Point out that the word "lead" is not an exactly correct rendering, and but for long use would be pretty certainly a somewhat misleading one. The plain meaning of the petition is that we may be spared the conflict and the danger and the pain of temptation, so far as may be accordant with Divine wisdom and the Divine will. Hence a very old version renders "carry," and the Revised Version renders "bring;" and for this may be substituted such other words as "put," or "place." Though indeed circumstances, as we call them (and God certainly uses not unfrequently the ministry of circumstance), may be largely described as partaking of the nature of leading, yet the last intended implication of the petition is that God would, by unconscious leading, betray us into temptation, so that we should be more liable to fall by it. Consider -

I. THE NATURE OF THE THING CALLED TEMPTATION.

1. It is not the word rightly used, unless the person is free to choose, to do, or to refuse to do.

2. It is not the word rightly used, unless the thing that tempts is for some reason evil - evil not necessarily in itself, but for us at the time being.

3. It involves our facing what is either intrinsically evil, or in this sense evil; wishing or being inclined to wish or liable to wish it; and finally either mastering and banishing the wish, or yielding to it, and turning it into action.

II. THE OBJECTS OF TEMPTATION.

1. To reveal to the nature of an inquiring, intelligent being what forces there are without him, for good or for bad, in this world.

2. To reveal to that nature the forces that are within it also; and to waken its knowledge as much of their difference in kind as of their existence.

III. THE USES OF TEMPTATION.

1. To challenge, determine, fix the tone and direction of the character of any and every person.

2. To strengthen greatly, by decision and by exercise, goodness, if temptation is resisted and mastered; or if the opposite, at any rate to acquaint the sufferer with what is going on in his life.

IV. THE JUSTIFICATION OF PRAYING AGAINST THE ORDEAL OF TEMPTATION.

1. Such praying expresses a very permissible, just, modest distrust of self. It expresses the opposite of self-confidence.

2. It expresses a just and natural dread of being worsted of our worst enemy.

3. It expresses a justifiable shrinking from the conflict, and the pain of being tempted, even if we are not victims to the danger of it. That "the cup may pass away" we know is a lawful and even hallowed prayer, if coupled with submission still to the Divine will, and with the resolute drinking of it if it be still held to our lips. Such praying may be regarded as the fit response also to the most gracious utterances of all the ages; e.g. "Like as a father pitieth his children... for he knoweth our frame, and remembereth that we are dust." - B.

1. This prayer recognizes temptation as part of the discipline of life.

2. It traces temptation to the source whence it originates.

3. It intimates that temptation generally results in sin.

4. It expresses on our part a shrinking from temptation through a sense of weakness.

5. It is a joyful acknowledgment of God's power and strength to rescue us.

(F. Edwards, B. A.)

I. THOSE TEMPTATIONS THAT ARE RELATED TO GOD HIMSELF.

1. Persons who are unhappy often murmur against the government of God.

2. To "withhold prayer before Him.

II. THOSE TEMPTATIONS RESPECTING MANKIND.

1. They are tempted to hate their race.

2. A determination to change their position.

3. A temptation to destroy their enemies.

III. THE TEMPTATION THAT COMES UPON 'THE UNHAPPY THEMSELVES.

1. To obtain unlawful information respecting their destiny.

2. To secure an oblivion of their wretchedness.

3. To seek to obtain relief by suicide.

(J. Blackburn.)

I. If God, provoked thereto by our careless-hess, doth justly bring us into, or doth let us enter into temptation, we shall infallibly run into many grievous sins and mischief.

II. We continually NEED GOD'S INSTRUCTION TO GUIDE US, God's hand to uphold us, God's care to guard us.

(1)When our condition and circumstances minister dangerous occasions of sin;

(2)When the world would frown or smile us into it; or

(3)Satan thrust us toward it;

(4)Then, in such cases and seasons, God's interposal is necessary to remove those temptations, or to support and defend us from the prevalence of them.

(Isaac Barrow, D. D.)

I. In praying thus, we desire not to be absolutely freed from that reluctance of flesh against the spirit, but from those additional trials that surprise, forgetfulness, or public affairs may bring upon us more at one time than another.

II. The petition is not the effect of sloth, but a wise provision for our safety, and we thereby only desire to be discharged from such trials as make our perseverance not only difficult, but doubtful.

III. We, in this petition, desire God to excite our own care and watchfulness. Humility, caution, and charity are the several lessons which we are taught in the right use of this prayer.

(Thomas Mangey.)

I. This is an appeal to our LEADER.

1. It implies that our Father is our Leader.

2. We make this appeal to our Father with a sense of His nearness.

II. This petition comes from the fear that when, in answer to the last petition, our sins are forgiven, WE SHALL BE TEMPTED TO SIN AGAIN.

III. We thus pray because we know that our PATH ABOUNDS WITH INSTRUMENTS AND OCCASIONS OF TEMPTATION.

1. In business.

2. By the habits of society.

3. We may be led into temptation by retiring from the world.

4. We may be so led even when we feel most secure from it by communion with God.

IV. It implies a SENSE OF OUR OWN TEMPTABLENESS.

V. THAT WE HAVE NO WILL TO GO INTO TEMPTATION UNLESS IT BE THE WILL OF GOD TO LEAD US INTO IT.

(Dr. Stanford.)

I. WHAT IS MEANT BY TEMPTATION? The primary idea is test, or trial for discovery. The test may be applied with various motives — by friend or foe.

1. Inducement to sin.

2. Afflictions or trials are temptations in the sense of being tests of faith.

3. Temptation for the distinct purpose of testing (Genesis 22:1).

II. WHAT IS MEANT BY ASKING GOD NOT TO LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION.

III. CONSOLATION for the tempted.

1. Temptation is not sin.

2. Temptation is not peculiar to the individual.

3. Christ Himself was tempted.

4. The prayer is presented to our Father.

IV. PRACTICAL LESSONS:

1. We should not go into temptation.

2. We must resist temptation in the way Christ Himself has appointed.

3. We should specially guard weak places in our defence.

4. Turn stumbling-blocks into stepping-stones.

5. We should not bring others into temptation.

(Newman Hall, LL. B.)

1. The universality of temptation.

2. We are concerned about the safety of others as well as our own.

3. When you notice the sins and failings of your fellow-Christians, remember they were tempted.

4. The special temptations of the believer.

5. The most gifted, perhaps the most tempted.

6. The safety of the believer.

7. Jesus protects us by His loving sympathy, faithful intercession, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit.

(Dr. Saphir.)

I. GOD'S PEOPLE ARE EXPOSED TO MUCH TEMPTATION. In the old dispensation they were a tempted people. It is exemplified in the varied experiences of the saints. The world is a great temptation. The outward plague of sin: Satan. There are peculiar seasons of temptation: Abraham.

II. WHAT IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD by this petition. It does not imply exemption from temptation. The Lord likes to know the reality of the grace of His people. Leads them to watchfulness. God does not entice men to sin. A wise prayer. A holy prayer.

(J. H. Evans.)

I. THE PRESENT SCENE OF THE CHRISTIAN ONE OF TEMPTATION.

1. There are temptations that arise from the power of Satan.

2. From the world.

3. From within the Christian.

II. THE PETITION.

1. The entire exemption of the believer from temptation would be exemption from some of the greatest blessings of his life.

2. We are not to infer that God can solicit men to evil.

3. The prayer is that God would, by His providence, keep His child out of the way of temptation.

4. That God would either weaken the power or remove entirely all existing temptation.

5. It is a petition that God would not withdraw His restraining check from the believer.

6. It asks to be preserved from the great tempter.

III. PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS:

1. While praying not to be led into temptation, we should be watchful against voluntarily running into it

2. The unselfishness of the petition — "us."

3. It is offered in the name of the Tempted One.

(Dr. O. Winslow.)

Pardon for past is followed by implored grace for the future.

I. TEMPTATION GENERALLY, as belonging of necessity to the condition of moral agents. The word temptation suggests moral experiment for good or evil. It has come to mean invitation to sin. Exposure to illusory suggestions is only what the analogy of natural government would lead us to expect. In our ordinary worldly interests what attractiveness appears to hang about a wrong course of conduct, whilst difficulty seems ever to dissuade us from what is right. We find that men are free to stand or fall.

II. IN WHAT SENSE GOD CAN BE SAID TO LEAD US INTO TEMPTATION,

1. When God brings us providentially into the neighbourhood of hurtful influences.

2. When He allows temptations to come upon us with all their unmitigated force without restraining influences. God never leads us into temptation to make us fall.

III. How much of the leading into temptation is DUE TO OURSELVES.

1. The blame is our own when we without cause expose ourselves to any moral hazzard.

2. When we allow ourselves to be carried away by sinful conformity to the world.

3. When we do not habitually restrain those tendencies and appetites, without which any temptation would be powerless.

IV. The BENEFICIAL ENDS for which our temptations may be permitted.

1. In order to the trial of our religious sincerity.

2. In order that God may get honour to Himself by our successful resistance.

3. The mercifulness of those permitted trials, in that our very failures may conduce to our greater spiritual humility. We should never separate the prayer for deliverance from the pledge to keep ourselves.

(D. Moore, M. A.)

No man should go into the future with God till he has a clear past. When the soul has tasted forgiveness, it has the fear of sinning again. Shall a man recovered from a malignant fever, go and breathe infection? Temptation is the precincts of sin. Admire the anticipatory character of God's care for us. Preventatives of temptation. Prevention may be effected in three ways. The occasion may not be presented. Every sinful inclination may be taken away and overruled, or the power of Satan to deal with one or the other may be abridged or withdrawn. Temptation depends mainly upon the bias of the natural character.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

A guide on the mountains leads the Alpine climber where dangers exist. The summit cannot otherwise be reached. In avoiding or conquering the danger, the traveller's skill, courage, and endurance are both tested and improved. His health and manhood, as well as his enjoyment, are secured by his being thus led where dangers abound. But the leader knows what path is practicable, what perils should be shunned, and is ever ready to lend a helping hand. Thus our Heavenly Guide leads us by His Providence even when we are beset by snares.

(Newman Hall, LL. D.)

It would be a great misfortune to a man with weak lungs to call him to live in a cold, bleak air. So would it be to a man with weak eyes, to fix him in a situation which required much study by candle.light. Now it is to the full as dangerous for the soul of the ambitious man to be put into the road which leads to high stations, as it can be for the lungs of the consumptive man to give him a house on a bleak hill.

(Newman Hall, LL. D.)

It is said that at the battle of Waterloo, a wealthy merchant of Brussels, who had been allowed access to headquarters, asked Wellington whether he was not exposing his person to great danger, as shot and shell were falling around. The general replied, "You have no business here, but I am performing my duty." So let us never go into spiritual danger from idle curiosity, but only when duty calls: then, and then alone, may we expect to be safe.

(Newman Hall, LL. D.)

There is in old Arabic fable the story of a great rock that was a great magnet, drawing ships, so that they were dashed into splinters on it. If I have been magnetized by a certain sin, I would not be led near the loadstone that might draw me into destruction by its malignant potency. If I carry in me the gunpowder of some slumbering badness, I would not be led where sparks are flying. If I am "Little Faith" bearing precious jewels, I would not be led through "Dead Man's Lane," where robbers lurk. If I am short-sighted, I would not be led into "the land of pits." If I am timid and fear " the power of the dog," I would not be led near his chain, but far as may be beyond the reach of his spring.

(Dr. Stanford.)

But sin seems to be strongest when it has had its death blow. The eagle, when down, strikes at you with a beak like a bolt of iron, and may flap you dead with its wing. The red deer, when down, may fell you with its antlers. The dying horse may, in the plunge of its agony, break a man's limb. A harpooned whale may dash a boat over. Sin is like that. Speared through by its conqueror, it may grasp us in its last convulsions, and seem to be stronger dying than living; but we shall soon spring out from it, and cry, "Deliverance!"

(Dr. Stanford.)

1. There is no evil in temptation unless complied with.

2. Temptation is a necessary element in a life of probation, such as our life on earth is.

3. It is a useful discipline to brace our energies and increase our strength.

4. If successfully overcome they confirm our graces and become helps in the way to heaven.God may be said to lead us into temptation —

1. By the dispensations of His providence.

2. By giving Satan permission to tempt us.

3. When He leaves us to ourselves.Lessons:

1. To know and acknowledge our own weakness.

2. Temptation not a thing to be courted, but feared.

3. Cannot be avoided by the saintliest.

4. Are under God's control.

5. We must pray against temptations, especially such aa we feel we are most likely to fall under.

6. To prayer we must add watchfulness.

7. We must avoid the seducing opportunities of evil.

8. How many lead themselves into temptation.

9. We must be content to deny ourselves some things that are lawful if we would not be lead to the commission of what is unlawful,

10. We mast be jealous about the approaches of temptation.

11. We must beware of little temptations.

12. We must listen to the slightest whispers of conscience.

13. We must remember "the devil varies his temptations to suit the changing circumstances of our life.

14. The consciousness of our own individual danger must not make us insensible to the need of our brethren.

We are not fighting alone.

(F. C. Blyth, M. A.)

He who has no mind to trade with the devil should be so wise as to keep away from his shop.

(South.)If you would not be drowned, what do you so near the waterside.

(Baxter.)

The lion may cross our path, or leap upon us from the thicket, but we have nothing "to do with hunting him.

(C. H. Surgeon.)

1. The source, of temptation may be divided into three: those within ourselves, those that surround us, those from the spirit-world.

2. This petition does not mean that we should ask God to give us an easy time.

3. Temptations are just as liable to come to men from things that are good as from things that are bad. What is nobler than industry well applied — property — regulated anger? These are full of temptations to avarice, etc. The Divine conception of life is that it is a conflict.

4. Modes of resisting temptation. Many of them are to be forestalled. We are to watch against weak hours. A safeguard against temptation is the strengthening of the natural antagonisms of the passions; over against cruelty lies benevolence, etc.

(Beecher.)

I. That is, IF WE BE LED INTO TEMPTATION, LET US BE KEPT FROM THE EVIL OF IT. It is a more wonderful providence to be kept from the evil, than from temptation. If a garrison be never assaulted it is no wonder that it standeth exempt from the calamity of war.

II. THE EVIL OF SIN IS GREATER THAN THE EVIL OF TEMPTATION.

1. Because it separateth us from God. Poverty, sickness, blindness, loss of goods — let a man be never so low, yet, if in a state of grace, the Lord taketh pleasure in him.

2. Because it depriveth us of God, who is the fountain of our comfort.

3. It reproveth our folly. We complain of other things, but do not complain of sin, which is the greatest evil. The evil of affliction is but for a moment; like rain, it drieth up of its own accord; but the evil of sin is for ever, unless it be pardoned and taken away. Sin is the cause of all the evils of affliction; therefore, when we complain, we should complain not so much of the smart, as of the cause of it.

(Thomas Manton, D. D.)

1. This prayer looks upon evil as something separate from ourselves.

2. It regards our personal deliverance from evil as our great need.

3. It leaves with God the decision as to what is evil.

4. It leaves with God both the mode and time of the desired deliverance.

5. It recognizes our dependence on God for this desired deliverance.

(F. Edwards, B. A.)

I. That is principally from sin, or evil,

(1)moral and spiritual; or evil,

(2)penal and afflictive. From all

(3)mischief, from the

(4)root of all evil.

II. We absolutely request of God that He, in His mercy, would also deliver and free us from

(1)remorse of conscience,

(2)anguish of spirit for having violated His laws, and neglect of duty; from

(3)blindness of mind,

(4)hardness of heart,

(5)want of love, reverence, devotion toward God; of

(6)charity and good-will toward our neighbour.

III. We are hereby taught not to be studiously punctual and particular in oar prayers, as if God needed our information, or were apt to neglect the particulars concerning our good.

(Isaac Barrow, D. D.)

1. This petition is supported by the authority of human experience and history. We are led into situations of trial.

2. It is the natural language of the human heart. It is the utterance of fear.

3. It is the prayer of wise self-distrust.

4. It must always be a prayer springing from our trust in God.

5. The prayer now beet)rues an aspiration, a prophecy. It gathers up all the great hopes and faiths of the gospel.

(W. Hubbard.)This prayer implies —

I. That we are living in a world in which is the presence of evil.

II. That those who use it are under a sense of being in bondage to evil.

III. Nothing less than the omnipotent arm of God can deliver us from this evil.

IV. That nothing can be satisfying to the Christian but the entire expulsion of evil from the world.

V. Let our petition be presented in fervent faith of an answer.

(W. Dodsworth.)

Deliverance from evil. This the cry of humanity.

1. From the evil of sin.

2. From the evil of the world.

3. From evil men.

4. From the Evil One.

5. A daily prayer: what evil one day may expose us to.

(Dr. O. Winslow.)

I. The AGENCY OF SATAN.

1. The existence of orders of beings superior to the human race is antecedently probable; as those below us, so some above. Scripture confirms this.

2. What are the limits of this agency, and how are the personal attributes requisite for its success to be reconciled with our notions of a finite being? Satan has some form of access to the heart, he has insight into our ruling mental tendencies.

II. The MEANS USED by Satan for the carrying on of his designs.

1. Our enemy is personal.

2. He avails himself of outward accidents to stir up motions to evil.

3. When he cannot find, he seeks to make, occasions of sin.

4. He turns our permitted enjoyments into evil; our friendship, our religious feelings.

III. The provisions made for our deliverance from this adversary,

1. The restraints constantly put upon the tempter in the exercise of his own power.

2. A gracious Father has provided many forms of unseen and unknown deliverance.

3. God more generally delivers His children from the adversary by enabling them to deliver themselves. We must resist

(1)at first

(2)earnestly.

(D. Moore, M. A.)

It stands last because all previous petitions are summed up in it.

I. EVIL IS AROUND AND WITHIN US.

II. Evil has a central unity — "the evil."

III. WHO delivers. God delivers in Christ.

IV. The promise involved in the petition. In the resurrection delivered from evil.

(Dr. Saphir.)

It surrounds the purest, clings to the holiest, shadows the brightest, embitters the happiest.

1. The true suppliant will try to see evil from the point of view from which God sees it.

2. There is no good which has not in its constitution some evil, so there is no evil that is not mingled with some good.

3. An enlightened man will leave the time and way of deliverance to God.

4. God's plan is by ransom; He delivered Christ to evil that He might deliver you from it.

5. The believer's liberty, sanctity, and rest.

(J. Vaughan, M. A.)

I. The EVIL ONE.

II. The evil caused by yielding to the evil one — THE RESULT OF SIN.

III. The evil in OURSELVES.

(Newman Hall, LL. B.)

I. Identify the evil.

1. Not the world.

2. Not affliction.

3. Not death.

4. But sin.

II. NOTES ON THE PETITION.

1. In offering this petition we have to keep in mind the whole connection — connect it with the prayer for forgiveness, with the prayer against temptation.

2. We offer this prayer in that Jesus is the medium of deliverance.

3. This prayer fits the lips of Christians in a time when old sins seem to recover new power.

4. Our thoughts rush forward to the day when this prayer for deliverance from evil will have its finished and perfect answer.

(Dr. Stanford.)

Like the merchant who lost his all in a storm, and was thus driven to learn philosophy at Athens, many who have been deprived of earthly comforts, have learned that Wisdom is better than Wealth.

(F. C. Blyth, M. A.)

1. The evidence of all all-pervading and ever-present evil is irresistible.

2. If we cry for deliverance it is because we have a lingering recollection of a promise that there will be a Deliverer.

3. But God's children intelligently offer this prayer to the Divine Father; they feel that He is not the Author of evil.

4. As brethren we pray this petition: the successive generations have used it.

5. Estimate the price paid for deliverance; not silver and gold.

(Dr. Cumming.)

Only as you call a flail evil that separates the grain from the chaff; a wheel evil that grinds jewels to shine ins crown; a knife evil that prunes a tree; a tree evil that bears good fruit; a plough evil whose coulter crashes through the hard soil, opens it to the chemistry of nature, and makes it a soft, porous, receptive seed-plot for the harvest; the medicine evil that brings back the colour of health to the white face, and the flash of gladness to the dim eye; the hand evil that snatches back a heedless child from the nest of the serpent, or the lip of the river, just in time to save its life — only in this qualified sense can you call an affliction an evil. Out of our greatest sorrows grow our greatest joys.

(Dr. Stanford.)

yer: —

1. If this be granted all other blessings are comprehended in it.

2. It will grant us the gift of perseverance.

3. It presupposes all that has gone before.

(F. C. Blyth, M. A.)

I. The KINGDOM.

1. God's kingdom is universal over all men or things, over all persons in the world.

2. It is special. Which notes His relation to the saints. It is the duty of a king to defend his subjects and provide for their welfare.

II. The POWER. Titles without power make authority ridiculous. We can ask nothing but what God is able to give — yea, above our asking.

III. The GLORY. The honour and glory of all will redound to God, the comfort accrueth to us.

IV. The DURATION. For ever. All excellencies which are in God, are eternally in God.

(Thomas Manton, D. D.)

That is:

I. Thou hast a perpetual and unmoveable authority whereby justly to dispose of all things; an indefectible and irresistible power, whereby Thou canst effect whatever seems just and good to Thee.

II. Therefore we profess only to rely upon, and seek help from, Thee; with hope and confidence we address ourselves to Thee for the supply of our needs.

III. Thine is the glory; all honour and reverence, all love and thankfulness, are due unto Thee, therefore we render our adorations and acknowledgments to Thee.

(Isaac Barrow, D. D.)

I. The KINGDOM — "Thine."

1. By eternal right.

2. By assuaging wrath.

3. By infinite purchase.

II. THINE IS THE POWER.

1. Upon the intellectual world.

2. Upon the political world.

3. Upon the ecclesiastical world.

4. Upon the invisible world.

III. THINE IS THE GLORY.

(T. Mortimer, M. A.)

1. Our confidence in the acceptableness of our prayers is derived from God and not from ourselves.

2. That the power by which our desires are brought about is Divine, and not human.

3. That our certainty of success is based upon our faith in God.

4. That our confidence in our prayers ought not to waver.

5. That our prayers ought always to be confirmed and ratified by ourselves.

(F. Edwards, B. A.)

I. WHAT IS HERE ASCRIBED TO GOD. The kingdom. The glory.

II. THE ADVANTAGES ARISING FROM THIS ASCRIPTION OF PRAISE. We shall feel that we have presented to God the strongest arguments to ensure an answer to our prayers. We should be encouraged to expect great things in answer to our prayers. We shall feel how eternal and unchangeable is the basis upon which our expectation rests. We shall feel calm and hopeful after prayer, whatever the circumstances in which we are placed, or our views of the world around us,

(W. O. Lilley.)

There is the kingdom: —

1. Of nature.

2. Providence.

3. Grace.

4. Glory.

(Dr. O. Winslow.)

I. The OFFERING OF PRAISE as a necessary part of religious worship.

1. Praise is the most disinterested form of religious worship.

2. It is a divinely appointed type of devotion because of its inspiring and elevating influence upon the mind of the worshipper himself.

3. Praise comes nearest to the worship of heaven.

II. Those CHARACTERISTICS of His holy nature and ground for which we are here taught to show forth His praise.

1. We ascribe to the object of our adoration boundless and universal sovereignty.

2. We are instructed to make grateful mention of His omnipotence.

3. His glory.

4. But our doxology rises in the majesty of its ascriptions — dominion, power, glory — for ever.

(D. Moore, M. A.)

I. A SEVENFOLD VIEW OF PRAISE.

1. Prayer ends in praise. Our God who sees the end from the beginning, sees praise in every petition.

2. Praise is the language of the soul in communion with God.

3. It is the culminating point of prayer.

4. The doxology is an argument.

5. Praise is faith and more than faith, it is an anticipation of heaven.

6. The great bond of union is praise.

7. Praise is God's gift.

II. THE THREEFOLD ASCRIPTION OF PRAISE.

1. There is the kingdom.

2. The power.

3. The glory.

III. THE KINGDOM, POWER, AND GLORY, AS BELONGING TO THE TRIUNE GOD.

IV. FOR EVER.

(Dr. Saphir.)

I. The doxology a confession of faith.

II. An argument in prayer.

III. An ascription of praise.

(Newman Hall, LL. B.)

I. DOXOLOGY.

1. All prayer should gather itself up and crown itself in praise.

2. Praise should not be for gifts and graces, but for what God is in Himself.

II. AN ARGUMENTATIVE doxology. "For thine," etc. It establishes a plea for every petition.

III. The virtue and sufficiency of prayer lie in a threefold recognition of God.

1. His kingdom — perfect, sovereign, regal.

2. True prayer never stops to ask how.

3. It fixes itself on the glory of God.

(T. Vaughan, M. A.)

1. It is a word of veritable history in Israel and in the Church.

2. It announces God's truth and faithfulness.

3. It is the name of Christ.

4. It is the seal of prayer.

5. It is the voice of faith.

6. It is the answer of a good conscience.

7. It is a renewal of our dedication to God.

(Dr. Saphir.)

1. Christ is the amen of the Father's love.

2. Christ is the amen of the Father's holiness.

3. Christ is the amen of the Father's sovereignty.

4. Christ is the amen of the Father's will.

5. Christ is the amen of the Father's bestowment.

6. Christ is the amen of the Father's forgiveness.

7. Christ is the amen of the Father's guidance.

8. Christ is the amen of the Father's deliverance.

9. Christ is the amen of the Father's eternal kingdom and power and glory.

(R. W. Percival, M. A.)

Jesus, SolomonGalileeAges, Amen, Bring, Deliver, Evil, Forever, Glory, Kingdom, Lead, Mayest, Power, Reign, Rescue, Safe, Save, Temptation, Test, Yours1. Giving to the Needy
5. The Lord's Prayer
16. Proper Fasting
19. Store up Treasures in Heaven
25. Do Not Worry
33. but seek God's kingdom.

Matthew 6:13

     1045   God, glory of
     1320   God, as Saviour
     1461   truth, nature of
     4122   Satan, tempter
     4123   Satan, deceiver
     4126   Satan, resistance to
     4966   present, the
     5454   power, God's saving
     5480   protection
     5511   safety
     5598   victory, over spiritual forces
     5934   restraint
     6022   sin, causes of
     6030   sin, avoidance
     6250   temptation, sources
     6251   temptation, resisting
     6634   deliverance
     6738   rescue
     8349   spiritual growth, means of
     8485   spiritual warfare, conflict
     8735   evil, origins of
     8737   evil, responses to

Matthew 6:1-18

     5909   motives, importance

Matthew 6:1-21

     1660   Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 6:5-15

     2360   Christ, prayers of

Matthew 6:9-13

     8603   prayer, relationship with God

Matthew 6:9-15

     8658   Lord's Prayer

Matthew 6:12-15

     2027   Christ, grace and mercy
     8730   enemies, of believers

The Distracted Mind
Eversley. 1871. Matthew vi. 34. "Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Scholars will tell you that the words "take no thought" do not exactly express our Lord's meaning in this text. That they should rather stand, "Be not anxious about to-morrow." And doubtless they are right on the whole. But the truth is, that we have no word in English which exactly expresses the Greek word which St Matthew …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

The Lord's Prayer
Windsor Castle, 1867. Chester Cathedral, 1870. Matthew vi. 9, 10. "After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Let us think for a while on these great words. Let us remember that some day or other they will certainly be fulfilled. Let us remember that Christ would not have bidden us use them, unless He intended that they should be fulfilled. And let us remember, likewise, that …
Charles Kingsley—All Saints' Day and Other Sermons

June 16. "Ye Cannot Serve God and Mammon" (Matt. vi. 24).
"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon" (Matt. vi. 24). He does not say ye cannot very well serve God and mammon, but ye cannot serve two masters at all. Ye shall be sure to end by serving one. The man who thinks he is serving God a little is deceived; he is not serving God. God will not have his service. The devil will monopolize him before he gets through. A divided heart loses both worlds. Saul tried it. Balaam tried it. Judas tried it, and they all made a desperate failure. Mary had but one choice. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

August 27. "Take no Thought for Your Life" (Matt. vi. 25).
"Take no thought for your life" (Matt. vi. 25). Still the Lord is using the things that are despised. The very names of Nazarene and Christian were once epithets of contempt. No man can have God's highest thought and be popular with his immediate generation. The most abused men are often most used. There are far greater calamities than to be unpopular and misunderstood. There are far worse things than to be found in the minority. Many of God's greatest blessings are lying behind the devil's scarecrows …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

November 21. "Consider the Lilies How they Grow" (Matt. vi. 28).
"Consider the lilies how they grow" (Matt. vi. 28). It is said that a little fellow was found one day by his mother, standing by a tall sunflower, with his feet stuck in the ground. When asked by her, "What in the world are you doing there?" he naively answered, "Why, I am trying to grow to be a man." His mother laughed heartily at the idea of his getting planted in the ground in order to grow, like the sunflower, and then, patting him gently on the head, "Why, Harry, that is not the way to grow. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

June 10. "Your Heavenly Father Knoweth Ye have Need" (Matt. vi. 32).
"Your heavenly Father knoweth ye have need" (Matt. vi. 32). Christ makes no less of our trust for temporal things than He does for spiritual things. He places a good deal of emphasis upon it. Why? Simply because it is harder to trust God for them. In spiritual matters we can fool ourselves, and think that we are trusting when we are not; but we cannot do so about rent and food, and the needs of our body. They must come or our faith fails. It is easy to say that we trust Him in things that are a long …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

February 12. "But Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God, and his Righteousness, and all These Things Shall be Added unto You" (Matt. vi. 33).
"But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi. 33). For every heart that is seeking anything from the Lord this is a good watchword. That very thing, or the desire for it, may unconsciously separate you from the Lord, or at least from the singleness of your purpose unto Him. The thing we desire may be a right thing, but we may desire it in a distrusting and selfish spirit. Let us commit it to Him, and not cease to believe for …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Consider the Lilies of the Field
(Preached on Easter Day, 1867.) MATTHEW vi. 26, 28, 29. Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? . . . And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. What has this text to do with Easter-day? Let us think …
Charles Kingsley—Discipline and Other Sermons

'Thy Kingdom Come'
'Thy kingdom come.--MATT. vi. 10. 'The Lord reigneth, let the earth be glad'; 'The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble,' was the burden of Jewish psalmist and prophet from the first to the last. They have no doubt of His present dominion. Neither man's forgetfulness and man's rebellion, nor all the dark crosses and woes of the world, can disturb their conviction that He is then and for ever the sole Lord. The kingdom is come, then. Yet John the Baptist broke the slumbers of that degenerate people …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Thy Will be Done'
'Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.'--MATT. vi. 10. It makes all the difference whether the thought of the name, or that of the will, of God be the prominent one. If men begin with the will, then their religion will be slavish, a dull, sullen resignation, or a painful, weary round of unwelcome duties and reluctant abstainings. The will of an unknown God will be in their thoughts a dark and tyrannous necessity, a mysterious, inscrutable force, which rules by virtue of being stronger, and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Cry for Bread
'Give us this day our daily bread.'--MATT. vi. 11. What a contrast there is between the two consecutive petitions, Thy will be done, and Give us this day! The one is so comprehensive, the other so narrow; the one loses self in the wide prospect of an obedient world, the other is engrossed with personal wants; the one rises to such a lofty, ideal height, the other is dragged down to the lowest animal wants. And yet this apparent bathos is apparent only, and the fact that so narrow and earthly a petition …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Forgive us Our Debts'
'Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.'--MATT. vi. 12. The sequence of the petitions in the second half of the Lord's Prayer suggests that every man who needs to pray for daily bread needs also to pray for daily forgiveness. The supplication for the supply of our bodily needs precedes the others, because it deals with a need which is fundamental indeed, but of less importance than those which prompt the subsequent petitions. God made us to need bread, we have made ourselves to need pardon. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Lead us not into Temptation'
'And lead us not into temptation.'--MATT. vi. 13. The petition of the previous clause has to do with the past, this with the future; the one is the confession of sin, the other the supplication which comes from the consciousness of weakness. The best man needs both. Forgiveness does not break the bonds of evil by which we are held. But forgiveness increases our consciousness of weakness, and in the new desire which comes from it to walk in holiness, we are first rightly aware of the strength and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Deliver us from Evil'
'But deliver us from evil.'--MATT. vi. 13. The two halves of this prayer are like a calm sky with stars shining silently in its steadfast blue, and a troubled earth beneath, where storms sweep, and changes come, and tears are ever being shed. The one is so tranquil, the other so full of woe and want. What a dark picture of human conditions lies beneath the petitions of this second half! Hunger and sin and temptation, and wider still, that tragic word which includes them all--evil. Forgiveness and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Thine is the Kingdom'
'Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.' MATT. vi. 13. There is no reason to suppose that this doxology was spoken by Christ. It does not occur in any of the oldest and most authoritative manuscripts of Matthew's Gospel. It does not seem to have been known to the earliest Christian writers. Long association has for us intertwined the words inextricably with our Lord's Prayer, and it is a wound to reverential feeling to strike out what so many generations have used in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Hearts and Treasures
'For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'--MATT. vi. 21. 'Your treasure' is probably not the same as your neighbour's. It is yours, whether you possess it or not, because you love it. For what our Lord means here by 'treasure' is not merely money, or material good, but whatever each man thinks best, that which he most eagerly strives to attain, that which he most dreads to lose, that which, if he has, he thinks he will be blessed, that which, if he has it not, he knows he is discontented. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Solitary Prayer
'Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret,'--MATT. vi. 6. An old heathen who had come to a certain extent under the influence of Christ, called prayer 'the flight of the solitary to the Solitary.' There is a deep truth in that, though not all the truth. Prayer is not only the most intensely individual act that a man can perform, but it is also the highest social act. Christ came not to carry solitary souls by a solitary pathway to heaven, but …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Structure of the Lord's Prayer
'After this manner therefore pray ye.'--MATT. vi. 9. 'After this manner' may or may not imply that Christ meant this prayer to be a form, but He certainly meant it for a model. And they who drink in its spirit, and pray, seeking God's glory before their own satisfaction, and, while trustfully asking from His hand their daily bread, rise quickly to implore the supply of their spiritual hunger, do pray after this manner,' whether they use these words or no. All begins with the recognition of the Fatherhood …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Our Father'
'Our Father which art in heaven.'--Matt. vi. 9. The words of Christ, like the works of God, are inexhaustible. Their depth is concealed beneath an apparent simplicity which the child and the savage can understand. But as we gaze upon them and try to fathom all their meaning, they open as the skies above us do when we look steadily into their blue chambers, or as the sea at our feet does when we bend over to pierce its clear obscure. The poorest and weakest learns from them the lesson of divine love …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Hallowed be Thy Name'
'Hallowed be Thy name.'--Matt. vi. 9. Name is character so far as revealed. I. What is meaning of Petition? Hallowed means to make holy; or to show as holy; or to regard as holy. The second of these is God's hallowing of His Name. The third is men's. The prayer asks that God would so act as to show the holiness of His character, and that men, one and all, may see the holiness of His character. i.e. Hallowed by divine self-revelation. Hallowed by human recognition. Hallowed by human adoration and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Trumpets and Street Corners
'Take heed that ye do nob your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 2. Therefore, when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 3. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; 4. That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Fasting
'Moreover, when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.'--MATT. vi. 16-18. Fasting has gone out of fashion now, but in Christ's time it went along …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Two Kinds of Treasure
'Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.'--MATT. vi. 19-20. The connection with the previous part is twofold. The warning against hypocritical fastings and formalism leads to the warning against worldly-mindedness and avarice. For what worldly-mindedness is greater than that which prostitutes even religious acts to worldly advantage, and is laying up treasure of …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Anxious Care
'Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. 25. Therefore I say unto you. Take no thought for your life.'--Matt. vi. 24-25. Foresight and foreboding are two very different things. It is not that the one is the exaggeration of the other, but the one is opposed to the other. The more a man looks forward in the exercise of foresight, the less he does so in the exercise of foreboding. And the more he is tortured by anxious thoughts about a possible future, the less clear vision has he of a likely future, and the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

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