Practical
Meditations on the Lord's Prayer
Newman Hall, 1889
The Third Petition--
"Your will be done on earth, as it is in
heaven."
The third petition is the appropriate sequel to those
which precede. As the hallowing of the Name of the Father is essential to
the coming of a kingdom based on intelligent apprehension and cordial
reverence; so the kingdom implies rule, and the coming of it submission.
This is not strictly a separate petition, but a development of the second.
We pray that the kingdom may come on earth, by its laws being obeyed. The
Will of God, perfectly done in heaven, has been only partially known and
obeyed on earth. We pray that this discrepancy may cease, and that the whole
realm of God may be harmonized in obedience. As with all the petitions, this
one, besides being related to the rest, is based on the Invocation,
"Father." God says, "If I am a Father, where is my honor?" And His children
pray, Our Father in heaven, let Your holy, loving, Fatherly Will be done. On
Sinai the Law rang out trumpet-tongued, "Do the Will of God:" on the Mount
of Beatitudes the Savior taught us to obey this Law by asking grace from the
Lawgiver to fulfill it.
I—The will of God
This petition is, like the Invocation, a protest against
the materialism which recognizes Power alone. Mere material forces, physical
laws, have no volition. The abstraction called "a power, not ourselves, that
works for righteousness," suggests ideas utterly different from those of the
prayer, "Our Father! Your Will be done!" How cold, dreary, terrible, the
notion of mere Power controlling us, with no loving thought, emotion,
purpose! What a sense of helplessness is engendered by it, what terror of
the Power which cannot be resisted or evaded, against which there is no
appeal, under which we may be crushed! This would foster a Fatalism as
discouraging to exertion as to prayer. It would also prevent any sense of
sin. I may be unfortunate in becoming its victim, I cannot be guilty of
resisting its volition. I may lament my weakness, but cannot be conscious of
wickedness. But when I recognize the rule of a loving and holy Father, I
acknowledge my sin in resisting His commands, and am prompt to reform what
is wrong instead of pleading a resistless necessity. "Hence comes a
conviction, not that we have been unable to resist, but that we have
actually resisted that Power which is working for our deliverance and
blessedness. A Power we shall then joyfully confess it to be, when we know
that it is not that merely or principally" (Maurice).
We recognize a loving will, for He is our Father; a holy
will, for He is in heaven. We need not fear the Power which executes the
Will of "Our Father." We appeal to Him as developing in His Will, tender
compassion, beneficent purpose, perfect righteousness. He does not reign to
exhibit sovereignty; He does not decree simply because He chooses; His Will
is the outcome of His Fatherhood. There must be much mysterious and
inscrutable in the Will of the Infinite God. It would be presumptuous to
dictate what it ought to be, or to pronounce by our unaided understanding
what it is; but it would also be derogatory to our own nature, which owes to
Him its origin, and reflects though imperfectly His likeness, to say we
cannot in any degree conjecture what His Will is likely to be. In the light
of His own revelation, it would be ungrateful and false to say that we know
nothing of His Will, when He has revealed it not only in His Word but by His
Son, who, being from eternity "in the bosom of the Father," has "declared
Him." He is the everlasting Word, the Revealer. In all His earthly life we
learn the nature of His Father's Will. And He who from eternity knew it,
bids us pray that it may be done. He who came to save us would not instruct
us to pray for the accomplishment of a Will opposed to His own mission.
There can be no secret purpose in God conflicting with His Will as
illustrated by Christ. We are therefore secure when we pray, "Your Will be
done," inasmuch as the prayer is indited by our Savior, and the Will is the
Will of our Father.
God's Potential Will in creation and providence none can
resist. "He speaks and it is done. Who can stop His hand, or say, What are
You doing?" This is done by all creatures inferior to man, everywhere,
absolutely, on earth as in heaven. Our part is mentally to concur in it, to
be glad that His Power is supreme. "The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice."
We ask that all men may carry out the Will, either by active service or
patient suffering. We pray "not in order that God may do His own Will, but
that we may be willing and enabled to do what He wills to be done by us"
(Cyprian). This brings us to the consideration of
II—God's preceptive will in relation to the human will
God recognizes in man, made in His likeness, a capacity
of Will corresponding with His own. He is not mere Force, and we are not
mere machines. We have the Divine faculty of observing, considering,
judging, approving, resolving, performing. We can concur with His Will or
dispute it; perform or resist it. It is frivolous to debate about
foreknowledge, and preordination, and philosophical necessity, as though
what will be must ever have been certain, and therefore such as no will, or
act, or prayer can change. We know by our own consciousness that we possess
this power of Will, which can be exercised in obeying that of God, and is as
free when in harmony with it as when resisting it. But we also know that
such resistance is possible, that such resistance is a sad and solemn fact.
A created will can resist the Creator. Sun, moon, and stars unconsciously
obey, but man stands forth amid the loyal universe, and dares to say "No" to
the Almighty. This faculty is recognized in all the commands, promises and
threatenings of Holy Scripture. We are not told to abrogate our function of
volition, no other mind but His being active; but to exercise our will
freely in accord with His. Our volition is appealed to by motives. The Son
of God said to the Jews, "You will not come to me that you might have
life." He declared that His own Will was opposed by theirs. "How often
would I have gathered your children, and you would not!" I had
the will to save you; you had the will to reject me. God sent His Son to
bring our will into accord with His own. The apostles besought men "in
Christ's stead, Be reconciled to God." To produce this harmony the Divine
Spirit enters human hearts. "It is God who works in us to will and to do."
We have still the power to cherish or resist these Divine influences.
"Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God;" "Quench not the Spirit." "you do always
resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you." This petition
implies that God can influence our will for good without destroying our
freedom of choice. For this prayed saints of old, "Teach me to do Your Will.
Incline my heart to Your testimonies." And for this our Lord taught us to
pray when we say, "Your Will be done."
III—Why should God's will be done?
Because it is God's. He has every right to rule; as
Creator and Preserver, He gives laws to all things that depend on Him for
existence; as infinitely Good, He has a moral right to the willing homage of
all intelligent beings. It is reasonable that they should employ the
faculties He gave in accordance with His own inherent perfections and
revealed commands. We ask for the fulfillment of "that good, acceptable, and
perfect Will of God." We obey it because it is His, and because it must be
beneficent like Himself; for it is our Father's will, and corresponds to His
Name. His precepts no less than His promises are the expressions of His
love; in commanding duties, He bestows benefits; in forbidding sins, He
guards from injuries. "Honor your father and your mother" implies, Receive
honor in your turn. "You shall not kill" involves, None must kill you; and
"You shall not steal" declares, None must rob you. His most emphatic
warnings against sin mean, "Do yourself no harm;" His severest threatenings
cry in the ears of sinners, "Why will you die?" Nothing is forbidden which
would not be an injury to ourselves; nothing enjoined which is not for our
good. He places us on an estate and bids us cultivate it for Him, asking no
rent but our diligence, and promising that we shall enjoy as our own the
fruits of orchards and corn-fields. He bids us dig a mine, and then take all
the gold for ourselves."
But besides the benefits resulting, there is joy in the
very act of performing His Will. When we obey Him, our lesser wheels revolve
smoothly in harmony with the great machinery of Love, instead of grating and
breaking in hopeless counteraction. There is peace in being consciously in
accord with our own higher nature. We rejoice when what we will and what we
do is what Truth and Righteousness require. Above all, there is satisfaction
in feeling that our strongest and most habitual desires and efforts
correspond with the holy laws of our Creator and the loving Will of our
Father. "In keeping them there is great reward." This dignifies the humblest
lot, and raises to the rank of Divine service the most menial employment.
The apostle comforted those bond-slaves of the Roman Empire who believed in
Jesus by this grand consideration, that however unjust or cruel their
earthly masters might be, yet in obeying them those slaves were serving the
Lord Christ. Physical bondage became spiritual freedom when endured
patiently from love to the Lord. When the thing we do possesses in itself
neither interest nor honor, if we do it in His name, it at once becomes
noble and blessed.
"Teach me, my God and King,
In all things You to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for Thee.
A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room, as for Your laws,
Makes that and the action fine.
This is the famous stone
That turns all to gold:
For that which God does touch and own
Cannot for less be told." —George Herbert
IV—Angelic nature
As Moses when erecting the tabernacle was commanded to
"make all things according to the pattern shown him in the mount," so we
have here set before us an example of the way in which the will of God is to
be done by men on earth—"as it is done in heaven." If for a moment the word
suggests the starry heavens, we see an illustration of obedience, unceasing,
untiring, exact; but it is mechanical, involuntary, lifeless. One man
endowed with mind and will may render more homage than all the solar system.
We must look beyond the constellations, even to "the third heavens," for the
pattern of our obedience.
The resemblance of the obedience of angels to that of men
suggests resemblance of nature. At the creation of the world "the morning
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." We say "Our
Father," and rejoice that "now are we the sons of God." There exists
therefore a near brotherhood. God made man "a little lower than the angels."
This implies only a difference of degree between kindred natures. Our Lord,
when He became man, "was made a little lower than the angels." He who
appeared to the patriarchs as the angel of Jehovah, appeared in the fullness
of time as "the Son of man." Angels are described as men. "Three men
appeared to Abraham," who at first took them to be simply men. He
"entertained angels unawares." "There came two angels to Sodom." "And
the men said to Lot, Have you here any besides?" "There came an angel
of the Lord" to Gideon, and as "he sat under an oak," Gideon thought he was
a man, but afterwards exclaimed, "Alas! for I have seen an angel of the Lord
face to face." Thus Daniel describes the angel Gabriel—"While I was speaking
in prayer, even the man Gabriel, being caused to fly swiftly, touched
me about the time of the evening oblation." Zechariah speaks of "the man
that stood among the olive trees" as being "the angel of the Lord."
Matthew describes "the angel of the Lord" rolling away the stone from
the sepulcher, but Mark describes him as "a young man sitting" where
the body had lain; and Luke says "two men stood by them in shining
garments." When Jesus ascended, "as He went up, two men stood by them
in white apparel." In John's description of the heavenly city, we have this
remarkable expression—"He measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty
and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the
angel." In the closing chapter the angel forbids the homage of the
apostle, saying, "I am your fellow-servant."
From such statements we may infer that angels are only a
higher species of man; higher in endowment; higher by actually obeying, just
as we ought to obey, so that the true ideal of humanity is to be found in
them; and we are restored to the true human type, by resemblance to angels,
when the Will of God is done by us as by them. It is a joy to feel that if
there are spirits of evil plotting to do us harm, there are holy angels,
closely allied to us, only a little above us, in sympathy with us and
employed in helping us. Very little has been said of the angelic nature in
Scripture; but obedience is the same with all moral beings. Everywhere the
same authority exists, the same wisdom and love appeal to a similar
understanding and volition. Holy angels as well as good men, from love to
God, give heed to His Will; perform it; delight in it; and so their
obedience is a model for our own.
V—ANGELIC OBEDIENCE
1. Angels do the Will of God LOVINGLY —It
must be universally true that no obedience is acceptable to God which
love does not inspire. Angels are highest in the scale of moral beings,
and must therefore be highest in the possession and exercise of that love
which is the fulfilling of all law. They are in the immediate presence of
God, whose essence is love, and therefore under its most potent influence.
Dwelling in His light, they reflect and share it. They are all seraphim
burning with a holy fire which impels them, as their supreme delight, to do
the Will of Him they adore.
Such love secures the perfect loyalty which obeys
every command of God because it is His. They do not first bring it to the
tribunal of their own judgment, and then comply with it in proportion as
they understand the reason of it. Their faith must have been severely tried
when they were bidden to overthrow the cities of the plain, to destroy the
first-born of Egypt, and to slay one hundred and eighty thousand of the army
of Sennacherib; when they saw their Lord insulted and tormented by His foes,
and were not allowed to rescue Him; and when they have watched the
persecution of the heirs of salvation, and "their angels" have not been
permitted to deliver them. Their only inquiry is, "Has God commanded?"
Obedience prompted by love is sure to be cheerful.
Unloving service is reluctant, grudged, regretful, sad. A willing heart
makes a merry countenance, and inspires an obedience the happy spontaneity
of which renders fragrant, the work done. Such "service is perfect freedom."
Angels obey not because they must, but because they would. As it would be
pain to birds to be restrained from singing when the flowers deck the
fields; as it is cruelty to cage the lark whose loftiest flights express its
greatest pleasure; so it would be a burden to angels to be spared the
service which is their purest bliss. Heaven is a synonym for happiness; and
there is not a truer description of its joy than this—"His servants shall
serve Him." An old writer exclaims, "It is the joy, I had almost said the
mirth, of heaven to obey the statutes of its King."
They therefore do it promptly. Love does
not loiter. Angels are compared to winds and lightning in swiftness of
service. "He makes His angels winds, His ministers a flaming fire." They
never wait for a more convenient season, nor substitute a purpose to
do for present doing. Gabriel, "being caused to fly swiftly," brought
the reply to the prophet "while he was speaking in prayer." Love spares no
pains. Angels who "excel in strength," with all that strength "do his
commandments." Their capacities may vary, but each does the Will of God with
his might. Nothing is too trivial for the putting forth of every needful
energy, when the end in view is the Will of God whom they perfectly love.
We are taught to pray that our obedience may, like
theirs, be that of love. Then will it be loyal, unquestioning, cheerful,
prompt, unsparing. As children obey wise and tender parents from loving
trust before they acquire from experience the conviction that their own
welfare is thus best secured, so let us obey our Father in heaven, even when
we cannot understand the reason and methods of His Will. Called to such
obedience, we are called to noblest liberty. Our service may well be
cheerful when it has become the gratification of our own heaven-born
impulses; when "we love the thing which God commands, and desire that which
He promises." It may well be cheerful when thereby we share the privilege
and the joy of heaven; and possess a sign that we belong to Him whose
example, as the Lord of angels, we are supremely to follow, and who said, "I
delight to do Your will."
Then will our obedience be prompt. Alas! how often we are
convinced of some evil and resolve to forsake it, or of some duty and
comfort our conscience by the purpose of performing it tomorrow!
whereas, in an attitude of loving obedience, we should pray, "Speak, Lord,
for Your servant hears;" and in grateful retrospection be able to say, "I
made haste, and delayed not to keep Your commandments." Then also will
obedience be unstinted. We should always do our best. "Whatever your
hand finds to do, do it with your might;" when God commands, inspects,
rewards. "She has done what she could" is a commendation not to be
surpassed, and not confined to rank or power. The very weakest and lowliest
may share it with the strongest and greatest. Men on earth are accepted with
cherubim and seraphim, when, with them, they do what they can. It is to be
feared that some who bear the Christian name are still but as Jews, under
the restraints of law. They try to do their duty, fearing to displease God
and to incur penalty. But believers in Christ have not received "the spirit
of bondage again unto fear; but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father." We obey, not as slaves, but as sons. Our service is not
measured by payment nor constrained by fear; "We freely serve because we
freely love."
2. They do it INTELLIGENTLY— Their
faith is rational, their loyalty discerning. They take pains to know whether
the command is really from God and not their own imagination; and then to
understand what it really means, not what their own fancy may suppose it
capable of meaning. "Bless the Lord, you His angels, who do His
commandments, listening to the voice of His word." They do not rush
heedlessly into service. So we should pray, "Make me to understand the way
of Your precepts. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law." In
order intelligently to obey, we are to "search the Scriptures," which are
"profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness."
3. They do it PRAYERFULLY— If
prayer is far more than the mere asking for sorrow to be relieved, needs
supplied, and sins forgiven; if it is the outpouring of a filial heart,
heaven would lack one chief element of bliss if angels did not pray. The
Lord of angels prayed. Knowing how surely the Will of the Father would be
accomplished, He expressed His concurrence with that Will in earnest
supplications. He still prays. He makes intercession for transgressors, that
they may begin to do the Will of God—and for His faithful servants, that
they may go on to do it. "This must surely be a law of the spiritual
universe and of the heavenly world. Angels and the 'spirits of just men made
perfect,' martyrs from beneath the altar, the four and twenty elders, and
the principalities and powers in heavenly places, because of their thorough
submission to the law and love and will of God, are the most fervent and
intense of all His creatures in their prayers, and see by the piercing
glances of their faith, and soar by the strong wings of intercession, on
into the everlasting purposes of the Infinite and Eternal God" (H.
Reynolds). Many of our petitions can have no place in heaven, but surely
this one will never cease to be the desire of glorified saints and unfallen
angels. Heavenly perfection must include reliance on the Heavenly Father,
both for existence itself and for the purity and happiness which are
inseparable from obedience. Not for themselves alone, but for all
intelligent beings they pray. While they do God's Will, they pray that it
may be done. So let us do it; doing it, the more we pray; praying for it,
the more we do it.
4. They do ALL God's Will— We
on earth are apt to make selections. Obedience is easy when the Will of God
agrees with the opinions of the world, of the society in which we move, of
patrons or friends; when it does not threaten property, trade, comfort; when
it does not demand uncongenial exertion, the breaking of matured habits, or
painful self-sacrifice. We think we are obeying the Will of God when we may
be only pleasing ourselves. If we walk along the path of duty only when it
is level, smooth and flowery, but turn aside when it scales the steep
crag--our motive is the gratifying of self, not the obeying of God. But in
heaven, inasmuch as they do God's Will because it is His, angels do it
all. We cannot imagine them selecting what may be most easy, profitable,
or honorable. They loyally execute every order—whether to destroy
Sodom or rescue Lot; in brilliant array to proclaim the Law, or singly to
withstand Balaam; to give food to Elijah, or to carry him to heaven; to form
a bodyguard for Elisha, or to shut the lions' mouths for Daniel; to destroy
the armies of Sennacherib, or to bear a quick reply to one lonely
suppliant's prayer. So we do God's Will as they do it in heaven when we obey
without preference, whether to work amid the blaze of publicity or in the
shade of obscurity, whether to range the earth in unresting activity or to
wait His Will in humble readiness.
After an important battle, a great general was conversing
with his officers respecting the various incidents of the fight. The names
were mentioned of men who had stormed batteries, held their post against
fearful odds, fought single-handed against a crowd of assailants, or carried
off wounded comrades amid a shower of bullets. "No (said he); you are all
mistaken—the best man in the field today was a soldier who had his arm
lifted up against an enemy, but who, on hearing the trumpet sound a retreat,
checked himself, and dropped his arm without striking the blow. That perfect
and ready obedience to the will of his general is the noblest thing that has
been done today" (A. Hare). How often we feel it easier to wield the sword
than sheathe it, to pursue than to retreat, to work than to wait! Yet there
should be no difference in our obedience when we cannot doubt what is the
Will of God. One command neglected, because uncongenial, mars the rest of
our obedience. In a harp of many strings, one that is out of tune makes the
whole seem discordant. Then only "shall we not be ashamed" when, like the
angels, we "have respect for all" the commandments of God.
5. They do it ALWAYS— "They
serve Him day and night in His temple." There are no intervals of idleness;
they wish no vacation. Interruption in obedience would be a suspension of
bliss. Let ours resemble theirs; not by fits and starts, with intervening
relapses; not needing revivals out of apathy; not dependent on novelty,
which must soon lose its charm, but patient and persevering under all
circumstances; not as a mountain-torrent whose rocky channel is bare and
sunburned when snows are not melting and rains do not fall, but as a deep,
broad river ever flowing with fertilizing tide. "O that there were such
heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments
always!"
6. They all do it, and do it altogether— Not
as here, a few among the many, and these objects of curiosity and wonder,
sometimes of ridicule and hatred; but everyone does it; that countless host
forming a glorious and perfect unity of obedience with endless diversity of
gifts. There is not one among that great multitude who makes objection, or
questions why. "Are they not all ministering spirits?" All do it in perfect
harmony, each contented with his allotted service as most honorable and
advantageous, because appointed by God. No time or strength is wasted on
controversy. The possessor of ten talents does not despise the possessor of
only one, nor does the latter envy the former. One worker does not condemn
his fellow because he uses varying methods. There is no insisting on
uniformity of operation where there is this grand unity of motive; no
attempt to fetter the freedom the Creator gives by bonds the creature
invents. There is no friction of the wheels, because each is perfectly
fitted to the central power and plan. All the workers are in harmony with
each other, because all are perfectly doing the Will of God.
O for such harmony among Christian workers on earth!
Alas, how much time and energy are wasted in contentions between
fellow-servants in imposing their preferences on others who have an equal
right to their own; and in failing to recognize true service unless
performed according to some standard of man's devising! The cure is an
earnest desire to do the Will of God. As the structure of the earth is
consolidated by every particle gravitating towards the same center, so the
more our minds and hearts in all our service are directed towards God, the
more we must approach each other.
7. They do it in the presence of God— The
actual presence and inspection of one we honor acts as an additional
stimulus to the obedience of love. The angel who appeared to Zacharias said,
"I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God." The "many angels round
about the throne do always behold the face of the Father," and the eye of
Him whom they supremely love and adore is upon them. No wonder, therefore,
that they do His Will earnestly, constantly, cheerfully, harmoniously. So
let us do it. For is not God really as near to us here on earth as He is to
them in heaven? We do not behold His face, but we may by faith realize His
presence, and in holy service "endure, seeing the Invisible." If soldiers
are animated by the presence of the general, if servants by the inspection
of their master, if children by the loving looks of their parents, should
not we serve and obey "as ever in our Great Taskmaster's eye," when He is
our loving Father? Although the prayer refers to the manner of obedience,
not to the kind of work, we cannot refrain from noticing how numerous and
varied are the services performed by angels which are of a beneficent
character. They all "minister for the heirs of salvation;" they "encamp
round about those who fear God;" they have a "charge concerning" the
righteous, to "keep them in all their ways;" they do not overlook "one of
these little ones who believe in Jesus;" they rescued an apostle from
prison, and carried a beggar into Abraham's bosom. In doing the Will of God,
princes in heaven serve sinners on earth.
If thus angels act as "ministers of grace" to aid fallen
men, surely we should obey that same Will in acts of beneficence to one
another; ministering to the saints, protecting the weak, caring for little
children, visiting the sick, tending the dying. In such service we are apt
to neglect small acts of kindness while thinking to do great things, and
waiting for these to present themselves. "A wise man," said Lord Bacon,
"will make more opportunities than he finds." Benevolence like that of the
angels will never wait for a call to some mighty act, when to give a cup of
cold water is at hand. While imitating their obedience to Him whose "Nature
and property is ever to show mercy," we shall never be at a loss for
opportunities.
In all benevolent work we are doing the Will of God. But
there is no department of such work so important as that of endeavoring to
save the souls of men. Here also we may learn a lesson from the angels. They
announced His birth; ministered to Him in the wilderness and in Gethsemane;
appeared at the Resurrection and Ascension; came to the disciples to aid and
direct then; to Philip, Acts 8:26; Cornelius, 10:3-22; Peter, 12:7-9; Paul,
27:23; and John, Rev. 1:1; and are deeply interested in the salvation
provided for sinful men. "Which things the angels desire to look into."
"There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who
repents." Possessed of lofty intelligence, with vast and accurate knowledge
of truth, they understand how much is involved in the salvation of one soul.
Already in possession of joy so complete, they would not burst forth into
fresh gladness on account of any trivial event. We may learn from them the
unspeakable reasons for joy in the salvation of one sinner. If we do the
Will of God on earth as they do it in heaven, we shall feel that the
repentance of even one sinner is ample reward for a life of labor, since it
furnishes occasion for fresh joy in heaven. O for the time when earth shall
thus resemble heaven; when all men in doing the Will of God shall best serve
themselves and one another; when the varied wills of men, not destroyed nor
compressed into a rigid uniformity controlled by a single dominant and
all-embracing volition, but in their multiplicity of individual wills, each
free yet all concurring, shall form one Commonwealth of Willinghood in the
perfect service of the Eternal King!
VI—PASSIVE OBEDIENCE
Men have also to obey in another method unknown to
angels. We are exposed to varied sorrows, all sent or permitted by God and
overruled for good, but needing special help to endure them patiently. The
purposes of God must be accomplished whether we assent to them or not. We
here pray that we may render this assent. "Our repining hinders not His
working, but it hinders our own comfort—our wrestling and fretting does but
pain ourselves" (Leighton). How the character of any trial is changed when
we accept it from our Father; when we are cheerfully led instead of being
unwillingly driven; when we take up our burden and carry it instead of
trailing it along the rocky path! God's Will may concur with our own wish;
or our prayer may bring us what we ask; but there will often be times when
what we wish we cannot have. But we may always relinquish our own will and
embrace that of God, and so, by making His Will ours, have our own. Luther
said, "I do not ask 'Your Will be done,' but my will be done, because Your
Will is now my will, and I best get my own will by unquestioning acceptance
of Yours." It would not be good for us to have our own will always, if it
were possible. Were God to give us the liberty of choice, it would be wise
to resign that liberty again to Him who is infallibly wise and unfailingly
kind. Often, as we look back, we see places where we wished to take some
other path than that in which God was leading us, and we perceive that our
own preference would have led us into bogs or over precipices. And we also
see places where we resolutely chose our own path, and God overruled our
disappointment to teach us the folly of refusing to be guided by Himself!
"Lord, You are mine and I am Thine,
If mine I am—and Your much more,
Than I or ought, or can be mine.
Yet to be Your, does me restore;
So that again I now am mine;
And with advantage, mine the more,
Since this being mine brings with it Thine,
And You with me do You restore.
If I without You would be mine,
I neither should be mine nor Your."—George Herbert
How unanswerable the argument for resignation to the
Divine Will in times of trial is the assurance of the apostle, "Our light
affliction, which is for the moment, is working for us more and more
exceedingly an eternal weight of glory"! Light compared with the weight of
glory, momentary compared with the eternal result, they are always operating
for our welfare even when causing us most suffering. "We know that all
things work together for good to those who love God." They are active,
beneficent, harmonious; they work together for good. Often our trials act as
a prickly hedge which wounds, but guards us from the steep precipice or the
deep river. Loss of property may enrich the soul. Trials reveal to us
ourselves, "as soaking rain shows damaged places in the roof which need
mending." They bring our sins to remembrance, as in the case of Joseph's
brethren. They separate us from many perilous temptations and worldly
snares; they draw or drive us to the throne of grace; they are a needful
discipline of faith, and our patient endurance is a helpful example.
"If loving hearts were never lonely,
If all they wish might always be,
Accepting what they wish for only,
They might be glad, but not in Thee.
We need as much the cross we bear
As air we breathe, as light we see;
It draws us to Your side in prayer,
It binds us to our strength in Thee."
The brave and godly Sir John Eliot said—"In wrestling
with calamities there is this advantage for all—First, yourself; the favor
of God giving you this education, knowledge of yourself, confirmation of
virtue. Secondly, your neighbors; profit by your example, your fortitude
adding courage to them. How then in this great duty of advantage to
ourselves and neighbors we should repine, as 'tis a prejudice to our
happiness, so 'tis a wonder unto reason." As the destruction of Aquileia and
other towns on the Italian coast caused their inhabitants to flee to the
islets of the lagoon, from which there afterwards arose the temples and
palaces of the queenly city of the Adriatic, so the most threatening perils
and darkest trials of the believer have often been the means of erecting
temples of spiritual beauty, far surpassing that palatial city of the sea.
Whatever brightness there may be in any object through color of its own,
this is far exceeded by the sun's own rays when reflected from it. A broken
vessel, a fragment of glass, may blaze with solar splendor, when objects of
perfect form, artistic beauty, and costly material may send back no heavenly
radiance. The stream flowing placidly through the meadows may be beautiful;
but not until obstructed by rocks, broken into rapids, tumbling over
precipices, is it brilliant with all the colors of the solar spectrum, and
spanned by the rainbow. Resistance to our Father's Will is opposition to our
own welfare; murmuring at trials is discontent with blessings He designs.
Let us then take the oar of duty and leave to Him the helm of direction.
Whatever course the pilot steers, let us aid the vessel's progress, whether
it bears us through smooth or stormy waters, and while pulling let us pray,
"Your Will be done."
"Man's weakness, waiting upon God,
Its end can never miss;
For man on earth no work can do,
More angel-like than this.
Siding with God, I always win;
No chance to me is lost:
His Will is sweet to me, even when
It triumphs at my cost.
Ills that God blesses are my good—
All unblest good is ill;
And all is right that seems most wrong,
If it be His dear Will." —Faber
VII—ILLUSTRATIONS OF PASSIVE OBEDIENCE
We have no examples of passive obedience in unfallen
angels, but we have many in the history of those who joined their ranks when
they "came out of great tribulation." Job said, "The Lord gave, and the Lord
has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." David—"Let Him do to me as
seems good to Him." Habakkuk"—"Although the fig-tree shall not blossom,
neither shall fruit be in the vines, yet I will rejoice in the Lord."
Apostles and early Christians "rejoiced to be counted worthy to suffer shame
for His name," and could "glory in tribulation also." Richard Baxter, when
suffering extreme pain on his deathbed, prayed for release, but checked
himself thus—"It is not fit for me to prescribe—What You will, when You
will, how You will." When asked how he was, he would reply, "Almost well;
better than I deserve to be, but not so well as I hope to be." Milton said,
"It is not so wretched to be blind as it is not to be capable of enduring
blindness. There is a way to strength through weakness. Let me then be the
most feeble creature alive as long as that feebleness serves to invigorate
my spirit; as long as in that obscurity the light of the Divine presence
more clearly shines, then in proportion as I am weak I 'shall be invincibly
strong, and in proportion as I am blind I shall more clearly see. O that I
may thus be perfected by feebleness and irradiated by obscurity!" Thus our
trials may become means of blessing, and seeming hindrances real helps.
Climbing the mountain of God's holiness, our path is obstructed by
projecting rocks which tempt the timid to despair and the indolent to turn
back, but which the resolute climber grasps with his hands, and uses as a
fulcrum for his feet, so making what might have become a stumbling-block a
stepping-stone.
The wife of Archbishop Tait thus wrote of the death of
five children within a few weeks—"We were called to part with these five
blessed little daughters, each of whom had been received in prayer, educated
with prayer, and were now given up, though with bitter anguish, yet with
prayer and thanksgiving." The trial is spoken of as "a bright chain to draw
the heart up to heaven." And when a son was cut off in the morning of his
usefulness, we read that "as the benediction was pronounced over his resting
place, his parents felt that their many prayers for his welfare, offered up
from his infancy onwards, had been answered, though not in the way they had
expected."
Mr. Fisk relates that a Grand Vizier, in high favor with
the Sultan, was suddenly disgraced and deprived of all his property. He at
once conformed to his new circumstances, and was seen selling lemons at a
street corner, where he was sympathetically accosted by an English nobleman
who had known him in his glory. He replied, "I am not at all unhappy. Allah
gave me what I had—He had a perfect right to take it away—Allah is great,
Allah is good!" How much more should we who know God as the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ pray with unquestioning submission, "Your Will be done"!
To a friend of the writer, a poor man, prior to the days of chloroform,
related how it had been necessary that his little boy should undergo a most
painful operation. The father explained this to his child, asking if he
could bear it. "Yes, father, if you will hold my hand." The hand was held,
the boy was patient, and health was restored. In every trial our Father
holds our hand, and recovery is certain; shall we not then be "patient in
tribulation"? A woman in the writer's congregation who had been prostrate
during forty years, with an active spirit but helpless body, said to him, "I
would rather be in heaven; but if it be my Father's Will, I'm ready to lie
here forty years longer." Her sister, during nineteen years lying helpless
and scarcely ever free from pain, said to the author on the day when the
preceding page was written, "Last week I was very near home, but the Lord
has brought me back. I hoped He would have taken me, but it must be best."
The case of the boy was related to her whose father held his hand, and she
replied, "Oh, He does more for me—'His left hand is under my head, and His
right hand embraces me'! I have seen more of His mercy by lying here than I
should have seen if well. What a sweet text that is—'I will greatly rejoice
in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with
the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of
righteousness.'"
Thus the Father helps His children to "glory in
tribulation also;" not only to be resigned, but thankful; "strengthened with
all might unto all patience and patience with joyfulness, giving thanks to
the Father," while from the midst of the furnace exclaiming, "Your Will be
done."
VIII—THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST
He who was so high above angels stooped to become below
them, that He might illustrate His own prayer. Throughout His ministry He
made it manifest that He came to obey—"I seek not my own will, but the Will
of the Father who has sent me." When the disciples wondered that their Lord
talked with the woman of Samaria and seemed indifferent to food, He said,
"My meat is to do the Will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work." His
satisfaction at the close of life was this, "I have finished the work which
You gave me to do." In this active service He illustrated how the Will of
the Father would be done in heaven if sorrow could find entrance there. His
agony in the garden was intense. The bloody sweat was the sign of anguish
beyond all possibility of flesh to feel. He knelt, He bowed down, He fell on
His face to the ground, "with strong crying and tears" He appealed to His
Father, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;
nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will." The utmost suffering was
united with entire resignation, so that He said, "The cup which my Father
has given me, shall I not drink it?" And He did drink it to the dregs. When
scourged and crucified, He never ceased to illustrate the prayer, "Your Will
be done," until He said, "It is finished." "The cross is at once the
complete utterance of the prayer and the answer to it" (Maurice). Here is
the highest possible example of heavenly obedience in patient
suffering—agony intense, desire strong, submission absolute. "He learned
obedience by the things that He suffered." It was fitting, it was needful
that the Father, "in bringing many sons to glory, should make the Captain of
their salvation perfect through sufferings." Our Leader in the same path of
trial "is not ashamed to call us brethren." Thus we pray to be enabled to
submit in the same spirit of filial trust. My Father, Your Will! Because as
Father Your Will can purpose nothing which is not for Your glory in Your
children's good, therefore "Your Will be done on earth, as it is done in
heaven."
The example of Christ Himself is the high mark at which
we are to aim. We are not to consider what other people do, nor what many
Christian professors do, nor what even the best of fallible men do; we are
to imitate the obedience of angels, more so, of the Lord of angels. To aim
lower would make us untrue both to God and ourselves. He accepts inferior
degrees of service from loyal hearts, but He cannot be satisfied with less
than perfection, nor will loving children of His be content with offering
less. His Will cannot be lowered to our mean attainments, but our standard
must be lifted up to His perfection. Our dilatory dial must be adjusted to
the true solar time. Though we fail in this life to reach the ultimate goal,
we must press towards it rather than rest short of it; thus shall we run
farther than if our goal were nearer. "Though an archer shoot not so high as
he aims, yet the higher he takes his aim, the higher he shoots" (Leighton).
"He who aims at a star will shoot higher than he who aims at a bush"
(Manton). The Divine target for human endeavor is Divine perfection. "You
shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."
That we may with all our heart illustrate this prayer is
the purpose of God in the discipline of trial. Such obedience is the test of
faith and steadfastness, for the great Teacher likened the doer of His word
to "the wise man who built his house upon a rock." This secures repose, for
the promise is linked with the precept—"Take my yoke upon you, and you shall
find rest." This alone gives reasonable assurance of salvation, for "hereby
we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." This is the true
key of knowledge, the torch to guide into new paths; for "if any man will do
His will, He shall know of the doctrine." This elevates to a dignity
surpassing noblest descent or royal lineage, for it constitutes us near
relatives of Him who said, "Whoever does the Will of God, the same is my
brother and sister and mother;" and "If a man loves me, he will keep my
word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our
abode with him." This secures immortality, for though "the world and its
desires pass away, he who does the Will of God abides forever." This
antedates heaven's bliss and allies us already with angels, for it is
characteristic of the home of the blessed that "His servants shall serve
Him."
With what thoughtfulness and sincerity should we offer
such a prayer! How many are self-convicted as they utter it, acknowledging
as the standard of conduct an example they have no intention to imitate! "In
this prayer the godless man condemns himself, the sufferer comforts himself,
the slothful invigorates himself, the self-willed rebukes himself, and the
will of the spirit prays itself through all the impediments of an opposing
flesh, to perfect victory" (Stier). The essential difference between the
children of God and others is, that they place the Will of God foremost.
Human depravity is alienation from the Divine Will, and may underlie great
varieties of external behavior. Every true convert asks at once, "Lord, what
will You have me to do?" Alas for professors who daily say, "Your Will be
done," while daily doing their own! How apt we are to be content with
convictions that the Will of God ought to be done, with forms of prayer that
it may be done, with regrets that we have not done it, and resolutions to do
it hereafter! How often we think we do it when we only do it partially, in
trifles that cost nothing, in actions concurring with our own inclinations
and worldly interests, or when we wait for some grand occasion for doing it,
and let slip the opportunities which each day offers in little things! How
often we make abstinence from one fault a palliative to conscience while
indulging another! We may be temperate but avaricious, chaste but
uncharitable, orthodox but irritable and unforgiving, and all the while
suppose we are doing the Will of God.
"This is the great difficulty which stops so many in
their Christian journey. It is like a great steep mountain, which blocks up
the road to heaven—and some of us waste our time in trying to find a path
round it; and some of us fall asleep at the foot of it; and some of us in
despair turn our backs on it, and set our faces toward the way of sin and
death—but few, very few have the wisdom and the courage to say within
themselves, 'The city of our God and King is at the top of that steep
mountain—unless I climb the mountain, I can never get there—so the sooner I
begin the better'" (A. W. Hare). The worst doom that can overtake us is
being left to our own will. "My people would not heed my voice, and Israel
would have none of me; so I gave them up to their own hearts' lust, and they
walked in their own counsels." Refusal to walk in God's ways results in
walking in our own; and walking in our own, means following that other guide
who always leads those who will not be led by the Spirit. We may fancy we
are masters of ourselves when we refuse to be servants of God, but while
dreaming of freedom we are becoming spell-bound by the stronger will of the
devil. He promises us freedom in order to rivet on us his chain. He bribes
with the assurance of securing to us our will that he may make us subject to
his own. It is a terrible description of his victims—"taken captive of the
devil at his will." Alas for those who are "tied and bound by the chain of
their sins," and have yielded up their freedom to their soul's worst foe!
Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, A.D. 252, who illustrated
this petition both by active service and martyr-suffering, thus admirably
summarizes what we pray to be enabled to do—"The Will of God is what Christ
has done and taught—it is humility in conduct, steadfastness in faith,
scrupulousness in our words, rectitude in our deeds, mercy in our works,
governance in our habits; it is innocence of injuriousness, and patience
under it, preserving peace with the brethren, loving God with all our heart,
loving Him as our Father and fearing Him as our God; accounting Christ
before all things because He accounted nothing before us, clinging
inseparably to His love, being stationed with fortitude and faith at His
cross, and when the battle comes for His Name and honor maintaining in words
that constancy which makes confession, in torture that confidence which
joins battle, and in death that patience which receives the crown. This is
to fulfill the Will of the Father." This petition, like the rest, includes
all mankind. As we recognize the whole brotherhood when we say "Our Father;"
so we pray that His Will may be obeyed throughout the whole earth. What a
reign of peace will it be when everyone will be aiming at the same object,
obeying the same perfect Will? Then will earth resemble heaven, when the
Will of God is done by men as by angels.
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