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J-z.'^s-
PLAIN SERMONS
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ON
THE LITU^
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ON THE LITURGY.
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1 Corinihians xiv., c, lOth v. — " Let all tbings be don©
decently and in order."
SUCH was' the advice which St. Paul gave to
the Christians at Corinth, and how necessary
it is to be observed in the public worship of
Almighty God, our own sense of what is right
and proper will very readily make us feel. The
beautiful and most wonderful order which we
see in the world of nature, is sufficient to teach
us that God is not the author of confusion ; but
on the other hand that as far as He has been
pleased to reveal Himself in nature, that uni-
formity, regularity, and order, mark in a clear,
distinct and most emphatic way all his works
and ways. Nor is it enough to say that such is
the characteristic of all the works of nature, for
we may go much farther and affirm, that the
plan upon which God has made them is such,
that order and regularity are absolutely necessary
to their very preservation and existence. The
heavenly bodies move in no wandering or erratic
course. The planets and the systerils of which
we know anything so far from being in a state of
disorder and confusion, pursue their appointed
courses in the most exact and regular way, and
the very smallest departure from this exactness
would throw the whole creation, in all probability
into confusion, and perhaps so change the consti-'.
tution of things, that the creatures whom God
2
PLAIN SEBMONS
has made, might not be able to live upon the
earth. Again, if we look at ourselves, we shall
also feel satisfied that Order, in all the works of
God, is what Our Creator designs. The wonder-
ful way in which we are made, the dependence
of one part of the body upon the other part, how
the whole man is affected by the breaking up of
one part, and that perhaps of small importance
as far as we see, the order and regularity which
mark the action of the several parts of the body,
as the heart, the lungs and others, which must
perforin their functions with the greatest nicety,
or else the whole stops, and we die. This
teaches us, that God has made all things,*^!!
creatures to move and live by certain general
lawfs, and they prove to us that as order and
regularity mark all God's works and ways, so
also that in all our intercourse with Him, we
may justly suppose that He would wish to see*
the same. .And if we go as far back as possible
in the history of the worship of Almighty God,
we shall find, that whenever He has been
approached by the faithful, it has been character-
ized by this same feature.
As we come down nearer to ourselves in
Scripture history, when the Almighty gave to his
chosen people the Law, we shall iind that in
every possible way it was provided under the
Jewish economy, that the service of God should
be conducted with the utmost exactness and regu-
larity. In order to this, it would seem almost,
as a general thing, necessary that there should
be some arrangement entered into for the purpose
of conducting Divine Worship. If this is not
done, if manifestly must be wanting in that
method and arrangement which is so clearly
manifest in all the works of God, and which,
therefore, we must believe, He would desire to
ON THE LITURGY.
i
see in any worship which His creatures paid to
Him. We find, therefore, that when God gave
to Israel the Law, that He gave to them many
and particular directions as to how He was lo be
approached, and how His worship was to be
conducted. Nor were the commands which the
Almighty gave to His people simply of a general
character, such as might direct them as to the
kind of worship and service which would be
acceptable to Him, while it left to them the duty
of arranging its details. But God Himself gave
most special and exact directions in everything,
even in the least and smallest particulars,
so thai the decency and orderly performance of
Divine Worship was ensured.
And following thus what was in realit} a
command of God, the early Church had forms of
prayer and a settled and uniform plan for the
public services of religion, in accordance with
the recommendation of St. Paul. " Let all things
be done decently nnd in order " '^" we trace
the history of the people of God, \v shall find
that not only did they worship the Almighty
according to the ritual which was given to Moses
in the mount, but still further that they worship-
ped God in set forms of prayer.* The very first
piece of solemn worship recorded in Holy Scrip-
ture is a hymn of praise composed by Mbses
upon the* deliverance of the children of Israel
from the Egyptiaiif:., which was sung by all the
congregation alternately : bv Moses and the men
first, and afterwards by Miriam and the women,
which could not have been done, unless it had
been a precomposed set form.
Again at the time of the expiation of an
uncertain murder, the elders of the city which is
next to the slain are expressly commanded to
.aoi)ofifi«
4 PLAIN SERMONS
say, and consequently to join in saying, a form
of prayer, precomposed by God Himself. And
in other places in Scripture we meet with several
other forms of prayer, precomposed by God, and
prescribed by Moses, which though they were
not to be joined in by the whole congregation,
are yet sumcient precedents for the use of pre-
composed set forms of prayer.
But the Scriptures still further assure us, that
David appointed the Levites to stand every
morning to thank and to praise the Lord, and
likewise at even, which rule was observed in
the Temple afterwards built by Solomon, and
restored at the building of the second Temple
after the captivity. And lastly the whole Book
of Psalms were forms of prayer and praise,
indited by the Holy Ghost, for the joint use
of the congregation ; as appears as well the
titles of many of the Psalms, as from other
places in Scripture. Innumerable proofs, both
ancient and modern, might be brought forward
to shew that the Jews did always worship God
by precomposed set forms : and a research into
their history will fully prove to us, that they made
use of forms of prayer, and that the order and the
arrangement of their prayers and praises was
very much as we have it in the Book of Com-
mon Prayer. Now when we bear in mind,
my brethren, that our blessed Saviour always
continued in the communion of the Jewish Church
and was zealous and exemplary in His attend-
ance upon all the public devotions which it
enjoined, and consequently took part in, and so
sanctioned the worship of God by and through
the use'of set forms of prayer, not only have we
the highest possible proof that they are the best,
for the use of man, but we may safely say, that
set forms of prayer have received the Divine
sanction.
r ON THI^ LITUROY.
5
form
And
3veral
1, and
were
ation,
f pre-
i, that
every
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raise,
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t use
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other
in'
'Om-
Hud our Saviour not very coustauily attended
tlie public worship amongst His own people, and
joined in the devotions of the congregation, the
Scribes and the Pharisees, we may believe His
most bitter and implacable enemies, would with-
out doubt have cast this in his teeth, and would
have reproached Him, as one who despised
prayer. But we find nothing of this kind in the
New Testament, and therefore had we no other
grounds to go upon, we might safely conclude
that our blessed Saviour was a constant attend-
ant on the public services of the Jews, and
consequently that He joined in precomposed set
forms of prayer. As it undoubtedly was the
custom of Our Lord and His Apostles, before the
ascension, to join in the Jewish worship, which
consisted of forms of prayer, so also we know
that it was the custom of the Apostles and the
early Christians to make use of forms of prayer,
in their Christian assemblies. Apart from Scrip-
ture history which teaches us that the early
Christians had forms of prayer, many ancient
Liturgies are still extant, and many also of
the prayers used in those ancient Liturgies are
now at this present time, made use of in our
own. Our Saviour gave to the disciples the Lord's
t^rayer as it is called, when asked by one of
them to teach them to pray, as John also taught
his disciples We cannot jfor a moment suppose
that Our Saviour's disciples were so Ignorant or
ly yet so entirely unaccustomed to pray, as to find
../ it necessary to make this request of their Master,
simply because they were unable to make known
their their wants to God. To do this would
certainly be taking a very low and unworthy
estimate of our Lords disciples, anc^ we may
rather suppose that Our Lord in answer to their
r^quest^ gavp tO:t.he disciples this form, as a badge
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V
or
6
' ^ ^''^ PLAIN SERMONS
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of their belonging to Him, accordint; to the cus-
tom of the Jewish Doctors, who always taught
their disciples a peculiar lorm to tidd to their
own, and further still as a kind of guide and
pattern to them forever after.
Any amount of evidence might be brought
forward to prove that the early Christians used
the Lord's Prayer in their religious w orship, and
inasmuch as they did this, it is a proof that both
Our Lord Himself and His Apostles made use
of forms of prayer. St. Paul in another part of
his Epistle to the Corinthians blames them, that
when they came together, "every one had a
psalm, had a doctrine." We cannot suppose
however that the Apostle here intended them to
understand by his words that he forbade the use
of psalms in public worship, any more than he
did the use of doctrines, but rather that he was
displeased at them for not having the psalm
altogether, i. e. for not joining in it : that so the
whole congregation might attend one and the
•^same part of divine worship at the same time.
From whence it is reasonable to conclude, that
the use of psalms was customary, and that the
Apostle approved of it, only ordering them to
join in the use of them, which we may suppose
they did for the future, since we find by the
Apostles second Epistle to them, that they reform-
ed their abuses.
St. Peter tells us, that we ought to be ready
always to give an answer to every man that asked J
us a reason of the hope that is in us with meek-
ness and fear. And it is both right and proper
that we should know ourselves and be able to
shew to others how godly and truly Scriptural the
service of our Church is, how exactly it is formed
after the will of God, and so follows out the
^ipattem which has been given us. How further-
/Pi
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ON THE LITURGY.
the CUS-
s taught
to their
uide and
r
brought
ans used
ship, and
that both
lade use
r part of
lem, that
e had a
suppose
them to
the use
than he
he was
psalm
at so the
and the
ne time,
ide, that
that the
them to
suppose
I by the
reform-
•e ready
It asked i
I meek-
proper
able to
ural the
formed
out the
further-
more it is such as Our Lord Himself and His
Apostles have sanctioned. A service which
while it ensures decency and order, is calculated
to raise our hearts to God, and by its beauty and
solomnity is capable of inspiring in our hearts
feelings suitable to religious worship.
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PLAIN SERMONS
bun X
'ON THE LITURGY.
1 Cor.f xiv. C.J 40th V. — "Let all things be done decently
and in order."
IT was, my brethren, clearly and sufficiently
proved by the Holy Scriptures, that Our Bless-
ed Lord and His Apostles were in the constant
habit of worshipping God, by and through the
\i%e of forms of prayer ; and this fact was
brought forward as the great argument in sup-
port of our own form of worship, which in this
way comes to us under the sanction of Divine
authority. It was further shewn that Our Lord
had given His disciples, in answer to their
request, — " Lord teach us to pray," — llie Lord's
Prayer, as a form of prayer, and as a model
ever after by which to form all other prayers ; and
furthermore, that the apostles of Our Lord were
in the daily habit of conducting public worship
by the use of forms of prayer. That this was
the manner in which the Apostles and the early
Christians conducted the public worship of
God, and the services of religion is a fact so
well known to every one at all familiar with the
history of the early Church, that it would be
out of place to dwell at length upon it. And I
shall now only refer to one passage of Scripture
itself, which prove to us, that they were in the
habit of joining in set forms of prayer, besides
the Lord's Prayer and the Psalms. In the Acts
ON THE LITURGY.
Y.
decentlj
ciently
Bless-
)nstant
gh the
>t was
n sup-
in this
Divine
r Lord
• their
Lord's
model
i ; and
were
orship
s was
I ear] y
lip of
let so
th the
Id be
And I
ipture
n the
sides
Acts *
of the Apostles we are told that Peter and John,
after they had been threatened, and commanded
not to preach the Gospel, went to their own
company, and reported all that the Chief Priests
and Elders had said unto them ; and when they
heard that, they lifted up their voice with one
accord, and said, " Lord thou art God, which
hast made Heaven, and Earth, and the sea, and
all that therein is." In this place we are
told that " the whole company lift up their voice
with one accord, and said— -(t. e., they joined all
together with audible voices in using these
words") which they could not possibly have
done, unless the prayer they asked was a pre-
composed set form. For, whatever may be said
in favor of joining nientally with a prayer con'<<t**^-,/f-'
scribe d extempore : no one will contend that
it is possible for a considerable congregation to
join vocally or aloud, as the Apostles and their •
company are here said to have done, in a prayer
so conceived. It is not simply said that the
whole company lifted up their voice, but that
they lifted up their voice with one accord, or all
together ; so that from the very construction of
the sentence, it is undeniably plain, that the
persons here said to be present, uttered their
prayer all together, and spake all at the same
time ; and consequently, that the prayer must
be aprecomposed set form.
The very names which have come down to
us from the first ages of Christianity and which
were applied to the prayers in ordinary use.
prove also that they worshipped God by the use
of a set form, they are called, as we now speak
of our Liturgy, " Common Prayer," constituted
prayers, " solemn prayers." What, however,
puts the matter beyond all question, is that there
are nov/ extant Liturgies which are ascribed to
t%
10
PLAIN SERMONS
II !
•*->
St. Peter, St. Mark, and St. James, and which
without any doubt are of very great antiquity.
While v/e have, therefore, the clearest possible
proof not only that the first Christians worship-
ped God by the use of a Liturgy, or by set
forms of prayer ; and furthermore, that Our Lord
and His apostles, as members of the Jewish
Church, were in the constant habit of attending
the public services of religion which were con-
ducted after the same manner, thus sanctioning
their use . It will not be improper to point out
some of tluj reasons why this manner of wor-
shipping Almighty God is calculated above all
other ways to honor him^ Wh©m_we worship,
and to conduce most to the increase of devotion
and piety amongst worshippers, \lhe wise King
of Israel gives us this advice, " Keep thy foot
when thou s'oest to the House of God, and be
more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of
fools : for they consider not that they do evil ;
Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine
heart be hasty to utter anything before God : for
God is in Heaven, and thou upon Earth ; there-
fore let thy words be few." And when we
consider who and what we are, the va^t and
immeasurable distance between God and our-
selves, His Holiness and our sinfulness, the
thoughts which would naturally fill the mind of
the sinner would certainly be thoughts of o»r
fear. We would feel this, if our eyes were
open, and we should be led to exclaim with
Jacob, " How dreadful is this place, this is none
other than the House of God, and this is the gate
of Heaven." And to a mind thus impressed
and bowed down, so to speak, with reverence,
we should probably feel that in the pn^sence of
Almighty God, we could do little more than
contemplate His surpassing holiness, and bow
ON THE LITURGY.
11
I which
tiquity.
Dossible
i^orship-
by set
ir Lord
Jewish
tending
re con-
lioning
3int out
of wor-
)Ove all
orship,
svotion
c King
hy foot
and be
ifice of
b evil ;
>t thine
>d : for
there-
en we
\ii and
d our-
?s, the
lind of
of our
were
I with
3 none
e gate
ressed
rence,
nee of
^ than
[ bow
in silence bel'ore our Creator. Such, certainly,
are the feelings with which we sinners should :
enter the special presence of Almighty God. .
And all our worship should partake of them.
And it is one of the very many and very great
advantages which belong to the use of forms of)
prayer, that they insure to us reverence in our ■
public worship. And our form of prayer does
this, for it saves us from all undue excitement,'
all extravagance of expression, all false doctrine, ,
and on the other hand we have devout expres-,
sions and humble petitions such as ought to j^^
come from the devout and humble worshipper..
Exlemporement prayers on the other hand,*
P'>ssess none of these very great advantages,- — (;
they may be this' or that or anything, whatever,
the maker pleases. He may have peculiar',
views of his own, possibly not warranted by the.
word of God, they may degenerate into occa-
sions for the display of little more than fanatical
enthusiasm, or as we know they did, in the case
of the Puritans in England, into occasions for
stirring up religious strife and bitterness, and for-
invectiWL against all who were not as fanatical *
as themselves. To such ends our forms of.,
prayer cannot be made to minister, they are free '
from such, and thi^ is one of their great ad van- !
tage^. Another very great and striking advan-
tage attending iho use of forms of prayer is this,
that inasmuch as they give us an opportunity to\
reflect upon the reverence due to Almighty God
in our approach to Him, and are framed with
care and thoughtfiilness, so they ensure a more
becoming and suitable manner of worship both
in expression and in the substance of the peti-
tions themselves, than could be attained in any
other way ; and our own Liturgy is a striking
illustration of this fact. Not only are our
ik
PLAIN SERMONS
^
prayers very beautiful, but furthermore, the
order and arrangement are becoming and proper,
and even here teach us a valuable lesson. —
When the sinner conies to worship his creator,
and approaches God, if he be a truly sincere and
humble worshipper, he will feel how unworthy
he is to enter the presence of God. And taking
this to be the manner in which Christians come
for public worship, our service very properly
opens with passages of Holy Scripture in which
we are invited to approach Almighty God, and
in which He holds out the promise of pardon
and forgivness to all who repent and who forsake
their sins ; and to this end we have at once a
humble confession of sin, with a prayer for
pardon through our Saviour Jesus Christ, im-
mediately after which follows most suitably the
Absolution, in which the priest is directed to
declare the fact that Almighty God pardons the
sins of all those who are really and truly sorry
for them, and who thus come to Him desiring
His forgiveness, when we have thus made our
peace with God, and received his forgiveness,
we then may properly go in to praise God and
to read His Word, we may then join in the
pleasures of religious worship, which we could
not do while we had a sense of sin within us,
which would destroy our comfort, and our peace
of mind. Another advantage attending set
forms of prayer, and by no means one of the
least, is this, that the worship of Almighty God
is not confined to the Minister alone, but that it
can be joined in by the whole congregation, and
in«tead of hearing another pray we may pray
ourselves. *" There are two things necessary
to the obtaining an answer to our prayers : first
that we sincerely desire good things at the hand
•Bloomfield.
I
ON THE LITUKOY.
13
•e, the
proper,
3Son. —
sreator,
re and
worthy
taking
s come
roperly
which
)d, and
pardon
forsake
once a
^er for
St, im-
bly the
cted to
ons the
y sorry
esiring
ide our
^^eness,
)d and
in the
i could
hin us,
• peace
ig set
of the
ty God
that it
m, and
ly pray
lessary
5 : first
e hand
of God, and secondly, it is required al^o, that
we trust and depend upon God for his granting
of thern, according to the promises which he
iias made unto us tlirough Jesus Christ. And
undoubtedly one reason why men pray so often
to no purpose is, because they do not take this
course : but when they have done their prayers
they forget tdl about their petitions, and concern
themselves no more about them, than,if they had
never prayed at all. But how can we expect
that God should answer our prayers, if we
neither believe in Him nor trust in Him ? For
certainly trusting in God, as it is one of the
highest acts of religion that we can perform, so
it is that which gives life and efficiency to our
prayers, without which we have no ground at
all to expect they should be answered. If then
we hear another person utter a prayer, which he
never made use of bcfore,or which we never heard
before and may never hear again ; how is it pos-
sible for us to remember what was prayed for,
and thus to expect it at the hands of God, or to
depend upon God to answer us.
J But this is not so, when we make use of forms
of prayer, for by using them, w^e can recollect at
all times what we hear prayed for, we can ask
the same thing again and again : we can con-
sider distinctly what we have asked, and so set
our faith and our confidence in Him, for the
granting of every petition which we ask, accord-
ing to the promise which to this end God has
made to us. To pray thus with the understand-
ing, to pray ovrselves, not simply to hear another
pray, to pray in forms truly Scriptural, beauti-
fully simple, so simple and so plain, that the
child, and the untaught can comprehend, this is
the privilege of those who use our Church
Liturgy, and with all that our prayers are plain
2
14
fLAlX SERMONS
and simple, yet do they contain every petition
whicli a Christian requires to ask of God, every-
thing needful for himself, for others, and for the
whole Church of God. The only request which
needs to be added is, says an excellent writer
upon this subject, *" That God would vouchsafe
to continue the Liturgy itself in use, honor and
veneration, in this Church forever." While then
we admire our Common Prayers, let us learn to
use them. One great excellence is this, that
they are for all alike for minister and the congre-
gation together, you do not come to hear j^rajers,
you come to pray, you- come with your own heart
and mouth to praise, to pray to, and to worship
God ; and to this end the response and the parts
of the service which are to be said by the con-
gregation should be audibly joined in. The
service otherwise is deprived of much of its
beauty, and you defraud yourselves of the great
privilege of joining in the worship of your
Maker. But when on the other hand it is heart-
ily joined in, with devotion and with sincerity,
it is an approach to that worship which we trust
we shall take part in, around the Throne of God,
which is compared by St. John unto the voice of
many waters,
•South.
tmi mli
;f
Jji
*
^tition
levery-
for Ihe
^hich
[writer
Iclisafe
)r and
le then
}arn to
that
longre-
a>ers,
1 heart
orship
J parts
e con-
The
of its
3 great
your
heart-
cerity,
e trust
fGod,
oice of
rl
IIHj
it
THE SECOND DELIVERY OF THE
LOED'S PRATEE.
*' And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain
place, when be ceased, one of His disciples said unto him,
Lord, leach us to pray, as John also taught his diciples," —
Lukej xi. 1.
It will doubtless, my brethren, be remembered
that our blessed Saviour had upon another occa-
sion given to the multitudes the form of prayer,
known as the Lord's prayer : for by turning to
the sixth chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew,
we shall find that when our Lord delivered His
Sermon upon the Mount, He instructed his hear-
ers as to how they were to pray, and he then
directed them to make use of this form.
And this delivery of the Lord's prayer we
must not confound with its second delivery,
which, as St. Luke tells us, was made at the
request of a certain one of our Lord's disciples,
because there is a very striking difference be-
tween llie first and the second delivery of this
prayer, and consequently we are able to gather
much insight into the meaning and intention of
of this difference, and so to draw from it a lesson
to ourselves.
When our blessed; Lord first delivered the
Lord's prayer, it was in the course of His instruc-
tion to the multitude which surrounded Him.
" And seeing the multitudes," St. Matthew says,
" Christ went up into a mountain," and it was
at this time, when our Lord delivered the prayer
16
PLAIN SERMONS
which is called by his name, thai he added to it
he doxology, i. e. the words with which we are
accustomed to conclude the prayer, viz : " For
thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, forever, Amen." Now it will be observed
that in the second delivery of this same prayer
in the account whicfi St. Luke gives to us, the
concluding words, " For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen,''
are ommitted, and the prayer ends simply with
ihe last petilition, without even the word Amen.
And this, my brethren, is a very important omis-
sion, and it was manifestly thus omitted for a
particular reason, which a little consideration
will tend to show was intended as a direct
answer to the request of the disciple who said,
" Lord, teach us to pray," The first delivery of
this prayer, was, as we have seen by a reference
to St. Matthew's Gospel, when our Saviour was
surrounded by the multitude. Then it was that
our Lord added the doxology, or the ascription
which we make use of.
*A comparison between the Gospel and Law,
will lead us to see, that the one w^as but the
shadow of the other, and it is, therefore, not
strange if we should further find something of
the same similarity in the religious services which
our Lord and his apostles have left us. In the
solemn services of the temple, upon which our
Saviour and his apostles were constant attendants,
it was the custom, that when the priests had con-
cluded a prayer, the people should make this re-
sponse : " Blessed be the name of his kingdom
forever and ever." The public prayer, i. e. the
temple service or worship ended with a doxology
very similar to the one with which the Lord's pray-
er ends. But this doxology, let it be remembered,
•Lightfoot.
5 ;-
ON THE LITURGY.
17
was never made use of out of the temple, i. e.
in the house at the times of private worship.
Now when it is borne in mind that our blessed
Lord upon two separate and distinct occasions
delivered the prayer which is called by His
name, that upon the first occasion He was sur-
rounded by great multitudes which had gathered
to hear him, and that at this time He gave to
them the Lord's prayer with the doxology added
to it, and bade them thus to say, are we not
clearly warranted in saying, since such was the
usual manner of public worship, a thing which
was well understood by the disciples and the
multitude, are we not to conclude that our Lord
designed to shew that the prayer which had now
been given, was intended to be used at the pub-
lic worship of the almighty God. Nor can we
in anywise doubt that the disciples of our Lord
well understood this, and a further consideration
of the request which the disciple at this time made
uf Christ and the circumstances attending it, will
make us to understand that what the disciples
now wanted was a form of prayer for private
devotion, inasmuch as they had at a former time
been taught how they were to pray in the public
worship of the congregation. St. Luke tells us
that at this time our Lord was engaged in private
prayer, " It came to pass, that, as He was pray-
ing in a certain place, when he ceased, one of
disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray,
as John also taught his disciples." And this
fact as here related to us by the Evangelist,
throws great light upon the request which the
disciple, probably on the part of his fellow disci-
ples, made of our blessed Lord. Our Saviour
as was His habit, had retired for private prayer,
and for communion with God the Father, for we
rnust bear in mind that while Christ was God,
>u
IS^ PLAIN SEBMONS
He was man also, and as such, He required the
same grace and divine assistance as ourselves.
It was, therefore, our Lord's custom to pass a
great portion of the lime which His duties left
at His disposal, in retirement and in prayer.
We read that rising a great while before day
He went out, and departed into a solitary place,
and there prayed. At another time, Christ
says to the disciples, " Come ye yourselves
into a desert place and rest awhile." And St.
Luke says, " And it came to pass in those days,
that He went out into a mountaiji to pray, and
continued all night in prayer to God." While St. _
Matthew in his Gospel says, " And when He
had sent the multitudes away. He went up into ,
a mountain apart to pray ; and when the evening
was come. He was there alone."
Such we see was the custom of our Saviour,
to retire oftentimes for private prayer and for
secret devotion. It was immediately after our
Lord had been thus engaged, after He had
ceased praying, that one of the disciples said to
Him, " Lord, teach us to pray." When there-
fore it is borne in mind that Christ had upoij a
former occasion given to the disciples the Lord's
prayer ending with the ascription ordoxology as
a form to be made use of in public worship, we
can very well believe that what the disciples
now wanted was a form of prayer to be used in
private, and in their homes. And when we
further remember that Christ, had. Himself jjast
been engaged in private devotion, thi« ^uea is still
further strengthened. But when we find that
our Lord, when thus asked by the disciple for a
form, g^ve in answer to the request the ford's
prayer without the doxology and without the
Amen, which were only used upon the occasion
of public worship, having upon a former pcc^sipii
OH THE LITURGY.
19
IS.
a
jft
Jr.
?
ist
es
It.
;t.'
e
to
given this form with these additions, are we not
fully warranted in saying, that Christ in the
plainest possible manner has ^iven to us this
prayer not only for our public worship, . but
furthermore for our private devotions as well.
But, while we must feel that our Saviour has
thus, not alone sanctioned the use of that prayer
which bears His name, in public and in our
private devotions, but in thus giving it to us
upon two separate occasions, that His words
have the force and significance of a command;
there is yet something Jn the manner of the giving
of this prayer, and in the circumstances attend-
ing it, which must 1o every Christian, to every
one who really loves his Lord, be even yet more
binding, if that were possible, than the command
itself could be. It was, St. Luke tells us, " as
our Lord Himself was praying in a certain place,
when He ceased, one ot* His disciples said unto
Him, Lord, teach us to pray." We cannot doubt
that this time was selected by the disciples as
a suitable one to ask Christ to teach them how
to pray, lor He had Himself just now been in
prayer and in mysterious intercourse with the
Father, in fellowship w^ith the world unseen.
'And it may be, that like as the face of Moses
shone wiin a heavenly and a dazzling radiance
when he uime down from the mount, where
God had talked with him, so very likely there
may have been after such seasons of retirement
and of**prayer, something about onr Lord, which
more than upon other occasions, made His
disciples to feel that a surpassing holiness
possessed and filled Him. And it was upon
this occasion that the disciples sought instruc-
tion in prayer, Christ had Himself been just
now engaged in this duty, now, above all other
times, it was most suitable to say to Him, " Lord,
30
PLAIN RERMOXS
teach us to pray." And it was in answer to this
request, made, let it be remembered, when
Christ had Hi in self just ceased to pray, that our
Lord gave to the disciples the form of prayer
which bears His name. There can, therefore,
be no greater, no higher argument for the use
of the Lord's prayer in our public services
and in our private ffevoiions, than that which is
here afforded us," When ye pray, say Our Father."
And without doubt we here have all that a
Christian needs to ask, for time and for eternity.
If we weigh thoughtfully the words which Christ
has given us, we must surely feel that such a
form must be divine, for no human lips could
have uttered it, no human genius have originated
it. And I think, my brethern, that we ought to
feel mistrustful of ourselves, if ever we find that
the Lord's prayer is not sufficient for us, and if
our wants exceed what is here asked for. Not
that we are to make use of no other prayer, for
we ought to look upon this one, not only as given
for frequent use, but also as a pattern by which
to frame and fashion all other prayers. Not but
that at times we may feel as if we must dwell
on some one particular want, some pressing
need more than on others. But that in the main
we should feel that here we can find a suit-
able utterance for all our wants, a becoming
expression for all our needs, at the mercy seat of
God. And if we had but a moment to spend in
prayer, what so suitable as this one, which con-
tains all our wants and expresses all our desires,
which has come to us direct from Christ Himself,
and was given to us when He Himself had
just ceased to pray. And if we find that
we cannot make this sufficient, if we find that
through it we cannot give utterance to our wishes
and our w^ants, we may then safely conclude that
fo
w
al
ON 'fiTB LlTUROy.
21
those wishes and those wants require to be check-
ed rather than granted, if we cannot do so in that
form which Christ Himself has given us, and
which He has Himself assured us comprehends
all that we need to ask for. And when we
picture to ourselves our Lord Himself engaged
in prayer to God the Father, and remember that
He was in all things like unto us, sin only
excepected, that at such a time even when He
had ceased praying, He could in answer to the
request, " Lord, teach us to pray," bid us say
Our Father, then we must feel that no prayer can
take the place of this prayer, and that no prayer
can wing its way so speedily to the mercy seat,
or find such acceptance there, as that which our
Redeemer gave, when one of His disciples said
unto Him, ^^ Lord, teach us to pray."