S. Cyprian bids us, "as we call God our Father, to live as children of God; that as we are pleased with our relationship to Him, so He may be with His relationship to us; and as we are the temples of God, we should have our conversation after such a manner that we may be a dwelling place fit for Him."1 So S. Augustine, "How careful we should be that as we call God our Father, we should not be unworthy of such a Father!" 2 And again, "Let the action of the child indicate his likeness to his Father: and the likeness of the work, the likeness of race: let the act confirm the name, that the name may demonstrate the race;" and again, "He who taught thee this prayer is thine Advocate; if thou liest, He is thy Witness; if thou correctest not thyself, He will be thy Judge."4 S. Bernard says that "he who calls God his Father ought not to degenerate from such a Father, but to copy His perfections;"5 and again, "It is a monstrous thing to have a high degree and a low spirit, to be first in privileges and the last in performances.' So Chrysologus, "Know that thy birth is from Heaven, whose Father dwells in Heaven; and see to it that, by holy living, thou correspondest with thy Holy Father. He proves himself to

1 "Meminisse igitur et scire debemus, quia, quando Patrem Deum dicimus, quasi filii Dei agere debemus, ut quomodo nos nobis placemus_de Deo Patre, sic sibi placeat et Ille de nobis. Conversemur quasi Dei templa, ut Deum in nobis constet habitare, nec sit degener actus noster a spiritu, ut qui coelestes et spiritales esse cœpimus, non nisi spiritalia et coelestia cogitemus et agamus" (de crat. Dom.).

2 "Quanta cura animum tangit, ut qui dicit Pater noster' tanto Patre non sit indignus" (de serm. Dom. in monte).

3Similitudinem patris actus indicent sobolis; similitudo operis similitudinem indicet generis; actus nomen confirmet, ut nomen genus demonstret" (Serm. 76).

5

4 "Qui tibi dictavit preces, Advocatus est tuus; si mentiris, Testis est; si non corrigis, Judex erit tuus: ergo et dic et fac" (Serm. 114). "Cum vocet Eum Patrem, debet esse filius, non degenerare a tanto Patre, Qui affectu et benevolentiâ Pater est" (Expos. in orat. Dom).

66 Monstrosa res est, gradus summus et animus infimus, sedes prima et vita ima" (de consid. 1. 2).

be the son of God, who is not obscured by human vices, but shines forth with divine virtues."1 And another Father urges the same duty from the words of S. John, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin" (1 Ep. i. 19.) 2

But if, calling ourselves the children of God, we do the works of the devil, our lives give the lie to our lips, and our very "prayer is turned into sin" (Ps. cix. 6). We are then, at the best, "the children of men.' Donne well says, "The Holy Ghost could not express more danger to a man than when He calls him 'filium seculi' (a child of this world, S. Luke xvi. 18); nor a worse disposition than when He calls him 'filium diffidentiæ' (a child of disobedience, Eph. v. 6); nor a worse pursuer of that evil disposition than when He calls him 'filium diaboli' (a child of the devil, Acts xiii. 10); nor a worse possessing of the devil than when He calls him 'filium perditionis' (a son of perdition, S. John xvii. 12); nor a worse execution of this than when He calls him 'filium gehennæ' (a child of hell, S. Matt. xxiii. 15).”

One has said, “Many call God, Father, in this Prayer, who are not His sons, but sons of that father of whom it is written, 'Ye are of your father, the devil' (S. John viii. 44). Whosoever, therefore, in the Lord's Prayer calls God, Father; whoever desires to be heard of Him, let him live in such a manner that God may own him as His son by grace, Who is the Father of all by nature; otherwise 'when sentence is given against him, he shall be condemned, and his prayer be turned

1 "Intellige esse tibi genus e coelo, cujus Pater habitat in cœlo: et age ut, vivendo sancte, sancto respondeas Patri. Dei filium se probat, qui vitiis non obscuratur humanis, qui divinis virtutibus elucescit" (Serm. 67).

2 "Unde necesse est, quasi filii Dei vivamus et conversemur, ut id quod dicimur, spiritaliter actu et moribus probemus, secundum quod Johannes ait, Qui natus est ex Deo non peccat" (S. Paschas. Ratberti. Exp. in S. Matt.).

3" Filii hominum sunt quando male faciunt, quando bene, filii Dei" (S. Aug. in Ps. lii.).

into sin.""1 Nay, one of the Greek Fathers ventures to go further than this, not scrupling to say that "the prayer of a wicked man, so long as he remains in his wickedness, is not a prayer to God, but an invocation to the devil; "2 and another says, "Dost thou call God thy Father, O man? Thou sayest well; for He is the Father and Maker of us all but take heed to do works pleasing to thy Father; for if thou doest evil works, it is evident that thou callest upon the devil as thy father; for he is the ruler of the evil." And, as Tertullian says, "How grievous a thing is it to degenerate from the church of God into the synagogue of Satan' (Rev. ii. 9), from the firmament of heaven into the filthiness of hell! "4

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3

Hence we see that this very first word of the Lord's Prayer, full as it is of comfort and blessedness, is also full of warning. We cannot enter on the threshold of this Prayer without hearing the voice saying, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Ex. iii. 5), or without feeling the reasonableness and the necessity of following the council of Jesus, the son of Sirach, "Before thou prayest, prepare thyself; and be not as one that tempteth the Lord" (Ecclus. xviii. 23). "For to lead a bad life, and yet to call God our Father, is to lie both against God and against

1 "Multi Deum vocant Patrem in hac oratione, qui Ejus filii non sunt, sed illius patris, de quo scriptum est, Vos ex patre diabolo estis,' Joan. viii. Quicunque igitur Deum in oratione Dominicâ Patrem vocat, quicunque ab Eo exaudiri desiderat, taliter vivat ut Deus eum filium Suum recognoscat, per gratiam, Qui omnium est Pater per naturam; alioquin cum judicabitur, exibit condemnatus, et oratio ejus fiet peccatum' (Hugonis de S. Vict. opp., pars. 1, exeget. dubia).

2 οὐκοῦν ἡ τοῦ πονηροῦ ἀνδρὸς προσευχὴ, ἕως ἂν ἐν τῆ πονηρίᾳ ᾖ, τοῦ diaBóλov éπíkλnois yívetai (S. Greg. Nyss. de orat. Dom., or. 2).

3 Πατέρα λέγεις, ἄνθρωπε, τὸν Θεὸν; καλῶς λέγεις· ἔστι γὰρ Πατὴρ καὶ Ποιητὴς πάντων ἡμῶν· ἀλλὰ σπεῦδε ἐργάζεσθαι ἔργα ἀρέσκοντα τῷ Πατρί σου. Εἰ δὲ κακα ἔργα ποιεῖς, πρόδηλον ὅτι τὸν διάβολον ἐπικαλεῖς πατέμα· οὗτος γὰρ ἔστιν ἔφορος τῶν κακῶν (S. Germani rer. eccles. contemp.).

4 66 Quale est de ecclesiâ Dei in ecclesiam diaboli tendere! de cœlo, (quod aiunt,) in cœnum!" (de spect. c. 25.)

ourselves." 1 The only way in which a wicked man can use this Prayer, and not sin nor lie in calling God his Father, is, as Alex. Hales says, to say it not indicativè but optativè, not as expressing what He is, but what the sinner hopes He may become.

Day by day, then, this first word of the Lord's Prayer should make us labour to become more like our Father, and more “worthy to be called His sons," and pray for the restoration of that" image of God" in which we were originally created, and which it is the Holy Spirit's work to renew in the regenerate; and that image consists, the Apostle tells us, "in knowledge and righteousness and true holiness" (Col. iii. 10; Eph. iv. 24); that "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we may also bear the image of the Heavenly" (1 Cor. xv. 49). Day by day, also, we should seek to increase and express our love towards Him Who has made us His children," and labour, by a life of faithful obedience, that "our Father Which is in Heaven" may at the last own and acknowledge us as His children, and that we may hear from the lips of Him Who has saved us the blessed welcome to the Home and Inheritance which He has purchased and prepared for us, "Come ye blessed children of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world" (S. Matt. xxv. 34).

1 ὁ γὰρ φαύλως μὲν βιῶν, Πατέρα δὲ ἑαυτοῦ τὸν Θεὸν ὀνομάζων, KaTayεÚDETαι Kal Tоû EOû Kal EαvToû (Enthym. com. in Matt. c. 6).

2" Aimons donc un tel Père. Disons mille et mille fois, Notre Père, Notre Père, Notre Père, ne vous aimerons-nous jamais? Ne sero 15-nos jamais de vrais enfants pénétrés de vos tendresses paternelles ?" (Bssuet, Médit. sur l'Evang., iii. 180.)

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"OUR."

WE have seen that the first effect of the Fall was the loss of communion with God as our Father. This was speedily followed by the loss of brotherhood between ourselves, the first thing we read of after the expulsion from Eden being the murder of Abel by his brother Cain (Gen. iv. 8). Accordingly, it is the first effect of the work of the Second Adam to restore these two blessings which were forfeited and lost by the first; and in these first words of this Prayer our Lord teaches us that, having made God our Father, He has also made believers brethren one of another. As

the word "Father expresses our faith, so the word " our testifies our love; and as the Apostle tells us that God requires of us "faith which worketh by love" (Gal. v. 6), so our Lord teaches us to join the two, saying, "Our Father." In the parable, "this My son is also "this thy brother" (S. Luke xv. 24, 32). If we are "followers of God as dear children,” we shall "walk in love" (Eph. v. 1, 2), for " every one that loveth Him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of Him" (S. John v. 1).1 And hence if we fail in the matter of communion with our brethren, we have too good reason to doubt as to the fact of our union with God; if we cannot, animated by a spirit of brotherly love, say, "Our," we cannot, with any degree of filial love, say, "Father;" for "if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God Whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also" (1 S. John iv. 20, 21). Whence S. Chrysostom says

1 "Quis amicior est quam frater fratri ?" (Sallust, Jug. c. 10.)