Now let me pass on to ask, How may we hallow God’s name? You remember the old commandment “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Well, we must give a strict obedience to that old commandment if we are to hallow God’s name. There are men in our midst who can scarcely utter a sentence without dragging in the name of God. They interlard their speech with oaths, and blasphemously use the name of the sacred Majesty on High. Such men dishonour and degrade the Holy Name. But if we imagine that by abstaining from the vulgar and wicked habit of swearing we have “hallowed God’s name,” we are much mistaken. The Jews of old gave scrupulous obedience to the letter of the command, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” but they violated its spirit. They were so scrupulous that they would not even pronounce the sacred name. They passed it over in silence; they would never tread upon a piece of paper lying on the ground for fear the sacred name might be written upon it. And yet the Jew, while giving this strict literal obedience to the command, was all the while violating its spirit, and by his sin, his greed, his hypocrisy, was dishonouring that God whose name he feared to pronounce.
And for the matter of that, there are people amongst us who attach, as the ancient Jews did, a superstitious reverence to the name, who treat it as if it were a charm; who pay an idolatrous worship to the mere word. I have been occasionally to services in the cathedrals and parish churches of our land, and I have noticed that the men and women who attend them will bow at “the name.” Now I am not prepared to say that act is wrong, but I am quite prepared to say that the tendency of all such practices is to make people imagine that God is to be honoured and worshipped by mere externalisms. The danger of such a practice is that of making people imagine they have “hallowed God’s name,” by bowing in church. Brethren, it is all a very pitiful delusion. What is the use of bowing at the name, if people go home to be selfish and unkind, or to their business to be hard and over-reaching; or into society to be gossips and tale-bearers? In spite of the outward respect they pay, such people dishonour God’s name, drag it through the mire, and make it the jest of blasphemers and fools. “Hallowing God’s name” does not mean bowing when that sacred name is pronounced: it means honouring the character of God, as that character has been made known to us in Jesus Christ. This is a prayer not simply for the man to pray who is fighting against the blaspheming habit, it is a prayer that the best of Christians may well utter. Well, how shall we “hallow God’s name?”
(1) By cherishing worthy ideas of God. We are dishallowing (if I may be allowed to use the word) God’s name when we have unworthy ideas of His nature. We are sinning against this name “Father” when we think of God as harsh, unkind, cruel. Our new theology may have its defects and its dangers, but at any rate it “has hallowed God’s name.” It has made God more beautiful, more tender, more loving and lovable. Do you know I am not surprised that men broke out into revolt against the stern, hard, pitiless theology of a century ago. Theologians were attributing to God conduct that would be branded as hateful in men! Augustine and Calvin have laid the Church under vast obligations, but when Augustine and Calvin talked about little infants being damned, they were dishonouring God’s name, casting a slur upon His character, and sinning against His Fatherhood. There is an old painting in one of the Italian galleries which pictures God as shooting arrows at men, and Jesus catching them before they reached their mark. That picture represents the spirit of much of the old theology. Christ is represented as kind and pitiful, but God is represented as cruel, vengeful, vindictive. Brethren, that is a libel upon God. It is a cruel slander upon God’s character. “God is love.” “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That is the true picture. Refuse to believe in anything that contradicts that. Refuse to believe that God can ever be guilty of what would be accounted base in man. Believe with Whittier, that
“Nothing can be good in Him, which evil is in me.”
Say with Browning, “Thou, God, art Love. I build my faith on that.” You must cherish lofty, beautiful, gracious thoughts of God if you are to hallow His name. And go on to know the Lord. There are depths of love in God, unrealised as yet by the best of us. I know a valley in South Wales, which outwardly is not much to look at, but in its bosom are buried vast treasures, and men who have digged beneath the surface have found there boundless wealth. The deeper we penetrate into the nature of God, the more loving, the more gracious we shall find Him to be. Therefore, press on to know Him, until you come to feel that God is your passion and your joy, that in earth, in heaven, you want none but Him. By so doing, you will be hallowing God’s name.
But God’s name must be hallowed not only in thought, but in life. So I pass on to say that not only can you hallow God’s name by cherishing worthy thoughts of God, but you can hallow God’s name also—
(2) By the trustfulness of your life. Jesus has told us God’s name of “Father” by quietly trusting Him. You cannot dishonour a friend more than by refusing to trust him, can you? Distrust, suspicion, is an insult to friendship. A child cannot dishonour a father more than by fearing him, being suspicious about him, doubting his love. Fear, suspicion, distrust—these things are an insult to fatherhood. Are we never guilty of insulting the Fatherhood of God? I have heard people sometimes complain of God, of God’s dealing with them in Providence. They have spoken as if God used them hardly. They have spoken as if God had His favourites. They have spoken as if God had lost His love for them. What were they doing? Dishonouring God’s name, casting a slur upon His character, forgetting that His nature is love and His name is Father. Men who, in spite of Calvary, think God can be unkind, are doing insult to His love. If you want to hallow God’s name, trust Him to the uttermost; “rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” Job hallowed God’s name, when, amid the wreck of all his earthly fortunes, he said, “Even though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Paul hallowed God’s name when, looking at the cross, he said, “All things work together for good to them that love God.” Samuel Rutherford honoured God’s name when, writing from his prison in Aberdeen, he said, “I have nothing to say of my Lord’s cross but much good.” I have read of a child who in the midst of a storm at sea remained quiet, calm, and fearless, and who, on being asked how it was she was not afraid, answered, with the simplicity of childhood, “My father is the captain.” She honoured the name father by her perfect trustfulness. We find ourselves in storms sometimes—storms of trouble, storms of doubt, storms of bereavement and grief. It is in such storms we have the most glorious opportunities of hallowing God’s name. Let us ask Him for grace to honour His Fatherhood by trusting Him in the dark and cloudy day. Man, the child, cannot hallow God’s name of “Father” better than by a quiet, simple trustfulness.
(3) We can hallow God’s name of “Father” by our obedience. The Italian brigand will repeat the Pater Noster and then go on with his robbery. The Mussulman will interlard his filthiest talk with appeals to Allah. But nothing is so dishonouring to God as profession without practice. God will have obedience and not sacrifice. God was weary of the outward marks of respect the Jews paid Him, because all these outward marks of reverence were accompanied by gross and persistent disobedience of life. Does a child want to honour his father? He cannot do it better than by being an obedient child, by giving prompt and willing obedience to his father’s commands. Do you want to honour your Father in heaven? Obey Him. Obey Him in the home; obey Him in society; obey Him in your business; obey Him in your public and political life. Obey Him promptly, absolutely, willingly. That was how Jesus hallowed His Father’s name. From the earliest dawn of life He was about His Father’s business. It was His meat and drink to do God’s will. He was born at Bethlehem, He laboured in Galilee, He drank the bitter cup in the garden, He died upon the Cross—all because it was God’s will. He gave to His Father full, absolute, glad obedience, so that in His prayer He could say to God, “I have glorified Thy name,” and God could look upon Him and say, “Thou art My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” If you want to honour your Heavenly Father, obey Him! We try to put God off with a little outward respect, we bow at His name, we bend in prayer before Him, we sing hymns to His praise; but better than all your bowing and hymn singing and multiplied prayers is the daily obedience of the life. “If ye love Me,” says God, “keep My commandments.” To-morrow, in the shop and the office and the school and the home, make it your meat and drink to do the Father’s will and to finish His work; so will you, too, like your great Elder Brother, glorify God’s name, and like Him you, too, will one day hear God say, “Thou art My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
IV
The Second Petition
“Thy Kingdom come.”—Matt. vi. 10; Luke xi. 2.