what St Paul says: — ‘ God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able ’ [1]: — but our ability lies chiefly in our prayers.
‘ Deliver us from evil.’ The Church expands this into ‘ deliver us from all evil: past, present, and to come.' ‘ Past evil,' which still leaves bad effects, is sin already committed; ‘ present evil ' is sin that we may be now committing; and ‘evil to come’ is sin that we fear we shall commit. All other evils are nothing, except in so far as they may cause us to sin by murmuring and impatience. It is principally in view of this possibility that we ask to be delivered from any other misfortunes.
‘ Deliver us from evil': — Deliver us from sin, and the consequences of sin: — therefore, from disease, sorrow, and death, so that we may be perfectly free. Then indeed shall we be supremely happy!
Another version has: ' Deliver us from the evil one': that is, from our enemy the devil with all his temptations.
When we beg for strength against temptation, it is not only against the devil, but against ourselves as well, according to St James. ‘But
- ↑ i Cor. x. 13.
