daughters of the Almighty, we are unconsciously led to be grateful for the relation we bear to him, and to call to mind the manifold duties which we owe to the greatness, and the manifold mercies we have received from the goodness of our parent. For we have had fathers according to the flesh, who gave unto us our present transitory tabernacle of clay, and they, when we were in the helplessness of childhood, did protect, by their kindness, the being. of which they were the authors; did train us when we were young in the way in which we should go, and corrected us when we departed therefrom; and when we grew up to be men and women, they did still watch over our interests, and strengthen us by their counsel, and never cease from their parental tenderness till the gates of death and the grave were closed for ever upon their labours and their cares. Therefore we did give them reverence. And shall we not much more revere the Father of our Spirits, who is above and for ever? For death hath no power, the grave hath no victory against the mighty God. He is an enduring Father, whom the chances of mortality cannot reach. Eternal in the Heavens, and unchangeable through all eternity, so long as we live to want, so long will he live to grant his aid--a guardian both able and willing to protect the helpless, to instruct the ignorant› chasten the wayward for their profit, recall from

wandering the perverse, keep those that are obedient in the way, and watch without ceasing for the welfare of all the children of his mercy upon earth. Such are the wonderful blessings which in every turn and stage of his existence each member of the Christian family derives from the filial relation which he bears to the great Author of his being. What reward then shall be given for these greater benefits than any of our earthly fathers could possibly bestow? I know not what return we miserable creatures can offer. But of this I am sure, that it were impossible for any godly person to remember such blessings and be thankless. If not impossible, it were, at any rate, very wicked for any Christian to call upon the God of Heaven as his Father by creation and by adoption, and not in gratitude to reverence his name. When ye pray, therefore, say, not only "Our Father which art in Heaven," but add also the first of those petitions which the Lord hath taught us in his prayer, and say further, "Hallowed be thy name."

Say the prayer and feel it, my brethren. Be not as the hypocrites are, who say and do not; but whilst your lips are repeating the holy words. of your lord and master, let your hearts be warmed with the same holy affections, which so pre-eminently dignified the obedience of your

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Redeemer. In life and in death, as a child and as man, in his miracles, and in his sufferings, in the Garden, and on the Cross, the name and nature of God, as his Father, were hallowed and sacred in the soul of Christ. "Father, not as I will, but as thou wilt." "Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit." Such were the words of resignation by which Jesus hallowed the name of God in the worst trials of his humiliation, in his passion, and in his agony. Whilst ye, therefore, are outwardly praying the form of his prayer, desire inwardly the frame of his mind. Desire that your hearts, like his, may hallow the name of God Almighty, always and every where; and always and every where keep unspotted the reverence that is due to the holiness of the universal Father; neither being lifted by prosperity into a forgetfulness of his sacred character, nor driven by adversity to curse your God and die. Seek earnestly that the name of God may be so hallowed by you, that the very idea of his nature may be sanctified in your hearts, and neither his acts, his words, his existence, nor his attributes, be ever spoken or thought of without feelings of the most reverential awe.

Yet even thus ye will not have fulfilled all that was meant by the words of Jesus, "Hallowed be thy name," O God! is a petition which none

can be said to utter with sincerity but those who desire that the name of that God may be hallowed by all, and every where-may be hallowed, not only by themselves, but by every creature under heaven, who can call upon God as his Father-by every son of man who is the work of the Almighty's hand. But how can they call upon God as their Father who is in heaven, who know him not for their Father, and believe him not to be in heaven; but have changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator? Or how can they hallow the name or reverence the nature of Almighty God who "have changed his incorruptible glory into the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things?" Yet such there are upon the face of this earth; children of darkness, serving their idols in cruelty and lust, full of uncleanness and fornication, without understanding and without godliness; dwellers in the east and in the west, in the north and in the south. And such once were we. But we have been cleansed; but we have been sanctified through the knowledge of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the wisdom of God unto salvation." The fathers of our land were once heathens in the world, worshippers of images which their own hands had made: and striving, in the vanity of

their imaginations, to make an atonement to an offended Deity, by the foolish and sinful sacrifices of iniquity and blood. But God visited us in his mercy; turned our darkness into marvellous light; converted us from the power of Satan unto the obedience of Christ, and taught us to pity the wretched condition of those, who, like the degraded and ignorant Indian, are taught from their youth a religion of sin, and pass from death unto eternity the deluded followers of the filth and foolishness of idolatry. If these men, therefore, are to be raised from among the spiritually dead, it is Christ who must give life to them, as he hath given it to us. If the name of our Father which is in Heaven is ever to be hallowed amongst them, it must be, as it has been with us, through the knowledge of Christianity. Turn we then, in compassion, to the lost and miserable estate of the Heathen, to pray the next petition which the prayer of our Lord hath taught us, saying, Thy kingdom come."

Oh! merciful Father of light and life, thou that hearest the voice of them that come unto thee, and givest wisdom liberally unto them that ask it of thee in faith and nothing wavering, hear us, we most humbly beseech thee, in our intercessions for our degraded and deluded brethren. Visit and reveal the word of thy truth to the