Sermons on the Lord's Prayer. Oliver Prescott Hiller

The Lord's Prayer, as it was spoken from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, is, like all his words, Divine. And being Divine, it is infinite in meaning; for whatever is Divine, is infinite. Hence, as is affirmed by the Doctrine of the New Church, "there are in the contents of that Prayer more things than the universal heaven is capable of comprehending;" "infinite things are in the expressions of that Prayer, and the Lord is present in each."^[1]

In the letter, indeed, it appears but a short and simple form of words; but in the spiritual and Divine senses that are beneath the letter, there is wisdom capable of enlightening the minds of men, and of angels also, and of elevating them toward the Lord, more and more, for ever. The degree of this influence depends, indeed, upon the state of him who utters the Prayer: "More things are in it," says the New Church Doctrine, "in proportion as man's thought is more opened towards heaven, and fewer things are in it, in proportion as his thought is less 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."^[2] 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."^[3]

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 from the Lord into man's finite and imperfect faculties, and modified by its weak receptacle; the other, good and truth uttered directly by the Lord himself, without passing through any human medium, and therefore perfect and Divine. Yet even the widow's mite is acceptable to the Lord; the humblest offering from a sincere heart is well pleasing to him; the simplest prayer of a fervent spirit, expressing itself in natural human language, though it be the rudest upon earth, must be more pleasing in his sight, than the words even of his own Divine Prayer, when uttered merely by the lips, and not filled with the corresponding thought and affection. For the Lord "looks on the heart, not on the outward appearance;"^[4] it is the thoughts and the affections that the Lord hears, not the words; for in the spiritual world—as the New Church Doctrine teaches—thoughts speak and are audible: and this is the language that reaches the Lord's ear.

That the Lord did not intend to confine us exclusively to the form of words given on that occasion to the disciples, is evident from the fact that there are other prayers found in the Word itself, and spoken moreover by the Lord himself. The poor publican, who stood and smote upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," went down, as the Lord declared, to his house, justified.^[5] These few and simple words, uttered from a humble and repentant heart, were accepted by the Lord: and so is every sincere prayer, be it expressed in what words it may. A full heart, indeed, more naturally perhaps, expresses itself in language which it makes for itself at the moment, than in any set form of words whatever; and though it be true, that the Lord's Prayer, as being Divine and infinite, contains in its interior sense, all prayer, yet in the letter merely that Divine truth may be less accommodated to man's natural mind than a human prayer: in the letter alone, the various thoughts and affections answering to the state of him who is praying, are not expressed in detail and in words in which his feelings can so naturally clothe themselves; and the full soul burns to pour itself forth in terms more correspondent to its simple human thoughts. Hence the necessity of human prayer. For the same reason, a prayer thus expressed in simple human language, warm from the heart, is often found to have more effect on the minds of listeners, than the mere repeating of the Lord's Prayer; not that the one is comparable in degree of goodness and truth to the other, but because it is goodness and truth accommodated to man's natural state; and, as the New Church Doctrine teaches, only that which is accommodated to the thing to be acted upon, can produce an effect. It is for the same reason, that expositions of the Word are given, on the Lord's Day, for the purpose of spiritual instruction: it is with the end of presenting Divine truth in a form accommodated to the states of the hearers; otherwise, the simple reading of the Word would be sufficient, as that contains in itself all truth. And just as it is necessary to expound, or to express in human language the Divine truth contained in the Word, in order that it may be received by the hearer—so is it of service to expound, as it were, or simplify, by expressing in human language, the truth and good comprehended in the Lord's Prayer, in order to reach and stir up to devotion both our own spirits and those of our fellow-worshipers.

While, however, for these reasons, it may be both proper and profitable to use in our worship, private and public, other modes of prayer than the set form of words contained in the Lord's Prayer—yet, as this Prayer, being Divine, tends, like all the rest of the Holy Word, to conjoin the mind directly with the Lord, and to bring it into communication with heaven, it should be habitually used in acts of worship, and may form a fitting conclusion to other prayers.

Let

Скачать книгу