consummation, and pray for strength and the spirit to do more and more, by any and all the means in our power—first of all, by setting the example in our own life and conversation, conquering the kingdom of darkness first in ourselves, and then helping to conquer it in others.
Viewed in this light, we may note how comprehensive is this first petition of the Lord's Prayer,—that it includes all that follows. For so far as the Lord's name is hallowed, so far as goodness and truth are known and loved and practised,—so far the Lord's kingdom comes, and is established in the individual and in the world,—so far his will is done on earth as it is in heaven; so far, also, we receive from him our daily bread and all things needful, for "they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing;"[1] and in the same degree, moreover, our trespasses are forgiven, and we are delivered from evil;" for as far and as fast as good and truth become established in the soul, evil and error are cast out, with their attendant anxieties and pains. Thus we may perceive that in this first petition of the Lord's Prayer is included, in substance, the whole of it. And this, as we are instructed by the Doctrine of the New Church, is the Divine style of writing, and it pervades all parts of the Sacred Word: when a series of propositions or truths is presented, the first in the series includes the substance of all that follow; the reason is, because the first truth or principle uttered is always a universal one, including under it all the particular truths connected with
