erly press the request, "Lord, teach us to pray."
They observed in their Master while he prayed a strange separation from
the world, a conscious nearness to God, a delight in the Father's
presence, and a familiarity in communion with the Father, which seemed
to them like heaven upon earth. Fondly desiring to partake of these
blessed privileges, they besought their Master to show them the way. He
complied with their request. He taught them as one teaches children--he
put words in their mouths. Behold, the natural history of the Lord's
Prayer! Thus sprang that wonderful specimen-prayer, which serves at once
as the first lesson for babes beginning, and the fullest exercise of
strong men's powers.[67]

[67] This seems, however, not to have been the first occasion on
which he gave "The Lord's Prayer" to the disciples; it is embodied
in the Sermon on the Mount, which belongs to an earlier date. The
learners were defective both in understanding and memory; and the
Master gave them "line upon line."

Having taught his followers first by praying in their presence, and then
by dictating an example of prayer, he next gives them a specific lesson
on importunity and perseverance in praying. This lesson he has been
pleased to impart in the form of a parable--"And he said unto them,
Which of you shall have a friend," &c.

The picture refers to a simple, primitive condition of society, and
reveals corresponding social habits. We must abandon our own modern,
artificial view-point, ere we can comprehend and appreciate the facts on
which the parable is based. Some cottages, built near each other for
common safety, are owned and possessed by the cultivators of the
surrounding soil. Daylight has disappeared, and the inhabitants of the
hamlet, wearied with their toil, have all retired to rest. Meantime a
benighted traveller is threading his way to the spot expecting food and
shelter in the house of his friend. It is midnight ere he arrives; for,
footsore and weary, he has consumed many hours in accomplishing the
distance between his resting-place at noon and his destination for the
night. The inmates, hearing his knocking and recognising his voice,
forthwith open the door and hospitably receive the traveller.

But here a new difficulty occurs: the bread prepared for the household
had satisfied their wants for the day, but none remained over. The last
remnant had been consumed at the evening meal, and the family had
retired to r