should pray for." We need help in relation to the manner or spirit of prayer, "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought." Our ignorance and deficiency are supplemented by the Spirit. He becomes our teacher. If we do not know what we need, he does. If we are deficient in the spirit of prayer, he can breathe on our hearts and kindle up desire and sentiment. The Spirit teaches us to say our prayers effectually. He instructs us in holy oratory, and gives us skill and persuasive power. This is our encouragement. Human philosophy frowns on prayer as irrational and useless, as an act of presumption, as the dictation of a worm to omnipotence. Philosophers have taught that men should let prayer alone, because they do not know how to address so great a being nor what to make the subject of petition. Philosophy has said well, and named a sufficient hindrance to prayer. But revelation obviates the difficulty, and rolls away the stone of hindrance. We do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit knows and he guides our lips and hearts. Left to ourselves, we might as well slip the duty as perform it. We would be asking unwarrantably, and to our own damage. Some of us that are poor and dependent, and in obscure positions, would be asking to be made rich and distinguished, and to be situated where we could figure and be conspicuous. We would pray ourselves into popular preachers and successful merchants, and talented men and men of mark and genius. And our prayers, if answered, would very probably be our ruin. Now, prayer being in the Spirit's power or authority, we are kept clear of such deadly error. It is the Spirit's province to dictate our prayer. Except on his dictation no prayer is genuine. "But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." Intercession is an interference of some one between two parties. The agent in this work speaks to one of the two about the other, it may be, seeking favour for the person spoken of, but not necessarily so. Intercession is sometimes adverse in its purpose, of which we have an example in this same epistle, chap. xi. ver. 2: "God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel." We cannot well trust a mere man between us and God, for that man's forbearance or love may not be answerable to our necessity, and he might damage us if his prayer and limited notions were to be acted on. It appears Elijah would have stirred up God's anger against Israel if he could. We know that Jonah interceded against Nineveh, and remonstrated with God for being so pitiful towards its inhabitants. Jonah iv. 1-3. Jeremiah too, the weeping prophet, the man renowned for tender sensibilities, could pray very harshly concerning his enemies: "Therefore forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight, but let them be overthrown before

thee, deal thus with them in the time of thine anger." Jer. xviii. 23. We have intercessors more kindly and reliable. The saints have two illustrious advocates, aye, divine advocates, namely, Christ and the Holy Spirit, between whose respective intercessions there is a marked difference. Christ, who made intercession for the transgressors on earth, now makes intercession in heaven for saints. "Who also maketh intercession for us.' This he does in heaven in a direct manner, his voice, or the voice of his precious blood, going directly to the Father's ear. The mediatorial intercession is made in heaven to the Father in heaven, by the direct agency of the great High Priest. It is not so with the Spirit's intercessions. These reach the mercy-seat indirectly and circuitously from the hearts and lips of believers on earth. The Spirit originates and prompts the earnest prayers of believers, and is said to intercede for them on that account. True prayer is a reflection from the hearts of believers, but the original beam is from the Spirit. They repeat after the Spirit and echo what he prompts; so that the prayer comes down from heaven and goes back to heaven like water that reaches its level. Further, the Spirit's intercessions are often inarticulate. They are groanings. A word is one thing and a groan is another. The groan lacks shape and distinct utterance. The word is from the mouth, the organs of speech being brought together to shape it. The groan is from the breast, and takes no form. Groanings which cannot be uttered are prayers too earnest for expression; deep emphatic prayers, done off within the heart. The groanings are ours, but the Spirit provokes them, and so our prayers bear on them a divine impress. This groaning which is attributed to the Spirit throws our attention back to the groaning of every creature named in the verses above. Creation groans in sympathy with a militant church that travails towards the birth of a heavenly economy. Heaven is not behind in sympathy. An interceding Christ and a pleading Spirit take a deeper interest in the result than all besides. The Spirit fills the mouths of believers with prayer, and sometimes more than fills their mouths, surcharges their heart with inexpressible desire, so that they are struck into adoring silence and can only weep and moan out their meaning. But these groans suffice. The want of expression is no loss, for the reason given in

Verse xxvii. "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."

"He that searcheth the hearts" is a circumlocutive formula for God. The sacred penmen often use these round-about expressions instead of the divine name, as e.g. "him that justifieth the ungodly," "him that raised our Lord from the dead," "him that is of power to stablish you," "he that spared not his own Son." In

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all such circumlocutions something is expressed suitable to the matter on hand, as in this instance, "he that searcheth the hearts," meets the requirement in demand. Being able to read the heart he can interpret the groan. We may glide off into a lesson of admonition at this point. The searcher of hearts is one of whom we should stand in awe. His prerogative it is, to keep the keys of our breasts, and to be in all our secrets, and apprised of all our desires and purposes. We cannot bar out his piercing eye. The heart is a crypt that we can lock up from all others, but not from him!"If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god, shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart."-Psalm xliv. 20, 21. Our overt actions are all done in his sight; our covert purposes and designs which we never breathe to our most familiar friends cannot escape his cognisance. He knows the evil which we do, that we ought not to do; he knows the good which we ought to do because we have power and fair occasion for it, but which we fail in, and he will charge it to us. "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin."—James iv. 17. "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, behold, we knew it not, doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?"--Prov. xxiv. 11, 12. This by-lesson we steal in, as being wholesome and necessary, for we must have something besides the sweet milk of consolation or we shall be over-run with unhealthy humours. The proper application is for comfort, assuring us that our deep-felt, ill-expressed, or even unexpressed prayers are perfectly understood by the Lord. Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. Any informality in the wording of your petitions creates no difficulty. He can transpose your awkward sentences, throw off what is needless and add what is lacking. If you say nothing at all he understands you. Let your prayer be composed of sobs, and sighs, and groans, it comes before him as clearly as if expressed in the most select terms. "Lord, all my desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee."-Psalm xxxviii. 9. And yet, this is not the very bottom of what the passage means. It is true enough he knows what your meaning is, and what is your mind. But the place expresses more than this, "He knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit." He understands the hand writing of his own secretary who indites and prepares your prayers and provokes you to say them or groan them, or to feel and intend them when your heart is too full for utterance. The mind of his own Spirit is known to him. True prayer is of divine generation, and the Father who hears prayer understands the Spirit that genders it.

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"Because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." The Lord understands and approves the prayers of his people indited by the Spirit, because they are harmonious with himself, "according to God," not cross or contrary to his nature or honour, but every way worthy of him to concur in, and honour with an answer. Such prayers are always answered. It is impossible for them to fail, unless we could suppose God and his Spirit to be of two minds, or that he should be at variance with himself, which would be a reflection upon his unity and integrity. If intercessions are according to God, he will accord them, endorse them, and answer them, time and circumstance being referred to him of course. "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us: and if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him." John v. 14, 15. Prayers that are never answered are left in that neglect evidently because they are not according to God. They come athwart his will, or laws, or purpose, or are contrary to his glory and the creature's good. Can it be wondered at that prayers which are wrong in the matter of them, or in the motive, end, or aim, should meet with failure? We must not hastily conclude against our unanswered prayers that they are of the failing kind. The prayers that have not been honoured with an answer may be lying over to some future time. The answer of them will come yet if they were of divine dictation; if not, it is of no consequence. We ought not to dignify by the name of prayer all our public exercises, nor perhaps all our private exercises. We may have prayed, if not for the wrong thing, yet for the right thing with a false aim; some base motive may have been at the root of our prayer, like a vile worm withering it into failure. We may have prayed sometimes just for the sake of praying, and to fill up our customary amount of self-appointed exercises. We had better do less and do it better.

It is of paramount importance that we should have a firm belief in the personality of the Holy Spirit, and that we should seek unbroken communion with him, and be obedient to his motions within us, and put away every thing that would grieve him. Let us say to the Spirit, what one of the disciples said to Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray." We can no more have success in prayer without the Spirit than we can without the good offices of the Mediator. The blood of Christ and the breath of the Spirit are both essential elements of acceptable devotion. "For through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father."-Eph. ii. 18. May the Spirit of grace and of supplication fill and actuate us evermore. Amen.

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ART. III.-ON MINISTERIAL ABILITY.*

HEN the Lord Jesus Christ entered upon his great work he received by Jordan's stream, and at the hands of the Eternal Father, a truly divine consecration. The heavens were opened, the Spirit of God descended upon him, and a voice said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." When Paul and Barnabas were appointed to their apostolic mission to Asia Minor and Gentile Europe, the church at Antioch publicly set them apart, and with prayer and faith sent them forth to preach the Gospel of Christ. In accordance with those ancient examples, in the presence of this assembly, and at the hands of the church, you also, dear brethren, are publicly and solemnly dedicated to the ministry of the Gospel in connection with the Primitive Methodist Church.

Only a few years have gone since, with deep convictions of duty, you left your homes and business to go forth into the highways and bye-ways of this land in order to proclaim to dying man the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus, and to afford an additional illustration of the words of the prophet: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation."

During those years you have had successes and reverses, joys and sorrows, trials and triumphs. The burden of souls weighing heavily upon the heart, the chilling apathy of the church, the fiery cross of persecution, the mighty battle with spiritual wickedness in high places, and the protracted spiritual struggle-a struggle in which the human heart seemed as adamant, and the heavens as brass, you have doubtless experienced again and again. But you have seen again and again the quivering lip, and the contrite tear, and you have heard the sobbing of the penitent heart, the cry of "God be merciful to me a sinner," the exulting shout of salvation, the rapturous song upborne by faith and hope to heaven, and the final burst of "Victory, victory, through the blood of the Lamb.” Your work, dear brethren, in warning the world of sin, in leading lost men to the arms of an infinitely loving Saviour, in guiding and cheering the pilgrims of Christ in their wilderness journey, and in consoling their departing spirits, is the grandest in the universe of God. As is the huge Alpine mountain to the puny

*A charge delivered at the ordination of the Revs. J. S. Boyes, H. S. Matthews, W. Codville, R. Auger, and R. Hazzard, at the Primitive Methodist Conference, of Canada, in the Brock Street Church, city of Kingston, Canada West, June 14th, 1865.