debtors (Luke vii. 41) and of the unmerciful servant (Matt.
xviii. 23). As universal as the need for bread is the need for pardon.
It is the first want of the spiritual nature, but it is a constantly
recurring want, as this petition teaches us. Forgiveness is the
cancelling of a debt; but we must not forget that it is a Father's
forgiveness, and therefore does not merely, or even chiefly, imply the
removal of penalty, but much rather the unimpeded flow of the Father's
love, and consequently the removal of the miserable consciousness of
separation from Him. The appended comparison 'as we have forgiven' does
not mean that our forgiveness is the reason for God's forgiveness of us.
The ground of our pardon is Christ's work, the condition of it our
faith; but, as we saw in considering the Beatitudes, the condition on
which the children of the kingdom can retain the blessing of the divine
pardon is their imitation of it.

The next petition is the expression of conscious weakness. The forgiven
man, though in his deepest soul hating sin, is still surrounded with
sparks which may fire the combustibles in his heart. If we ask not to be
led into temptation, because we want a smooth and easy road, we are
wrong. If we do so from self-distrust and fear lest we fall, then it is
allowable. But perhaps we may draw a distinction between being tempted
and being led into temptation. The former may mean the presentation of
an inducement to do evil which we cannot hope to escape, and which it is
not well that we should escape. The latter may mean the further step of
embracing or being entangled in it by consenting to it. We do not need
to dread the entrance into the Valley of the Shadow of Death, for if the
Lord be with us we shall pass through it. Our prayer may mean, lead us,
not into, but through, the trial. It is the plaint of conscious
weakness, the recognition of God as ordering our path, the cry of a
heart which desires holiness most of all, and which trusts in God's
upholding hand in the hour of trial.

'Deliver us from evil' is a petition which, in its width, fits the close
of the prayer better than does the translation of the Revised Version.
There seems an echo of the words in Paul's noble confidence while the
headsman's axe was so near, 'The Lord will deliver me from every evil
work.' Entire exemption from evil of every sort, whether sin or sorrow,
is the true end of our prayers, as it is the crown of God's purpose.
Nothing less