Article May 5, 1928 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from William P. Merrill, Arnold N. Hoath, W. W. Kinney, Archbishop Julius

[Rev. William P. Merrill, D. D., as quoted in the Boston Evening Transcript, Massachusetts]

There is no creed which we can rightly call "The Lord's Creed." ... But there is a prayer which is commonly called "The Lord's Prayer." That indicates the place of importance prayer held in the mind of Jesus, as compared with churches and creeds and other matters that seem very important to us. "Our Father which art in heaven." That one opening phrase blends in perfect proportion and unity two ideas of religion that often conflict—the spiritual and the social. The spiritual ideal held sway in former days. The social ideal is now in full tide of power. Where Bernard saw the kingdom of God in heaven, we see it in a transformed social order. This opening phrase of the Lord's Prayer contains the two—"Our Father." That claims God as concerned with us and our affairs, here and now, and reveals religion as a matter for and of the common life of humanity. Yet the prayer goes on: "which art in heaven." Here is the definite claim that we, living here on earth, are children not of earth but of heaven, not of dust but of soul, not of the average but of the perfect, not of "things as they are" but of the ideal that is to be. To pray thus is to claim at once our interest in the common life of man and our right in the perfect life of God.

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