THE FAMILY ALTAR - Hertzberger

July 12.

"Likewise the Spirit also 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 cannot be uttered."

Rom. 8, 26.

It often happens that sorely afflicted children of God are

stricken dumb by their grief, and their lips can utter no prayer.

It is then that God's Holy Spirit makes His presence felt in their

overburdened hearts and out of their stony griefs raises a Bethel,

a house of God, a gate of heaven. Commenting on this passage

of Holy Scripture, the late Phillips Brooks says: "The word

'helpeth' means cto lay hold of along with another/ and the thought

suggested is that of a man bearing a burden too heavy for him.

The load is becoming more and more oppressive, and he falters

and turns faint, and is about to sink under the intolerable weight,

when a loving and strong friend steps forward and lifts the burden,

and relieves the weary one, and enables him to carry that which

seemed like a mountain. Almost crushed, the heavy-laden soul

cannot pray, but only groan ; and yet the groan in dumb, inarticu-

late language is also a prayer, the fruit of the Spirit's intercession

for him and within him." To a child of God painfully and slowly

dying from cancer and who complained that she could not pray

in her agony her pastor said : "You can groan, can't you ?" "Oh,

yes," she answered, "my days and nights are passed in groaning."

"Well," said he, "never mind your prayers, then; your groans

going up to God reach His ear and heart far more surely than

the most eloquent prayer, for they are the Spirit's intercession in

your behalf." One groan borne upward by the Holy Spirit is

worth a thousand wordy prayers; "and He that searcheth the

hearts," that is, the Lord, "knoweth what is the mind of the

Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according

to the will of God." (Rom. 8,27.)

Hope on, thou heart, grief-riven,

Hope, and courageous be,

Where anguish thee had driven

Thou shalt deliverance see.

God from thy pit of sadness

Shall raise thee graciously;

Wait, and the sun of gladness

Thine eyes shall early see.