thought which we can frame concerning Him. Heaven is a word which expresses the ideal, the unseen world, and there infinitely raised above us all is the Father whom we adore. “HALLOWED BE THY NAME." That is the hope that all levity, that all profaneness may be banished from the worship of God; not only that our worship may be simple, solemn, and reverent, but that our thoughts concerning Him may be consecrated and set apart from all the low, debasing, superstitious, selfish ends to which His name has so often been turned. “O Liberty," it was once said, "how many are the crimes that have been committed in thy name!". "O Religion," so we may also say when we repeat this clause of the Lord's Prayer, "how many are the crimes that have been committed in thy name!" May that holy name. be hallowed by the acts and words of those who profess it! "THY KINGDOM COME." This is the highest hope of humanity that the rule of supreme truth, and mercy, and justice, and beauty, may penetrate every province of thought, and action, and law, and art. It has been said there are some places on earth where we have to think what is the one single prayer which we should utter if we were sure of its being fulfilled. This would be," Thy kingdom come." "THY WILL BE DONE." That is the expression of our entire resignation to whatever shall year by year, and day by day befall us. Resignation which shall calm our passions, and control our murmurs, and curtail our griefs, and kindle our cheerfulness. It is as Bishop Butler has said, the whole of religion. Isiam derives its name from it. "IN EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN. These are words which lift our souls up from the world in which we struggle with manifold imperfections to the ideal heavenly world, where all is perfect. Party strife - crooked ends - ignominious flatteries are they necessary? Let us hope that a time "GIVE US may come when they will be unnecessary. THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD." Here we turn from heaven back to earth, and ask for our needful food, our enjoyment, our sustenance from day to day. It is the one petition for our earthly wants. We know not what a day may bring forth. Give us only, give us at least what we need, of sustenance both for body and soul. "Enough is enough" ask not for more. "Enough for our faith, enough for our maintenance when the sun dawns and before the sun sets." "FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THEM THAT TRESPASS AGAINST US." Who is there that has not need to forgive some one who is there that has not the need of something to be forgiven? The founder of Georgia said to the founder of Methodism, "I never forgive any one." John Wesley answered, "Sir, I trust you never sin." "LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION." The temptations which beset us. How much of sin comes from the outward incidents and companionships round us! How much of innocence from that good Providence which wards off the corrupting, defiling, debasing influences that fill the earth! Save us, we may well ask, from the circumstances of our age, our country, our church, our profession, our character; save us from those circumstances which draw forth our natural infirmities save us from these, break their force. And this is best accomplished by the last petition, "DELIVER US FROM EVIL;" that is, deliver us from the evil,2 whatsoever it is, that lurks even in the best of good things. From the idleness that grows out of youth and fulness of bread from the party spirit that grows out of our political enthusiasm or our nobler ambition- from the fanatical 1 See Bishop Lightfoot's treatise on the word émiovσios. 2 ȧпò тоû пνù, "the evil," not "the Evil One." So it must be trans lated in Matt. v. 37, 39, as well as in Matt. vi. 13. narrowness which goes hand in hand with our religious earnestness—from the harshness which clings to our love of truth from the indifference which results from our wide toleration from the indecision which intrudes itself into our careful discrimination from the folly of the good, and from the selfishness of the wise, Good Lord deliver us. "FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOR EVER AND EVER, AMEN." So Christendom has added its ratification to the words of Christ. It is the thankfulness which we all feel for the majesty and thought and beauty which our heavenly Father has shown to us in the paths of nature or in the greatness of man. Its conclusion. We have thus briefly traversed these petitions. When our Lord's disciples came and asked for a form of prayer, not as John's disciples had received from their master, they thought, no doubt, that He would give them something peculiar to themselves—something that no one else could use. They little knew what the peculiarity, the singularity of their Master's Prayer would be that it was one that might be used by every church, by every sect, by every nation, by every member of the human family. It is possible that some may be inclined to complain of this extreme comprehensiveness and indefiniteness, and to say there is something here which falls short of the promise in St. John's Gospel. "If ye shall ask anything in My name I will do it." But the answer is that here, as before, this prayer is a striking example of the greatness of the spirit above. the letter. In the letter it does not begin or end in the actual name of Jesus Christ. That familiar termination which to our ears has become almost the necessary ending to every prayer, and which is used in every church, whether Unitarian or Trinitarian, is not here. We do not close our Lord's prayer with the words "through 66 Jesus Christ our Lord." We do not invoke the holy name of Jesus either at the beginning or end. But not the less is it in the fullest sense a prayer in the name of Christ. In the name of Christ, that is (taking these words in their Biblical sense), "in the spirit of Christ," 'according to the nature and the will of Christ," copying from the lips of Christ, adopted as His one formulary of faith at His express commandment. In this true meaning of the words the Lord's Prayer is more the Prayer of our Lord, is more entirely filled with the name and spirit of Christ, than if the name of the Lord Jesus Christ were repeated a hundred times over. In Pope's Universal Prayer there is much which is condemned by religious persons, and we do not undertake to defend the taste or the sentiment of it in every part. But assuredly that which is its chief characteristic, its universality, is exactly in spirit that which belongs to the prayer of Christ. It is expressed in those well-known words: "Father of all! in every age, In every clime ador'd, It is this very characteristic of the prayer which makes it to be in His name. It is this very universality which overflows with Himself, and which makes the prayer of the philosopher to be a paraphrase of His Prayer. He is in every syllable of this sacred formula, as He is not equally in any other formula. He is in the whole of it, and in all its parts. Of these, the most sacred of all the words that He has given us, it is true what He said of they are not mere words, they are spirit all His words and they are life. CHAPTER XVI. THE COUNCIL AND CREED OF CONSTANTINOPLE. It may be interesting in connection with the history of the early Creeds to add an account of the circumstances under which they came into existence. Of the Apostles' Creed we have already spoken.1 The Nicene Creed was the result of the Council of Nicæa, and this, though in a form totally different from that which now bears the name, is the original Creed of the Empire, and its formation has been described in the "Lectures on the Eastern Church."2 The Athanasian Creed is of much later date, and has also been the subject of a separate treatise. There remains therefore only the Creed commonly called the Creed of Constantinople, which is now adopted by the Churches of Rome and England, and the Lutheran Churches, and through the whole of the Eastern Church, with the exception of the Coptic, Nestorian, and Armenian branches. In order to do this, it will be necessary to describe the Council, with which its composition is traditionally connected, the more so as the assembly has never yet been adequately portrayed. After this description it will be our object to examine into the nature and pretensions of the Creed which is usually supposed to have sprung out of it. The city of Constantinople had been almost ever since 1 Lecture XIII. 2 Lectures on the Eastern Church, Lecture iv. 8 The Athanasian Creed, with a Preface. 4 The usual authorities which describe the Council are the ecclesiastical historians of the following century - Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret. But far more important than these are the letters, orations, and autobiographical poems of |