Holy Sacrament in which we have our most intimate approach to God. The petitions we have already considered belong to the Eucharist more particularly as the great Christian Sacrifice, whereby God's Name is glorified among the Gentiles,* in which we shew forth the Lord's Death till He come,t and offer ourselves to do His will.

In this petition the thought of Communion is more prominent. "Lord, evermore give us this bread," exclaimed the Jews, when Jesus spoke of the bread from Heaven, which should give life unto the world.

Our Lord referred indeed to "daily bread," but not to such mere material nourishment as they imagined and desired. The Bread that He promised is that which shall preserve saul and body unto everlasting life, His own glorified Humanity given to be a principle of sanctification and indwelling might to us, that our sinful bodies may be more and more cleansed by His all holy Body, and our sin-stained souls washed in His most precious Blood, that we may evermore dwell in Him * Mal. i. 2. † 1 Cor. x. 26. St. John, vi. 34.

and He in us. Lord, evermore give us this bread," we indeed would pray. Grant us continually to seek, and with devout affection to feed upon this living and life-giving Bread which Thou daily offerest for the supply of our daily needs.

O Saving Victim, opening wide

The gate of Heaven to man below,
Our foes press in on every side,

Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.

MEDITATION VI.

"AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS."

ST. MATTHEW, VI. 12.

I. THE place of this petition in the Lord's Prayer is not without deep significance, and may first claim our consideration; first of all, that it finds a place therein at all, and then the exact position which it holds.

The Lord's Prayer, we have several times called to mind, is the Prayer given by Jesus Christ our Lord to His disciples. It is the prayer of His own people, of the Regenerate, of those who in Him are accepted of the Father. It is first uttered by us or for us in its full sense immediately after the act of Baptism at the Font, when we have been born again of water and the Holy Ghost, and made members of Christ, children of God, and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. Not till then can we truly call upon God

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as Our Father who art in Heaven." Had the Prayer been intended for the use of those without the covenant of Grace, the unconverted or unreconciled, its character must have been different. Such could not truly call upon the Most High as their Heavenly Father. And in that case this petition must have held the foremost place. Forgiveness and reconciliation were then the first great need of man; the barrier between himself and God must be broken down before he could approach with the full assurance of faith,* before he could ask aught of blessing from God, or pray "Thy Kingdom come."

The position of this petition then (holding a place, but a subordinate place, in the Christian's Prayer) marks the relation of sin to the Christian. Sin is not to "reign" in him, as St. Paul says,† not to be the dominant principle of his life. The Christian's will is given to God, his desire is for the setting up, the spread of God's Kingdom within himself and in all around, his longing that God's Name may be hallowed in him and by him; he + Rom. vi. 12.

* Heb. x. 22.

even ventures to ask for the support of his redeemed life-both in body and soul-before he asks for forgiveness. But this he must ask. He cannot rise from his knees without this acknowledgment of the continual need of mercy and cleansing. True it is that "whosoever abideth in Christ sinneth not" (does not give himself to sin), that "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for His seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God," so far, that is, as he is born of God; for when we sin we are not only untrue to our covenant and promise, but we fall also from our regenerate condition and state.

But true it also is that practically "in many things we offend all," † that "if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves," that "the just man falleth seven times and riseth again." §

Prayer we have seen to be "the lifting up of the heart to God." Four chief subjects may be in the heart which will determine the four different kinds or forms of Prayer:

*

I St. John, iii. 6, 9.
1 St. John, i. 8.

St. James, iii. 2. § Proverbs, xxiv 16.