Third Chapter. Prayer
Third Chapter.
XXXIX.
The Essence of Prayer.
“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”—Ephes. vi. 18.
In the last place we consider the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer.
It appears from Scripture, more than has been emphasized, that in the holy act of prayer there is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit working both in us and with us. And yet this appears clearly from the apostolic word: “Likewise the _Spirit _helpeth also our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the _Spirit Himself _maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered. And He that knoweth the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because _He maketh intercession for the saints _according to the will of God” (Rom. viii. 26, 27). Christ expresses this with equal clearness when He teaches the woman of Samaria that “God is a Spirit, and the true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John iv. 24); for, so He adds, “the Father seeketh such to worship Him.” In almost similar sense St. Paul writes to the Ephesians: “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.” (Ephes. vi. 18)
They already possessed the ancient promise to Zacharias: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of _supplication” _ (Zach. xii. 10). And this promise was fulfilled when the apostle could testify concerning Christ: “For through Him we both have access by _one Spirit _unto the Father” (Ephes. ii. 18). In the “Abba, Father” of our prayers the Holy Spirit beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God (Rom. viii. 15). And in her longing for the coming of the Bridegroom, not only the Bride, but the _Spirit _and the Bride pray: “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.” Upon closer examination, it appears that prayer can not be separated from the spiritual rule that we must pray: “Not as tho we had received the spirit of the world, but the _Spirit of God, _that we might know the things that are freely given us of God”; a prayer which we then offer, “Not with the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the _Holy Ghost teacheth, _comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Cor. ii. 12, 13).
Hence there can be no doubt that even in our prayers we must acknowledge and honor a work of the Holy Spirit; and the special treatment of this tender subject may bear fruit in the exercise of our own prayers. We do not propose, however, to treat here the entire subject of prayer, which belongs to the explanation of the Heidelberg Catechism on this point; but we wish simply to emphasize the significance of the Holy Spirit’s work for the prayers of the saint.
In the first place, we must discover the silver thread that, in the nature of the case, connects the essence of our prayer with the work of the Holy Spirit.
For all prayer is not equal. There is a great difference between the high-priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus and the prayer of the Holy Spirit with groans that can not be uttered. The supplications of the saints on _earth _differ from those of the saints in _heaven, _those who rejoice _before _the throne and those who cry from _under _the altar. Even the prayers of the saints of earth are not the same in the various spiritual conditions from which they pray. There are prayers of the _Bride, _that is, from _ all the saints _on earth as a whole; and prayers of the _local assemblies _of believers, supplications from the circles of _brethren _when two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus; and supplications of _individual believers _poured out in the _solitude _of the closet. And distinguished in the root from these prayers of the saints are the prayers of the still unconverted, whether regenerate or not, who cry unto God whom they do not know and whom they oppose.
The question is whether the Holy Spirit is active, either in one or in all these prayers. Does He affect our prayers only when, in the rare moments of exalted spiritual life, we have intimate communion with God? Or does He affect only the prayers of the saint, excluding those of the unconverted? Or does He affect all prayer and supplication, whether from saint or sinner?
Before we answer this question, it is necessary accurately to define prayer. For prayer may be taken in a limited sense, as a religious act requesting something of God, in which case it is merely the expression of a desire springing from a conscious want, void, or need which we ask God to supply; an application to the divine power and providence, in poverty to be enriched, in danger to be protected, in temptation to be kept standing. Or it may be taken in a wider sense and include _thanksgiving. _ In the Reformed Church the Service of Prayer always includes the Service of Thanksgiving. In this sense the Heidelberg Catechism treats it, calling prayer the chief part of thankfulness (q. 116). In fact, we can scarcely conceive of prayer, in the higher sense, ascending to the Throne of Grace without thanksgiving.
Moreover, prayer also includes _praise _and every _outpouring _ of the soul. Prayer without praise and thanksgiving is no prayer. In the supplication of saints, prayer and adoration go together. Oppressed with the multitude of thoughts, the soul may have no definite supplication, or thanksgiving, or hymn of praise, yet frequently feels constrained to pour out those thoughts before the Lord. When, in Psalm xc., Moses pours out his prayer, there is: (1) a supplication, “Lord how long! and let it repent Thee concerning Thy servants”; (2) thanksgiving, “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations”; (3) praise, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God.” And besides these there is (4) an outpouring of the thoughts that fill his soul, “We are consumed by Thine anger, and by Thy wrath are we troubled”; and stronger still, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and, if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away.”
And so we find in the high-priestly prayer of Christ (John xvii): (1) a supplication, “And now, O Father, glorify Thou _Me _with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was”; or, “Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given _Me, _ that they may be one as We are”; (2) thanksgiving, “Thou hast given Me power over all flesh, that I should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Me”; (3) praise, “O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these have known that Thou hast sent Me”; (4) and besides these a manifold outpouring of the soul, which is neither prayer, praise, nor thanksgiving, “All Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine”; “I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do”; “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”
We did not assign a special place to the confession of guilt and sin, because this is included in supplication, to which it leads and of which it is the moving cause; while the confession of the soul’s lost condition and natural liability to condemnation necessarily must lead to the pouring out of the soul.
Therefore, speaking comprehensively, we understand by prayer: every religious act by which we take upon ourselves directly to speak to the Eternal Being.
The only difficulty is in the Hymn of Praise. For it can not be denied that in a number of psalms there is a direct speaking to God in hymns of praise; and thus the distinction between the Prayer and the Hymn of Praise might be lost sight of.
There are four steps in the Hymn of Praise: it may be a singing of the praise of God _before one’s own soul; _or _ before the ear of the brethren; _or _ before the world and the demons; _or lastly, before the Lord God Himself.
When the flame of holy joy burns freely in the heart of the saint, altho he be alone or in chains in the dungeon, he feels constrained, for his own satisfaction as it were, with a loud voice to sing a psalm to the praise of God. Thus it was that David sang: “I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplication.” Different is the Hymn of Praise when, with and for the brethren, the saint sings in their company; for then they sing, “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they, shall walk in the light of Thy countenance”; or directly addressing the people of God: “O ye seed of Abraham, His servant, ye children of Jacob His chosen, He is the Lord our God, His judgments are in all the earth.” And another is the Hymn of Triumph, which the Church sings as it were before the world and the demons; then the saints sing: “Thou art the glory of our strength; and in Thy favor our horn shall be exalted; for the Lord is our defense; the Holy One of Israel is our King.”
But the Hymn of Praise rises highest when it addresses the Eternal One directly; when the saint thinks not of himself, nor of his brethren, nor of the demons, but of the Lord God alone. This is praise in its most solemn aspect. In the singing of the opening sentences of Psalm li. or Psalm cxxx. the difference is immediately felt:
or:
Then praying and singing are actually become one. In order to pray aloud, the Church must sing, altho more for the sake of the supplication than of the singing.
XL.
Prayer and the Consciousness.
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”—Psalm 1. 15.
The _form _of prayer does not affect its character. It may be a mere groaning in thought, or a sigh in which the oppressed soul finds relief; it may consist of a single cry, a flow of words, or an elaborate invocation of the Eternal. It may even turn into speaking or singing. But so long as the soul, in the consciousness that God lives and hears its cry, addresses itself directly to Him as tho it stood in His immediate presence, the character of prayer remains intact. However, discrimination between these various forms of prayer is necessary in order to discover, in the root of prayer itself, the work of the Holy Spirit.
The suppliant is you; your ego; neither your body nor your soul, but your person. It is true, both body and soul are engaged in prayer, but yet in such a way that your person, your ego, your self, pours out the soul; in the soul becomes conscious of your prayer, and through the body gives it utterance.
This will become clear when we consider the part which the body takes in prayer; for no one will deny that the body has something to do with prayer. Mutual prayer is simply impossible without the aid of the body, for that requires a voice to utter prayer in one, and hearing ears in the others. Moreover, prayer without words rarely satisfies the soul. Mere mental prayer is necessarily imperfect; earnest, fervent prayer constrains us to express it in words. There maybe a depth of prayer that can not be expressed, but then we are conscious of the lack; and the fact that the Holy Spirit prays for us with groans that can not be uttered is to us source of very great comfort.
When the soul is perfectly composed, mere mental meditation may be very sweet and blessed; but no sooner do the waters of the soul heave with broader swell than we feel irresistibly constrained to utter prayer in words; and altho in the solitude of the closet yet the silent prayer becomes an audible and sometimes a loud invocation of the mercies of our God. Even Christ in Gethsemane prayed, not in silent meditation nor in unuttered groans, but with strong words which still seem to sound in our ears.
And not only in this, but in other ways, the body largely affects our prayer.
There is, in the first place, a natural desire to make the whole body partake of it. For this reason we kneel when we humble ourselves before the majesty of God. We close the eyes not to be distracted by the world. We lift up the hands as invoking His grace. The agonized wrestler in prayer prostrates himself on the ground. We uncover the head in token of reverence. In the assembly of the saints the men stand on their feet, as they would if the King of Glory should come in.
In the _second _place, the effect of the body upon prayer is evident from the influence which bodily conditions frequently exert upon it. Depressing headache, muscular or nervous pains, congestive disorders causing undue excitement, often prevent not the sigh, but the full outpouring of: prayer. Every one knows what effect drowsiness has upon the exercise of warm and earnest prayer. While, on the other hand, a vigorous constitution, clear head, and tranquil mind are peculiarly conducive to prayer. For this reason the Scripture and the example of the fathers speak of fasting as means to assist the saints in this exercise.
Lastly, bodily distress prior to distress of the soul has often opened mute lips in prayer before God. Families that were strangers to prayer have learned to pray in times of serious illness. In threatening dangers of fire or ‘water, lips that were used to cursing have frequently cried aloud in supplication. Compelled by war, famine, and pestilence, godless cities have frequently appointed days of prayer with the same zeal wherewith formerly they appointed days of rejoicing.
Hence the significance of the body in this respect is very great - in fact, so great that when abnormal conditions cause the bond between body and soul to become inactive, prayer ceases at the same time. However, mere bodily exercise is not prayer, but lip-service. Mere imitation of the form, mere sounds of prayer tolling from the lips, mere words addressed to the Eternal One without conscious purpose in the soul, are the form of prayer, but not the power thereof.
And this is not all. To trace the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer we must enter more deeply into this matter. According to the ordinary representation, which is partly correct, prayer is impossible without an act of the memory, by which we recall our sins and the mercies of God; without an act of the _mind, _choosing the words to express our adoration of the divine virtues; without an act of the _consciousness, _to represent our needs in prayer; without an act of _love, _enabling us to enter into the needs of our country, church, and place of habitation, of our relatives, children, and friends; and lastly, without meditating upon the fundamentals of prayer, recalling the promises of God, the experiences of the fathers, and the conditions of the Kingdom.
All these are activities of the brain, which is the seat of the thinking mind; as soon as this is disturbed by abnormal conditions, the consciousness is obscured and the thinking ceases or becomes confused. Without the brain, therefore, there can be no thinking; without thinking there can be no thoughts; without thoughts there can be no accumulation of thoughts in the memory; and without meditation, which is the result of the former two, there can be no prayer in the proper sense of the word. From which it is evident that prayer depends upon the exercise of bodily functions much more largely than is generally supposed.
And yet, let us be on our guard not to push this too far; and imagine that the root of prayer is in the _brain, i.e., _in a member of the body; for it is not. Our own experience in prayer teaches us, agreeably to the Scripture, that it is in the _heart. _As from the heart are the issues of life, so are also the issues of prayer. Unless the heart compels us to pray, all our cries are in vain. Men with magnificent brains but cold hearts have never been men of prayer; and, on the contrary, among the men of poor mental development, but with large, warm hearts, are found a number of souls mighty in prayer.
And even this is not all; for the heart itself is a bodily organ. In proportion as the blood circulates through the heart with strong or feeble pulsation, in that proportion is the soul’s vital expression strong and overwhelming, or weak and weary; and, dependent upon this, prayer is warm and animated, or cold and formal. When the heart is weak and suffering, the life of prayer generally loses something of its freshness and power.
We are men, and not spirits; and, unlike angels, we can not exist without the body. God created us body and soul. The former belongs to our being essentially and forever. Hence an utterance of our life like prayer must necessarily be dependent upon soul and body, and that in much stronger sense than we usually suppose.
However, the fact must be emphasized that prayer’s dependence upon the body is not absolute. Otherwise there could be no prayer among the angels, nor in the Holy Spirit. Our prayer depends upon the _consciousness; _when that is lost, prayer ceases. And, since we are men, consisting of body and soul, the human consciousness is, in the ordinary sense, related also to the body. But that this dependence is not absolute is evident from the fact that the Eternal Being, whose divine consciousness is but dimly reflected in that of man, has no body. “God is Spirit.” And the same is true of the world of spirits, who, altho incorporeal, yet possess a consciousness; and of the three Persons of the Trinity, especially of the Holy Spirit.
Hence the question arises whether man separated by death from the body loses consciousness. To this we reply in the affirmative. Our human consciousness, as we possess it in our present earthly existence, is lost in death, to be restored to us in the resurrection, in a form stronger, purer, and holier. St. Paul says: “We,”—that is, our human consciousness,—“ now know in part, but then we,” —the same human consciousness,— “shall know face to face, even as we are known.”
But from this it does not follow that in the intermediate state the soul must be denied all self-consciousness. The Scripture teaches the very contrary. Of course, for this knowledge we depend upon the Scripture alone. The dead can not tell us anything of their state after death. No one but God, who ordained the conditions of life in the intermediate state, can reveal to us what those conditions are. And He has revealed to us that immediately after death the redeemed are _with Jesus. _St. Paul says: “I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ.” And, since a friend’s presence does not afford us pleasure except we are conscious of it, it follows that the souls of the saints, in the intermediate state, must possess some sort of consciousness different from that which we now possess, but sufficient to realize and enjoy the presence of Christ. For which reasons the fathers rejected every representation of death as a sleep; as tho our persons from the moment of death to that of the resurrection should sleep in perfect forgetfulness of the glorious things of God; altho they denied not the intermediate state in which the soul is separated from the body.
Wherefore it seems possible for the soul to be conscious in a higher sense, _without the aid of the body, _independently of the heart and the brains—a consciousness which enables us to realize the glorious things of God and the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.
How this higher consciousness operates is a deep mystery; nor is the nature of its operation revealed. And since we can have no other representations than those formed by means of the brain, it is impossible for us to have the slightest idea of this higher consciousness. Its existence is revealed, but no more.
The following may be considered as settled, and this is the principal thing in our present inquiry: In that temporary consciousness in which we will work in the intermediate state, the same person will become self-conscious who now is conscious by means of heart and brain. Even after death it shall be our own person that shall be bearer of that consciousness, and by it I shall be conscious of myself. It can not be otherwise; or else consciousness after death is impossible, for the simple reason that consciousness alone can not exist without a person. And another person it can not be. Hence my own person shall be bearer of that consciousness; and thus shall I be enabled to enjoy the presence of Jesus.
From this we draw the following important conclusion: that so far as the _form _of the ordinary consciousness is concerned, it is dependent upon the body; while essentially it is not so dependent. Essentially it continues to exist, even when sleep obscures the thought, or insanity estranges me from myself, or a swoon makes me lose consciousness; essentially it continues to exist even when death temporarily separates me from the body. From which it follows that the root and seat of the consciousness must be looked for in the soul, and that heart and brain are but the _vehicles, conductors, _which our person uses to manifest that consciousness in ideas and representations.
And since prayer is a speaking to the Eternal, _i.e., _a conscious standing before Him, it follows that the root of prayer has its seat in our _person _and in our _spiritual being; _and, altho bound also to the body, so far as the germ is concerned rests in our personal ego, in so far as the ego, conscious of the existence of the divine Persons and of the bond that unites it to them, allows that bond to operate.
And thus we come to this final conclusion: that the possibility of prayer finds its deepest ground in the fact of our _being created after the image of God. _Not only is our self-consciousness a result of that fact, for God is eternally self-conscious, but from it also springs that other mighty fact that I, as a man, can be conscious of the existence of the Eternal, and of the intimate bond which unites me to Him. The consciousness of this bond and relation manifests itself in prayer as soon as we address ourselves to God. Hence the work of the Holy Spirit in prayer must be looked for in His work of the creation of man. And since, in our former study on this point, we discovered that it is God the Holy Spirit who in man’s creation caused this consciousness to awake, carrying into it and maintaining by it the consciousness of the existence of God and of the bond which unites man to Him, it is evident that prayer, as a phenomenon in man’s spiritual life, finds its basis directly in the work of the Holy Spirit in man’s creation.
XLI.
Prayer in the Unconverted.
“When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” —Psalm xxvii. 8.
The faculty of prayer is not an acquisition of later years, but is created in us, inherent in the root of our being, inseparable from our nature.
And yet consistent with this fact is the fact that the great majority of men do not pray. It is possible to possess a faculty dormant in us for a whole lifetime. The Malay possesses the faculty for studying modern languages as well as we, but he never uses it. In sleep we retain our faculties of seeing and hearing, but then they are inactive. Altho possessed of great power, the big fellow did not lift a finger against the little scamp who tormented him. Hence a faculty may remain in us wholly undeveloped and dormant for a lifetime, or partly developed but suppressed. And the same is true of the faculty of prayer. Among the fourteen hundred millions of the earth’s population, there are scarcely two hundred million who do not appear to be acquainted with prayer, altho their form of prayer is very defective. Of the non-praying masses, who almost exclusively occupy Europe, one half remember the time when, in some way or other, they used to pray. Many of those who have lost even that, still breathe an occasional prayer. And the number of them who wish that they could pray is very large; and among the non-praying people they represent undoubtedly the noblest.
Hence we maintain our starting-point, that we owe the faculty of prayer to our creation. God created man as a being disposed to prayer. If this were not so, the faculty of prayer could not be among his endowments. We are created for prayer, otherwise we could never have tasted of its sweetness.
To the question, Why in our creation is this a peculiar work of the Holy Spirit? we answer: Prayer is the drawing and pressing of the _impressed image _toward its _Original, _which is the Triune God. To be the bearers of that impressed image is the marvelous honor bestowed upon men. Altho marred by sin—God grant by regeneration restored in you—yet the original features of that image are still the original features of our human being. Without that image we would cease to be men.
And, owing its origin to the impress of that original Image, our inward being draws toward It, naturally, urgently, and persistently. It can not live without it, and the fact that, on the other hand, the original Image of the Eternal One draws the impressed image in man to Himself, is the ultimate and constraining power of all prayer. However, to be exalted to the dignity of prayer, this drawing to God must not be like the involuntary suction of water to the deep, or the turning of the opening rose-bud toward the light. For the water knows not whither it is going, and the rosebud is unconscious of the sunshine which governs it. That almost irresistible drawing can be called prayer only when _we know _that it is prayer, when we _perceive _it, and, knowing to whom it draws us, make it our own conscious, cooperating act.
Hence prayer does not spring from the will. The Triune God is He who rouses the soul to prayer, who draws us, and not we ourselves. Wherefore the Psalmist says: “When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” (Psalm xxvii. 8) And how does this first impulse from God reach us? Not externally as the wind, but internally in the heart. And knowing that it does not _proceed from _me, but comes to me, it must be from the Holy Spirit who works in me. Are not all the internal impulses that proceed from the Eternal One _the proper work of the Holy Spirit? _We can have no fellowship with the Son but through the Holy Spirit; none with the Father but through the Son to whom the Holy Spirit has introduced us.
However, we do not speak now of the state of regeneration. In our treatment of prayer thus far, we have reference to man in his original state, and independent of the restoration; and in that state we say, prayer is not the cry of an independent being for a God to him unknown, with whom he hopes thus to become acquainted; but, on the contrary, that all prayer presupposes, on man’s part, an inward sense of the Eternal Being of God, and of the fact that, being created after His image, he belongs to Him and _consciously _draws to his original Image. Wherefore we may call it a spiritual magnetism, which operates unceasingly upon him, and originated in his creation. However, it is different from magnetism in a twofold aspect: (1) in that man is _conscious _of it; (2) in that it is a _mutual _attraction.
The _second point _needs special emphasis. In magnetic attraction the magnet is active and the iron passive; but in prayer it is not so. Prayer rests upon the foundation of _mutual _attraction. So long as it proceeds from God’s side alone, there is no prayer; but there is, when our being begins to draw to God, when we feel the impulse if possible to draw God to us: “Come, Lord, how long! Lord, delay not! come quickly!”
This is the power of love which finds in prayer its most glorious manifestation. Prayer is the fairest flower that grows upon the stem of holy love. Then love works in God _for man, _on account of the image in which He created him. And in man love works for God, because of the Image after which he was created. In fact, every distress from which we cry to be delivered is to the soul but the conscious need of the power and faithfulness of God. So love labors to meet love, that in tranquil whisperings it may pray not for deliverance from trouble, but to possess Him for whose love alone the heart is yearning.
Upon a lower level prayer certainly assumes a lower form, which by sin has become so low and selfish that prayer, which should be love’s breath, has become an egoistic cry. But we discuss prayer as it was originally, before sin had affected it. And as the true heir of heaven yearns for his heavenly home not for the sake of crown and palm and golden harp, but for his God alone; so is prayer, pure and undefiled, a longing, not for God’s gifts, but for God Himself. As the Shulamite calls for her bridegroom, so does the praying soul, from the consuming desire of love, pray and thirst for the possession of its Maker and to be possessed of Him.
Since it is the Third Person in the Godhead who makes this communion between God and the soul possible, working and maintaining it in the soul, it is evident that prayer belongs to the proper domain of the Holy Spirit; only when thus considered can prayer be understood in its deepest significance.
The other question now arises, regarding the work of the Holy Spirit in _our _prayer, _after that we became sinners. _
For even sinners pray. This is evident from the heathen world, which, however low its forms of prayer, yet offers up supplications and petitions. It is evident from the ease with which a little child, taught by its mother, learns to pray; and from the many who, estranged from prayer, in sudden calamities bend the knees, and, altho they can not pray, still assume the attitude of prayer, willing to give half their kingdom if they only could pray. And lastly, it is evident from the thousands and tens of thousands who, convinced of the impossibility of praying for themselves, cry to others: “Pray for us!”
Prayer in higher, holier sense the sinner can not offer. Everything in him is sinful, even his prayer. In his sin he has reversed the established order of things: not he existing for God, but God existing for him. Confirmed in his selfishness, the God of heaven and earth is to him little more than a Physician in every sickness and a Provider in every need; a wonderful Being, ever ready at his first cry to supply out of His fulness his every necessity.
This is the egoism that inseparably belongs to every sinner’s prayer. The prayer of the redeemed saint is: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.” The _converted sinner _offers first the petitions for His name, His Kingdom, and His will; then he adds the petitions for bread, for forgiveness, for protection from sin. But the _unconverted sinner _has no conception of a prayer for God’s name, Kingdom, and will. He prays for bread only; for forgiveness also, but only from the motive that bread and luxury and deliverance from trouble may not be denied him.
Wherefore it is impossible to have too low an estimate of the sinner’s prayer. The depth of our fall is in nothing so apparent as in the sin of this degenerate, bastardized prayer. All such prayer may be designated as a defying and vexing of God and His eternal love. In this sense the prayer of the sinner contains nothing of the work of the Holy Spirit. All this prayer springs from the egoism of the sinful heart, and has not the least value, rather the opposite.
But—and this is the principal thing—altho our hands have unstrung the harp so that it produces nothing but discord, yet the artist is just as great, for he had so planned and constructed and tuned the instrument that it could produce the purest tones and fairest music. And such is man’s heart. Sin did not remove the strings, for then it could not produce even discord; but sin has put it out of tune, and now its tones are harsh and grating upon the ear. And yet these very strings testify of the work of the original Master, for by His original work they are still sound-producing. So long as the strings are only loose upon the harp, it may be repaired; but when they are altogether broken and gone, it is 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 of God; nevertheless the very discords of that prayer are the evidences 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 all; the heart could not produce even the discord. The fact that it does, shows that there are strings which originally were perfectly attuned. Hence prayer in the sinner is unthinkable without the work of the Holy Spirit.
But this is not all. Not only the possibility of such discordant prayer, but the discord itself is 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. Blasphemers and men given to profanity indulge in their terrible sin, because they realize that the Almighty God lives, and that His power is something terrible. Cursing and blasphemy are hellish tones and vibrations from the same harp of prayer, which the Holy Spirit created in the soul. An animal can not curse; and if the Holy Spirit 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 Satan.
Even the sinner’s prayer is a manifestation of power. 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 himself, 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 the sounds and tones which are in the vibrating strings of the harp. The same is true of the sinner’s prayer. He could not offer his sinful prayer if there were no tone of prayer in the strings of his heart. That he can pray at all, he owes to the fact that the Holy Spirit created the tones of payer in his heart; which he brings forth, alas! only to make them 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 is preventive grace, which bridles the power of sin and prevents it from breaking out in all its violence. Sin on earth is like a chained bulldog or a muzzled hyena. Secondly, God loves this world. He has thoughts of peace concerning it. He 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 life will be planted., And, altho this ordinary grace is 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 growth of the seed of eternal life.
And in this general grace, the grace of prayer occupies an important place. If there were no general grace, muzzling sin and plowing the field, the sinner could no more pray than Satan, but like him would curse God without ceasing. But now he still prays, 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 of his heart; 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.
However, the glory of this does not belong to the sinner; nor does it in the least affect the absolute character of man’s depravity by sin. But it shows that the Lord God did not leave the sinner to his sin; but even in the absence of regeneration, and to the glory of His name, caused general grace to intervene, which frequently illuminated the life of prayer.
And when such a people, still acquainted with these holy traditions and gracious operations, received the knowledge of Christ crucified and of His power to save, it became evident afterward that the prayers which, independently of himself, were laid upon the sinner’s lips had prepared a way and opened a gate through which the King of Glory could come into such a people. And taking it in individual cases, it appears from the experience of many that, long before the soul became conscious of saving grace, the grace of God not only kept him from violent outbreaks of sin, but, through the _tradition of prayer, _wrought a work in him the blessed effects of which were understood only long afterward.
And all these operations of _general grace _are, as soon as they touch the life of prayer, the work of the Holy Spirit. He who in creation strung the harp of prayer in the soul is the same who causes not only the tone of prayer to vibrate even in our egoistic petitions, but who, in a more glorious way, sometimes even as tho the soul were an Æolian harp, touches the strings with the breath of His mouth, and draws from it the beautiful and entrancing tones of prayers and supplications.
XLII.
The Prayer of the Regenerated.
“Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered.” —Rom. viii. 26.
Next in order comes the question: What is the work of the Holy Spirit in the prayer of the regenerated?
Here we distinguish (1) the prayer of the saint, and (2) that of the Holy Spirit for him.
The last we consider first, because, through the Apostle Paul, we receive clearest revelation concerning it: “Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings that can not be uttered” (Rom. viii. 26). For the better understanding of this passage, observe:
In the _first _place, that the apostle refers to the prayer or groan arising not from the regenerated person himself, but from another in his behalf. It is not a prayer, but an intercession from the Holy Spirit for him.” Expositors of an earlier period judged with Calvin that the intercession of the Holy Spirit signified a working upon us, by virtue of which we ourselves groaned in ourselves. But this view is incorrect; for verse 23 states what Calvin supposed to be stated in verse 26. In the former, the apostle speaks of groanings that proceed from us, wrought in us by the Holy Spirit. Verse 26 can not be a mere repetition; for the word “likewise“ introduces a new thing, altho it is similar to the preceding. Moreover, the word here applied to the Holy Spirit is the same as the one used in verse 34, _“entunchánein,” _which signifies the intercession of the Holy Spirit. And again, the word “sunantilambánesthai,” which is translated “to help,” requires that the person rendering assistance be not only in us, but also works with us and for us. Verse 27 leads to the same conclusion, first, because it speaks of the mind of the Spirit, and not of man’s mind; secondly, because the intercession is said to be according to God, “katà Theón,” not “eìs Theón,” i.e., according to the will of God, and this can be said of the Holy Spirit alone. We do not, however, deny that, in one respect, this groaning makes instrumental use of the vocal organs, as in the matter of the “glóssais lalein,” the speaking with tongues. We maintain only that the unutterable groaning does not imply the use of those organs; rather the opposite.
In the _second _place, it is necessary to distinguish between the intercession of the Holy Spirit and of Jesus Christ the Righteous.
Christ intercedes for us in _heaven, _and the Holy Spirit on _earth. _Christ our Holy Head, being _absent _from us, intercedes _outside _of us; the Holy Spirit our Comforter intercedes _in our own heart _which He has chosen as His temple.
There is a difference, not only of place, but also in the _nature _of this twofold intercession. The glorified Christ intercedes in heaven for His elect and redeemed, _to obtain for them the fruit of His sacrifice: “_If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous” (1 John ii. i). But the object of the Holy Spirit’s petitions is the laying bare of all the deep and hidden _needs _of the saints before the eye of the Triune God.
In Christ there is a union of God and man, since, being in the form of God, He took upon Himself the human nature. Hence His prayer is that of the Son of God, but in union with the nature of man. He prays as the Head of the new race, as King of His people, as the one that seals the covenant of the New Testament in His blood. In like manner, there is to some extent a union between God and man, when the Holy Spirit prays for the saints. For, by His indwelling in the hearts of the saints, He has established a lasting and most intimate union, and by virtue of that union putting Himself in their place, He prays for them and in their stead.
In each instance there is intercession, but in each in a different manner. In his priestly capacity, as head of the family, the father prays for his family not because the members could not offer similar prayer, but on account of his calling as their head to represent them before God. All pray, but he as their head prays for them all. And thus, as the Head of the Body, it is the calling of Christ to pray for the Body. Tho their prayer were perfect, His prayer would still be needed. All the members must pray, but He must pray for them all. Entirely different, however, is the prayer of the mother for her dying child. Being only five or six years old, the little one can scarcely pray for himself. He has not the slightest conception of what is happening to him, nor of his own needs. Then his mother kneels by his side and prays for him, “helping his infirmities, for he knoweth not what to pray for as he ought.” If he were twenty years older, there would be no need of it; he himself could understand his condition and pray for himself. And this applies to the intercession of the Holy Ghost. If the saint were what he ought to be, and could pray as he ought, there would be no need of this intercession. But, being imperfect and beset by weaknesses, not knowing what to pray for, the Holy Spirit helpeth his infirmities, and prays for him.
Christ intercedes for the body because He is the Head; even tho the prayers of the members were perfect and mature, He would still intercede with the Father in their behalf. But the Holy Spirit prays because the prayers of the saints are _imperfect, immature, _and insufficient. His prayer is, _complementary _and necessary, inasmuch as the saint can not yet pray as he ought; hence decreasing as the saint learns to pray more and more correctly.
The intercession of the Holy Spirit is according to the saint’s _condition, _which is described in the seventh chapter of Romans. Surely, the Lord God might have been pleased to regenerate the sinner in such a way as to deliver him at once and completely from sin, and from all the after-effects of his old nature; but He has ordained it otherwise. Regeneration does not effect such a sudden change. It does indeed change his _state _before God at once and completely, but it does not place him at once in a _condition _of perfect holiness. On the contrary, after regeneration it remains, on the one hand, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man” (Rom. vii. 22; but also, on the other, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind.” (Rom. vii. 23) Hence the cry: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. vii. 24)
And the intercession of the Holy Spirit fully meets this condition. If in regeneration we became perfectly holy, without any infirmity, with perfect knowledge what we should pray for, there would be no need of this intercession. But, this not being so, the Holy Spirit comes to help our infirmities, in us to pray _for _us, as tho it were our own prayer.
This _last point _must be emphasized. The Holy Spirit prays for men called _saints; _and it must be maintained that every regenerated person is a saint, his infirmities notwithstanding: a saint, not for what he is in himself, but because of the word of Christ: _“Thou art Mine.” _And these two conditions, (1) of being a saint, and (2) still unholy in himself, can not remain unreconciled. Wherefore the Sacred Scripture teaches that, altho we lie in the midst of death, yet in Christ we are holy; hence we have a holiness, yet not in us, but _outside _of us in Christ Jesus. “Our Life is hid with Christ in God.” And the same applies to our _prayers. _We are saints not only in name, but in deed. And therefore the prayers that ascend to the mercy-seat from our hearts _must be holy prayers. _It is the sweet incense of the prayers of the saints. But being unable of ourselves to kindle the incense, the Holy Spirit helps our infirmities, and from our hearts prays to God in our behalf. We are not conscious of it; He prays for and in us with groans that can not be uttered; which does not mean that He makes us utter groans for which we can not account, but that He groans in us with affections and emotions which may comfort us, but which have nothing in common with the sighing of our respiratory organs. This is clear from verse 27, where St. Paul declares, that He that searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.
Apart from the intercession of the Holy Spirit in our behalf there is also a work of His Person in our own prayers.
The proportion between these two operations is different according to our different conditions. The child, regenerated in the cradle and deceased before conversion was possible, could not pray for himself; the Holy Spirit prayed therefore for and in him with groans that can not be uttered. But if the child had lived and was converted at a later age, it would first have been the prayer of the Holy Spirit alone; and after his conversion his own prayers would have been added. And, even after his conversion, he may become indifferent and fall into a temporary apostasy, so that his own prayer fails altogether; yet the prayer of the Holy Spirit in him never fails.
Finally, according to the measure of his spiritual growth, his progress in prayer will be either slow or rapid. The Holy Spirit prays in us as long and in as much as we can not pray for ourselves; but at the same time He teaches _us _to pray, that gradually His prayer may become superfluous. This includes that when temptations threaten us of which 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 as tho 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 communion with the Holy Spirit._ In order to be more earnest in 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 us, He prays _independently of us, _altho in our own heart; but when we have learned to pray, altho the Holy Spirit continues to be the real Petitioner, yet He prays with us and through us, and cries unto God from our lips. As a mother first prays _for _her child without his knowledge, and then teaches him to pray that by and by she may pray _with _him, so also is the work of the Holy Spirit. He begins with praying for us; then He teaches us to pray; and when we have made some progress in the school of prayer, then He begins to pray with us not only in us, but _through _us. This is the Spirit 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.” (John iv. 23) 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 symbol of the prayers of the saints. All this was truly typical, but it was not the truth itself. Jerusalem was not the sanctuary of the Lord Jehovah, and Zion was not the mercy-seat. The truth of all this was and is in the heaven of heavens, and thus truth and grace came by Jesus Christ, even as its symbol and shadow had come by the law of Moses. After the coming of Christ, the prayers of the saints were to be separated from Jerusalem; wherefore Jesus said to the woman: “Jerusalem and Gerizim are out of the question; they belong to the dispensation of shadows; and that dispensation ceased with My coming into the world. Henceforth there will be no more worship in shadows; but a worship of the Father in actuality and in truth.” And this gives us the true interpretation of the addition: “in Spirit.” So long as the people depended upon the service of shadows, they looked upon _external _things as supports of their prayers. But, since it was to be a worship in _truth, _it needed the _inward _support which the _Comforter, _the Holy Spirit, offered them.
The saint is a saint because he received the Holy Spirit, who took up His abode with him and inwardly married Himself to the soul. Every vital utterance proceeding from him, apart from the Holy Spirit in him, is foreign to his sonship and is sin. Only in so far as he is moved and operated upon by the indwelling Spirit are his thoughts, words, and deeds the utterances of the child of God in him.
And if this is true of the whole domain of his life, how much more of his _life of prayer? _After his conversion he often prays of himself apart from the Holy Spirit; but that is the prayer, not of God’s child, but of the old sinner. But when the communion of the Holy Spirit is active in his heart, and works in him both the impulse and the animation of his prayer, then it is truly the prayer of the child of God, because wrought in him by the Holy Spirit.
Wherefore Zacharias combines the Spirit of grace and of supplication. It is the same Spirit who, entering our hearts, unlocks unto us the grace of God, enriches us with that grace, teaches us to realize that grace, and at the same time causes our _thirst _for that grace to utter itself in prayer. Prayer is the cry for grace, and can not be uttered until the Holy Spirit presents to the spiritual eye the riches of grace which are in Christ Jesus. And, on the other hand, the Holy Spirit can not cause these riches of grace to scintillate before the eye of the soul without creating in us thirst and longing desire for this grace; thus compelling us to pray.
Or, to put it more comprehensively, the prayer of the saint requires three things:
_First, _an insight into the riches of eternal redemption.
_Second, _vivid impressions of his spiritual deadness and distress.
Lastly, the earnest desire for lively fellowship with the unsearchable treasures of divine grace.
And how can the holy presence of the Lord Jehovah be revealed to him in peace but by the Holy Spirit, entering into his heart? And how can he have a _vivid _realization of his spiritual distress except the Holy Spirit reveal it to him? And how shall he be so bold, out of that distress, to cry unto God in the fellowship of love except the Holy Spirit create boldness and confidence in his soul?
XLIII.
Prayer for and with Each Other.
“Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”—James v. 16.
Let our last article touch once more the key of love wherein the article preceding that of prayer was set. To speak of the Spirit’s work in our prayers, omitting _the intercession of the saints, _betrays a lack of understanding concerning the Spirit of all grace.
Prayer for others is quite different from prayer for ourselves. The latter is indeed lawful; God even commands us “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving to make our requests known unto God.” Yet it may contain refined egoism even tho it be followed by thanksgiving; hence to prayer is added _intercession, _that in prayer the breath of love may quench gently, yet effectually, remaining egoism, and lead us to the still holier prayer for the heavenly King and His Kingdom.
Christ prays for us, but the Bride must also pray for her heavenly Bridegroom. David’s prayer for Solomon points beyond Solomon to the Messiah: “Give the King Thy judgments, O God” (Psalm lxxii. 1). In the Twentieth and Sixty-first Psalms the same thought is expressed. However, this is not a prayer for His Person (for as such He is glorified already), but for the coming of His Kingdom, for the extending of His Name to the ends of the earth, for the gathering in of the souls of His elect.
In the Lord’s Prayer, this most holy petition stands even in the foreground; for when we pray, “Hallowed be Thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done,” (Luke xi. 2) we are inspired, not by love for self or for others, but by love for Him who is in heaven. It is true, we realize that the fulfilling of that prayer is most desirable for others and ourselves; still it is the love for God that stands here in the foreground. It is the summary of _prayer _eminently fitting the summary of the law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.” (Matt. xxii. 37) This is the first and great _commandment. _Then, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matt. xxii. 39) And so in our prayer: first, for the cause of God, this is the first and great _petition; _then, prayer for the neighbor as for ourselves. Our _prayer _is the test of our relation to the first and great commandment.
And what is the work of the Holy Spirit in the prayer of intercession?
It is necessary here, for a clear understanding, to distinguish between _a twofold intercession: _(1) there is a prayer for the things that pertain to the body of Christ; 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 concern 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 the _natural _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 coming of the Lord, for a fresh anointing of the priests of God, for their being clothed upon with salvation, for success in the work of missions, for a baptism of the Holy Spirit, for strength in conflict, for forgiveness of sin, for the salvation of our loved ones, for the effectual conversion of the baptized seed of the Church. The first 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. Where such vital fellowship does not exist, nor the love which springs from it, or where these are temporarily inactive, there may be a formal intercession of words, but real intercession from the heart there can not be.
With reference to the intercession in the realm of nature, the ground of this fellowship is naturally found in the fact that we are created _of one blood. _Humanity is one. The nations form an organic whole. It is a mighty trunk with leafy crown; the nations and peoples are the branches thereof, successive generations the boughs, and each of us is a fluttering leaf. Belonging together, living together upon the same root of our human nature, it is one flesh and one blood, which from Adam to the last-born child covers every skeleton and runs through every man’s veins. Hence the desire for universal philanthropy; the claim that nothing be alien to us that is human; the necessity of loving our enemy and of praying for him, for he also is of our flesh and of our bones.
If we were like grains in a heap of sand, each grain might possibly send forth a sigh; but the mutual prayer of intercession would be out of the question. Being leaves, however, of the same tree of life, there is, apart from the groaning of every leaf, also a prayer for one another, a mutual prayer of the entire human life; “the whole creation groaneth.”
But in the Kingdom of _Grace _the fellowship of love is much stronger, firmer, and more intimate. There is here also an organic whole, even the body of Christ under Him the Head. It is not one converted person independent of another, and the two united by a mere outward tie of sympathy; nay, but a multitude of branches all springing from the same root of Jesse; growing from the one vine; all organically one; saved and redeemed by the same ransom of His blood; proceeding from the one act of election; born again by the self-same regeneration; brought nigh by the same faith; breaking one bread and drinking from one cup.
And let us notice it well, this unity is doubly strong; for it is not independent of the fellowship of nature, but added to it. They who become members of the body of Christ are with us created from the one blood of Adam, and with us they are redeemed by the one blood of Christ. Hence there is here _double _root of fellowship. Flesh of our flesh, bones of our bones. Moreover, born from one decree; sealed by one baptism; joined together in one body; included in one promise; by and by sharers with us of the same inheritance.
In this double fellowship of life is rooted the _love _which mutually unites the children of God, especially in their prayers of intercession, a union which appears sometimes in their mutual prayer. Vital fellowship does not spring from our love for the people of God, but that love springs from the fellowship of the life of grace, common to all His saints. That which grows not from one root, and, therefore, shares not the same life, can not attain to love in higher sense. Prayer for one another is born of the love to one another; and the love which unites us ascends from the one root of life upon which we all are grafted through grace, upon which by virtue of our creation from Adam we all were set. And thus the work of the Holy Spirit in the prayer of intercession will appear in clearest light.
In the realm of nature, our vital power is from the _Father, _our _human kinship _through the _Son, _and the conception of that kinship from the Holy Ghost. Hence in the ordinary manifestations of benevolence, such as helpfulness in distress, friendliness in daily life, and the desire for social intercourse, it is the work of the Holy Spirit to keep alive in us the conception of our human kinship. It is true that sin has terribly disturbed this conception. Yet the Holy Spirit has not forsaken His work; but, when a man seeing a strange child drowning, and, without considering his own life, jumps into the water and saves him, then it is the constraining power of the Holy Spirit that must be honored in this heroic act of philanthropy.
But much more apparent is the work of the Holy Spirit in the prayer of intercession which belongs to the domain of grace. For with reference to the fellowship of the body of Christ, it is again the _Father _from whom _proceeds _our redemption, the Son in whom we are _united, _and the _Holy Spirit _who imparts to us the conception and consciousness of this unity and holy fellowship. The mere fact of being chosen by the Father and redeemed by the Son does not constrain us to love; it is the act of the Holy Spirit, who, revealing to our conception and consciousness this wonderful gift of grace, opening our eyes for the beauty of being joined to the body of Christ, kindles in us the spark of the love for Christ and for His people. And when this double work of the Holy Spirit effectually operates in us, causing our hearts to be drawn to all that belong to us by virtue of our human kinship, and much more strongly to the people of God by virtue of our kinship in the Son, then there awakes in us the love of which the apostle says that it is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
And yet this is not all of the Holy Spirit’s work. Love can be tender without compelling one to prayer. This is evident from the universal love of benevolence. A man may rush into a burning building to save another from perishing by fire, while he is a perfect stranger to prayer for others. And, on the contrary, there are people who always talk of praying for others, who constantly enlarge the phylacteries of their own prayer of intercession, who ever say to others, “Pray for me,” and who would yet, in the hour of danger, quietly allow us to drown or perish in the flames; who carefully guard their pockets lest mercy call upon them to assist us with their money.
From which it is evident that there must be a connecting link between _love _and _the prayer born of love. _As soon as _love _begins to pray it is joined to _faith; _and by this union prayer becomes active. Love alone is not yet prayer. And the mere prayer of intercession is not the evidence of love. Then alone is there real intercession, when love, being joined to faith, constrains us to carry the object of love before the throne of grace.
Let us, therefore, be careful in our prayers of intercession; especially when the person for whom we pray is _present. _For then there is danger lest our prayer in his behalf have the tendency to show him how much we think of him and love him, rather than constrain us to ask something for him of God. MethodismSee section 5 in the Preface for the author’s explanation of Methodism. has often sinned in this respect, and many a prayer has been desecrated by this insincere intercession.
This shows clearly what is the additional work of the Holy Spirit in this respect: not merely that He quicken in us general faith, nor that He fan in us the flames of brotherly love; but that He also cause faith to join love in holy wedlock, directing them thus united to the brother for whom we are to pray. This is the object of St. Paul, when he desires that there shall be a fellowship of saints, not only in the gift of God, but also in the prayer of thanksgiving; not only for our sakes, but “That the abounding grace might through the thanksgiving of many rebound to the glory of God” (1 Cor. iv. 15).
Just as in a drawing-room whose walls are lined with crystal mirrors the light of the chandelier is reflected not only by every mirror, but also from mirror to mirror, so that there is an endless reflection of the light, so also is it with reference to the prayer of intercession and thanksgiving in the body of Christ. In this chamber of glory Christ is the Light which is reflected in the mirror of the soul. But it is not sufficient that every soul-mirror receive the light, and reflect it in thanksgiving; but from mirror to mirror this glory of the Son must be reflected here or there until there is an never-ending scintillation of increasing brightness; and everything is baptized in the overflowing luster in which the Son glorifies Himself.
And this leads us to speak of mutual prayer.
Mutual prayer is intercession of the richest sort; for its value is enhanced by the consciousness of its being mutual. In ordinary intercession, one prays for another not knowing whether the other also prays for him, but in the mutual prayer, “I “ is turned into “we,” as in the Lord’s Prayer. It is no longer one wrestling before the throne of grace, but all together, thus giving expression to the unity and fellowship of the body of Christ. They cry from one distress; they bless Him for the same grace; they plead the same promise; they look forward to the same glory; they come to the same Father in the name of the one Mediator, leaning upon the same atoning blood. Then it is that the work of the Holy Spirit attains its highest glory. Then He joins faith and love, not in one heart, but in many; then He opens the hearts and unites the souls of the saints; then He causes them to meet together in the audience-chamber of the Lord God, one people, a multitude of believers, who in their spiritual kinship reflect the unity of the body of Christ.
Hence there is nothing so difficult as mutual prayer. Prayer in the closet is easy; to pray for others is not hard; but to pray with each other requires such exalted spiritual tone, such pure love, such clear perception of the unity of the body, as, alas! in the midst of this sinful life is rarely attained by large bodies of believers. And the leader, if he be indeed the mouthpiece of the people, has a very difficult task, and must himself be in a thoroughly spiritual frame of mind.
Surely if the Holy Spirit left us to ourselves, every activity of faith, love, and prayer would soon be paralyzed. But, blessed be God! He knows our infirmity, and with divine pity He looks upon our painful helplessness. He is and remains the Comforter; His work is never ended. When we slept, having no oil in our lamps, He watched over our souls. When our love failed, He loved us just the same. When our faith became dull and faint, and prayer became dumb upon our lips, He prayed for us with groanings that can not be uttered.
And this is His work continually. It is He that is the divine Bearer of every higher conception and holier consciousness in the children of men; He, the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, that exhibits all the riches of the Mediator to the Bride, making her eager to possess them; He that quickens the treasures of the Word by the spark of His holy fire, bringing them to the consciousness of the inward man.
Blessed is the man to whom has been given a taste of the work of the Holy Spirit in his own experience. Blessed is the Church which in its service has proved the inworking of the Spirit of grace and of supplication. Blessed is he who, constrained to love by the love of the Holy Spirit, has opened his heart in thanks, praise, and adoration, not only to the Father who from eternity has chosen and called him, and to the Son who has bought and redeemed him, but also to the Third Person in the Holy Trinity, who has kindled in him the light and keeps it burning in the inward darkness; to whom, therefore, with the Father and the Son, belongs forever the sacrifice of love and devotion of all the Church of God.