Chapter 5—The Lord’s Prayer
“After this manner therefore pray ye.”—Matthew 6:9.
The Lord’s Prayer was twice given by our Saviour, first to the
multitude in the Sermon on the Mount, and again, some months later,
to the disciples alone. The disciples had been for a short time absent
from their Lord, when on their return they found Him absorbed in
communion with God. Seeming unconscious of their presence, He
continued praying aloud. The Saviour’s face was irradiated with a
celestial brightness. He seemed to be in the very presence of the
Unseen, and there was a living power in His words as of one who
spoke with God.
The hearts of the listening disciples were deeply moved. They
had marked how often He spent long hours in solitude in communion
with His Father. His days were passed in ministry to the crowds that
pressed upon Him, and in unveiling the treacherous sophistry of the
rabbis, and this incessant labor often left Him so utterly wearied that
His mother and brothers, and even His disciples, had feared that His
life would be sacrificed. But as He returned from the hours of prayer
that closed the toilsome day, they marked the look of peace upon His
face, the sense of refreshment that seemed to pervade His presence.
It was from hours spent with God that He came forth, morning by
morning, to bring the light of heaven to men. The disciples had come
to connect His hours of prayer with the power of His words and works.
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Now, as they listened to His supplication, their hearts were awed and
humbled. As He ceased praying, it was with a conviction of their own
deep need that they exclaimed, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Luke 11:1
.
Jesus gives them no new form of prayer. That which He has before
taught them He repeats, as if He would say, You need to understand
what I have already given. It has a depth of meaning you have not yet
fathomed.
The Saviour does not, however, restrict us to the use of these exact
words. As one with humanity, He presents His own ideal of prayer,
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