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LECTURE XII.

ST. MATTHEW vi. 9, 10.

After this manner pray ye: Our Father, which art in Heaven; hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.

WHEN you know more of religion, than you now do, my brethren, you will feel more thankful to your blessed Saviour, that he has taught you in what manner to pray. Before he came into the world, men knew as little about this point, as they did about many others, which were just as useful towards the saving of their souls. The world was indeed sitting in the region and shadow of darkness; but when Jesus Christ came down from Heaven, he gave light on all these points: like the

sun rising in all its brightness after a dark and stormy night, he threw the rays of light on all these things, on which men were before stumbling in darkness, he shewed us the way to Heaven, he opened

for us the gates of glory, and gave us the right of praying to God, and taught us the manner in which we should pray. And, my friends, it is a great and a glorious thing, it is full of joy and of comfort, that we can draw near to a good, a wise, and a mighty God, and in the name of Jesus Christ offer up to him our prayers and requests: beg him to take us and our friends under the protection of his powerful arm, and carry us safely through the perils and dangers of this life, through the storms and tempests of this troubled world, to that Heaven, where his presence will give us joy and happiness for ever and ever.

The Lord's Prayer is short, but it has a great deal in it, and when we use it, we pray for every thing needful for our souls

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and bodies, and have the comfort of know. ing, that we use the words of One, who is our best Teacher, who calls himself as he really is, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

It begins with these words, Our Father, which art in Heaven. God is our Father, because he has made us. He has made the world and every thing in it, all that we see around us, and he has placed us even at the head of all things here below. But when we had sinned, and become unworthy to be called his sons, he sent Jesus Christ from Heaven to die for us, to teach us what we were to do, to open again for us the gates of Heaven, which had been shut against us on account of our sins, and to give us again all the blessings which we had lost, and many more besides. So that God is again our Father in Jesus Christ, our reconciled Father, the Father whom some good friend makes again at peace with his children. He was, therefore, our

Father by creation; and again, by redemp tion, by redeeming, or saving us from everlasting death, by the ever-blessed Saviour of the world. We say, which art in Heaven, because Heaven is the place, where he shews himself more particularly to angels and archangels, and to all the blessed spirits, who surround his throne. God, my brethren, is every where: he sees and knows what you and I think, and say, and do every moment of our lives. We can go no where and be without God. He is about our path by day, and about our bed by night, and spieth out all our ways. But Heaven is the place where he is seen, loved, and worshipped, where ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, beings pure from all sin and evil, worship him, saying, Glory, and honour, and praise, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne for ever and ever. The highest angel veils his face before Him, because he cannot look up to such glory and live. We say, Our Father, to shew that he is the Father

of all mankind, that we are all his creatures, all brothers and sisters, sprung from the same ancestors made out of the same dust, and however high or low, going to the same dust, in the grave together. When we say, Our Father, we should say it, with a love to all men, with an hearty desire for their well-being, and with a wish, that God would be their own God for ever and ever. Remember, then, when you say, Our Father, which art in Heaven, that you mean this God, who has made and redeemed us, and all mankind, who has pardoned our sins for Jesus Christ's sake, and given us again the hope and the power of obtaining thy favour, O God, who seest and knowest all things, but whose throne is in Heaven, and who shewest thyself in all thy glory, and in all thy holiness, to the order of angels and archangels, cherubim, and seraphim, high, great, and adorable art thou.

After, Our Father, which art in Heaven,

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