Let us examine this for a moment.  Notice the very first petition after the address:  “Thy kingdom come.”  Is the significance of this petition to be limited merely to the introduction of the kingdom of heaven into places of this world where it has not yet been established?  It includes this, of course; but is this all?  I think not.  Now the next petition:  “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so upon earth.”  Whilst these two petitions have a general significance, they have a most personal application to the heart and life of every one offering them.  We sometimes wonder why the Lord’s Prayer is so short.  It is so because the all of heaven, and the church on earth, is comprehended in doing the will of our Father who is in heaven as subjects of his kingdom.  And the aim and end of Revealed Truth from Genesis to Revelation is to teach man how to acquire the power to do this, and how to do it, together with the promises of eternal rewards for doing it.  And until our understandings are so filled with the knowledge of the glorious truths of God’s kingdom, and our hearts with the love of doing his will that we can make no further progress in knowledge and wisdom, and no additions to the warmth and measure of our love by reason of our sinless perfection, we have daily need to offer this prayer.

Gospel and church ordinances are all important.  In my view they hold a relation to every true Christian in the lines of example, power and use somewhat like that which the harness has to a draught horse.  The horse has to be first trained to the draught by means of the harness; and when trained he draws by the same means.  Entering the church in the Lord’s appointed way—­inwardly, through repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; outwardly, by a threefold immersion of the body in pure water, the beautiful emblem of truth, in token of our belief in the blessed trinity of God—­is simply putting on the harness for work in the Lord’s vineyard.  It is also the act of putting on the Christian soldier’s armor and entering the service.  But of what use is a helmet, sword and shield to an idler in the camp?  Of what account is harness, unless the horse that carries it is trained and made willing to use it?

The apostles all speak much of charity, which is love to others filled with a desire to do them good.  This love is of God; for our Lord was filled with it as “he went about doing good.”  It is this same love or charity in God that has brought salvation to man.  Paul and Peter often call it grace, but it means the same thing.  Moses and the prophets mostly use the word mercy; but it also means the same.  These three words, love, grace, mercy, in their true sense, are comprehended in the word CHARITY, which, as an attribute of God or a conscious feeling in man, is the love of doing good in the desire to make others good and happy.  If charity were made the life and spring of man’s love universally, peace and