SERMON X. THE DOXOLOGY

Psalm viii. 1 and sqq.  O Lord our Governor, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth, Thou that hast set Thy glory above the heavens!

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength, because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

This is the text which I have chosen to-day, because I think it will help us to understand the end of the Lord’s Prayer, which tells us to say to our Father in Heaven, ’Father, Thine is the kingdom; Father, Thine is the power; Father, Thine is the glory.’

The man who wrote this psalm had been looking up at the sky, spangled with countless stars, with the moon, as if she were the queen of them all, walking in her brightness.  He had been looking round, too, on this wonderful earth, with its countless beasts, and birds, and insects, trees, herbs, and flowers, each growing, and thriving, and breeding after their kind, according to the law which God had given to each of them, without any help of man.  And then he had thought of men, how small, weak, ignorant, foolish, sinful they were, and said to himself, ’Why should God care for men more than for these beasts, and birds, and insects round?  Not because he is the largest and strongest thing in the world; for I will consider Thy heavens, even the work of Thy hands, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained, how much greater, more beautiful they are than poor human beings.  May not glorious beings, angels, be dwelling in them, compared to whom man is no better than a beast?’

And yet he says to himself, ’I know that God, though He has put man lower than the angels, has crowned him with glory and honour.  I know that, whatever glorious creatures may live in the sun, and moon, and stars, God has given man the dominion and power here, on this world.  I know that even to babes and sucklings God has given a strength, because of His enemies—­that He may silence the enemy and the avenger; and I know that by so doing, God has set His glory above the heavens, and has shown forth His glory more in these little children, to whom He gives strength and wisdom, than He has in sun, and moon, and stars.’

Now how is that?  The Catechism, I think, will tell us.  The Doxology, at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, will tell us, if we consider it.

If you will listen to me, I will try and show you what I mean.

Suppose I took one of your children, and showed him that large bright star, which you may see now every evening, shining in the south-west, and said to him, ’My child, that star, which looks to you only a bright speck, is in reality a world—­a world fourteen hundred times as big as our world.  We have but one moon to light our earth; that little speck has four moons, each of them larger than ours, which light it by night.  That little speck of a star seems to you to be standing still; in reality,