The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 251

by us 88 we wslk before him in the path of holy obedience. He has given us each a work to do; let us see that we do it. Faith without works is dead; the life of sanctifi- -cation within the heart must bring forth the fruits of holy living. (c) God's will ie better than our will ; he knows better than we what is for our real good. We must pray the prayer of resignation, "Thy will be done." It is very hard sometimes to pray ,that prayer when troubles come thick upon us, when we are afflicted with pain and: ,sickness, when those whom· we have very dearly loved are taken from us. In those times of great sorrow we must think of the Lord as he knelt that awful night in the garden, when his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. We may ask, as he did, for relief: "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." But, if we have learned of him, we shall always add those holy words of his, ctNevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." There ia no peace like the great peace of entire resign9.tion. (2) The standard. "In earth, 88 it is in heaven." There the holy angels ever do the blessed will of God; they do it perfectly, they do it checr- frilly, without self-denial, without painful effort. There is no place in heaven for a. will opposed to the Divine will. The presence of such a will would be a contradiction to. the everlasting harmony, a note of discord in the angelic song. It is not so here. Our wills are distorted by inherited corruption, by our own consent to sin. Hence the need of daily seU-denial. The sinless, instinctive obedience of the holy angels is above our reach; but it is the model proposed to us for our imitation. , Our J:<'ather fa in heaven:;. there they do his will. Our oiti.zenship is there; our treasure, our heart, should be there; we must try to live the heavenly life on earth. How would a holy angel live if he were set in our 'position, among our surroundings? As be would livi?, so we should strive to live. It is our high calling; nothing short of this ought to sati3fy us; it is what we pray for daily. We should ever be looking upwards, striving to. :live, 88 each day passes by, more nearly as we pray. 5. The fourth petition. Hitherto we have spoken only of .God, now we speak of our own wants. The· prayers already uttered are three, and yet one. The first lifts our thoughts to the heavenly Father; the second, to the kingdom which is given to the eternal Son; the third, to the Holy Spirit, by whose help alone we, sinful men can do the holy will of God. 'l'he prayers are three, and yet one; all meet in the first clause of the angelic hymn, " Glory be to God on high." Now for the fir6t time we speak of ourselves, of our own daily needs, "Give us this day our daily bread." It is a prayer of faith, of trustfulness, of contentment. He is the Lord of the harvest; the increase of the earth cometh from him; it rests with him to give or to withhold; we own it in our daily prayer. We trust him; he is our Father; he- knows that we have need of these things; his blessed Son bids us ask. We ask for the supply of our earthly needs in trustfulness, but in submission, remembering the Inst petition, "Thy will be done.'' He encourages us to ask, but only for what is needful-our daily bread. We ask for it each doy as it passes ; it is enough for us; we learn contentment from our prayers. Our daily bread, we say; we pray for others, not only for ourselves; our prayer binds us to feed the hungry. But man doth not live by bree.d alone. We ask not only for common food when we say the prayer which Christ himself bath taught us. We e.sk, if we ore his indeed, for the living Ilrend-himself, the Food of the soul, which if a man receive be shall never hunger. We need that Food every day, every hour; without it the spirit uni lifo must pine a.way e.nd die. 6. The fifth petition. (I) "Forgive us our debts." We owe a debt to God, each one of us-a great debt; it has been accumulating day after day, year after year; it is like the vast sum, the ten thousand talents, which the servant owed in the parable. Like him, we have nothing to pay. But if we have Jearned to say, "Our Father," if we have ari~en from the life of si.a and carelessness and gone to our Father, we know that he will forgive. " When he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, e.nd had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." They are precious words. Our Father sees the first symptoms of repentance; he goes forth to meet the penitent; he embraces him with the e.rms of, his mercy. (2) "As we forgive our debtors." We cannot really believe in the forgiving love of God unless we find a shadow of it in our own hearts; if we forgive not, if we are hard, stern, unforgiving, we can bllve no sense of fo~giveness. If wit forgive others, it is an evidence of our own forgiveness. " Iler ains, which a.re many, ere forgiven; for she loved much." 'l'he much love proves that she is forgiven; but 244 'IRE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [en. VI. 1-3+.