Day 21

‘ God sees you in secret.’ Think how He sees you through and through, infinitely more clearly than you see yourself. Make a simple and lively act of faith in His presence. Place yourself wholly, O Christian soul, beneath His gaze. He is present within you, for He gives existence and movement to all things. But do not stop short at this presence itself, which is equally true of all creatures, animate and inanimate. Believe, with active faith, that God is present with you inwardly, as giving you all good thoughts and as holding in His hand the very source whence these flow ; and not merely good thoughts , but good desires, good resolutions, and all kinds of good intentions, from the first moment of their birth up to their final perfection. See Him again, as present in all the just, making His dwelling with them, according to our Lord’s word : ‘ We will come to him and make our abode with him.’ He is within them in a firm and enduring form, living established there. Wish that He may be with you in this manner ; offer Him your whole interior being, that He may dwell there and make it into His own temple.

Sometimes, again, go forth from yourself, and, with the same faith that shows Him present in your own soul, behold Him in Heaven, where He manifests Himself to His beloved ones. There it is that He expects you. Run — fly — tear your bonds asunder — break away from all attachments that bind you to flesh and blood ! Oh, my God, when shall I see Thee ? When shall I have that ‘clean heart’ that makes one ‘see God ’ within oneself, outside oneself — everywhere ? O light that enlightenest all things !

0 life that makest all things to live ! O truth on which all may feed ! O good that satisfiest all ! O love that unitest all things in one !

1 praise thee, O my heavenly Father, Who seest me in secret.

Gwents=seconb 2>as The Lord's Prayer : Our Father . — Matt. vi. 9.

ET an act of love be seen in each petition.

c Our Father/ At the first word of the Lord’s Prayer our heart melts with love. God chooses to be our Father by a special adoption. He has an only Son Who is equal to Him, and in Whom He is well pleased, but He adopts sinners. Men adopt children only when they have none of their own ; God, Who had such a Son as this, nevertheless adopts us. Adoption is an effect of love, for we choose whom we will adopt ; Nature bestows other children, but love alone makes adopted ones. God, Who loves His only begotten Son with the whole of His love, and to infinity, extends to us the love He bears to Him. Jesus Christ tells us this in that marvellous prayer that He made for us to His Father: i That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and F [ 8l ] fHE SERMON ON THE MOUNT I in them . 1 Let us, then, love such a Father. Let us say over and over again, Our Father , Our Father , Our Father ! Shall we never love you ? Shall we never be like true children, pierced to the heart by your fatherly tenderness ?

Yet again, i Our Father/ Why do we say our Father ? Let us learn of St Paul. i Because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father / 2 It is the Holy Spirit, then, Who is in us ; from Him proceeds that inward cry of the heart by which we call upon God, as upon a Father always ready to hear.

The same Apostle says elsewhere : — i For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God/ For God gives us i the spirit of adoption whereby we cry : Abba, Father P 3 Here, again, it is clear that the Holy Ghost teaches us this filial cry with which we have recourse to God as to our Father.

Why call it a cry? Because a great need causes us to cry out. A child cries only when it is in pain or want ; but for whom should it then cry but for father, mother, or nurse — for anyone, in short, who stands to it in a parental relation ?

1 John xvii. 26. * Gal. iv. 6. 3 Rom. viii. 14, 15.

rWENir-SECOND DAT Let us then cry out, for our needs are extreme : we are faltering — sin is gaining upon us — the joys of sense are carrying us away with them. Let us cry out, by all means, for we can do no less ; but let it be to our Father. And let us not forget that what impels us to cry is the Holy Ghost, the God of love : — the Love itself of the Father and the Son, ‘ who pours forth the charity of God in our hearts ; * and that therefore we may call out, with all the fervour of our very innermost being, ‘ O God y Thou art our Father ! 9 ‘Abraham,* and the other Patriarchs from whom we spring according to the flesh, ‘have ignored us, and Israel has not known us.* But Thou, O God, our true parent, dost know us ; and Thou dost Thyself send us, even from Thy own bosom, that Holy Spirit by whom we call upon Thee as Thy children.

St Paul says further that ‘the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God.* 1 But who shall understand that Spirit, which testifies to us only when the conscience is at peace, and the heart has nought to reproach itself with that should keep it from God ? Who shall hear that voice which whispers to us, in the inmost, silent recesses of the heart, 1 Rom. viii. 16.

c God is your Father : you are His child ? ’ Let us pass on : that voice is too sacred — too few people can hear it. Let us pass on : another time we may understand better — when we are more fully confirmed, more deeply rooted, in goodness. The Holy Ghost does not give this secret testimony to everyone. He would fain do so, on His own part, but all are not worthy. It is well for us to beg that we may receive it, and to pray 1 0 God, make us worthy ! * ; but He makes answer : c act with me — do your own share of labour — open your hearts to me — silence all creatures, and often say to me in secret : our Father , our Father ! 9 c 84 ] £went£*tbtrfc 2>a$ c Our Father , Who art in Heaven — Matt. vi. 9.

ET again ‘ Our Father * ; but this time we must add ‘Who art in heaven.’ Thou art everywhere ; but specially Thou art in heaven as in the place where Thou gatherest together Thy children, where Thou showest them Thyself and Thy glory, and where Thou hast appointed them their inheritance.

St Paul, when he had told us how the Spirit gives testimony that we are children of God, added, c and if sons, heirs also ’ : and even this is not all : — it is difficult to realise the full measure of our happiness, for we are c heirs, indeed, of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.’ 1 We shall have the same inheritance — the same kingdom. We shall be seated on Christ’s own throne ; we shall share in His glory, and shall be happy in Him, through Him, and with Him.

1 Rom. viii. 17.

Hence we cry : i Our Father Who art in heaven / that we may remember where He calls us.

Who could fail to love Him Who makes us not only His heirs, but co-heirs with His beloved Son ? And who could fail to desire that lovely inheritance ? It is given only to those who love Him. Our inheritance is God ^Himself : He is our one good and our sole reward. i I,’ He said, 4 am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great ’ 1 : — too great, that is, for your deserts, but not exceeding the immense goodness of your God.

1 Gen. xv. i.

CwentMourtb 2>as 1 Hallowed be Thy Name. 9 — Matt. vi. 9, 10.

4 MWTfo ALLOWED be Thy Name > Th y p ga EJj Kingdom come ; Thy will be 3 S ^ one on ear b as * lt ls * n heaven. All this is a continuous act of love. To sanctify the name of God means to glorify Him in all things, and to long for nothing but His glory. To desire His kingdom means to wish with one’s whole heart to be subject to Him in all things, and to have Him reign not only over us, but over all creatures. His kingdom is in heaven ; and His supremacy will be declared over the whole earth at the Last Judgment. What we have to do, therefore, is to put ourselves into the right state for desiring that glorious day. Would that we might all be of the number to whom Christ says c When these things begin to come to pass’ — that is, when the signs that herald the Last Judgment shall appear, and that great day shall approach — whilst the rest of mankind are shuddering with fear, c look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand.’ 1 But Jesus Christ comes to each of us when our life ends. When that c Last Day ’ of our own, then, is near, and Our Lord knocks at our door to call us, we must be ready to receive Him with joy and to say * Thy K’ngdom come ! for I desire that all there is in me which is mortal may be swallowed up by life.* 2 But who amongst us really longs for the full reign of God ? Which of us says 1 Thy Kingdom come ’ really heartily ? And yet it is for this that we are prepared by the petition to Our Father in heaven . That is our habitation and our home, because it is our Father’s.

We are, in feet, not in good feith when we say ‘ Thy kingdom come ’ : — or rather, which is the same thing at bottom, i May Thy kingdom come for us.' And what stifles this desire, which ought to be so natural to every Christian, is our love of this world and its pleasures. We love our life here, full as it is of every kind of evil ; and, still worse, full as it is of sin, which is the greatest of all evils.

Let us, then, break these bonds and say, ‘ Thy 1 Luke xxi. 28. 3 2 Cor. v. 4.