The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 674

PRAYER

634

the sounds and tones which are in the vibrating strings of the harp.

The same heart.

He

true of the sinner's prayer.

is

prayer

ful

could not offer his sin-

there were no tone of prayer in the strings of his

if

That he can pray

at

all,

he owes to the fact that the Holy

Spirit created the tones of prayer in his heart;

only to

forth, alas!

make them

which he brings

discords.

However, in this respect, ordinary grace in its sometimes preparatory character ought not to be overlooked. The sinner is on earth, and not yet in hell. Between the two is, first, this difference, that on the former there

power

the

lence.

God

He

it.

preventive grace, which bridles from breaking out in all its vioa chained bulldog or a muzzled hyena.

and prevents

Sin on earth

Secondly,

cerning

of sin

is

like

is

it

He

loves this world.

has thoughts of peace con-

does not forsake the work of His creation, and by

His sovereign grace He provides a redemption which saves the organism of the world and of the race so that the tree is saved, while the useless shoots and dry leaves are gathered to be cast into hell. Having this is in view, ordinary or general grace aims at the preservation of the powers of the original creation, to develop them to some extent, and thus to prepare the field in which by and by the ;

seed of eternal is

life will

be planted.

And, altho

this ordinary

grace

not effectual to salvation, any more than the mere plowing of

the field can ever germinate the wheat which

is

not sown in the

furrows, yet this plowing of ordinary grace has real significance for the future

And

portant place.

plowing the like

growth

of the seed of eternal

life.

in this general grace, the grace of prayer occupies If

field,

an im-

there were no general grace, muzzling sin and the sinner could no

him would curse God without

more pray than Satan, but But now he still prays,

ceasing.

he has prayed for ages, and by his prayer, even tho it is the fruit of tradition, he has sometimes risen above the sinful egoism of his heart. But this prayer never sprang from the root of sin, nor from something good which he had kept along with sin in the holy closet it was but the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. Evidence of the deep inworking of this grace is found in the exalted devotions that still sound in our ears from the most ancient traditional prayers of Indian, Egyptian, and Greek antiquity; and in the ministry of prayer from the pulpit by unconverted ministers whose supplications often move and touch the soul.

of his heart

;

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