"After this manner" . Our Father.^ [8] II THY KINGDOM COME ** Thy kingdom come. Thy will be donein earth, as it is in heaven. THIS petition expresses the true spiHtof communion with the Father. Noone can consistently come to the Fatherin prayer who is not desirous first of all forthe Father^ s Kingdom to come. This desire,as we shall see, will affect and must affectall subsequent petitions. But what did Jesus mean by the King-dom of God ^ ? The explanation is rightbefore us in the repetitional but illuminatingclause, Thy will be done in earth, as it isin heaven.^ Let us try to imagine the con-
"After this manner" . Our Father.^ [8] II THY KINGDOM COME ** Thy kingdom come. Thy will be donein earth, as it is in heaven. THIS petition expresses the true spiHtof communion with the Father. Noone can consistently come to the Fatherin prayer who is not desirous first of all forthe Father^ s Kingdom to come. This desire,as we shall see, will affect and must affectall subsequent petitions. But what did Jesus mean by the King-dom of God ^ ? The explanation is rightbefore us in the repetitional but illuminatingclause, Thy will be done in earth, as it isin heaven.^ Let us try to imagine the con-dition of heaven upon the earth. The central, controlling power in thisheaven will be the God whom Jesus taught;not the Jehovah of a single race, but theFather of all men ; not a distant, extraneousGod coming only occasionally to the earthin miraculous visitation, but the ever-present, immanent God manifesting himselfin the development of the fruit from the seed,of the man from the infant, of civilization[9] ^^^^^^^^^. THY KINGDOM COME from savagery ; the God whose other nameis Love 5 the God who is Our Father. The world ruled by this God of love mustbe peopled with beings worthy of that love,—with men, who to be worthy of love mustalways be capable of choice, who must alsobe self-respectiug, and who must always bepressing onward towards their best self-developmeut. There will be competition in this heavenupon the earth, for we have made a sadmistake if we have confused competitionwith the selfishness of competition. When aman succeeds in getting ahead of some otherman, he has leally accomplished but little,perhaps notliiug at all; for doubtless in hisnatural endowments he is much superior tothe one he has outdistanced. It is onlywhen a man succeeds in getting ahead ofhimself that he has accomplished anythingworth while. The competition which cre-ates strong men, manly men, virile men,is self-competition. The heaven upon theearth will be peopled by men who are com-peting with
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