T| It is in every line a prayer of fellowship and co-operation. It is a perfect illustration of the social nature of prayer. The co-operation and fellowship are not here confined, and they never are except in the lower stages, to the inward communion of an individual and his God. There is no / or me or mine in the whole prayer. The person who prays spiritually is enmeshed in a living group, and the reality of his vital union with persons like himself clarifies his vision of that deeper Eeality to whom he prays. iJivine Fatherhood and human brotherhood are born together. To say " Father " to God involves saying " brother " to one's fellows, and the ground swell of either relationship naturally carries the other with it, for no one can largely realize the significance of brotherly love without going to Him in whom love is completed.2
3. Yet again, it is to the Father in heaven that we are to pray. Mankind before Christ sought two ways of knowing God. The philosopher thought of Him as far removed from earth in His perfection. The polytheist thought of Him as embodied in many gods, half-human, and for that reason very near to him. The one protested against the error of the other, and both were half-true. God is infinitely above us, as the philosopher thought ; but He is also very human, very near. So Jesus Christ came to show us that God is not some vast abstraction, but is a present Father, closer to us than breathing, and nearer than hands or feet.
For God is never so far off As even to be near.
He is within. Our spirit is The home He holds most dear.
1 Benjamin Jowett, Sermons on Faith and Doctrine, 252.
2 R. M. Jones, The Dovbh- Search. 65.
138 THE LORD'S PRAYER
To think of Him as by our side
Is almost as untrue As to remove His shrine beyond
Those skies of starry blue.
So all the while I thought myself
Homeless, forlorn, and weary, Missing my joy, I walked the earth,
Myself God's sanctuary.
4. " In heaven " does not mean at a distance. What does it mean ? It means perfection. " Our Father in heaven " suggests perfection in love, in helpfulness, in homeliness.
(1) Perfection in love. — We can learn heavenly things only from earthly types. Looking at such types, what is our idea of what a Father should be ? At least we understand that the word repre- sents love — love that thinks, love that works ; the love of one who is wise, who is strong, and- who takes trouble. It means this in man, it means this in God, and to perfection.
(2) Perfection in helpfulness. — " If ye then, 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 ? " That word " if " seems meant not only to imply an argument, but to suggest a question. " If ye . . . know how ! " Do fathers and mothers always know ? Look at Hagar, when the bread was gone, the water spent, and Ishmael ready to die of want — did she know ? "She cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him, a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept." Look at certain times into certain houses not far from your own, and you might hear a child ask for bread, and then hear the father say, " There is none." He would help, but he does not know how. God, as our helper, because He is our Father in heaven, might say to us, " As the heavens are higher than the earth, so " — in helping you — " are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
(3) Perfection in homeliness. — The words, " Our Father which art in heaven," suggest to us the perfection of our home. Although the word " heaven " is here used mainly to remind us of our Father's perfection, it is meant also to remind us of the
ST. MATTHEW vi. 9 139
family home. Some Christians seem not to care for this doctrine, and in giving us their own views they are almost as refined as Confucius, who said, " Heaven is Principle." Our notion, although it includes this idea, does not stop at it. It includes not only character but condition, not only principle but place. We look upon heaven as the perfect home of perfect human nature.
TJ What must that place be in which even God is at home ! We cannot tell, and it is astonishing that any mortal has ever tried to tell. It is written in an old story that an artist, led by Indians, ence went to paint Niagara, but that when he saw it, he dashed his disappointing pencil down the precipice, for he felt that he could as soon paint the roar, as the fall, the foam, the great sheets of light, the arch of coloured rays, with all the other wonders that went to make up the surprising cataract ; and shall we who have only seen earth, try to picture heaven ! No ! poems of glory, pictures of magnificence, all fail, " imagination in its utmost stretch, in wonder dies away " ; in our present state, our future state is a mystery, though a mystery of delight. It is our home, but the celestial homeliness is beyond us now.1