Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

CHAPTER V.

THE THIRD PETITION.

THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN."

HE third petition is the appropriate sequel to

THE

those which precede. As the hallowing of the Name of the Father is essential to the coming of a kingdom based on intelligent apprehension and cordial reverence; so the kingdom implies rule, and the coming of it submission. This is not strictly a separate petition, but a development of the second. We pray that the kingdom may come on earth, by its laws being obeyed. The Will of God, perfectly done in heaven, has been only partially known and obeyed on earth. We pray that this discrepancy may cease, and that the whole realm of God may be harmonized in obedience. As with all the petitions, this one, besides being related to the rest, is based on the Invocation, "Father." God says, "If I be a Father, where is my honour?" And His children pray, Our Father in heaven, let Thy holy, loving, Fatherly Will be done. On Sinai the Law rang out trumpet-tongued, "Do the Will of God:" on the Mount of Beatitudes the Saviour taught us

to obey this Law by asking grace from the Lawgiver to fulfil it.

I. THE WILL OF GOD.

This petition is, like the Invocation, a protest against the materialism which recognises Power alone. Mere material forces, physical laws, have no volition. The abstraction called "a power, not ourselves, that works for righteousness," suggests ideas utterly different from those of the prayer, "Our Father! Thy Will be done!" How cold, dreary, terrible, the notion of mere Power controlling us, with no loving thought, emotion, purpose! What a sense of helplessness is engendered by it, what terror of the Power which cannot be resisted or evaded, against which there is no appeal, under which we may be crushed! This would foster a Fatalism as discouraging to exertion as to prayer. It would also prevent any sense of sin. I may be unfortunate in becoming its victim, I cannot be guilty of resisting its volition. I may lament my weakness, but cannot be conscious of wickedness. But when I recognise the rule of a loving and holy Father, I acknowledge my sin in resisting His commands, and am prompt to reform what is wrong instead of pleading a resistless necessity. "Hence comes a conviction, not that we have been unable to resist, but that we have actually resisted that Power which is working for our deliverance and blessedness. A Power we

shall then joyfully confess it to be, when we know that it is not that merely or principally" (Maurice).

We recognise a loving will, for He is our Father; a holy will, for He is in heaven. We need not fear the Power which executes the Will of "Our Father." We appeal to Him as developing in His Will, tender compassion, beneficent purpose, perfect righteousness. He does not reign to exhibit sovereignty; He does not decree simply because He chooses; His Will is the outcome of His Fatherhood. There must be much mysterious and inscrutable in the Will of the Infinite God. It would be presumptuous to dictate what it ought to be, or to pronounce by our unaided understanding what it is; but it would also be derogatory to our own nature, which owes to Him its origin, and reflects though imperfectly His likeness, to say we cannot in any degree conjecture what His Will is likely to be. In the light of His own revelation, it would be ungrateful and false to say that we know nothing of His Will, when He has revealed it not only in His Word but by His Son, who, being from eternity "in the bosom of the Father," has "declared Him." He is the everlasting Word, the Revealer. In all His earthly life we learn the nature of His Father's Will. And He who from eternity knew it, bids us pray that it may be done. He who came to save us would not instruct us to pray for the accomplishment of a Will opposed to His own mission. There can be no secret purpose in God conflicting with His Will as illustrated by Christ.

We are therefore secure when we pray,

"Thy Will be done," inasmuch as the prayer is indited by our Saviour, and the Will is the Will of our Father.

Who

God's Potential Will in creation and providence none can resist. "He speaks and it is done. can stay His hand, or say, What doest Thou?" This is done by all creatures inferior to man, everywhere, absolutely, on earth as in heaven. Our part is mentally to concur in it, to be glad that His Power is supreme. "The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice." We ask that all men may carry out the Will, either by active service or patient suffering. We pray "not in order that God may do His own Will, but that we may be willing and enabled to do what He wills to be done by us" (Cyprian). This brings us to the consideration of

II. GOD'S PRECEPTIVE WILL IN RELATION TO THE HUMAN WILL.

God recognises in man, made in His likeness, a capacity of Will corresponding with His own. He is not mere Force, and we are not mere machines. We have the Divine faculty of observing, considering, judging, approving, resolving, performing. We can concur with His Will or dispute it; perform or resist it. It is frivolous to debate about foreknowledge, and preordination, and philosophical necessity, as though what will be must ever have been certain, and therefore such as no will, or act, or prayer can change.

We know by our own consciousness that we possess this power of Will, which can be exercised in obeying that of God, and is as free when in harmony with it as when resisting it. But we also know that such resistance is possible, that such resistance is a sad and solemn fact. A created will can resist the Creator. Sun, moon, and stars unconsciously obey, but man stands forth amidst the loyal universe, and dares to say "No" to the Almighty. This faculty is recognised in all the commands, promises and threatenings of Holy Scripture. We are not told to abrogate our function of volition, no other mind but His being active; but to exercise our will freely in accord with His. Our volition is appealed to by motives. The Son of God said to the Jews, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." He declared that His own Will was opposed by theirs. 'How often would I have gathered thy children, and ye would not!" I had the will to save you; you had the will to reject me. God sent His Son to bring our will into accord with His own, The apostles besought men "in Christ's stead, Be ye reconciled to God." To produce this harmony the Divine Spirit enters human hearts. is God who worketh in us to will and to do."

[ocr errors]

"It

We

have still the power to cherish or resist these Divine influences. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God;"

[ocr errors]

Quench not the Spirit." "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost; as your fathers did, so do ye." This petition implies that God can influence our will for good without destroying our freedom of choice. For

« PreviousContinue »