The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 680

PRAYER

640

prays in us as long and inasmuch as but at the same time

may become

He

we can

not pray for ourselves;

teaches us to pray, that gradually His

This includes that when temptawhich we are ignorant, or we are in the midst of assaults and conflicts which we fail to understand, the Holy Spirit immediately renews His prayer, and cries unto God in our behalf. But this should not be understood astho the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray, that He may withdraw Himself altogether from our prayers. On the contrary, every prayer of the saint must be in In order to be more earnest in co7nmu7non with the Holy Spirit. prayer we must sustain a more intimate communion. The more we pray alone and of ourselves, the more our prayer degenerates (into a sinful prayer, and ceases to be the prayer of a child of God. Wherefore St. Jude admonishes us to pray in the Spirit. There is only this difference when the Holy Spirit prays for prayer

superfluous.

tions threaten us of

:

us.

we

He

prays independently of us, altho in our own heart but when have learned to pray, altho the Holy Spirit continues to be the ;

real Petitioner, yet

God from our

lips.

He

prays with us and through us, and cries unto

As a mother

first ^ra.ys for

and then teaches him may pray with him, so also is the work his knowledge,

gins with praying for us; then

He

to

her child without

pray that by and by she

of the

Holy

He

Spirit.

teaches us to pray; and

be-

when we

have made some progress in the school of prayer, then He begins This is the Spirit to pray with us not only in us, but through us. of adoption, by whom we cry "Abba, Father"; but in such a way that at the

same moment He

testifies

with our spirits that

we

are

the children of God.

For this reason the Lord said to the woman of Samaria: "The hour Cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth." The addition " in truth "had reference to the symbolic service of ceremonies in Israel. The land of Canaan was the type of heaven, Jerusalem of the inner sanctuary, and Zion was the throne of God; the bloody sacrifices of ram and heifer signified the remission of sin the altar of incense was sym;

All this was truly typical, but was not the truth itself. Jerusalem was not the sanctuary of The truth of the Lord Jehovah, and Zion was not the mercy-seat. truth and and thus all this was and is in the heaven of heavens, had come its symbol and shadow even as grace came by Jesus Christ, bol of the prayers of the saints.

it

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