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“Hallowed be Thy Name.” — Matthew vi. 9
The Lord’s instructions concerning prayer are based upon a perfect
knowledge of man's nature and relations to the Source of his life. They
are complete in every respect; they are adequate to every human
condition and to every human want. This perfection of instruction is not
limited to guiding us to the Person whom we must address, nor to the
petitions we offer: they extend to the order and relative importance of
our requests. The first in importance is the first in desire and
thought. Prayer necessarily implies a Personal Being to whom we offer
our supplications. It implies some knowledge of that Being, and some
belief that He can hear and answer our prayers. We are, therefore, first
directed to the true object of worship; we are taught where to find Him,
and how to conceive of Him. We are taught to regard Him as “our Father;”
and not only as our Father as a First Cause, as an incomprehensible
essence, or an omnipotent force, but as our Father in the heavens, as
the Author and Giver of every good and truth, of every blessing which it
is possible for man to receive. We are taught to come to Him with the
freedom and trust of children in a revered and wise and loving father,
freely make known our wants, and ask for the help, consolation, and
guidance we need.
Then He teaches us the primary and essential end of all prayer. He
reveals the spirit in which we should come to our Father, the motives
which should lead us to pray, the first and essential good which we
should desire and seek above all others. That law of the Divine order,
that root and essential cause of all true knowledge of the Divine
nature, of our own nature, and of the means of complete and enduring
happiness, is revealed in the words, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” That is the
first heavenly grace to seek, the first good to ask, because every other
good is contained in it, and grows out of it as an effect from its
cause. The Lord’s kingdom cannot come, either in our own souls or in
human society until we hallow His name. His will cannot be done on the
earth as it is in heaven until His name is hallowed on the earth as it
is in heaven. He can only give us our daily bread as we hallow His name.
The life we shall live and the good we shall receive in this world and
through eternity, will be determined in quality and degree by the
measure in which we hallow the Lord’s name. It becomes, therefore, of
the utmost moment to know what is meant by His name, and how we can
hallow it. To this subject your devout attention is invited. It is a
matter of so much importance, and we are so prone to rest in mere
appearances, and find it so difficult to rise above them, that it will
richly repay the most careful examination and the best means of
illustration we can command.
I. Let us consider the essential meaning of the word “name.” It is
familiar enough, and we may think we fully comprehend it. But it has a
profound significance when applied to the Lord. It means much more than
a simple word employed to designate Him, as we give names to persons and
things. Names are arbitrary or real. An arbitrary name is an epithet
applied to persons or things without any reference to its meaning, as
the names we give our children. A real name describes the person or
thing to which it is applied. A perfect name would express all the
qualities of the object to which it was given. It is derived from the
object rather than given to it; that is, the object suggests the name.
All names had their origin in some condition or circumstance or quality
of the person or thing named. This is the case with many if not all the
names of persons mentioned in the Word. Names were sometimes given to
persons by Divine direction, as in the case of John the Baptist and of
our Lord. The names of many of the principal men were given to them from
some circumstance connected with their birth, or the work they
performed, or the character they represented. Names were changed to
denote some change in the special relations of those who bore them. We
apply to men names to represent their office and character, and we
change them to denote any change in these respects.
All the names applied to the Supreme Being are real ones; that is, they
express some quality or attribute of the Divine character, or some
relation to the universe or to men. He is called Jehovah, which means
the same as I AM, and expresses inmost, essential, self-existing Being.
And as He is love itself, “Jehovah” denotes the Divine Love. “God”
denotes the Divine existence, which is love in form; and as love gains
existence, stands forth to view by means of truth, God is the name of
the Divine truth or wisdom. These names are often used together; then
they denote the Divine Love and Wisdom. The Lord is called Father with
reference to the human nature, by the assumption of which He came into
the world. Clothed with that nature He becomes Redeemer, Saviour,
Immanuel, or God with us. Regarded from His human nature He is called
Son of God and Son of Man. Jesus Christ is the name of Jehovah God
clothed with a human nature, by means of which He came down to men,
modified the Divine forces of His love and wisdom, and adapted them to
the weakness and waywardness of human affections corrupted by sin, and
the blindness of the human understanding perverted by error. That human
nature filled with hereditary tendencies to evil and distorted by many
generations of falsity, He glorified or made Divine, and a perfect
medium of communicating the life of His love and the truth of His wisdom
to men. That Divine Humanity Jehovah made one with Himself. It is,
therefore, the Divine body in which He dwells; it is the Divine name by
which He is to be known among men. In that form He is the “Alpha and
Omega, the First and the Last.” When His human nature was glorified the
prophecy was fulfilled. “In that day there shall be one Jehovah and His
name one,” and that name is Lord. “Ye call me Lord and Master, and ye do
well, for so I am.”
A perfect name is one which expresses all the qualities, attributes, and
relations of the person to whom it is given. It is impossible for any
word of material origin to do this. A material name only calls our
attention to the person designated, or to some special quality which
belongs to him. This is all the help it can give us. A word, or the
sound which it represents, is not the real name. The real name by which
every person is truly known is his deeds, the forms in which his
character manifests itself. “By their fruits ye shall know them.”
“Actions speak louder than words.” A man's deeds express his real
character more fully and truly than words. The words we use only serve
to call our attention to the deed.
By name, then, we are to understand all that the name suggests and
carries with it, not merely the person which it calls up to the
consciousness, but all the qualities of the person. This large idea of
the meaning of name throws much light upon the significance and use of
the term in the Sacred Scriptures. The Lord's name is constantly put for
the Lord Himself, and for the attributes of His character. The Lord’s
name is called excellent, blessed, glorious, reverend, righteous, holy,
terrible. Men are called upon to exalt, to praise, to fear, to sanctify,
to bless the Lord’s name. The most remarkable power is attributed to His
name. Enemies are overcome by it, devils are cast out, diseases are
cured, deliverances are wrought, and salvation is effected. The Lord
gives a name to His people, knows them by name, calls them by name,
gives them a new name, writes their names in the book of life; engraves
them upon the palms of His hands, and writes His name upon their
foreheads. We are taught to ask in His name, and for the sake of His
name, and the promise is, that we shall receive everything we ask in His
name. The Lord commanded the disciples to baptize in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. By these examples of the use and
meaning of name in the Sacred Scriptures, we are led to the conclusion
that by name we are to understand all the attributes and qualities of
the Divine Being to whom it is applied.
II. We are now prepared to consider the second part of our subject,
Hallowed be Thy Name. What are we to understand by hallowed, and how can
we hallow the Lord’s name? To hallow is to set apart from common use and
consecrate to the Divine service. The original word is translated
hallow, or holy. Hallow expresses the action and holy the quality of it.
The special questions for consideration, then, are, What quality or
state of any being or thing is holiness? How shall we conceive of it?
How can we hallow or make holy the Lord’s name? The Lord has taught us
to pray, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” We can not do this without a definite
and distinct meaning of the words we employ. You have used the words
this morning. What idea did you attach to them? What desire did you
express? What request did you make to the Lord? If you had no desire in
your heart, and no distinct thought in your mind, you offered no prayer.
It was a merely mechanical performance. Let us try to gain a distinct
and true idea of the meaning of the words we employ, and use them with
that meaning when we pray.
We may regard the subject from a negative, or a positive point of view.
Negatively, holiness is freedom from any stain, any taint or
imperfection. It is a state in which there is no evil, or falsity.
Positively, it is a state of order, harmony, perfection of form,
relation and adaptation to all uses, and adequate power to perform them.
Purity of character in a human being is freedom from all admixture of
evil and falsity. The mind is an organic form as well as the body.
Purity of mind, then, is a mental state in proper form and order; a mind
in which all the parts act in perfect harmony with each other, and the
whole in perfect harmony with the inflowing life of the Lord. There is
no discrepancy, no discord. It is a perfect instrument, and if the
result of the activities of this instrument were tones they would be
pure tones. The results are affections, thoughts, and actions, and if
the mind is pure in form, the affections, thoughts, and actions will be
pure.
We may consider the question in another way. We use the term “pure
blood” with reference to descent. A pure African is a man or woman who
has no white blood in the veins. We apply the same terms with the same
meaning to animals. Now man was made in the likeness and image of God;
he was made in the same form. He gets the human form from the Lord, and
not the Lord the human form from him. The Divine attributes are finited
in man. Man as to his spiritual nature was organized by the Divine life,
that all the flow of his activities might move in perfect harmony with
the Divine activities as one instrument vibrates in harmony with
another, so that man's life should be in accord with the Divine life; so
that man’s love should be a finite form of the Divine love in all its
qualities; so that man's understanding should be a finite form and
perfect recipient of the Divine truth, and all his thoughts and feelings
and actions should accord with the Lord’s. He had pure blood in his
veins. So long as he maintained his integrity his descent was
uncontaminated. He was pure; he was holy in a finite degree, and his
purity of form, internal as well as external, and all the attributes of
affection, thought, and action, answered to the holiness of the Lord as
the finite answers to the infinite. We conclude, therefore, that.
Holiness in the Lord is wholeness, integrity, infinite perfection of
every form, quality, degree, state, and activity, and this holiness
becomes wholeness, soundness, integrity, purity, holiness in man when
life is received in the same relative form as that in which it comes
from its Divine source.
Having thus endeavored to get a true idea of holiness, let us proceed to
consider what is meant by hallowing the Lord’s name, or making it holy.
By name we understand all the Lord’s attributes in a Divine human form.
How can we make that name holy in Him? What can we do to make it holy?
It is holy now. We cannot add to it, or take from it in the slightest
degree. What then, does the petition mean? What does our Lord teach us
to ask when we repeat the words?
1. He teaches us to acknowledge the holiness and Divinity of His
Humanity. This is the essential principle of true Christianity. We can
get no true idea of Jehovah God except as He is embodied and revealed to
us in His Human nature made Divine. On the other hand, we cannot get a
true conception of Jesus Christ if we regard Him as a merely human
being. The Divine must be regarded from the human, and the human from
the Divine, both of which make the complete and only Divine Being, as we
must judge of man’s spiritual nature from its manifestations in and by
means of the material body, and of the origin, nature, and use of the
activities and functions of the material body, from the soul. The spirit
must be viewed in the body, and the body in the light of the soul,
before we can get a full and complete idea of a man. We hallow the
Lord’s name when we set it apart, or regard it as distinct and above a
merely human finite nature, when we attribute to it all the infinite
perfections of Divinity in a human and conceivable form.
The name of Our Father in the heavens is Jesus Christ, or the Divine
Humanity. That this is His new name is evident, as He Himself calls it
in the Revelation, and as He expressly declares in John, when He says,
“Father, glorify Thy name. Then came a voice from heaven, saying, I have
both glorified it and will glorify it again.” At another time He says,
“I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest me out of the
world.” “I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it.” Here
we have a distinct declaration that the Son of God is the name of
Jehovah in the humanity, and that it is in and by means of this human
nature that the Divine is revealed to men. To declare the name of
Jehovah does not mean simply to speak the word, or to tell men that that
is the name of the Supreme Being, but to reveal His character and
attributes and relations to men. And that is the special purpose for
which Jehovah clothed His Divine with a human nature. By “Thy name,”
then, we are to understand the Divine love, wisdom, power, and all the
Divine attributes, as they are manifested in His humanity. We are to
conceive of them and think of them as they are revealed to us in Jesus
Christ, in all their tenderness, and gentleness, and patience, and
perfect adaptation to all man's spiritual needs.
It is of the utmost importance to our spiritual progress and life that
we should get this idea of the Lord in as clear and forcible a form as
possible. If our conception of the Divine character was clearly and
wholly such as it is manifested in Jesus Christ, without any exception,
without thinking that there is any other Divine being, or any other
Divine qualities, or any other way of regarding men than such as we see
revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we should come to Him with more
assurance. We should feel that every quality and faculty of the Divine
nature was wholly on our side. Not merely His mercy, while His justice
stood aloof, making demands which we can never satisfy. But that the
whole of the Divine nature is favorable to our highest good, and is
always ready to save us from sin and to confer upon us every blessing we
will receive. If we could feel that when we go to Him we go to an
infinite friend whose love can never change, whose wisdom and power have
no limit, whose patience we can never exhaust, and who is infinitely
more considerate for us than we are for ourselves,—if we could get such
a conception of our Father in the heavens, how delightful it would be to
go to Him, to pray to Him, to commune with Him, to call Him our Father,
and to pour forth all our secrets and our sorrows and our joys into His
ear, and to surrender ourselves implicitly to His guidance! If we could
get such a conception of His Divine and glorious character without any
blur or modification from old and false ideas, what a delight it would
be to think of the Lord! what a joy it would be to worship and serve
Him! When we said “Our Father” the whole soul would be upon our lips,
the whole heart would be warmed and gladdened, and there would be the
impulse of every affection to rush into His arms and to hide ourselves
in Him, as it is the impulse of a little child in all its sorrows and in
all its joys to be folded in the maternal arms and be drawn to the
maternal heart.
This is the form in which the Divine character is revealed to us in the
Divine Humanity. It is loving, kind, gentle, patient, considerate of
human weakness; it is human; it is touched with a feeling of our
infirmities; it sympathizes with us in all our labors and our sorrows,
and rejoices in all our joys. Think how the Lord went about doing good
when He dwelt with men in a material body; how humble and gentle He was,
and how ready to grant any favor! He is the same now in His glorified
Humanity. He is our Father, not above the heavens but in the heavens. He
is conceivable, accessible, and nigh to every one who calls upon Him,
and His name is the synonym and complex of all that is lovely, wise, and
good.
2. He teaches us to hallow His name in our lives. We do this when we
sincerely desire that those qualities which constitute His Divine
character may become finited in us and make us in our degree perfect as
our Father in heaven is perfect. Every sincere desire to become
transformed into His image and likeness, to become imbued with His
spirit; every effort to obey His commandments, and do His will, is a
prayer that His name may be hallowed in us. It is a comprehensive
petition; it embraces all the qualities of a heavenly character and the
means of forming it.
The Lord’s name is Jehovah, which denotes His Divine Love. We hallow
that name when we receive His love in its own quality and character,
without any admixture of the love of the world, without any
contamination from the love of self. We hallow it when our motives and
purposes accord with His,— and that is when we seek the happiness and
the highest good of others. Hallowing this name of the Lord implies a
love for all that is good and true and pure; a sincere desire that His
love, which flows into our hearts, may flow down into all our affections
and pass on to others in the forms of friendship, of social, civil,
conjugial, parental love, unchanged from its Divine character, so that
in us and through us His love will only be finited and directed to
accomplish His infinite purposes.
The Lord’s name is God, which denotes the Divine truth. We hallow this
name when we desire to hallow the Divine truth, to receive it in its
unchanged, unperverted form, without any admixture of human prudence; to
make it our light, and our guide, and our way. We hallow the Divine
truth when we open our understandings to its reception, as we hallow the
light when we open our eyes to receive it. We hallow it when we make our
action conform to it, whether it accords with our feelings or not. We
hallow the Divine truth when we make it our guide in our business, in
society, in politics, in the family, in the relations between husband
and wife, parent and child. We hallow the Lord’s name just so far as we
become the embodiments of all those principles which constitute it,— so
far as His love becomes our love, His truth our truth, His purpose our
purpose, His way our way.
3. The Sacred Scriptures are His name. The Lord is Divine love and
Divine truth. He is the Word. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among
men.” The Sacred Scriptures are the Word in another form. Therefore our
Lord says, “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal
life, and they are they which testify of me.” They were given to reveal
to men the Divine existence and attributes, and to instruct them
concerning the laws and possibilities of their own spiritual nature and
the means of obtaining eternal life. They were given in a form adapted
to the states of every human mind, from the little child to the highest
angel. In its inmost sense, every word relates to the Lord, and
expresses in human language some attribute of His nature, some motive
and mode of His action, or some relation to men. However devoid of
spiritual and Divine meaning the words may seem to be in the letter,
they are the words which the Lord has spoken: “they are spirit and they
are life.”
We hallow this name of the Lord when we set it apart as distinct from
all human compositions; when we regard it as the Word of the Lord and
the embodiment of His infinite love and wisdom. We hallow it when we
regard it as the Lord speaking to us; when we honestly endeavor to
understand what He says, and faithfully to do what He commands. We
hallow it when we go to it with docile minds to learn what the Lord
teaches, not to confirm our own opinions. We hallow it when we look
beneath the surface of the letter and rise above the illusions of
appearances into the clear light of spiritual truth, and the eternal
verities of spiritual laws. We hallow it in the degree we imbibe its
spirit, and make its precepts and commandments the rule of our lives. We
hallow it when we regard it as the testimony of a revered and loving
Father, who regards us with infinite mercy, to whom we are indebted for
all the comforts and blessings we possess, and the power to enjoy them,
and whose final purpose in all this is to bless us and make us happy
forever. If we hallowed this name according to its worth we should make
it our daily study; we should take it for our daily guide in all our
labors and enjoyments, and it would be our constant effort to regulate
our motives and our actions by its precepts, with the perfect assurance
that when we make the law of the Lord the law of our life we are guided
by infinite wisdom.
4. The material universe is the Lord’s name. “The heavens declare the
glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day
uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no
speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” How grand and
beautiful this name is! The Divine love and wisdom are embodied and
expressed in everything the Lord has created. Human science is merely
the knowledge of the forms, relations, and qualities of the material
universe. Human language is composed of the names we give to the various
objects in nature. The objects themselves are the real name of “our
Father in the heavens.” Sun and moon and star, mountain and ocean,
valley and stream, rock and tree, blossom and fruit, insect and fish,
bird and animal, in their infinite varieties of character and form are
letters and syllables in this great name, and they express each in its
own form and use something of the infinite wisdom of Him who created
them; they give us some hints of the infinite love of our Heavenly
Father.
We hallow this name of the Lord when we see His love and wisdom in the
beautiful and useful forms of nature; when the thought passes from the
material object to the Divine Creator, and the affections, awakened by
the contemplation of such rich profusion and tender, provident care,
rise in devout and grateful emotions to their Author. We hallow this
glorious and wonderful name when we use all these material objects for
the end they were designed. We hallow the beauty of the earth and the
grandeur of the heavens when we see in them the beauty and glory of Him
who created them; we hallow our food and clothing and the rich abundance
of all things provided for our physical needs, when we use them
temperately, wisely, gratefully to supply our natural wants and preserve
a strong and healthy body as the basis for a sound and intelligent mind.
We hallow this name when we use it to gain ideas which may become the
basis and receptacles of spiritual truth, and to develop good natural
affections which may become the basis of spiritual affections. We hallow
this name, we set it apart and consecrate it to its highest and holiest
purpose, when we use it as a means of expressing our love to the
neighbor, and our gratitude, our reverence, our obedience, and devotion
to the Lord.
5. Every angel, every man and woman, and every child is the name of the
Lord, so far as they have become the embodiments of His love and wisdom,
and have been created into His image and likeness. The new-born infant
has capacities in their germs, larger than the material universe, to
become the embodiment of the Divine attributes in finite forms. Man is
the crowning work of the Lord, the fullest and clearest expression in
finite forms of His own Divine nature. In man He has embodied all the
forms and qualities of the material universe, and He has made him
capable of endless progression.
We hallow this name of the Lord when we look for the good and true in
every human being. We are too prone to look for the evil and false. We
hallow this name when we respect and love others in the degree that the
Lord “has put His law in their inward parts and has written it in their
hearts.” We hallow this name when we do all in our power to teach those
truths and cherish those affections which constitute it. We hallow this
name in our own persons when we regard ourselves as spiritual beings,
when we shun evils as sins against God, when we are diligent in learning
spiritual truths, when we cherish heavenly affections and day by day,
diligently perform the duties which devolve upon us from love to the
neighbor and to the Lord.
These are hints of what is meant by hallowing the Lord’s name. Is it not
a comprehensive prayer? Is it not full of infinite meanings which touch
us on all sides, from within and without? Is it not full of practical
wisdom for the guidance of our daily lives? If you have learned to pray
in this manner, when you enter the closet and shut the door, even though
it may be in a feeble degree, “the Father, who seeth in secret, will
reward you openly.” Then learn how to offer it. Think it; lisp it;
stammer it; work for it; practice it. Put away every evil desire which
hinders your asking and reception of its blessing. Ask the Lord to teach
you how to say “Hallowed be Thy Name” with the understanding and the
heart, and you will find it answered in a clearer knowledge of the
Divine wisdom and in a fuller reception of the Divine love. His name
will be hallowed in you, and you will become the blessed instrument of
hallowing it in others. |