The Sabbath-school lesson for November 26, being on the Lord's Prayer, we know not what better we can do for the Sabbath-school scholars and the general readers than to reprint the following, which we wrote as a comment on the International lessons, when the Lord's Prayer was the subject.
The Model Prayer
Verses 9-13 of Matthew contain the model prayer. In introducing it the Saviour said, "After this manner therefore pray you." (Matthew 6:9)
This indicates not that the prayer which follows is to be invariably used, although it is very often fitting to use it, but that it should serve as a model for our petitions. Since it is the model petition, framed by divine wisdom, it must necessarily, and does, cover everything which man needs, both temporal and spiritual.
It is because of this comprehensiveness that the Lord's Prayer may be repeated by all of people, both young and old, in all time. It never grows old. It is the only prayer ever written which was worthy of being repeated by others than the one who composed it. This is because it is the only prayer ever composed for man by a divine being.
Prayer in which petitions made by men are used, must necessarily be largely mechanical, and therefore destitute of the real essence of prayer, which is the sincere desire of the individual at the present time. When a man is in extremity he will have no difficulty in forming his own petition, and he would have no use for a petition made by someone else. A prayerbook would have been of very little use to Peter when he was sinking in the Sea of Galilee.
Our Father
"Our Father." (Matthew 6:9)
From this prayer we learn that we are to come to God not as to a judge or a governor who is to be appeased, but as to a father who is all sympathy and love.
Many people have entertained a wrong idea from the parable of the unjust judge, recorded in Luke 18:1-7. The unjust judge at first refused to grant the request of the poor widow, yet he finally granted it because of her importunity.
The idea too commonly drawn from this is, that if we persevere in prayer God will relent and answer our petitions; but the parable is not designed to compare God with the unjust judge, but to make a contrast. If the unjust judge who neither feared God nor regarded man, would grant the widow's petition, because of her importunity, then most surely God will avenge His own elect who cry earnestly unto Him.
This parable and the first two words of the Lord's Prayer are sufficient in themselves to give Christians the most perfect confidence when they pray. Add to this the fact that we have a merciful and faithful High Priest who is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and was tempted in all points like as we are ... Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, thatwe may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)
We have seen it stated that the term "Our Father" implies that all men are brethren, because children of the same Father. But this is a mistake. All men are not children of the same father. Paul says that we are all "by nature the children of wrath, ... because we are ... the children of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:3,2)
And as the devil is the author of sin, Christ directly charged the disobedient Jews with whom He was talking, with being the children of the devil. "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44)
And in Matthew 13:38-42 He expressly states that those who do iniquity "are the children of the wicked one."
The apostle John also speaks of those who keep the commandments, and of those who transgress them, and says, "By this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil," (1 John 3:10) thus showing a direct contrast between those who have God for their Father, and those whose father is Satan. Moreover, we learn in Romans 8:14-17 and Galatians 4:4-7 that people become the children of God by adoption, and that the mark or seal of adoption is the Holy Spirit.
But if they were by nature the children of God, they would not need to be adopted. Paul also declares that: "If any man have not the Spirit Christ, he is none of His." (Romans 8:9)
Your Kingdom Come
"Your kingdom come." (Matthew 6:10)
This is nothing less than a prayer for Christ's second coming, for His coming and kingdom are associated together.
"I charge you therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom." (2 Timothy 4:1)
When He was on earth, Christ told His disciples, who thought that His kingdom should immediately appear, that He was like: "A certain nobleman [who] went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return," (Luke 19:12) thus indicating His return to Heaven to receive His kingdom, and His second coming to gather the subjects of it. In harmony with this we find in Daniel 7:13-14 a prophetic description of Christ appearing before the Father, and receiving: "Dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him." (Daniel 7:14)
And Christ himself said that when He should come in His glory with all His holy angels with Him, then would be the time that He should sit on the throne of His glory, and that He would then say to the righteous, "Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (Matthew 25:34)
This kingdom is entirely distinct from the kingdom of grace, upon the throne of which God the Father sits, and before which Christ ministers as priest. That kingdom has already come, and if that were the kingdom referred to in the Lord's Prayer, it would be out of place to use that petition. But the kingdom referred to there is the one of which the faithful followers of God are at present only heirs, waiting for the promised possession.
Your Will Be Done
"Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10)
The will of God is simply the law of God, see Psalm 40:8 and Romans 2:17-20, where we learn that those who know the will of God are they who are instructed out of the law. How the will of God is done in Heaven is told in: "Bless the Lord, you His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word." (Psalm 103:20)
When the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven will be when all the works of the devil had been destroyed, and when the new heavens and the new earth have been given, wherein righteousness shall dwell. Then will be fulfilled the words of the prophet: "Your people also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified." (Isaiah 60:21)
Therefore the uttering of this part of the Lord's Prayer, if the petitioner is sincere, indicates a complete submission to the will of God, and an earnest desire to keep every portion of the ten commandments.
Forgive Us Our Debts
"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." (Matthew 6:12)
In this is implied what is plainly stated in: "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." (Matthew 6:14-15)
Therefore it is utterly useless for anyone to use this prayer, or to expect God to pardon his sins, unless he freely forgives all who have trespassed against Him. Paul says: "Be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:32)
This is the merest glance at the Lord's Prayer, but it is all that we have space for. To give it any adequate study, not less than an entire lesson should be spent upon each clause of the prayer.
But perhaps even with this glance some may see a depth of meaning in the prayer which they have never before realized, and may be led to study it more carefully until they can pray it "with the spirit and with the understanding." (1 Corinthians 14:15)--Signs of the Times, November 17, 1887--Matthew 6:9-13.