ceive any prayer that could have been in all respects more worthy of the high character of Him who recommended it,-more adapted to the endless variety of conditions in which our nature is placed,—or more fitted to awaken those feelings of pure and elevated piety, which should always attend us into the presence of our Creator. This Prayer has accordingly been used by Christians in all ages, as the most perfect expression of their wants; and as we now employ it in our addresses to the Throne of Grace, it will continue to be used with the same blessed effect, till that heavenly kingdom, which it has so beautifully taught us to desire, shall fully come. It is important, in the highest degree, to be assured, that, in this instance, we have the very expressions which our Saviour used, and in the very order in which he arranged them. With respect to many of his discourses we have not this certainty; because the different Evangelists have evidently recorded them with some diversity of expression, though without any material difference of meaning. But it is remarkable, that the Evangelists have maintained a perfect uniformity in the lan guage they have employed in recording this Prayer. There is also a perfection in its arrangement as a whole, which excludes every supposition either of alteration or of defect; and in this instance, therefore, we have the very delightful assurance, that we are not only adopting the meaning of our Lord when we use this Prayer, but that we are employing the very expressions which he saw fit to recommend as the vehicle of the petitions of all his followers. No exercise, therefore, is likely to be more profitable than that of examining, with devout attention, the different petitions of which this prayer is composed. Such an examination, it is probable, will reveal to us the very spirit of that wisdom by which our Saviour was distinguished; and there is a want of perception as to the excellence of this Prayer, originating in our early and constant use of it, which it is most desirable to have removed from the minds of all Christians. Before proceeding to this examination, however, there is one observation respecting the arrangement of the petitions which it may be proper to make. In those prayers which we ourselves form, there is commonly a most obvious indication both of human passions and of human weakness; for our prayers are almost always dictated by the pressure of some present anxiety, or by our wish to be relieved from some difficulty in which we feel ourselves to stand at the moment of supplication; and our first request, therefore, when we address ourselves to God, is, not so much that his will may be done, that the purposes of his government may be promoted, or even that the events which befall us may be overruled for our good, as that we may be delivered from the distress that preys upon our spirits, and may regain the peace and the security we have lost. In that perfect form of prayer, however, which is now before us, our Saviour has taught us to approach the Almighty under a better spirit. We are here instructed to regard all things as under his government, and as making up one great scheme which he superintends. Our first and most earnest petition, therefore, is, that his name may be hallowed; that his kingdom may come, and his will be done and, consequently, that whatever befalls us may be made subservient to his gracious purposes. Nor is it till we have thus bowed down our minds in perfect resignation to the Divine Will, that we are permitted to mention our more private requests, to ask the continuance of our daily food, or even to beg the forgiveness of our sins, and the guiding providence of God in all our future ways. In this respect, therefore, it is obvious that the Lord's Prayer is arranged upon the most perfect plan upon which supplication can be conducted ; that, by this arrangement, it forms an instructive contrast to the presumption and folly of our more common supplications; and that not only by the beauty and fitness of its individual petitions, but by the general scheme upon which it is formed, it presents to us a model from which we may derive the most valuable lessons. I. We have now, then, in the first place, to direct our attention to the very beautiful Adoration with which the prayer begins, and which is in these words: "Our Father which art in heaven." The first idea which this adoration suggests to us is, that the Being, into whose presence we come in every act of devotion, regards us with the eye, and stands to us in the relation, of a Father. This, indeed, was the character under which our Saviour delighted, in all his discourses, to represent the Almighty. It is seldom that we hear him speaking of God under any other titles than those of his Father and our Father; and it is impossible to believe, that in using so uniformly this language, he did it without a special regard to the instruction of mankind. There was something, no doubt, in the situation in which our Saviour himself stood, that not unnaturally led him to adopt this mode of expression; for he came from heaven as the herald of Divine forgiveness to all men; and nothing, therefore, could be more natural, than that, as the bearer of such a message, he should uniformly speak of Him who had sent him under that title which was most accordant with the purpose of his own gracious visit. But it is also plain, that in thus speaking of God, and teaching us to speak of him, he had a particular view to the removal of those false ideas which we are all too apt to entertain respecting the Almighty. Our Lord meant to signify, that the Being, to whom we pray, is not, as we might probably imagine, an arbitrary sovereign, who seeks only to manifest his own power without any view to |