he knows that the true suppliant will practice his prayers, that he will work them out in deeds. Does he pray for the power of the Spirit? he will use that power for the benefit of others. Does he pray for the poor? he will make haste to minister to their necessities. Does he pray for the coming of the Kingdom? He will do all that he can to make it come. Does he pray for missions? He will give liberally for their support. Does he pray for the union of God's people? He will labor to take down all dividing fences. Does he pray for the conversion of sinners? He will be willing to wet his feet to save them from perishing. No one who truly prays expects the ripe fruit to drop into his open mouth; he expects to grow it. If he prays for daily bread, he expects it to come from daily toil; and if he prays for any spiritual blessing, he expects it to come from the practical use of that augmented power which has come to him through prayer. It is vain to pray if we stop with prayer. A man who lived in a swamp prayed daily to Jupiter for health. "Pray from the hilltop and your prayer will be answered," said Jupiter. Prayer for health should always be accompanied by the use of remedial measures, and prayer for anything whatsoever should always be accompanied by the use of means. When the use of means is apparently discarded, it is often unconsciously employed. Those institutions which are said to be supported purely by prayer often adopt the most skillful methods of advertising their work, and the most fetching methods of se

curing supplies. Their leaders pray so as to be overheard. They let the Lord's people know what they expect of the Lord. In that there is nothing wrong-only let it be acknowledged as a wise and legitimate way of doing things.

When, therefore, it is said that prayer is "a sense of something transacting" it must not be forgotten that the thing transacting is to be not God's only but man's. The certain part of it is God's, the uncertain part is man's. For the lack of man's part the work lags. The work is poorly done because the prayer is faulty. Better prayer would give better work. True prayer is a costly thing. To live up to our prayers will call for toil and sacrifice. Prayer for the removal of the plague will call for the enforcement of heroic sanitary measures; prayer for personal holiness will call for self-crucifixion; prayer for the spread of the kingdom will call for sacrificial self-giving. The declaration of Walter Rauschenbusch that "when the politicians and the social exploiters have to deal with the stubborn courage of men who pray about politics they will have a new factor to reckon with," undoubtedly holds good, provided those who pray are prepared to turn their prayers into ballots, and into deeds of sacrificial social service. Otherwise their prayers are "sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal."

8. Praying in the Spirit.

"Praying in the Holy Spirit" (Jude 20). "In like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity;

for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered; and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8. 26, 27). It was a distinct and definite promise that in the Christian dispensation, in which we are now living, the Holy Spirit was to be a power in prayer. Christians were to pray in him, that is, in the sphere of his influence and operation, as standing within the circle of his wisdom and grace. He was to be behind their prayers, inspiring them and shaping them; to those who put themselves under his tuition he was to give skill and power in prayer. Their outspoken word was to be first of all his inspoken word, so that it might be said of them, "It is not ye that pray, but the Spirit of your Father that prayeth in you" (adapted from Matt. 10. 20).

As our prayer-prompter and guide he puts us into a right condition to receive by putting us into the right condition to pray. He suggests such requests as God can answer. Yea, the very fact that he leads us to ask for certain things is presumptive proof that God means to give them. By bringing our desires into the agreement with the divine will he makes them certain of fulfillment. Juliana of Norwich, the English mystic, expresses this thought in her words of testimony: "Our Lord said unto me I am the ground of thy beseechings; first it is

my will that thou have it; and then I make thee to beseech it; and thou beseechest. How, then, should it be that thou shouldst not have thy beseechings?" Madam Guyon, telling how she grew into the prayer of silence until vocal prayer almost ceased, says, "There was made in me, without the sound of words, a continual prayer, which seemed to me to be the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ himself; a prayer of the Word which is made by the Spirit, who, according to Saint Paul, asketh for us that which is good, perfect, and conformable to the will of God."

This deep experience, in which prayer goes beyond the use of words, is what Saint Paul refers to when he speaks of the Spirit living within us— praying with inaudible groanings, drawing us out to God in desires which are unutterable. He speaks of him as helping us in our infirmity, putting himself into us; sharing our burden, coming under it, taking the heavy end of it; and when the power to pray has been crushed out of us by the weight of the mystery of a suffering creation, bringing ease of heart by expressing in voiceless groanings the desires which lie concealed in the depths of the subconscious mind. When we have no desire to pray he moves us to pray, he helps us to pray; and when we are too weak to pray because of infirmity of will, or heart, or mind, or body, he prays for us in sighs and groans surcharged with feeling which our poor human words are powerless to express. He helps us not only in our weakness but also in our

ignorance, for "we know not how to pray as we ought" unless we are taught of him. He enlightens us as to the proper matter of prayer, imparting to us the knowledge of our needs, so that in his light we see light, and in our inexpressible longings desire the things that he desires for us. And He who searcheth the heart, knowing his intercession for the saints to be in harmony with his will, answers his unspoken prayers.

We thus see that in this personal relation of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man's joint action is clearly implied. When we pray he prays through us. When he prays we pray through him. He takes up our prayers as his own; he becomes our mouthpiece; our prayers go up to the eternal throne with his indorsement, and hence they find accept

ance.

9. The Cry of the Child to the Father.

"Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Gal. 4. 6). Prayer here is set forth as the soul's response to the higher call, the answer of the child to the Father's voice. The thought of Paul is this: "Because ye have come into filial relation to God, he has given to you the evidence of that relationship by sending the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, leading you to call upon God as your Father." "The Spirit," says Meyer, "is the seal of sonship unto which they had entered through faith." First there is the act of adoption, then "the