Chapter IX: The Model Prayer

“After this manner therefore pray ye.”—MATT. vi. 9.

A fortnight ago we completed our study of the petitions that make up the Lord’s Prayer. For the prayer as it fell from the lips of Christ ended with that petition, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” The great doxology, which in the Authorised Version you will find at the close of Matthew’s account of the prayer, and which has become so familiar to us by its constant repetition in the public use of the prayer, formed no part of the original prayer at all, but must be regarded as a liturgical addition made by the Church in later years. It is wanting in the great Greek MSS., and in some important versions, and has been quite properly omitted from our revised English Bible. The probability is that the words “For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever, Amen,” were added to the prayer in its public recitations, much in the same way as we to-day sing, “Glory be to the Father,” at the end of the Psalms.

It is not my intention, therefore, to make any comment upon that doxology with which, in our daily use, we end the prayer, but rather to call your attention to some thoughts on prayer in general suggested by the study of this prayer which Jesus gave to His disciples in answer to their request that He would teach them how to pray. First of all, let me say that I believe Jesus gave this prayer to His disciples _for use_, that is to say, He contemplated their using _this very form of words_. The circumstances of its origin seem to place this beyond dispute. This is the record Luke gives, “And it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, that when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples.’ And He said unto them, ‘When ye pray, say Father.’” In face of those words, “When ye pray, say,” there is, as Dr. Dods puts it, “no getting past the evident precept here delivered, that we ought habitually to use these words.” “Then our Lord,” some one will remark, “sanctions the use of forms of prayer.” I am here, I know, on the very edge of a question which is one of the most difficult to deal with, and one on which Free Churchmen differ strongly among themselves. Discussions upon the use of liturgical forms in worship crop up periodically at various assemblies, but my experience of them is, that they generate a good deal of heat without giving much light. In our Congregational Churches free prayer is the general, almost the invariable practice. Our forefathers were so shocked at the formalism of the liturgical worship of the Established Church, that in the interest of true spiritual worship they rejected forms altogether; some even going to the length of objecting to the use of the Lord’s Prayer in the public services of the sanctuary. Their dislike and distrust of forms we have to a large extent inherited. But the fact that many people are asking the question to-day whether our services would not be all the more helpful if a little of the liturgical element were imported into them, is proof that there are those amongst us who think that our fathers in their revolt against formalism went to the opposite extreme, and by their complete rejection of forms injured themselves and impoverished the public worship of the sanctuary. Of course formalism is fatal to true worship. But the use of forms is not formalism. Formalism is the abuse of forms. But the fact that forms get abused is no reason for discarding them altogether, any more than the fact that liberty sometimes, and with some people, degenerates into licence is a reason why we should all abjure our freedom. In fact, a certain amount of form is absolutely necessary. As some one has put it, “there may be occasionally form without life, but there can never be life without form.” No one, of course, proposes to do away with free prayer. The abolition of free prayer from our services would, I am convinced, do irreparable injury to the spiritual life of our Free Churches. Our freedom in prayer has been our glory and our proud privilege, and that freedom we must jealously guard. But there are in our congregations men and women of differing temperaments. There are those amongst us—and I am speaking now out of the experience I have gathered during my ten years’ ministry—who would find simple forms a help to them, and the question is whether the interests of a congregation _as a whole_ would not be better met by an order of service which should combine free and liturgical prayer, rather than by an order which should confine itself rigidly to the one, to the utter exclusion of the other. Further into the question I do not mean to enter. I shall have achieved my object if I have brought you to see that the question is really one of _Christian expediency_. There is no question here of right or wrong. About our perfect right to introduce forms if we choose there can be no doubt. But a thing may be lawful and yet not expedient. And that is the point we have to settle with reference to liturgical forms. Is it expedient to introduce them? Would they enrich our worship. Would they edify the worshipper? Would they help us to come with boldness to the throne of grace? If they would, then adopt them. But if they would tend to formalism, if their effect would be to make us _say our prayers_ instead of _praying_, or if their introduction would create bitterness or breed dissension in the Church, then better for ever remain without them.

This form of prayer, however, stands quite apart from every other. It has a sacredness all its own. It is _the Lord’s_ prayer. With perfect appropriateness this form finds a place in all our services. I welcome the public use of the Lord’s Prayer for various reasons. First of all, it is the _one perfect prayer_. In its six brief petitions it seems to include everybody and everything. Men are always partial and one-sided and our human prayers are partial and one-sided also. They express the needs of some and not of others. But this brief prayer is like its Author, it is complete. Jesus was the Son of Man, the Universal Man. Everybody finds his counterpart in Jesus. And the prayer He gave is an universal prayer. It voices the cry of every heart, the need of every soul. Then I welcome the use of this prayer _for its associations_. What sacred associations cluster around it! It is sacred to us because of Him who first gave it. This is _our Lord’s_ prayer, His gift to the world. Then it is sacred to us because of the Saints, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, who have used it. This prayer is a link that binds all the Christian centuries together. Peter and John and Paul and James used to kneel down and say, “Our Father.” Those early Christian assemblies in the upper room in Jerusalem, Lydia’s house in Philippi, and the Catacombs at Rome, used the very words we repeated together just now. This prayer is an heirloom in the Christian family, handed down from one generation to another, and binding the “whole world by chains of gold about the feet of God.”

Then for many of us it has associations of a still tenderer kind. It comes to us burdened with memories of the past. Dr. Guthrie, when lying on his dying bed, used often to ask the members of his family to sing him a bairn’s hymn. Those childish hymns used to carry him back to the old home and the long ago. Vanished days came back again as he listened to the songs he learned first at his mother’s knee. What those “bairn’s hymns” were to Dr. Guthrie, that, this prayer is to most of us. It is the prayer in which we learned our first lessons of Christian truth. The first words we were taught to lisp were the words “Our Father.” When we pray this prayer we are back again in the far-off days of childhood. We remember our fathers and mothers, some of them in glory now, who would have given their lives for our souls. And as we think of those happy days, we become children once again, and becoming children we become fit to receive the blessing; for except we turn and become as little children we shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. So this form of prayer becomes a vehicle of grace. Tender, sacred, universal, it lifts us near to God and rightly finds a place in all the public services of the sanctuary.

But this prayer is much more than a form to be used—_it is also a model for all our prayers_. The disciples came to Jesus asking Him to teach them how to pray. This prayer is the answer to that request. Instead of giving the disciples a string of rules and principles, instead of delivering a long discourse on the _theory_ of prayer, Jesus did what was infinitely more helpful, He gave them a pattern prayer. He taught them this exquisite prayer of six petitions, and said to them, “After this manner, therefore, pray ye.” This prayer is a model prayer, both as to manner, and order, and spirit.

(1) It is a model as to manner. I will note here only three characteristics of the prayer. First, will you notice its _brevity_! The prayer that teaches to pray contains only six short petitions. The measure of a prayer is not its length, but its sincerity and earnestness. One good friend reminded a minister who was accustomed to take full time in his preaching, that there was all the difference in the world between the _length_ of a sermon and the _strength_ of a sermon. So there is all the difference between the length of a prayer and the strength of a prayer. We are not heard for our much speaking. The priests of Baal cut themselves with knives and cried from morn until the dusk of evening, “Baal, hear us.” The mob at Ephesus shouted out for the space of two hours, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” But the command is laid upon us, “Be not ye like unto them.” We are to avoid all vain repetitions. If prayers were valued according to their length, then there would be no prayers to compete with the prayers of the Pharisee. But the publican, who could only stammer out that one heart-broken petition, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” went to his home justified rather than the Pharisee, in spite of his long prayers. We have not yet got rid of the notion that there is some kind of merit in “long prayers.” We need to learn the truth Augustine wishes to enforce when he says that much speaking is one thing and much praying quite another. There can be much prayer in very little speech. In fact, the shortest prayers are always the most eloquent. Need abbreviates prayer. Want will make prayer direct and pointed. Two of the most moving prayers I know of in the whole range of Bible literature are, the prayer of the poor Canaanitish woman who had a sick daughter, and whose prayer consisted of three simple words, “Lord, help me”; and the prayer of that dying thief on the cross, who, in the agony of mortal pain, cried, “Lord remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.” Brethren, it does not require many words to pray. No one need restrain himself from prayer because, like Moses, he is slow of tongue. You can compress a great prayer into the compass of a brief sentence. As Thomas Binney used to say, “A little prayer may bring a large answer, and bring it soon, if sincerity and faith give it wings. A short word may be made long enough to span the distance between earth and heaven if it be struck off from the living heart.”

Secondly, notice the _directness_ of the prayer. How pointed the petitions are! There are no waste words! Here are a number of distinct and definite requests, each of which is stated clearly and plainly in a few simple words. There is no need for a cloud of words in prayer; there is no need of elaborate and highflown language; there is no need to beat about the bush. Let us be direct in our prayers! I am afraid we have got into the habit of using a kind of conventional language in prayer, as if God did not understand our common talk! The ideal prayer, however, is that which makes our request known to God with the same frankness and directness with which a child makes known his wants to his parents. Look at these petitions! Each of them is a prayer for a distinct and definite object. We want the same directness in our prayers to-day. As Matthew Henry quaintly puts it, “We should always strike at the white.”

Then notice the _simplicity_ of the prayer. It is a prayer so simple that a little child can understand it! This is not a prayer reserved for the use of the learned, the cultured, the highly educated. This is a prayer everybody can understand. Wayfaring men, though fools, need not err therein. But its simplicity is not shallowness. People are apt to make mistakes. They think that profound which is simply turbid and muddy. They think, on the other hand, that which is pellucid and clear must of necessity be shallow. But the turbid pool is often very shallow, while those waters of crystal clearness contain depths no plummet can fathom. It is so with this prayer. It is simple, exquisitely simple, so simple that even a child can grasp its meaning. But what depths these simple sentences hide! Have we not been learning Sabbath by Sabbath something of the grandeur and sweep of the prayer? We have been trying during these past Sabbaths to explore the length and breadth, the height and depth of this prayer, but have you not felt, as the preacher has felt, that after all our exploring, there are yet undiscovered regions in this prayer?

There’s a deep below the deep, and a height beyond the height,
And our hearing is not hearing, and our seeing is not sight.

Profundity is always a matter of idea, not of language. A man is not profound because he revels in polysyllables. The profoundest thought can be clothed in the simplest language. Shall I tell you the profoundest truth ever uttered by mortal man? Here it is, “God is love.” Yet the words are the simplest that language could afford. It is so exactly with this prayer. Beneath these simple sentences there are depths we have never fathomed. That is why this prayer will never be among the childish things which we can put away. Added years will only increase our sense of its sweep and depth and beauty.

(2) Now let me pass on to say that this prayer is a model _as to Order_. I need not dwell long upon this, for I have already drawn attention to it in the course of my exposition. But let me repeat again that this Model Prayer teaches us that in all true prayer God’s glory will occupy the first place. Before ever a word is said about personal needs our Lord teaches His disciples to pray that God’s name may be hallowed, that His kingdom may come, and that His will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. It is “after this manner” we are to pray always. That is the order we must observe in all prayers, “First things first.” First God’s glory, then our personal wants. This is the hardest lesson of all to learn. The great feat of life is accomplished when we have learned to prefer God’s will to our own, and when we honestly seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. And yet this hard lesson we must all learn if we are to find strength and comfort in prayer. People talk about “unanswered prayers!” There ought to be no unanswered prayers. I make bold to say that to the man who has learned the true secret of prayer there are no unanswered prayers. It is the man who has forgotten the true order who complains of unanswered prayers. It is the man who has thought more of his own personal desires than of the glory of God who complains that Heaven is deaf to his cry. The man who has learned to seek first the kingdom of God, who sincerely desires that God’s will may be done, that man never talks about unanswered prayers. All his prayers are richly and graciously answered. He asks and receives, he seeks and finds, he knocks and the door is always opened. If you put the emphasis in the wrong place by laying stress on your own desires, you will be troubled by “unanswered prayers”; but if you put God first, if you desire His will may be done, what-e’er betide, you will never miss the blessings, but you will find in your own experience the old promise still true, “If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.”

(3) Let me ask you to notice that this prayer is a _model as to Spirit_. After all, the power of a prayer depends not upon the words we use, but upon the spirit in which we offer it. “According to your faith it shall be unto you.” Our prayers may be beautiful in their language, correct in their theology, brief, simple, direct; and yet they may rise no higher than the ceiling of the room in which they are uttered. Yes! even this Pearl of Prayers, as uttered by some of us, may be nothing but a barren form. Before prayer becomes living, throbbing, vital, before it can take to itself wings, before it can reach the ear of God, we must pray in the spirit. And the spirit which alone gives prayer its efficacy and power, is the spirit of childlike confidence and trust. This Model Prayer is full of that spirit. Notice how it begins, “_Our Father_” That implies that we come to God as His children, believing He is readier to give good things to us than we are to give good things to our children. It is “after that manner”—in childlike faith in God’s love—that we are always to pray. The measure of our trust in God will be the measure of our power in prayer. “According to our faith it shall be unto us.” Christ’s prayers were prevailing prayers, because He had a perfect faith. He called God “Father,” and He honoured God’s Fatherhood by placing an absolute and utter trust in Him. We want the Christ spirit to make our prayers effectual. It is not the words that are wrong, it is not the order that is amiss, it is the faith that is lacking. If only Christ’s spirit of loving confidence in God were breathed into our prayers, how irresistible they would be. Dr. Stanford, in his little volume on the Lord’s Prayer, quotes those exquisite lines, in which George Macdonald applies the legend of how the boy Jesus once made some clay birds fly to the prayers men offer—

My prayer-bird was cold—would not away,
Although I set it on the edge of the nest,
Then I bethought me of the story old,
Love-fact, or loving fable, thou knowest best,
How, when the children had made sparrows of clay,
Thou mad’st them birds, with wings to flutter and fold;
Take, Lord my prayer in Thy hand, and make it pray.

Our prayers are often like those clay-birds. They do not rise. They are lifeless and dead. But how they would soar if only the spirit of Jesus, the spirit of childlike faith in God, were breathed into them! “Our Father,” the first words of the prayer, teach us the spirit in which we should pray. Is there anything we want more than faith, confidence, trust in God? If we are straitened at all, we are straitened not in Him, but in ourselves. If no mighty works are being done in our midst, it is not because God’s arm is shortened, it is because of our unbelief. We have not yet realised the meaning and the power of that word “Father.” We have not yet realised that He loves us with an everlasting love. We have not yet realised that He is willing to do for us exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think. So we are hungering when there is abundance within reach. We are weak when we might be strong. We are feeble when we might be resistless. We live at a poor, dying rate, when there is abundant life to be had for the asking. What do we need more than faith? A simpler trust in the power and love of God would make us irresistible. If we had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, we might say to the greatest mountain of difficulty, “Remove hence,” and it should remove, and nothing would be impossible unto us.

This prayer is the Model Prayer. It is a pattern which we are to imitate. And the pattern Man of Prayer was Jesus Himself. Prayer was His vital breath. After the labours of the day were over, Jesus was accustomed to steal away to some lonely hill, where He would spend the night in quiet, loving fellowship with God. Days of toil were followed by nights of communion, nights of communion prepared Him for days of toil. The example of Jesus enforces the Apostolic precept, “Pray without ceasing.” And Jesus illustrates also the blessing of prayer. What great answers were given to His petitions. As He was praying at His baptism, the heavens opened. As He was praying on the Mount, His countenance was altered, and His raiment became white and glistening, and there came to Him Moses and Elijah, to converse with Him and speak of His departure, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. As He was praying in the garden that last bitter night, there came an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. Yes; Jesus knew the comfort, the strength, the calm that only prayer can give! We may know them too. Let us be instant in prayer, and we, too, shall be brave and peaceful and strong, for it is as true to-day as it was when Isaiah penned the words, that they who wait upon the Lord renew their strength; they mount up with wings, as eagles, they run and are not weary, they walk and are not faint.

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“This is, we think, the best book Dr. Horton has written.”—_The
British Weekly._

=The Christ of the Heart, and Other Sermons.= By Z. MATHER. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s.

“One of the most readable collections of sermons that we have seen
for a long time. The style is lucid, limpid, and attractive.”—_The
Independent._

=Seven Puzzling Bible Books.= A Supplement to “Who Wrote the Bible?” By WASHINGTON GLADDEN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s.

=5/-=

=The Incarnation of the Lord.= A Series of Discourses tracing the unfolding of the Doctrine of the Incarnation in the New Testament. By CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, D.D., D.Litt. Large crown 8vo, cloth extra, gilt top, 5s.

“A scientific and stimulating examination of the New Testament data
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with those English readers who know his previous works.”—_The
Christian World._

=The Growing Revelation.= By AMORY H. BRADFORD, D.D. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s.

=Christianity and Social Problems.= By LYMAN ABBOTT, D.D. Crown 8vo, cloth, 5s.

“They are very carefully worked out and supported by a mass of
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=4/6= Net

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=4/6=

=The Christian World Pulpit.= Half-Yearly Volumes, cloth boards, 4s. 6d.

“A notable collection of the utterances of Protestant preachers on a
wide variety of subjects which many people will rejoice to ponder at
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=4/-=

New: =The Rosebud Annual for 1909.= The Ideal Book for the Nursery. Four coloured plates and one-half of the pages in colour. Handsome cloth boards, 4s. Coloured paper boards, varnished, 3s.

“A veritable treasury of the best of good things.”—_Liverpool
Mercury._

=Social Salvation.= By WASHINGTON GLADDEN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s.

“Dr. Gladden’s book is eminently sane; his subjects are not treated
in any academic spirit, but are viewed in the light of a long and
close experience with the problems dealt with.”—_The Literary
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=Tools and the Man.= Property and Industry under the Christian Law. By WASHINGTON GLADDEN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s.

“A calmly written, closely reasoned, and trenchant indictment of the
still prevalent dogmas and assumptions of political economy.”—_The
Speaker._

=Ruling Ideas of the Present Age.= By WASHINGTON GLADDEN. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s.

=Higher on the Hill.= A Series of Sacred Studies. By ANDREW BENVIE, D.D., Minister of St. Aidan’s, Edinburgh. Crown 8vo, cloth, 4s.

“A brilliant piece of writing.”—_Dundee Advertiser._

=3/6= Net

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=A Working Woman’s Life.= The Autobiography of MARIANNE FARNINGHAM. Large crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d. net.

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=Jesus and His Teaching.= By ERICH VON SCHRENK, Mag. Theol. Translated by J. Warschauer, M.A., D.Phil. Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d. net.

=The Atonement in Modern Thought.= A Theological Symposium. By Professor AUGUSTE SABATIER, Professor HARNACK, Professor GODET, Dean FARRAR, Dr. P. T. FORSYTH, Dr. MARCUS DODS, Dr. LYMAN ABBOTT, Dr. JOHN HUNTER, Dr. WASHINGTON GLADDEN, Dean FREMANTLE, Dr. CAVE, Dr. R. F. HORTON, Rev. R. J. CAMPBELL, Principal ADENEY, Rev. C. SILVESTER HORNE, Rev. BERNARD J. SNELL, and Dr. T. T. MUNGER. Cheap Edition. Large crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d. net.

“This interesting work.... Among the writers are men of great
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=3/6= Net

=Friars’ Lantern.= By G. G. COULTON, Author of “From St. Francis to Dante,” “Mediæval Studies,” &c. Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d. net.

=A Voice from China.= By GRIFFITH JOHN, D.D. Edin., Hankow. Large crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d. net.

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“A work of real spiritual and intellectual power.”—_Dundee
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=The Story of the English Baptists.= By J. C. CARLILE. Large crown 8vo, 320 pages, 8 Illustrations on art paper, 3s. 6d. net.

“Possesses a freshness and vivacity not always present in
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=The Courage of the Coward.= By C. F. AKED, D.D., Author of “Changing Creeds and Social Problems.” Crown 8vo, cloth boards, with Photogravure Portrait, 3s. 6d. net.

=The First Christians; or, Christian Life in New Testament Times.= By ROBERT VEITCH, M.A. Crown 8vo, cloth boards, gilt top, 3s. 6d. net.

DR. FAIRBAIRN expresses himself as “charmed” with the author’s
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_By J. BRIERLEY, B.A. (“J. B.”)_

New: =Religion and Experience.= By J. BRIERLEY, B.A., Author of “The Eternal Religion,” &c. Cheap Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d.

=The Eternal Religion.= By J. BRIERLEY, B.A., Author of “Ourselves and the Universe,” &c. Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d.

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=The Common Life.= By J. BRIERLEY, B.A., Author of “Problems of Living,” &c. Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d.

“Fluent, but thoughtful, essays on many aspects of life, written
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=Problems of Living.= By J. BRIERLEY, B.A., Author of “Ourselves and the Universe.” Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d.

“It is inspiring to come upon such a fresh and suggestive
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=Ourselves and the Universe: Studies in Life and Religion.= By J. BRIERLEY, B.A. Tenth Thousand. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

“We have not for a long time read a brighter, cheerier, or wiser
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=Studies of the Soul.= By J. BRIERLEY, B.A. Seventh Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

DR. HORTON says:—“I prefer this book to the best-written books I
have lighted on for a year past.”

_For other books by J. Brierley see page 5._

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New: =The Pearl Divers of Roncador Reef, and Other Stories.= By LOUIS BECKE, Author of “Tom Wallis,” &c. Large crown 8vo, cloth boards. Illustrated. 3s. 6d.

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=A Gamble with Life.= By SILAS K. HOCKING, Author of “To Pay the Price.” Large crown 8vo, bevelled boards, 3s. 6d.

One of the best stories written by this popular author.

=Burning Questions.= By WASHINGTON GLADDEN. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

=Changing Creeds and Social Struggles.= By C. F. AKED. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

“A brave book.”—_The Liverpool Mercury._

=G. H. R. Garcia.= Memoir, Sermons and Addresses. By Rev. J. G. HENDERSON. Crown 8vo, cloth boards, with photogravure portrait, 3s. 6d. net.

“We are grateful to Mr. Henderson for having prepared this memorial
of so daring and original a ministry.”—_Methodist Times._

=Gloria Patri; or, Our Talks About the Trinity.= By J. M. WHITON. Cloth, 3s. 6d.

=God’s Greater Britain.= With Two Portrait Groups, one showing Dr. Clifford and party “in miner’s attire.” Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

“It should be in the hands of all thinking men.”—_East Anglian Daily
Times._

=The Christ that is To Be: A Latter-Day Romance.= By J. COMPTON RICKETT, M.P. New Edition. Demy 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

=His Rustic Wife.= By Mrs. HAYCRAFT, Author of “A Lady’s Nay,” &c. Cloth boards, 3s. 6d.

“A fresh and very capable story.”—_Newcastle Daily Leader._

=Paxton Hood: Poet and Preacher.= With Photographic Portrait. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

=Family Prayers for Morning Use, and Prayers for Special Occasions.= Compiled and Edited by J. M. G. Cloth, pott quarto, 3s. 6d.

“We cordially recommend the volume to all who share our sense of the
value of family religion.”—_Willesden Presbyterian Monthly._

=Industrial Explorings in and around London.= By R. ANDOM, Author of “We Three and Troddles.” With nearly 100 Illustrations by T. M. R. WHITWELL. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

=Preaching to the Times.= By CANON HENSLEY HENSON. Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3s. 6d.

“Sound sense and scholarly solidity.”—_Dundee Courier._

“Earnest and eloquent discourses.”—_The Scotsman._

=The Dutch in the Medway.= By CHARLES MACFARLANE, Author of “The Camp of Refuge,” &c. With a Foreword by S. R. CROCKETT. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

=The Quickening of Caliban.= A Modern Story of Evolution. By J. COMPTON RICKETT, Author of “Christianity in Common Speech,” &c. Large crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

=New Points to Old Texts.= By J. M. WHITON. Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d.

“A volume of sermons to startle sleepy hearers.”—_Western Morning
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=Nineteen Hundred? A Forecast and a Story.= By MARIANNE FARNINGHAM, Author of “The Clarence Family,” &c. Crown 8vo, cloth boards, 3s. 6d.

“A pleasant and entertaining story and picture of life.”—_Methodist
Recorder._

_EMMA JANE WORBOISE’S NOVELS_

Crown 8vo, uniformly bound in cloth, 3s. 6d. each.

=St. Beetha’s.=
=Violet Vaughan.=
=Singlehurst Manor.=
=Overdale.=
=Grey and Gold.=
=Mr. Montmorency’s Money.=
=Nobly Born.=
=Chrystabel.=
=Millicent Kendrick.=
=Robert Wreford’s Daughter.=
=Joan Carisbroke.=
=Sissie.=
=Esther Wynne.=
=His Next of Kin.=

_AMELIA E. BARR’S NOVELS_

Crown 8vo, cloth extra, 3s. 6d. each.

=The Beads of Tasmar.=
=A Sister to Esau.=
=She Loved a Sailor.=
=The Last of the MacAllisters.=
=Woven of Love and Glory.=
=Feet of Clay.=
=The Household of McNeil.=
=A Border Shepherdess.=
=Paul and Christina.=
=The Squire of Sandal Side.=
=The Bow of Orange Ribbon.=
=Between Two Loves.=
=A Daughter of Fife.=

_For other books by this Author see pages 4 and 17._

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THE MESSAGES OF THE BIBLE

Edited by FRANK KNIGHT SANDERS, Ph.D., Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature in Yale University, and CHARLES FOSTER KENT, Ph.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and History in Brown University. Super royal 16mo, cloth, red top, 3s. 6d. a vol. (To be completed in 12 Volumes.)