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Helps to the thoughtful reading of the four Gospels
Helps to the thoughtful reading of the four Gospels Author:Henry Stebbing Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Verses 5—8. Prayer is so essential a means of our communion with God; so necessary to the support of our souls; and so indispensable a part of the homage whic... more »h we owe Him, that no greater folly,'and few greater sins, can be committed, than that of vain or hypocritical devotion. Verses 9—13. For humble, spiritual, and thoughtful minds, the prayer which Christ has taught his disciples is as full of meaning, as it is simple in diction. Such, indeed, is its character, that each of the petitions of which it consists is comprehensive in strict proportion to the degree of faith, knowledge, and affection with which it is uttered. The babe may lisp it with a meaning pure and beautiful: the maturest saint; the most ecstatic prophet, will feel as he pronounces it, with all the ardour of his soul, that it has still a meaning higher and larger than that which he can give it. The first sentence of the prayer confesses both the love and the majesty of God; and this is the proper foundation of all prayer. A knowledge of his power compels reverence; but nothing but the further knowledge of his goodness could compel us to wish Him to be reverenced, or to make that wish the subject of our prayers. " Our Father!" The highest sense in which we can use these words is that in which we address Him, when we are most conscious of our being born again of the Spirit, and of our intimate union with Christ. But that there are inferior states in which this address may be lawfully employed by men, seems plainly intimated by the fact, that Christ taught this prayer openly and generally, as that which his hearers ought at once to employ instead of the verbose, empty, and superstitious forms, common at the time among all classes of thepeople. He adds no restriction as to when it should be employed; and ...« less