The Directory of the Devout Life

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ... XIV. The Disciples' Prayer. (matthew vi. 9-13.) DEVOUT men, as their life unfolds, increasingly turn to prayer--not prayers in the plural, but prayer in the singular; therefore Psalm xc, which seems to register the mature experience of Moses, ends with the prayer: "Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." It was as though, after a long life of intense activity in which the Great Lawgiver had borne the people on his bosom as a nursing father, and when the activities of his life were drawing to a close, he was impelled to turn to prayer and catch up the yearnings, desires, and purpose of his life in one constant petition. As we grow older, our prayers tend to become simpler and shorter, and more after the method of this prayer, which is so short, and yet so deep; so brief, that we may say it within three minutes; and yet so comprehensive and concise, that to be able to say it from the heart, and continually, is the very consummation and climax of the religious life. This prayer has been called the Lord's Prayer. It might be more fitly known as the Disciples' Prayer, but it bears for evermore the Master's touch. It has been said that it was not original, and that these phrases had been on the lips of godly men in a former time. We cannot be surprised at that, because our Lord was always meditating The Church's Prayer. Ill upon the prayers of psalmists and prophets, appropriating them to His own needs, and weaving them into His own communion with the Father. But if the materials were furnished Him from ancient quarries, this prayer is the structure of His own thought; and as we tread its stately aisles, so severe in their simplicity, so majestic in...