ed and that which is promised and that which God
waits to perform, he feels it to be beyond his conception; then is the time
he will be ready to say, "I can not limit the holy one of Israel by my
thoughts; I give myself up in the faith that the Holy Spirit can be praying
for me with groanings, with longings, that can not be expressed." Apply
that to your prayers.

There are different phases of prayer. There is worship, when a man just
bows down to adore the great God. We do not take time to worship. We
need to worship in secret, just to get ourselves face to face with the
everlasting God, that He may overshadow us and cover us and fill us with
His love and His glory. It is the Holy Spirit that can work in us such a
yearning that we will give up our pleasures and even part of our business,
that we may the oftener meet our God.

The next phase of prayer is fellowship. In prayer there is not only the
worship of a king, but fellowship as of a child with God. Christians take
far too little time in fellowship. They think prayer is just coming with
their petitions. If Christ is to make me what I am to be, I must tarry in
fellowship with God. If God is to let his love enter in and shine and burn
through my heart, I must take time to be with Him. The smith puts his rod
of iron into the fire. If he leaves it there but a short time it does not
become red hot. He may take it out to do something with it and after a time
put it back again for a few minutes, but this time it does not become red
hot. In the course of the day he may put the rod into the fire a great
many times and leave it there two or three minutes each time, but it never
becomes thoroughly heated. If he takes time and leaves the rod ten or
fifteen minutes in the fire the whole iron will become red hot with the
heat that is in the fire. So if we are to get the fire of God's holiness
and love and power we must take more time with God in fellowship. That was
what gave men like Abraham and Moses their strength. They were men who were
separated to a fellowship with God, and the living God made them strong.
Oh, if we did but realize what prayer can do!

Another, and a most important phase of prayer is intercession. What a work
God has set open for those who are His priests--intercessors! We find a
wonderful expression in the prophecy of Isaiah; God says, "Let him take
hold of me;" and again, "There is none that stirreth up himself to take
hold of thee." In other passages G