This short but perfect prayer is the Master’s answer to the request of His disciples. They say that prayer is never answered! This “Pearl of Prayers” is the best refutation of that statement. It was given in answer to prayer. “Lord, teach us to pray,” said the disciple, and the answer to his request was this prayer, which has met the needs and expressed the desires of God’s people throughout all generations. And so this prayer itself becomes the best proof of the truth proclaimed in our hymn, Beyond our utmost wants His love and power can bless, To praying souls He always grants More than they can express. II “Our Father” “After this manner therefore pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven.”—MATT. vi. 9. “When ye pray, say Father.”—LUKE xi. 2. I said last Sunday morning that in the prayer He taught, Jesus was grandly, supremely original. That originality appears in most striking fashion in the invocation with which the prayer opens. The prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray begins with a new name for God, “When ye pray, say _Father_.” In the Old Testament God is very seldom spoken of as Father, and when the name _is_ used, it is always with reference to the _nation_ of Israel and not to individuals—that is to say, the name “Father,” the few times it occurs in the Old Testament, stands for a _national_ not a _personal_ relationship. The Old Testament has many names for God—names that tell of His might, His power, His majesty. It speaks of Him as Jehovah; it speaks of Him as the great “I am”; it speaks of Him as “King” and “Lord”—but from Genesis to Malachi you will not find a single instance of an individual speaking of God as “Father.” Moses did not dare to use this name. David, the sweet singer of Israel, missed this note of tenderness from his songs. Isaiah, in the sweep of his passion and genius, never took this name into his lips. It was left to Jesus Christ to tell us God’s best and truest name. It was left to Him to say, “When ye pray, say Father.” I suppose no one can pass from the Old Testament to the New without being conscious of a change of atmosphere. Between the books there is a difference of theological climate. It is the difference between starlight, clear but cold, and the warm and gracious sunlight; it is the difference between law and gospel; it is the difference between debt and grace; it is the difference between fear and love; it is the difference between servitude and sonship; it is the difference between Sinai and Calvary. And the whole of this vast difference is made by this word “Father.” That name is written large upon every page of the New Testament, and that new name has brought with it a new joy and gladness into the world.