weapon of that great author of evil, the devil. We confess that ever sinoe the fall the world '^ lieth in the wicked one." (1 John Y. 19.) We confess that eyil is in us, and about us, and near us, and on every side, and that we have no power to deliver ourselves from it. We apply to the strong for strength. We cast ourselves on Him for pro- tection. In short, we ask what our Savidur Himself asked for us, when He said, ''I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." (John xvii. 15.)
Such is the last division of the Lord's Prayer. In real importance it is not a whit inferior to the two other divisions, which we have already considered. It leaves man precisely in the position which he ought to occupy. It puts in his mouth the language of humility. The most dangerous state in which we can be, is not to know and feel our spiritual danger*
And now let us use the Lord's Prayer for the trial of our own state before God. Its words have probably passed over our lips thousands of times. But have we really felt it P — ^Do we really desire its petitions to be granted P — ^Is God really our Father P — ^Are we bom again, and made His children by faith in Christ P — Do we care much for His name and will P — ^Do we really wish the kingdom of God to come P — ^Do we feel our need of daily temporal mercies, and of daily pardon of sin P — ^Do we fear falling into temp- tation P — ^Do we dread evil above all things P — ^These are serious questions. They deserve serious consideration.
Let us strive to make the Lord's Prayer our model and pattern in all our approaches to God. Let it suggest to us the sort of things which we should pray for and
LUKBy CHAP. ZI. YEB. 1 4. 7
pray against. Let it teach ns the relatiye place and proportion which we should give to each subject in our prayers. The more we ponder and examine the Lord's Prayer, the more instructiYe and suggestive shall we find it to be.
Konsi. LuxB XI. 1 — i.
1. — [As He was praying,'] We see in this place another instance of our Lord's diligence in private prayer. In this respect He has left a pattern which all Christians ought to copy.
[Teach tie to pray.] Quesnel calls attention to the benefit which this man's request has obtained for the whole Church of Christ : — " One single person, moved and edified by the good example of our Lord praying, conceives a love for prayer, desires to know how to prav, is sensible that of himself he is not capable of doing it, addresses himself to Christ, obtains from Him this divine pattern, procures this treasure for the rest of the disciples, and for the whole Church, and becomes the occasion of the infinite good which the prayer has produced, and will produce to the end of the world."
2. — {When ye pray, say.] Let it be carefully noted that the Lord's Prayer was twice delivered by our Lord, upon two distinct occar sions. This fuscounts for the slight variations in its form, which appear on comparison. — Mede remarks, *'As Joseph said to Fharaoh, the dream is doubled unto Pharaoh, because the thing is established, so the delivery of this prayer was doubled, that we may know the more certainly that our Saviour intended and commanded it for a set form of prayer to His Church."
[Our Father.] Chrysostom and Angustine both remark, that to address God as "Father," is peculiar to the New Testament dispensation, and that the Old Testament saints never use the expression. — The remark is undoubtedly true, but requires fisncing with cautions. — ^We must be careful not to suppose that the Old Testament saints were destitute of the Holy Ghost, as some say, and were not bom again. Their light was undoubt- edly far less than ours. The way into the holiest was not made maaifest. The precise manner in which God would be just and yet justify the ungodly, was not clearly understood Iby them. They could not therefore look up to God with that boldness and freedom which the Christian believer can, as to a reconciled Father. But to say that God was in no sense the Father of Old Testament believers would be going much too far. He is the Father of all who are saved by Chnst, and without Christ no man was ever saved.