When God inclines the heart to pray, He hath an ear to hear. Such desires are among the foremost indications that the Spirit is at work preparing the way for a coming of the Lord in grace and power. It is upon the thirsty ground that he pours out streams of water, and this anxious longing for the grace of God, this unuttered oppression of the heart in view of the situation of the ungodly, this impulse to renewed self-consecration, this desire that cannot be satisfied but by frequent turning aside to pray, this is God's own appointed sign that his Spirit is brooding, as in the beginning, upon the face of the dark and troubled waters and preparing for the utterance of the mighty creative words, "Let there be light!" 3. I know no better evidence of our adoption than this: That such desires are ours. They are the firstfruits of the Spirit and the earnest of our future inheritance. To be full of the Spirit of God, this is a foretaste of heaven. I do not envy the Christian who never knew this blessing, and has no consciousness that the Spirit has ever helped his infirmities and turned his weak supplications into the joy and strength of assured divine communion. I will not say that one who is destitute of any such experience is destitute of the grace of God, for I know not how low measures of piety Christ may see to be still real. I know that many a prayer uttered in unconsciousness of the Spirit's presence is yet inspired by him, for he is the source of every holy desire. But this too, I know, namely, that a conscious presence of the Holy Ghost-a conscious help of the Spirit in prayer—is the privilege of the Christian, and if so, it must be his duty to live in possession of it. For to have the spirit of prayer is nothing more nor less than to have the Spirit of God within us, helping us in our intercessions, and this gift of the Spirit has been purchased for his church by the death of the Saviour. Every believer in Christ without exception may enjoy the rich blessing of that gift. The possession of it is not dependent on natural temper or intellectual culture or past worthiness of life. In spite of our weak wills and unstable hearts, we may have it; indeed, if these are our peculiar infirmities, we cannot do without it. Not to have the Spirit within us, which will give us enjoyment in God's service and power in prayer, after all this large provision for its supply, is an inexcusable neglect of God's greatest and most precious gift. Indeed, when we consider how greatly our usefulness is impaired by the lack of the Spirit in our hearts, and how great influence for God we might exert if we once possessed it, does not its attainment seem worth any effort or any sacrifice? Does not the continuance of merely formal prayers seem a great sin against God? Would to God that we might break over these bounds of selfishness which narrow down the wide scope of religion till it becomes altogether a matter of our own personal salvation. Would to God that a new baptism of the Spirit might give us such love for souls and desire for their salvation that we should bring them one by one and lay them at the feet of Jesus as they brought the paralytic of old, with the steadfast assurance the while that in answer to our prayers Jesus would pity and heal them. 4. I know there are many who desire to gain and to keep this spirit of prayer. But how to get it, that is their question. Resolve then, first of all, that with God's help you will put to the test his promise that more readily than earthly parents give good gifts to their children, God will give his Holy Spirit to those who ask him. Make this then the grand object of your thoughts and efforts and rest not till the blessing is yours. You may not gain the strong assurance of the Spirit's presence with you all at once. Sympathy with God and confidence in him are plants which are rooted only through many trials; and after the conscious presence of the Spirit is once gained, it may be easily lost by self-trust, vanity, neglect, transgression. You must not seek it as an experiment or as a gift to be enjoyed for a time, put to some special use, and then thrown away. No; if the Holy Spirit enters the soul, it is to abide there, and to reign supreme there. And before he gives himself to you, you must give yourself to him. Come then, eternal Spirit, come From heaven, thy glorious dwelling-place; To pray in faith and wait in hope. 5. It is wonderful that any door should be barred against the entrance of this sublime divine guest, yet there are many hearts that exclude him. Every one of us, whether saint or sinner, might have his inward presence if we so willed it. Even now indeed in the reproof of conscience and half-inclination to yield our will to his we see the evidence of his willingness to come and dwell with us. This evidence would be stronger if we did not repress the desires which he excites within us. You may judge how great his desires are for men's salvation, by the intense longings and unutterable sighings with which he sometimes fills the hearts of Christians. There is great danger that you may so grieve him by your repeated refusals that he will never come to you again. How fearful a thing to provoke that Spirit who alone can inspire you to pray or others to pray for you, when you know that without prayer you can never be saved! Then let him into your heart to-day! When you go to your homes, kneel down and invite him to abide there. If you ask him sincerely he will not delay, but swifter than the wings of the wind, and as viewless too, he will come to help you in your prayer, and assure you of your own salvation. But stop not there. The gift of that Spirit makes you a spiritual priest to offer up spiritual sacrifice and intercession for others. As Aaron, when he went in to God, wore upon his breast the glittering breastplate of many-colored stones engraved with the names of the children of Israel, so do you bear upon your heart the name of this one. and that one who is now a stranger to Christ, and by the help of the Spirit make daily intercession to God for them. So your life, being connected with the divine plans and ordered by the divine Spirit, shall not be a mere blank in the great record of the world, but shall bring honor to God and blessing to mankind. XLV THE CHRISTIAN'S RESOURCES1 My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4: 19.) 66 "My God,”—how much of experience and confidence there is in those words! God was not a far-off God to Paul. No more building altars "to the unknown god" as heathendom did, groping in its darkness and longing for light, or as modern skepticism does, giving up all search after God as vain, and glad on the whole that it is so! None of this in Paul, but the knowledge of God as one revealed, as one to whom he is bound by living ties of affection and daily intercourse; as one whom he can wholly trust! "My God,"—yes, there is more than experience and confidence in the words. There is the sense of possession and the immeasurable dignity and strength involved therein. It is the old cry of David when he was hunted by Saul and had no earthly wealth and no earthly helper, "O God, thou art my God!" No wealth? no helper? Ah, God was his, "the Lord was his inheritance." God was "the strength of his heart and his portion forever." So Paul could say that God was his, and with God all the open treasuries of God's grace and love. Wonderful blessing of the Christian that in the darkest 1 A sermon preached in the Delaware Avenue Baptist Church, Buffalo, N. Y., November 12, 1893. |