from the Lord into man's finite and imperfect faculties, and modified by its weak receptacle; the other, good and truth uttered directly by the Lord himself, without passing through any human medium, and therefore perfect and Divine. Yet even the widow's mite is acceptable to the Lord; the humblest offering from a sincere heart is well pleasing to him; the simplest prayer of a fervent spirit, expressing itself in natural human language, though it be the rudest upon earth, must be more pleasing in his sight, than the words even of his own Divine Prayer, when uttered merely by the lips, and not filled with the corresponding thought and affection. For the Lord "looks on the heart, not on the outward appearance;"[1] it is the thoughts and the affections that the Lord hears, not the words; for in the spiritual world—as the New Church Doctrine teaches—thoughts speak and are audible: and this is the language that reaches the Lord's ear.
That the Lord did not intend to confine us exclusively to the form of words given on that occasion to the disciples, is evident from the fact that there are other prayers found in the Word itself, and spoken moreover by the Lord himself. The poor publican, who stood and smote upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," went down, as the Lord declared, to his house, justified.[2] These few and simple words, uttered from a humble and repentant heart, were accepted by the Lord: and so is every sincere prayer, be it expressed in what words it may. A full heart, indeed, more naturally perhaps, ex-
