sary in order to break down, man's proprium and stubborn self-will, to make him willing to yield to the Divine guidance, and to enable him to become receptive of heavenly good. This is meant by "taking up the cross." But, besides that, we are actively to struggle against the evils which we perceive in ourselves; to stop the sharp words issuing from the mouth; to check the angry passion rising in the heart; to refrain from the sinful action to which we are inclined. This it is to "deny ourselves;" and this is what is meant by "keeping the commandments."
But now, in the last place, we are to inquire what effect the daily offering up of this prayer, "Deliver us from evil," will have on the result? In what way will this contribute to our deliverance from evil?
The object of prayer, we know, is not to change the Lord, but to change ourselves—to change the state of the person who prays. The Lord is unchangeable: He is Infinite Goodness and Love; and desires nothing more ardently than to deliver man from all evil, and to bless him with all good and happiness. But in this work, as already shown, man's co-operation is necessary. The laws of Divine order require that man shall, as of himself, fight against evils; and when he does this, and thus rejects evils from the outside, then the Lord by his Holy Spirit enters and removes them from the interiors of the mind, takes away the very inclinations to them; and thus man is purified, both externally and internally. Now, the use of prayer is,
