12 Aid of the Holy Spirit in Prayer
Chapter 12 THE SPIRIT, ALSO, HELPETH OUR INFIRMITIES.
Languor may be the penalty of egotism in prayer. No other infirmity is so subtle, or so corrosive to devotion, as that of an overweening consciousness of self. It is possible, that an intense self-conceit should flaunt itself in the forms of devoutness. To a right-minded man, some of the most astonishing passages in the Bible, are the mysterious declarations and hints of the residence of the Holy Spirit in a human soul. We must stand in awe, before any just conception of the meaning of such voices as these: ’The Spirit of God dwelleth in you’; ’God dwelleth in us’; ’Ye arc the temple of God’; ’Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost’; ’Full of the Holy Ghost ’; ’ Filled with all the fulness of God’; ’Praying in the Holy Ghost’; ’With all prayer in the Spirit’; ’The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.’ But the mysteriousness of such language should not surprise us. Its mystery is only the measure of its depth. It is the reality which it expresses that is amazing. Let us not fritter it away by shallow interpretations. While, on the one hand, we are under no necessity of blinking the truth of the intense activity of the soul in any holy experience; on the other hand, we must discern in such phraseology, the greater intensity of the Holy Spirit’s action in a holy mind. The existence of the mind is no more a reality, than this indwelling of God.
What then is prayer, as seen perspective with this doctrine of ’ he Spirit’? Is it merely the dialect of helplessness? Is it only, as Paley defines it, the expression of want? Is it nothing but the lament of poverty, or the moan of suffering, or the cry of fear? Is it simply the trust of weakness in strength, the leaning of ignorance upon wisdom, the dependence of guilt upon mercy? It is all these, but more. A holy prayer is the Spirit of God speaking through the infirmities of a human soul;
’God’s breath in man, returning to his birth.’
We scarcely utter hyperbole in saying, that prayer is the Divine Mind communing with itself, through finite wants, through the woes of helplessness, through the clinging instincts of weakness. On this side of the Judgment, no other conception of the Presence of God is so profound, as that which is realized in our souls every time we offer a genuine prayer. God is then not only with us, but within us. That was human nature in honest dismay at its own guilt, in which the children of Israel said to Moses, ’Speak thou with us and we will hear; let not God speak with us, lest we die.’ That was an adventurous trustfulness, which could enable the Monk of Mount St. Agnes to say of this language, ’I pray not in this manner; no. Lord, I pray not so; but with Samuel I entreat, "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth." Do Thou, therefore, Lord my God! speak to my soul, lest I die.’ But what is the sacredness of God’s speaking to us, in comparison with the more awful thought of His speaking within us! Yet this is prayer. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God?
It is obvious, then, that the loss of much joy in prayer may be attributed to some form of dishonor done to the Holy Spirit, in either the intent or the manner of our devotions. The Spirit sternly refuses to become a participant in any act which disparages Him, and exalts in the heart of the worshiper the idea of Self. A profound Christian truth may be clothed in the language of a heathen proverb: ’A Divine Spirit is within us, who treats us as He is treated by us.’
We may offer our supplications, with no penetrating sense of the necessity of supernatural aid. There may be no childlike consciousness of infirmity which should lead us to cry out for help. The inspired words, often on our lips, may seldom come from the depth of our hearts: ’We know not what we should pray for as we ought.’ We make prayer itself one of the standard subjects of prayer; yet, on what theme do our devotions more frequently degenerate into routine than on this? Have we a sense of indigence when we ask for the indwelling of God in our souls? Have we such a sense of need of it, as we have of the need of air when we arc gasping with faintness? It is the law of Divine blessing, that want comes before wealth, hunger before a feast. We must experience the necessity, in order to appreciate the reality. Have we desires in prayer which we feel unable to utter without the aid of God? Dr. Payson said, that he pitied the Christian who had no longings at the throne of Grace which he could not clothe in language. There may be a silent disavowal of our need of the Holy Ghost, in the very act in which we seek His energy. The lips may honor Him, but the heart may say: ’What have I to do with Thee? ’
We may dishonor the Holy Spirit by irreverent speech in prayer. The Spirit can indite no other than reverent words. Where do we find, in the Scriptures, an unhallowed familiarity of communion with God? Only at that gathering of the sons of God, at which ’Satan came also among them.’ It required the effrontery of an evil spirit, to talk to God as to an equal. The consciousness of Divine friendship in devotion, so far from being impaired, is deepened by holy veneration. The purest and most lasting human friendships are permeated with an element of reverence; much more this friendship of a man with God. Moses, with whom God spoke ’as a man with his friend,’ was the man who said, ’I exceedingly fear and quake.’ Abraham was called the ’friend of God;’ yet, his favorite posture in prayer was prostration. He ’fell on his face, and God talked with him.’ Angels, too, veil their faces, in any service which approximates to the nature of prayer.
’Lowly reverent Towards either throne they bow, and to the ground, With solemn adoration, down they cast Their crowns inwove with amarant and gold.’
Even He who could say to His Father, ’I know that Thou always hearest me,’ we are told, ’was heard in that feared.’
What, other than solemn mockery, can that devotion be, which clothes itself in pert speech? The heart which is moved in healthy pulsations of sympathy with the promptings of the Holy Ghost, indulges in no such gasconade. It is not boisterous and rude of tongue, lifting itself up to ’talk saucily to God.’ It is emptied of self, because it is filled with the fulness of God. Therefore it rejoices with joy unspeakable.
We may disparage the Holy Spirit by a querulous devotion. Self-sufficiency is impatient when it is rebuffed; scarcely less so in intercourse with God, than in intercourse with men. Complaint that prayer is not answered immediately, or in the specific thing we pray for, proves that the Spirit has not ’helped our infirmities ’ in that prayer. We have not sought His aid, nor desired it. He prompts only submissive petitions, patient desires, a willingness to wait on God quietly, and self-forgetfully. A Hottentot beats his idol when he fails in his supplications. The people of Naples are frenzied with rage, when the miracle of the ’ Liquefaction ’ does not appear at the festival of San Gennaro. How far is that Christian elevated above these, in possession of the ’fruits of the Spirit,’ whose heart mutters hard thoughts of God, at the delay or the refusal of an answer to his prayers? Such devotion is intensely selfish, however it may be glossed by the refinements of devout speech.
We may be false to the moving of the Holy Spirit, by a diseased inspection of our own minds in the act of communion with God. Self-examination is a suitable preliminary, or after-thought, to prayer, but is no part of it. Devotion is most thoroughly objective, in respect of the motives which induce its presence. It is won into exercise by attractions from without, not forced into being by internal commotions. It is an outgoing, not a seething of sensibility. The suppliant looks upward and around beyond himself; and devout affection grows in intensity with the distance which he penetrates, as the eye grows keen with far seeing. The Spirit invites to no other than such expansive devotion. We are never more like Christ, than in prayers of intercession. In the most lofty devotion we become unconscious of self.
Joy too, has, from its very nature, the same objective origin. It springs from fountains out of ourselves. It comes to us; we do not originate it, we do not gain it by searching. We are never jubilant in thinking of our joy. Our happiness is an incident, of which, as an object of thought, we are unconscious. Divine influence is adjusted to this law of our minds; it seeks to bless us by leading us out of self into great thoughts of God.
Hence, one of the most delusive methods of crossing the will of the Holy Spirit, is that habit of mental introversion in prayer, which corresponds to ’morbid anatomy’ in medical science. The heart, instead of flowing outward and upward at the bidding of the Spirit, turns in upon itself, and dissects its own emotions, and studies its own symptoms of piety. Any kindlings of joy in the soul are quenched, by being made the subject of morbid analysis.
’There are anatomists of piety,’ says Isaac Taylor, ’who destroy all the freshness of faith, and hope, and charity, by immuring themselves, night and day, in the infected atmosphere of their own bosoms.’ Andrew Fuller has recorded of himself, that he found no permanent relief from melancholy, in his early religious life, till his heart outgrew the pettiness of his own sorrows, through his zeal in the work of Foreign Missions. We may often be sensible, that the ’teachings of the Spirit ’ in our hearts are of just this character. They prompt away from ourselves. Look up, look abroad,’ is the interpretation of them. Come away from thyself; pray for something out of thine own soul; be generous in thine intercession; so shall thy peace be as a river.’ Have you never observed, how entirely devoid is the Lord’s Prayer of any material which can tempt to this subtle self-inspection, in the act of devotion? It is full of an out-flowing of thought, and of emotion, towards great objects of desire, great necessities, and great perils. ’After this manner; therefore, pray ye.’