SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS.

TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY
AFTER TRINITY.

THE LORD'S PRAYER (Conclusion).

Prayer shall be made ever unto Him, and daily shall He be praised.'

To be read.-St. John xix. 11; St. James i. 17;)

St. Matt. v. 16; vi. 6, 21,

vii. 25.

To be learnt.-Philip. iv. 6, 7.

(See Scholar's

Leaflet.)

I. THE DOXOLOGY.

The last words of the Lord's Prayer (before the 'Amen') are called the Doxology, which means 'saying praise.'

In these words we confess to God that the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, are His for ever and ever.

1. Thine is the Kingdom.'

This means that all kingdom or rule belongs to Him, and that no earthly king or person has any right to rule except from Him. Read our Lord's answer to Pilate, when Pilate had said he had power to crucify and to release Him, St. John xix. 11.

2.The Power.'

No one, however great, or strong, or rich, can have any of these things except from God's gift. Read St. James i. 17.

3. And the Glory.'

If all good things are from God only, no man has the right to any glory for any good thing he may have. Read St. Matt.

v. 16. This shows that even our good works are to bring glory to God and not to ourselves, at least here on earth.

(The Teacher may read 1 Chron. xxix. 11, 12. These words of David tell us the meaning of the Doxology fully.)

The Doxology should remind us that GOD IS THE ONLY GOOD that any of us ought to seek or wish for or pray for. As Jesus said, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness."

Questions.-What is the 'Doxology' in the Lord's
Prayer? What did our Lord tell Pilate about his

power? What does our Lord teach us in the Sermon on the Mount about the glory of our 'good works'? What part of the Bible contains an address to God very like the Doxology?

'Amen' means true, or, as our blessed Lord often said, ' verily.' It is a solemn declaration before God, that every word of the Prayer which we have just said is true, or is truly and heartily meant by us.

It is like repeating the whole prayer most solemnly before God in one word.

Jesus Himself is called 'the Amen,' and 'the Faithful and True' (Rev. iii. 14, xix. 11).

So that this word coming at the end is, in a way, taking God's Name to witness to the truth of our prayer. Does it not seem like a warning from our Lord that we should be 'faithful and true' in saying the whole Prayer? Let us then take this warning, and let me give you two rules to help you to keep it. 1. Shut out earthly thoughts.

The first rule I will give you is this.

When you are going to pray, try to put all earthly wishes and cares out of your mind. Read St. Matt. vi. 6. Jesus meant by this, not only that we should not pray for show, but also that we should be as close as possible to the presence of our heavenly Father. We cannot be this, unless we lay aside our worldly thoughts with all our hearts. We must speak to God by faith, just as if he was our Father seated before us in our closet indeed He really is so. We must not only shut the door of our room, but also the door of our hearts.

This is one of the ways in which the devil is permitted by God to trouble holy people, viz., by trying to turn away their thoughts to other things when they are praying. So you must pray and keep watch against such wanderings. The oftener and the more earnestly you pray while you are a child, and the more pains you take to learn how to pray, and to conquer such wanderings, the better you will pray, and the nearer to God you will be able to live.

2. Give yourself up to God's will.

This is the second rule I will give you.

Read St. Matt. vi. 21, 22. By your 'eye being single,' Jesus means that you should have your eye, or your mind, set on one thing only and the one thing should be 'laying up treasure in Heaven,' or 'serving God' as our only 'Master' (verses 20 and 24).

In order to be able to do this, you must THINK UPON God's wisdom, and power, and goodness. His wisdom ought to convince us that He knows what is best for us, and His power and goodness should convince us that He can and will give it to us.

If you believe and are sure of this, then you will be ready to pray that He would give you what He chooses for you, and not what you would choose for yourself. If we ask anything according to His Will, He heareth us.' 1 John v. 14.

And then, you see, you will be praying the words of the Lord's Prayer sincerely, with the full meaning that Jesus intends them to have you will be praying from your heart for what He wills, not for what you will; 'Not my will, but Thine be done.'

:

In this way you will be obeying that important saying of Jesus which we have already quoted, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' Read Phil. iv. 6, 7.

This will agree also with the way in which Jesus has thought fit to arrange the Lord's Prayer, putting God's glory first, and afterwards coming to Him for a supply of all our own wants.

Two rules for truth in prayer.

Now I have given you two rules, to help you, by God's grace, to keep the warning which Jesus gives us in the word Amen. I said that 'Amen' means 'true'; and that we must be true in saying the words of the whole Prayer.

The rules are (1) Shut out earthly thoughts; (2) Give yourself up to God's will.

Questions. What does Amen mean? Whose name is it? Then what do we mean when we say 'Amen' at the end of the Lord's Prayer?

This seems a warning from Jesus that we should be faithful and true in saying it; what was the first rule which I gave you to help you in being so? What did Jesus say about 'shutting the door' in prayer? What must we shut out? What does Satan try to do when we pray? How may you hope to conquer such wanderings? What was the second rule? What did Jesus say about a 'single eye'? What did He mean? I told you that you ought to think about some things of God to help you to keep this rule; what were those things? What did Jesus command us to seek first? and what did St. Paul bid the Philippians to do about their care and wants? What did he promise them if they did so?

III. CONCLUSION OF LORD'S PRAYER IN THE CATECHISM.

Let us finish this lesson by looking at the last part of the explanation of the Lord's Prayer in the Catechism (to be repeated by a child, 'And this I trust He will do of His mercy and goodness, through our Lord Jesus Christ: and therefore I say "Amen," so be it').

Here are two things taught, which we must remember in the Lord's Prayer and in all other prayers.

1. 'This I trust He will do of His mercy and goodness.'

We have no right of our own to any of the good things we ask for; they are free gifts of 'God's mercy and goodness'; some of them He may refuse for a time or altogether; it is for our good when He does so; but we must persevere in prayer and faith, and then He will give us what is really good for us when He sees fit. And so you say, 'This I trust He will do.'

2. Through our Lord Jesus Christ.'

Jesus promised His disciples, 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.' This is a very solemn promise of our blessed Redeemer. He is our Advocate, St. John says; and read Heb. vii. 25.

This shows us that the Lord's Prayer, as well as all our other prayers, is to be offered to God, as the Catechism says, 'through our Lord Jesus Christ,' because we are not worthy to pray except through Him who died for us: and it shows us that if we do pray sincerely and humbly through Him, we may safely leave all our wants and our own selves in the hands of our Heavenly Father; for 'He that spared not His own son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things'? (Rom. viii. 32.)

Questions.-How is the explanation of the Lord's Prayer in the Catechism ended? What do you learn from the words, 'This I trust He will do of His mercy and goodness'? What do the words 'through our Lord Jesus Christ' teach us? Can you remember any texts which teach us the same?

Now, my dear children, you have learnt the meaning of the whole of this very precious Prayer as well as I could teach it you. Remember you must try very earnestly to pray it better, to pray all that it means. And if you have forgotten any part of its meaning, come and ask me again as often as you can.

HYMN.

6 Who are these like stars appearing?' (Hymns Ancient and Modern, 427.)

SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS.

THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER
TRINITY.

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR.

'Spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.'

To be read.-1 Cor. v. 7, 8; xiv. 40.
To be learnt.-1 Peter ii. 5.

}(

(See Scholar's
Leaflet.)

I. THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. ITS SEASONS.

To-day is the last Sunday of the Christian year; next Sunday will be Advent-Sunday. To-day we will talk about the different Seasons of the Christian year.

Church Seasons. Their different uses.

The Christian Year, or Church or Ecclesiastical Year, as it is called, is not the same as the common or civil year, which begins on the 1st of January. It has nine seasons.

1. Advent, reminds us to prepare for our blessed Lord's second coming to judge the world.

2. Christmas, celebrates His first coming at His birth.

3. Epiphany, His being manifested to the Gentiles, or shown at Bethlehem to the wise men.

4. Three Sundays before Lent, turn our thoughts from the joy of Jesus coming to save us, to the solemn season of Lent.

5. Lent, forty days of solemn repentance and fasting, in remembrance of our Lord's forty days' fast. It is a proper time to humble ourselves before God for our sins, and to prepare for the seasons which come next; so that after it, we can first remember, with proper sorrow for our sins, our blessed Lord's crucifixion on Good Friday, and then rejoice for His glorious resurrection on Easter day.

6. Easter.

7. Ascension, forty days after Easter.

8. Whitsuntide, ten days later, the first descent of the Holy Ghost on the Church.

9. Trinity Sunday is kept to call to mind the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.