birds and wild flowers are speaking to us, to trust God, not worry if cupboard seems to be getting bare. [Elder children often see mother's anxiety, how to keep wolf from the door; these children may be messengers of hope and trust.] How seldom we see even a sparrow lying dead from starvation (Ps. cxxxvi. 25). (3) Boys and girls getting on well, with more wages, better clothes, better

III. THOUGHTS

1. Every word in the petition "Give us this day our daily bread" suggests a fresh line of teaching. "Give contains the acknowledgment that all the strength, brain power, skill, by which men earn their living are of the Lord; it also implies a readiness to labour industriously, and to use the means by which God gives food; "us expresses a charitable anxiety concerning the wants of others, a readiness to share our good things with those other children who are in need; "this day," or day by day," suggests a complete trustfulness as to the future, the perfect acceptance of the precept "Be not anxious for the morrow;" daily" is the translation of a Greek word which is used only in this place in all Greek literature; it is generally thought to mean sufficient" or suitable, as in the prayer, "Feed me with food convenient for me; "" bread," while we thereby ask for all necessary things, we imply that we are ready, 'having food and raiment, therewith to be content." Moreover, no one can doubt that this prayer for bread refers also to spiritual food. This is clear from our Lord's own words: "My Father giveth you the true Bread from heaven. For the Bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world."

2. This petition commences what Calvin calls the second table' of the

Lord's Prayer. The first says, 'Thy name,'' Thy kingdom,' ' Thy will"; the second says, 'Give us,' 'forgive us,' lead us,' deliver us.' This is the true order of prayer-first, God and His glory; second, man and his interests."(Loraine.)

3. "Have we ever known what it is to lack bread? . . . While we have thus prayed, have we not always been surrounded with plenty, and a plenty which sometimes induces forgetfulness of God? . . . Yet this piercing cry does go up from wasted fields and faminesmitten nations, from lanes and cellars of cities, from homes of destitution all

around us. Nor does this prayer issue merely from the lips of those who would have their daily bread without exertion, without using the means. A more sad and fearful utterance is the cry, 'Give us work, that we may earn, and eat, and live.'"-(Chapin in "Thirty Thousand Thoughts.")

4. "We lift our empty hands to heaven, and God lays work upon them." (Quoted by Stier.)

5. Canon Knox Little, amongst other answers to prayer which had come under his own personal knowledge, gives the following:-"Some years ago, in London, a clergyman had succeeded, with the help of some friends, in opening a 'home' in the suburbs to meet some special mission needs. It was necessary to support it by charity. For some time all went well. The home at last, however, became even more necessary, and more filled with inmates, whilst subscriptions did not increase, but rather slackened. The lady in charge wrote to the clergyman as to her needs, and especially drew his attention to the fact that £40 was required immediately to meet the pressing demand of a tradesman. The clergyman himself was excessively poor, and he knew not to whom to turn in the emergency. He at once went and spent an hour in prayer. He then left his house, and walked slowly along the streets, thinking with himself how he should act. Passing up Regent Street, a carriage drew up in front of Madame Elise's shop, just as he was passing. Out of the carriage stepped a handsomely dressed lady. 'Mr. So-and-so, I think,' she said, when she saw him. 'Yes, madam,' he answered, raising his hat. She drew an envelope from her pocket, and handed it to him, saying, 'You have many calls upon your charity; you will know what to do with that.' The envelope contained a Bank of England note for £50. The whole thing happened in a much shorter time than it can be related; he passed

on up the street, she passed into the shop. Who she was he did not know, and never since has he learnt. The threatening creditor was paid. The 'home' received further help, and did its work well."

6. Feeding without work. "There are certain plants-the dodder, for instance-which begin life with the best intentions, strike true roots into the soil, and really appear as if they meant to be independent for life. But after supporting themselves for a brief period they fix curious sucking discs into the stem and branches of adjacent plants. And after a little experimenting, the epiphyte finally ceases to do anything for its own support, thenceforth drawing all its supplies ready made from the sap of its host. In this parasitic state it has no need for organs of nutrition of its own, and Nature takes them away. Thenceforth the dodder is a plant without a root, without a twig, without a leaf, and having a stem so useless as to be inadequate to bear its own weight." -(Professor Drummond.)

7. "Just what we want is to have the laws of Nature continue. . . When loyal men work bravely and trulywhen they do the duty that comes next their hand-when boys do this on the prairie, when millers do it in the mills, when stokers work for us day and night in Mississippi steamers, when firemen drive engines day and night across Canada and New York for us, when poor canal boys trudge on behind hardstrained horses for us, and then after the flour has come a thousand miles from its birthplace, when ten thousand hard hands speed it on its way, when a thousand other hands store it, handle it, move it here, move it there, and at last leaven it, knead it, and bake it with the fire that has lain hidden for that end for some thousand thousand years, till a thousand other hard hands brought the coal to the kneaded dough -what we know is, that by the common effort of millions of hard-working men and a million 'laws of Nature,' we have some chance of daily bread. Just what I am asking God for is, that that chance may continue; not for me alone who pray, but for this whole world."-(E. Hale.)

8. "Daily bread' means either all those things which minister to the necessity of this life, or the Sacrament of the body of Christ, which we daily receive." (St. Augustine.)

"

Again, what I am handling before you now is daily bread; and the daily

lessons which ye hear in church are daily bread; and the hymns ye hear and repeat are daily bread. For all these are necessary in our state of pilgrimage." (St. Augustine.)

9. "St. Colomba, when bent with age, saw an old woman gathering herbs and even nettles. She told him how her poverty forbade her all other food.

See,' he said to his disciples, 'this poor woman, who finds her life still desirable enough to be prolonged upon such terms. And we monks . . . live in comparative luxury.' Going back to his Iona cell he gave orders that no other food should be provided for him save the same wild and bitter herbs of the beggar woman, and he reproached his old friend, Daarmid, because, out of pity for his old master's weakness, he threw a little butter into the kettle."(Dean Spence.)

10. "S. Francis of Assisi, once sitting down with Brother Masseo to eat his poor meal from a table of natural rock beside a gushing fountain, kept exclaiming again and again, 'We are not worthy of such a treasure.' 'How can you talk of a treasure,' grumbled Fra Masseo, 'when poverty is so hard upon us?' 'What we have is our treasure,' answered S. Francis, ' and this table is to me rich and precious, where nothing has been prepared by the work of man, but all given by the hand of God.'"-(Dean Farrar.)

II. "As each rising sun, touching the wing of the sleeping birds, wakes through the woods a fresh burst of glad melody, as if sun had never risen before, so let each day's mercies awake our hearts afresh to the sense of God our Father's smile, and turn our lives towards His light. Where nothing is deserved, everything should be received with thanksgiving."—(Dods.)

12.

"The child leans on his parent's breast, [rest, Leaves there its cares, and is at The bird sits singing by its nest,

And tells aloud

His trust to God, and so is blest

'Neath every cloud. [seed,
He has no store, he sows no
Yet sings aloud, and doth not
heed.
[mead

By flowing stream or grassy
He sings to shame

Men who forget, in fear of need,
A Father's name.'

(Williams.) Collect of Eighth Sunday after Trinity.

of daughter's feelings, coming in one night and her eyes falling on the features of her dear mother. All the old days coming back. What would it lead the daughter to do? Thus the portrait of our Father is to lead wandering, wilful children to return. When they turn and confess then pardon comes (1 John i. 9; St. Luke xv. 18).]

(ii.) Christ shows us how to be fit for Forgiveness.

Read about the "unmerciful servant (St. Matt. xviii. 21-35). The servant owed 10,000 talents to his master; 100 pence was owing to himself by fellowservant. Can you do a rule-of-three sum? Here it is

As 10,000 talents: 100 pence :: 1,250,000 : I.

The wrong done by me to God; for duty left undone is like a debt of a million and a quarter of pounds; wrong another has done to me is only like a debt of one pound. The man in the parable forgave the big debt; moved by tears of poor debtor; very noble of him; but so angry to find the forgiven debtor with hand on fellow-servant's throat for the little debt-no mercy-that he rolled the debt back on him again. God will not forgive the big debt till we forgive the little one. An unforgiving person cannot be forgiven however much he prays for it (ver. 35; St. Mark xi. 25, 26). An unforgiving spirit prevents God's grace coming to us. (Illust.-A priest of Antioch, Sapricius, A.D. 260, time of persecution, had had a quarrel with a man, Nicephorus; the latter sought to be forgiven, but the priest was hard, and refused. At last he was tortured, condemned to die for his faith, and on the way Nicephorus again implored reconciliation; he refused. What happened? God withdrew His grace from the unforgiving priest; who found himself so weak that he could not endure being a martyr, he turned apostate; sacrificed to the emperor; miserable man lost grace through unforgiving spirit.)

III. THOUGHTS

1. "Compare this petition with Ps. cix. I-20. The imprecations in the Book of Psalms have been a standing Bible difficulty. Calvin mentions that certain Franciscans could be hired by individuals to curse their enemies in the words of the 109th Psalm. Yet, though the primitive Christians constantly used the Psalter, there is no word or sign (in the catacombs, for example) which showed that they had drunk in any spirit of bitterness or vengeance towards their persecutors.

(iii.) Christ Himself pleads for our forgiveness.

on

(Read St. Luke xxiii. 34, first of seven words from cross: "Then said Jesus.") Think, the cross laid ground, Christ stripped of His raiment, held back on cross, cruel nails piercing tender flesh; uplifting of cross, first moments' intense agony; others would fill the place with cries, blasphemies; Christ's heart filled with thought of poor men's souls, awful awakening for them one day; prayer for their forgiveness, finding an excuse for them. Here (a) example of how we must forgive others; (b) picture of His constant pleading for us. Our Elder Brother compared with the elder brother in parable. (Read rest of parable, St. Luke xv. 25-32.) Would an elder brother act like that when the younger went off and disgraced the family, hurt the father? Yes, quite natural, true to life; now see contrast with our "Elder Brother." What His feelings for us when we sin? (St. Luke xix. 10.) Contrast (1) what did elder brother in parable grudge? Fat calf from stall, best robe, mirth. Our Elder Brother offers own body on cross for saving of the family that strayed, clothes us with garment of His righteousness (ver. 6 of hymn, "Weary of earth"). Contrast (2) elder son chiding his father, "would not go in " (ver. 29, 30), like Jonah sulking when the city of Nineveh was saved. Our Elder Brother pleading on the cross, "Father, forgive them; pleading still goes on in heaven, meant for all the children. We below saying, "Our Father . . . forgive us; " Christ yonder pleading, Father forgive

them."

How often have we said this prayer? What sins are they that we would have blotted out? Do we believe that our Father will forgive? Do we ourselves forgive? Do we think of that pleading voice, of our Elder Brother? FOR TEACHERS.

The explanation seems to be that Christ is to be read into the Psalter so entirely, that these imprecations are the utterances of One Whose it is to punish terribly those who sin without repentance. It is not an angry man uttering in one Psaim twenty-six maledictions; not an accuser flushed with natural indignation. It is the priest or herald standing upon the stairs of an altar draped in black, and pealing out to an assembled world the interdict of God.

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