tude for certain things, our opportunities, and all from Him. All my fresh springs are in Thee;' not the dull stagnant water on which the green scum of death has settled, but the fresh springs. All I am, all I am capable of, all that Thou hast made me for, I long that I may fulfil this, when I say to Thee, O Father, that Thou art in heaven.

He teaches us self-surrender, the rest of waiting on Him; it is the cry of earnestness and fervour. The intensity of our prayer is the measure of our success, and the secret of rest in the midst of an active life. The saints were always active, busy, full of work, and yet always at rest. He would teach us how to approach the Father, what boldness of access means, and what may be in the reach of any one who is fervent, He left off giving only when the saint left off asking.

We aim at God, and seek Him as the Psalmist, lifting up our eyes to heaven, 'from whence cometh our help.' And in the passionate longing for a higher state and a more perfect heart, we cry, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none on earth that 'I desire in comparison of Thee: my heart and strength faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.'

CHAPTER IV.

HALLOWED BE THY NAME.

If we are right, the revelation of the mystery of the love of God grows on the soul as we hold intercourse with God.

As we get to know Him more, awe and reverence absorb our feelings, and the sense of our unworthiness becomes the more real in the presence of His holiness; like the Psalmist, side by side with that love, which made him cry, I am athirst for the living God,' we also feel with him, 'Who is so great a God as our God?' and Thy name and Thy word are above all things. Here familiarity increases reverence; and with Jacob we can say, ' How dreadful is this place; it is none other than the house of God, it is the gate of heaven.' So we come on the first mark of saintliness, reverent love: not simply reverence, nor awe, nor any feeling apart from loving joy, which the being in His presence, and the consciousness of His favour gives to us. There may be familiarity with holy things apart from reverence, but this is apart from love, and apart from confidence and trust in Him. The Lord then takes us at once into the Divine presence, and bids us pray for the spirit of godly fear which dis

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tinguishes the true worshipper from the formalist.. We ask that what was ever holy may be hallowed in us, 1 Pet. iii. 15. As Bishop Medley says, 'He hath elsewhere taught us that "the fear of the Lord is the "beginning of wisdom," He hath in like manner instructed us first to pray, Hallowed 'be Thy Name.' It is indeed the preparation of the heart to enter into His presence, the pulling of the shoes off the feet, for the place is holy ground. This awe and reverence is not with us for Him in respect of His greatness and power, as for the wonderful condescension of His love in Christ reconciling us to Himself. The thought is, Whence is this that my Lord cometh to me?' It is not a simple act of homage to the Deity such as any devout Deist might pay; but it is the honour due to His name, that is what is to be hallowed. The name which is to be praised from the rising up of the sun unto the going down of the same, the name as revealed to us in Christ, the name of the Incarnation. We enter into His presence through the open door, that door being Christ, and we can no more think of Him apart from the love of Jesus than we can describe Him who has never yet been seen by mortal eye. The words of Psalm xcix. 3 are, great, wonderful, holy;' that is, the Father is great as the Lord of all, the Son is wonderful, for He is the Eternal Wisdom; the Holy Ghost is holy, for He is the hallowing power who sanctifies, and to this Name we give thanks. Thus the Lord raises the soul above earthly things; and, as He did with the prophet, touches us with the live coal from the

altar, as He unfolds the nature and being of the Father, that we may in reverent love adore Him. We keep before us the thought that Christ came to reveal the Father, that in His most perfect life and most perfect compassion, He hath so revealed Him. No man hath seen 'God at any time, the Only-begotten of the 'Father He hath revealed Him." He reveals Him as the happiness of the soul, and as a rersonal God by His Name which is Himself. But it is the God of the Incarnation that He reveals, and stirs up our awe and reverence in the word 'hallowed,' by the thought of His gentleness. Thy gentleness hath made me great;' we do not dread, we fear, but it is the fear of ourselves more than of Him, lest we should fail. We pray that in us His name may 'be hallowed; not that it becomes holy from not being holy, but because it becomes holy in us, when we become holy, and do things 'works of holiness' (Cyril). And by contrast to this revelation, which is the privilege of His adopted children, He speaks of the world, O righteous Father, the world hath not 'known Thee: but have known Thee, and 'these have known that Thou hast sent Me. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I "in them.' St. John xvii. 25, 26.

This hallowing in worship, Phil. ii. 10, in our hearts, 1 Pet. iii. 15; and in our lives, St. Matt. v. 16, Rom. xii. 1, Ezek. xxxvi. 20, is the work and teaching of the Holy Ghost, and thus early Christ bids us pray for that great gift, the gift of the Passion. Thus early

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are we taught that only by the Spirit of God can we approach Him acceptably and live holily, hallowing His name. This is full often a forgotten truth. How terribly true is it that the world cannot receive Him,' for even in the religious world the work of the Holy Ghost is very often ignored altogether. Life is not hallowed, and worship is not hallowed, because the work of the Holy Ghost is unsought and unacknowledged. Christ speaks here of a sanctification, the result of close intercourse with the Father, and bids us pray for this, for the disposition to hallow His name, and for the sanctification of our nature. Philip asked, 'Shew us the Father,' and yet He who was the fulness of the Godhead stood before him, and they knew Him not. Why? because He was to be spiritually discerned. The Spirit was not yet revealed, and Jesus was not yet glorified. We live under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost; He abides in us and is with us, according to the Divine promise; and He is with us in a closer sense as being in us than Christ Himself; He is another Comforter, and a consequence of His presence in us is this hallowing of our life, 'He shall testify of 'Me,' 'He shall glorify Me,' 'He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.' The advance of the soul in knowledge and godliness is the work of the Holy Ghost; thus the merest beggar by the roadside can be raised to be numbered among the saints. Ard the process of hallowing is analogous to the effect of His first coming. There was a flood of light on the Apostles at Pentecost: at once