tion morally and spiritually, wherever he may be locally, whether the prayer is uttered at Mecca, on Mount Gerizim, or in London. If the worshipper worships he knows not what, it comes to the same thing. "I pray to God" may just be the man's condemnation, if he does not know the God to whom he prays. And I am well persuaded, that of this practical heathenism there is very much even in Christian congregations, and that the first words of the Lord's Prayer draw from this fact a peculiar importance. For if it is needful to know what to pray for, and how to pray, how much more needful must it be to know also to whom to pray. Here is the first question, without an answer to which there can be no real prayer.

OUR FATHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN.-In these words this question is answered; for they contain three truths which do, in fact, teach us all we need. to know on this point.

I. Prayer must be addressed to God in heaven.— What was the error of the Athenians? Paul shows them their mistake thus: "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands." They sought Him in their temples, and could not find Him there. What was the error of the Samaritans ? "Our fathers," said the woman of Samaria, "worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Our Lord told her

that the difference between them was this, that the Samaritans did not know what they worshipped, but that the Jews did. The Jews were right in worshipping in the temple at Jerusalem; because they there worshipped a known God, the Samaritans wrong in worshipping in the temple on Mount Gerizim, because they there worshipped an unknown God. Our Lord added, "Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship the Father;" that is, it is often said, Ye shall worship Him in both alike. But so said not our Lord. He said, Ye shall worship Him in neither. Daniel, when at Shushan, worshipped towards Jerusalem-he worshipped God on the mercy-seat, God sitting between the cherubim, God in covenant, he knew what he worshipped. The Samaritan in a distant land would, in like manner, turn his face towards Gerizim as the Mohammedan does towards Mecca. But there was no meaning in it; he did not know what he worshipped. And now God no longer manifests Himself in Jerusalem any more than on Gerizim. He has withdrawn for a while from any special revelation of Himself there. But there is another city, another Jerusalem, another holy of holies, where now God manifests Himself. We must no longer look to God between the cherubim, any more than to God on Mount Gerizim. The hour has come when we worship the Father neither on Gerizim nor in Jerusalem;-we worship Him in heaven.

God is everywhere; there is not a corner of creation which his presence does not fill:-" Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?" "Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him." But it is not in this point of view we must pray to Him; there is no satisfaction in so doing: in truth, it is impossible to do it; and those who profess to pray to Him thus do not pray to Him at all. That sort of religion all evaporates in an empty sentiment. It has no reality about it; it does not bring the man into any sort of connexion with the God he professes to worship. God and nature mean to him the same thing; there is nothing on which his mind can lay hold, nothing on which his affections can rest, no one in whom he can place trust. When he speaks of God he means nothing more than a collection of laws, or a mighty spring which pursues an undeviating course, but calls forth no love and excites no admiration. This is the religion of vast numbers, of some avowedly, of others substantially, professing to see God in everything and really seeing Him in nothing. But the Christian, though he knows that God is everywhere, only worships Him in heaven; he does not attempt to go to God except through Christ, who is in heaven. How much meaning there is in those words of Jesus, "I am the way!" That at once tells us that there is only one place in which we may worship God. We must not look all around us and say, will worship God who made the earth, I will worship

I

God who made the sun, and moon, and the stars. This must not be our first approach to Him. Adam might thus go to Him; he might, as the poet represents him, make this the commencement of his address to Him:

"These are thy glorious works, Parent of good!
Almighty, thine this universal frame,

Thus wondrous fair, thyself how wondrous then!" -He might worship God in the temple of creation. But sinful man cannot rightly go to God any where till he has gone to Him in heaven. This must be his very first step, to draw near to Him in that holy of holies in which He manifests himself in Christ. He must draw near to Him only through Christ. It is not simply to God that he must pray, but to God in heaven, God seated on the throne of grace, God revealing himself in his Son. This seems to be the meaning of the phrase, "which art in heaven;" it is not simply to teach us that when we pray to God it should be with reverence, a lesson which our own conscience impresses upon us; it contains a far higher lesson than this. Even with respect to an earthly sovereign we know that he may be approached in different ways. The Queen receives some addresses only on the throne. So God acts. He may listen to the angels anywhere, as far as we know ; but to us sinners He gives audience only in heaven. He must sit on the mercy-seat, and we must be presented to Him by Christ the Mediator; we must pray to Him "in heaven."

II. Prayer must be addressed to God as a FATHER. -We may, indeed, pray to any Person of the Blessed Trinity. There are examples of each in Scripture. Dying Stephen said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ;" and Paul said, "The Lord direct your heart into the love of God, and into the patient waiting of Christ;" which is evidently a prayer to the Holy Ghost. But it is of prayer to the Father that we are now speaking. The Lord's Prayer is a prayer to the Father; it is only to the First Person of the Blessed Trinity that we so speak. Christ is never called our Father. In Isaiah ix. 6, "the Everlasting Father," is literally the Father of Eternity, and has quite another meaning. And though, when we use the expression, "The Father," we mean the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore use it in an infinitely higher sense than that in which it can be employed respecting us, yet our Lord has himself taught us to couple the two together, saying, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, unto my God and your God." We must pray to the Father as our Father.

There are many different senses in which God is spoken of as Father.

1. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the sunbeam is the offspring of the sun, and yet must have existed as long as that luminary; so from all eternity the Word was with God and was God, always begotten, yet never commencing.

2. He is the Father of the angels. Created by