cond petition," Thy kingdom come," we express a desire that the plans of the Almighty, for the perfection of his works, may be speedily carried into complete accomplishment; that all misery and sin, and every thing that interrupts the progress of the Divine counsels, may be removed; and that all his intelligent offspring may not only unite in praising and loving him, but may enter, as willing subjects, into his perfect service. We pray, more especially, that the great scheme, which has been going on upon the earth since the first hour in which man existed on it, may be promoted; that those who now sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, may see that great light which has arisen upon our world; and that incense and a pure offering may ascend unto God from the rising of the sun to where he goeth down, and all nations join in blessing his holy name.

No ideas, with which it is possible for us to approach the footstool of the throne of God, are more elevating or magnificent than these; and even, therefore, while we humble ourselves in the act of homage, it is only if we imbibe the true spirit of this Prayer, that, amidst this voluntary abasement, our understandings and hearts may be awakened

to a fuller impression of those scenes of glory with which the universe is filled, and of those forms of perfection which are yet to be manifested.

The third petition may be regarded as but a more particular expression of the wish involved in that we have now considered; and when we pray,

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Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we only ask, in relation to this world, what we had more generally wished for the wide theatre of existence. It was not, however, without a wise and good design, that we have been instructed to be thus particular in our requests. For the inhabitants of this earth are too apt to forget that they are connected with any beings more perfect than themselves; and, seeing only around them the imperfect forms of mortal goodness, they are apt to become degraded in their conceptions of the excellence that is competent to their nature. What strain of supplication then could be more wise, or more appropriate, than that which teaches us, that there are many purer orders of beings in the universe than those which people this world; that we, however, though but on the footstool of the Omnipotent, are fellow-servants with the highest of

those ministers who for ever surround his throne; and that, if we are properly alive to the value of our powers, we must feel it to be our duty to imitate, as far as we may, the perfect excellence of these our higher brethren? There is something indeed in the very wish which this petition expresses, that breathes a purifying and elevating influence upon the heart; and when we pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," we feel, if we employ the words as we ought, that as we are fellowservants with the angels of light, we have also a nature, which, if properly improved, may, even in time, display something of the excellence by which their obedience is distinguished.

Before proceeding to consider the remaining pctitions, which relate to our more private wants, it is impossible to avoid reflecting, in the first place, how perfectly that part of the Prayer which we have already reviewed corresponds with what we should have expected our Lord to have inculcated as the strain of supplication most suitable to his followers. He has taught us, you perceive, to address God as our Father who is in heaven; and

this surely was of all ideas the most suitable to be inculcated by him who was himself the eternal Son of our Heavenly Father, and who came into the world to announce to all men the gracious message, that there is good-will and forgiveness with God to all who will obey him. He has taught us also to pray, that the name of God may be hallowed; that his kingdom may come; and that his will may be done in earth as it is in heaven. And you know, that a deep reverence for the name, and an anxious wish to promote the glory of God, were among the most remarkable features of our Saviour's character; that he came publishing the advent of the kingdom of heaven; and that his whole conduct was adapted to make the will of God be done in earth as it is in heaven. This prayer, then, may be considered as, in one view, a delineation of the principles by which our blessed Lord himself was actuated in all his conduct: and when we wish to recollect some actual model of all the excellencies which these petitions imply, our recollections can nowhere be so successfully directed, as to the character by which our Redeemer himself was distinguished.

It is impossible also not to remark, in the second place, what a sublime lustre is thrown over the whole aspect of creation, and on all the dispensations of Providence, by the spirit which breathes in these petitions. Can any idea be more pleasing, than that which represents all intelligent creatures as the children of a Father who is in heaven? or is

there any view of the wonderful system of beauty and of grandeur, which we behold around us, that is more truly august than that which represents it as a great temple, which is sanctified or hallowed by the presence of Him who made it; than that which teaches us to consider the boundless extent of the universe as a theatre, on which the Sovereign of existence conducts, upon principles of perfect justice and goodness, his glorious dominion; and which carries forward our view to a time when the principles of this kingdom shall be more fully disclosed, and the will of God shall be done in earth, as it is done by the angels in heaven?

Let us all then endeavour to transfuse the beautiful and pure spirit of these petitions, not only into our more solemn acts of piety, but into the habitual tenor of our thoughts and conduct,-ever con