therefore for my good. "Father, hallowed be Thy Name." It may be said that such a prayer is unsuited for "babes in Christ." But are not many lessons given to a scholar which cannot be fully understood at once? Are not objects presented to the eye of the infant which a whole life of study will not enable him fully to appreciate? The first book of Euclid contains principles capable of being developed in a way which the boy cannot even conjecture; yet, up to his capacity, he can study and delight in that which, to a mature mathematician, furnishes methods for measuring the heavens. The very words we employ in our simplest talk, and which are familiar to baby lips, have meanings which will gradually shine with clearer and intenser light. Yet those words must be used, though imperfectly understood. Thus our Divine Teacher has given us a perfect model, and though we imperfectly apprehend it, we may always be approaching nearer towards it. What are our most advanced attainments here, compared with those we hope for? The very A B C of the Christian religion contains mysteries at which we now can only guess. Words are familiar to our lips whose hidden meanings we have never imagined. We speak, we understand as children, we know but in part. Yet we would not lose the imperfect vision because it comes so far short of the full perception when " we shall see face to face.” Our Lord gave His infant Church and gives each infant disciple a lesson by which the very feeblest may profit, but which will present to expanding knowledge and increasing holiness ever new incentives to effort, and new treasures for enjoyment. The words grow to our apprehension with our own growth in grace, so that although as children we chiefly asked for daily bread, when "of full age" our desires go with our words when we give precedence to the petition," Hallowed be Thy Name." This precedence harmonizes with the older Revelation. As the first and great commandment" was to love the Lord God with all the heart, so the first and great petition is that the Name of God may be hallowed. As that commandment embraced all the rest, for "love is the fulfilling of the law;" so the hallowing the Name of God involves the coming of His kingdom in our hearts and the doing of His will; it involves also trust for bread, pardon, and deliverance from evil. A citizen of an earthly State cannot be secure apart from the security of the government: and that cannot be secure unless held in honour. True devotion and filial love desire first the Divine glory: but this is also the highest prudence, though when offering such homage we are not thinking of this. Nor would these suffice: The world with all its God alone can satisfy man. vast resources was made for man; but man was made for God, in whose image He was created. The soul is a wanderer till it finds its true home with its Father. Then it possesses all the resources and security of home. To hallow the Name of God as Father is to possess Him who feeds, forgives, and saves. If the fountain is in honour, the streams cannot fail. If God is ours, "all things are ours." If we "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," He who gave us this prayer assures us that "all these things shall be added unto us." The place of this petition. being thus so unlike what unassisted human reason would have given it, and yet so suited to the revelation of God as Father and so advantageous to ourselves, is one evidence of Divine authorship. Such a prayer Paganism never offered nor Philosophy suggested. It is "The Lord's Prayer.” II. THE MEANING OF THE PETITION. It may A name enables us to know an object. be simply a designation; it may be also a description. Bible names, especially those denoting Deity, are chiefly descriptive. The Name in this prayer which we ask may be hallowed, is "Father." The infinitely Holy One cannot be made more holy. We pray that what is revealed of Him may be better known, and that the Name embodying such revelation may be more reverenced. We add no honour to His intrinsic excellence; but we may add to the honour we cherish towards Him, and may pray that this rendering "the honour due unto His Name" may become universal. God blesses us by increasing our bliss: we bless God by acknowledging perfections which are incapable of increase. "His benedicere is benefacere. He blesseth us really, as the Giver of blessedness itself; and our blessing Him is no other than the acknowledgment of this. He sanctifies us by His Spirit, and we sanctify His Name when we acknowledge that He is holy" (Leighton). The meaning of the prayer is, that God would so order events in His Providence, and would so influence the minds of men by His Spirit, that His Nature as revealed in His Name may be universally known and revered. The truths contained in this name "Father" had already been dimly revealed. When Moses said, "I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory," we read that "the Lord proclaimed the Name of the Lord: The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." In this Name are embodied righteousness that requires obedience to a holy law; and mercy to forgive all who repent. So in the Name prefixed to the prayer. "Heaven" tells of purity, law, power, purpose, to maintain righteousness: while "Father" tells of mercy not only to pardon rebels, but to receive them as children. If "Our Father in Heaven" is the Name which it was the great purpose of the Son to proclaim, no petition can be more important than the one which seeks that this Name may be understood and adored. The Name of God was proclaimed by all the works of creation, was hallowed at Sinai, in the Temple worship, by the lips of prophets, but chiefly by the Advent of Him who, as the "Word," came specially to reveal it. He said, "I am come in my Father's Name;" and "I have manifested Thy Name." He was Himself "God manifest in the flesh," and His whole life was a portraiture of the Invisible. The better we comprehend His combined purity and gentleness, holiness and compassion, the better we understand the meaning of the Name. He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Jesus is Himself the exponent of the Name of God. "O unexampled love, Love nowhere to be found, less than Divine! -MILTON. III.—WHAT IS INVOLVED IN THIS PETITION. 1. Honour to Jesus as revealing the Name of the Father. We read the Name of Father in the light thrown on it by Christ, both in His words and in His life. We should not have known the Fatherhood in its fulness of glory if Jesus had not revealed it. The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." "God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." If then we would hallow the Name of the Father, we must hallow the Name of the Son as interpreting it. It has often been asked what there is in a name. |