Page:Sermons on the Lord's Prayer.djvu/14

 open; with those whose thought is shut, nothing more appears therein than the sense of the letter, or the sense that is next to the expressions." It is added, that "all spirits and angels may be known as to their quality, from the Lord's Prayer, and this by an influx of their thoughts and affections into the contents of that Prayer."

In this view, how interesting, how beautiful, how wonderful does this holy Prayer become; and how infinitely above all other prayers! Not, indeed, that we are forbidden by the Lord to offer other prayers:—we are by no means forbidden to pour forth our wants, and hopes, and supplications, like little children, in the simplicity of our own words. All heartfelt prayer must be acceptable to the Lord; indeed, all genuine prayer is inspired by the Lord himself—both the thought, and the good affection from which it springs:—every heavenly aspiration is from him, and from him alone: "Without me," he says, "ye can do nothing." When, then, a sincere aspiration puts itself forth in words, it is an uttered prayer; and such a prayer cannot but be well-pleasing to the Lord, for it is, in fact, that which is derived from him, returning to him again: and thus, truly, it is not man that speaks, but the Lord in man. The difference between such a prayer and the Lord's Prayer is indeed still great, for one is but human and finite, and the other Divine and infinite: yet both are good, because both are from the Lord, the one mediately, however, and the other immediately: the one being good and truth received