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“Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.”
— Matthew vi. 10
This clause of the Divine Prayer, short and simple as it is, reveals
the Lord’s purposes in the creation of the material universe, and in all
the operations of His Divine Providence. The Lord created the material
universe to be the basis of His spiritual universe. The heavens rest
upon the earth as the mind upon the body. Earth is the seminary of
heaven. The creation of human beings who are to people the heavens,
takes place upon the earth. All distinct and permanent creation is in
ultimates. This is so, not only in general, but in particular. We all
acknowledge that the beginning of our existence takes place in this
world, on the earth. It is equally true that every spiritual faculty
which we shall possess, every affection we shall ever exercise and
enjoy, and every idea we shall gain through the coming eternity, has its
beginning in the earth. We gain the materials here, the germs are
created here. They will blossom and bear fruit and be indefinitely
multiplied and perfected to eternity. But only those principles will be
perfected which are implanted here. It follows as a necessary
consequence that the broader we lay the foundation, and the greater the
variety of truths we learn and of the affections we exercise, and the
more excellent their quality, the greater room there will be for
increase and perfection in the spiritual world.
There are three distinct and complete degrees of the human mind,
natural, spiritual, and celestial, just as in every seed there are the
germs of leaves, blossoms, and fruit; only in man these degrees of life
are more complete and distinct. The two higher degrees, the spiritual
and the celestial, may be opened, and they may not. If they are ever
opened the beginning of the process must be made while we are on the
earth. If only the natural degree is opened we shall live in that plane
of our faculties forever. If the beginning of a genuine spiritual life
is made here, we shall rise to that plane and live in it, acquiring its
truths and enjoying its blessings. If the celestial degree of the mind
is opened we shall live in the highest heaven and enjoy the sweetest
peace and the deepest blessedness it is possible for finite beings to
attain. In the degree that we lay the foundations for doing the will of
the Lord on the earth shall we continue to do it in the heavens. This is
the law of relation between this life and the life to come.
The organization of the material body before our birth bears the same
relations to its capacities to see, hear, receive sensations, and
perform the functions of a human being in this world that the spiritual
body, while clothed in the garments of flesh, bears to its capacities to
know, love, and enjoy when it is raised up into the spiritual world. As
spiritual beings we are in an embryonic state while we dwell in the
earth of the material body. If a child is born into this world without
eyes there is no way in which it can be endowed with the power of
seeing. According to the same law, when we are born into the spiritual
world by resurrection from the material body, we can only see, hear, and
gain a consciousness of those spiritual objects, and love, know, and
enjoy other beings and things in the form and according to the degree
and capacity of the spiritual organs which were formed in the earth.
There is, therefore, a principle of momentous importance involved in
this clause of the Lord’s Prayer. When we offer it, we pray for our
eternal future; we pray that the beginnings of an immortal life may be
made here, and that these beginnings may be the germs of capacities for
the varied, rich, and complete happiness of heaven. There are a few
obvious inquiries which we need to make to bring the subject clearly
before us.
We must first get a clear idea of what is the will of the Lord in
heaven. It is His will, His purpose, that men may have eternal life. He
created man for the express purpose of blessing him. The Lord's will is
His love, and it is the nature of heavenly love to give all its own to
be another’s. It is the essential nature of the Divine character to
bless, to give itself in as large measures and perfect quality as
possible. This is the purpose for which everything in the universe was
created. Everything, from the least to the greatest, is exactly adapted
to this end. The Lord could not create a finite form better adapted to
receive His love and wisdom, and be blessed by them, than the human. Man
can receive the Divine love and wisdom in their highest finite forms,
and there is no assignable limit to his capacity to receive and enjoy.
It is the Lord’s will that every human being should receive the largest
possible measures of happiness. There is nothing too great, or too
beautiful, or too good for the Lord to give.
It is His will, also, to make it cost us as little as possible. He
desires to give us the most for the least. In this respect His will is
directly the reverse of selfish men. They desire to get the most for the
least. The Lord desires to give the most for the least. He desires to
have us get the highest good in the easiest way. He is so desirous of
this, that He helps us all He can: He came into the world to point out
the way, to be the way. “This is the will of the Father, that every one
who seeth the Son, and believeth in Him may have eternal life.” The Lord
does not exact the least thing of us which is not essential to the
attainment of the end.
I do not know of anything in which men who claim to be Christians have
more misunderstood the Lord's character and purpose than in His infinite
desire and effort to give the largest and richest good to His children.
It is the common opinion that the Lord is “a hard master, reaping where
he has not sowed.” But this is an entire mistake. If He asks us to deny
ourselves, it is because His will cannot be done in us until we make
room for the operations of His spirit. If He commands us to pluck out
the right eye if it offends us, it is because it blinds us to something
far more beautiful than can be seen by our natural sight. So it is in
every case. He never asks us for any self-denial except for the purpose
of doing us a good which He could not give us without it. He never takes
anything from us, or permits anything to be taken from us, except for
the purpose of giving us a greater good in its place. What a comfort it
would be if we could keep this truth clearly before us, in our daily
labors and trials: “The Lord is seeking to give me the highest good I
can receive, and if He takes anything away it is to make room for it.”
It is the Lord’s will that we should live according to the commandments,
shunning what they forbid, and doing what they enjoin, because they are
laws of life, because they are the paths which lead to life, and any
deviation from them is the way to death. The Lord did not give the
commandments to men because He desired to lay any restrictions upon
them. He did it to point out the way to the attainment of the highest
good. When we obey them we follow the directions of infinite wisdom. The
Lord teaches us to pray that His will may be done in the earth as it is
in heaven. The next question which it is important to know is, How is
His will done in heaven? We can only mention some of the general
principles which regulate the life there.
In heaven they keep the commandments, the first of which is, “Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” The heavenly inhabitants do
this. Their hearts are open to the Lord, and their faces are turned
towards Him. This love is not a mere sentiment, an impulse of the
affections; it is a principle, a rule of life. The test of it is not an
outburst of passionate emotion, breaking forth into song. “He that hath
My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me.” The Lord
has not one rule of life for heaven, and another for the earth. Life,
according to the commandments, is heaven, and when men keep them as well
as the angels it will be heaven upon the earth. All the angels love the
Lord in the degree that their affections were opened in this world. Some
love Him in a celestial way, some in a spiritual degree, and some in a
natural. The power to love differs in every one. They love Him with all
their hearts; but some hearts are much larger than others. Their love
manifests itself in keeping His commandments. Those in the first heaven
keep them from the love of obedience; those in the second heaven from
the love of the truth. They see that they are laws of life; they see
their beauty, harmony, order, and they love to carry them out in all
their relations to each other. Those who dwell in the highest heaven do
them unconsciously and spontaneously. These laws are engraved upon their
hearts, the celestial inhabitants are the forms of these laws, and all
their activities flow according to their harmonies. They keep them just
as the tree keeps them when it blossoms and bears fruit. Their
affections and thoughts flow in the currents of the Divine order, and
their whole being is filled with light, love, and blessedness.
The second great law of heaven, and the way the Lord’s will is done
there is, the inhabitants love one another. Some love others as
themselves; others more than themselves. This love also is something
more than a sentiment; it is done. It is carried out into all the
relations of life. They do all they can to help each other, to make each
other happy. We cannot conceive of an angel being envious, or jealous,
or unkind, of bearing false witness, or of finding fault with his
fellows. We cannot conceive of an angel coveting another’s place or
possessions, or of neglecting the uses of his own to criticize the work
of another. Every one loves to be in his own place, and to do his own
work in the best manner he can, and in everything he does he has primary
regard to the good of others.
As a result of this love for the Lord and the neighbor, there is perfect
harmony in all the domestic social, civil, and spiritual relations of
the heavenly inhabitants. Each one is living for all. The whole heaven
is giving its service to each one of its inhabitants. How lovely and
beautiful those relations must be! The feelings are kind, the speech is
pure and gentle, the sympathies are warm and sensitive, the hands are
gentle and strong to help. The only ambition to be great is to serve.
Every one is in his place, desires to be in his place, does that which
he can do best, and loves to do it.
Heaven is a society of human beings associated together according to
mutual tastes and character. Those who love each other the best, who are
of homogeneous natures, and consequently can be of the greatest service
to each other, live in the most intimate relations. Supreme love to the
Lord and unselfish love of the neighbor are the governing principles of
action, and these principles are carried into all the details of life.
That is the way the Lord’s will is done in the heavens.
It is also done in another way. It is the Lord’s will that every human
being should have everything which will promote his happiness in the
fullest and highest degree. The inhabitants of heaven possess everything
necessary to their happiness. Their clothing, habitation, climate,
situation equal the highest ideals of every one in every particular. The
blessed inhabitants cannot ask for anything which the Lord will not give
them. The promise which our Lord made to His disciples is perfectly
fulfilled. “If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” There is
nothing to disturb, annoy, offend; everything to comfort, satisfy, and
bless.
The Lord teaches us to pray that His will may be done in the earth as it
is in heaven. The earth, as it is used in the Word, has large and
various meanings. And the Lord desires to have His will done in it in
every sense. By earth, in its lowest sense, we are to understand the
material world. The Lord seeks to have His will done in it as it is in
the heavens. He seeks to have it perfectly adapted to man's condition
while he lives in the material body. He created it to be our home in the
infancy of our being, and He has supplied it with all the materials
necessary for our food and clothing and habitation. How beautiful and
grand He has made it! How richly He has supplied it with everything
which is conducive to our comfort and pleasure! Look at His provisions
for one want,— food for the growth and sustenance of the material body.
What an infinite variety! How delicious it is! How nicely adapted to all
tastes, and to the upbuilding of the whole physical structure! In what
beautiful forms He presents it to us! How attractive He makes every step
of the process of its preparation! Take one fruit as an example,—the
apple. The tree itself is beautiful, and stretches out its motherly arms
near the earth as if handing its blessings down to us. The leaves are
beautiful, and what a glory of blossoms crowns the tree! How delicate
and lovely their crimson tints! How, pure as an angel’s smile, they open
their lips, whose speech is fragrance, filling the whole air with its
sweetness. The old orchards I roamed in when a boy! They smile on me
yet. I feel their benedictions now. I did not think then that they were
doing it in obedience to the Divine will; but I see it now, and I shall
see it more and more clearly forever.
When this rich dower of beauty and fragrance has served its use in
introducing and cherishing the tender germs of the fruit it passes away,
and the old arms gradually bend towards the earth with the increasing
weight of their precious burden. How lovely in form and color the fruit!
How delicious to the keen appetite its taste! How much comfort and
pleasure and sustenance it supplies! I did not see the Lord’s goodness
in this bounty then; but I see it now, and the lovely pictures of His
working for me when I knew it not fill my heart with gratitude today!
This is one example of the many ways in which the Lord is expressing His
love, is doing His will in the earth as it is in the heavens. I know
that no earthly trees or earthly fruits can compare with those which
blossom and bear fruit in the paradise above. But they are adapted to
our states in this world. They supply our present wants, and they are
the best the Lord can do for us with such rough materials.
But He can do better for us the more earnestly and intelligibly we pray
to Him to do it. Here we may see the true use and nature of prayer. It
is a well-known fact that all fruits have been much improved in size and
flavor by culture. The varieties and abundance have also been much
increased. So great has this improvement been, that we should regard our
most delicious fruits as hardly fit to eat in their wild, primitive
state. How have they been changed? By prayer! By the only effectual
prayer. Men have prayed with the plough and the hoe, and the
pruning-hook. They studied the Divine commandments written in the soil
and in the climate, and in the sun and winds, and in the plant itself.
They studied diligently to discover what the plant loved, what materials
it could use to the best advantage, and as fast as they discovered these
laws they kept them. They prayed for a better and more abundant fruit,
and they prayed in the right way; and their prayers were answered.
The Lord is doing His will on the earth as it is done in heaven in a
larger and different way from what is generally supposed. The material
universe, and every useful and beautiful material object is cast into
the mould of heavenly forms. There are three kingdoms in nature because
there are three kingdoms in the spiritual world to which the material
kingdoms correspond. They are the effects of spiritual causes. There are
minerals, plants, birds, and animals on the earth because there are
minerals and plants, birds and animals in heaven. The Lord is carrying
the great purposes of His love into effect according to the same laws,
and by the same means in the earth as He does in heaven. He creates the
same objects that they may perform the same use to men in the material
body that they do on a higher plane to human beings in a spiritual body.
The earth and all material objects are shadows of the spiritual earth
which we shall inhabit when we have served our apprenticeship here, and
the material objects in their various forms of mineral, plant, and
animal are only the rough casts and rude outlines of corresponding
spiritual objects in heaven. When we pass from earth to heaven, we shall
not pass from the known to the entirely unknown. We shall find the same
objects in general that we have left behind us. The difference will not
consist in unlikeness and opposites, but in greater variety, in
surpassing beauty and grandeur, in supreme excellence in quality, and in
a more complete adaptation to every human condition.
The Lord is doing His will on the earth as He is doing it in heaven.
When we study science, and learn the laws, forces, qualities, and
relations of one object to another, we are learning how the Lord
accomplishes His will, what means He employs, and in what form His will
becomes embodied. We find also that He employs human agency. He does the
best He can by working from within according to general laws to give man
food, clothing, and habitation. But to carry out His purposes of good to
man in the most complete manner He needs our co-operation. By working
through us He can obtain better results than He can by working through
nature alone. He takes His children into partnership, gives them
abundant materials, and teaches them how to use them, to improve them.
He teaches us how to be creators, and gives us opportunities to work for
others, and do good to them, as He works for and blesses us. By these
means the affections are enlarged, and all our intellectual and
spiritual faculties are developed. The Lord desires to have all His
children well fed, well clothed, to have them dwell in comfortable and
beautiful habitations on the earth as well as in heaven. For this end He
works, for this end He desires to have us work with Him.
The Lord desires to have His children live in domestic comfort, love,
and peace. Those who are trying to bring their own families into this
condition are offering this prayer. When husband and wife tenderly and
truly respect and love one another, and seek each others’ happiness;
when children love their parents, and are obedient to them, and try to
make them happy; when they love and respect each other, and try to serve
each other; when all the members of a family combine to live for each
other, according to the measure of their success, they are doing the
Lord’s will on the earth as it is done in the heavens. They are praying
for it without ceasing, and their prayer is answered. The same principle
applies to all the social, civil, and industrial relations of men. Every
man and every woman who is trying to improve the condition of humanity
in this world is offering this prayer, and is doing it in the only way
in which the Lord can answer it. Oh, that the prayers of men were more
fervent, and more intelligent, and more constant! It is a blessed sign,
full of promise, that men’s prayers are coming down from the abstract
and ideal into the practical and real.
But we pass on to notice another meaning of earth, which has a most
important bearing upon our personal happiness and excellence. By the
earth is meant the natural which is the subject of all our natural
thoughts, desires, passions, and attainments. In this petition the Lord
teaches us to ask that His will may be done in the natural degree of our
life as it is in the spiritual. The spiritual degree of the mind is
first regenerated. We learn spiritual truth which teaches us how we
ought to live. We have aspirations after a heavenly life. We resolve to
live it and we make efforts to do it. It is not difficult to acknowledge
the beauty and excellence of a heavenly life, and when the passions are
at rest and we are not exposed to temptations, to dream of living it.
But when we bring these heavenly principles of supreme love to the Lord
and equal love to the neighbor down into natural affection, thought, and
deed, we find they come into conflict with all our selfish and worldly
desires, and a long and weary conflict must be waged before the heavenly
gains full lodgment in the earthly, subdues its obduracy, moulds it into
its own likeness, and moves it to harmony with itself. The Lord teaches
us to pray that all our natural affections may be clarified into
heavenly purity; that a heavenly love may imbue and control our natural
wills; that heavenly light may illuminate our understandings; that
heavenly kindness and gentleness may characterize all our actions; that
our speech may be gentle, and true, and helpful, and all our actions
useful and good.
When we are trying to bring heaven down into the earth; when we are
learning the truth; when we are performing some use from love to others,
we are offering this petition continually. Husband and wife are praying
this prayer when they are living a true married life. The merchant, and
the mechanic, and the seamstress, and the teacher, the cook, and the
mistress of a household; the lawyer, and the physician, and the
minister, and every one in any useful office is offering this prayer who
is working from love to others. He is translating it into deeds; is
working for the accomplishment of the Lord’s will both in himself and in
others, and just so far as he offers it fervently, patiently,
persistently, it will be answered.
We must not expect the whole work to be done instantly. The farmer does
not expect an immediate answer when he prays to have a harvest of wheat
where there is a forest of giant trees. He must pray long with his axe,
with fire, with ploughshare driven through the hard earth, with seed
cast into the ground. Then he must wait for the Lord to come with light
and warmth, with rain and dew, before he can see His will accomplished.
So must we diligently pray, and faithfully labor, and patiently wait for
the coming of His spiritual kingdom into our own hearts and
understandings. It is a great work, and we must pray without ceasing and
faint not. If we do, our prayer will be answered. The natural and the
spiritual mind will become one. The Lord’s will will be done on the
earth in us as it is in the heavens within us. But we must not forget
that we never offer this prayer, however often we may repeat the words,
until we try to do it.
By earth is also signified the Church in the world. Here we might expect
to find the Lord’s will done as it is in heaven. Its members profess to
be followers of the Lord, to believe in His Word, and to live a heavenly
life. But it is often difficult to discover in the societies of the
Church any similarity to the societies in heaven except in form. We do
not find the great law of love to be the controlling principle of
action. We do find bigotry, pride, hypocrisy, hatred, love of self and
the world, ignorance of heavenly laws, and indifference to them. In
business, in social and civil life, in the privacy of home, and in
public affairs, it is difficult to distinguish the members of the Church
from those who make no profession of religion. But our Lord teaches us
to pray that the earthly society may be animated by the same spirit,
guided by the same principles, and engaged in the same work as the
heavenly societies. They have the same Father; they are members of the
same family; heirs to the same inheritance. They only dwell in different
provinces of the same kingdom. As the earth is the ground in which the
heavenly seed is planted and the germs of heavenly blessings take root,
we must be diligent in planting, faithful in cultivating and protecting
them. Every genuine member of the Lord’s kingdom is an embodiment of a
heavenly force and a medium of transmitting it. We stand between heaven
and the society to which we belong. We communicate what we are; and the
character of every society is the sum of the intelligence, energy, love,
order, purity, and devotion its members contribute to it. Let us who are
members of this society pray this prayer, and constantly, patiently, and
faithfully labor to make it a vigorous and thriving branch of the Lord’s
kingdom.
There is much thought and said in the Church about going to heaven.
Wearied with the labors and contradictions of this life, tormented by
its cares, disappointed by its illusions and unsatisfying joys, we long
for the freedom and rest, the joys and peace of heaven, which we hope to
gain only by escaping from the world. But our Lord teaches us to pray
that His will may be done in the earth as it is in heaven. He reverses
the order of our purposes. We are to aim and to labor to bring heaven
down to earth; to make every society a heavenly society. It is not by
escaping from the labor, but by putting a heavenly purpose into it and
giving it a heavenly direction; it is not by withdrawing from societies
and withholding our hands and closing our hearts to its work, that we
can gain heaven here or hereafter, but by bringing the principles of
heaven into our work and worship; by uniting with others and extending
our influence as widely as possible. It should be our aim and our
constant effort, as far as lies in our power, to make this society a
living, vigorous member of the Lord’s kingdom. We should seek to make
ourselves a medium of transmitting the principles, the light, the order,
the harmony, the purity, the vital power, and the peace of heaven to the
whole body of the society.
The essential principle of heaven is love to the Lord. Let us try to
bring this law of a heavenly life into all our relations with one
another as members of a society of the Lord’s kingdom. Let us desire and
labor that His will, not ours, except so far as it coincides with it,
may be done in our society; that His way may be our way, His purpose our
purpose. May we look to Him, keep the door of our hearts open to Him,
that He may guide us by His wisdom, vivify us by His love, and make us
willing instruments in His hands of doing His will and helping others to
do it.
The members of the Lord’s kingdom in heaven love one another with an
unselfish and devoted affection. Let us bring this love into all our
relations with one another. Let us feel kindly towards all. Let us give
to every one all the aid we can in overcoming evil, learning truth, and
living a heavenly life. Then we shall pray this prayer without ceasing.
Every aspiration will ascend as incense to the Lord, and will return to
us as a purer love, a clearer light, and a larger capacity to do His
will; and through us, according to the measure of our ability, we shall
become a society which is a branch of the heavenly kingdom, and which is
doing the Lord’s will upon the earth as it is done in heaven. |
