I

THE LORD'S PRAYER (continued).

HAVE already pointed out to you that the petitions of the Lord's Prayer are best divided into two equal groups of three.

We considered the first group last Sunday. You remember that all the three petitions composing this group had reference to God-to His kingdom, and glory.

To-day we will consider the second group. The three petitions of this group have reference to human needs. The first is, Give us this day our daily bread.

This includes all that we need for the support of life in the simplest form. We have a bodily life, and we need bodily food to support that life; we have an intellectual life, and we need mental food to satisfy that life; above all, we have a spiritual life, and we need spiritual food to sustain that life.

We pray for all these for bodily, mental, and spiritual food-when we say, "O heavenly Father, give us this day our daily bread."

The second petition deals with our condition as sinners. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.

Now there is one thing which I am especially anxious that you should notice about these petitions, for I believe it to be very important.

And that is, that Christ teaches us to pray for "bread" before we pray for " forgiveness." The reason of this is plain. The prayer for bread is the children's prayer; the prayer for forgiveness is the sinner's prayer. We are children more truly than we are sinners, for we are sinners by our own fault, but we are children by God's grace. We are essentially children; we are sinners only by the fault and corruption of our nature. Human systems of religion start from man's sin. Christ's Gospel starts from God's original purpose for man.

Only one thing I would add to what has been said about this petition. If Christ tells us to pray for pardon, how

certain we may be that God will forgive us, if we do not shut out forgiveness by hardness of heart and impenitence.

Now we come to the third petition.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (or, from the Evil One).

It is necessary for us to be tempted; it is God's will that we should be tempted; it must be best, therefore, for us to be tempted. Temptation is necessary for our spiritual life. We should be like sickly hot-house plants if we had no temptation to harden and brace us up. The petition, therefore, cannot mean, save us from temptation-save us from being tempted-but save us in temptation. "Lead us not into temptation," so that the devil's will may not be done by our fall; but that God's will may be done by our resistance.

Do not lead us into temptation and leave us there, but so lead us through temptation that we may be delivered from the Evil One.

This is, strictly speaking, the end of the Lord's Prayer, but in very early times, the concluding ascription was added, For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

Amen.

THE LORD'S PRAYER (continued).

After this manner pray ye.

N our last two lessons we have considered the "Our Father as a form of prayer; we must now consider it as the pattern prayer, the model for all our prayers.

First, it is a model for all prayer in its invocation. Christ teaches us to address God in the simplest, and yet the deepest, form. He teaches us simply to say, "Our Father."

This is the essential relation in which God stands to us. God is our Creator, but not as creatures does our Lord teach us to address Him. God is the moral Governor of the universe, but not as subjects does He bid us approach Him.

It does not follow from this that we are to use no other title in addressing God. But whatever words we use we must never forget that He is our Father, our Father, because the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In all our prayers we must approach God in the spirit of sonship, and pray in a child-like spirit, with the simplicity and with the confidence of children.

We need never think that long words, and high-sounding phrases, are necessary; the best words are those that best express our meaning, and the simpler they are the better.

Another very important characteristic of the Lord's Prayer, which we ought to imitate in all our prayers, is its unselfishness.

You remember that in the model Prayer, it is not until the fourth petition that we ask anything for ourselves. The first petitions relate not to our needs, but to the glory of God, the extension of His kingdom, the triumph of His

cause.

How sadly different it is, too often, with our private prayers. They often begin in self and end in self.

If we think only of ourselves, of our own needs, of our own sorrows, of our own sins, we naturally, when we pray, are content to ask for the supply of our own needs, for

comfort for our own sorrows, for forgiveness for our own sins.

To pray the words of Christ, to pray after the fashion of His words, we must have the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of love and unselfishness.

Let us try and remember this when we say our prayers. Let us begin by asking the Holy Spirit to teach us to pray in the spirit of the Lord's Prayer. And before we ask anything for ourselves, let us force ourselves to pray for those things which concern the kingdom and glory of God. That His ways may be known upon earth, and His saving health made known to all nations.

And when we come to pray for the supply of our own needs, let us not forget to think of others too.

When we say, Give us this day our daily bread, let us think how many mouths God has to fill with daily bread, and how uncertain and how scanty to so many.

When we say, Forgive us our trespasses, let us think how many are the trespasses which day by day need pardon, all over the world.

When we say, Lead us not into temptation, let us think how great are the temptations to which some are exposed, and how great the faith required to say, Deliver us—that is all of us-from evil, and the Evil One.

One thing more I will add. When we pray for temporal blessings, let us take care that our prayers are moderate. We are only taught to ask for bread, that is, for necessaries, for things that are needful both for our souls and bodies.

THE

What desirest thou of God in this Prayer?

HE answer to this question forms what is commonly called the "Desire." As we have already been through the Lord's Prayer, I think our best plan will be to place the sentences of the "Desire" opposite to the sentences of the Lord's Prayer to which they refer.

Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

But deliver us from evil.

Amen

I desire my Lord God our Heavenly Father, who is the giver of all goodness, to send His grace unto me, and to all people that we may worship Him, serve Him, and obey Him, as we ought to do.

And I pray unto God, that He will send us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies;

And that He will be merciful unto us, and forgive us our sins;

And that it will please Him to save and defend us in all dangers, ghostly and bodily.

And that He will keep us from all sin and wickedness, and from our ghostly enemy, and from everlasting death.

And this I trust He will do of His mercy and goodness through our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore I say, Amen, So be it.

The obvious intention of the "Desire" is to explain the Lord's Prayer. We shall find, I think, that it reminds us of several things which we are very apt to forget.

In the first place, we may notice that the catechumen, or person catechised, speaks throughout in his own name, and for himself. I desire. I pray unto God. This I trust

He will do. I say Amen.

This serves to remind us, that as faith is a personal thing -as we must believe, and trust, and desire, each one for himself-so prayer is a personal thing; it must be the expression of our own personal faith, and trust, and desire. Another person's desires will not show us what we ought to pray for; another person's faith cannot give intensity and fervour to