in our weakness.
n
72 HOW TO PRAY AS WE OUGHT
^ The Spirit " makes intercession," literally goes out to meet the helpless creature for the purposes of intercourse and consulta- tion, then intervenes by taking up his cause and pleading on his behalf — it is the work of a true Paraclete. The Son of God is such an Advocate on high. We can hear Him pray for both inner and outer circles of His disciples in John xvii., and now that He has entered upon the glory which He had with the Father before the world was, we can imagine, and trust to. His yet more efficacious High-priestly work on our behalf yonder. But He is far away, and the wings of faith and imagination are weak and often fail us. What is needed is a Helper within, one who not so much prays for us, as prays in us. If men had invented such a phrase for themselves it would have been laughed at as an impossibility, or rejected as blasphemy ; surely a man must do his own praying to the God who is over him. But a characteristic feature of Christianity is the oneness of the God over us with the God in us, and the Spirit Himself undertakes our cause with yearnings that can find no words.^
^ If " the Spirit helpeth our infirmity," we have no excuse for those infirmities for which we so readily apologize as being natural to man. They may be so, they may be part of our own fallen and evil nature, but it is the special work of the Spirit to deliver us from them, and to make us strong just where we were weak. A Christian who bears on him some chronic infirmity, whether of temper or of appetite, or of will, just as some men bear on their bodies marks of chronic ill-health, is one who has never realized what the Spirit of God might have done for him, and would have done, had he not hindered Him by his unbelief.^
(1) He who is able to make the confession " I believe in the Holy Ghost " has found a Divine Friend, For him the Spirit is not an influence, an energy, of One far off, but a present Comforter whom Christ has sent to fulfil His work, a present Guide ready to lead him into all the truth, a present Advocate waiting to gain acceptance for the deep sighings of the heart before the throne of God. So it is that Scripture speaks of His relation to us : so it is that we can understand how His Presence among men is dependent on the exaltation of Christ in His human nature to the right hand of the Father.
^ The subject on which my mind has been dwelling of late is God's sympathy with man in his weakness and sin. I preached the other Sunday on the text, " The Spirit also helpeth our 1 W. T. Davison. ="6.8. Barrett.
ROMANS VIII. 26 73
infirmity," and the subject has been on my mind ever since. The idea of the Great Spirit being always and everywhere present as the sympathizing friend and helper of man has laid hold of my mind with new power. I used to think of the missionary going, and taking the Spirit with him where he went. Now I think of the Spirit as being already there, and inviting the missionary to come and join Him in the work. The Spirit was in China before I was born, and He brought me in to be a co-worker with Himself. And so everywhere and always. What would have become of the world but for the presence of the Divine Spirit in it ? People seem to think that the heathen world has been without God all these centuries. The heathen, it is true, have not known God, but God has known them all the time. The measure of men's knowledge of God is not the measure of what God is to men. If God had not been in China, China would have been a hell. What keeps a man from becoming a demon ? Is it not the presence of the Spirit in his soul ? I have had more tenderness of soul in dealing with men ever since this truth has been brought home to me by God's Spirit. How thankful ought we to be that hard theological views and dogmas are giving way, and that the Spirit of Christ is coming in and quietly taking their place.^
(2) Again, he who is able to make this confession recognizes the action of One who is moulding his single life. Each believer is him&elf a temple to be prepared for the Master's dwelling. The same Spirit who shapes the course of the whole world hallows the soul which is offered to Him for a Divine use. The Christian believer is in one sense alone with God, and God alone with him. He has a work to do, definite, individual, eternal, through the ordinary duties and occupations and trials of common business ; and this the Spirit sent in Christ's name, bringing to him the virtue of Christ's humanity, will help him to perfect.
^ The Holy Spirit is the immediate source of all holiness. The missionary must, above all things, be a holy man. The ideal teacher of the Chinese is a holy man. " He is entirely sincere, and perfect in love. He is magnanimous, generous, benign, and full of forbearance. He is pure in heart, free from selfishness, and never swerves from the path of duty in his conduct. He is deep and active like a fountain, sending forth his virtues in due season. He is seen, and men revere him ; he speaks, and men believe him ; he acts, and men are gladdened by him. He possesses all