we should in all things seek to do his will; and that we should endeavour to submit to whatever trials he may think it needful to lay upon us; because as he is our Father, he must know best what is right and good for his children. And there is something, too, in the name of Father, so engaging that it seems wonderfully suited to win us to gratitude and love.

W. It does, indeed. If we receive blessings, how thankful it would make us, if we would always look upon them as coming from a kind and merciful Father! And if we are visited with troubles and afflictions, what a wonderful support and comfort it would be to us, if we would consider, that as Job says, "affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground," but that these trials are sent by One who knows that they are for our good; that they are not sent to vex us, but to improve us; for that," like as a father pitieth his children; so the Lord pitieth them that fear him *;" and that he will, in the end, make all things "work together for good to them that love God t.'

T. Yes; and thus, I think I see, that in these words, a great deal of duty is taught: indeed, the whole "royal law" of love to God and man.—But now let us look at the next part of the Lord's Prayer, Hallowed be Thy Name, I am not sure that I quite understand the meaning of the word hallowed.

W. Why, to hallow means to keep holy. And so, when we say hallowed be Thy Name, we pray that the Lord's name may be kept holy; that it may be greatly honoured and reverenced, by ourselves, and by all mankind.

T. Well, that is what I thought was the meaning of it. And here, too, I think I see a great duty pointed out to us: I mean this, that if we pray that the name of our heavenly Father may be reverenced

* Psalm ciii. ver. 13.

Romans, chap. viii. ver. 28.

and honoured in the world, we should also strive

that it may.

W. To be sure. For if we pray one way, and act another, this shows that there must be something strangely wrong within us: some lurking unbelief, or some sad hypocrisy. You know our blessed Saviour tells us, "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven:" which shows us plainly that it is not enough merely to call upon the Lord, but that it should be the great business of our lives to seek to do His Will. T. To be sure-But yet we must call him "Lord, Lord." I mean, we must seek him in prayer.

W. Surely we must. I only mean that we must study to have our hearts set upon the things we pray for: for it is sad indeed to have our words speaking one language, and our actions another. To be sure, if we neglect to call upon God in prayer, we cannot be said to hallow his name.

T. No, to be sure not.-And then there is another way in which we go against our own prayers. I mean when we swear, and curse, or when we use the name of our Maker, or our Saviour, in our common discourse, in a careless, irreverent manner: I am sure this is not hallowing the name of God.

W. No, indeed; quite the contrary: it is, as I may say, unhallowing his name. It is destroying all respect and reverence for him, in ourselves and others.

T. Why, to be sure it must. And yet, what a deal of swearing and wicked words you do hear, if ever you happen to step into an alehouse, or any such places!

W. Why yes, indeed you do; and that is one reason why I never do step into such places. I cannot bear to hear such words. To think that every comfort and every blessing we enjoy comes from our heavenly Father, to think that the very use of

speech is his gift, and then to use that gift to the abuse of the Giver, is so dreadful, that it is only fit for those that forget Who made them, Who preserves them, and Who redeemed them; and so live, as it were, without God in the world.

T. It is, indeed, a shocking practice! But let us see a little more about God's name being hallowed. Now, it seems to me, that if people stay away from church on a Sunday, and give their minds to those things which belong to the other six days of the week, then they are not hallowing the name of God.

W. No, to be sure not. The Lord has blessed the sabbath-day, and hallowed it, and he has commanded us to hallow his sabbaths. We ought, therefore, to reverence them, and to keep them holy. We ought, indeed, to be very thankful that it hath pleased the Lord to allow one day in seven as a day of rest for those who labour hard the other six; but we are moreover required to make the sabbath a day particularly devoted to religious purposes. And, indeed, a sincere Christian will not consider this a hardship, but he will consider it as a very great and happy privilege.

T. Yes, indeed. But what a sad thing it is then that we should sometimes see, particularly in villages, shops open for buying, and selling and trafficking on the sabbath morning, just like any other day of the week, and oftentimes worse! Many poor people tell you that they cannot get their wages paid before Sunday morning, and so are forced to go to the shop then, to get the things for their Sunday's dinner.

W. Yes, but what a very bad practice it is to pay labourers their wages on the Sunday morning! I think, however, that most masters have done away with that practice now; and, to be sure, they all would, if they did but take it into proper consideration. It keeps many away from church, and it fills the minds of those who do go, with concerns

which should be kept away, as much as possible, on the sabbath day. All this paying, and receiving, and buying, and selling, takes such hold of the thoughts, that there is hardly room left there for the one thing which is every day needful, and on the sabbath day is our special business. "God blessed the sabbath day," and he blesses those who keep it holy. You generally see, in a place where the sabbath is well kept, that religion spreads, and that good morals, the fruits of religion, grow and thrive.

T. Yes, I know that it is so; and I am sure it concerns us all to look well to ourselves, and to those that belong to us, that the sabbath day be kept holy. The shops should be shut; and even those persons that make a trifle by selling a few cakes, or a little fruit, should take them out of their windows on a Sunday. I think this is of more consequence than we are, at first, apt to believe. It is a

temptation in the way of them that sell these things, and turns their minds to their worldly gains instead of their spiritual good. It is forbidden in the Scriptures. It is doing the work of the wrong master.→ We cannot serve God and Mammon.-And then, it tempts little children to buy these things on the sabbath, and so takes away that reverence for the day, in which they ought to be brought up: and the bad consequence of this may perhaps last them all their lives, and be their ruin in the end.

W. Why, Thomas, I am quite sure that half the wickedness and misery we see in the world springs from the neglect of those things which at first appear so little. And I look upon it that this is the reason why all buying and selling on a Sunday are forbidden by the law of the land, as well as by the Scriptures and no one, I think, can do a greater act of charity than by endeavouring to uphold and maintain whatever is likely to make us religious and

good; for I know that this is the only way to keep us out of danger, and to make us happy*.

T. Well, I see that we ought to hallow the Lord's name by keeping his sabbaths holy. I wish I had always seen the need of this. For, many times in my life, have I stayed away from church on a Sunday; and when I have been there, I have allowed my thoughts to wander, instead of trying to fix them on the prayers I have been offering up; or I have perhaps been whispering, or talking, to any body that happened to sit near me. You know when we are praying, or when the Scripture is reading to us, or when the word is preached, these are matters which, of all others, concern us the most; and if we are not in earnest about them, we cannot be said to hallow the name of God.-But pray, now, tell me what is the meaning of Thy kingdom come?

"

W. When righteousness is spreading, and wickedness decaying, then God's kingdom may be said to flourish upon earth; and this is what we mean, when we pray that "God's kingdom may come.' His kingdom of grace here, is intended to prepare subjects for his kingdom of glory hereafter. Those who are righteous, faithful, and good, belong to God's kingdom upon earth: and they shall, without doubt, belong to his kingdom in heaven. Great need, then, have we all to pray that this kingdom may come upon earth; and what a duty it becomes then, for us to strive that it may, by promoting the knowledge of God, and by encouraging the growth of holiness and godliness by every means in our power! How careful ought we to be to examine whether religion is flourishing in our own hearts! for our blessed Lord says, "The kingdom of God

An excellent sheet of Admonitions against Swearing, Sabbathbreaking, and Drunkenness, (by Sir James Stonhouse,) with abstracts of the penal laws in force against them, is circulated at the expense of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.