PREFACE. Ir it be so, as Gresswell thinks, that the Sermon on the Mount was spoken on September 17, A D. 27, a long interval passed before it was repeated, and then with a different object. Some day between February 24 and March 10, A.D. 30, is supposed to be the second occasion; by that time the life and teaching of Jesus had done its work on the souls of the disciples, and what had seemed to them, and perhaps was so, a typical form when delivered in the Sermon on the Mount, now became absolute; the direction, 'After this 'manner pray,' being exchanged for 'when ye 'pray, say.' The deepening of their spiritual life and the enlarging of their souls to embrace the mysteries of the kingdom had prepared them to receive some form which would contain all needs and all teaching, and be a very symbollum, 'it was needful that new wine should be laid up in new skins, and a new 'breadth sewn to a new garment' (Tertullian). The prayer and the creed must run together, and this is consistent with our Lord's gradual teaching: 'I have many things to tell you, but 'ye cannot bear them.' Now, the by-and-by came, and then the great truth was given to minds which had been so carefully and lovingly prepared to receive it. I have thought to treat this wonderful prayer as an exposition of the saintly life and character. I have seemed to see in it our Lord's embodiment of the spiritual life, and each petition has brought to me some ray of light and encouragement from Him who giveth songs in the night. Our life is a constant going forth of Divine power, affecting our growth after His likeness, and enabling us to advance in knowledge and holiness, onward, still onward. Another day we are to be changed. And to see Him as He is. Meanwhile we can know no limit to His predestinating love; and our spiritual life, by the very necessity of its being, must be ever unfolding new features, and developing new energies. We might expect that He, from the first, would provide for that, and for the ever-changing circumstances of class, and position, and place: just as He has settled the creed once and for ever. Looking at the Lord's Prayer in this light, we are prepared to find in it a treasury of devotion, and to see in every word an evervarying teaching suitable to the steps of our spiritual course, or the wants of our spiritual being. And we can understand the reverence paid to it, and the constant use made of it; how with loving hearts men dwelt on its petitions, and found new secrets revealed to them that feared Him; how they, from the apostles downwards, were never tired of commenting on its messages, nor exalting its sanctity; how in the early writings of the Fathers and the early Liturgies it occupies a prominent place; how, as with the Creed, the history of the triumphs and troubles of the Church are inseparably connected with the Lord's Prayer; and how its disuse at later times, and among many of the sects of divided Christendom now, is a fruitful cause of unbelief, and of a fading away of holiness of life. By some an effort has been made-one cannot think why-to prove that there was nothing new in the prayer, that it was not as we think the form adapted for the needs of Christian life, and the only form which would bear the brunt of time and last for ages. They have professed to think that it was founded on prayers previously in use among the Jews, and the result of their so-called criticism is summed up by Lange as amounting to this: 6 "That the first two petitions alone of the Lord's "Prayer contain what, after all, amounts to 'no more than allusions to well-known Old Testament or Messianic ideas and expressions. Besides, it is quite possible that the 'Jews may have borrowed even these from the "Lord's Prayer.' We can trace in the apostolic writings the effect of the Lord's Prayer; expressions here and there occur which shew a kindred feeling and ardent use of the same. Thus, Rom. viii. 15, Gal. iv. 6, 1 Peter i. 17. Two Commentaries exist, one by Tertullian and the other by St. Cyprian, written about a century and a half after the death of St. John. St. Cyprian's is one of great beauty, and is occasionally quoted in the following pages. Tertullian sees in it a great deal of Divine teaching, and exclaims, 'How many sayings of the Prophets, Gospels, "Apostles' discourses of the Lord, parables, 'precepts, are touched upon! how many duties are at once discharged!-the honouring of 'God in the Father, the testimony of faith in 'the Name, the offering of obedience in the will, the remembrance of hope in the kingdom, 'the petition for life in the bread, the con'fession of debts in the prayer to forgive, the 'anxious care about temptations in the call for defence. What wonder? Gcd alone can |