Untitled article by Robert A. Underwood

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 16, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 24.

THE LORD'S PRAYER. NO. 4.

By Robert A. Underwood

BY ELDER R. A. UNDERWOOD.

"AND lead us not into temptation." God does not tempt any man. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man." James 1:12, 13. This being so, why, then, should we pray, "Lead us not into temptation"?

One translation renders this, "Abandon us not unto trial [i. e., do not leave us when in trial], but deliver us from evil." It is necessary that man should be tested to prove his fitness for the glorious gift of immortality. Unless there is something to try man's integrity, he knows not his own weakness. This is illustrated by the children of Israel in following the customs and idol worship of the heathen nations around them. The Lord said concerning them: "I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died; that through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not." Judges 2:21, 22. It is not for man's best good, while on probation, to have temptation all removed, for it is through temptation that the gold in his character is revealed. Notice the following scriptures, speaking of the saints: "Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be [some translate, 'since it is necessary'], ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:5-7. "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." Heb. 12:5, 6. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." Rev. 3:19.

Sometimes the chastening hand of God is upon us because we need correcting and will learn righteousness only by this means. Sometimes it comes to us to give us an experience under trial that will fit us to labor for those who may be called to pass through these experiences. The apostle speaks of this in the first chapter of second Corinthians, as follows:—

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." "And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation."

Therefore, whether it is for our own salvation, or for the salvation of others, that we are tried in the furnace of afflictions, we should praise God for it all, and in faith ask God not to leave us alone in the trial, but deliver us from the evil.

"For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen." No one can repeat this closing sentence of this most wonderful prayer understandingly and take any glory to himself in his or others' salvation. It excludes all salvation by merit or by works of man. It acknowledges that all the power to do the will of God is of God and not of man. It recognizes God as having all power in heaven and in earth, and that we, his children, are connected with this regenerating, saving, keeping power. And Christ is the manifestation of God to us. Without Christ we can do nothing. To him belongs the glory for what he hath wrought. It is the self-confidence, the self-trusting, the self-glorifying spirit of this world, yea, of many professed Christians, that robs them of the power of Christ in the salvation of the souls of men. Because of this spirit of self-exaltation so prevalent in men, God is almost driven to go outside of his appointed means to save the lost.

"For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are; that no flesh should glory in his presence. . . . That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 1 Cor. 1:26-31.

With increased interest, dear reader, may we all study the depth and height, the length and breadth, of love and power so briefly expressed in the petition the great Teacher has taught us to pray, until the King shall come the second time, "to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe."