the Apostle has said: " The name of God through you is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles," [1] and Ezekiel: "They entered amongst the nations whither they went and profaned my holy name, where it was said of them, this is the people of the Lord, and they are come forth out of his land." [2] Their lives and morals are the standard by which the unlettered multitude judge of religion itself and of its founder: to live, therefore, according to its rules, and to regulate their words and actions according to its maxims, is to give others an edifying example, by which they will be powerfully stimulated to praise, honour, and glorify the name of our Father who is in heaven. To excite others to the praise and exaltation of the divine name is an obligation, which our Lord himself has imposed on us: " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven;" [3] and the prince of the Apostles says: " Having your conversation good among the Gentiles, that, by the good works which they shall behold in you, they may glorify God in the day of visitation." [4]
THY KINGDOM COME.
THE kingdom of heaven, which we pray for in this second petition, is the great end to which is referred, in which terminates, all the preaching of the Gospel: from it St. John the Baptist commenced his exhortation to penance, "Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;" [5] and with it the Saviour of the world opens his preaching. [6] In that admirable discourse on the mount, in which he points out to his disciples the way to everlasting life, having proposed to himself, as it were, the subject-matter of his discourse, he commences with the kingdom of heaven: " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;" [7] and to those who would detain him with them, he assigned as the cause of his departure the necessity of preaching the kingdom of heaven: "To other cities, also, I must preach the kingdom of God; therefore am I sent." [8] This kingdom he afterwards commanded the Apostles to preach; [9] and to him who expressed a wish "to go and bury his father," he replied: " Go thou, and preach the kingdom of God;" [10] and after he had risen from the dead, " for forty days speaking to his Apostles, he spoke of the kingdom of God." [11]
This second petition, therefore, the pastor will treat with the greatest attention, in order to impress on the minds of the faithful its paramount importance and necessity. In the first place,
