04 - The Name of God Hallowed

Chapter 4 THE NAME OF GOD HALLOWED "Hollowed be thy Name" This formula of prayer bears the same relation to the subject matter of prayer, as the ten precepts of the Decalogue do to the whole subject of obedience. As the latter, under some one or other of its precepts, comprehends whatever is man’s duty in any situation, so the former, under some one or other of its petitions, contains every request that a man need offer to the throne of grace. ’’Hallowed be thy name" is the first of these comprehensive petitions. The order in which the desires of a devout mind are here directed to be expressed, corresponds with the object of the Deity in creation, providence, and redemption. There is no truth more clearly revealed, or more consonant to reason, than that God should have the glory. Wherever we look around his works, they are marked with excellence; not with the excellence of the creature, but of the Creator, who is "God over all, blessed for evermore." When you compare all created excellence with his, it is as nothing. It is great to us, but we are small. Put all the excellence and all the enjoyment which appear in the manifestations of his goodness in the balance with himself, and they are as the dust of the balance. That which is finite can bear no assignable proportion to that which is infinite. So that whether we stand on the basis of Scripture, or sober reason, no end should be so steadily pursued as the glory of God.

Such would be the religion of nature, had not man fallen by his iniquity. Such is the religion of the Bible, and of man fallen, man redeemed, man glorified. There is but one object that is enthroned in the heart of piety, and that is the infinitely blessed and adorable God. Everything else occupies a place second and subordinate to his honor and glory. The first promptings of prayer, therefore, are uttered in the language of reverential piety toward God. Above ourselves, above all creatures, above all that is in earth, or in heaven, we approach his throne to express our supreme regard for him. And how do we express that regard? ’’Hallowed be thy name,’’ is the first desire of a believer’s heart. Let us analyze this great request.

" Name" is that which distinguishes a particular object, or person, from all others. This is universally its meaning, whether applied to classes of men, or to individuals. When applied to God, it denotes all that distinguishes him from anything that is created. Whatever is peculiar to the Living God, belongs to his name. Its most correct, simple and comprehensive definition is, ’’ all that whereby he maketh himself known."

He says of himself, ’’ I am that I am, that is my name." He assumes the name, Jehovah; this is properly the incommunicable name of God. The Jews had such a reverence for it that it was with them an unuttered name; and it is worthy of remark that there are no epithets associated with this name more than two or three times in the Scriptures. Every peculiar appellation which God assumes, belongs to that name, because by that appellation he makes something known. If he speaks of himself, as " The Only Wise," he teaches us his perfect and unerring wisdom; if as Almighty, he teaches us that he acts without constraint, and that he can do all things. Whenever the distinctive name of Jehovah is given as the ground of confidence for some good being performed to the church, it has reference to that proclamation made to Moses when he covered him by his hand in the rock of Horeb, and passed by and proclaimed his name in the fulness and amplitude of his wondrous and adorable attributes.

There was no appeal to God’s name by the church, prior to this, as ground of her confidence. It is in view of this proclamation that she exclaims, " Do not abhor us for thy name’s sake ;" and that David prays, " For thy names sake, O Jehovah, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great." There was a proportion between God’s great pardon, and his great name. The name of God expresses great and wondrous thoughts. It is a name of solemn, of awful, yet of blessed import. It points to the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable One. It points to the father of mercies and the God of all grace. It points to our Father who is in heaven. O, weigh the vast meaning of his name, who is able to save and to destroy, whose favor is life, whose frown is death !

We pray that his name may be hallowed. To hallow is to sanctify. But as God cannot be sanctified, or made more holy than he is, we must use the term with some restriction. To hallow God’s name, is to magnify, to honor, to glorify it; as it is written in the prophecy, ’’ Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." When we use the expression, it denotes our ascribing to him all holiness, goodness, justice, mercy, and truth, forever enriching and adorning his great and glorious nature. It denotes our esteem of him, our conviction that he is worthy of our confidence; and when we thus sanctify him, he will not only be our fear and our dread, but our Sanctuary in the day of trouble.

It denotes, too, the spirit with which we should worship him. Its language is, ’’ Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts. Oh, worship the Lord, in the beauty of holiness; fear before him, all the earth." The Scriptures often speak of the glory of God, and of glorifying his name. Here the word is hallowed, because his holiness comprises the beauty and excellence of his nature, and constitutes the true glory of his attributes. The Seraphim over the mercy seat covered their faces with their two wings, and cried one to another and said, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts , the whole earth is full of his glory." In expressing this first and greatest desire of every devout mind, it is of some importance to institute the inquiry. How is so desirable an end to he brought about? We confess our inability to honor God aright. We ask that he would make us fit to honor him, and to give him the glory which is due. This is done, in the first place. "by our becoming acquainted with God. Many a man fails of receiving due honor from his fellowmen, because be is not known. It needs but to become acquainted with his excellences, in order to love and respect him. His excellences may be unpresuming and retired, and need searching out; or they may be obscured by his humble condition or covered by a veil of prejudice, and require to be inspected by an impartial eye, that they may be appreciated. No man honors God, while he remains ignorant of him. Paul represents it as the crime of the heathen, that "they did not like to retain God in their knowledge ;" and so far from hallowing his name, they "worshiped and served the creature." It is the sin of all ungodly men, that " there is none among them that understandeth, none that seeketh after God." Pharaoh, in his pride, said, ’’ I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." It was the Saviour’s reproach of the Jews, that " they knew not Him that sent him." No other knowledge, however extensive and minute, will qualify us to respect and honor God, where the knowledge of God himself is wanting. Let the profoundest philosopher examine the whole circle of human knowledge; let him study every art and science; let him penetrate the bowels of the earth, and the caverns of the ocean; let him number the stars, and trace the revolution of the planets ; and if he dives not deeper, and ascends not higher than this, the humblest peasant, whose devout study is to become acquainted with God, better honors and hallows his great and holy name.

Mournful to confess, the religious worship of not a few is degrading to the Deity; on their very altars is found the inscription, " To the Unknown God" The knowledge of God opens to the mind the only honor which He will accept, the only honor the creature is capable of expressing, and the only way of expressing that honor. We respect the Deity, from a consideration of his divine excellence; nor can we fail, at least, to respect him, if we know him. To dishonor him when we know what he is, were impiety bordering on the hardihood of devils. The name of God is also hallowed by a reverential treatment of Him in our thoughts, words, and actions. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Low, unworthy thoughts of God, will lead neither to complacency, gratitude, nor honor. Whence is it that multitudes who once had low and unworthy thoughts of God, now regard Him with solemn and affectionate reverence, but that they do justice to Him in their own reflections, and that of all beings in the universe. He stands the first in their esteem? With such thoughts of God, we must reverence him with our lips. Our words must be words of deep reverence, sincere piety, and grateful love, whether we speak to him or of him. The careless and frequent mention of his name in our familiar intercourse with our fellow-men; occasional exclamations, however heedless, which contain that great name, and which are the effect of sudden passion or surprise; as well as solemn appeals to Almighty God, under no sense of his majesty and purity; are plain violations of the true import of this prayer.

There is one way of dishonoring God, of which I need say nothing, except to bring it to your remembrance. I mean profane swearing. God will judge the swearer, and ’ ’ will not hold him guiltless." It is terrible to think of a man who learns to swear before he learns to pray. Cursing and blaspheming are the employment of devils. The profane swearer will have enough of it in hell. When the worm gnaws and the fire rages, he will "curse God and look upward." A reverential treatment of God in our thoughts and words, will lead to the same treatment in our conduct. If we would venerate God, we should be watchful not to offend him; nor dishonor him by our deportment; nor bring his cause into contempt, and cause his name to be evil spoken of. A dutiful child will avoid those courses of conduct which bring reproach and dishonor upon his parents; so ought the children of God to be afraid of sin for his name’s sake. God is honored when our deportment exhibits every mark of respect and honor; he is venerated when our conduct venerates him; and his name is hallowed when "our light so shines before men, that others, seeing our good works, glorify our Father who is in heaven."

There are not wanting those who accost the Deity under the most respectful titles; they call him God — Lord God — Great and Glorious God — yet they disobey his laws, and mean to disobey them. The Saviour animadverted upon this inconsistency when he demanded of such persons, " Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" There is no greater inconsistency than to acknowledge his rightful authority, and at the same time practically disown his claims. To pray that his name be hallowed, yet not hallow it by our own obedience, is an indignity which reason, conscience, and decency instinctively revolt at. Men may be better in their own view, they may appear better in the sight of their fellow-men, and they may think they appear better in the sight of God, by an ostensible acknowledgment of his claims, while they practically disavow them; but it is an expression of homage which God does not regard ; nor do men regard it, when once they discover its disgraceful inconsistency. The name of God is hallowed before the world, only as his claims are practically honored, and their excellence exemplified. Unfriendly as the world is to these claims, it will no longer hiss and wag its head in derision and contempt of them, when it sees them exhibited and acted out in the deportment of those who profess to regard them.

God’s name is hallowed by a suitable regard to all his institutions and ordinances. The knowledge and worship of God are preserved in our world by a watchful and zealous regard for his own institutions. Under the Mosaic economy, these were greatly multiplied; under the Christian dispensation, they are less numerous, and more simple. Men have added to them by their own traditions, but they are additions subversive of Christianity and of the simplicity that is in Christ. Christianity weeps over this perversion of her rites, and in the attitude and confusion of these outward ceremonies, may well adopt the lamentation of Mary, when she said, " They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." They are the mere outward defenses of another gospel," from which the indwelling Spirit of Christ has retired, and his glory departed.

Just as ’’ truth is in order to goodness," institutions are for the sake of principles. And such are all the institutions of a pure Christianity. The institutions which the Great Founder of religion has appointed, coincide with the great end for which the entire system of Christianity itself was revealed. They are the visible symbols of great and important principles, and the means by which they are advanced and perpetuated. The gospel cannot live without them. Prostrate these, and you exterminate true religion from the earth. They are the bulwarks which its enemies never fail to attack, in order to bring it into neglect and contempt. Men who would honor the name of God, and render it a hallowed name, will have a care neither to neglect, pervert, or corrupt these sacred institutions. The more punctually and constantly they are observed, the more are they rendered amiable and honorable in the eyes of the world, and the more do they give honor to that Great Being who is their Author. When the soul is elevated with a view of his grandeur, rapt in the contemplations of his glory, melted under impressions of his love, and gives utterance to its admiration, its gratitude, its contrition, its hope, its confidence, and joy, in those varied acts of worship which the institutions of the gospel require; she sympathizes with the homage paid to him by higher worlds, and adds her testimony to theirs that his name is above every name. The name of God is also hallowed by the exhibitions which he himself makes of his own excellence. It is impossible to add to the immeasurable plenitude of God. It is not for creatures to make him greater, or better than he is; nor can God himself do this, because his essential perfections are every way infinite. But though the perfection of the Divine nature admits of no accessions, there may be accessions to those manifestations of the Divine nature which are made in the works of providence and grace. There is an intrinsic excellence of the Deity, which admits of no augmentation ; and there is a manifested excellence which admits of augmentations that are boundless. From the richness, the fulness of the Divine character, there may issue streams, emanations, a diffusion and resplendency which may refresh and enlighten the world, and make the name of God great and glorious in the eyes of angels and men. When we pray that God’s name may be hallowed, we pray that he himself would make it holy and venerable, by more and more extended and refulgent exhibitions of his glory.

He can impart to those exhibitions continual growth and enlargement, and all that perpetually progressive augmentation of which they are susceptible. He can do it by his providence; directing and governing, and overruling all the affairs of men, and so bring himself into view, that they shall see his hand, and acknowledge and honor him as God over ill. He can do it by his Spirit; enlightening the minds and subduing the hearts of those who are strangers to the power of his grace, and sanctifying and comforting his own people, so that they shall everywhere rejoice in Him, and " exalt his name together." He can do it by his mercies ; he can do it by his judgments ; he can do it by his ministers ; he can do it by his friends ; and he can do it by his enemies; making all their designs and purposes and efforts, either a voluntary or involuntary instrumentality in promoting his own ends, and magnifying his great name. When men have dishonored him, when his cause and glory have been lost sight of, and forgotten ; when his name has been profaned, his altars demolished, the ark of Israel’s God carried captive and setup in the temple of idols; when his church has been covered with sackcloth, and his ministers have stood between the porch and the altar to bewail her desolation’s; many a time has he thus plucked his right hand out of his bosom, made his arm bare, and ’’ remembered his holy name." And notwithstanding all that he has done, there will yet be brighter illustrations of his glory, and his name be more universally exalted ; ’’ endure forever ; be continued as long as the sun ; and men shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed."

There is another general inquiry, the answer to which may serve still further to illustrate the import of this petition :

Why does this petition hold so high a place in this summary of prayer ; and why is it so desirable and important that God’s name should he hallowed ?

We cannot answer these inquiries as they deserve to be answered. They bring us near the ineffable glory, and make us veil our faces, as in the presence of the God who is invisible. There is nothing of which He himself is so jealous, nothing which He regards so sensitively, as the glory of his name. We would not have our poor name suffer reproach; much less will the God of heaven allow" his honors to be sullied. The rather is he immutably resolved to secure, defend, and advance them, and by all means, and at every sacrifice. The Lord God is a jealous God; he will not give his glory to another. He knows himself. He forms a just estimate of his own character and station. He cannot but treat himself according to the just conceptions he has of his own greatness and excellency. He cannot deny himself, nor be indifferent to the manner in which his creatures are affected toward him. Great and eternal interests depend upon the honors of his name. We shall dwell a few moments upon the reasons which justify these general remarks. Our Heavenly Father’s name and honor are justly great and endeared. It is the greatest, most endeared name in the universe. Angels cannot bear to see it dishonored, because he is God their Maker and Sovereign; his children cannot, because he is their Father, and they have all the honorable, honored sentiments of children. The Eternal One, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father — he who is himself the beginning, and measure, and end of all that exists, and from whom every creature has received all that it is, and has — deserves the homage he claims. The Being whose nature, purposes, will, and word, are such as his, is worthy the hallowed exaltation for which his people are taught to pray. The immense and infinite Deity, who is everywhere, and whose being and presence are separated by no distance, and confined by no space, is worthy to dwell in the thoughts, have a throne in the heart, be extolled by the lips, and shine forth in the life of creatures who are enfolded in the arms, and carried in the bosom of his infinity! The holy Being, the splendor of whose purity dazzles the sun, and renders heaven itself impure, compared with Him, is worthy to be hallowed, not only by man that is born of a woman, and unclean, but by ail the angels of God. The all-powerful God may well command the respect and fear of creatures whose foundation is in the dust, and who dwell in tabernacles of clay. He whose watchful eye equally discerns whatever passes in the thickest darkness, and in the clearest light, who knows intuitively all that can be known, and who " destroys the wisdom of the wise, and bringeth to naught the understanding of the prudent," ought not in vain to look down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if they respect his intelligence, and bow humbly before the dictates of his wisdom. The good and gracious God, who loves the weak and guilty inhabitants of this lower world, who bowed his high heavens, and took their nature, in that complex nature suffered and died, that they might not suffer and die, may well challenge, for his own sake, every expression of grateful homage. Sovereign honors belong, too, to the just God; and earth and heaven should resound with " the song of Moses, as well as the song of the Lamb.’’

Why should not his character and conduct appear, as well as he, without a stain? What turpitude and imperfection will be disclosed in the unfoldings of his nature? Why should his excellence be obscured, his glory fade in retirement, his exalted nature wither in solitude, and never shine forth in their appropriate splendor? In a world that lieth in wickedness, his holy name has been subjected to the foulest stains; nor will it ever appear in cloudless glory, dissipating the darkness by which it has been enveloped by the ignorance, misconception, and wickedness of men, until it is seen as it is, and everywhere hallowed as the greatest, and best, and most endeared name. That God’s name should be hallowed, is also demanded by the great interests of holiness in our world. Holiness consists in conformity to God. This was the character and image in which man was first created ; this the character from which he fell; this the character in which he is renewed by the Holy Spirit, and in which, when once renewed, he perseveres to life eternal. This is the character of heaven. Heaven and earth have but one and the same religion, though they differ in degree ; and that religion consists in conformity to the moral character of God, as the fruit of his Spirit. In the economy of nature and grace, there are established laws and uniform connections. Upon nothing does the holiness of creatures so much depend, as its instrumental cause, as the knowledge of God. There can be no more conformity to God in any mind, than there is a knowledge of his true character. Truth is the great instrument of conversion to men who are dead in sin, and the great means of sanctification to the converted. And it is by those very means by which men hallow the name of God, and by which he hallows his own name, that the truth is brought home to their own bosoms, and achieves its greatest conquests. It is in the intelligent and devout utterance of the petition, " Hallowed be thy name," that the soul catches a portion of that heavenly spirit which she ascribes to her great heavenly Parent, and which she thus desires may be everywhere exhibited and made known. It is thus that she rises to the character of that favored and hallowed society, who " all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," and ’’ with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." As well might we enjoy health without aliment, or vigor without exercise, as spirituality of mind, in the neglect of the means of spirituality. We become enriched by the communications of heavenly grace, only as the storehouse of our spiritual perceptions and thoughts is receiving new accessions. Not until the " good treasure of the heart" is supplied from these divine sources, does it become a sacred repository of "good things." It is here we find the materials and excitements of holy and devout affections. Here is the intimacy and delight of intercourse with God. Here we bewail and mortify our worst, and give scope to our best affections. Here we become acquainted with ourselves, our state, our temper, our dispositions, our character, and, under the influence of the sanctifying Spirit, become more humble, more watchful, more sensible of our dependence on the grace of God, and more devoted to his glory. How many millions among the perfected spirits of the just, and millions more on their way to that world of bliss, who connect their purest recollections, and their most purifying hopes and anticipations with hallowing and seeing hallowed the great and endeared name of their Father who is in heave !

It is in, and by these contemplations, that the holiness of heaven itself is progressive and perpetual. Take away from the bosom of those celestial inhabitants, those strong affections which arise from their perceptions of the divine nature; separate from their present character those deep and adoring, and grateful emotions which flow forth from their perpetually enlarging views of the adorable Godhead ; and most sensibly do you abate their intense and high admiration of his infinite excellence, and the growing ecstasy of their everlasting song.

Inseparable from these suggestions also is the thought that the happiness of creatures requires that God’s name should be hallowed. The time was, when there was nothing in existence save the infinite God. Not more is he the beginning and source of all creatures, than of all created good. He has assigned to every one of the human family his sphere, his mode, his period of existence, till they all return to their final destiny — the dust to the earth whence it was taken, the spirit to God who gave it. When his period of existence on the earth is ended, then that great day of eternity will begin, when all the holy will be gathered together, and return to him who made and redeemed them, to rest forever in the bosom of his love, "the seat of blessedness, the center of repose." He is the supreme happiness and end of man, the source and fulness of all his joy. The world is made for man, but man himself is made for God. The soul which God has given him, no sensual delights can content or satisfy; it breathes after purer joys, and happiness more enduring. Nor can it be satisfied except with God himself. To know God, to love God, to possess and enjoy God, is the end to which his immortal existence aspires and without which, it is impossible for it to be a happy, joyous existence. It is restless, until it rests in him; joyless, until it becomes partaker of his joy. And how do we become partakers of his joy, except by seeing his nature and perfections unfolded, his name hallowed, and ourselves delighted and happy in these manifestations of his glory? There is something in the divine nature, not merely for the employment of our intellectual powers, but for the gratification of our most exalted and spiritual affections. Let God be brought into view, and a holy mind will be happy; let God be withdrawn, and it is miserable. The happiest moment of the Christian’s life, is when he enjoys the most enlarged and most impressive views of God, and dwells with adoring wonder on his boundless and unsearchable perfections. Nothing can make him miserable, while the glory of the divine character, and " the light of the divine countenance," is lifted up upon him; everywhere without this, there remains a fearful blank, a chasm which the created universe cannot fill. Here the understanding is satisfied; conscience is at peace, through atoning blood; and the heart finds repose and joy. The understanding is gratified with truths into which angels desire to look; the heart is attracted by love that is above all other love; the conscience, though more sensitive, is at the same time more tranquil; and the very imagination feeds on all that is sublime and beautiful, because it is great and lovely. The tear of affliction is wiped away. Sorrow and sighing there find their true solace. Darkness is chased by light, and the streams that embitter, are forgotten in the joys that flow.

Just in the measure in which God’s name is hallowed by us and by our fellow-men, are these sources of happiness found within our own bosoms, and diffused around us. The Christian is greatly comforted with the thought, that his Heavenly Father’s name will be hallowed, because he discovers in this assurance the plenitude of joy to himself, and this barren and otherwise joyless creation. When worn out with pains and labors, when sick with the agitating excitements of earth; he forgets his cares and griefs, as he goes to bow before the throne and say, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed he thy name!" It is quietude to his fears, balm to his bleeding heart, peace to all its strife’s, and hope and joy amid all its depressions, if that name may but be hallowed. If created happiness is to be estimated from the purity sublimity, and sufficiency of its source, from the greatness of its joys, and from the extent of its duration, here its source is the infinite God, its joys the delights which flow from seeing him and being like him, its duration his own boundless eternity.

Thus dear are the name and honor of God to his people. Thus true is it that holiness is the creature’s greatest glory; sin his shame and everlasting disgrace. Thus true is it that God himself is the soul’s highest good, and that those who glorify, will enjoy him forever. They will enter into and rejoice in his joy, shine in his splendor; and in a little while, unspeakably more than they have honored him, be honored by him, and receive from his hands their unfading crown, their robes of immortality. It should be our desire above all things, that his name should have the glory; come what will, that his name stand forth in untarnished, augmented luster.

Woe be to the man who cannot say from the heart, " Hallowed be thy name !" And woe be to him who utters this request, yet makes no scruple of dishonoring the name of God, profaning it at heart, and bringing his contempt of it to God’s altars! Let it be the reader’s concern that his heavenly Father’s glory be the object dearest to his heart. Let his name be hallowed, beloved, and declared, and its sacred impulse felt. There is no end so worthy of God to designate, or man to pursue. Honored he will be; and amid all the disorder of this world, he will bring light out of darkness, and make crooked things straight. His ardent and mighty affections concentrate in this great end, and " the zeal of the Lord of hosts "will perform this." Jehovah hath sworn by himself, " As I live, the whole earth shall be filled with my glory!" Creation, providence, and redemption shall honor him. All his purposes shall be unfolded; all his character shall be made known; and his glory shall never cease to shine, till it fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.

Delightful, inexpressibly delightful thoughts are these, as we look over this disordered world. Everything was made for God, And was not man made for him? Were the pebble and the worm made for him; were the mountains, the seas, and the rivers made for him; were the atmosphere, and the light and the cattle upon a thousand hills, and all the fowls of the mountains, and summer and winter, and seed time and harvest made for him, and do they all fulfill their destiny; and will not men fulfill a destiny so much more exalted than theirs?

Reader, you were made for God. Why then will you not acknowledge him as the great All in all, and welcome his reign in you, and over you forever? Why shall not his honor be your honor, his kingdom your kingdom, his riches your riches, his joy your joy? There is a silent eloquence in the heavens and in the earth, as they fulfill their courses and praise their mighty Maker, making its appeal to you to glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are his. There is affecting solicitude revealed in that sacred volume, above the eloquence of nature, when it says, " O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men!" There is a tenderness from the cross that says, " Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me." And there is a universal appeal, like the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, from " every creature which is in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them," themselves saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever," and giving utterance, and emphasis to the demand, " Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy!"