02 - Meditation 2
MEDITATION II.
“HALLOWED BE THY NAME.”
WE are told that one of the most justly distinguished individuals of modern times, one of those who have contributed the most largely to extend the boundaries of human knowledge, I mean the great Sir Isaac Newton, never heard the name of God pronounced in his presence without respectfully raising his hat from his hoary and venerable head. Was it that this great master spirit, having penetrated farther than any other man into the boundless immensity of the works of God, having discovered and taught to the world the laws which govern the universe, knew of God only what is sublime and terrible in his being? and was this action, by which he testified his profound veneration, solely the fear of the creature before the Creator, or the trembling of a slave before his master? No, my brethren, for Newton was a Christian. The same man who had carried his observations and his calculations to the loftiest heights of the heavens and found God in his works, endeavored also to sound the depths of the Bible, and to find him in his Word. There he learned to know as a father, Him whom science had revealed to him as the infinite God. He had been taught then to say, “ Our Father, which art in heaven;” and the deep veneration which he manifested, on hearing 1 the name of God, only shows us that he could add, with Jesus Christ, “ Hallowed be thy name.” May we, my brethren, this day learn the same lesson. Oh! if we have felt an indescribable joy in hearing Jesus put into our mouths, whenever we approach the throne of grace, the name of Father, may we this day learn of him never to abuse that precious privilege by imposing upon ourselves by fatal delusions! It was with a consummate knowledge of our hearts, of our corruption, and of our wants, that the Lord, in the model of prayer which he has given us, after authorizing us to say, “ Our Father,” directed us immediately to add, “ Hallowed be thy name.”
Let us hear with attention, and as it were in the presence of Him whose name is holy, and who fills this place with his majesty, First, a few remarks on the “ Name of God,” and then a few observations on “ the hallowing of that Name,” shall severally occupy our thoughts on the present occasion. In the formation of languages, names, we apprehend, must have been intended not merely to hold the place of arbitrary and conventional sounds, but to designate some one or more properties of the objects to which they were applied. Thus, when God, as we read in the book of Genesis, caused all the animals which he had created for the furnishing of man’s abode to come to Adam, “ to see what name he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof;” no doubt man, endowed as he was with such noble faculties, did not proceed in an arbitrary manner to this nomenclature, but, on the contrary, affixed to each living creature, a name which contained a definition more or less clear and complete of its several properties. Among the Hebrews, at least, it was a constant practice to give a significant denomination to children, for example, and even to inanimate objects, and places distinguished for some remarkable event. And this is no more than what happens among men in the present day, when they are required to create a name for some object newly invented or discovered in the arts or sciences. The name, in such cases, indicates or describes the thing.
Taking a step further, we often find that in our minds we associate with a name an entire order of ideas, a whole world of thoughts and systems, which sometimes have changed the aspect of an age. Thus he who cites the name of Newton, recalls to the mind all that is most transcendant in the domain of physical science; he who pronounces the name of Luther, carries us back in thought to the stupendous religious, moral, and intellectual revolution of the sixteenth century; he who mentions Voltaire (if you do not shrink from such an association), summons up to his recollection the whole of that superficial, scoffing, and impious philosophy, which undermined the foundations of the eighteenth century. And observe, that not only does a name recall ideas to our mind, but it may sometimes make a powerful impression upon our heart. There are names inscribed upon the page of history, which we can scarcely utter without a shuddering of horror; there are others which we cannot pronounce without a feeling of emotion.
Further, a name may be the representative, the compendium of an immense power. Let the absolute sovereign of a mighty empire but inscribe his name, his signature upon an insignificant piece’ of paper; let him put this name into the hands of the obscurest subject in his dominions, and immediately this individual, hitherto without influence, can, by producing the name of which he is the depositary, issue his commands, with a certainty of being obeyed to the remotest extremity of the kingdom, wherever he shall send the expression of his will. The reason is, that the name which has been intrusted to him, is the representative of the whole power, and of all the prerogatives of sovereign majesty.
Woe to the man who shall despise that name!
Let us apply these remarks to our subject. Does it follow that, because in human affairs, words so well express ideas, names paint and represent things, it must be the same with regard to God also, that infinite Being, who is incomprehensible in all his perfections, and who fills all things with his immensity? Must not human languages fail in their endeavors to define him? And might not the same prophet who, addressing the worshippers of idol gods, defies all the art of man to represent the infinite essence, exclaiming, “ Whereunto will ye liken the Almighty, and unto what will ye compare Hun?” might he not also put forth this challenge to all the languages of men, and say, “ How will ye call the Almighty, and what name will ye give him?” To this question we shall in vain seek an answer among mankind; or, at least, if they have ever invented names for the Deity, they have been names which only represented impure divinities, made after the image and similitude of men. God was unknown, and the name cannot exist when the thing does not exist. It was necessary, then, that the name of God should come down from heaven, with the revelation of his perfections, as far as our languages could designate them, and our feeble understandings comprehend them. This is what God has condescended to do. He has revealed himself in his Word; he has taken a name; he has taught us to lisp it. Yea, as human words would not have been sufficient, and could not have furnished a name capable of representing God to us, the eternal Word (the real name of God) “ was made flesh” in Jesus Christ; because “ no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal him” that Son came to reveal to us the Father, to tell us his name, that is, his perfections, in a human language adapted to our weakness.
Since that time, my brethren, the name of God is known to us; since that time it has assumed a deep and important meaning; it expresses to us, like the human names of human things, the nature and perfections of the Being to whom it is applied. The eternity of God, his immensity, his power, his wisdom, his holiness, his justice, his mercy, his love, all have been clothed with an expression which is comprehensible to us, and which speaks alternately to our understanding, our conscience, and our heart.
Let God pronounce his glorious name, and we know who speaks to us. Does Moses, when commanded to go into Egypt to deliver the people of Israel, express a wish to be invested with a power, in virtue of which he shall command even the kings of the earth? “ Go,” saith the Almighty, “go and tell them, / AM hath sent me!” Does God wish to give his people an idea of the mercy and love with which he will deliver and redeem them from every kind of bondage? “For my Name’s sake, for my Name’s sake,” saith he, “will I do it!!!” Would Christ lay on his disciples a command to bestow on all that should believe through their word, all the blessings and privileges which flow from the perfections of our God? “Baptize them,” he says, “ in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Would the apostles set forth to the enemies of the Saviour his power and love, displayed in the healing of a man that had been a cripple from his mother’s womb? His Name, they say, through faith in his Name, hath made this man strong, whom ye both see and know! Indeed, such was, on this occasion, the whole secret of their power.
“ In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Would the same men give us to know, and make us love that Name in which God has included all the mercy and love of heaven that Name which represents the whole mystery of our redemption? “ Father!” say they to us, or “ is there any other Name under heaven, given amongst men, whereby we must be saved?”
We might multiply these quotations without end; the Bible is full of the Name of God, or rather, as we have just seen, his Name is the sum, an epitome of all the revelations of the Divine perfections. But what is it for us to “ hallow the name of God?” And what do we ask of God, when we say, in the words of Jesus Christ, “ Hallowed be thy name!”
Here, doubtless, it is unnecessary to observe, that we do not ask of God to render his Name holy. That Name, an expression of his glorious perfections, is holiness itself. In the Bible, which, as we have seen, is a revelation of the Name of God, the word holy is an epithet which most, frequently accompanies the great name of the Almighty. And in heaven, we hear the angels of God, who cover their faces before him, crying one to another, “ Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” Yes, God is holy, all his perfections are holy, his name is holy! But we are defiled, and what we ask of God in this prayer is, to sanctify his name in our understandings and in our hearts, by enabling us to know, and to confess as holy, his great Name, and then in our whole life, by giving us feelings and a conduct in every thing conformable to the holiness of that Name. Let us enlarge upon these two ideas. To hallow or sanctify any object, in the language of the Bible, is to acknowledge and declare it to be holy or sacred, and in virtue of this principle, to set it apart to separate it from everything common or denied. Thus the vessels of Divine service, in the temple at Jerusalem, were sanctified; that is to say, it was expressly forbidden, as a criminal profanation, to use them for any ordinary purpose. It was said of the Sabbath-day, “Keep the Sabbath day, to sanctify it;” that is, separate it from the other days of the week, for holy purposes. The people were required to sanctify themselves on solemn festivals; that is, they were to renounce all the occupations and habits of every-day life.
Well, then, my brethren, the Name of our God, that Name which God in his great mercy hath revealed to us, that Name which includes in it all his perfections, that Name, to be sanctified by us, must, first of all, be acknowledged and declared to be holy. We must then set it apart and separate it, with reverential fear and love, from all profane or light discourse; from all that religious phraseology, which proceeds only from the lips, and not from the heart; from all vain and unholy thoughts; and from all presumptuous and unbelieving speculations. The pious Jews had such a feeling of this duty, such a high idea of the holiness of God’s Name, that they never pronounced the sacred- name of Jehovah, for fear of profaning it.* As for us, * In the Hebrew Bibles, this name is always written “with the vowels of the word Adona’i: Lord, and the Jews pronounced this word instead of the majestic name of Jehovah, which expresses Being, absolute and independent existence.
Hence all the versions in modern languages, except the we are no longer, it is true, under this law of terror, but under the law of grace; so that vre can address God “ in Spirit and in truth.”
Christ has not only permitted us to name our God, but he has taught us to call him “ Our Father;” and in this word, he includes all the condescension, all the tenderness, and all the love, which a child can find in his father. We have already seen, in a preceding discourse, that there is not a sinner under heaven that may not, find in this Name an abundance of compassion and grace, exceeding a thousand times all his defilements; and upon which, if indeed he have become a child of God, he may throw himself with the unreserved confidence and composure of a saved sinner. But does it follow that this Name, thus revealed, is no longer holy? Does it follow that, because God is love, he is no longer holiness? Does it follow that, because we have the privilege of calling him “our Father,” we are no longer required to recognise him as a God thrice holy in all his perfections? One would say so, I must confess, to judge from the tendency of the French, which has The Eternal (AEternel), have rendered this word by Lord. In this they have followed the Greek of the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate. age in which we live. For where, in point of fact, is the Name of God acknowledged as holy? where is it hallowed with all the perfection which it expresses? Where is it received as he has revealed it to us, and pronounced with profound feelings of veneration and love? Listen to the conversations of men, cast a glance at the innumerable publications, which are considered as an expression of the feelings and sentiments of society, study the predominant character of all kinds of literature, and what will you see in them? Where in the whole universe of ideas, thought, sentiments, and systems, will you find the sanctuary reserved for the abode of God’s holy Name? And, not to speak here of those schools of Infidelity, in which the name of God and all his perfections, which we ought to adore upon our knees, are filtered, evaporated, dried up one by one in the barren alembic of proud and blinded reason, in which the worm of the earth demands of his God an account of the Name which he has appropriated to himself, and denies the character which he has revealed, and the authority of him who has brought it down to us from heaven; without speaking here of, those productions of the human mind, in which the Name of God and of his Christ is shamelessly dragged through the mire of a polluted imagination; without speaking of these things, consider attentively, O ye who desire to know as holy, and to sanctify, the Name of God! I say, consider attentively the tendency which the present age would impress even upon piety itself; examine with care what is called in our day religious literature; open the books of devotion which abound, especially in Germany works composed to meet the taste of a generation which finds it more convenient to deny the sacredness of God’s name, that it may be released from the necessity of hallowing it. There you will see, that the knowledge and adoration of the holy Name of God has given place to that of a divinity stripped of all holiness and of all justice a God, the creation of man a God who has no horror of sin, a God who punishes not the sinner, who holds the guilty innocent, who regardeth not iniquity; there you will see, that man, to be consistent, after having made of God a father like Eli, too weak to punish his children, rejects * with disdain the great means of salvation and pardon which the Gospel points out to us in the cross of the Saviour and in his work of expiation; there the deep, serious, and holy principles, which rest upon the knowledge of the God of the Gospel principles of life and sanctificatiori, which detach man from himself, from sin, and from the world have given place to a vapid sentimentalism, a vague form of religion, without energy, power, or life, which soothingly lulls the soul in its favorite delusions, and teaches it to regard its sins merely as infirmities inseparable from human nature, which God is too good to notice. Unbelieving and effeminate generation, unmanly age, which, because it has no longer the will nor the strength “of mind to become Christians, secularizes Christianity; because it no longer wishes to rise to the God of the Bible, brings down God to itself, or rather creates a new divinity, and cries, “ This be thy God, O Israel, to go before thee!” And now, let that man of God, who, even in the court of a profligate and avaricious prince, “ reasoned of temperance, righteousness, and judgment to come,” let him come forward and tell the men of our generation, that “ the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;” that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord;” let the Son of the carpenter come and tell our age, that “ except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;” that the broad road leadeth to destruction, “ and many there be that walk therein; that beyond the tomb, there may be “ weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth;” and without any doubt these men, could they speak thus without being recognised by their Galilean tongue, would be rejected and ranked among those gloomy fanatics of former times, who are no longer deemed worthy to be named in our enlightened age, and to whom is denied even the privilege of common sense!
Thus, take away from the Bible the knowledge of God’s holy Name, as he has revealed it to us, and his fear disappears with the truth; you open the flood-gates to a torrent of the most pernicious errors; and the name of God is unhallowed and blasphemed! O my God! “ let thy Name be hallowed!”
But, you will say, is this hallowing of God’s name of which you speak, incompatible with the feeling of his love? Does it banish from the Bible and from revelation the tender mercy of a God “ who hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his wickedness and live?” The love of God, my brethren! his tender mercy! Have we not just called him by a name which supplies an answer to this objection? Ah! would that we had never occasion to bring into this pulpit any other subject! Would that it were given to us never to come up into this place but with a heart full of that love! “Would that we could find in that love accents so full of warmth, that they might touch, penetrate, and captivate your souls! But this love, which we are so far from denying, this love, which we rejoice to set forth under every form and every aspect, in addressing sinners who stand so much in need of it, how has God manifested it to us? Is it in denying the holiness of his name, and annihilating the rights of his justice, or of some other of his Divine perfections which his name reveals? On the contrary! Never did God in a more striking manner hallow his Name than in the very means by which he manifested his love. “Herein,” saith St. John, “is manifested the love of God to us, in that he sent his Son into the world to be a propitiation for our sins i” Yes, my brethren, on Golgotha, on the cross, on which the Saviour died as an atonement for sin, the name of God and his perfections, his holiness and his justice which condemn sin, his love and his mercy which save the sinner, have been, honored and hallowed more than anywhere else; there we see that God hateth sin and yet hath pity on those that have committed it; there is written in indelible characters, “ Holiness unto the Lord!” There we read, “ Woe to the man that taketh occasion from the goodness of God to sin against him!” and at the same time, “ Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” In a word, there is proclaimed, for the instruction of ages, in louder accents than in any other of his works, the words of my text: “ Hallowed be thy Name!”
Thus according to the Gospel, God has hallowed the whole and every part of his Name. His love is holy, his mercy is holy, as well as all his other perfections. This, my brethren, is sufficient to prove, that even the pardon which he grants, must be a sanctifying pardon; and this leads us to speak of a second manner in which the Name of God must be hallowed in us, I mean, by our conduct, by our thoughts, our words, our works, and our whole life.
Alas! my brethren, is it not true, that under this second point of view, the Name of God is no better hallowed in the world, than with regard to the knowledge of that sacred Name? In vain does the Bible cry to those who call on the Name of God, who pretend to invoke him as their heavenly Father, and who bear the Name of Christ, calling themselves Christians: “ If ye call upon the Father, who without respect of persons, judged! every man according to his works, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.” In vain does God say to them, “Be ye holy, for I am holy!?” In vain does he say again, “ Sanctify the Lord your God in your hearts!” this Name, notwithstanding, is associated, by the great mass of those who call upon it, and upon whom it has been invoked from their baptism, with such conduct and such works, that were it not holy in itself, and inaccessible to the hand of man. which denies every thing that it touches, it would have been polluted by man; and the world, which knows not God, instead of seeing his holiness in the holiness of those who invoke it, instead of being led by beholding these good works, to “glorify the Father which is in heaven,” is led on the contrary, to blaspheme a name which is defiled and profaned by the very persons who ought, by their whole life, to hallow it. God said to the Jews, the unfaithful depositaries of the precious knowledge of his name; “ Through you, my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles!” O my beloved brethren! where is the remedy for so great an evil? in the very prayer upon which we are meditating. Christ did not put it into our hearts and upon our lips to be a vain form or a mere deception; God is willing and ready to hear it. Let us pray, pray with sincerity, and from the bottom of our hearts, “ Hallowed be thy Name!” hallowed, acknowledged, adored by those who as yet know it not, but worship the works of their own hands and the creatures of their own imaginations. In every region of the world where the glorious sun sheds his light, let the holy Name of God be proclaimed; let it be embraced with fear, with joy, and with delight! Let it be hallowed by those who disregard, pervert, or desecrate it! Let it be hallowed by those who blaspheme it by mixing it up with the pollutions of their life, instead of setting it apart by the holiness of their conduct, and by their renunciation of the world and of sin! Let it be hallowed in our hearts, in our thoughts, in our actions, and in our whole life!
Oh let there not be in our hearts, either thoughts, or affections, or desires, which we may not sincerely associate with the holy Name which we invoke! Let there not be upon our lips, words of which we would have reason to be ashamed, if they were to meet there the holy Name of God! Let there not be in our lives, actions, or works, anything which we could not undertake in the Name of our God! If our hearts be not sufficiently upright before God to ask of him such a sanctification of his Name by us and in us, with a sincere desire to be heard, whatever sacrifices it may cost us, whatever self denial it may require of us, then let us cease to regard ourselves as his children, let us cease to address to him this prayer! for whosoever saith to God,- “ Our Father, which art in heaven,” must also be able to add, “ Hallowed be thy Name!” And you, especially, Christian brethren, whom God has called to the. knowledge of himself, you to whom he has given repentance unto life.” you whom he has graciously led to seek salvation simply and entirely in Jesus, the Saviour of sinners, remember that you, above all, are called upon thus to pray, and thus to hallow the Name of your God. Ah! may you never forget, that it is from you God expects the sanctification of his Name in the midst of the present generation; that it is into your hands he has committed the standard of truth and of holiness, to hold it up before the eyes of all; that you, according to the word of Jesus, ought to be “ the light of the world, the salt of the earth, a city set upon a hill, which cannot be hid.” And if you lower this sacred standard into the dust before the errors and prejudices of the age, who will lift it up 1 If you defile it with the pollutions of the world, who will hallow it? If you put this light “ under the bushel,” who will make it shine forth in the midst of darkness? “If the salt have lost its savor wherewith shall it be seasoned?” Instead of counteracting and preventing corruption, it is only fit to be “cast out and trodden under foot of men.” If you be “ conformed to this world,” if you hallow not the Name of God, who will hallow it? Your privileges are great, but great also is your responsibility. “ Unto whom much is given, from them shall much be required.”
If, my brethren, this work of sanctification appear to us impossible; if it appear as much above our weakness as heaven is above the earth. Let us remember I must repeat it, let us remember, for our encouragement, that the words upon which we are meditating are a prayer, a prayer taught us by Him who is to answer it. And that we maybe enabled to offer it up humbly and sincerely, let us frame our whole Christianity and our whole piety after the knowledge of God’s Name, as revealed to us in the Bible.
Let us banish from us that cowardly fear, yea, that dread of knowing God as he is in all his perfections! And if that knowledge produce in us an involuntary feeling of fear, very natural to a sinner before God, Oh! let us go to Calvary, that our souls may be steeped and invigorated in that depth of love and holiness, in that ocean of grace, more vast still than justice, and which, “ where sin abounded doth yet much more abound.”
Church of God! you whom God permits to call him by the Name of Father, were you a thousand times more weak, more miserable, than you are; had you a thousand times more temptations to overcome, conflicts to sustain, and fatigues to endure, if ye be sincere, if it be in the name of Jesus that you pray, fight, and suffer, be confident, for he hath declared it, “His strength shall be perfect in your weakness.” Church of the Lord! put on the strength of thy God, and hear and hold fast the immutable promise of him who hath commanded thee to say to him, i: Hallowed be thy Name /” “ Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy Name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. I will sanctify my great Name which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that 1 am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments to do them.’“
O God of truth! fulfil thy promises! fulfil them with respect to this Church, and to us all, in us all, and throughout the world; let thy great name “ be hallowed.” Amen.