Marcus Dods, D.D. (1834-1909)
(From) Encyclopedia of Living Divines
and Christian Workers
of all denominationsin Europe and America
Edited by Rev. Richard Schaff, D.D.,
LL.D.,
Rev. Samuel Macauley Jackon, M.A.
Rev. Samuel Macauley Jackon, M.A.
Third Edition, Revised and Enlarged.
Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1891
For the Methodist Episcopal Church, at
the Conference Office
Transcribed by Mary Katherine May of
QualityMusicandBooks.com.
Format
edited from the original by adding paragraphs to facilitate ease in reading.
DODS, Marcus, D.D.
(Edinburgh University, 1872), Free Church of Scotland; b. at Belford, Northumberland,
Eng., April 11, 1834; graduated M.A. at Edinburgh University, 1854; studied
theology at new College, Edinburgh, 1854-58; was licensed to preach the same
year, and for the next six years preached in various places, but was not
settled or ordained until he came to this present charge, the Renfield Free
Church, Glasgow, August, 1864. He has
been nominated for chairs of systematic theology and of apologetics in Free
Church College, Edinburgh
He has published
The Prayer that teaches to pray, Edinburgh, 1863, 5th ed.
1885; The Epistles to the Seven Churches, 1865, 2d ed. 1885; Israel’s Iron Age, London, 1874, 4th ed. 1885; Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ, 1877, 4th ed. 1886; Handbook on Haggai, Zechariah, and
Malachi, Edinburgh, 1879,
last ed. 1885; Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, London, 1880, last ed. 1884; Handbook on Genesis, Edinburgh, 1882; Commentary on Thessalonians (in vol. iii. Schaff’s Popular Commentary), 1882; The Parables of Our Lord, 1st series 1883, 2d. ed.
1884, 2d series 1885.
He edited the
English translation of Lange’s Life of
Christ, Edinburgh, 1864 sq., 6
vols., and of Augustine’s works, 1872-76; and Clark’s series of Handbooks for Bible Classes, 1879 sqq.;
contributed translation of Justin Martyr’s Apologies, and other portions of Greek writers, to Clark’s Ante-Nicene Christian Library, and the
articles Pelagius and Predistination
to the 9th ed. Encyclopoedia
Britannica. (p. 55)
THE PRAYER THAT TEACHES TO PRAY
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Thy will be done in earth, as
it is in heaven.
In the second petition of this prayer, we have prayed "for
God's spiritual kingdom, that it may be set up and established in our hearts;
for His visible kingdom, or Church, that it may increase and spread, until it fill
the whole earth ; and for His heavenly kingdom, that those things be fulfilled
which are contained in this third petition.
We cannot desire that He be King over the earth, without desiring
that His will be done on earth. We do not sincerely own Him as king, unless we
set His will above our own and every other. For a kingdom where there is not
one guiding will is a distracted kingdom, doomed to fall: a king whose will is
not done is a mocked and virtually dethroned king. However, to add this petition
is not to repeat, though it be to develop and follow out the preceding.
The three petitions are to one another as root, stem, and fruit; as
beginning, middle, and end. In the
hallowing of God's name the foundation is laid for the establishment of His
kingdom; it is the first opening of the human eye to the majesty of God. Then
the kingdom is established, the heart of man prostrates itself before its King,
forgetting and cancelling its old laws, and rejoicing in its new allegiance.
But this is not all; no one praying would stop here. It is not enough that the
kingdom be established, that its boundaries be enlarged, and its glory
delighted in; there is an end for which all this is brought about; and that end
is, that the will of the Ruler may be done. We desire that God may assert his
dominion over us and all men, and may give us to know that He is a living and near
God by the force of His will upon us.
From the
''name" we pass to the work (as displayed in His kingdom,) and from the
work to the will. From the outskirts of
His personality we pass to its heart. And
we do not use this petition aright, till we fully apprehend that, besides names
and outward show of authority, God has a will.
This, of course, requires no proof nor theoretical explanation, but
everyone who is trying to pray knows how much need there is that it be
practically enforced.
How does his
prayer seem to wander about searching for an ear, until the living will of God
presents itself. When we think of God's
name as left with us to make up for His absence, and keep us mindful of an
authority which is resident in a person far distant from ourselves we cannot
pray. When we think of God's kingdom as established originally by Himself, but now
left under viceroys or under a mere code of laws, we cannot pray. We need to
meet behind the name a present will, and under all forms of authority and
symbols of power to recognize an active will. From day to day, from one act of our
wills to another, this we are to bear in mind, that God also has a will; that
as by our wills we plan and set ourselves resolutely in one direction, so there
are plans which have their origin in a will that is not of earth, but are yet
to be carried out on earth; that alongside of our desires there are the things
which God is desiring to be done.
Everywhere and
in all things we are to meet this will of God. This kingdom of God we speak of,
we have to learn to look upon as an absolute monarchy, wherein one will is
supreme, and beyond which is the outer darkness, where all is confusion and
dismay. And the peculiar discipline we have each of us to go through in this life
is to learn submission to the supreme will; a hard and distasteful lesson, though
so plainly reasonable and necessary. Hard and distasteful, for a man does not find
within him a will piously and wisely regulated by the will of God, but
diverging to his own evil desires, murmuring, struggling, and only in the end,
after long and painful teaching, coming to desire that in all things it be the
will of God which is carried out.
It seems a
strange thing that a lifetime should be spent in this, and that the very
highest employment of the will of man is to surrender willingly to God's will,
but so it is. And when can a man's will
show its strength, if not when he wills the same things as God? It is not that a man gives up willing, nor
resigns any property of his being whatsoever when his will is conformed to that
of God; it is not that he becomes either the unwilling victim or the passive
tool of another will, but that the whole strength and bent of his will now lead
him in God's direction.
This yielding
to the will of God, being a will so different from our own, is a great
difficulty. We yield today, and tomorrow
it seems as hard as ever. We gather together all the reasons there are for
yielding, and at length we are able sincerely to pray "Thy will be
done;" we are very peaceful and very glad, and do not doubt that this is a
final decision; but an hour undeceives us, and shows us that the decision has
to be made again, and in still more trying circumstances. If any petition needs
to be daily repeated it is this. But have we ever once as yet thrown all the will
we are masters of into this petition? Have we so much as recognized that it is
the will of a person we ought all to be obeying here? Are we satisfied with
some loose ideas of right and wrong? Do we go by custom, habit, fashion, impulse,
our own wisdom, or are we led by this will?
There is no question about this, whether God's will or my own has most claim
to my service; which is getting most of it?
Let me, if
possible, see my true position; God has a will, a will about me as well as
about other things; it is not, then, with mere rules of direction I have to do,
but with an active and authoritative will; I will not hide from it, nor distribute
its force over the whole face of the earth, but I come out personally face to
face with God; will to will with God; and now what is it to be opposing this
will? This is a will which has always been planning and accomplishing good — a
will limitless in its embrace, and incomprehensible in its love — a will
reaching to the most distant and stooping to the most forgotten and sunken,
bending over distress, and raising the fallen with ineffable tenderness, and I
cannot pray that this will may be done.
This will,
which has not ceased to "work for the deliverance and blessedness" of
myself and all of us, which has still been that all men should be saved, in
spite of untold hindrances and at infinite cost, this will it is that I have
been resisting. This will into which no evil purpose ever entered, and the love
of which man's heart fears to conceive, because it is above him, and seems
unreal and impossible; this supreme and marvelous will, of which it seems akin
to profanity to say that it is worthy to rule, I have scanned and misinterpreted,
and against it I have set up my own private desires, objecting to the plans of
God, not knowing my own nothingness before it, nor trembling before the great
and loving Ruler in whom it resides.
And unless we
add to this the definite persuasion that this is an Almighty will, we shall
scarcely pray in hope for the performance of God's will on earth. For we have done much to engender quite an
opposite persuasion by neglecting and opposing the will of God. If, however,
there be not infinite power to execute this will, then how is it to be done on
earth? What we see on earth is not
readiness to accept and execute it, but opposition, unflinching, full-grown,
consolidated wickedness; and if there be not an Almighty will in opposition to
this, where is our hope? But He to whom
we pray is not a God that sleeps, or is on a journey, or talking, engaged with
and absorbed in other matters, but a willing God, a God already attending, and whose
own purposes they are that we desire to be fulfilled.
The aid we
have to expect is not the very precarious aid we might receive from dexterously
availing ourselves of the power that resides in the laws of God's kingdom; we
do not bring influences to bear on this earth which may or may not reform it;
it is the will of the Almighty we appeal to. It is a new hope which possesses us, when we
come to the persuasion that the will which we have opposed, and which is yet
our sole hope for ourselves and all men, is powerful as it is loving. And it is
a new resignation which possesses us, when we see God, our Father, the living, loving,
ordaining Will, in the midst of our lot, and can say, "Thy will. Thy will
— then it is altogether good. Thou hast been the Author, Mover, Orderer
throughout, Thou hast planned and begun and watchfully carried on, and
therefore it is good. This Thou hast done not by compulsion, but by Thy will,
whose will is done in heaven, whose will is leading me to heaven"
Who shall say
what may be thus contained in this petition, or predict how, using it, we shall
be led from one degree of grace and blessing to another, become more and more
conformed to the guiding will? Who shall
penetrate the purposes of the only wise God, and tell the glory which lies
there in the seed, and which we shall see with our eyes when God manifests what
His will is? And are we to fall out of
this blessed track of His will, are we to be cast sadly ashore out of this
river of life? Shall we be found dropping
this petition from careless lips, as if the accomplishment of God's will had
little to do with us or with the world we are in? Are we not already enjoying
the fruits of that will? Am I not the child of this will? Is it not this which has
made me myself and not another? "My
substance was not hid from Thee, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my
members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
was none of them. How precious also are
Thy thoughts unto me, how great is the sum of them!"
But in our petition
there seems to be an emphasis on this, that the will of God is to be done. For as, when we have willed a thing, we do
not sit down and expect to see it take place of itself, but set about the carrying
out of our will by our work, so the will of God is not a thing to be spoken of,
contemplated, waited for, but a thing to be done. And this will of God is to be done by us. For as a monarch does not rise from his throne
to execute his own will, but has it executed by servants, to whom are allotted
their several spheres of duty, so the will of God is given to us to do. It is still He who does it, but through our
doings. The actual performance of His will
has still been by the words and working of men. God has not been working in one place, man in
another; but what God has done on earth, He has done by men on earth.
And here it is
to be observed, that in order to our carrying out the mightiest schemes of God,
it is not necessary that we know what these are. God gives to each what each
can do, and by the various gifts and labors of all fulfills His own grand
purpose. What we need to know is only the
commands of God, what He sees fit for us to do. And doing this we may be sure that, so far as
we are concerned, the secret purposes of God are being accomplished. He has given to all of us the same general
orders, but by putting us in different situations, He does His will through each
of us in different ways. One has little active
work, but much to suffer. One is freed from the cares and temptations of
eminence, but thinks his lowly condition not very suitable for doing the will of
God. Another excuses himself from much reference to the will of God, because he
is so distracted with the wills of men, and with their cares and burdens laid
upon him.
All such
murmuring and excusing is vain, for these three things, God's commandment, our
circumstances, and God's eternal purpose, are all of them springing from one
source, the will of God, and do therefore harmonize. Our circumstances are allotted by the same
will which commands us. And therefore
let no one say, "I could do God's will better somewhere else." What is God's will you speak of? Is it not that you serve Him where you are; is
not that His will? You were not made by
God to be another man, and fill his place, and do his work. You were made as
you are, to do your own work, and to fill the place in God's plan which He has
appointed you. A weak monarch may mar
his own design by employing his servants in posts for which they are most unfit.
But God does not so mistake; He has
"given to all according to their several ability," and so brings
about His own ends.
So that when
we pray ''Thy will be done," we pray that God may so rule, that to the
utmost ends of the earth, and in the minutest actions of men, and in all the
arrangements of life, there may be the easily visible impress of God's
will. This we pray for, but more
directly that our circumstances may be so ordered as to enable us to carry out
most effectually the design of God with us, and that we may be so gifted with
wisdom, courage, and self-command, as to see and follow out the line of conduct
most appropriate to us where God has set us. Praying thus, we are strengthened for all
duty, whether it be active or sorely passive.
We find in all
that happens to us an answer to this prayer, and instead of being dismayed, as
those are who have not prayed that the will of God may be done, we find, in
every change and seeming chance of life, new scope for carrying on the work of
God, our share in His plan; and for our ordinary days, which pass as yesterday passed,
we find no healthier influence to give them a uniform tone and character than to
write on the threshold of each, "Thy will be done." I cannot come thus before God without some
strengthening sense of the dignity and responsibility of a life connected with
God, and fulfilling His will. I come to
Him as my Father and my King, as if bringing my life in my hand, desiring that
He would take it again, and give it back to me molded to His design.
I stand alone
with Him, not confused by what other men are doing, not hidden from God's will
regarding me by the practice of the world; I know that there must be something
which God has for me to do, else I would not have life to do it; and can I go
straightway and forget that it is not my own will and the world's work I have
to do, but these only in so far as they are God's will and God's work? I cannot sincerely pray, "Thy will be
done' and begin my day with no desire to know and execute God's commands; I am under
orders, I have a purpose to live for, am no longer open to every influence that
may blow upon me, nor can I any more count this life a mere vanity. And what higher purpose can a man have than
this, to fulfill the will of God with him, and satisfy the reason of his being
what he is, and where he is?
Surrendering
our wills thus to God's will, we live with a determined strength of will that
nothing else imparts. We carry with us from God's presence God's authority, and
in the strength of it we make the world serve God; we fulfill His will in the
world and by the world, find this authority more persuasive than the solicitations
and examples of men; find in it a commission which turns this world into the
material of God's work. If not, we have only
mocked God in saying, "Thy will be done,” mocked Him in a way which is
most offensive to Him, calling Him “Lord, Lord!'' but not doing the things which He has
commanded; like the son of the parable, who said, "I go, sir," but
did not the will of his father.
But very specially
are we to dwell on the words "in earth," not suffering them to pass
our lips without a degree of emphasis; for so hard is it to give ourselves, day
by day, to the service of God, and to spend our whole time in the carrying out
of His purposes, that we are tempted to give up this, and tempted by the most
palpable delusions. And one of these delusions, which seems absurd when stated
in words, but which nevertheless affects our conduct, is, that as in a future life
we shall have opportunities of holiness such as we do not here enjoy, we are
therefore not called upon to be living as carefully here as they do in heaven.
Do we not find ourselves virtually saying, that because we have to live by our
own exertions, therefore we cannot be doing God's will; that we must defer
doing God's will till we get more time?
Is there not visible in our conduct the want of duly remembering that on
earth we must do God's will; today in all we have to do, for tomorrow we may
not be on earth — the want of once for all coming to the persuasion, that what
we are here for is to do God's will, not just to struggle through and reach
death, but to live now as the servants of God; not to wait for holier times,
but to redeem this time, because the days are evil; not to live as if we
thought that hereafter we will be more bound to God as His subjects than now;
and as if we thought that, though hereafter we may be expected to do His will,
yet here we must do much that is not His will, much that is beside, and much
that is contrary to His will, and that in the whole we cannot live with much
reference to the will of God?
Have we been
praying with any true hope that God's will may be done on earth, or only
believing that God's will may somewhat and sometimes modify the evil of earth,
and may keep us from some of the grosser sins? Have we yet come to the strong
sense of our responsibility, not to ourselves, not to our friends, not to the
world, not to God's law, but to God himself; a sense which makes us say, "Here
on earth I have something to accomplish, and that for God. This manner of life
I am choosing, is this that which best accomplishes God's will? If not, how do I pray, 'Thy will be done?' In a thousand things I am choosing for
myself, choosing what I shall do today, what I shall do for a time, whom I
shall see, how I shall conduct myself towards this man and that; in all my
choosing, am I referring to God's will, having resolved to do it? Or am I
snatching my short time of wretched self-government, before God calls me to
account? Am I doing my best to shape my life, so as to carry out God's will, or
having schemed a life for myself, am I wresting God's will so as to bring it
near to my own? Am I acting from God's will
as my reason, and motive, and guide, or from my own untutored and unsubdued
will? Knowing what the will of God is, am
I considering, ‘Now how much of this can I possibly achieve’?"
And being so tempted
to forget that through all the employments, connections, and circumstances of
this earthly life, it is God's will which must lead us, we must not cease,
enlarging this petition in words though not in meaning, to pray and to desire
"that we may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and
spiritual understanding; that we may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience
and longsuffering with joyfulness." And if ever tempted to relax our efforts, if
ever tempted to fall from the hope of this petition to the sluggishness which says,
" It is impossible to do the will of God as it is done in heaven, and therefore
it is useless to pray for this;" let us remember that it is our sin that
it is impossible; that whether impossible or not, it is what we earnestly
desire when in a right frame of spirit; and that if it be so desirable, our
part is not to give up because we cannot attain perfection, but to strive all
the harder that we may come as near it as possible. It is one thing to attain perfection, another
to desire it. And he who does not desire
it here will certainly never attain it hereafter. So that the simple answer to
the question, whether on earth we may pray for the perfection which obtains in
heaven, and. if it be not romantic or enthusiastic so to pray, is just this,
that we pray for what we desire, and we cannot but desire to be perfectly serving
God.
It is vain to
tell us we are too weak, too sinful, to reach perfection in this life; this
only incites us to put forth more earnest desire and effort, and more
beseechingly to implore the aid of "that glorious power which hath delivered
us from the power of darkness," that Almighty power which works (not
indeed in the doubting, but) in all who believe." That there are things we cannot do is no
reason why we should not be doing all we can. And if no man has reached perfection in this
life, is there any man who has done all he could to reach it?
But over
against the sad truth that we have omitted to make the most of this life, and
are therefore now not "perfect and complete in all the will of God,"
over against the truth that there are many parts of God's will which, on
account of our weakness, we have been unable to perform as they in heaven do,
let this other truth be set, that there are parts of God's will which can only be
performed on earth. And would that we
could so understand this as to awake to the value of this day we pray in, and
bestir ourselves, and throw our whole energies into this present life, living
out its duties with our might, exerting ourselves so as to arouse efforts which
will lift us out of our easy, natural level and rate of living and which will show
that we have now one thing to do, and one purpose to fulfill. To do the things God's
will now contains is not easy. We could
not expect it to be so.
Often has it been seen that, even among men, one
dominant will has aroused thousands to hard, fatiguing activity, which, through
the whole course of it, seemed all but beyond human strength; and shall we
expect God's will to be easy and natural to us? And this difficulty appears
very specially in what God has set before us all as our common aim and work, as
the one thing He would have all of us to do, so that He says of it, "This
is the work of God." This work is
to believe on Him whom He hath sent. This we cannot do hereafter; it is the work of
this life, the will of God for earth. This is that which will bring the best
good to us, and the highest glory to God out of the apparent poverty and woe
and vanity of this life. Is there any
use we can make of our lives so profitable that, for the sake of it, we may
neglect the saving of our souls? And if not, what are we to do? Are we to sit still, to let ourselves be
drifted we know not whither, when God has a definite wall concerning us, and
has given us a definite work to accomplish?
But this work,
easy though it seems, is found to be hard; it takes us to go out of our way, to
resist our inclinations, to pray as our life depends on it, “Thy will be
done.” Yet while the things to be done
are different, the manner of our doing them is to be similar to the heavenly. We, the younger brethren, are to look upon our
elders as they do the will of God in those higher posts to which we may not yet
be advanced. Letting our hearts dwell on
the blessedness of those who serve God and see His face, we are insensibly
assimilated to their spirit, and are prepared to become rulers over greater trusts
than are here committed to us. And since
we cannot actually contemplate, and so imitate heavenly service, this petition
becomes a prayer for the spirit of that service. We know that if we be animated by the same
spirit, the manner of our working will resemble that of the heavenly places.
When,
therefore, we pray, "Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,"
we desire that God's will be done on earth readily and cheerfully, humbly and zealously,
faithfully and constantly. And in looking
to heaven as the model of our service, we need not pass by the visible heavens,
from which David so constantly drew lessons for himself. To see how God's will should be done, we have
but to turn the eye to the "unworn sky," old in the service of God,
but fulfilling His will as at first. We
see the precise regularity which should characterize our service also. We see how unweariedly all perform their parts,
the great sustaining the small, the small reflecting and enhancing the glory of
the great; all as members of one system, obeying in peaceful harmony Him who
calls them all by their names.
We see how the
sun, morning after morning, comes forth rejoicing to run his race; how the moon
observes her appointed seasons, and the sun knoweth his going down; how all,
though it be in an unvarying course, fulfill the will of God untiringly. And is our glory to be our shame? Is the only result of our being gifted with
will and intelligence, to be that we rebel against God, and revolt from His
will? Ought not the order of nature, which we admire, and to which we trust, to
be a continual rebuke to us? But it is to
the inhabitants of heaven we are mainly to look, those ''angels who excel m
strength, who do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word,"
for it is this which makes them worthy of imitation, that all they
do is done with direct reference to the will of God; because it is God's will,
and not, in the first place, because they have chosen it. The throne of God is
in their midst. They serve Him seeing
His face, and what they see written there they haste to execute. And when our Lord asks us to pray this
petition, He does not ask us to do what He has not done Himself.
When He was on earth, it was earth that taught heaven how the will of God should be done. Angels stooped to learn new devotion to Him whom they had already served without blame. And in the crisis of His life, the crisis also of the world's history, this was His petition, "Thy will be done." And so also we are to pray, Order our circumstances so that we shall have best scope for serving Thee, and reconcile us to our circumstances, and fit us for them, so that with our will and heart we may serve Thee. Preserve us from being conformed to this world; but transform us by the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Christ does not bid us pray that this good thing and that may be ours, but that God's will may be done; for this is at the back of all good, and embraces now all the good that will ever be to any.
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