LORD'S PRAYER
509
LORD'S SUPPER
the year A.D. 321, in a public edict, which was to apply to Christians as well as to pagans, he put especial honor upon a clay already honored by the former — judiciously calling it by a name which Christians had long employ- ed without scruple, and to which, as it was in ordinary use, the pagans could scarcely object. What he did for it was to insist that worldly business, whether by the functionaries of the law or by private citizens, should be intermitted during its continuance. An exception, indeed, was made in favor of the rural districts, avow- edly from the necessity of the case, covertly, perhaps, to prevent those districts where paganism (as the word pagus would intimate) stUl prevailed extensively from feeling aggrieved by a sudden and stringent change. It need only be added here that tlie readiness with which Christians acquiesced in the interdiction of business on the Lord's day affords no small presumption that they had long considered it to be a day of rest, and that, so far as circumstances admitted, they had made it so long before.
AV'ere any other testimony wanting to the existence of Sunday as a day of Christian worship at this period, it might be supplied by the Council of Nicxa, A.D. 325. The fathers there and then assembled make no doubt of the obligation of that day — do not ordain it — do not defend it. They assume it as an existing fact, and only notice it incidentally in order to regulate an indifferent matter — the posture of Christian -worshippers upon it {Cone. Nic. canon 20).
Chrysostom (A.D. 3G0) concludes one of his Homilies by dismissing his audience to their respective ordinary occupations. The Council of Laodicea (A.D. 364), how- ever, cnjdined Christians to rest (cr;y;o\«4fij') on the Lf)rd's day. To the same effect is an injunction in the forgery called the Ajiosiolical Constitutions (vii,24:), and varidus other enactments from A.D. GOO to A.D. 1100, tliougli by no means extending to the prohibition of aU secular business.
See Pearson, ()m the Creed, ii, 341, edit. Oxf. ; Jortin, Remarks on Eccles. Hist, iii, 230 ; Baxter, On the Divine Appoiiitment of the Lord's Day, p. 41, ed. 1071 ; Hessey, Bumpton Lecture for 1860; Giltillan, YVie Sabbath, p. 8. See Si'xnAY.
Lord's Prayer, the common title of the only form given by Jesus Christ to his disciples. Jlatthew inserts it as part of the Sermon on the INIount (JMatt. vi, 9-13) ; nor is it inappropriate to the connection there, for the general topic of that part of the discourse is prayer. Luke, however, explicitly assigns the occasion for its delivery as being at the request of the disciples (Luke xi, 2-4) ; and we cannot reasonably suppose either that they liad forgotten it, if previously given them, or that our Lonl would not have referred to it as already pre- scribed. The following analysis exhibits its compre- hensive structure :
Grada-
LOGUE.
Body of the Pkaver.
[Epilogue.
A ddnss.
Homaye.
Petitimu.
Doxohjgij.
Illation, \
Fa- ther
of
who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name !
Thy kingdom
Thy will be done
on earth, as it is
in heaven !
Give ua this day our needful
bread ; and forgive ns our debts, as we forgive our debt-
nnd lead us not
into temptation,
but deliver us
from evil :
for thine -
is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the Slofy,
■iz.
Attestation.— Amen.]
The closing doxology is omitted by Luke, and is proba- bly spurious in Matthew, as it is not found there in any of the early MSS. The prayer is doubtless based upon expressions and sentiments already familiar to the Jews ; indeed, parallel phrases to nearly all its contents have been discovered in the Talmud (see Schottgcn and Lightfoot, s. v.). This, however, does not detract from its beauty or originality as a whole. The earliest ref- erence found to it, as a liturgical formula in actual use, is in the so-called Ajiostolical Constitutions (q. v.), which
give the form entire, and enjoin its stated use (vii, 44), but solely by baptized persons, a rule which was after- wards strictly observed. The Christian fathers, espe- cially Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen, are loud in its praise, and several of them wrote special expositions or treatises upon it. Cyril of Jerusalem is the first writer who expressly mentions the use of the Lord's Prayer at the administration of the holy Eucharist (Catech. Myst. v). St. Augustine has also alluded to its use on this solemn occasion {Horn. Ixxxiii). The Ordo liomanus prefixes a preface to the Lord's Prayer, the date of which is imcertain. It contains a brief exposition of the prayer. All the Roman breviaries insist upon beginning divine service with the Lord's Prayer; but it has been satisfac- torily proved that this custom Avas introduced as late as the 13th century by the Cistercian monks, and that it passed from the monastery to the Church. The ancient homiletical writings do not afford any trace of the use of the Lord's Prayer before sermons (see Kiddle, Man- ual of Christian Antiquities). Its absurd repetition as a Pater Nosier (q. v.) by the Eomanists has perhaps led to an undue avoidance of it by some Protestants. In all liturgies (q. v.) of course it occupies a prominent place, and it is usual in many denominations to recite it in public services and elsewhere. That it was not de- signed, however, as a formula of Christian prayer in general is evident from two facts : 1. It contains no al- lusion to the atonement of Christ, nor to the offices of the Holy Spirit; 2. It was never so used or cited by the apostles themselves, so far as the evidence of Holy Writ goes, although Jerome (.4 dr. Pelag. iii, 3) and Gregory (^Epji. vii, Ixiii) affirm that it was used by apostolical example in the consecration of the Eucharist. The lit- erature of the subject is very copious (see the Christ. Re- membrancer, Jan. 1862). Early monographs are cited by Volbeding, Index Progi-ammatum, p. 33 sq., 131. Among special recent comments on it we may mention those of Bocker (Lond. 1835), Anderson (ibid.' 1840), Manton (ib. 1841), Rowsell (ibid. 1841), Duncan (ibid. 1845), Kenna- way (ibid. 1845), Prichard (ibid. 1855), Edwards (ibid. 1860), and Denton (ib. 1864 ; N. Y, 1865). See Pkayer. Lord's Supper, the common English name of an ordinance instituted by our Saviour m commemoration of his death and sufferings, being one of the two sacra- ments universally observed by the Christian Church.