The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 673

PRAYER

IN

THE UNCONVERTED

633

could not produce even discord; but sin has put grating upon the ear. it out of tune, and now its tones are harsh and the original Master, of work of the testify And yet these very strings So long as sound-producing. still are work they for by His original

strings, for then

it

the strings are only loose upon the harp, it when they are altogether broken and gone,

may it is

be repaired

;

but

no longer a harp,

but a useless piece of wood. Every prayer of the sinner is a discord which jars against the beautiful harmony of the eternal love eviof God nevertheless the very discords of that prayer are the ;

dences that the Holy Spirit had originally placed the strings upon the heart. If

the

Holy

Spirit

had never performed such a work upon the

heart, there would be no harp at

even the discord.

The

fact that

it

all

;

the heart could not produce shows that there are strings

does,

which originally were perfectly attuned. Hence prayer ner is unthinkable without the work of the Holy Spirit. But

this is not all.

Not only the

in the sin-

possibility of such discordant

but the reversed working of a power created, supported, and actuated by the Holy Spirit's work. To put this in the strongest light, we add that all cursing and blasphemy is the reversed action of a power of the Holy Spirit.

prayer, but the discord itself

is

:

men given to profanity indulge in their terrible because they realize that the Almighty God lives, and that His power is something terrible. Cursing and blasphemy are hellish Blasphemers and

sin,

tones and vibrations from the same harp of prayer, which the Holy An animal can 7iot curse and if the Spirit created in the soul. ;

had not strung the soul with these strings of prayer, no curse could ever have passed the lips of man. Cursing is a malignant boil, but it springs directly from the artery of prayer. Consider it well, even Satan has not a single power directly from himself; and all the power with which, in his blasphemous and insane rage, he wars against God is a power from God reversed by

Holy

Spirit

Satan.

Even the sinner's prayer is a manifestation of pcnver. There must be an impulse and incitement, however weak, which causes him to pray. And this requires strength of consciousness and an expression of the

will.

And

these powers he does not create him-

but the Holy Ghost; he only abuses or corrupts them. When an unpractised hand touches the harp-strings and produces discords, it does not create those discords; but they are formed from

self,

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