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To us who have uttered the prayer, Thy kingdom come, and who have seen that all these petitions of the Lord's Prayer have some reference to that particular one, the words may bear a yet more solemn significance. For we know that before that kingdom appears in all its brightness, the kingdom of Antichrist must receive its full development. He will work lying signs and wonders, so as to deceive if possible the very elect. A time of trouble, and a time of temptation will come, such as the earth hath never yet seen or known. "Nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver up the elect to be afflicted, and shall kill them; and they shall be hated for Christ's name's sake. And many shall be offended, and shall betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved."* And then, "immediately after the

* Matt. xxiv, 7-13.

tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven."* If we resist not now, how shall we stand then? If we do not train for the strife now, how shall we do battle then? If we cannot conquer temptation now, how shall we hope to do so then? How can we do so now, or then, without the constant aid of the Spirit of God? And how shall we obtain that ghostly assistance except by earnest, and by constant prayer. Thus therefore do we pray to Him who is abundantly able to deliver us.

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION.-Keep us, Oh! Lord, if so it may be, from the presence and the contact of evil. Be Thou about our path and about our bed, watch Thou over our private and our public ways. In Thee alone is our strength, and into Thy presence shall no evil come. Be present, therefore, ever with us, Oh! God, and let not the plague come nigh our dwelling. Or if in Thy

wisdom it seemeth good to try us, tempt us not,

*Matt. xxix, 29, 30.

oh! Heavenly Father, "above that which we are able to bear," but ever "with the temptation make a way for us also to escape."* Keep us from stumbling and falling. Thou knowest how to rescue the godly out of temptation, preserve us therefore in the time of trouble. Keep us in the hollow of Thy hand. Let us not meet the enemy unprepared, but preserve us effectually from complying with his will, or being overborne by him. So shall we serve and praise Thee. So shall we be Thine here in trial, and continue Thine when temptation is no more. So shall we be purified in the fire, and tried like as silver is tried, and having been so purged of our dross, may take our place in Thy heavenly kingdom, where all is bright and perfect, Angels because they have never fallen, and men because Thou hast saved them in the temptations, which came of the fall. Grant this, we beseech Thee, Oh God most mighty, for the sake of Thy Son Jesus Christ, who as he was tempted, so ever liveth to make intercession for them that are tempted. Amen.

* 1 Cor. x, 23.

Sermons on the Lord's Prayer.

SERMON

VIII.

MATT. vi, 13.

DELIVER US FROM EVIL; FOR THINE IS THE KING

DOM, AND THE

POWER AND THE GLORY, FOR

EVER AND EVER. AMEN.

HE three last petitions of the Lord's Prayer

have borne reference to points important indeed in their bearings on our salvation, yet neither of them involving salvation as a whole. Without the bread of life, our spiritual existence would as naturally and necessarily decay, as without ordinary food our bodily powers would sink and fall away to death. Without remission of sin past, we not only should be continually liable to everlasting condemnation, but the burthen would be too much for us, the weight intolerable. It seems almost, or

rather altogether impossible, that the conscience once awakened to the knowledge of sin, should ever rest again until the gracious assurance of forgiveness reach it. And with the sense of guilt, the fear of future transgression must necessarily arise, so that we cannot but shrink back from temptation, and cry unto our God to be delivered from it. But the seventh and last petition sums up all. It takes up salvation as a whole comprehensive idea. It embraces and seeks it at once, DELIVER US FROM

EVIL.

As the whole prayer is breathed in the spirit of the communion of saints, so at the last we find brought into immediate contrast the opposing spirits of good and evil; of the Church of God, and of the men of this world; of the kingdom of Christ, and of the kingdom of the wicked one. Lead us not into temptation, BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL. It is by this that our consummation is to be obtained, and all fear of temptation itself done away.

For we are not to suppose that we deprecate here merely that which mankind in general calls evil, and would avoid as such. True indeed we do so name many things-want of the common necessaries of life; bodily disease and suffering; the

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