Evening star., 1925-02-07

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Humanity's most priceless literary
possession liz the Lords Prayer, that
opens up to US the heart of the
Christ While we have been ac-
customed to call the prayer the
Master taught His disciples to pray
the Lords Prayer, our lesson gives
US the very words that Jesus used
when He addressed God in the most
critical hour of His life. In them
our Lord gave expression to 1.-The
deepest feeling and thought of His
spirit, clarified and concentrated by
the prospect OF death" Difficulties
face US as seek to give an exposition
OF Its meaning" due largely to the
bewildering richness of suggestion
and material for comment. We draw
near this holy of holies with un-
sandaled feet, seeking to grasp
something of the sublimest prayer
ever uttered.
Christ had come to the most sacred
moment in all history when He turn
ed from talking to His disciples to
commune with the Father at the hour.
when His task was finished. He saw
the blackest clouds upon the horizon.
He knew that the cross would sbe
erected upon the morrow, and in the
climax of His prayer life Jesus sought
that He would be able to glorify the
Father by the revelation of the d.
vine love through all the approach
ing sorrows. During His ministry
there had been seen glimpses of His
glory, but He refers to His having
possessed greater glory than was
revealed at the TRANSPORTATION. In
making the request that He should
be glorified, our Lord was seeking to
have help from above to finish His
mission, through His coming cruci-
fixion, resurrection, ascension and the
outpouring of the holy spirit, in a
perfect manner. He sought to be
known in His true character. as the
Son of God, Messiah and Savior of
men.
Back of Christ's prayer that He
should be glorified was the desire to
glorify the Father and save men. 1t
was for this that he prayed. He
wanted them to have eternal life,
which Jesus stated meant Ito know
Thee the only true God, and Him whom
Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
He sought in His closing experience
to make God known, SO that men
would come through personal ex-
perience to love Him. prove 1t by
obedience and through their faith in
Christ dedicate their whole life to
Gods service. He longed. through
His closing trials. that the work OF
His life should be approved by rev.
elation to men that would enable
them to understand the transcendent
power of life over death, of the
spiritual above the material, and OF
eternal life over perishing life.
Praying for His Disciples.
ErdnAn has we'll said that this
chapter supplies an unanswerable ar
gument that proves the deity OF
Christ. He calls our attention to
"the sublime self-consciousnes of
the speaker, His claim of universal
dominion, His reference to a previous
existence in living unity with the
eternal God. leaving US as the only
possible explanations either insanity,
blasphemy or deity" The eternal
Son claims His own. The atmosphere
Of Heaven in in the Lords prayer for
the unity of His disciples, their pres
ervation and their conservation. He
recognized their approaching danger
and the necessity of their being kept
by Divine power If His'work was to
be carried on by His disciples.
In making His plea for them our
7 ord describes them as men, given
Him by the Father "out of the world
they had kept Gods word: the words
which God had given Christ they had
received; they knew that Christ had
come forth from God. and they. be-
lieved that God had sent Him." He
prayed for them now, as He faced
death, just as many of us have heard
the prayer of those 'about to slip away
from US plead for US. Only one
could keep them during the dark and
trying days that they faced, so He
pleaded with the Father to keep them.
They would not be fitted for His serv-
ice unless they were sanctified, so
that they would be kept distinct from
the world. He sought for them the