Thy Name, O Lord, for Thy loving-kindness and for Thy truth's sake."* "O praise the Lord in the heavens; praise Him in the height; praise Him all ye angels of His; praise Him all His host; praise Him sun and moon; praise Him all ye stars and light; praise Him all ye heavens, and ye waters that are above the heavens."† For "Thou art worthy, oh! Lord, to receive honour and power and glory; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they were, and are created.”‡ "Therefore with angels and arch-angels, and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify Thy glorious name, evermore praising Thee and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of Thy glory: glory be to Thee, O Lord most High." Amen.

Psalm cxxxviii, 2.

† Psalm cxlviii, 1—4.

Rev. iv, 11.

our Father, while we also look upon Him as King of kings, whose throne is heaven, and the earth His footstool; if indeed we have learned to deem of ourselves as "children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ ;"* if we have truly thought of our service here as that of the soldiers of the Most High, who have to do battle under Christ's banner with sin, the world, and the prince of darkness, and who have a crown that fadeth not away, as the prize of

* Romans viii, 16, 17.

our high calling; in a word, if we are Christians in any thing beyond the name, surely it would seem impossible but that this prayer must find an echo in our inmost heart. Had we an earthly father who was excluded from influence which we felt to be his right; whose authority was set at nought by those who owed him the duty of servants, not to say the affection of sons; who was lord of a household, which once had been most blessed in obedience, but into which rebellion had crept by the machinations of an insidious enemy, and in which from that time disorder and confusion, and misery the result of that confusion had been dominant; how should we long, and watch, and labour for the restoration of his sway, and with it for the restoration of peace, and happiness, and brotherhood so cruelly interrupted or divided!

We should see and feel that the renewal of his authority in general was the one only means of regaining and securing his former countenance and support; that the acknowledgment of it as our single rule of action would be the sole condition of unity, co-operation, and strength, with a view not only to his honour, but to the happiness of his people.

And by all means within our reach, by dutiful reverence on our own part, as well as by urgent, truthful, affectionate persuasion to others, we should endeavour to bring about the restoration of broken relations, the renewal of allegiance, the reconciliation of those who were afar off.

Looking in this light at the petition "THY KINGDOM COME," it might seem so natural as hardly to require comment. Yet the words have been misunderstood, and there is consequently a difficulty to be removed, and when it is removed there are still some distinct and not unimportant points of view in which it may be regarded, and from each of which no trifling practical lesson may be derived.

Probably there are few among us, at least of those who from their age are capable of any serious consideration, who have not felt the difficulty to which I allude. Or if it has not assumed so tangible a shape as that in which I am about to put it, still we shall admit that from time to time it has haunted and disturbed our devotions with a sense of vague indefinite alarm. THY KINGDOM COME! What is

that kingdom?

The first idea which suggests itself is naturally

that of the final reign of the " Ancient of Days,"

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Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, which is and which was, and which is to come."* Now though some of us even now have longed for the day, when we shall see no longer "as through a glass darkly, but face to face," still there are times when human weakness, with all the consciousness of its fallen state, shrinks from the awful day, which must precede the full development of the glory of our Lord, the completion of blessedness to His saints. Alas! it is not only infirmity, not only the sense of the taint of original sin, but the conviction of deep personal guiltiness also within our own souls, which brings with it this secret dread, itself an evidence and witness of our want of faith. It may be we shall see hereafter that even if we use the prayer in another sense, still we must train ourselves to be able to use it in this as the expression of our desire for the coming of His everlasting kingdom; nay, that we can use it in no intention whatever without ultimately implying this. But it still may be a comfort to some to be assured that they need not employ the * Compare Rev. i, 8, and xxi, 6. † 1 Cor. xiii, 12.