Page:The rock of wisdom.djvu/34

 himself a just God and Saviour; to hallow God's name is to sactify it, to hold it sacred; for to sanctify any thing is to sit it apart from every profane and common use; in this petition then we pray that God would enable us to glorify him in all things, whereby he makes himself known, we must glorify him in our hearts by high and holy reverential thoughts of him; we must glorify him in our language by always speaking of him in the most solemn manner; we must glorify him in our actions not only in those which regard sacred things, but in those also which relate to the world, for whether we eat or drink all should be done with a view to the glory of God, and how far from this are many who say this prayer. Think of this you who curse and swear, get drunk, tell lies, violate the sabbath day with all your midnight crimes, which are known to God; you take God's name in vain when you say in a thoughtless manner, God bless us, oh God! or oh Christ! is this to hallow the name of God? is it praying, or swearing? for these two cannot agree together; but let every one that fears God remember that the glory of God is the first and chief thing that we are to ask for and to desire, and to ask even before our own good, that we and many others do this as we ought, in the next place to pray thy kingdom come. This does not mean the kingdom of God's providence which rules over all his works; it cannot be said to come for it is come already and will never cease, but it means that spiritual kingdom which Christ came to set up in the world; that kingdom of the Mesiah which the pious Jews had long expected, and which when this prayer was given to the disciples it was said to be at hand; this kingdom of Christ did come, soon after it was set up when Christ assended up to heaven and the spirit decended from heaven, but still this prayer is as necessary as ever, for we pray that this kingdom may be established in our own hearts and extended to all the world; the kingdom of Christ is erected on purpose to destroy the kingdom of Satan, the Devil has usurped a dominion over all mankind and though he does not now possess the bodies of men as once lie did, yet he rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience who are led captive by him at his will, and in some parts of the world lie has actually worshipped in order to destroy