ys or needs. As our Father 'in Heaven,' He is lifted
clear above earth's limitations, changes, and imperfections. So
childlike familiarity is sublimed into reverence, our hearts are drawn
upward, and freed from the oppressive and narrowing attachment to earth
and sense.

The perfect sevenfold petitions of the prayer fall into two halves,
corresponding roughly to the first and second tables of the decalogue.
The first half consists of three petitions, which refer to God and His
kingdom. They are three, in accordance with the symbolism of numbers
which, in the Old Testament, always regards three as the sacred number
of completeness and of divinity. The second half consists of four
petitions, which refer to ourselves. They are four--the number which
symbolises the creature. The lessons taught by the order in which these
two halves occur do not need to be dwelt upon. God first and man second,
His glory before our wants--that is the true order. For how few of us is
it the spontaneous order! Do we first rise to God, and only secondly
descend to ourselves?

Note, too, the sequence in each of these halves. In the first we may say
that we begin from above and come down, or from within and come
outwards. In the second, the process is the opposite. We begin on the
lowest level with our external needs, and go upwards and inwards to
removal of sin, exemption from temptation, and complete deliverance from
evil. The first half gives us the beginning, middle, and end of God's
purposes for the world. The recognition of His name is the basis of His
kingdom, and His kingdom is the sphere in which alone His will is done.
The second half, in like manner, gives us the beginning, middle, and end
of His dealings with the individual, the common mercies of daily bread,
forgiveness, guidance, protection in conflict, and final deliverance.

The 'name' of God is His revealed character. He hallows it when He so
acts as to make His holiness manifest. We hallow it when we regard it as
the holy thing which it is. That petition is first, because the
knowledge of God as He is self-revealed is the deepest want of men, and
the spread of that knowledge and reverence is the way by which His
kingdom comes.

God's kingdom is His rule over men's hearts. Christ began His ministry
by proclaiming its near approach, and in effect brought it to earth. But
it spreads slowly in the individual heart, and in the world. Therefore,
this second petition is ever in plac