The Lord's Prayer Author:Henry Harrison Brown Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: "HALLOWED BE THY NAME!" IN primeval times among all people it was believed, and today it is believed, that behind each phenomenon was a god. That god was fear... more »ed. In all dealings with it, they had more or less extended ceremonial rites. They brought gifts to placate him, and they "called upon his name!" They reverenced the name and hallowed it. Two methods of using the name were common then, and are more or less common today. One was incantation; the other was repetition. In the '' witch scene'' in Macbeth is perpetuated the thought of incantation. In all our prayers is perpetuated that of invocation. A common method of calling upon the god, of obtaining favors, was a constant repetition of the name until the devotee would have some form of ecstacy. This was accepted as a sign of the favor of the gods. Among the Koman oracles, especially at Delphos, the sibyl inhaled mephitic vapors and went into convulsions, and her ravings from this were the oracles. Juices of plants, wine, opiates and narcotics, odors and burned incense, have all been used in the Name and to hallow the Name. With the exception of incense, twilight and garb, the methods of incantation have passed away in civilized lands from the ordinary worshiper. But invocation remains and will ever remain, for it is the one universal method of approaching communion with the Unseen. To hold in mind reverently the name of their God, to repeat the name mentally of their Great God, their One God, was a habit of the ancient Hebrews. That Name was never spoken; it was "hallowed" by silent meditations. All other names might be spoken, but THE name was never vocalized. Whether this was the NAME that Jesus, the young Jew, meant, is not possible for us to know. The name by which God is called in the prayer is "Father." "H...« less