HALLOWED BE THY NAME. How much more so when He hath called us to Himself as sons, and made us heirs through hope of His everlasting glory! Yet we should observe that though we thus entreat the Almighty to sanctify His name in us, yet it is essentially for His own honour not for ours. And indeed the very fact that this petition stands first in order, may of itself have been intended to point out to us, that in all prayer our first object must be the glory of the Lord. We seek not first for our own good spiritual or temporal, His blessings for ourselves before the praise due to Him. Even in so small a matter as some may deem the order of our prayers, our Saviour ratified and enforced the injunction, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."* Indeed the more closely we examine the form of the prayer, the more we shall perceive, that it is God's honour alone which it essentially touches, man's advancement in holiness only secondarily and as conducive to that. For we ask that His * Matt. vi, 33. name may be hallowed in us, in order that it may be hallowed by us. And that it may be hallowed by us, it must first of necessity be so in us. The very knowledge of what is holy presupposes inward holiness. The mind is naturally averse to the contemplation of that to which it is alien, nor can any except kindred spirits enter into the thoughts of each other. But truth is in God, the truths which relate to ourselves are His thoughts to us-ward. "With Him is the well of life, and in His light only shall we see light "* And we seek that these truths may be imprinted on our hearts that we, by the whole tenour of our conversation, may do honour to His holy name, and to Him who by His precious blood-shedding hath purchased for us the adoption of sons; so that men seeing our good works may glorify our Father which is in heaven;t and therefore we pray, "vouchsafe that we may live so purely that all men by us may glorify Thee." 66 How then shall we declare our deep, and full, and humble conviction of His holiness? How seek that this conviction may be daily strengthened and + Matt. v. 16. *Psalm xxxvi, 9. St. Chrysostom in Matt. vi. confirmed? Surely of all the means in our power by which we may at once express our own adoration of His name, and seek that our devotion may be increased, there is none which can surpass prayer. This is the great duty, and the great privilege of a Christian; our means of access unto God, and of laying before Him our fears and hopes, our joys and sorrows, our hatred of our sins, and our devotion to His service. We see that it is so with private prayer, and with the praise and thanksgiving which ascend in our secret chambers from the depths of our hearts before His throne. We confess our sins, and while we lay before Him our wickedness, we adore His purity. We beseech Him to remit our punishment, and while we deprecate His wrath, we recognize His justice and His mercy. We seek for deliverance from earthly evils, and from our ghostly enemy, and what is this but the confession alike of our weakness and His power? We praise Him for His blessings eternal as well as temporal, for His unfathomable love, His infinite grace, His adorable condescension, His long-suffering, His truth, His righteousness, and His salvation. The very words with which we habitually, I fear too often unconscious of their depth of meaning, commence all our prayers are, like those which the Lord hath taught us, words of solemn acknowledgment of His mighty perfection, or of His gracious condescension to us. And if this is true of private prayer, assuredly it is not less true of our public worship. Indeed the latter seems particularly marked as the recognition of our allegiance to God before all men; a recognition be it observed which He has enjoined upon us as necessary, since "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." And therefore saith the Psalmist, "my praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear Him." "I will give Thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise Thee among much people." "I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation: I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth from the great congregation."§ * In particular notice the opening words of all the Collects. + Romans x, 10. Psalm xxii, 25. § Psalm xl, 10. Once more, if this is the true light in which to look on every act of devotion, namely as the expression in act of the orison HALLOWED BE THY NAME, how should we prepare our hearts and souls for our devotions? How perform them when alone, or how join in them with others? How can we, how dare we entreat God to sanctify His name in us and by us, if we are wilfully refusing in deed, or word, or thought, to contribute to His glory? I am not speaking now of the imperfection in our acts of worship which all must feel and lament, which none so strongly feel and lament as the very best of God's faithful servants, our coldness of heart, our wandering thoughts, our want of faith. I am speaking of acts which contradict the words of our lips. See we that there be not iniquity even in our holy things. Places have been set apart solemnly for God's service, do we enter them with all becoming reverence? Do we put away from our minds the recollection of the traffic of the world, when we come into that house which He hath not appointed for a place of merchandize? Do we by our outward gesture and deed express our prostration before the Father of spirits? Or do we sit when we are bidden to kneel, |