2. 'fo reveal to that nature the forces that are withvn it also; and to waken its know!e,lge as much of their difference in kind as of their existence. III. THE USES OJ' TEMPTATION, 1. To challenge, determine, fix the tone and direction of the character of any and every person. 2. To strengthen greatly, by decision and by exercise, goodness, if temptation is resisted and mastered ; or if the opposite, at any rate to acquaint the sufferer with what is going on in his life. IV. THE JUBTIFIOATION OF PRAYING AGAINST THE ORDEAL OF TEMPTATI0:-1. 1. Such praying expresses a very permissible, just, modest distrust of self. It expresses the opposite of self-confidence. 2. It expresses a just and natural dread of being worsted of our worst enemy. 3. It expresses a justifiable shrinking from the conflict, and the pain of being tempted, even if we are not victims to the danger of it. That "the cup may pass away" we know is a. lawful and even hallowed prayer, if coupled with submission still to the Divine will, and with the resolute drinking of it if it be still held to our lips. Such praying may be regarded as the fit response also to the most gracious utterances of all the ages; e.g. "Like as a father pitieth bis children . . . for he knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust."-B. Ver, 13 (latter part).-The seventh petiti()'II,. Thie latter clause of what might be viewed almost as one petition, though expressed in the shape of two antithetic parts, confirms what may be ea.lied the common-sense interpretation of the words, "Lead us not into temptation." All the matter of temptation is evil. The evil that is without, its material; the evil that is within, its occasion and fearful purchase. The attraction of what is good, and any readiness within us to yield to that attraction, we do not designate temptation. But now the petition, "Lead us not into temptation," all the material of which is evil, is pronouncedly followed by this other," But deliver us," i.e. draw us away, rescue us, save us, "from evil," or from the evil one, in every form and in every degree. The petition is, therefore, certainly not mere repetition of the former, nor the former put in somewhat different shape, but it is substantial addition to it. Notice, then, that the prayer- I. BREATHES THE EARNEST DESmE TO BE DELIVERED FROM THE WHOLE BODY OF EVIL. That which was ever round us; that which is ever too likely to be within us, though dormant, perhaps; that which might still invade our peace and safety. We need to be set free from that which has in past time, and perhaps long, dominated us. II. EXPRESSES THE CONVICTION THAT THE FINAL, OOMPREHENSIVE THING TO BE DESIRED 18 TO BE DR.AWN BY DIVINE POWER FROM EVIL. We need to be both (1) weaned from the love of it and all native inclination to it, so far as it takes any shape, by virtue of which we may wish for the time to cast in our Jot with it; and (2) rescued and, if need be, snatched from its tyrannical hold and merciless thraldom. The significance of the position of this petition, last of all, so placed by Christ himself, well deserves notice and enforcing. III. REOOGNIZES AND RECORDS OUR CREED THAT EVIL HAS ITS MASTER; AND THAT WE KNOW WHO THAT MASTER ALONE IB j OUR DEPENDENCE ON HIM 1 AND OUR INDEBTED- NESS TO HIM. To him we rightly carry our solemn, suffering, last appeal against it, whether the fault of it be more or less chargeable on ourselves. A short life, which nevertheless dragged even its very briefness, its "days few and evil," as though tedious time needed to be "killed," may have witnessed a cueless indifference to evil on our part; a.gain, an utter misestima.te of its nature, malignity, mass of resistance; again, a. mere defiant attitude towards it; again, a self-confident assurance of our own power over it, when only we should choose to rise to the occasion, and put forth that supposed power; and once a.gain, after many a shameful fall, as the natural reaction, a crouching, craven, crushed, despairing dread of itl The humbling tnle of these self-coodearniog transformations, and of the innumerable by-victories of evil, own to one safe outcome, one only I It is this-put into our lipe by Jesus himself-the sad, intensely earnest, all-trusting, last appeal against it, addressed to that Master of it, before whom itself has ever quailed, "Deliver us from evil."-B.
Vera, 16-18.-The mar.ner of faAting. As, of the three specific ndmonition11 regarding our personal religious exercises, the first on" the mannei· of almsgiving," nod the second on " the manne1' of praying," have hnd their gracious treatmeut; so now MATTHEW, ~ 258 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. [ou. vi. 1-34,