The Spirit's Help

Romans viii. 26.

that sublime chapter, which TjJ. touches the whole gamut of the Blessed Life, from the first No Con - demnation to the final No Separation, we have a cluster of Present Tenses, which tell of the incessant working of the Holy Ghost. And we need to ponder them well; because the crying need of the present day among Christians, is a clearer apprehension of the gracious ministry of the Third Person in the ever-blessed Trinity.

The spirit leads us (verse 14).

This is a very dark and difficult world, in which we might soon lose our way, if we were left to ourselves withn6 ttbe Spirit’s tpelp.

out some inner voice to prompt us and direct our steps. And it would hardly be like our Heavenly Father to leave us to grope our way in the dark. Is it not just what we should have expected, to find that the need is met by the inner promptings of the Holy Ghost? “Led by the Spirit of God” (verse 14). Those leadings may be given in the concurrence of events, in the call of circumstances, or in the application of some verse of Scripture to our hearts; but oftener still, perhaps, in that inner light, and that still, small voice, of which the secret heart is alone aware.

These leadings are never withheld from any perplexed child of God who really needs them, and awaits them in unwavering expectancy. At first they may not be very distinct: but they will glimmer out into light. It is well to wait till they become perfectly clear. “The vision will come; it will not tarry.” The only condition to be fulfilled by us is to divest our hearts of all prejudice and self-will; to wean ourselves from natural impulses, as little children; to hold ourselves open to take any course which He may suggest: and we shall know, by glad and certain experience, the leadings of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit bears witness that we are children of God (verse 16).

The method of this witness has been often misunderstood. Men have listened for some mystic voice, which should speak within their heart, saying, “Thou art a child.” And because they have listened for it in vain, they have been ready to despair. But this blessed witness is rather an impression than a voice; a conviction wrought into the fabric or texture of the spirit; an assurance which, as the years go by, testing it, becomes a bulwark on n8 TLbc Spirit’s tpelp.

which the waves of doubt break harmlessly into clouds of spray.

And the subject-matter of which the Spirit witnesseth is not, primarily, that we are children, but that God is our Father. He teaches us to call God “Father.” He moulds our lips into the child-like cry, Abba. He compels us to launch away from the thought of our childship on to the ocean of His Fatherhood. Beneath His searching, God in Christ becomes infinitely lovable and delightful; perfect love casteth out fear; the heart turns to Jehovah with the -freedom of a child to a father, and thus insensibly our attitude towards God becomes the best evidence that we are His children.

The Spirit helpeth our infirmities (verse 26).

Never do we feel them more than at the hour of prayer. Sometimes our thoughts scatter like a flock of sheep; tEbe Spirit’s fjelp,

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or flag and faint before the spiritual effort of stirring ourselves up to take hold on God. Who does not have times, when (to use Jeremy Taylor’s similitude) prayer is like the rising of a lark against an east wind? We even tire in maintaining the attitude of devotion: and how much more its spirit! We know not what to pray for; we are ignorant of the best arguments to employ; we ask amiss; we cannot keep in the perpetual spirit and temper of devotion; we lack that calm faith, which can leave its burden at the mercy-seat, and be at rest.

In all this the Spirit helpeth us. He “helpeth our infirmities.” Knowing the mind of God, He is aware of those things which it will please our Father to bestow, and which indeed are only waiting for us to ask them at His hand. These He suggests to us; for these He excites strong and passionate desire; with respect to these XCbe Spirits tpelp<

He leads us to pour out our souls in importunate and prevailing prayer.

When next you are sensible of a mighty tide of desire rising up in your heart, bearing you forward on its bosom toward God, yield to it; let it have its blessed way with you. Though there be almost pain in the unutterable passion of desire, dare not to restrain it; for the Holy Spirit is then taking you up into the purposes of God, and is leading you to ask those things which lie near His heart, and which brood over you as clouds of blessing ready to break. This is true prayer: the attempt on the part of man to tell out the deep, unutterable thoughts, which the Spirit is inspiring within.

The Spirit maketh intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered (verse 26).

Goethe said, that when he stood alone amid the scenes of nature, she

XCbe Spirit’s tpelp. seemed to be like an imprisoned captive sighing to be redeemed. Some such thought seemed present to the Apostle, when he spoke of the groaning of creation, and the groaning of the saints.

But how passing wonderful to be told of the groaning of the Spirit! — not the groans of death; but the travail groans of birth, ushering in a new creaation. Ah! no one can estimate the pain which our sins and sorrows cost God. “It grieved Him to His heart.” “I know their sorrows.” “In all their affliction, He was afflicted.” And out of all this spring the intercessions which the Spirit maketh in and for the saints; and which sometimes almost break down the human spirit in which they strive for utterance. What do we not owe to those mighty and unutterable pleadings? How many a time have they brought untold blessings into our hearts and lives! We did Gbe Spirit’s fcelp.

not realize their source: but had we realized it, we would have prized more gratefully those gentle yet hiighty operations.

All the mightiest and saintliest of God’s children have been most aware of the infinite distance between their noblest attainments in experience of prayer, and the ultimate splendour and fulness of God. The biography of one of the best is entitled “Confessions.”* He knows little of the Christian life, who is always conscious of being able to express all he feels. The joy is sometimes unspeakable; the peace passeth all understanding.

But all these are signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart. And all He is doing there, unutterable and glorious as it is, is the outcome of the will of God, and therefore certain to be realized some day in fact.

“He maketh intercession for the

SAINTS ACCORDING TO THE WILL OF GOD.”

*Augustine.