The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 681

THE PRAYER OF THE REGENERATED

After the coming of Christ, the prayers of

by the law of Moses.

the saints were to be separated from Jerusalem

woman

641

;

wherefore Jesus

"

Jerusalem and Gerizim are out of the question they belong to the dispensation of shadows; and that dispenHenceforth there sation ceased with My coming into the world. said to the

:

;

no more worship in shadows; but a worship of the Father in and in truth." And this gives us the true interpretation of the addition " in Spirit." So long as the people depended upon the service of shadows, they looked upon external things as supports of their prayers. But, since it was to be a worship in truth, it needed the inivard support which the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, offered will be

actuality

:

them.

The

saint

is

a saint because he received the Holy Spirit,

took up His abode with soul.

Holy

Every

him and inwardly married Himself

vital utterance

proceeding from him, apart from the

Spirit in him, is foreign to his sonship

far as he

moved and operated upon by

is

his thoughts, words,

who

to the

and

is sin.

Only

in so

the indwelling Spirit are

and deeds the utterances of the child

of

God

in

him.

And more

if

this is true of the

of his life of prayer

of himself apart from the

1

whole domain of his

life,

how much

After his conversion he often prays

Holy

Spirit; but that is the prayer, not of

But when the communion of the Holy Spirit is active in his heart, and works in him both the impulse and the animation of his prayer, then it is truly the prayer of the child of God, because wrought in him by the Holy Spirit. Wherefore Zacharias combines the Spirit of grace and of supplication. It is the same Spirit who, entering our hearts, unlocks God's

child,

but of the old sinner.

unto us the grace of God, enriches us with that grace, teaches us to realize that grace, and at the same time causes our thirst for that grace to utter itself in prayer. Prayer is the cry for grace, and can not be uttered until the Holy Spirit presents to the spiritual eye the riches of grace which are in Christ Jesus. And, on the other hand, the Holy Spirit can not cause these riches of grace to scintil-

eye of the soul without creating in us thirst and longing desire for this grace; thus compelling us to pray. late before the

Or, to put

it

more comprehensively, the prayer

of the saint re-

c^uires three things:

First,

an insight into the riches of eternal redemption.

Second, vivid impressions of his spiritual deadness

41

and

distress.

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