increasing help in it as he puts away childish things. What the poet so beautifully says of prayer in its various utterances, may be said of this one particular prayer, this one and the same utterance, according to the different thoughts and emotions of those who offer it:

"Prayer is the simplest form of speech

That infant lips can try;

Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The Majesty on high."

WE

CHAPTER II.

THE INVOCATION.

"OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN."

I. THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD.

E look back with loving remembrance to our
first conscious acts of prayer.
We think of

the kind father who told us of our other Father above the blue sky or we recall the time when we knelt at our mother's knee, and felt her soft hand hold ours, as she taught our child-lips to say, "Our Father which art in heaven." So, when the Church was in its infancy, the Saviour, acting towards His disciples as to "one whom his mother comforteth," taught that infant Church to pray. And now, in its maturity, that Church recalls the early lesson, and treasures those sweet words, and with no epithet so loves to approach God as with this: "Our Father which art in heaven."

"The invisible things of Him are clearly seen by the things that are made; even His eternal power and Godhead.". But the heart yearns for more. our own nature there are emotions as well as thoughts.

In

Our relationships and their instincts are more than what we possess or do. Of these none are stronger than the parental. Children know the treasure of a father's, a mother's tender affection, and the happiness of confiding to them every sorrow or desire; and parents know how musical is the voice of the loving child, and their delight to listen and help.

Not if He

Can such feelings be shared by Deity? be a mere abstraction, a force, a formula: or if, being a Person, He is only calm thought and inexorable will. But why may I not regard Him as Father, if He is known by His works? The noblest of these works is man, and He made man in His own image: therefore in all that we most admire in human nature we may trace the Creator as much as in the flowers and the stars. We may then infer resemblance in the Divine nature to this fatherliness in human nature; the faultless ideal of the copy which, though sin has defaced it, is yet so beautiful. We are not left to speculation. He has made His nature known in the man Christ Jesus. What other form could be so appropriate if man himself was made after the image of God-an image existing therefore from eternity? What if God did not only adopt our nature, but also manifest to men the Eternal Type from which man was originally moulded; so that Christ was the very Image of God, because perfect man? And now, God "manifest in the flesh," He who could say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," is asked by men how they may best approach God, by what name know

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And God,

Him, what relationship claim with Him. incarnate in the man, speaking to men, some of whom felt the tenderness of parental love, all of whom knew the trustful love of children, replied: "When ye pray, say, Father"! Not "Great Creator," " Majestic Ruler,” "Omniscient Judge," He is all these ;-but the idea of Him we are habitually to cherish, the title we are chiefly to use, is one which assures us that our prayer will certainly be heard, for God Himself teaches us to call Him "Father."

Some say it is only a figure of speech. They may give it a grand name, and call it an anthropomorphism. But suppose, in using a term adapted to our nature, God employs the exact term adapted to the model on which that nature was framed; so that, instead of borrowing from human paternity, human paternity is only an imperfect copy of His own? How they err who deem they exalt the Divine Majesty by denying it such emotions as this term suggests; "who would make heaven clear by making it cold, and would assert the dignity of the Divine Essence by emptying it of its love, and reducing it into nothingness" (Maurice). Figures of speech are not facts, but may mean much more. Earth's facts must be infinitely inferior to heaven's glories, yet may help us to conceive of them. A figure used by God is not a fiction, but a gracious method to assist our infant powers to attain some faint idea of what exceeds all power of language. He who made the father's heart, and knows what is in man, adopts the title "Father," and bids us so address Him.

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Indistinctly seen by Old Testament saints, this truth, which is life and immortality, was brought into clearer light by the gospel. The title "Father," feebly felt, was seldom uttered by the lips of worshippers who adored the Almighty God, the infinite "I AM." Now we know that amongst all other titles there is none. He so loves to hear from His children as this. Thus approaching, we recognise His power without trembling, and adore His holiness without shrinking; we can exult in all His perfections as children who share in His honour, and while bowing before Him with reverence may rejoice with confidence.

Atheism says there is nothing but what we perceive by our senses; and that all things are the result of law that has no author, and forces that have no originator. Pantheism, with a web of words, would entangle God in His works, and blend the soul itself with Deity. Paganism, admitting personality, represents Him, one or multiform, as a Being whom it is necessary to placate by offerings, and whom we must approach with dread. But the soul, divinely taught, rejoices to recognise a personal God who is not wrath but love, and who bids us approach Him with child-like confidence. Agnosticism has searched the universe and has found many things, but cannot discover God. It says, if such a Being exists, He hides Himself from most diligent search of geologist, chemist and astronomer. If existent, He is unknown and unknowable. How blessed they who are as certain He is their Father as they are that He exists; who by faith see His face, hear His