Pantheism and Deism). "Our Father-in heaven"—that the soul may soar in prayer from earth to heaven, with the living and abiding consciousness that earth and heaven are no more kept asunder. To this, indeed, the substance of the whole prayer tends.

"Hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven." While the Christian, dwelling on earth, where sin reigns, prays to the Father in heaven, he longs that earth may be completely reconciled to heaven, and become wholly an organ of its revelations. And this is nothing else but THE COMING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, to which, as the centre of all Christian life, and the object of all Christian desire, the three positive prayers first given directly refer. The special prayer, "Thy kingdom come," is guarded against the possibly carnal and worldly interpretation (to which the disciples were at that time inclined) by the one which precedes ("Hallowed be thy name"), and the one which follows ("Thy will be done"). The Holy One is to be acknowledged and worshipped by all, according to His holy nature and His holy name; not by a nakedly abstract knowledge and confession thereof, but by a life allied to Him. This "hallowing" of the name of GOD implies the "coming of his kingdom," and this last is further developed in the prayer that "his will may be realized on earth, as it is in the communion of perfect spirits.” The kingdom will have come when the will of men is made perfectly at one with the will of GOD, and to accomplish this is the very aim of the atonement. Among all rational intelligences, the one common essence of the kingdom of God is the doing his will, and thus hallowing his name.

h

"Give us, day by day, our daily bread." The positive prayers for the supply of Divine wants are followed by one (and only one) for the supply of human wants; in regard to which, also, the disciple of Christ must cherish an abiding consciousness of dependence on the Heavenly Father. It is not the tendency of Christianity to stifle or suppress the wants of our earthly nature, but to hallow them by referring them to GOD; at the same time keeping them in their proper sphere of subordination to the higher interests of the soul.

In Hebrew and Hellenistic usage, the name expresses the outward self-revelation of the thing; the image of the thing, as such, or in some defined relation. Where the Occidentalist would use the idea, the Ori entalist, in his vividly intuitive language, puts the name. The sense then is, "God is to be hallowed as God, the cominon Father."

"And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us." The first negative prayers correspond to the first positive ones. Conscious of a manifold sinfulness, which, so long as it remains, hinders the full development of the kingdom of GOD within them, the disciples of Christ pray for forgiveness of past sins, originating in the reaction of the old evil nature. But they cannot pray for this, with conscious need of pardon, without a disposition, at the same time, to forgive the wrongs which others have done to themselves; only thus can their prayer be sincere, only thus can they expect it to be answered. The Christian's constant sense of the need of GOD's pardoning grace for himself necessarily gives tone to his conduct towards his fellows.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The prayer for pardon of past sins is followed by one for deliverance in the future. The word "temptation" has a twofold meaning in Scripture, expressing either outward trials of Christian faith and virtue, or an inward point of contact for outward incitements, caused by the strife of the sinful principle with the life of GOD in the soul; and the question may be asked, which of the two-the objective or subjective temptation is referred to in the prayer. Certainly Christ could not have intended that his disciples should pray for exemption from external conflicts and sufferings; for these are inseparable from the calling of soldiers of the kingdom in this world, and essential for the confirmation of Christian faith and virtue, and for culture in the Christian life; and He himself told them that such trials would become the salt of their interior life. But, on the other hand, the prayer cannot be confined to purely subjective temptations; for Christ could not have presupposed that GOD would do anything so contradictory to His own holiness as to lead men into temptation in this sense. A combination of the two appears to be the true idea of the prayer: "Lead us not into such situations as will form for us, in our weakness, incitements to sin;" thus laying it down as a rule of life for Christians not to put themselves, self-confidently, in such situations, but to avoid them as far as duty will allow. But everything depends upon deliverance from the internal incitement to sin; and hence, necessarily, the concluding clause of the petition, "Deliver us from inward temptation by the power of the Evil One." Confiding, in the struggle with evil, upon the power of GOD, we need not fear such outward temptations as are unavoidable.

Thus the prayer accurately defines the relation of the Chris tian to GOD. The disciple of Christ, ever called to struggle against evil, which finds a point of contact in his inward nature, cannot fight this battle in his own strength, but always stands in need of the assistance of the Holy Spirit The

prayer holds the fundamental truths of Christian faith before the religious consciousness, in their essential connexion with each other-GOD, revealed in Christ, who redeems man, formed after his image, yet estranged from him by sin; who imparts to him that Divine life which is to be led on by him to its consummation through manifold strifes against the Power of Evil.

It appears, therefore, that Christ did not intend by "the Lord's Prayer" to prescribe a standing form of prayer to his disciples, but to set vividly before their minds the peculiar nature of Christian prayer, in opposition to heathen; and, accordingly, he followed it up by urging them to present their wants to their Heavenly Father with the most undoubting confidence (Luke xi. 5-13). By a comparison drawn from the ordinary relations of life, he teaches that if our prayers should not appear to be immediately answered, we must only persevere the more earnestly (v. 5-8); and then impresses the thought that GOD cannot deny the anxious longings of his children (9, 10).

Here, also, the internal character of Christian prayer is strongly contrasted with the pagan outward conception of the exercise. Even the "seeking," the longing of the soul, that turns with a deep sense of need to GOD, is prayer already; indeed, there is no Christian prayer without such a feeling. The comparison that follows (v. 11-13) glances (like the Lord's Prayer) from the relation of child and parent on earth to that of the children of GOD to their Father in heaven-a comparison opposed, in the highest conceivable degrees, to al Pantheistical and Deistical notions of the relations betweer. GOD and creation. "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone (in shape resembling the loaf)? or, if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? or, if he ask an egg, will he offer a scorpion? And how should your Heavenly Father,i of whose perfect love all human affection is but a darkened image, mock the necessities of his children by withholding from their longing hearts the Holy Ghost, which

The words "Tarnρ d ¿1⁄2 oúpavov,” Luke xi. 13, plainly point to the invocation in the Lord's Prayer.

alone can satisfy the hunger of their spirits?" Here, again, as in the Lord's Prayer, the main objects of Christian prayer are shown to be spiritual; the giving of the Holy Ghost, the one chief good of the Christian, includes all other gifts.j

§ 140.-Christ forgives the Magdalen at the House of Simon the Pharisee.kThe reciprocal action of Love and Faith in the Forgiveness of Sins.

It was Christ's free mode of life with his disciples, his intercourse with classes of people despised by the Pharisees, his seeking the society even of the degraded, in order to save them, which first drew upon him the assaults of that haughty and conceited sect.

On one occasion he was invited to dine with one of the Pharisees, named Simon, a man certainly incapable of appreciating the Saviour. Either from his natural temper, or from his peculiar disposition towards Christ, he gave him but a cool reception. While the Saviour was there, a woman came in who had previously led a notoriously vicious life, but who now, convinced of sin and groaning under it, sought consolation from Christ, from whom she had doubtless previously received Divine impressions. She threw herself at his feet, moistened them with her tears, wiped them with her hair, and anointed them with ointment. With what power must He have attracted the burdened soul, when a woman, goaded by conscience, could come to him with so sure a hope of obtaining balm for her wounded heart!

The Pharisee was astonished that He should have anything to do with her. "Were this man," thought he, "possessed of the prophet's glance, piercing the thoughts of men, he could not be so deceived." Christ, noticing his amazement, gave an explanation of the principle on which he acted, that must have shamed and humbled Simon; contrasting his cold hospitality with the heartfelt love which the woman, though oppressed with grief and sin, had manifested for him. Looking at the disposition of the heart, he prefers the woman-guilty, indeed, before, but, even for that reason, now longing the more earnestly for salvation, and penetrated with holy love-to the cold, haughty, self-righteous Pharisee, who, with all his outward show of observing the law, was destitute of quickening love, the essential principle of a genuine Divine life. "Her

JCf. the indefinite ȧyalá, in Matt. vii. 11, generalized from the dópaтa ȧyalá in the first clause of the verse. The "Holy Ghost answers definitely to the point of comparison-the nourishment of the soul, as bread to the body. k Luke vii. 36, se.

sins," said he," which are many, are all forgiven, for she loved much; but to whom little is forgiven, he loveth little."

It is love, according to Jesus, which gives to religion and morality their true import. The faith of the woman proved itself genuine, because it sprang from, and begat love; the love from the faith, the faith from the love.. Her grief for her sins was founded in her love to the Holy GOD, to whom, conscious of her estrangement, she now felt herself drawn. Her desire for salvation led her to Jesus; her love aided her in finding a Saviour in him; with warm love she embraced him as such, even before he pronounced the pardon of her sins. Therefore Christ said of her, " Her many sins are forgiven, because she has loved much ;" and to her, " Thy farth hath saved thee, go in peace;" thus exhibiting the reciprocal relations of the two-the faith proving itself true by the love. The Pharisee, whose feelings were ossified, bound up in the mechanism of the outward law, was especially lacking in the love which could lead to faith; and therefore, in speaking to him, the woman's love, and not her faith, was made prominent by Christ.

The very vices of the woman made her conviction more profound, her desire for salvation more ardent, her love for the Redeemer, who pronounced her sins forgiven, more deep and heartfelt. But she had not, even in the midst of her transgressions, been further removed from the true, inward holiness that springs from the Divine life, than was the Pharisee in his best estate. He separated himself from GOD as effectually, by that unfeeling selfishness which often coexists with what is called morality, and with a conspicuous sanctity of good works, as if he had yielded, like the woman, to the power of evil passions. He was none the better because his colder nature offered no salient points for such temptations. Christ's standard of morality was different from that which the world, deceived by appearances, is wont to apply. The Pharisee had succeeded in avoiding these glaring sins, and in keeping a fair show of obedience to the law; but all this only propped up his self-deceiving egotism, which delighted in the illusion of self-righteousness. In such a man, the sense of alienation from GOD, the consciousness of sin, as an abyss between him and the Holy One, without which there can be. no true repentance, could find no place.

Nay, the abject woman, in her course of vice, may have been nearer to the kingdom than the haughty and self-righteous