n heaven that is
proposed for our example, nor their blessedness, but their service. So
the thoughts of those who regard that heavenly existence only as
idleness are corrected, and we are taught that, while we know little as
to that future life, the conformity to the will of God, which in its
present partial attainment is the secret of the purest blessedness, in
its perfection will be the heaven of heaven.

Then again, there is here the grand idea that the whole creation will be
bound into a unity by obedience to one will. We and they now form one
whole, because now we serve the one Lord. And there comes a time when
there shall be one Lord and His name one; when the omnipresent energy of
His will in the physical universe shall be but a faint shadow of the
universal dominion of His loving will in all His creatures. Then indeed
it will be true, 'Thou doest according to Thy will in the armies of
heaven and the inhabitants of earth.'

What glorious harmonies will sound then, when all co-operate with God
and with one another, and one purpose, and one will, and one love fills
the whole creation!

The petition has a bearing of this upon the dreams of moralists and
reformers. They were true, they shall be more than fulfilled. Earth will
be no longer separated from heaven, but united with it, and from one
extremity of creation to another will be no creature which does not obey
and rejoice.

THE CRY FOR BREAD

'Give us this day our daily bread.'--MATT. vi. 11.

What a contrast there is between the two consecutive petitions, Thy will
be done, and Give us this day! The one is so comprehensive, the other so
narrow; the one loses self in the wide prospect of an obedient world,
the other is engrossed with personal wants; the one rises to such a
lofty, ideal height, the other is dragged down to the lowest animal
wants.

And yet this apparent bathos is apparent only, and the fact that so
narrow and earthly a petition has its place in the pattern of all prayer
is full of instruction. No less instructive is the place which it has. A
single word about that place may constitute a fitting introduction to
our remarks now. We have already seen how the former petitions
constitute together a great whole. That first part of the prayer
expresses the desires which should ever be foremost in a good man's
soul--those which have to do with God, and point to the advancement of
His glory. It begins, as I said, with the inward, and advanc