The Lord's prayer : a practical meditation

Preface

My theme is old, but so comprehensive and important that its interest is ever new.

The quarry, however diHgently worked, is inexhaustible ; but its most valuable treasures are most readily found, and are public property.

A commentary which excluded every topic already discussed would lose in usefulness more than it gained in originality.

Every age is enriched by inheritance. The stream becomes fuller the farther it flows.

Thus, to compensate the lack of novelty in the theme, I have not hesitated to profit by the labours of predecessors, both by quotation, in every case indicated, and by suggestion. My special thanks are recorded to my friend the Rev. Edward G. Cecil for varied and valuable aid in revision.

NEWMAN HALL.

Christ Church, Lambeth, October 1883.

Chapter I. Introductory

I. Prayer Reasonable and Useful,

2. Direct Benefits of Prayer,

Objections to Prayer,

3. Reflex Benefits,

4. Christ's Authority for Prayer,

5. Method of Prayer-

Form or Freedom,

Brevity,

6. Model of Prayer —

Its Authorship,

General Scope,

CHAPTER n.

THE INVOCATION. 'our father which art in heaven.'

1. Divine Fatherhood — ''Father^ .

2. Fatherhood by Creation,

3. Fatherhood by Redemption,

4. Blessings involved in the Fatherhood,

5. Universal Brotherhood — ' Our,'

6. Majesty of the Father — 'In Heaven^

44 46

49 56

63 70

CONTENTS.

Chapter III. The First Petition

' HALLOWED BE THY NAME.'

1. The Place of this Petition,

2. The Meaning, .

3. What is involved,

4. Reasons for the Petition,

84 91

Chapter IV. The Second Petition

'THY KINGDOM COME.'

1. The Kingdom Spiritual, . . . . .117

2. Difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdoms

3. The Coming of the Kingdom, . . . . .128

5. Prayer for the Kingdom, . . . . .163

Chapter V. The Third Petition

■THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH, AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.'

I. The Will of God, .....

2. God's Potential Will, .....

3. God's Preceptive Will, .....

4. Why should God's Will be done ? . . .

5. Angelic Nature, ......

7. Passive Obedience, .....

8. Illustrations, ......

9. Example of Christ, .....

CONTENTS.

XI

Chapter VI. The Fourth Petition

'GIVE us THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD.'

1. Meaning, Place, and Reasonableness,

3. The Gift — Daily Bread,

4. Community of the Gift — Us,

5. Conditions of the Gift — Ozir,

Honesty, Industry,

6. Period of the Gift — This day,

Covetousness,

PAGE

220 228

242 242

247 252 260

CHAPTER Vn.

THE FIFTH PETITION.

' AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR

DEBTORS.'

1. Sin as a Debt to God,

4. Prayer for Pardonj

Human Forgiveness, A Condition of Divine,

CHAPTER VHI.

THE SIXTH PETITION.

'lead US NOT INTO TEMPTATION.'

Connection with Prayer for Pardon,

1. Meaning of Temptation,

2. Meaning of the Prayer, .

339 342 348 xu

CONTENTS.

3. Consolation for the Tempted,

Not to go into Temptation, .

Resist in the Way appointed.

Turn Hindrances into Helps, Not bring Others into Temptation, Compassion towards the Fallen,

360 363 363 374 377 382

CHAPTER IX.

THE SEVENTH PETITION.

BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

Meaning oi di^o rov vovripoi',

I. The Evil One, ....

Personality of the Devil,

Agency of the Devil, .

Resistance to the Devil,

2. The Evil resulting from Sin,

CHAPTER X.

THE DO XO LOGY.

I. A Confession of Faith, .....

The Kingdom, .....

The Power, . . . . ...

The Glory, ......

2. An Argument in Prayer, ....

3. An Ascription of Praise, .....

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

(revised version.)

St. Matthew vi. 9-13.

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, as in heaven, so

on earth.

Give us this day our daily bread.

St. Luke xi. 2-4.

Father,

Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy kingdom come.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we And forgive us our sins ; for we also have forgiven our debtors. ourselves also forgive every one

that is indebted to us.

And bring us not into temptation. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

X, NOV Vd&i

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

Chapter I. Introductory

THE prayer which our Lord solemnly delivered to the disciples as a model In their approaches to God, and which has been therefore designated ' The Lord's Prayer,' is recorded by two Evangelists, and was spoken on two different occasions.

In the Sermon on the Mount our Lord was reproving the superstition which regarded the frequent iteration of mere words as acceptable with God ; and the pharisaism which made a public parade of prayer in order to obtain the praise of men. Matt. vl. 5-13. St. Luke records that at a later period of Christ's minlstr)^, * As He was praying In a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.' This disciple may have forgotten the earlier instruction. Or he may have regarded it as too brief, or designed for the general multitude to whom it was addressed, and so asked for some counsel

Specially applicable to the inner circle of the disciples, similar to some teaching so given to the more Intimate friends and followers of the Baptist. But our Lord gave no fuller instructions. He added none exclusively for the use of the favoured band of Apostles. He simply repeated the subject-matter of the same Divine model, as containing the essence of all we need to ask, and as showing the spirit and manner of all acceptable prayer. Luke xi. 1-4.

On both occasions the reasonableness and duty of prayer were taken for granted ; the Divine authority of our Lord being superadded to that of the older Revelation. To this subject, the reasonableness of prayer, we shall first refer ; then, to the manner of prayer ; and afterwards, to the origin and general scope of this particular model. May He whose Name gives it such sanctity, help our meditations, and thus, by the Holy Ghost, promote in us ' the spirit of grace and supplication.' ' Lord, teach us to pray.'

L — Prayer Reasonable and Useful.

Prayer and piety are inseparable. Religion is the intercourse of the soul with God, of which prayer is the expression. Prayer is not therefore simply one of many other features or duties of religion ; but is essential to its existence, and the practice of it has always been co-extensive with anything worthy of its name.

To borrow the words of Gulzot : ' Alone, of all living beings on the earth, man prays. There is not

PRAYER REASONABLE AND USEFUL. 5

among all his moral Instincts a more universal, a more invincible one than prayer. The child betakes himself to it with ready docility ; aged men return to it as a refuge against decay and isolation. Prayer rises spontaneously from young lips that can scarcely lisp the name of God, and from expiring ones that have scarcely strength left to pronounce it. Among every people, celebrated or obscure, civilized or barbarous, acts and formulae of prayer meet us at every step. Everywhere there are living men, under certain circumstances, at certain hours, under certain impressions of the soul, whose eyes are raised, whose hands are clasped, whose knees are bent to implore, or thank, or adore, or appease — with joy or terror, publicly or in the secret of his own heart, it is to prayer man turns as a last resource to fill the void places of his soul, or bear the burdens of his life. It is in prayer he seeks, when all else fails, a support for his weakness, and comfort in his sorrows.'

Account for it as disbelievers in prayer may, the fact remains, that human nature is so constituted that the acknowledgment of a superior Being by adoration and petition, harmonizes with our intellectual and moral capacities and instincts. As Professor H. R. Reynolds says : ' One of the distinctive peculiarities of man is an effort and desire to commune with the mysterious Power in which he lives, and moves, and has his being. The widely-spread belief, that man may draw near to God, that he may transfer his thoughts and wishes to the mind of the Eternal, proclaims his sense of a Divine relationship between himself and God. As the magnetic needle points to the unseen pole, so the soul, before it is hardened or demagnetized by the rude blows of the world, will point to the home and heart of the Great Father.' ^

Prayer, as an act of homage, is due to the Creator and Universal Lord. If we are conscious of emotions of awe, wonder, and delight in the presence of natural objects, how much more are such emotions reasonable in the presence of the Author of Nature ! And when we know Him as our own Maker and Lord, on whom we are dependent for breath and all things, we feel it befitting that we render Him adoration, extolling His greatness, expressing our dependence, seeking His favour, and thanking Him for His eifts.

t> n. — Direct Benefits of Prayer.

The almost universal practice of prayer to the present day is proof of a general belief in its utility. Its reflex benefit to the mind is not disputed; but this is incidental. Men pray, expecting some direct advantage, not because of the wholesomeness of the exercise. The reflex benefit would not exist but for such expectation prompting the petition, i ^'^SS'^^S ^ garden may improve the health, but the \ hope of produce speeds the digging. Such direct and positive benefits in answer to prayer, all Holy Scripture and the authority of Christ, encourage us to expect.

1 T/ie Philosophy of Prayer.

direct benefits of prayer. 7

Objections.

{a) That God knows already whatever we can tell Him.

Yes, and He knows far better than we do, what we really need. But He would also know our wishes from ourselves. An earthly parent may know many of the child's desires and griefs, but likes to hear them from the child's own lips, because they interest the parent, and the habit of telling them cultivates filial affection in the child. In prayer we are not X instructing God but communing with Him, and lifting up our minds into the region of His own.'

ib) That we cannot improve God's methods nor alter His decrees.

These methods and decrees co-exist with our own moral nature. His Will does not destroy the freedom of our own. The benefit to accrue to us from a certain action on His part, may depend on a corresponding fitness in ourselves. The gift, to be beneficial, needs certain qualities in the recipient. The purpose of God may therefore embrace the prayer of man ; the object of which is not to improve His plans, but only to complete their manifestation.

God may, in answer to our prayer, change His methods without any fluctuation of purpose. A sailor alters his tack to reach his port. A father carries out his abiding intention by altering his treatment according to the child's conduct. A physician varies his medicine with varying symptoms, in order to accomplish his unvarying purpose of cure. And so, though by prayer we cannot improve the Divine plans, prayer may so alter our own moral condition as to render suitable a change of method on God's part, which will bring us the very blessing we ask.

' The sovereignty of God does not override the want, the will, the tears, the cry of His children ; but does, in the first instance, express itself through that very want — those tears and those strong desires. It is not that man changes God's purpose, but that man verily and indeed discovers that purpose through his own earnest prayer.'^

A practical reply to the objection that we cannot improve the Divine arrangements is given in the daily life of every sane person. Are all God's purposes eternally fixed and unalterably sure ? But every one tries to guard his body from accident, improve his estate, and secure the comforts of life. If we think we can improve our condition by exertions of our own, is it foolish to hope God may improve them in answer to our prayer ?

(c) That if God is willing to give all good, asking is superfluous.

Again we answer that our asking may be a necessary condition of His giving. The seed may be good, but will be wasted unless the soil be prepared to receive it. Without healthy appetite, wholesome food may injure. The soul must ' hunger and thirst after righteousness ' before it can be filled ; and prayer cultivates as well as reveals this spiritual appetite. So also gifts of Providence may require the receptivity

DIRECT BENEFITS OF PRAYER. 9

which prayer cultivates, to render those gifts beneficial. By prayer we come into the Divine storehouse, where God's gifts are waiting for us. ' Those things which God intends for us, we bring to ourselves by the mediation of holy prayers.'^ God's light is always shining, but into the region of it we must come as He has ordained. ' God is always ready to give us His light, but we are not prepared to receive it when darkening ourselves in the lust of worldly things. Thus prayer becomes the turning of the heart to Him who is always prepared to give, if we will receive what He eives. Unto a fountain so vast, the empty vessel must be moved.' "

{d) No place for prayer in the realm of Law.

It is alleged that all existing things are subject to definite forces which operate uniformly and irresistibly, so that prayer can have no influence in bringing to pass any desired event.

But amonor natural forces that of Will cannot be omitted. It is one of the chief motive powers on the earth. It is the force of which we know most, because we know it by our own consciousness. By our will we can influence that of others, through instruction and persuasion, and prompt them to set in motion a train of physical causation which may bring to pass events otherwise impossible. I may by personal influence (call it prayer) induce the crew of a lifeboat to save shipwrecked seamen, whom otherwise the waves, by natural law, would destroy. I may by persuasion (prayer) induce a physician to go

1 Bishop Jeremy Taylor. "^ Augustine, Archbishop Trench.

to a man seemingly at death's door, and he, not by miracle, but by working within the sphere of law, may save a life which otherwise, by physical law, would have been the victim of disease. I may, by the exercise of my own will, hold out my arms to catch, when falling from a window, the child whom otherwise the law of gravitation would have killed. If then even I, by the exercise of my will, can interpose to bring about new results in the operation of natural law, and can influence other wills to do the same, it cannot be impossible that God, the Author of Nature and her laws, without any interference with order, may do, in answer to prayer, what my fellow-creature can do on my request, and what I can do myself Must the Divine order shut out the operation of the Divine will ? Shall the uniform working of natural law be consistent with the exercise of freedom on my part, and not with that of freedom on God's part ?

We do not believe that the * Reign of Law ' excludes the agency of the * Lord of Law.' Whence came the laws but from the Divine Mind ? ' I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,' and not in eternal forces without thought, emotion, or character. He is free to act in modes novel to us, yet in harmony with law. Seeming changes may be law's developments, and my prayer and His response may be parts of the eternal order ; God working according to pre-arranged principles which are developed whenever their appropriate sphere of operation unfolds. Thus our prayers may bring about the very conditions in which the results we ask may come to pass, in harmony with the higher order which includes moral

DIRECT BENEFITS OF PRAYER. I I

as well as physical forces. This argument assumes the universal reien of Law. But we believe in the reio^n of Grace.^

Such objections have been current In all ages ; yet in all ages prayer has been offered to the God of the Bible ; and the worshippers have included the wisest and best of men. The Old Testament abounds with illustrations. Poets, statesmen, heroes, prophets, have prayed. Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, brought petitions to God, habitually, earnestly, and in full assurance of faith. They have had numberless counterparts up to the present day. Have all men who in all ages and lands have thus gratified the special yearning, and employed the highest faculties of the mind, been mistaken? If so, 'the whole human race has a lie enshrined in its inmost heart ; and this lie perpetually emerges age after age, generation after generation, in the child and the philosopher, in the heathen and the Christian. If it be so, the most noble are the most deceived ; those who have risen highest, and who have in the largest extent blessed their fellow-men, have been the most entirely baffled and deluded ; while, on the other hand, the sensualist, the barbarian with the fewest ideas, the imbecile who is most like the brute that perisheth, has made, in a matter that is fundamental to happiness, honour, and usefulness, the nearest approach to the truth of things.' ^

O men of science ! all honour to you in your own sphere. Show us the beauty, the wisdom, the beneficence of God, by showing us the order that pervades

1 Prayer; its Reasonableness and Efficacy. By Newman Hall. ^ Reynolds.

His works. But do not shut Him out of His own creation. Do not say that your experiments with microscope and telescope include all the facts of the universe, when the facts of Christianity and the facts of consciousness are not within your induction. There are facts which are incapable of being subjected to scientific scrutiny. God will not, at your bidding, come into your laboratory, cross the field of your telescope, or enter the wing of some hospital which you may choose to designate for experiments upon His handiwork. ' There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in yowx philosophy'

' More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreanns of ; For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer, Both for themselves and those who call them friends ? For so the whole round world is every way, Bound by gold chains around the feet of God.'^

HI. — Reflex Benefits of Prayer.

Belief in the reasonableness of prayer, and its efficacy in obtaining what we ask, is sustained by the influence of prayer on the mind itself.

Hiimility. — Pride is parent of numberless faults and miseries. This is nourished by our supposed superiority over others. But in the presence of the Infinite we feel our insignificance. In proportion as by prayer we have really met with God, we are less disposed unduly to exalt ourselves over our fellow-creatures, since we are all alike but * dust and ashes ' in His sio;ht. When we see God we 'abhor ourselves.' Job xlii. 5, 6.

^ Tennyson.

REFLEX BENEFITS OF PRAYER. 1 3

Dignity. — There can be no greater honour than to be allowed to hold personal intercourse with God. In prayer the human soul converses with the Divine. We are admitted to a private Individual audience in the Presence Chamber of the Infinite. We cannot leave it feeling we are worthless atoms, mere grains of sand in a desert, drops in the ocean ; unnoticed, uncared for, helpless, and hopeless. No ! we are living persons, and are in direct communion with a personal God, who hears our voice, reads our heart, helps our need. This sense of dignity is in perfect harmony with humility — a grand humility, a selfabasing dignity, which will make us respect both ourselves and all our fellows, and should keep us from dragging our nobility in the mud of sinful indulofence.

Sincerity. — We are apt to study mere appearance before our fellow-men, to wear a mask, to hide our defects, to magnify our merits, or simulate those we do not possess. We even try to impose on ourselves ; and present a portraiture to conscience as a true reflection of our character which will not bear examination. This insincerity, so injurious to our moral nature, can have no place before Him who knows the secrets of all hearts. The mask we sport before our fellow-creatures must be thrown off. The fallacies we plead at the bar of our own consciousness, we dare not utter to God. In prayer we learn to know ourselves, to discover our hidden faults, to test the true nature of our motives and conduct.

Holiness. — If the God we worship be the God of the Bible, we shall come from His presence impressed with such a reverence for His holiness that we must instinctively shrink from, contact with its opposite. It is one thing to credit the fact that God is holy ; it is quite another thing to feel that we are in the very presence of that holy God. Thus it is that the habit of praying induces the habit of obeying. It conveys no new truth, but it strengthens holy impulses. We cannot come direct from an interview with the king and violate his laws ; from converse with our Father, and forofet the claims of His love.

Moderation of Desire. — Longings which may become absorbing and perilous passions, poisoning our whole life, must be checked when we try to bring them before God in prayer. When we wish for some questionable pleasure, some unrighteous gain, the gratification of vanity or revenge, and by the heating of this internal furnace of wrongful desire are in danger of some explosion which might be our ruin, let us try to express such desire in prayer to God, and the effort will reprove and possibly destroy it. There is so much we cannot ask God to give ! We should be ashamed, afraid to ask it ! * We cannot take a vile or angry passion, and breathe it out as a prayer to God. There is too much native grandeur, too much of God within us for that. Blessed be God, it is a hard thing to take an unbrotherly thought, and offer it as sacrifice to Him ; to triumph over our brother, and then turn our anger into prayer. There are no wings to raise such thoughts to heaven ; such pleadings would blister and blast our lips as we breathed them forth. '^

^ Reynolds.

REFLEX BENEFITS OF PRAYER. 1 5

Trust and Courage. — If we have any real faith In prayer, and without some faith there can be no prayer, we shall come from the Divine Presence with some hope, if not assurance, that our prayer is heard, and that needful help will be given. This will enable us to bear our trials more patiently ; to brace ourselves anew for difficult duty ; to press onward In the path in which we were ready to faint ; to continue the fight we were ready basely to surrender.

Peace and Consolation. — By the mere telling our troubles to a sympathizing friend, the burden is lightened, the bitter cup sweetened, the wound soothed and half healed. Much more should this be the result of pouring forth our heart - sorrows before a compassionate God who is our Father. If ' by prayer and supplication we make known our requests unto God,' we need ' be anxious for nothing, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.' Phil. iv. 6, 7.

Gratitude. — This is an emotion always pleasurable in itself. Recognition of the giver enhances the gift. Gratitude prompts to willing service of its object. Gratitude to God therefore stimulates obedience, and promotes our own happiness. Prayer cultivates gratitude, by linking benefits with Him from whom they are asked. They who do not pray are not likely to praise. ' In the earnest asking is the needful preparation for receiving with due thankfulness ; while, on the contrary, the unsought would often remain the unacknowledged also.' ^ Prayer thus

^ Augustine, Trench.

elevates earthly benefits into Divine blessings, so that the humblest fare of God's providing yields greater delio-ht than costliest dainties reo'arded as the result of accident, or of our own unaided efforts.

Does an objector say that all this reflex benefit of prayer is only the natural effect of certain Ideas on our minds ? Then it is evident that our moral organization is adapted to this exercise, and we infer that our Maker and the Being to whom we pray are one and the same ; for He who bids us pray has so constituted us that compliance with His law responds to our moral nature, satisfies, purifies, exalts, and orladdens it.

IV. — Christ's Authority for Prayer.

Christ spoke by His Spirit in the Old Testament, which abounds In commands to pray, examples of prayer, and promises and. proofs of answers to prayer. When, in the fulness of time, * the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,' He showed by His own practice, as well as taught by His precepts, the duty, privilege, and usefulness of prayer.

Though Divine He prayed, because He was also human, and shared our weaknesses and wants. He prayed for a blessing on the bread He broke, for help in the miracles He wrought, for comfort in the sorrows He endured. He retired to mountain solitudes for prayer. Luke vi. 12. He prayed in the upper chamber for His disciples, John xvll. ; in the garden and on the cross for Himself, Luke xxii. 39-44, Matt, xxvii. 46; and for His murderers. Luke xxIII. 34.

CHRIST S AUTHORITY FOR PRAYER. I 7

He has gone up to heaven to pray, and sitteth on the right hand of God to intercede. Rom. viii. 34.

If He, without stain of sin, and in perfect accord with God, needed to pray, how much more must we ! And this He enjoined on His followers by precept and promise. ' Ask, and ye shall receive.' ' If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him!' Matt. vii. 7-11. It was when He had been praying that the disciple said, ' Lord, teach us to pray.' And Jesus said, ' When ye pray, say. Our Father.'

His great work was to help man's approach to God. His mediation was to remove the obstacle of our guilt. His Spirit was to remove the disinclination of our hearts. He was ' the Way;' and He said, ' No man cometh unto the Father but by me.' Acceptance of His salvation brought men at once into the presence of their Father. Faith in Him was life ; and the evidence and exercise of the Divine life in the soul was prayer. He brought men into a condition in which prayer was a necessity. He so guided the stream that it must fall into and flow along with the great river. He taught His disciples 'always to pray, and not to faint.' If they are to conquer in the strife with sin, the armour of God will not avail unless they ' cry day and nio^ht unto Him.'

When our Lord gave this prayer, He ignored all objections. There was no question as to whether the disciples prayed or not. Of course they did. All devout Jews did. The only question was as to the matter and manner of prayer. ' When ye pray.' Our Lord knew all the objections that ever had been, that ever could be, raised against prayer, yet He said, Pray! He was the Author of Nature, the Creator of the worlds, the Head of the universe of Law, knowing the operation of all forces, yet He said, Pray ! He was from eternity in the bosom of the Father, sharing the Father's counsels and eternal purposes, yet He said, Pray ! And therefore, whatever doubts may remain unsolved, we still will pray. We believe in Him who died and rose and ascended to glory. He who conquered death and the grave can, should He so please, suspend the order of Nature in answer to prayer. Nothing is impossible with Him to whom is given ' all power in heaven and earth.' And with full assurance we may pray, when He, who is the only-begotten Son, Himself pleads with the Father on our behalf. ' From the lowest to the highest, from the inarticulate cry of the child to the very midst of the throne, prayer is the sign of life, the measure of progress, the necessity that is laid upon immortal souls.' ^

V. — The Method of Prayer.

I , Form or Freedom f

Our Lord, in reproving vain and superstitious repetition, said, as recorded by St. Matthew, ' After this manner therefore, pray ye.' And on the other occasion recorded by St. Luke, ' When ye pray, say,' etc. The desires of the heart are to be expressed. ^ H. R. Reynolds.