carry us deeper into the shadow and the darkness, each to present a
darker aspect of what human life really is; and now that we have reached
the last, we have an all-comprehensive cry which holds within its
meaning every ill that flesh is heir to.

But seeing that we have to do with a prayer, we have also to do with a
prophecy. We know that if we ask anything according to His will, He
heareth us, and therefore the sadder the want which is expressed, the
fuller of hope is the prayer. This petition gives a dark picture of
human wants, but whatsoever thing we pray about or against, we thereby
profess to believe to be contrary to God's will, and to be certain of
removal by Him; and when our Lord commanded us to say 'Our Father, ...
deliver us from evil,' He gave us the lively hope that all which is
included in that terribly wide word should be swept away, and that He
would break every yoke and let His oppressed go free. The whole sum of
human sorrow is gathered into one petition, that we may all feel that
every item of it is capable of attenuation and extinction; and so our
prayer, in the very clause which seems to sound the lowest depth, really
rises to the loftiest height, and the words which sound likest a wail
over all the misery that is done under the sun, have in them the notes
of triumph. 'The sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest
thought.' The most jubilant and confident prayer is that which feels
most keenly the burden of evil, and 'falling with its weight of sins
'upon the great world's altar-stairs,' cries to God for deliverance.

Consider, then:--

I. The width of this petition.

What is evil?

Well, we leave God to decide what it is, but also we have no reason that
I can see for limiting the impressive width of the word. It is a
profound insight into the nature of evil which, in our own language and
in other tongues, uses one word to express both what we call sin, and
what we call sorrow. And I know not why we should suppose that our Lord
does not include both of these here. There is what we call physical
evil, pain, sorrow, meaning thereby whatever wars against our well-being
and happiness. There is what we call moral evil, sin, meaning thereby
whatever wars against our purity. Both are evil. Men's consciences tell
them so of the one. Men's sensibilities tell them so of the other.

You cannot sophisticate a man into believing that he is not suffering
when his flesh is racked or his heart wounde