truth of the _brotherhood of man_, and universal brotherhood depends upon the universal Fatherhood. You cannot have this brotherhood of man, except by getting them to kneel together and say “our Father.” The link that binds men together is the possession of a common Father. When we address God by that sweet name, we awake to the fact that we are all members of one great family, bound to one another by the strongest and dearest of ties. Oh! we pray for the time when jealousy, pride, hatred and war shall cease, when “man to man the world o’er shall brothers be for a’ that!” I will tell you when that time shall come. It shall come when you can get all men everywhere to kneel down and begin their prayer with these grand but simple words “Our Father.” “Then shall the whole round earth be every way Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.” “Our Father, _who art in Heaven_,” says Matthew. Our Father is high and lifted up, He is “in Heaven.” That does not mean that God is not with us here on earth. He is the High and Holy One who inhabits eternity; but He is also the one who dwells in the lowly and the contrite heart. But as Dr. Morison puts it, “On earth there are spots, hearts at least and many of them, where God is not. He is not admitted. He is shut out. But in heaven He is all in all. In a peculiar fulness of acceptation, then, God may be said to be in Heaven.” But this little phrase, “who art in Heaven,” is something more than a topographical direction. It is more, shall I say, than God’s postal address. This little phrase _tells us what kind of a Father we have_. I do not think it at all fanciful to say with Dr. Stanford, that, as Heaven is the place of perfection, “our Father, who art in Heaven” may be interpreted to mean, “our Father, who art the one perfect Father.” But whether this interpretation is legitimate or not, the idea is a true and Scriptural one. God is the model—the pattern Father. Paul says that “of Him every fatherhood in heaven and earth is named.” You can look at the tender relations that bind the best of fathers to the best of sons here on earth, and I tell you they but faintly illustrate the tender relations that bind God to you. He is the one perfect Father. He is perfect in LOVE. “No earthly father loves like Thee, no mother half so mild.” Mothers may forget their children but God will never forget us. Parents may turn their backs upon us, father and mother may forsake us, and even then God will take us up. He is perfect _in wisdom_. Earthly parents are not always wise. They are sometimes unwise in severity; they are oftener, I think, unwise in their love; and many a child’s character has been injured, if not ruined, by the unwisdom of its parents. But God is all wise. He is always thinking upon His children for their good. In perfect wisdom, perfect love, He is working for the best. He is perfect in _helpfulness_.