The Greatest Prayer.

There is a greatest prayer, the greatest that can be offered.  It is the substratum of every true prayer.  It is the undercurrent in the stream of all Spirit-breathed prayer.  Jesus Himself gives it to us in the only form of prayer He left for our use.  It is small in size, but mighty in power.  Four words—­“Thy will be done.”  Let us draw up our chairs, and brew it over mentally, that its strength and fragrance may come up into our nostrils, and fill our very beings.

“Thy”:  That is God.  On one side, He is wise, with all of the intellectual strength, and keenness and poised judgment that that word among men brings to us.  On another side, He is strong, with all that that word can imply of might and power irresistible.  On still another side He is good, pure, holy with the finest thought those words ever suggest to us in those whom we know best, or in our dreams and visions.  Then on a side remaining, the tender personal side, He is—­loving?  No, that is quite inadequate.  He is love.  Its personification is He.  Now remember that we do not know the meaning of those words.  Our best definition and thought of them, even in our dreams, when we let ourselves out, but hang around the outskirts.  The heart of them we do not know.  Those words mean infinitely more than we think.  Their meaning is a projection along the lines of our thought of them, but measurelessly beyond our highest reach.

And then, this God, wise, strong, good, and love, is kin to us.  We belong to Him.

    “We are His flock;
    He doth us feed. 
    And for His sheep,
    He doth us take.”

We are His children by creation, and by a new creation in Jesus Christ.  He is ours, by His own act.  That is the “Thy”—­a God wise, strong, pure, who is love, and who is a Father-mother-God, and is our God.

“Thy will.”  God’s will is His desires, His purposes, that which He wishes to occur, and that to which He gives His strength that it may occur.  The earth is His creation.  Men are His children.  Judging from wise loving parents among men He has given Himself to thinking and studying and planning for all men, and every man, and for the earth.  His plan is the most wise, pure, loving plan that can be thought of, and more. It takes in the whole sweep of our lives, and every detail of them.  Nothing escapes the love-vigilance of our God.  What can be so vigilant and keen as love?  Hate, the exact reverse, comes the nearest.  It is ever the extremes that meet.  But hate cannot come up to love for keen watchfulness at every turn.  Health, strength, home, loved ones, friendships, money, guidance, protecting care, the necessities, the extras that love ever thinks of, service—­all these are included in God’s loving thought for us.  That is His will.  It is modified by the degree of our consent, and further modified by the circumstances of our lives.  Life