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By Root 628 0

the regenerated soul with safety. It is the one thing in existence that is absolutely true, never varying, never shifting—the same yesterday, today, and forever. Resting upon this foundation we shall stand secure when the winds, and rains, and floods of error, of fear, and doubt, and self-reproach, beat upon us, beat they never so hard; for we are founded upon the Rock. But as long as we are depending upon anything less than the Rock—upon will power, upon so-called material security, upon the goodwill of others, or upon our own personal resources—upon anything but God in fact, we are building upon sand, and great will be our fall.

And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:

For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

(Matthew VII)

In this concluding paragraph we are told quite simply that the people were astonished at his doctrine. It is always so. The Jesus Christ message is utterly revolutionary. It reverses all the standards and all the methods, not only of the “world,” but of all conventional or orthodox religion itself, for it turns our gaze from the outside to the inside, and from man and his works to God.

He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes. The greatest glory of the Spiritual Basis is that you begin to know. When you have obtained the smallest true demonstration by means of scientific prayer, you have experienced something that never leaves you. You have the witness of Truth within yourself. You are no longer dependent upon the word of somebody else; you know for yourself; and this is the only authority worth having. Jesus had this authority and he proved it by doing the works. In the next chapter of Matthew we learn that immediately after the last discourse in this Sermon on the Mount, on his way back to the town in fact, he instantaneously healed a leper. This was proving that his doctrines were not mere theorizing; and proving it with a vengeance.

Jesus contacted God direct, and there when he spoke, he spoke the Word of Power.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

An Interpretation

He prayeth well who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast;

He prayeth best who loveth best

All things both great and small:

For the dear God who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

COLERIDGE

Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trepass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

THE Lord’s Prayer is the most important of all the Christian documents. It was carefully constructed by Jesus with certain very clear ends in view. That is why, of all his teachings, it is by far the best known, and the most often quoted. It is, indeed, the one common denominator of all the Christian churches. Every one of them, without exception, uses the Lord’s Prayer; it is perhaps the only ground upon which they all meet. Every Christian child is taught the Lord’s Prayer, and any Christian who prays at all says it almost every day. Its actual use probably exceeds that of all other prayers put together. Undoubtedly everyone who is seeking to follow along the Way that Jesus led, should make a point of using the Lord’s Prayer, and using it intelligently, every day.

In order to do this, we should understand that the Prayer is a carefully constructed organic whole. Many people rattle through it like parrots, forgetful of the warning that Jesus gave us against vain repetitions, and, of course, no one derives any profit from that sort of thing.

The Great Prayer is a compact formula for the development of the soul. It is designed with the utmost care for the specific purpose; so that those who use it regularly, with understanding, will experience a real change of soul. The only progress is this change, which is what