can satisfy our yearnings; nothing less can fulfil the
divine desire for us. Nothing less should be the goal of our faith and
hope. To the height of meek assurance, and the reaching out of our souls
in desire which is the pledge of its own fulfilment, Christ would have
us attain on the wings of prayer. _They_ can have no narrower bonds
to the horizon of their hopes, nor any lesser blessing for the
satisfaction of their longings, whose prayer begins with 'Our Father
which art in heaven'; for where the Father is, the child must wish to
be, and some day will be, to go out no more.

'OUR FATHER'

'Our Father which art in heaven.'--Matt. vi. 9.

The words of Christ, like the works of God, are inexhaustible. Their
depth is concealed beneath an apparent simplicity which the child and
the savage can understand. But as we gaze upon them and try to fathom
all their meaning, they open as the skies above us do when we look
steadily into their blue chambers, or as the sea at our feet does when
we bend over to pierce its clear obscure. The poorest and weakest learns
from them the lesson of divine love and a mighty helper; the reverent,
loving contemplation of the profoundest souls, and the experience of all
the ages discern ever new depths in them and feel that much remains
unlearned. 'They did all eat and were filled, men, women, and
children--and they took up of fragments that were left five baskets
full.'

This is especially true about the Lord's Prayer. We teach it to our
children, and its divine simplicity becomes their lisping tongues and
little folded hands. But the more we ponder it, and try to make it the
model of our prayers, the more wonderful does its fulness of meaning
appear, the more hard does it become to pray 'after this manner.' There
is everything in it: the loftiest revelation of God in His relations to
us and in His purposes with the world; the setting forth of all our
relations to Him, to His purposes, and to one another; the grandest
vision of the future for mankind; the care for the smallest wants of
each day.

As a theology, it smites into fragments all false, unworthy human
thoughts of God. As an exposition of religion, the man who has drunk in
its spirit has ceased from self-will and sin. As a foundation of social
morals it lays deep the only basis for true human brotherhood, and he
who lives in its atmosphere will live in charity and helpfulness with
all mankind. As a guide for personal life,