm forever lasts, thine own Messiah reigns." I WHAT is a kingdom f • It is not, of course, a democracy. That is a state in which the people exercise the pow- ers of sovereignty, either in their own persons, — as they did in the pure democracies of ancient Greece, — or in a republic, where sovereignty is lodged in, and exercised by, representatives elected by the people. Our country is a re- public. A kingdom exists where sovereignty is lodged in one person, — a king, — whose au- thority is with or without limitation. The ideal of a kingdom is, however, realized in an abso- lute monarchy. 95 96 - HIS KINGDOM. What, then, is the kingdom of God? In our classification, there are three kingdoms which belong to him. Of these, the first is the material, which includes all animate and inani- mate existence. Over that realm, in all of its minuteness and immensity, its unreached heights and unfathomed depths, its unmeasured lengths and breadths, by virtue of his creatorship, he is King. Hence the sublime exclamation of Nehemiah, " Thou, even thou, art God alone : thou hast made the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts ; the earth, and all things that are therein ; the seas, and all that is therein." In this realm, he is supreme ; his laws reach and control every thing : the shadow of his throne is projected over the entire material universe. Next, there is the kingdom of providence. This embraces the world of events, which constitute the material of history : over this, too, he is absolute Sovereign. " He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will." By his power and wisdom, he not only directs and controls all the operations of nature, but causes all the good wrought by men and nations, and so overrules all the evil as to make the wrath HIS KINGDOM. 97 of man praise him, and to restrain the remainder ; while, through both, he consummates his own eter- nal purposes. With reference to this, we read, " The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, ' Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass ; and, as I have purposed, so shall it stand. I am God ; and there is none else : I am God ; and there is none like me, declaring the end from the begin- ning, saying, My counsels shall stand; and I will do all my pleasure.' ' In the grand chant of the ancient temple, — " The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, and the multitude of the isles be glad," — we find a grateful acknowledg- ment of this universal truth. Besides these kingdoms of nature and provi- dence, there is another, — the realm of souls. Of this domain also he is lawful Sovereign, by virtue of creatorship and ownership. But, alas ! within it rebellion is broken out, which has dethroned him, and enthroned sinful selfishness ; which has despised his authority, dishonored his law, and defied his will. Hence we read, " The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. There is none 7 98 HIS KINGDOM. that understandeth, that seeketh after God : they are all gone aside ; they are altogether be- come filthy." " Madness is in their hearts." "The carnal mind is enmity against God." " They are all gone out of the way ; they are to- gether become unprofitable : there is none that doeth good — no, not one." " All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." It is to the coming of his kingdom in this realm of rebellious souls, that the petition before us directly refers. The scriptural use of the phrase, "kingdom of God," may be thus analyzed. It is applied first to individual souls. We read, that when the Pharisees demanded " When the kingdom of God should come," our Lord answered them, and said, " The kingdom of God cometh not with observation : neither shall they say, Lo, here ! or lo, there ! for behold the kingdom of God is within you." He also compared it unto leaven, which a woman hid in three measures of meal ; to the mustard seed, and to treasure hidden in the field. We also read, that " The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy HIS KINGDOM. 99 Ghost." All of which statements are expres- sive of individual experiences. Next, this phrase is applied to that aggregate of human souls which constitutes the mystical body of Christ, — the spiritual, invisible Church, — with its doctrines, its varied organic and inor- ganic manifestations and influences in the world. Finally, it is applied to heaven, where is espe- cially located the throne, and are especially mani- fested all the ineffable insignia of divine royalty. Thus you see, that the phrase " kingdom of God " is applied in the Bible elementally to an individual soul, aggregately to the entire spirit- ual Church, and fruitionally to heaven. Leighton said, " The inward kingdom of grace is the way and preparation for that of glory; and the outward kingdom of grace, in the visible Church, is the means of establishing and increasing the inward : so that both of them look forward to the kingdom of glory as their utmost end, and shall terminate in it." II. Here an important question arises. Is God out of Christ, or God in Christ, King over the soul-realm ? 100 HIS KINGDOM. In answering this, theologies differ, sects dis- agree, and mightiest controversial battles are fought. Let us seek to discover what the Scriptures teach concerning it. Understand that the question is this, Is the Deity, in his owa spiritual, infinite, inconceivable person- ality, King in this realm, or is he supreme there in the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Of old, this kingdom was so clearly prophe- sied and promised, that a delivering and reign- ing king became for ages the jubilant hope of the Jewish people. The same prophet who foretold the rise and fall of the Grecian and Persian Empires, and the extent and durability of the Roman power, predicted, that " In those days shall the God of heaven set up a king- dom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people; but it shall break in pieces, and consume all these kingdoms : and it shall stand forever."- " I saw in the night visions : and behold ! one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days ; and they brought him near before him. And there was given HIS KINGDOM. 101 him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away ; and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Amid the glory of the Augustan era, the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, which had been uttered centuries before, " For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, and the Prince of peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end." The prophecies of Micah and Zachariah were also fulfilled, which predicted, " Thou Bethle- hem-Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting." " Rejoice greatly, O daugh- ter of Zion ! for, behold, thy King cometh ! " With reference to the same person, we read in the second Psalm, "I have set my King upon my holy hill, Zion. I will declare the decree, 102 HIS KINGDOM. — the Lord has said unto me, thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." In accordance with all this, at the appointed time we behold the Lord Jesus assert the prerogatives of this divine royalty. Assuming the centre of the spiritual world, he proclaimed, " All things are delivered unto me of my Father ; and no man knoweth the Son but the Father : neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden ; and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." " The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." " I and my Father are one." " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." " My kingdom is not of this world." Thence we behold him issuing laws, and performing all the functions of absolute spiritual kingship. Oh ! they plaited a crown of thorns in mock- HIS KINGDOM. 103 ery around his sacred brow, not dreaming, poor, ignorant, sinful men ! that the incon- ceivably glorious diadem of the kingdom of God had already been placed there by the hand of the eternal Father. But, what they saw not, the spiritual vision of the penitent thief perceived, when with dying breath he prayed. 44 Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." What could be • more worthy of this sublime prerogative than the royal proclamation issued before his ascension? "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore into all the world, and preach the gospel unto every creature ; and lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Confirmatory is the inspired assur- ance, " That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Therefore it is, that on his vesture and in his thigh is emblazoned the divine title, " King of kings, and Lord of lords" 104 HIS KINGDOM. III. Every kingdom has laws, which embody the preceptive and prohibitory will of its king. We accordingly find that the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ is a code of laws, issued by his authority, embodying all the will of God concerning us found in the Old Testa- ment, together with new revelations and regu- lations appertaining to the perpetual spiritual kingdom. Friends, the world is full of specu- lations, reasonings, philosophizing about soul- duty. Men tell you what they believe, and what they disbelieve ; w^hat they think reason- able, and what they deem irrational; what they like, and what they dislike. But I submit to you, that the laws of a kingdom are found in its statute books, and that the duty of subjects is to ascertain and obey what is there required. Even so with regard to soul-duty: we affirm, that it is revealed in the law and testimony of our King, and that our duty and privilege is to seek for it there, and yield implicit obedience to it when found. This is the law-book of the kingdom of God; and I deny the right of minister or priest, of church or association, pres- bytery or synod, bishop, cardinal, or pope, to HIS KINGDOM. 105 make any thing contrary to this, or in addition to it, binding on the human conscience. Inconceiv- ably vast are the issues which cluster around this doctrine at the present time. Two names stand before the public in connection with it most prominently, because they hold and advocate directly opposing views. One of these is Arch- bishop Manning of England, who, in a late address, said, " The Roman pontiff is the whole Church of God ; for it is all contained in him : and, where the head acts, all act with him." In another part of the same address, he puts the following language in the mouth of the pope : " I claim to be the supreme judge and director of the consciences of men, — of the peasant that tills the fields, and the prince that sits on the throne ; of the household that lives in privacy, and the legislature that makes laws for a king- dom. I am the sole, last, and supreme judge of what is right and wrong" The other is Pdre Hyacinthe, who, perhaps unconsciously, has written words almost identi- cal with those of Huss the martyr, uttered four hundred and fifty years ago. In one of his letters, we find the following passage : " I raise, 106 HIS KINGDOM. therefore, before the holy father and the council, my protestation as Christian and preacher, against the doctrines and practices, calling themselves Roman, but which are not Christian. I appeal to thy tribunal, O Lord Jesus ! It is in thy presence that I write these lines. It is at thy feet, after having prayed much, suffered and waited much, that I sign them. I have confidence, that, if men condemn them on earth, thou wilt approve them in heaven. That is sufficient for me, living or dying" To that loyal utterance of fidelity to the only and ever blressed Potentate, I hear approving response from the throne itself. Oh ! if the Christian world would unite in such acknowledgment of the supreme kingship of Christ, and would submissively bow to his will, as revealed in the New Testament, then would Ephraim no more vex Judah, nor Judah vex Ephraim ; then would the now-divided sacra- mental host of God's elect be united in one : and over them all would float in glory the majestic banner, on whose ample folds the world would read, " One Lord, one faith, one baptism." HIS KINGDOM. 107 IV. Kingdoms have characteristics peculiar to themselves. What are those of the kingdom of Gfod ? 1. Lawful authority. Our King is no usurper of the throne. He did not tread his way to it over the rights of any beings. His is a legiti- mate monarchy. He is Sovereign by the highest and truest " divine right." 2. Immaculate rectitude. Lawful authority among men may err. It often enacts unjust laws. Our King never made an unjust requisi- tion or prohibition. He is too wise to err, and too good to be unkind. He sitteth on the throne of his holiness ; and they who are nearest that throne evermore adoringly sing, " Holy and just are thy ways, thou King of saints." 3. Almighty power. There may be among men lawful authority and spotless rectitude, without ability to consummate beneficial pur- poses. Our King hath " all power." He is able, therefore, not only to enact, but to enforce laws ; able to protect obedient, and punish dis- obedient, subjects ; able to defend his kingdom from intestine foes and foreign aggressors. 108 HIS KINGDOM. Hence the grateful anthem, " We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty ! because thou hast taken to thyself thy great power, and hast reigned." 4. Infinite love. If a government were one of lawful authority, rectitude, and power merely, it would command admiration, but never excite affection ; for it needs an exhibition of love to attract love. " God is love ; " and his creative, sustaining, and redemptive acts radiate with this essential characteristic of his nature. This is the fountain whence flow the streams of " long-suffering, goodness, and truth;" of "tender mercies and loving-kind- nesses ; " of " forgiveness and pardon." He is rich in mercy ; " for his great love wherewith he loved us." This is the reason why " Gracious is the Lord, and righteous ; yea, our God is merciful." 5. Permanency and everlasting duration. How many and mighty kingdoms have dis- solved, and left not even wrecks behind ! " The throne of our God is for ever and ever." " His dominion is an everlasting dominion." What majesty, sublimity, and magnificence are em- HIS KINGDOM. 109 bodied in this truth! Human thrones may totter, sceptres may fall, powerful governments be crushed, but " of the increase of his govern- ment there shall be no end." 6. Ineffable glory. Of old it was prophesied, " They shall speak of the glory of thy king- dom." I have time merely to direct attention to the glory embodied in the perfect character of our King ; the glory of the principles of his reign; the glory of the methods by which he rules ; and the glory of the personal and col- lective, temporal and eternal, results of his government. V. We are now prepared, I trust, to fix attention directly upon the petition, " Thy king- dom come." 1. Consider the nature of the petition. You now perceive that it is a prayer for the personal enthronement of God in Christ as supreme over our hearts ; his truths over our intellects ; his will over our wills ; his authority over our con- sciences ; and the subjection of all our powers to his commands. Thus understood, what solemnity gathers around this familiar petition 110 HIS KINGDOM. which we have so often thoughtlessly uttered ! It asks for the dethronement of selfishness, pas- sion, and appetite, and the conformity of our entire nature to his holy will. Do we honestly desire this ? Can we now conscientiously offer this prayer ? Dare we offer it to the heart- searching God ? Can we truthfully say, — " The dearest idol I have known, Whatever that idol be, Help me to tear it from the throne, And worship only Thee ? " 2. Consider the extent of this petition. Ob- serve that it has no word of limitation : it is, " Thy kingdom come," — come over all the departments of complex individual nature. Verily it asks, that " the shadow of the throne may be projected over the board where man daily feeds ; over the cradle, the school, and the ballot-box; over the shop and the railroad, the anvil, plough, and loom ; over all that min- isters to man's earthly comforts and corporeal needs as well as over the pillow where he lays down his throbbing head to die ; and over the HIS KINGDOM. Ill grave where he has left child, wife, or friend to moulder." And it extends to all human beings. It prays, — " Thy kingdom come to every heart ; In every bosom fix thy throne." Thus it embodies the essential missionary- spirit, the germ of that aggressive energy which proclaims " Christ for all the world, and claims all the world for Christ." It asks for the overthrow of all antagonistic powers, such as Judaism, Mahometanism, Heathenism, Roman- ism, and all other isms which oppose the sole and supreme reign of God in Christ over mankind. 3. Consider the time to which this petition refers. " Thy kingdom come," — when ? What a vast amount of thought has been directed to, and volumes written upon, the nature of the kingdom of God, the millennium, and kindred topics ! How many theories have been propounded, and speculations published, concerning the time of the coming of the king- dom ! But look at the petition itself. Its tense is present. " Thy kingdom come," — come, 112 HIS KINGDOM. come now ! Are we ready for this ? whether we are, or not, I briefly indicate some reasons why we ought to be. It is the rightful due of the divine King. He ought to have imme- diate possession of the realm which belongs to him in fact and by unquestionable right, the control of which has so long been usurped by his enemies. Moreover, it is the immediate duty of every human soul penitently and believingly to acknowledge his kingship, and lovingly submit to his sway. Verily, every soul in every nation on earth ought this moment to say, — " Welcome, welcome, dear Redeemer, Welcome to this heart of mine : Lord, I make a full surrender ; Every power and thought be thine, — Thine entirely, Through eternal ages thine." Finally, all the interests, individual and collective, material and spiritual, temporal and eternal, of all souls, demand it. Having now shown you what and when this kingdom of God is, that God in Christ is its HIS KINGDOM. 113 king, six of its characteristics, the nature, extent, and time of this petition, I close this lecture, — 1. With a word of exhortation. " Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all other things shall be added to you." This is the first duty of every human being. It is first in importance, and ought to receive attention first in the order of time. With infi- nite condescension, King Jesus seeks admission into our souls, saying, " Behold, I stand at the door and knock! if any man will hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh" all obstacles within and without himself to my sovereignty, " I will grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." O friends ! it is decreed " that every knee shall bow," either voluntarily or compulsorily. I pray you, in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God : bow to the sceptre of his mercy, extended by the scarred hand of our lawful King. Ground the weapons of your rebellion, and penitently, believingly, and sub- 114 HIS KINGDOM. missively acknowledge him as a loyal subject of his reign : and then, instead of being crushed beneath the triumphant car of the conquering Redeemer, you shall share in his glory ; and your voices shall join in the grand chorus of heaven and earth, " Hallelujah ; for the Lord God omnipotent r eigne th." Opposition to his kingdom is as hopeless as it is wicked. His kingdom ought to come, must come, and assuredly will come. Shall its final triumphs bury our hopes and souls in ruin ? Shall we be of those who must finally meet the Lord Jesus merely as victor and judge, and who shall hear him declare from the great white throne the sentence of everlasting banishment from hope and heaven ? 2. A word of direction. If we pray, " Thy kingdom come," we must use the divinely-appointed means for its com- ing. The " word of the kingdom " must be circu- lated far and wide. Servants of the King must go wherever lost humanity has gone, and pro- claim " the good tidings of great joy " embodied in the gospel proclamation of mercy. We must HIS KINGDOM. 115 cheerfully give of our money for the support of those who go far hence among the Gentiles to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. We must nourish and cultivate the missionary spirit. We must be willing to submit to self-denials, in order more efficiently to aid it. The coming of the kingdom of Christ, in all the world, must be a chief object of thought, earnest desire, fervent prayer, and laborious effort. Our own lives as Christians must so beautifully exemplify the blessedness of the reign of Christ, that others shall be attracted, and led to bow to his mild sceptre. Precious truth ! every one may do something towards the establishment of Christ's kingdom in the world. To that mission each of us is ca]led, whoever we may be, whatever sphere we may occupy, whatever the degree of our talents, or amount of our possessions. This power have all the saints. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. Nothing that we give or do for his cause is unknown or unno- ticed by him. With infinite appreciativeness he accepts it as having been done for or given to himself. He regards " the cup of cold water " and " the widow's mite." Oh ! then," 116 HIS KINGDOM. " Rouse thee to tlds work of high and holy love, And thou an angel's happiness shalt know, Shalt bless the earth while in the world above ; The good begun by thee shall outward go In many a branching stream, and onward flow ; The seed that in these few and fleeting hours Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers, And yield thee fruit divine in heaven's immortal bowers." Finally, a word of encouragement. Beloved, the kingdom is coming. By night and by day, with every rolling year, through all the discoveries of science, the achievements of art, the diffusion of sound learning, the progress of true civilization, the spread of " the truth as it is in Jesus," the application of his principles to human life, — verily, despite the opposition of a rebellious " world " with its infidel philosophies, " the flesh" with its multiform sensualities, and w the devil " with all his tremendous power and malignant cunning, — the kingdom of God is coming. It is almost impossible for us to understand how much it hath already come. Our Christ hath already established his throne in millions HIS KINGDOM. 117 on millions of human souls : his truths have re- constructed many human governments, laws, creeds, habits, and the names of half the nations of the earth. Yea, as Marvel sang, he has " Cast the kingdoms old Into another mould." It is quite impossible for us to conceive what triumphs, amidst apparently hopeless circumstan- ces, this kingdom has achieved. " The kings of the earth have set themselves together ; and the rulers have taken council together against the Lord and his anointed." The blood of martyrs has flowed like rivers. But slowly, steadily, the Messiah's kingdom has advanced, and is advancing, diffusing light and love, quickening and transforming energy, elevating and ennobling the race, reinstating mankind into their true relations to God and to each other. How significant the testimony which Napo- leon, the mightiest of modern conquerors, bore to this at St. Helena, when he mournfully said, " Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and my- self founded empires ! But upon what did we 118 HIS KINGDOM. rest the creation of our genius ? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love ; and, at this hour, millions of men would die for him ! My armies have forgotten me even while living. Nations pass away, thrones crumble; but his kingdom remains. What a proof of the divin- ity of Christ ! With an empire so absolute, he has but one single aim, — the spiritual ameliora- tion of individuals, purity of conscience, the union to that which is true, which is the holiness of the soul. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal reign -of Christ, which is proclaimed, loved, and adored, and is extending over the whole earth V On the door of an old mosque in Damascus, which was once a Christian Church, but which for twelve centuries has ranked among the holiest of Mahometan sanctuaries, are inscribed these remarkable words, — " Thy kingdom, O Christ ! is an everlasting kingdom. Thy dominion endureth through all generations." This inscription remains unim- paired at the present day ; and it is a record in stone of the decree of the eternal Father, con- cerning his royal Son, whose gradual fulfilment HIS KINGDOM. 119 past ages have witnessed, and whose perfect realization shall be attested to by all the " ages to come." Let this encourage your faith, O Christian ! inspire your zeal, and energize your efforts. His kingdom is coming : its victorious banners float on every breeze. " He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." Verily, wherever God's light shines, his truth shall shine ; wherever his wind blows, his spirit shall breathe ; wherever his water flows, his salvation shall flow ; wherever sin abounds, his grace shall much more abound. The crucified shall be universal conqueror. The brow that wore the crown of thorns shall wear the crown of all the earth. Heaven and earth shall yet ring with the grand acclaim, " The kingdoms of this world have become the king- doms of our Lord and of his Christ." Just be- fore his death, the good and great Dr. Owen said, " I am going to him whom my soul loves. I am leaving the ship in a storm ; but, while the great Pilot is on board, the loss of a poor under-rower will not be missed." In 1683, Martin Luther, amidst the most terrific storms of papal perse- 120 HIS KINGDOM. cution, exclaimed, "I know that Christ reigns over this world ; and, in this confidence, I will not fear ten thousand popes" No wonder God's ancient people, amid their trials and discourage- ments, shouted, " How beautiful upon the moun- tains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." Blessed assurance, " He that is to come will come, and will not tarry" Join me in the prayer, "Even so; come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. " He is coming ; and the tidings Are rolling wide and far, As light flows out in gladness From yon fair morning star. He is coming ; and the tidings Sweep through the willing air, With hope that ends forever Time's ages of despair. Old earth from dreams and slumber Wakes up, and says, Amen. Land and ocean bid him welcome ; Flood and forest join the strain." k») W> v^julKjULT 1 *** HIS WILL. "&f)2 forili be trone in eartfj, as it is in fjeaben." Matt. vi. 10. HIS WILL. "I worship thee, sweet will of God I And all thy ways adore ; And, every day I live, I long To love thee more and more. He always wins who sides with God; To him no chance is lost : God's will is sweetest to him when It triumphs at Jbis cost. • I have no cares, O blessed will For all my cares are thine : I live in triumph, Lord ! for thou Hast made thy triumphs mine." THE Lord's Prayer is not a collection of disconnected sentences. Its petitions are logically and closely related, so as to constitute a unity harmonious and symmetrical. " Our Father which art in heaven " teaches us to filially acknowledge the divine fatherhood, and to cor- dially recognize the human brotherhood. " Hal- lowed be thy name " follows, because such adoring reverence is our first duty toward our Father. In 123 124 HIS WILL. " Thy kingdom come" we are next instructed to acknowledge his rightful sovereignty, and pray for its immediate and universal establish- ment. The petition before us now follows in logical sequence : for it is simply a devout re- cognition of the service due our Father-King, and the expression of an earnest desire that it may be rendered to him by all mankind. I am impressed that the subject thus pre- sented is of supreme importance ; that wrong views of it lie at the basis of all false theologies, and inure to the ill-being of souls, now and for- ever ; and, on the other hand, that right views of it lie at the foundation of all true theology, and of spiritual well-being both here and hereafter. Hear me patiently, candidly, and then decide as to whether my impression is cor- rect or incorrect. I. What is "the will" of any being? This term is used in three different senses. It is employed to denote the function of determina- tion, — the volitional faculty, by which the power of choice is exercised. It is also applied to the determination or choice made by this HIS WILL. 125 faculty. Thus we apply the term " will " to the power of volition, and also to the act thus caused. But, in law, " the voluntary disposition of an estate by testament is called a will." Now, what is the will of Grod ? Primarily, it is that attribute of the divine nature by which he determines, chooses, either to do or not to do ; secondarily, it expresses what he has determined, decided upon; and finally, inasmuch as volitions are expressed by words, we apply it to the Bible because it is the " word of God," — the revelation of his will. Do you know the radical meaning of the common legal word " testament " ? It denotes an authentic instrument in writing, by which a person declares his will as to the disposal of his effects after his death. Thus defined, how full of meaning are the titles of our Bible, " the Old and the New Testaments " ! The two books which constitute the one are thus named because they are the authentic instruments in writing by which God has revealed his will to man. In the prayer for the coming of his kingdom, we are taught to acknowledge his 126 HIS WILL. rightful sovereignty over the realm of souls. But our sense of justice leads us to expect that the infinitely righteous King would plainly reveal what his will concerning us is ; and this he has done in these inspired Testaments. Speculations concerning the basis and stand- ard of moral obligation have been almost innumerable. The most prominent of these, however, have made them to consist in agree- ableness to the fitness of things, or conformity to nature and right reason, or in the coincidence of our conduct with the perfect and the true, or in its tendency to promote public happiness. Paley affirms, that " whatsoever is expedient is right : " it is due him, however, to remember, that his view of expediency was very compre- hensive. The Holy Scriptures, which Newton affirmed contained "the profoundest philoso- phy," make short work of all these speculations by leading us directly to the source of all moral obligation, when they say, that sin is a transgression of the law, and that the law of which sin is a transgression is simply the revealed expression of the divine will. Thus the rule of obligation which philosophers have HIS WILL. 127 tried to arrive at by circuitous and uncertain methods is .exhibited clear as the light in the petition, " Thy will be done." Dr. Clark truthfully said, " Governing according to law and reason, and governing according to will and pleasure, are, among men, the two most opposite forms of government ; while, with respect to God, they are but two different names for one and the same thing" The divine will is guided by infinite wis- dom, by eternal justice, and infinite goodness. Through our reason and conscience, he makes developments of his ever-righteous will; but through his word it is revealed so plainly, that " wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Here he speaks to us through proph- ets and inspired apostles, but chiefly through the revelations of his Son, of whom it is written " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God : and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" 128 HIS WILL. II. This petition assumes, that the will of God is not done on the earth. Here we must discriminate. The Testaments make a distinction in regard to the divine will, which is overlooked by many ; and that over- sight is the cause of much error. There are those who say, u God is almighty, and therefore is able ; he is all-wise, and therefore knows how to accomplish his own will." But these Testa- ments reveal that "will" in distinct depart- ments, as sometimes denoting what shall be, at other times what ought to be: sometimes it refers to the great plan, or purpose by which he controls the operations of nature, and the events of providence, according to the eternal choices of his absolute will. In Nature, he consum- mates it through laws, which are only the meth- ods of his operation, — by mere force, naked omnipotence. In Providence, he accomplishes it through the workings of great moral prin- ciples, which are directed, energized, and sus- tained by himself, " Whereby he makes the wrath of man to praise him, and restraineth the remainder." In Nature and Providence, there- fore, his will is done. In these spheres, " He HIS WILL. 129 doeth his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth ; and none can staj' his hand, or say, What doest thou?'' But his will concerning human souls is embodied in his spiritual laws, which are addressed to our spiritual natures, which he himself endowed with a will, not to be controlled by mere force, — a will whose freedom is essential to responsibil- ity, and which, therefore, may obey him or not. Older theologians express this distinction in the phrases, " God's will of purpose and his will of precept ; his will of control and of com- mand." Without amplifying upon this distinction fur- ther, I direct attention to a few illustrations of it. Our divine Master was foretold in Mes- sianic prophecy as saying, " I delight to do thy will, O my God ! " In the record of his earthly life, we find him declaring, " It is my meat and drink to do the will of him that sent me." When preaching in a private house, one came in, and said, " Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee." Pausing in his discourse, he exclaimed, " Who is my mother, and who are my brethren ? " And 9 130 HIS WILL. he answered his own questions, by declaring that " Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, my sister, and my mother." In his immortal Sermon on the Mount, he said, " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord ! shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." In the same Testament we read of " doing the will of God from the heart ; " of " standing complete in all the will of God;" of living " not in the lusts of men, but to the will of God ; " of being, " not conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and ac- ceptable and perfect will of God." Among the « last declarations of the word we read, " Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life." " He that doeth the will of God abideth forever." With these explanations, is not that which this petition assumes fearfully true ? Is it not obvious that the will of God is not done on the earth? When men triumphantly say, " Who hath resisted his will?" and endeavor HIS WILL. 131 to establish a fatalistic excuse for their sins, I answer, Your question is big with fallacy : you confound things that differ. That will, as ex- pressed in the laws of Nature or in the prin- ciples of Providence, none can resist ; but, as embodied in spiritual laws, all depraved souls can and do resist: reason, conscience, and observation unite with revelation in affirming this. I make no reference now to the out- wardly wicked, the vulgarly vicious, the drunk- en, licentious, profane, and abandoned, but point you to the world's ways of living, — the amuse- ments, the principles upon which most of its business is transacted and politics conducted, — as pregnant proofs that the will of God is not only ignored, but perpetually violated. Satan, that arch-foe of God and man, leads the world " cap- tive at his will." Selfishness reigns supreme in every unrenewed soul. Each knows, that when the law says, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind, might, and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself," he neither does this nor desires to ; that when our Lord saith, " This is the will of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent," he deliberately rejects Him ; that 132 HIS WILL. when the Word saith, " He will have all men to be saved, and come to a knowledge of the truth," that an experimental knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, — which is God's only- method of saving men, — is persistently rejected. There are multitudes who profess to believe neither in the necessity nor reality of what is expressed in the familiar phrases, " experien- cing religion," " being converted," "becoming Christians,"' "a change of heart." Some de- clare it to be a delusion, — an unintelligent effect of fanatical excitement. Others, more observ- ant and candid, admit its reality, but affirm its incomprehensibility. Friends, the simple fact is, that it is merely an inward change, produced by the Holy Spirit and the truth, whereby the re- bellious human will becomes lovingly submissive to the divine will ; and the soul cries, — " I yield, I yield ; I can hold out no more . I sink, by dying love compelled, And own thee Conqueror." Verily, it is that change whereby he who all his life has been disobedient, recklessly careless, and defiantly opposed to God's will, penitently HIS WILL. 133 exclaims, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " By all those in whom such an experience has never been realized, the will of God is not "done " at all; and alas! with regard to those who have realized it, the old native spirit of disobedience too often develops itself. Alas ! in- dividual and church histories abound in over- whelming evidence of this. The assumption of our petition is thus shown to be fearfully, mournfully, true. III. But why pray about this ? Reason, con- science, and revelation unite in affirming the duty of practical submission to God. All admit that his will ought to be done by us. Why, then, not immediately go to work and do it? Why make that a matter of prayer which ought to be attended to by ourselves ? This is both a proper and an important question. In answer- ing it, I refer you to some facts concerning our natures of which we are all conscious. Our souls are alienated from God: they are naturally rebellious, and indisposed either to submit to his authority or to perform his precepts. " The carnal mind is enmity against God : it is not 134 HIS WILL. subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." We find our carnality refusing to leave its usurped throne, and fortifying itself there against the dictates of reason, the impulsions of con- science, the demands of interest, as well as the claims of God the Father, the entreaties of God the Son, and the strivings of God the Spirit. I tell you that there are many persons whose judgments are convinced of their duty to God, but who find within themselves a power of re- sistance stronger than reason and conscience combined, stronger than the power of the highest motives, stronger than their own voli- tionary power, which keeps them from forming and exercising a determining choice of God's will as their rule of life. Now, what is that ? O friends ! it is a depraved, alienated, selfish, sin-loving heart, whose power is such, that of our- selves we will never do the will of God. This is the reason why our Lord taught us to pray with regard to this matter, that he would " work in us both to will and to do." This is what the old theologians properly called the grace of obedience. Here, and here alone, is HIS WILL. 135 efficient help for our poor, lost, depraved hu- manity, — the power of God's Spirit to do in us what we cannot do for ourselves. How precious is the promise, " If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him ! " Do you feel your need of this ? " Ask, and ye shall re- ceive." Augustine used to pray, " Give what thou commandest, and then command what thou wilt." This is God's method of making. He makes " his people willing in the day of his power." Thus read the promises of the new covenant : " I will put my law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." " I will put a new spirit within you ; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them : and they shall be my people ; and I will be their God." " Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every 136 HIS WILL. good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight." I submit to you, that this dependence is taught in the very form of our petition. Observe, it is not, " Let us do thy will," but " thy will be done ; " thus teaching our need of divine working in us as prerequisite to our doing of his will. This his people have always recognized ; and to it Isaiah gave expression, when he said, " Thou, Lord, hast wrought all our works in us." IV. This petition specifies the manner and degree in which His will should be done in the earth, — " as it is done in heaven." In a religious book which has had a large circulation, the following is recorded as a fact, which I find it difficult to believe, because such stories are ordinarily great exaggerations. It is there stated that a Sabbath-school teacher gave this question to her class, " How is the will of God done in heaven ? " She gave them a week to prepare individual answers. At the appoint- ed time, the following replies were given, each by a different member of the class: "It is done cheerfully ; " " Immediately ; " " Com- HIS WILL. 137 pletely ; " " Unitedly ; " " Lovingly ; " " Un- weariedly ;" and "Without asking questions." If this really transpired, that must have been a remarkably well-instructed class. Baxter gave nearly the same answer in his " Poor Man's Family Book," where we read, that, " in heaven the will of God is done understanding^, sin- cerely, fully, readily, delightfully, unweariedly, and concordantly." Archbishop Usher, Baxter's contemporary and friend, in his " Body of Divinity," says, " The angels obey the divine will willingly, speedily, sincerely, fully, und constantly." This, doubtless, well represents the degree and manner in which His will is done by the spirits of just men made perfect, and the angels in heaven, who " rest not day and night, say- ing, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." " They do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word." Every reason for thus doing it there, ex- ists for doing it here. Our loved ones who have gone from us thither — sweet babes, dear com- panions, and fellow- workers — are thus doing it there ; and so it ought to be done here. Expe- 138 HIS WILL. rience and observation show that in the ratio that his will is done in the earth, this world be- comes like heaven. Let us not rest satisfied, therefore, without aiming at heavenly conformity to the "good 4 and acceptable and perfect will of God." V. There is another application of this peti- tion, however, to which I now direct attention. All I have said thus far has regarded the divine will, in relation to action ; but this petition re- fers as well to the duty of submission to that will. In illustration of this, come with me to the Garden, just outside the wall of Jerusalem. It is night : beneath the umbrageous boughs of wide-spreading olive-trees, One is kneeling who always did the will of God ; but now he is called to submissively suffer it. His form trem- bles with agony; out of his quivering pores issue, as it were, great drops of blood. Hear that mournful cry which goes up to heaven out of that anguish-smitten heart, " Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." In this in- finitely pathetic scene behold our great example of unrepining submission to the divine will. HIS WILL. 139 Ah, friends ! in all our life-paths to heaven by the way of Calvary, we are called to enter what, to us, are dark Gethsemanes of bereave- ment, sorrow, and suffering, where our fondest hopes are blasted, severe struggles are to be en- dured, loved objects to be given up, and, wrapt in white shrouds, shut up in closed coffins, and laid away in cold graves. Such is the will of God : " Whom he loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Oftentimes his will comes athwart ours ; often- times he refuses to answer our prayers ; but he overrules the very things which we most de- plore for our greatest good. Augustine, speak- ing of his mother, who had prayed earnestly that he might be prevented from going to Italy, lest he should fall into greater sin, though, in fact, it became the means of his conversion, beautifully says, " God refused her once, to grant her what she had prayed for always." To this Shakspeare alludes when he says, — " We, ignorant of ourselves, Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers Deny us for our good ; so we find profit By losing of our prayers." 140 HIS WILL. Oftentimes He sends adversity, when we think we ought to have prosperity ; failure, when we think we deserve success ; darkness, when we desire light ; sorrow, when we pant for hap- piness ; small duties, when we think ourselves qualified for great ones ; contraction of sphere, when we sigh for enlargement. Oftentimes, thus, our pride is mortified, and we feel humili- ated. Oh, then to hear his voice saying, " Be still, and know that I am God ; " and to submissively respond, " Even so, Father, for thus it seemeth good in thy sight " ! A noble example of this is related in the rec- ord of the invasion of Rome by the Huns. A Christian bishop asked Attila who he was. The king replied, " I am the scourge of God." The bishop immediately rejoined, " The messen- ger of God is welcome;" and cheerfully sub- mitted to martyrdom, exclaiming that "he durst not oppose the scourge of God, remember- ing that he (God) scourged his beloved Son." In his official report of a great battle, the gene- ral commanding declared that the best man in the field that day was a soldier who had his arm HIS WILL. 141 lifted up against an enemy, but who, on hearing the trumpet sound a retreat, checked himself, and dropped his arm without striking a blow. How sublime was the attitude of the old prophet, when, amid his last utterances, he averred before heaven and earth, " Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olives shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salva- tion. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places." " God doth need Neither man's work nor his best gifts : who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is kingly : thousands at his bidding speed, And post o'er land and ocean without rest. They also serve who only stand and wait" The hour cometh when for us all the springs of earth shall run dry ; when we shall lie down to rise no more, take our last look of this bright and beautiful world, gaze upon the faces and hear the voices of those we love most for 142 HIS WILL. the last time ; when the cold death-dew shall gather upon our brows, and the pains of dis- solution tremble along our expiring nerves. Blessed, thrice blessed, he, who, amid all circum- stances of life and death, shall be able to say, " Not as I will, but as thou wilt ; not my will, but thine, O God ! be done." Friends, the happiest man on this round earth is he, who, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, can say, " The will of my Father in heaven is my will ; what he commands, I will endeavor to do ; what he forbids, I will refrain from doing ; what he calls me to suffer, I will submissively endure as designed for my greatest good and his glory ; and the daily prayer of my life shall be, ; Thy will be done in earth, even as it is done in heaven.' " That man is richer, hap- pier, than the wealthiest millionnaire, crowned king, or mitred priest, or he whose brow is wreathed with the world's proudest laurels. With our own beloved Whittier, let us sing, — " We see not, know not : all our way Is night ; with Thee alone is day. From out the torrent's troubled drift, Above the storm, our prayer we lift, Thy will be done 1 HIS WILL. 143 The flesh may fail, the heart may faint ; But who are we to make complaint, Or dare to plead, in times like these, The weakness of our love of ease ? Thy will be done ! We take with solemn thankfulness Our burden up, nor ask it less ; And count it joy that even we May suffer, serve, or wait for Thee, Whose will be done I Though dim as yet in tint and line, We trace Thy picture's wise design, And thank Thee that our age supplies The dark relief of sacrifice. Thy will be done ! And if, in our unworthiness, Thy sacrificial wine we press ; If, from Thy ordeal's heated bars, Our feet are seamed with crimson scars, — Thy will be done I Strike ! Thou the Master, we Thy keys, The anthem of the destinies ! The minor of Thy loftier strain, Our hearts shall breathe the old refrain, — Thy will be done ! " VI. DAILY FOOD " &ibe us tfjis tjag our trails brea&." Matt. v. 11. "flnbe us, lias fog trag, our trails toatr/' Luke xi. 3. DAILY FOOD. " O God of earth and air and sea 1 The hungry ravens cry to thee ; To thee the scaly tribes that sweep The boundless bosom of the deep : On thee all living creatures call, Thou common Father, kind to all. Then grant thy servants, Lord, we pray, Our daily bread from day to day." Heber. THERE are men, it grieves me to say, who honestly disbelieve in Christianity. If one of them were to ask, what I hold to be among the strongest evidences of its divinity, I would make this twofold answer. First, the unselfishness exemplified in and inculcated by Christianity. Every other religion nourishes, develops, and promotes human self-esteem. Wh} 7 should it not be so ? Like produces like. Streams can rise no higher than their sources ; and, as every religion other than the Christian is the product of humanity, the influences thus 147 148 DAILY FOOD. set in motion can result at the most in nothing higher than human self-culture. On the other hand, Christianity, which claims to be a revela- tion from God, is proven to be divine, in that it sets forth an ideal of unselfishness which is truly superhuman and supernatural. It displays in the love of God, who spared not his only- begotten Son, an example such as effectually humbles the natural heart of man, and deprives it of all its self-conceit. While, secondly, this religion still more strongly asserts its divine au- thorship) in an elevation of the soul thus humbled to a spiritual likeness unto the God believed in, — a freedom, purity, and charity of nature not to be found under any other condi- tions of life. Consider, now, in what way these truths, which are among the strongest evidences of the divinity of Christianity, have been developed in the portions of the Lord's Prayer which have been already before us. Observe the tenderly beautiful exaltation of our humanity above the works or the word of God, the elevation of our souls even to himself, in the petition which leads us, as with the rever- DAILY FOOD. 149 ent, loving, trustful spirit of true children, to pray, " Our Father which art in heaven, hallow- ed be thy name ; thy kingdom come ; thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." Surely that which thus uplifts fallen and alien- ated souls to God must be from God. Observe, also, the superhuman unselfishness of the spirit which prays for the honor, dominion, and service of its father God before it makes any allusion to itself, or offers a single petition on its own behalf. Oh ! in this strange self- abnegation, amid a world where to love self, acquire for self, enjoy self, and honor self, is ever the predominant tendency, my moral nature intuitively perceives, my reason is compelled to acknowledge, that which is more than human, that which is divine ; yea, I see God. In this prayer, all that we have thus far considered has led us away from self toward God. We now come to the human side of this petition, and are about to discover, that, to regard the glory of our Father as the first and chief end of our lives is not, by any means, to disregard or sacrifice our own true interests. Nay : the prayer saith no more of his name and 150 DAILY FOOD. its sanctities, his kingdom and its triumphs, his will and its supremacy: but it proceeds to specify our bread, our sins, and our deliverance from evil. We are accordingly taught, first to pray for that by which our mortal life is sus- tained, — for the food by means of which our bodies are nourished. There are two ways of treating such a subject as this : by analysis, — the separation of the topic into its parts, and the consideration of these in detail ; and by synthesis, — the re-unit- ing of these elements, and the treatment of them as a whole. Both of these methods will be adopted in this discussion. I. Consider the following analysis of this peti- tion, — 1. We are taught to pray for " bread" This term stands for all food needed by our bodies. Beza rendered it " sufficient to uphold and sus- tain our bodies." In the Syriac version, it is rendered, " the bread of our necessity." We are not taught to pray for delicacies or superflu- ous luxuries, which harm the digestive organs, foul the blood, weaken the nerves, and sow the seeds of disease and destruction in the body. DAILY FOOD. 151 2. We are taught to pray for " our bread ; " not for that needed by others, or earned by them, but for that which comes honestly to us in the course of divine providence. 3. We are taught to pray for " our daily bread" and thus, avoiding all inordinate anxiety about the future, to humbly depend day by day upon our Father's loving care. 4. We are taught to pray, " Give us this day our daily bread; " not to demand it as a matter of right, or to claim it as the object of purchase, but to implore it as an undeserved bounty at his hands. 5. We are taught to merge our personal wants in the collective needs of the great family to which we belong : " Give us (not me), give us (all of thy children in all circumstances) our daily bread." Finally, we are taught to pray thus every day, " Give us this day our daily bread." Having now treated this petition by analysis, let us combine its elements, and view them as a whole. II. This prayer assumes the existence of a di- 152 DAILY FOOD. rect and immediate relation between Gcod as a cause, and our daily food as an effect. It is clear, that, in the world's thought and practice, such a relation is denied or ignored. But it is equally evident that our Lord, in teaching us to offer this prayer, assumed that such a relation is a positive reality. Let us look at some of the reasons which assist and confirm faith in regard to this subject. 1. That there is such a connection between the Creator and the needs of the creature, we should expect on a-priori grounds. By this I mean, that if we admit that God is our Father, and that we his children are not self existent or supporting, our reason is compelled to infer that he who has made us thus dependent must have provided for the supply of our needs out of his own fulness. This being the case, the wants of our entire nature are under his care, and the body not less than the soul has a right to expect his bounty. As to the present and eternal in- terests of our immortal nature, which was in its spiritual capacities made in the divine image, we find it easy to believe that God has and will ever have an immediate concern for them ; but DAILY FOOD. 153 for our frail and perishing bodies, their daily- material wants, we find it more difficult to assure ourselves that he has an equally direct solicitude. And yet the same reasoning which leads to belief in the former case of necessity justifies faith in the latter. It was with regard to just these lower and physical wants of our lives, that Jesus said, " Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things ; " and he himself, be- fore working the miracle to supply human want, said, " I have compassion on the multitude, be- cause they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat." Human fatherhood cares for the bodies of the children committed to it. They are inexpressibly dear, and we find highest pleasure in protecting and provid- ing for them. And when we see how depend- ent their souls are upon the condition of their physical natures, we become conscious of an imperious duty, which receives impulsions from every instinct of our being, to make the amplest provision within our power for their necessities. God is our Father; and he thoroughly knows how, not only our mental growth, general de- 154 DAILY FOOD. velopment, and happiness, but our ability to glorify him and do good to those around us, de- pend upon the supply of our physical needs, the full sustentation of our material natures. Our bodies are to be presented a " living sac- rifice ; " but they cannot live without food. We are enjoined to " glorify God in our body and spirit;" but we can do neither without "our daily bread." Assuredly, then, we are prepared to believe that there must be a direct relation between him and it. 2. Our bodies are worthy of the divine care. There are two " isms " which I hold to be false. One is that mysticism which is so exclu- sively occupied with the spiritual nature that it ignores and dishonors the body, and which in- terprets our text and similar scriptures as referring merely to spiritual food. The other is that materialism which pays exclusive attention to the body, and ignores the deep necessities of the soul. The truth lies between these extremes. Both the spiritual .and physical parts of our being are alike from God. They are the two factors which enter into and compose the in- DAILY FOOD. 155 dividuality of human nature. Both have needs corresponding with their characters. Both are embraced in the resplendent scheme of redemption. Both are worthy of their origin. We find it easy to admit this in regard to our spiritual natures, with their grand ca- pacities and magnificent possibilities, but fail to realize it in reference to the material part of our being. But I beg you to think of how worthy of divine origin and care our bodies are. A human body is the most complicated, delicate, wonderful, vitalized object in the world. It is a single system embodying many : it is a unit made up of an osseous, a muscular, a nervous, a circulating, a digestive, and a functional system, all combined in harmony, and endowed with the power of locomotion. Friends, no person can in any good degree com- prehend the mysteries of his own physical na- ture, and not exclaim, " I am fearfully and won- derfully made ! " None but a God could have designed and created such a marvellous com- bination of capacities, such a complication of mysteries, such powers of endurance, such adaptabilities to its complex object. It is the 156 DAILY FOOD. earthly temple of the Holy Ghost. One of the inspired titles of our God is, " The Former of our bodies." He originated our recurrent neces- sities ; and, with these facts before us, we feel assured that he must sustain a relation to them, upon the basis of which the petition, " Give us this day our daily bread," can be intelligently uttered. 3. Such a relation is assumed and taught in the Bible. In its first chapter, immediately after the record of man's creation, we read that " God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall be for meat." After the flood he declared to Noah, " Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb. I have given you all things" Elsewhere we read that " He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man. . . . These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good." DAILY FOOD. 157 " Behold the fowls of the air ; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? . . . Therefore take no [inordinate] thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? . . . For after all these things do the Gentiles [inordi- nately] seek ; but your heavenly Father know- eth ye have need of all these things. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" " What man is there of you, who, if his son ask of him bread, will give him a stone ? or, if he ask a fish, will give him a serpent ; or, if he ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion ? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him ! " " Nevertheless, he left not himself with- out witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Such is the briefest possible outline of the 158 DAILY FOOD. argument for the existence of the relation as- sumed in this petition. III. If, then, such a relation exists between our Father and our daily bread, what is its nature and extent ? That was a wonderful sermon which Paul preached on Mars Hill, when he had before him such an audience as even he had never ad- dressed before. There were the wisest people, the most subtle reasoners, the profoundest sages, the most learned teachers, and the most elo- quent orators in the world. Upon him were concentrated the sneer of the Epicurean, the statuesque derision of the Stoic, the • dreamy gaze of the Academician, the scowl of a super- stitious rabble, and the malice of bigoted Jews. But none of these things alarmed him. Nay, they merely aroused his consecrated genius to its sublimest effort, before which his hearers were as silent and dumb as the marble statues around them. I quote a few of his sublime utterances: " God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples DAILY FOOD, 159 made with hands ; neither is worshipped with men's hands, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation. . . . For in him we live, and move, and have our being ; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his off- spring." This is a sublime and truthful state- ment of our general relation to God. But the question before us now concerns the specific relation between him and our daily bread. 1. Those secondary causes by which it is pro- duced are all of his creation and under his control. The skill, enterprise, and power of man are prodigious ; but I direct your attention to some great essentialities to the production of food which are beyond human control. Oh, what a delicate adjustment of all the elements of Na- ture is necessary, in order to make food a possi- bility ! What huge, circling worlds must be constantly upheld and wisely guided, in order to the necessary adjustment of heat and cold ! 160 DAILY FOOD. What orbs must shine, vapors be formed into obscuring and rain-distilling clouds, tempests agitate, and zephyrs breathe ; what myriad pro- cesses in the vast laboratory of Nature must be kept in fitting action; what a nice proportion must be preserved in the gases which constitute the atmosphere, — in order to the production of a cup of cold water, a loaf of bread, and all the other necessaries of life ! Friends, if we had the power to trace the direct connection of our Father not merely in the origination, but in the preservation and vitalization, of all the secondary causes, of the material world, the veriest unbe- liever would be amazed, and exclaim, " Verily, in His hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind! " In one of Bishop Heber's parish sermons we find this beautifully illustrated in the following passage : " When we witness the many dangers which threaten the springing and the rising grain; when we reckon the opposing dangers of drought and moisture, of parching heat or pinching cold, the blights which may taint, the worm which may consume, and the other alarms which the husbandman feels and fears, DAILY FOOD. 161 we cannot but perceive that something more than the industry of man is required, and that it is with good reason we are taught to ask our daily bread of God; since no day in the year can be found, in which his blessing is not needed, either to preserve the seed, or to pros- per the tender stalk, or to fill the ear, or to re- buke the mildew and the storm by which the maturer crop is endangered. And, when the food of many days is waving before our eyes, we can but feel an anxious joy, a solemn and in some degree mournful thankfulness, when we compare our unworthy lives with the un- bounded mercies of God; when we recollect how little and how seldom we have thought of him who careth for us continually, and tremble lest even now our sins should interrupt the stream of his mercy, and that the improper use which we too often make of plenty should even yet turn our abundance into hunger." Who of you can think of him " upholding all things by the word of his power," and directing all the processes of Nature so as to produce food for us, and not exclaim, with a greater than even good Bishop Heber, " Marvellous are thy works, 11 162 DAILY FOOD. Lord God Almighty, and that my soul knoweth right well! How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them ! if I should count them, they are more in number than the sand ! " A pastor in Edinburgh asked the ; children of his infant class, " Who gives you the bread you eat at dinner? ' Almost every voice answered, " Mother." Then he asked, " Who gave it to your mother ? " They answered, " The baker." " Who gave it to the baker ? "— " The miller." "And who gave it to the miller?" — u The farmer." — " And who gave it to the farmer ? " " The ground." — "And who gave it to the ground ? " Then, for the first time, the thought of the divine Provider flashed upon those young minds ; and with low voice solemnly they ex- claimed, " God ! " Alas ! are we not all just like those children, in that we think of all in- termediate instrumentalities and agencies before we think of the " Father of all our mercies " ? 2. Our ability to use the means through which our daily food is obtained is from God. Multitudes overlook this fact entirely. One says, " I have physical strength, ability to work : DAILY FOOD. 163 I understand the laws of nature, and can make it give me my daily bread." Another, " I have skill, enterprise, and industry, and can make money, by which I can purchase abundant sup- plies." Others with complacency point to for- tunes which they have amassed, and proudly boast of successes which have crowned their individual efforts. There is much truth in all these and similar expressions ; but there is an ignoring of fundamental truth. Such practi- cally forget that God is the " Father " of their spirits, and " Former of their bodies ; " that he endowed them with all their physical and intellectual powers ; that " the inspiration of the Almight}^ giveth them understanding ; " that they themselves are his creatures ; that the earth on which they stand, the air they breathe, the light which illumines their path- way, are all his. They forget that yon great sun, in whose unfathomed capacities there is ample room for thousands of worlds like ours, from which comes all our light and heat, by which all vitality is preserved, not only was created by him, but that " he causeth it to shine upon the evil and upon the good." They forget 164 DAILY FOOD. that " he sendeth his rain upon the just and upon the unjust ; " that " every good gift is from above ; " that he " daily loadeth us with bene- fits ; " that all secondary agencies — chance, skill, judgment, friends, influence — are but the servants of the great Benefactor, bringing our blessings to us ; that they are the bearers of our cup, and not the fillers of it. Therefore the divine injunction, " Beware when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied, lest thy heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy Grod, and say in thy heart, My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth." " Is it not he that giveth thee power to get wealth ? " " Who hath first given to the Lord, and it shall be recompensed to him again ? for of him, and to him, and through him, are all things" 3. God gives us food by his providential bless- ing upon our right use of the means he has placed in our hands. There is a coincidence between the divine methods of nature, providence, and grace. In each of these departments he provides the DAILY FOOD. 165 means, gives us ability and opportunity to use them, and then crowns our exertions with suc- cess. In each department he acts through estab- lished laws, and supplies our need through our conformity to them. One of these is our own industry. " In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread." " Six days shalt thou labor." " He that will not work, neither let him eat." If this law were obeyed, there would be a great deal of fasting throughout our country. He who will not work has no right to pray, " Give me this day my daily bread ; " for it is only through his own industry that God has prom- ised it. Verily he hath said, " The idle soul shall suffer hunger, and drowsiness shall cover a man with rags." " Seest thou a man diligent in business ? he shall stand before kings." " The hand of the diligent maketh rich, and shall bear rule." " Be not slothful in business." " Let him that stole steal no more ; but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." The Bible speaks of " the bread of violence and deceit." It says, " Stolen 166 DAILY FOOD. waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell." It is God's universal law that " He that walketh righteously, and speaketh upright- ly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil, — he shall dwell on high ; his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks ; bread shall be given him ; his waters shall be sure." And this divine arrangement is a blessing. Toil is a benefit to the toiler. It benefits him physically, and hedges him in from a thousand temptations. Plenty, without labor, is often a curse. The most fertile countries, where human needs are most bountifully supplied by least ex- ertion, are behind in all the elements of pro- gressive civilization. The most unproductive soils have reared the noblest men and women. Our Father really gives when requiring us to toil for his gift. In fact, he doubles the gift by not only supplying our daily food, but increas- ing both health and vigor of body and mind in our efforts to secure it. DAILY FOOD. 167 Our own economy is another of these esiab- lished laws. Extravagance is a perversion, a wastefulness, an abuse of God's mercies. It is a positive sin. No extravagant person can acceptably pray " the Lord's Prayer." IV. Some of the religious lessons embodied in and taught by this petition. 1. Daily recognition of our dependence upon " our Father." This obvious duty, which all admit, but which we are so, prone to neglect, is here asso- ciated with our daily food. How appropriate it is, that, when we partake of the gifts of Ms providence, we should remember the Giver ; that, when we partake of his " daily benefits," we should remember our constant Benefactor ! Thus a plain duty is made easy from this associ- ation. And this duty ought to be a precious privilege, lovingly, gratefully, adoringly per- formed with each recurrence of his providen- tial supply of our returning bodily wants. Thousands are living in utter neglect of this. Grateful acknowledgment, devout thanks, are never heard at their tables. Like animals of 168 DAILY FOOD. the forest, which devour nuts without even looking whence they have fallen, such feed on God's mercies, and never look up to him. Are you living so? Then this petition is both a rebuke and a lesson to you. Live so* no longer. Nay, by praying for your " daily bread," honor Him who crowns your lives with loving kind- nesses and tender mercies ; . daily discharge a duty which will make these very mercies sweeter, richer. Solomon said, " Every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts." That is true in man's relation to his fellow-men. It is not true of mankind in their relations to God. Nay, multitudes who live upon his bounty never think of him, never acknowledge his goodness, never utter a word of gratitude to him. Nay, " God is not in all their thoughts." What will such do when they stand before him in judg- ment ? 2. Moderation in our desires. We are here taught to pray for our " daily bread," not for a daily feast ; for what is needful for our healthy, vigorous physical sustenance, not for luxuries. Most of the diseases which afflict our country are induced by the variety, luxuriousness, and DAILY FOOD. 169 unhealthiness of our daily food. By these, artificial appetites are generated, disease in- duced, and human life shortened. Our God would teach us to live simpler, and live better and longer. " Two things have I required of thee," prayed Agur : " deny me not them be- fore I die. Remove me far from vanity and lies ; give me neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food convenient for me ; lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord ? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." An eminent merchant of New York said to his pastor, " Sir, it has pleased God to give me a large share of this world's goods ; hut I have never dared to ash for more than my daily bread." " They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare." Wealth gotten by such brings with it habits of self-indulgence, cherishes the pride of life, binds the soul to earthly things, blunts the moral sensibilities so much that our Lord declared that it was " hard " for such to enter into the kingdom of God. It intensifies god- lessness, and unfits for the high purposes of true life, both in this world and that which is to 170 DAILY FOOD. come. " Godliness with contentment is great gain." He who has it can say, " Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their corn and their wine are increased." Finally, this petition rebukes distrustfulness, lack of faith in the providence of " our Father." On the one hand, it forbids desiring too much; on the other, it forbids fear of having too little. It is sad that so many of his children nurse anxieties, brood over inordinate thoughts about the future, worry themselves about " what they shall eat, what they shall drink, and wherewithal they shall be clothed " on the " morrow." They trust implicitly for future spiritual good ; they rest upon the promises of needed grace in all coming exigencies of their mortal and immortal future ; but they fail to exercise an equal faith in regard to future tem- poral good. Is not this inconsistent ? Does it not reflect upon Him who taught us to pray, " Give us this day our daily bread"? Will he give the greater, and fail in the less ? Will he feed the " birds of the air," and let his children want ? Did " he spare not his own Son, but DAILY FOOD. 171 delivered him up for us all? " and hath he not promised " with him to freely give us all things " ? Did he teach us daily to pray for our " daily bread," and will he not answer ? Do we not see him looking pityingly down upon us, and saying, " O ye of little faith ! wherefore do ye doubt ? " He fed Israel in the wilderness day by day. Believer, distrust, doubt, no more. Believe heartily in, and rely implicitly upon, your heavenly Father's providence. Faithfully con- form to his laws of industry and economy, love and serve him, cast your burdens on the Lord, commit your ways to him, and as surely as your Father is on the throne of nature, providence, and grace, so surely shall " thy bread be given thee, and thy water be sure ; ' ! as surely as necessities come, adequate supplies shall appear. " The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger ; but they that seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing" VII. FORGIVENESS OF SIN. ~^g^§#-s^ ^ni! fcrgtbe us our toots." Matt. vi. 12. '^LtxtJ forgtbe us cur sins." Luke xi. 4. FORGIVENESS. " Father in heaven, whose love profound A ransom for our souls hath found, Before thy throne we sinners bend : To us thy pardoning love 'extend.' * IN our study of the petition, " Give us this day our daily bread," attention was directed to our physical natures, and God's relation to the supply of their needs. The petition before us now conducts us within the material into the immaterial realm of our souls. In the preced- ing lecture, we saw something of the dignity, astonishing complications, and wonderful ca- pacities of the body, which make it worthy of Him who formed it, and of his providential care. But what is a frame, compared with the pic- ture it encloses, or a casket with the gem it holds ? What is the physical system, compared 175 176 FORGIVENESS. with the spiritual nature created by God in his own image, endowed with the very capacities, in a finite degree, which he possesses infinitely, — the mysterious spirit, which has depths be- yond human soundings and faculties, illimitable in their reach ; the spirit which is to survive the wreck of the body, and live during all the eter- nal years ? Into this soul-realm let us enter. Leaving the outward, passing through the veil of the ma- terial, let us solemnly, thoughtfully, and prayer- fully enter into the spiritual, out of which our Lord taught should go forth immediately after the petition, " Give," the penitential cry, " Forgive." St. Cyprian said, "After supply of food, next, pardon for sin is asked for, that he who is fed of G-od may live in Gcod* Thus provision is made not only for the present and passing life, but for the eternal also ; whereunto we may come if we receive the pardon of our sins, to which the Lord gave the name of "debts," saying, in the words of the parable, " I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me." This petition most properly succeeds the fore- FORGIVENESS. 177 going ; for, what if we have all needed pltysi- cal good, and are left unpardoned, unsaved from sin ? Can material welfare minister to the necessities of the soul ? What if the body be clothed in purple and fine linen, if the soul is left clad in the filthy garments of unrighteous- ness ? What if the body fare sumptuously every day, if the soul is perishing from spiritual hun- ger ? Nay, beloved, we need forgiveness to put the crown on all providential gifts. The con- sciousness of a father's displeasure must always mar a child's happiness. Alas ! how many desire Him to "give," but never penitently pray him to " forgive." Three different words in this connection are employed to express substantially the same idea. These are " debts," " trespasses," and " sins." The two former are figurative expres- sions. The one represents sinners as the subject of undischarged obligations, and sin as delinquency. The other regards us as having gone over the bounds which he marked out for us to live within. " Sin" is the literal name for all violations of law. In praying the Lord's Prayer, I always use this last word, and say, 12 178 FORGIVENESS. " Forgive us our sms," because it is as scriptu- ral as the other terms. It is more comprehen- sive than they, since it includes both the idea of debt and trespass, with still wider applica- tions; and, finally, its meaning is simpler, and therefore better understood by all. I shall dwell upon the subject and the object of this peti- tion. I. Its subject is, " Our sins." What is sin against God ? I will not give you my own answer to this question, nor that of church catechisms or creeds, nor the answer of those philosophies which would heal the ills of our souls by medication, similar to that which a physician employs, who uses outward reme- dies to cure an inward disease. Nay, friends : I give you the answer of the Bible, — the oracle of God. It shall tell us precisely what sin against him is. It says " all unrighteous- ness is sin ; " and that " sin is a transgression of the law." Thus you perceive it teaches that sin is a condition of " unrighteousness ; " and also an act, a " transgression." Expressed in my own language, the Bible teaches that all FORGIVENESS. 179 lack of resemblance to the divine character, and all violations of the divine law are sin. But what law is here referred to? Every thing in the universe, from the minutest to the vastest, is under law adapted to its nature. Our physical systems are under physiological laws, which reach to and control every particle of their fluids, every atom of their solids, and every function of their organs. Likewise our spiritual natures are under spiritual law, which our Lord sententiously expressed, when he said, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy soiil, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." This is the divinely adapted and established law over our spirits. Is it not holy, just, and good? Is it not something more than a mere arbitrary enactment? Do not reason, judgment, and con- science, sitting as a supreme court, decide that it is constitutional, arising out of the very organization of our natures, and their necessary relations to God ? Do they not affirm it to express our duty ? and do we not all feel that with conformity to it, is identified, not merely the divine glory, but our own present and 180 FORGIVENESS. eternal well-being ? Now, have we obeyed this law? Understand my question. It is not whether we have been amiable or unamiable, charitable or uncharitable, honest or dishonest, in, our relations to our fellow-men. It is not whether we have violated physical, social, or civil law. Nay, it is, Have ive violated, trans- gressed, Grod's spiritual law, which requires that we should, love him supremely, love him with all our soul, all our mind, all our strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves, and love thus every moment of our conscious, intelligent lives ? O friends ! what answer do your souls make ? Mine replies that I have not done this for a single day in all my life. It makes confession of guilt. My consciousness affirms that I have not been conformed to this righteous law ; and that therefore I have been full of " unrighteousness ; " that I have per- petually disobeyed its just requirements, and therefore I am a "transgressor," a "sinner." What do your souls say ? Is there one of you who has loved God supremely, and your neighbor as yourself? Nay, not one of you all. "We have all sinned, and come short of the FORGIVENESS. 181 glory of God." We are all hopelessly in debt, because of our failure to render to our Father his due. We are all guilty transgressors, in that we have gone over the bounds set for our desires, affections, and conduct. "If a man say he has no sin, he deceiveth himself, and the truth is not in him." If a soul be unconscious of sin, it is because it is "dead in trespasses and sins." " There is not a just man on earth, that doeth good and sinneth not." " Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord ! for in thy sight shall no man living be justified '' Reflect now, I pray you, upon the following truths concerning " our sins." 1. How great their number must be ! If we ought to have been righteous, and ought to have loved God supremely all our lives, and have not, then we have been sinful, and have sinned every moment of our responsible exist- ence. Who, then, can compute the number of his sins ? Who of us does not under- stand now what David meant when he ex- claimed, " Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up : they are more than the hairs of my head, there- fore my heart faileth me"? 182 FORGIVENESS. 2. Think of their essential nature. This may be learned from the descriptions given of sin in the Bible. These declare it to be " an evil and a bitter thing, which the Lord abhorreth." They term it " rebellion,'' " abomination," " robbery," " iniquity," " un- godliness," " filthiness," " disease." Verily, these declare sin to be so evil in character, so antagonistic to God and to our own well-being, that it is the only thing in the universe which he "hates." It separates man from God; and, unless removed, must necessarily make that separation eternal. Moreover, it is a fearful fact, that in the nature of sin there is self-perpetuating power. Its influence, like the ocean ripple, goes beyond human calculation ; but unlike that ripple, which grows fainter and sinks wider as the circle increases, that sin, which was like a mere ripple at first, enlarges until it swells into a wave, rising ever higher and higher, until ulti- mately it shall dash in black billows on the shores of eternity. 3. Think of the guilt of "our sins." The guilt of the violation of any law depends upon FORGIVENESS. 183 the dignity and importance of the law violated ; and inasmuch as God's law over our souls is not only the best, the highest of all laws, but is essential to the very existence of moral govern- ment, therefore violations of it are crimsoned with the greatest turpitude. In view of this, who of us does not exclaim, Alas ! verily, we are inconceivably guilty sinners. " If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand ? " 4. Remember the penalty of sin. Law is made up of two elements, precept and penalty. Both of these are essential to it. Precept without penalty is mere advice. Penalty without precept would be injustice. Both con- stitute righteous law. We have seen what the precept of God's law is; what is its penalty? Both Testaments give the same answer, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die ; " " The wages of sin is death." But how can a soul die ? Only by being separated, banished from God, the source of spiritual life. And this penalty is not a merely arbitrary or legal enactment ; nay, we know that sin naturally produces two effects, — it propels the soul from God, and God 184 FORGIVENESS. from it. But what can be more fearful than this separation of a soul from the only source of spiritual life and blessedness, from the favor of God, leaving it exposed to his disfavor, and to all the consequences arising out of being left to itself, to the friction of its own faculties, the remorse of its own conscience, the despair of its own prospects? Oh! for a soul thus to be banished and expelled from God into an ever-increasing moral distance from him, there must be the unrelieved blackness of " outer darkness." God is " good and doeth good ; " and "his tender mercies are over all his works." But goodness may punish, nay, it must punish badness. A good law urges its penalty against the violator ; a good judge executes it ; and they do this most certainly, because they are good, and because the interests of all depend upon the execution of righteous laws. Sin, therefore, cannot go unpunished. The very nature of the Being sinned against forbids it. His holy, just, and righteous law, which up- holds the moral universe, forbids it. The best interests of all mankind forbid it. Sin must and will be punished. The righteous penalties FORGIVENESS. 185 of God's law will be executed. He will " by no means clear the guilty." " The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment." " Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brim- stone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup." " The Lord knoweth how to reserve the unjust unto the day of judg- ment to be punished." " The heaven and earth, which now are, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judg- ment, and perdition of ungodly men." " These shall go away into everlasting punishment;" " Shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power." II. The object of this petition, "forgive us our sins." In teaching us to pray for forgiveness, our divine Lord assumed that of ourselves we could do nothing towards either compensating for or re- moving " our sins." Did he not? If we could have done any thing in those essential directions, would he not have told us what to do, and how to do it ? If such were a possibility of human 186 FORGIVENESS. nature, he knew it better than any one else ; and, knowing it, he would have directed our attention to it as our first duty. But, with his thorough knowledge of our condition and capa- bilities, and with the most yearning interest in our salvation, he urges us to at once plead guilty, and implore mercy. And yet how many there are who persist in trying to do something else with reference to their " sins " ! Gne says, " Well, I know I have not been conformed or obedient to the law of God ; but I will make up for it in being very kind, verjr benevolent, very charitable, very use- ful, to my fellow-men." Friend, that has been merely your life-long duty towards them : how can such a resolution compensate either for failures in that direction in the past, or for past and present sins against God ? How can love for man be a substitute for supreme love to God ? Another says, " Well, I know I am a sinner : I have done a great many things I ought not to have done, but hereafter I will live a strictly moral and upright life." Friend, that has been your duty always ; but the law re- quires that you should love God with all your FORGIVENESS. 187 soul. How can the performance of a lower duty compensate for a life-long failure in per- forming a higher one? Another says, " I see the wretched fallacy of all talk like that ; and I in- tend hereafter to love God supremely, and not sin against him any more." Friend, suppose you could, — that would be merely your duty with reference to the present and the future, — what is to become of the innumerable sins of the past ? But, alas ! you cannot do as you propose. The depravity and enervation of your spiritual nature render it, if left to yourself, an impossibilit} 7 . The fact that a prisoner, who is arraigned for a crime, solemnly promises never to commit it again is not allowed in any court as a substitute for the penalty of crime already committed. Another says, " Of course that is all true : I am not so weak as to deceive myself in those ways. I believe that sin ought to be punished, and that I suffer the penalty whenever I do wrong." Friend, if you are punished for your sins, you need no forgiveness. You, therefore, can never pray the Lord's Prayer. You need no Saviour : you are your own saviour. You need no mercy, for you endure the penalty. If your view is 188 FORGIVENESS. right, you need no pardon from God : you are legally justified. " If righteousness come by the law, then is Christ dead in vain." If you reach heaven on that basis, you can never join in singing there, " Not unto us, but unto thy name be all the glory, for thou hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood." Nay, you shall stand solitary and apart, wrapped in the robe of self-righteous- ness, your only possible utterance being, " Unto myself be all the glory, because I endured the penalty of the law against my sins, and am under obligations to no one." Oh ! can it be that heaven shall ever hear such a strain ? Verily not. Such is not the teaching of Christianity, but in direct opposition to it. Nothing can be plainer than its affirmation that " by the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified." " Though justice be thy plea, consider this, That, in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation." In tbe early ages of Christianity, Apollonius, a philosopher of Tyana, whom some of that time tried to set up as a rival to the Christian's Christ, in one of his speeches exclaimed, "0 FORGIVENESS. 189 ye gods, give me my dues!" But our divine Lord taught his followers to pray, " Forgive us our sins ;" and herein consists the distinctive difference between the divine and all human systems of morals and religion. Behold, here, a mystery, an anomaly, in the government of " our Father who is in heaven." If we violate his natural laws, he never for- gives us. We must suffer the prescribed pen- alty, however painful and distressing it may be. Our ignorance of those laws and their penalties is not admitted as an excuse for their violation. Nay ; as surely as the lightning-flash follows the thunder-peal, so surely penal consequences follow all violation of natural laws. And so inevitably settled is this arrangement, that we are not encouraged in the Bible even to pray for deliverance from such penalties ; and yet, with regard to our violations of his great spiritual law, we are specifically taught, and warmly encouraged, to pray for their forgive- ness. Why, oh, why! is this? Why does the holy, just, good God refuse to forgive violations of natural, and yet proffer pardon for sins against the spiritual law? Both are his laws. 190 FORGIVENESS. Both in their spheres are important ; and the spiritual is higher than the natural. Do you answer, He forgives " sins," because " God is love," — he is infinite in mercy ? Then, I ask, why does he forgive in the one case, and not in the other ? Friends, there is only one solution of this mystery, one answer to this question. That was given by our Lord, when he uttered the immortal words, u Grod so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have ever- lasting life." Now, we stand within the radi- ance of another mystery, anomaly, in the government of our Father ! The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, the substitutional suffering of the innocent for the guilty, by means of which God can be just, and yet justify the pen- itent believer, — that cross, with its amazing mystery of wisdom and love, — that cross, with all its spirit-drawing, heart-melting power, looms up before us. Who of you does not feel like bowing before and adoring the wisdom which devised, the love which prompted, and the power which executed such a wondrous method for satisfying all the claims of vio- FORGIVENESS. 191 lated law, maintaining the honor of the divine government, and yet securing a basis for the pardon of " our sins " ? Briefly this doctrine is thus stated. We are under God's moral gov- ernment ; there can be no government without law ; there can be no law without penalty ; there can be no sustained law without either the infliction of the penalty on the guilty or on a substitute. That penalty is not inflicted on the penitent believer : it must therefore have been borne by Him " who bore our sins in his own body on the tree." It was " He suf- fered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." " He was delivered for our offences." "He died for our sins." " The iniquity of us all was laid upon him." " He w r as made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." He himself said, " This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for the remission of sins" Therefore it was, that, upon the very evening following the day upon which our Lord arose from the dead, he told his disciples "that repent- 192 FORGIVENESS. ance and remission of sins should be preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." This is the truth which gives distinctive sig- nificance to the Christian system, and is linked with the issues of eternity. Science may report, through Newton, its triumphs in the heavens, laying bare its vast mechanism ; through Davy, its wondrous discoveries of the secrets of chem- istry; through Humboldt, the wonders of cos- mos; and through others, the hidden history of earth, as revealed in geology, and the grand array of principle and facts, which it has brought to light concerning matter and mind, society and nations ; but the gospel alone reveals how God can be just, and justify a sinner. Friends, this is the gospel of the Son of God, confirmed by miracles, sealed by his blood, affirmed by "our Father," attested by the ex- perience of millions in heaven and on earth. Therefore we read, " Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to de- clare his righteousness for the remission of sins FORGIVENESS. 193 which are past." " In whom we have redemp- tion through his blood, and the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Therefore that pathetic exhortation, " Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath for- given you" Here, and here only, is hope for the least, and for the most guilty of us all. Here is the basis upon which alone God can forgive " our sins." Having now expounded the subject and ob- ject of this petition, I close this lecture by re- marking upon the prerequisite to the acceptable offering of it. We may repeat, we can never pray this peti- tion without an appropriate antecedent exer- cise. There must be a realization of " our sins" This, I hope, is obvious to you all. Not dwell- ing upon it, therefore, I direct your attention to the fact, that an honest study of the portion of the Lord's Prayer we have already considered is divinely adapted to produce such a realization. Briefly, look at this adaptability. 1. We are taught to pray, " Our Father," and thus heartily recognize his fatherhood. 13 194 FORGIVENESS. Ask yourself, " Is lie ray father ? " Then I ought always to have recognized, loved, hon- ored, and obeyed him ; and I have not done it." Thus you will see how verily guilty you are in failing to do this ; that you are " no longer worthy to be called his son ; " that you deserve banishment from him. 2. We are taught to pray, " hallowed be thy name ; " and thus do reverent homage to the name which heaven adores. Alas ! you know that you have utterly failed in this. Some have even dared to profane it. All have failed in hallowing it. In this regard, too, u all have sinned." 3. We are taught to pray, "thy kingdom come ; " and yet have we not persisted in shutting our hearts against the incoming of that kingdom ? Have we not rebelliously kept self on the throne which belongs to him ? 4. We are taught to pray, "thy will be done;" and yet have we not resisted that will all our lives long, both in its direct commands and prohibitions ? Finally, we are taught to pray, " give us this day our daily bread," and thus to recognize FORGIVENESS. , 195 daily dependence upon " our Father's " provi- dence ; and yet have we not utterly failed in doing this? Oh! then, are we not all sin- ners, guilty sinners, penalty-deserving sinners ? With these facts before you, can you retain pride, conceit, self-complacency? Does not your heart now cry out, " God be merciful to me a sinner " ? Before closing, I wish to ask two questions. Have you no realization of your " sins " ? Then I beseech of you to implore God, by the Spirit, for Jesus' sake, to give it to you. Beg him not to leave you to spiritual blindness, hardness of heart, insensibility of conscience, and obduracy of will. Beg him not to leave you alone, " dead in trespasses and sins." Beg him to break the power of your regnant de- pravity, and save you from yourself. Unless this is done, you are forever a lost soul. Have you a realization of your " sins " ? Then joyfully I exclaim, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the ' sins ' of the world ! " He is faithful and just to forgive your sins, and cleanse you from all iniquity. 196 FORGIVENESS " Flee as a bird to the mountain, Thou who art weary of sin ; • Go to the clear, flowing fountain, Where you may wash and be clean. Fly, for the Avenger is nigh thee : Call, and the Saviour will hear thee ; He on his bosom will bear thee, thou who art weary of sin ! He will protect thee forever, Wipe every falling tear ; He will forsake thee, oh, never, Sheltered so tenderly there ! Haste, then, the hours are flying ; Spend not thy moments in sighing ; Cease from your sorrow and crying ; The Saviour will wipe every tear." ^i^r^s/^^il^ VIII. THE LIMIT OF OUR PLEA. "&nfc forgtbe us our treats as foe forgibe our toeotors," "Jor, if p forgtbe mm tfjeir trespasses, pur fjeabenlg Jatfjer foil! also forrjibe pu, " ISut, if p forgtbe not men tfjeir trespasses, neitfjer bill pur JFatijcr forgtbe sour trespasses," Matt. vi. 12, 14, 15. "