"Hallowed be thy name." But what name? The name of Father. If that
name were hallowed by men, there would be an end of all superstitions.
The root of all superstitions, fanaticisms, and false religions is this--
that they do not hallow the name of Father. They do not see that it is a
Holy name, a beautiful and tender as well as an awful and venerable name.
They think of fathers, like too many among themselves, proud, and
arbitrary, selfish and cruel. They say in their hearts, even such
fathers as we are, such is God. Therefore, they shrink from God, and
turn from Him to idols, to the Virgin Mary, or Saints, or any other
beings who can deliver them (as they fancy) out of the hands of their
Father in heaven. If men once learnt to hallow the name of Father, to
think of a father as one who not only possessed power but felt love, who
not only had rights which he would enforce, and issued commands which
must be obeyed, but who felt yearning sympathy for his children's
weakness, an active interest in their education, and was ready to labour
for, to sacrifice himself for, his family--That would be truly to hallow
the name of Father, and look on it as a holy thing, whether in heaven
above or in earth beneath.
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