We have seen pictures in which no regard whatever has been paid to the laws of perspective, and in which, as the consequence, the mountain has appeared as small as the men, the men as large as the mountain. These have been objects of amusement, but not of admiration. Unfortunately, there was nothing either amusing or admirable in these practical pictures of piety which the Pharisees were drawing, wholly out of perspective, in the time of our Lord. In them were -

I. OBJECTS OF GROSS EXAGGERATION. Our Lord pointed out the exaggerated importance which they attached to the outward, to the bodily, to the minute. They made everything of religious observances and customs. To wash the hands after coming from market, before eating bread, was to them quite a serious obligation, which they would on no account neglect; to tithe the small herbs that grew in their garden was to them a sacred duty, which they took pains to observe; to make the outside of their culinary vessels clean was a rule by no means to be forgotten; to carry no smallest stick on the sabbath day was a very sacred law, etc. These things, and such things as these, were made the staple of their religion; their piety was composed of small observances, of conformity to prescriptions and proscriptions which only touched the Outside and not the inner sanctuary, which only affected the body and not the soul; they made everything of that which was only of very slight importance; they exaggerated the minute until these became misleading and practically false.

II. OTHER OBJECTS FATALLY OVERLOOKED OR SLIGHTED. These were:

1. Inward purity. What did it matter if some cups were not quite clean? Something certainly, but very little comparatively; it was a matter of infinitesimal consequence. But it mattered much that their "inward part," their soul, was "full of ravening and wickedness." If they were themselves corrupt, no ceremonial cleanness would avail them. It is of infinite consequence to any man that he should be "all glorious within;" that there should be truth and purity "in the inward parts," in the deep recesses of the soul. It is the pure in heart alone that can see God and that can enter his kingdom.

2. Charity; a kind heart showing itself in a generous hand. Whoso has this disposition to pity, to heal, to help; whoso spends himself in endeavors to do good, to lighten the burdens of the afflicted, to brighten the path that lies in shadow; - this man is one to whom "all things are clean." He who is earnestly concerned to mitigate the sorrow of some bleeding heart, or to extricate some fallen spirit from the cruel toils of vice, or to lead some weary wanderer from the desert of doubt into the bright and happy home of faith and love, - he is not the man to be "greatly moved" because he carries a speck of dust upon his hands, or because a utensil has not been washed the proper number of times in a day.

3. Rectitude. The Pharisees passed over "judgment;" but they should have given to this a front place. To recognize the righteous claims of men on our regard, on our considerateness, on our fidelity, on our truthfulness, - is not this a very large part of any piety that is of God, commended by him and commending us to him?

4. The love of God. This also the Pharisees slighted. But it was of the very first importance. Their Law laid stress upon it (Deuteronomy 6:4, 5). It is the heritage and glory of manhood (see homily on Luke 10:27). To make little of this was so to misrepresent as to lead into ruinous error. Purity, charity, rectitude, the love of God, - these are the precious things which make man great, worthy, dear to God his Father. - C.

In the Revised Version the translation is — "Give for alms those things that are within," and this preserves the point of the saying, which is obscured in the rendering of the Authorized Version. Our Lord had been invited to dinner by a certain Pharisee, and had sat down to meat without the customary ritual ablutions. In the eyes of His host He sat there defiled by His refusal of the outward cleansing; and it was to teach the lesson that purity must be born within the soul and cannot come to it from without, that He spoke these words.

I. In ONE SENSE THIS PRECEPT MAKES CHARITY EASIER RATHER THAN MORE DIFFICULT. We do not all possess the things which are without — money, influence, rank, and the patronage they bring with them; and if Christ had made charity to consist in the bestowal of such things He would have made charity an impossible virtue to a large number of His disciples. But when Christ enlarges His definition of charity, when He says almsgiving does not only consist in giving money or giving anything that is external, but in giving the "things that are within," He certainly seems to open this royal road to all who choose to enter it, for lives there the man so poor as to be unable to give a tear, a look, a kindly word, a touch of brotherly sympathy to his fellow-man?

II. Yet it needs hut a moment's thought to discover that INSTEAD OF THIS COMMAND MAKING ALMSGIVING EASIER, IT REALLY MAKES IT MORE DIFFICULT. For which is the easier, to give what you may have in your purse to the poor, or to give yourself; to bestow the coin that is hardly missed, or to bestow your thought, sympathy, personal interest on some sad case of misfortune and suffering?

1. Among the "things that are within", we may certainly count the manner in which charity is bestowed. As John Morley remarks, "It is not enough to do good; one must do it in a good way." There is more real value, both to God and man, in a little gift given in a good way, given with willingness, with cheerfulness, with gratitude for the privilege of giving, than in a great gift flung out from a stony heart, like honey out of the rock.

2. But manner is not everything. Sympathy is more than manner; and of all the inner sources of wealth which confer value on our alms, sympathy is the chief. It is one thing to give a sovereign to a a poor widow overwhelmed with trouble; it is another thing to give ourselves, our time, our sympathy, to help to lift her to a happier life, and to make her feel there is one heart that cares for her. A little while ago a poor lost girl lay dying on some filthy straw in a London slum. I know not whether any relief had been sent from the great houses near by, but if it had been given it had not touched her heart or brought hope to that darkened life. One day a Christian lady heard of the dying girl, heard the sad story of her life, and mounting the rickety stairs that led to her miserable room, found her out. She went to her side. Her first act was to stoop down and kiss her. That womanly act — that Christlike act, rather let me say, the pure touching and loving the impure — brought a flood of cleansing tears to that girl's face; that act saved a lost soul. It was giving for alms of the "things that were within."

3. Once again, in illustration of the inner wealth which we are to bestow on others, there is our personal service in the relief of suffering, or the increase of human joy, or the saving of the lost. Neither the manner of almsgiving nor the sympathy of the heart is enough. We must do good as well as be good. From the service of God, as expressed in the service of man, there is no exemption. You may pay a substitute to take your place in the conscriptions of earth; in the war of God against sin and suffering and ignorance, there is no vicarious service. Christ gave Himself for us; and He asks us to give ourselves to Him and to His service on earth. The Church of Christ will never save the world until, following its Divine Lord, it goes out into the dark places of the earth to seek and to save that which is lost. There is no Christian charity worth the name without sacrifice. Its lowest form is the sacrifice of money; its highest is the sacrifice of ourselves — the giving without murmuring or grudging our best for the service of God in the service of man.

4. I cannot omit from the "things that are within," the inner life of Christ which He has imparted to the soul, the gospel of His redeeming love, which has made us what we are. Christ expects you to speak for Him, to be a gospel to those who know Him not. There is a preaching more eloquent than any sermon from the pulpit, and that is the message spoken, not by the minister, but by each individual Christian in his own life in the fitting season.

(G. S. Barrett, B. A.)

Instead of "such things as ye have," the words ought rather to be rendered, "give alms of that which is within the cup and platter," i.e., of their contents: give food and refreshment to those who need it, and behold all things are clean unto you. This is one of those very many places which assign to alms-giving (of course if practised for the approval of God, and not for vainglory) an almost expiatory value (see Luke 16:9; Acts 10:4; Matthew 25:34, 35; 1 Timothy 6:17, 18). Godet paraphrases it well: "Do you wish, then, that these meats and these wines should not be defiled, and should not defile you? Do not think that it is enough for you carefully to wash your hands before eating; there is a surer means: let some poor man partake of them."

(M. F. Sadler.)

When we read this verse in connection with those that immediately precede it, the meaning of it appears to become clear and unquestionable. The Pharisees, in whose company our blessed Lord was sitting at meat, had remarked upon His not first washing before the dinner; for they themselves, and all the Jews, by their example, except they washed their hands often (or to the elbow) ate not, "holding the tradition of the elders" (Mark 7:3). Ye fools, do ye then hope to deceive God by cleansing the outside, while your reward hearts are thus full of all extortion and greediness? Nay, rather purify the inside; change ravening into mercy, and stinginess and grudging into almsgiving; and, behold, every part, both the inside and the outside, will become clean unto you. The praise of almsgiving, then, which is contained in this passage, seems to be that when it is duly done, it is better in the sight of God than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices; that it has a more cleansing efficacy than any ceremonial worship; that it is an inward cleanness, and as such is acceptable to God beyond any outward punctiliousness or exactness of service. I am led to select this topic of Christian instruction, my brethren, in addressing you to-day, in order to make a few observations on the benefits of the sacred offertory of the Holy Communion.

1. Let it be observed then, first, that the holy offertorial gift is a gift of peace. "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift" (Matthew 5:23, 24). How shall any one, then, who is unkind, or quarrelsome, or unforgiving, be able to offer the sacramental gift? Be it ever so small, it is the token and symbol of peace. Think, then, my brethren, whether, even in this respect only, the offertorial gift have not a very strong and important reference to your own lives and habits. Think whether there be not many ways in which you are tempted to infringe the law of Christian charity and courtesy towards one another; whether mutual kindness and considerateness, in great and small things, in matters of all sorts, in deeds, in words, in nicknames, in insults, in injury of feelings or property; whether such minute considerateness and kindly courtesy, be not a duty of which you greatly need to be sometimes reminded. And think again whether you are not apt sometimes, in treating those whom God has placed in a lower rank than yourselves in life, to offend against the same law.

2. Secondly, the offertorial gift is to be regarded as the first-fruit of alms. Whatever a man may give in alms between communion and communion is to be considered as all offered to God in the offering of this the first-fruits. Thus the little gift of the communion is, in fact, greater, even in amount, than it seems; for it represents all that a man Christianly gives for similar pious and charitable uses till his next communion. It is as the libation, sanctifying all the feast. As Christian alms then, the offertorial gift may be of most various and unconceived effects. Who knows what sorrows it may alleviate, what pains it may soothe, what wants it may supply? Who knows again how many thanksgivings it may awaken, how many prayers for blessings on the giver, what hearts it may touch to repentance? Who knows what consequences, never to be known on earth, but surely to be declared in the Judgment, a little gift with God's good blessing on it may produce beyond our power to trace or think? how it may bring glory to God from men on earth and from rejoicing angels in the highest heavens? Thus then, in the second place, I would urge you to prize the offertorial gift as opening to you the privilege of sacred alms-giving. But I have hitherto spoken only of the outward aspects of the offertorial gift. It is to the inward ones, if I may so express myself, that the text of St. Luke particularly refers, and to which I rather desire to direct your attention. Consider, then, how many ways there are in which men need that money, in its various uses, should be sanctified to them. You know in what remarkable terms the Holy Scriptures constantly speak of money: how they seem to identify it in a very particular way with evil and the powers of evil; how our Lord calls it by the name of the unrighteous mammon, and telling His disciples that they cannot serve God and mammon, seems to put the false god of money for the evil spirit; and to say that he and his dominion are so separate and distinct from God and His kingdom, that whosoever is subject to the one cannot possibly be subject to the other also. What, then, I desire to set before you is this: that you, too, in your present state of life are beginning to be tried in respect of money; that the false god of money, the unholy mammon, solicits you in various ways, as well as those whose pecuniary trials are larger and more notorious; that you have many such dangers even now, which you must learn to escape in these early days of springing Christian strength, and that the secret of your strength and safety is to be found in your communion offerings. There, while you dedicate the little first-fruits, you must intend to sanctify the whole. There, while you directly consecrate a little, you must resolve that there shall be none unconsecrated; that Christian devotion and duty shall accompany you even in the most distant and secular uses to which the rest may be applied; that the manner of spending the rest shall be appropriate to this beginning.

3. Consider, then, how entirely inconsistent with the offering of communion gifts is all incurring of debt. How can any person venture to approach the altar of God with what he pretends to be a gift, while, in fact, the very piece of money which he offers belongs of right to another, and is not his own? Let no one, then, think that he shall honour God by making an offering at the altar of that which he owes. It is, according to the expressive idiom of the Latin, "another man's money"; and little indeed can we think that God will be glorified, or that blessing will follow on the gift, which is rather an additional sin than a manner of sanctifying our other actions. And let all remember that to offer at the Holy Communion is, in fact, to forswear and abandon the practice of incurring debts.

2. Think, again, of wastefulness and luxury, and consider whether you are not commonly tempted to spend money, often very hardly spared by those who supply it to you, in self-indulgence of the most wanton and needless kinds.

3. Again, how impossible it should be for one who offers a gift at God's holy altar to be dishonest, whether that dishonesty be shown in the coarser and more unquestionable ways of theft or cheating, or in the less obvious, but not less guilty devices, whereby advantage is often unfairly taken, and some enriched to their neighbour's loss!

4. And again, as connected with the last topic, consider whether it be possible for those who desire to make their offertorial gift in true earnestness and devotion, to endeavour to gain money in gambling or betting of any kind. And who that ever saw the gambling passion strongly exhibited in any person can doubt of what manner of spirit such a man is while the passion is on him — the Spirit of God, or the spirit of mammon?

5. And, lastly, let me ask you whether it be possible for one who brings his offering to the altar, and desires thereby to make all his other pecuniary dealings clean unto him, to purchase any things that are themselves unlawful, whether they be unlawful by the universal law of God, or unlawful by the laws to which they are now subject, and which they must obey, as they hope to please God in the state of life to which He has called them? Plainly, it is not possible. It would be an attempt to give God a little and Satan much. These, then, are some of the ways in which the Holy Communion offering ought to be of benefit to you in these years: so true is it that if we would act up to all the precepts and directions of the Church we should find that they bear in many unexpected ways upon our lives, and cannot be neglected without much and heavy loss. The offertory gives the sacred Church rule of spending money; and there is no part of the subject, however remote or secular, to which the rule thence derived will not apply.

(Bishop Moberly.)

Abel, Beelzebub, Jesus, John, Jonah, Jonas, Ninevites, Solomon, Zachariah, Zacharias, ZechariahNineveh, Road to JerusalemAble, Alms, Behold, Charity, Clean, Dish, Gifts, Instantly, Needy, Poor, Rather, Within1. Jesus teaches us to pray, and that instantly;
11. assuring us that God will give all good things to those who ask him.
14. He, casting out a demon, rebukes the blasphemous Pharisees;
27. and shows who are blessed;
29. preaches to the people;
37. and reprimands the outward show of holiness.

Luke 11:41

     5449   poverty, remedies
     5503   rich, the
     8243   ethics, social

Luke 11:37-41

     7342   cleanliness

Luke 11:37-52

     5381   law, letter and spirit

Luke 11:37-54

     7552   Pharisees, attitudes to Christ

Luke 11:39-41

     5173   outward appearance

Luke 11:39-42

     8142   religion

February 10 Morning
The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single thy whole body also is full of light.--LUKE 11:34. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spint of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.--Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.--We all, with open face beholding …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

December 21. "Give us Day by Day Our Daily Bread" (Luke xi. 3).
"Give us day by day our daily bread" (Luke xi. 3). It is very hard to live a lifetime at once, or even a year, but it is delightfully easy to live a day at a time. Day by day the manna fell, so day by day we may live upon the heavenly bread, and live out our life for Him. Let us, breath by breath, moment by moment, step by step, abide in Him, and, just as we take care of the days, He will take care of the years. God has given two precious promises for the days. "As thy days so shall thy strength …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Praying Christ
'... As He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disclples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray.'--LUKE xi. 1. It is noteworthy that we owe our knowledge of the prayers of Jesus principally to the Evangelist Luke. There is, indeed, one solemn hour of supplication under the quivering shadows of the olive-trees in Gethsemane which is recorded by Matthew and Mark as well; and though the fourth Gospel passes over that agony of prayer, it gives us, in accordance with its ruling purpose, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

How to Pray
'And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught His disciples. 2. And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 3. Give us day by day our daily bread. 4. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

On the Words of the Gospel, Luke xi. 39, "Now do Ye Pharisees Cleanse the Outside of the Cup and the Platter," Etc.
1. Ye have heard the holy Gospel, how the Lord Jesus in that which He said to the Pharisees, conveyed doubtless a lesson to His own disciples, that they should not think that righteousness consists in the cleansing of the body. For every day did the Pharisees wash themselves in water before they dined; as if a daily washing could be a cleansing of the heart. Then He showed what sort of persons they were. He told them who saw them; for He saw not their faces only but their inward parts. For that ye …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

On the Words of the Gospel, Luke xi. 5, "Which of You Shall have a Friend, and Shall Go unto Him at Midnight," Etc.
1. We have heard our Lord, the Heavenly Master, and most faithful Counsellor exhorting us, who at once exhorteth us to ask, and giveth when we ask. We have heard Him in the Gospel exhorting us to ask instantly, and to knock even after the likeness of intrusive importunity. For He has set before us, for the sake of example, "If any of you had a friend, and were to ask of him at night for three loaves, [3340] when a friend out of his way had come to him, and he had nothing to set before him; and he …
Saint Augustine—sermons on selected lessons of the new testament

Upon Our Lord's SermonOn the Mount
Discourse 6 "Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: And thy Father, which seeth in …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

A Greater than Solomon
The second thought that comes to one's mind is this: notice the self-consciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He knows who He is, and what He is, and He is not lowly in spirit because He is ignorant of His own greatness. He was meek and lowly in heart--"Servus servorum," as the Latins were wont to call Him, "Servant of servants," but all the while He knew that He was Rex regum, or King of kings. He takes a towel and He washes His disciples' feet; but all the while He knows that He is their Master …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 27: 1881

The Ministration of the Spirit and Prayer
"If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?"--LUKE xi. 13. Christ had just said (v. 9), "Ask, and it shall be given": God's giving is inseparably connected with our asking. He applies this especially to the Holy Spirit. As surely as a father on earth gives bread to his child, so God gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. The whole ministration of the Spirit is ruled by the one great law: …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Because of his Importunity
"I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will arise and give him as many as he needeth."--LUKE xi. 8. "And He spake a parable unto them, to the end, they ought always to pray and not to faint.... Hear what the unrighteous judge saith. And shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry to Him day and night, and He is long-suffering with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily."--LUKE xviii. 1-8. Our Lord Jesus …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

A Model of Intercession
"And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and shall say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine is come unto me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him; and he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: I cannot rise and give thee? I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet, because of his importunity, he will arise and give him as many as he needeth."--LUKE xi. 5-8. …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

It Shall not be Forgiven.
And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven.--LUKE xi. 18. Whatever belonging to the region of thought and feeling is uttered in words, is of necessity uttered imperfectly. For thought and feeling are infinite, and human speech, although far-reaching in scope, and marvellous in delicacy, can embody them after all but approximately and suggestively. Spirit and Truth are like the Lady …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

The Magnificence of Prayer
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "A royal priesthood."--1 Pet. ii. 9. "I am an apostle," said Paul, "I magnify mine office." And we also have an office. Our office is not the apostolic office, but Paul would be the first to say to us that our office is quite as magnificent as ever his office was. Let us, then, magnify our office. Let us magnify its magnificent opportunities; its momentous duties; and its incalculable and everlasting rewards. For our office is the "royal priesthood." And we …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

The Geometry of Prayer
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity."--Is. lvii. 15. I HAVE had no little difficulty in finding a fit text, and a fit title, for my present discourse. The subject of my present discourse has been running in my mind, and has been occupying and exercising my heart, for many years; or all my life indeed. And even yet, I feel quite unable to put the truth that is in my mind at all properly before you. My subject this morning is what I may call, in one …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

The Heart of Man and the Heart of God
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us."--Ps. lxii. 8. EVER since the days of St. Augustine, it has been a proverb that God has made the heart of man for Himself, and that the heart of man finds no true rest till it finds its rest in God. But long before the days of St. Augustine, the Psalmist had said the same thing in the text. The heart of man, the Psalmist had said, is such that it can pour itself out …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

Jacob-Wrestling
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "Jacob called the name of the place Peniel."--Gen. xxxii. 30. ALL the time that Jacob was in Padan-aram we search in vain for prayer, for praise. or for piety of any kind in Jacob's life. We read of his marriage, and of his great prosperity, till the land could no longer hold him. But that is all. It is not said in so many words indeed that Jacob absolutely denied and forsook the God of his fathers: it is not said that he worshipped idols in Padan-aram: that …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

Moses --Making Haste
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "And Moses made haste . . ."--Ex. xxxiv. 8. THIS passage is by far the greatest passage in the whole of the Old Testament. This passage is the parent passage, so to speak, of all the greatest passages of the Old Testament. This passage now open before us, the text and the context, taken together, should never be printed but in letters of gold a finger deep. There is no other passage to be set beside this passage till we come to the opening passages of the New …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

Elijah --Passionate in Prayer
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "Elias . . . prayed in his prayer."--Jas. v. 17 (Marg.). ELIJAH towers up like a mountain above all the other prophets. There is a solitary grandeur about Elijah that is all his own. There is an unearthliness and a mysteriousness about Elijah that is all his own. There is a volcanic suddenness--a volcanic violence indeed--about almost all Elijah's movements, and about almost all Elijah's appearances. "And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

Job --Groping
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat."--Job xxiii. 3. THE Book of Job is a most marvellous composition. Who composed it, when it was composed, or where--nobody knows. Dante has told us that the composition of the Divine Comedy had made him lean for many a year. And the author of the Book of Job must have been Dante's fellow both in labour and in sorrow and in sin, and in all else that always goes to the conception, and the …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

One of Paul's Thanksgivings
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "Giving thanks unto the Father . . ."--Col. i. 12, 13. THANKSGIVING is a species of prayer. Thanksgiving is one species of prayer out of many. Prayer, in its whole extent and compass, is a comprehensive and compendious name for all kinds of approach and all kinds of address to God, and for all kinds and all degrees of communion with God. Request, petition, supplication; acknowledgment and thanksgiving; meditation and contemplation; as, also, all our acts and …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

Prayer to the Most High
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "They return, but not to the Most High."--Hos. vii. 16. THE Most High. The High and Lofty One, That inhabiteth eternity, whose Name is Holy. The King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the Only Wise God. The Blessed and Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords: Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto: Whom no man hath seen, nor can see. Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty: just and true are Thy …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

The Costliness of Prayer
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart."--Jer. xxix. 13. IN his fine book on Benefits, Seneca says that nothing is so costly to us as that is which we purchase by prayer. When we come on that hard-to-be-understood saying of his for the first time, we set it down as another of the well-known paradoxes of the Stoics. For He who is far more to us than all the Stoics taken together has said to us on the subject of prayer,--"Ask, …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

Reverence in Prayer
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? saith the Lord of Hosts."--Mal. i. 8. IF we were summoned to dine, or to any other audience, with our sovereign, with what fear and trembling should we prepare ourselves for the ordeal! Our fear at the prospect before us would take away all our pride, and all our pleasure, in the great honour that had come to us. And how careful we should be to prepare ourselves, in every possible …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

The Pleading Note in Prayer
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "Let us plead together."--Isa.xliii. 26. WE all know quite well what it is to "plead together." We all plead with one another every day. We all understand the exclamation of the patriarch Job quite well--"O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour." We have a special order of men among ourselves who do nothing else but plead with the judge for their neighbours. We call those men by the New Testament name of advocates: and …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray

Luke 11:41 NIV
Luke 11:41 NLT
Luke 11:41 ESV
Luke 11:41 NASB
Luke 11:41 KJV

Luke 11:41 Bible Apps
Luke 11:41 Parallel
Luke 11:41 Biblia Paralela
Luke 11:41 Chinese Bible
Luke 11:41 French Bible
Luke 11:41 German Bible

Luke 11:41 Commentaries

Bible Hub