The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 684

PRAYER

644

summary of prayer eminently fitting the sumThou shalt love the Lord thy God." This is the Then, " Thou shalt love thy neighfirst and great commandme7it. bor as thyself." And so in our prayer: first, for the cause of God, foregound.

mary

of the

It is

law

this is the first

for ourselves.

:

the "

and %xq.2X petition Our prayer is the

then, prayer for the neighbor as

;

test of our relation to the first

and

great commandment.

And what

is

the work of the Holy Spirit in the prayer of inter-

cession? It is

necessary here, for a clear understanding, to distinguish

between a two/old that pertain to the

intercession

body

:

(

i

)

of Christ;

there

is

a prayer for the things

and

(2)

another for the things

that do not belong to that body, according to our impression and

conception of the matter.

Prayer for kings, and for

all that

are in authority, does not con-

cern the things that pertain to the body of Christ; neither does the

prayer for our enemies, nor that for the place of our habitation, for country, army, and navy, for a bountiful harvest, for deliverance

from pestilence, for trade and commerce, etc. All these pertain to life, and to persons, whether saints or sinners, in their relation to the life of creation, and not to the Kingdom of Grace. But our prayer does concern the body of Christ, when we pray for the natural

the coming of the Lord, for a fresh anointing of the priests of God, for their being clothed

upon with

of missions, for a baptism of the flict,

salvation, for success in the

Holy

for forgiveness of sin, for the salvation of our loved ones, for

the effectual conversion of the baptized seed of the Church. first

work

Spirit, for strength in con-

The

intercession has reference to the realm of nature, the second

to the

Kingdom

of Grace.

Hence

in

each of these two we must

look for the bond of fellowship from which springs our prayer of intercession.

For every prayer of intercession presupposes fellowship with them for whom we pray; a fellowship which casts us into the same distress, and from which we look for deliverance, and that in such a way that the sorrow of one burdens us, and the joy of another causes us to give thanks. exist,

Where such

nor the love which springs from

vital fellowship

it,

does not

or where these are tem-

may be a formal intercession of words, but from the heart there can not be. "With reference to the intercession in the realm of nature, the

porarily inactive, there real intercession

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