s the tax-collector appeals in the name of the
authorities; both deriving from their identification with their
superiors an authority they could not otherwise exercise; so our words
become weighted with a great importance when we can say to our Father,
"We are so one with Jesus that He is asking in and through us; these
words are His; these desires His; these objects those on which His
heart is set. We have His sanction and authority to use His name."
When we ask a favor in the name of another, that other is the
petitioner, through us; so when we approach God in the Name of Jesus,
it is not enough to append His sacred name as a formula, but we must
see to it that Jesus is pleading in us, asking through our lips, as He
is asking through His own in the heart of the sapphire throne.

III. THE LINK BETWEEN THESE TWO.--"He will give you another Comforter."
The word Comforter might be rendered Advocate. We have two Advocates;
one with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and one with us. As
the one went up, the other came down. As the one sat down at the right
hand of God, the other rested on the heads and hearts of the company in
the upper room. As the one has compassion on our infirmities, so the
other helps our infirmities. As the one ever liveth to intercede for
us in heaven, so the other maketh intercession in us for the saints
with groanings that cannot be uttered.

This is the clue to the mystery of prayer. It is all-important that
the Church on earth should be in accord with its Head in His petitions
before the Throne. Of what avail is it for a client and advocate to
enter an earthly court of justice unless they are in agreement? Of
what use is it to have two instruments in an orchestra which are not
perfectly in tune? And how can we expect that God will hear us unless
we ask what is according to His will, and, therefore, what is in the
heart and thought of Jesus?

This, then, is the problem that confronts us. How can we ascertain
what Jesus is pleading for? We may guess it generally, but how be
assured of it particularly? Who will tell us the direction in which
the current of His mighty pleadings is setting, that we may take the
same direction? These inquiries are answered in the ministry of the
Holy Spirit. On the one hand, He fills and moves the Head, and on the
other, His members. There is one Spirit of life between Jesus in the
glory and His believing people everywhere. One ocean washes th