The Weekly Pulpit Luke 11:4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation… — "There is none righteous, no not one." Such is the Word of the Book. It is true. Rather startling to the moral man, who believes that he is doing the right thing; paying his way; just to all; owing no man; paying 20s. in the f. But it is true. Examine yourselves, and see what answer your conscience will give. "I am no worse than my neighbours," says one. Yes, there is a good deal of this negative goodness in the world. People are very anxious to declare what they have not done. But are they doers of good? Few, if they speak the truth, will dare to say, as did the Jewish Rabbi, "If there are ten righteous people in the world, my son and I belong to the ten; and if five, we belong to the five; and if two, we are the two; and if one, I am the one." No, the Scripture is true — "There is none righteous, no not one." "We have left undone those things that we ought to have done, and have done those things we ought not to have done." "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." Well, then, we may pray — "Deliver us from evil." "Evil is ever present with us." Look around. It starts in loathsome guise from the pavements of our streets. It staggers from the glaring gin-palace at the corners of our highways. It rears its leprous form, sin-spotted, in palace as well as in hovel. It has left its mutilated wrecks in our hospitals and infirmaries. It lifts its hydra-head and horrifies us almost wherever we go. Nor need we go far to meet with it. It is near at hand. It is among our friends and acquaintances. It separates father from son, and son from father; mother from daughter, and daughter from mother. It comes between friends, who seemed made to cling together, and cleaves them asunder for the rest of their lives. It enters our very homes. It sits at our tables. It is at our firesides. Nay, it is in our very hearts. Well, then, may we pray — "Deliver us from evil." Evil has been said to be perversion of good. It has also been defined as absence of good. But if we accept either of these negative definitions, the question naturally presents itself — "What is good?" Goodness is obedience to God. Evil, then, must be disobedience. I. THE PRAYER IMPLIES THE NECESSITY OF DELIVERANCE. Sin springs from three causes. 1. From the influence of Satan or his emissaries over the hearts of men. Quaint old John Bunyan has well illustrated the power of Satan thus in his "Pilgrim's Progress." Christian is passing through the valley, close to the mouth of hell; and the evil ones step up to him, and whisper foul blasphemies into his ear, so insidiously that the poor pilgrim thinks they are the utterances of his own heart. May God deliver us all from this evil. 2. Another fruitful source of sin is our own lusts — our own passions. Man is, in his structure and his appetites, but a superior animal, moved by the same instincts, by kindred wants and wishes implanted in him, as in the inferior animals, for his own preservation, and the propagation of his species. But he has what is with them wanting — the moral control. God has breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Man has become a "living soul." And that God who created him with these passions gave him power to control them, a power fatally weakened and largely lost by a long course of inherited sin, but which can be strengthened by the heartfelt wish expressed in the prayer "Deliver us from evil." 3. Then there are the temptations afforded by the world. In our business, and in our pleasures, evil is continually present with us. The customs of business, the exaggerations of trade, the pushing manners of our own times, the very anxiety, laudable as it is, to be in the forefront in our walk in life, all these are fruitful sources of evil. And in the street, and in tram, and 'bus, and rail, on the way to and from our business, evil continually assails us, in the daily, habits and customs of those with whom we are brought in daily contact. Our pleasures too often lead us astray. Amusements, innocent in themselves, cause us to neglect the serious duties of life, and thus become positive evils. II. THE PRAYER IMPLIES THE NECESSITY OF DELIVERANCE FROM ANOTHER SOURCE, We cannot deliver ourselves. (The Weekly Pulpit.) Parallel Verses KJV: And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. |
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