"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." If that were done, it
would abolish all the vice of the world, and therefore the misery which
springs from vice. Ah, that God's will were but done on earth as it is
in the material heaven overhead, in perfect order and obedience, as the
stars roll in their courses, without rest, yet without haste; as all
created things, even the most awful, fire and hail, snow and vapour, wind
and storm, fulfil God's word, who hath made them sure for ever and ever,
and given them a law which shall not be broken. But above them; above
the divine and wonderful order of the material universe, and the winds
which are God's angels, and the flames of fire which are His messengers;
above all, the prophets and apostles have caught sight of another divine
and wonderful order of RATIONAL beings, of races, loftier and purer than
man--angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and
powers, fulfilling God's will in heaven as it is not alas! fulfilled on
earth.
And beside them, beside the innumerable company of angels, are there not
the spirits of just men made perfect, freed from the fetters of the gross
animal body, and now somewhere in that boundless universe in which this
earth is but a tiny speck, doing God's will, as they longed to do it on
earth, with clearer light, fuller faith, deeper love, mightier powers of
usefulness? Ah, that we were like to them! Ah, that we could perform
the least part of our day's work on earth as it is performed by saints
and angels for ever in heaven! When we think of what this poor confused
world is, and then what it might be, were God's will done therein as it
is done in heaven; what it might be if even the little of God's will
which we already know, the little of God's laws which are proved already
to be certain, were carried out with any earnestness by the majority of
mankind, or even of one civilized nation--when we think--to take the very
lowest ground--of the health and wealth, the peace and happiness, which
would cover this earth did men only do the will of God; then, if we have
human hearts within us--if we care at all for the welfare of our fellow-
men--ought not this to be the prayer of all our prayers, and ought we not
to welcome any event, however awful, which would bring mankind to reason
and to virtue, and to God, and abolish the sin and misery of this unhappy
world?
To abolish the superstition, the misrule, the vice, the misery of this
world.
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