embraces us. No closeness of relationship with God brings Him down to our level. He remains far above us. "Our Father," indeed, but "Our Father which art in heaven"- the Head not merely of the lower world of visible beings-in which we live, and move, and make our daily bread-but the Head as well of a higher world or order of being. The expression "which art in heaven" must mean this at least. It must mean that there is a transcending sphere in which God dwells. Such an idea of a higher world—a world of spirit, and not merely of matter-a supernatural order exceeding yet embracing the natural order, seems necessarily implied in religious thought. It is the teaching more or less of all spiritual philosophy that such a world is the true world of being-of substance and reality - of which the visible material world is only the transitory form or expression. Nature is a veil or screen hiding God in His essence from us, while revealing Him in His operations. We must pierce the veil of sense, and get behind the screen, of which our outward lives themselves are a part, before we reach the higher world, where God is the light which no man can approach unto.

This conception of a higher life than the

present -a supernatural life in which all the elements of good that we know here shall be perfected, and all the elements of evil expelled -seems the essential foundation of religious aspiration-of all lifting of the soul towards the Divine. Apart from such a conception, prayer seems a mockery, worship a delusion. Yet we have lived to see an attempt to build religion upon a mere basis of Nature-on the denial that there is a higher world at all, and that man himself in his varied activities is the highest form of being, above which there is nothing, or nothing at least which we can ever know. Unless all the past expressions of the religious instinct are a delusion, this must be a delusion. Not in himself, but above himself-in a higher, holier, and perfect Being-has man in his best moments hitherto sought the power of religious consolation and the bond of his spiritual life. It has been the awe of such a Being which has most moved man to religious thoughtfulness, and inspired him with the dread of sin. He has never been able to sustain his higher aspirations, or to purify his inner life, by Nature. If there is nothing beyond himself to which he eyes, he will not lift them at all.

.

can lift his

The only

object of religion which can at once engage his

intelligence and affection is a Father in heaven. If we worship, we must worship a Glory that is above us. If our hearts move in prayer, they must move towards another Heart that liveth for ever, in which there is all the love, and far more than the love, that is in us, and yet in which there is none of the weakness which mingles with love in us. If we bow in adoration, we must bow before a Personal Presence-a throne at once of mercy and of judgment, of righteousness and of grace—a Will higher than our own, whither our wills, feeble and wavering, yet amidst all these fluctuations. pointing beyond earth and flesh, may ascend. Such a Will it is, such a Presence, such a Heart, such an enthroned Personality, that is revealed to us in Christ a Father, yet a Judge; a Saviour, yet a Lord; near to us, yet infinitely transcending us; "having respect unto the lowly,"* yet "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy."+ Towards such a Presence and Person should we worship when we pray "after this manner"-"Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name."

In conclusion, let us bear in mind that we cannot claim God as our Father unless we are will* Psalm cxxxviii. 6. + Isaiah, lvii. 15.

ing to be His sons. His will towards us changes not. His name remains for ever the same. But we cannot know His will, we cannot claim His name, if we reject His love. To them who reject His love, His will is no longer one of love, but of wrath; His name is no longer a name of endearment, but of terror. It is of the nature of the Divine Love that it should not spare the impenitent and unbelieving, the contemptuously selfish and guilty, who say in their hearts, "Who is the Lord that He should reign over us?" It belongs to the idea of Divine Fatherhood that it should cast from its embrace those who disown its solicitations; who turn away from its light and love the darkness, because their deeds are evil. The more "Our Father in heaven" loves us, the more fearful it is for us by wilful sin to reject His love-the more must we suffer if we do so. Brethren, it is the very love of God which, despised, makes the wrath of God. It is the very Fatherliness of the Divine which makes it a "consuming fire" against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of

men.

48

III.

THE PEACE OF CHRIST.

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you."-JOHN, xiv. 27.

THERE is a singular beauty and depth of meaning in these words. Every spiritual mind owns this directly, whatever difficulty it may have in analysing and entering into all the meaning. Like many words of St John, they address more directly the spiritual instinct than the spiritual intelligence. We feel them more than we can explain them. They meet our silent aspirations. They give an answer to our deepest longings.

Christ came to give peace on earth. The promise of the Advent was, "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth Peace." The promise might seem to have failed of its fulfilment. Men strive for the mastery as of old, and amidst