.-The division of the prayer is usually made into (1) address, (2) petitions, (3) doxology (omitted from the approved critical Greek text and the Revised Version).-The petitions are seven according to Augustin, Luther, Bengel, Tholuck, etc: six (the two last being combined as one) according to Chrysostom, Reformed catechisms, Calvin, Schaff, etc. The petitions are divided into two groups (Tertullian) or tables (Calvin).-The contents of the first three petitions concern the glory of God; of the last four, the wants of men. In the first group the pronoun is thy, and the direction of the thought is from heaven downwards to earth; in the second group it is us, and the direction of the thought is from earth upwards to God.-The numbers, in view of their significance in the Old Testament, 3, 4, 7, are not an uninteresting item. Tholuck says: "The attention of the student who has otherwise heard of the doctrine of the Trinity will find a distinct reference to it in the arrangement of this prayer. In the first petition of each group, God is referred to as Creator and Preserver; in the second as Redeemer; in the third as the Holy Spirit."-The Lord's Prayer is more than a specimen of prayer: it is a pattern. Different views are held concerning its liturgical use, which can be traced back to Cyprian and Tertullian, and now farther still, to the Teaching of the Apostles, which, after giving the prayer, says, "Thrice a day pray thus." It also gives (ix.) a form of prayer to be used after the Eucharist. Of its abuse Luther says, "It is the greatest martyr."-It is not a compilation, although similar or the same, petitions may have been in use among the Jews. The simplicity, symmetry of arrangement, depth and progress of thought, reverence of feeling, make it, indeed, the model prayer,-the Lord's Prayer. Tertullian calls it breviarium totius evangelii (so Meyer).
30 Isa. i. 2.
31 Ps. lxxxii. 6.
32 Mal. i. 6.
33 John i. 12.
34 Rom. viii. 15-23 and Gal. iv. 1-6.
35 Patrem quisquis appellare potest, omnia orare potest (Bengel).
36 "The address puts us into the proper attitude of prayer. It indicates our filial relation to God as `Father
0' (word of faith), fraternal relation to our fellow-men (`our,
0' word of love), and our destination of `heaven
0' (word of hope)."
37 Ps. xxxiv. 18.
38 Gen. iii. 19.
39 1 Cor. iii. 17.
40 Ps. lxxvi. 1.