II.  Obedience is the issue of all religion.

The knowledge of the name, and the hallowing of it must go first.  Note—­

1.  How inward the nature of obedience is.  This sequence of petitions shifts the centre from without to within, from actions to dispositions.

2.  How nothing is obedience that is not cheerful and loving.  Not constrained, not sullen, not task-work.

3.  How naturally dominant over all life the principles of God’s truth are.  Let them be known, and all the rest will follow.  They have power to control all acts, great and small.

4.  How impossible practical righteousness is without religion.  The Name is the true basis of morality.  We hear a great deal about life rather than creed; the Gospel is both.  The one foundation of theoretical and practical morals is the will of God.

5.  How maimed and spurious is religion without practical obedience.

Religion in the form of thought and of emotion is intended to influence life.

The ultimate result of God’s revelation of Himself and of God’s kingdom among men is the conformity of our life and actions with the Will of God.  That is the test of our religion.  Character and conduct are all important.  Here is a lesson for us all as to what the final issue of religious profession ought to be.  Knowledge of God, true reverent thoughts of Him, submission in spirit to His kingdom—­all these have for their final sphere the full sanctification of the nature and the free, spontaneous obedience of the life.  We are all tempted to separate between our consciousness and emotions of a religious nature, and our daily life.  Many a man is a good Christian in his heart, with real religious feeling, but when you get him into the field of the world he is full of sins.  There must always be a disproportion in this world between convictions, resolutions, and actions; we imperfectly live out our principles; the force of gravity pulls down the arrow, and however true the bow and careful the aim and strong the hand, its course will be a curve, not a straight line.

Our machinery does not work in vacuo, and the force of friction and atmosphere opposes it and brings it to a standstill.  This must be; but the discrepancy may be indefinitely lessened, and this prayer is a prophecy and kindles a hope.

III.  Obedience is the sum of all Christ’s desires for the world.

This is the last loftiest petition, beyond that there is nothing, for if our wills are conformed to God’s, then we are perfect and blessed.

1.  The loftiest dignity of man is to obey.  We have will:  God has will.  Ours is evidently meant to submit, His to rule.  He only is what he ought to be whose whole soul bows to the divine command.

2.  The will submitted to God is free, strong, restful.  He does not desire that it should be crushed or absorbed, but freely acting in obedience.  That will is truly free which is delivered from bondage, and the burden of sin and evil.  Submission to God strengthens the will.  Sin overbears it, as we all know.  Obedience braces and nerves it.  Submission to God makes it restful.  It is the conflict of self-will which troubles us.  Peace is to will as God does; so He flows through us, and He is ’the living will that shall endure.’