Note, too, the sequence in each of these halves.  In the first we may say that we begin from above and come down, or from within and come outwards.  In the second, the process is the opposite.  We begin on the lowest level with our external needs, and go upwards and inwards to removal of sin, exemption from temptation, and complete deliverance from evil.  The first half gives us the beginning, middle, and end of God’s purposes for the world.  The recognition of His name is the basis of His kingdom, and His kingdom is the sphere in which alone His will is done.  The second half, in like manner, gives us the beginning, middle, and end of His dealings with the individual, the common mercies of daily bread, forgiveness, guidance, protection in conflict, and final deliverance.

The ‘name’ of God is His revealed character.  He hallows it when He so acts as to make His holiness manifest.  We hallow it when we regard it as the holy thing which it is.  That petition is first, because the knowledge of God as He is self-revealed is the deepest want of men, and the spread of that knowledge and reverence is the way by which His kingdom comes.

God’s kingdom is His rule over men’s hearts.  Christ began His ministry by proclaiming its near approach, and in effect brought it to earth.  But it spreads slowly in the individual heart, and in the world.  Therefore, this second petition is ever in place, until the consummation.  God’s rule is established through the hallowing of His name; for it is a rule which works on men through their understandings, and seeks no ignorant submission.

The sum of this first half is, ’Thy will be done, as in Heaven, so on earth.’  Obedience to that will is the end of God’s self-revelation.  It makes all the difference whether we begin with the thought of the name or of the will.  In the latter case, religion will be slavish and submission sullen.  There is no more horrible and paralysing conception of God than that of mere sovereign will.  But if we think of Him as desiring that we should know His name, and as gathering all its syllables into the one perfect ‘Word of God’; then we are sure that His will must be intelligible and good.  Obedience becomes delight, and the surrender of our wills to His the glad expression of love.  He who begins with ‘Thy will be done’ is a slave, and never really does the will at all; he who begins with ‘Our Father, hallowed be Thy name,’ is a son, and his will, gladly yielding, is free in surrender, strong in self-abnegation, and restful in putting the reins into God’s hands.

The two halves make a whole.  The second, which deals with our needs, starts with the cry for bread, and climbs up slowly through the ills of life, from bodily hunger to trespasses and human unkindness and personal weakness, and a world of temptation, and the double evil of sin and of sorrow, and so regains at last the starting-point of the first half, Heaven and God.  The probable meaning of the difficult