Scripture: "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."--Romans 8:27
" A natural life can subsist no longer than while it is immediately and continually under the working power of that root or source from which it sprang. Hence nothing but obedience to the Spirit, trusting to the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, praying with and for its continual inspiration, can possibly keep men from sin. The truth and perfection of the Gospel state could not show itself till it became solely a ministration of the Spirit, or a kingdom in which the Holy Spirit of God had the doing of all that was done in it.
"When Christ taught His disciples: 'I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away,' He taught them to believe what the want was of their present condition, and joyfully to expect the coming of a higher and more blessed state, which they could not have till His outward teaching in human language was changed into the inspiration and operation of His Spirit in their souls.
"Here two most fundamental truths are fully demonstrated. First, that the truth and perfection of the Gospel state could not take place till Christ was glorified, and His Kingdom among men made wholly and solely a continual, immediate ministration of the Spirit, which carried man into the real possession and enjoyment of a Divine life.
"Secondly, that as the Apostles could not, so no man, from their time to the end of the world, can have any true and real knowledge of the spiritual blessings of Christ's redemption, or have a Divine capacity of fitness to preach, and bear witness of them to the world, but solely by that same Divine Spirit opening all the mysteries of a Redeeming Christ in their inward part, as it did in the Apostles and first ministers of the Gospel."
Let us confess how much we have thought of the working of the Spirit as an occasional thing, for certain times or duties. Let us remember that it will be no easy thing for us to be de¬livered from this thought, and to yield ourselves wholly to the great truth that the immediate and continual inspiration of the Holy Spirit is what is absolutely needed, is promised by God, and made possible to us. Let us make this the one aim of our desire and prayer.
