The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-11-10
THE LORDS PRAYER.
BY REV. sToPFoRD A. BROOKE.

BY REV. STOPFORD A. BROOKE.
"Hallowed be Thy name" that
is, "Hallowed be Thy character"
And what we know of that character,
what we think of il, we have gained
from our fellowmen, in whom their
Father has acted and thought and
loved since the beginning.
The thoughts and words of those men
who have earned the love and honor
of the human race, have made known
to us how God thinks and how he
speaks; and from the whole of this
vast experience of love and justice,
truth and holiness, pity and power,
disclosed to us by man, the divine
within us always moving outward
into human act, we have built up the
character of God.
Men say: "We know nothing really
about him whom you call God. He
may be only the creation of our own
minds" And that is true. We have
no demonstrated evidence, and the
assertion that God is, cannot be
proved. But it must be remembered
that the negative can be just as little
proved as the positive. The proof of
the one or the other cannot be given
in this world. If reasoning alone is
appealed to, we have to say we can
not know. Then the question comes,
on which theory are the problems of
our existence best and most clearly
solved ON the theory that there is no
Being of love and truth, infinitely
perfect, but only an imaginary per-
sonage built out of our own desires;
or on the theory that there is One be-
yond us, the Fountain of us and of
the universe, and that he himself has
through us built up the idea of his
character in our thought
Still, though much may be done in
that way to make it probable that
God is, it does not amount to dem
onstration. 1t is then that faith
steps in. I cannot prove the positive;
I cannot prove the negative. t.
But | will believe that what man has
made God to be, or, rather, what the
best of men have said that God
ought to be, he is, and that this idea
of him has not been made only out of
the thought or the desires of man,
but out of Gods own thought, and
Gods love working in me and in the
human race from the beginning. He
is; and he is my Father perfect
Love. infinite Goodness, absolute
Truth. Hallowed be thy
character, my Father and my God!
And how shall | hallow it, how be
true to my prayers There are a
thousand answers, but those / shall
give belong to the common life of
man.
The first and most proper way to
hallow character is, to be that char
acter as nearly as we can. What we
believe God is, that we shall become.
We have conceived, for example, what
perfect justice is; and that is an ideal
which we would better make real if we
are to pray with clear conscience,
"Hallowed be thy namel"
There is no attribute of God of
which we take less notice than jus
tice; for probably there is nothing
which interferes more seriously with
our worldly wealth, position, business
and amusement, than any attempt to
be equal to the highest standard of
justice. This attempt means to get
rid of all prejudice in our per-
sonal judgment, to get rid of
the common maxims of society
both of morals and in morals, to see
things that are called good or sinful
just as we may suppose God sees
them, to judge of wrong, not accord
ing to courts of law, but seeing
through the eyes of God. 1t is in
party strife to give full credit to an
opponent, in home life not to let hot
temper, jealousy, human love, weak
ness or sloth to lead you into acts
which favor or blame unduly the
members of the household. 1t is in
business life to take no undue advan-
tage, not to build your prosperity on
the misfortune of another, not to use