for the worlclj if this prayer was as well known in the spirit, as it is in the letter !
Perhaps no part of Scripture is so full, and so simple at the same time, as this. It is the first prayer which we learn to offer up, when we are little children. Here is its simplicity. — It contains the germ of everything which the most advanced saint can desire. Here is its fulness. — The more we ponder every word it contains, the more we shall feel, " this prayer is of God."
The Lord's prayer consists of ten parts or sentences. There is one declaration of the Being to whom we pray. — There are three prayers respecting His name, His kingdom, and His will. — There are four prayers respect- ing our daily wants, our sins, our weakness, and our dangers. — There is one jirofession of our feeling towards others. — There is one concluding ascription of praise. — In all these parts w^e are taught to say " we," and " our." We are to remember others, as well as ourselves. — On each of these parts a volume might be wTitten. We must content ourselves at present with taking up sentence by sentence, and marking out the direction in which each sedtence points.
The first sentence declares to loliom toe are to pray : " Our Father which art in heaven." We are not to cry to saints and angels, but to the everlasting Father, the Father of spirits, the Lord of heaven and earth. We call Him Father, in the lowest sense, as our Creator ; as St. Paul told the Athenians, " in him we live, and move, and have our being — we are also his oft'spring." (Acts xvii. 28.) We call Him Father in the highest sense, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, reconciling us to Him-