3. A ground of Confidence. We may well believe, then, that the Saviour made choice of this name to encourage us when we draw near to the throne of grace (Heb. iv. 16). While it is the glory of earthly princes to be known by names which express their power, their descent, or the extent of their rule, "Christ, the natural Son of God, and best acquainted with His Father's mind1, assures us that it is God's will to be called by the sweetest name in earth, by that name alluring us to Himself, that we should without fear come to Him, taking away all doubting of His fatherly heart and good will," and reminding us that if we, who are evil, know how to give good things to our children, much more will our Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him (Mtt. vii. 11).

4. Our. But there is another point respecting this title which is deserving of notice. When, during His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Saviour prayed, three times using the same words, He said, O MY Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me (Mtt. xxvi. 39). Again, when He spoke of His Ascension, He said, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father, to MY God, and your God (Jn. xx. 17). Thus He could speak with all possible propriety, for He is the only begotten of the Father. But when He bids us pray, He would have us call God OUR Father in common, rather than severally My Father. And hereby He reminds us that we ought to think not merely of ourselves, but of one another2, and bear in mind those

1 Noell's Catechism. Compare also Cranmer's Catechism, p. 134: "Christ our Lorde knewe most certenly the will of His heuenly Father, that is to say, that He would be oure moste swete and louyinge Father, for els He woulde not haue taught vs this title, Our Father."

2 Hence the explanation in the Catechism, "I desire my Lord God...that He will send His grace unto me and to all people."

common bonds, which knit us together as men and as Christians in that mystical Body, of which He has made us "very members incorporate1."

5. Which art in heaven. Again, to the title Our Father, He has joined the words which art in heaven, and thereby reminds us that " we are to look for God, not in ourselves, but out of and above ourselves"," that we lift up our hearts from earth and earthly things to the high and holy place, where He sitteth in majesty ineffable, amidst the light which no man can approach unto (1 Tim. vi. 16). Moreover, He would remind us of the reverence and humility, with which we should draw near to Him, that He is in heaven, and we upon earth, and therefore that we should not be rash with our mouth, or let our hearts be hasty to utter any thing before Him3 (Eccl. v. 2).

1 Hence also in the petitions that concern ourselves He has taught us each to say, "Give us this day our daily bread," "Forgive US OUR trespasses; lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil." "Every godly man may, I grant, lawfully call God his own; but such ought to be the community and fellowship of Christian men together, and such clear love and goodwill ought every one to bear to all, that no one of them, neglecting the rest, care for himself alone, but have regard to the public profit of all." Noell's Catechism. Hence St Augustine calls the Lord's Prayer "the fraternal prayer, ""Oratio fraterna est; non dicit, Pater meus, tanquam pro se tantùm orans, sed Pater noster, omnes videlicet unâ oratione complectens, qui se in Christo fratres esse cognoscunt." De Serm. Dom. in Mon. II. c. 4. 2 Trench's St Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount, P. 93.

"We are, by these words, admonished not to ask anything unmeet for God; but as speaking to our heavenly Father, to have our hearts raised from earth, high and looking upward, despising earthly things, thinking upon things above and heavenly, and continually to aspire to that most blessed felicity of our Father, and to heaven as our inheritance by our Father." Noell's Catechism; see also Nicholson On the Catechism.

CH. III.] FIRST PETITION FOR GOD'S GLORY. 111

CHAPTER III.

THE FIRST PETITION FOR GOD'S GLORY.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.
Hallowed be Thy Name.

1. Thy Name.

THE EXPLANATION.

I desire my Lord God, who is the giver of all good, to send His grace unto me, and to all people, that we may worship Him...as we ought to do.

From the Address or Invocation, which we have considered in the last Chapter, we pass on to the first petition1 contained in the Lord's Prayer, Hallowed be Thy Name. The name of a person, as we have seen above, marks him out as an individual, presents him to the mind, or expresses something peculiar to him. The name of God, therefore, may be defined to be that summary of His nature and character, or that revelation of Himself, which He has been pleased to vouchsafe to us His creatures.

2. The Name of God is thus frequently spoken of in the Bible. Thus David says, O Lord, how excellent is Thy NAME in all the earth, who hast set Thy glory above the heavens (Ps. viii. 1), and he bids men praise the NAME of the Lord, for His Name only is excellent, and His glory above heaven and earth (Ps. cxlviii. 13). Again, Isaiah bids the man that fears the Lord, Trust

1 "Our Pater Noster," says one of old, "for the most part begins at Give us this day our daily bread, and our prayers are much like Jacob's vow, If God will give us bread to eat and raiment to put on, then shall He be our God; but our Lord bids us seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and assures us that all things necessary shall be added unto us.

2 See above, pp. 2, 3.

in the NAME of the Lord, and stay upon his God (Isai. 1. 10). Again, on a memorable occasion1 in the life of our blessed Saviour, His prayer to His heavenly Father was, Father, glorify Thy NAME2; whereupon there came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again (Jn. xii. 28).

3. Names of God. It has been observed "that the great epochs of the history of the Chosen People are marked by the several names by which in each the Divine Nature is indicated?." In the Patriarchal age the word by which the most general idea of the Divinity was expressed was "El," "Elohim," the Strong One, the Strong Ones. When by the vision of the Burning Bush Moses was summoned to deliver the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, Behold, he said, when I shall come to the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say, What is His NAME? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM- -Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM JEHOVAH4, (the Eternal, the Self Existent) hath sent me unto you (Ex. iii. 13, 14). At a later period, when the monarchy was established, the idea of the "Leader of the armies of heaven and earth" was en

1 In one of the courts of the Temple after the visit of the enquiring Greeks. See Class-Book of New Testament History, pp. 273, 274.

2 Zoû тò ovoμα=nomen tuum paternum, quod est in Me. Bengel.

3 Stanley's Jewish Church, Pt. 1. p. 112.

Compare Ex. vi. 2, 3, And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am JEHOVAH: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of El-Shaddai (God Almighty), but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known unto them. The word LORD, by which we have rendered JEHOVAH, is the translation of Kúpios in the LXX, which is the translation of the Hebrew Adonai, the word used by the later Jews, out of excessive reverence, in place of JEHOVAH.

CH.III.] FIRST PETITION FOR GOD'S GLORY. 113

shrined in the name JEHOVAH SABAOTH, the Lord of Hosts. When the Jewish economy had run its course, and He had finished His work, of whose coming Moses and the prophets had written (Jn. v. 46), He bade His Apostles baptize all nations into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Mtt. xxviii, 19). And this is the last revelation we have received of the Name of HIM, in whom we live, and move, and have our being.

4. Hallowed be Thy Name. When, then, we pray that God's Name may be hallowed2, it is plain that that Name cannot in itself “be made either greater by increase, or lesser by decrease, it changeth not with any addition or diminishing, as our earthly things do." But our prayer is that the Name of God, and that Revelation of His nature and Attributes, which we have received, may he made known in all the world, that 56 we and all people may worship Him as we ought to do," look up to Him, as a Father, serve and obey Him as His children, and so let our light shine forth, that all may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven (Mtt. v. 16).

1 Compare the words of Daniel to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the Name of THE LORD OF HOSTS, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied (1 Sam. xvii. 45; and comp. Josh. v. 14, 15).

2 'Ayiάjew=(1) to set apart for sacred purposes, to consecrate (Jn. x. 36; xvii. 19); (2) to treat a holy thing as holy, to hold sacred, to honour (see Pet. iii. 15; and comp. Ex. xx. 8; Lev. xxi. 8; Numb. xx. 12; Deut. xxxii. 51). See Tholuck's Sermon on the Mount, p. 332.

3 Noell's Catechism. Compare S. Augustine, de Serm. Dom. LVII. 4. "Pro nobis rogamus, non pro Deo. Non enim bene optamus Deo, cui nihil mali potest aliquando accidere. Sed optamus nobis bonum, ut sanctificetur sanctum nomen ejus: quod semper sanctum est, sanctificetur in nobis."

4 Hence this Prayer is that we may keep the Second and Third Commandments; see above, pp. 82-84.

M. C.

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