The following reading is taken from John Brown of Edinburgh's exposition of Romans 8, starting with verse 26. Suitable spiritual aids are furnished under affliction. A third and powerful consideration showing that the sufferings of the present time do not affect the reality and security of the blessings connected with a personal interest in the divine method of justification is given in the 26th verse. Under these afflictions, Christians are furnished with suitable spiritual aids and supports. Likewise, the Spirit also helps our infirmities, for we don't know what we should pray for, as we ought. But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. The force of the word, likewise, seems to be. Not only does hope lead us patiently to wait for deliverance from our afflictions, spiritual aids are also afforded us for the same purpose. The term, infirmities, or as is now generally admitted to be the better reading, infirmity, does not seem to have a reference to moral deficiencies, but to our afflictions. and particularly to the afflictions rising out of the faith and profession of Christianity. This appears from the following passages. If I must sneeze glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. Of such an one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities. He said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness, or perfect in infirmity. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities. What follows explains what he means by that phrase. in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak or infirm, then I am strong. Now the apostle here describes a peculiar kind of spiritual help which Christians were secured of in a state of infirmity or affliction in which they are placed in the present time. It is of importance that we should ascertain, as exactly as possible, the phase of affliction which the apostle has in his eye. The person he is speaking of are justified persons who, through faith, have peace with God and free access to Him, who have received not the spirit of bondage, but of adoption and habitually regard God. As their father, they know his name and have confidence in him. They are sure of all that is good for them from him. Forty asking, why then should they ever be perplexed and unhappy, however afflicted? Why should they not be anxious for nothing? But in everything with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make their requests known to God. And if they do so, assuredly, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. But here's the difficulty. They often, in their infirmity, do not know what they should ask, as they ought. They know, for this is the confidence they have in Him, that, if they ask anything according to His will, He hears them, and whatsoever they ask, believing, they shall receive. But what is according to the will of God, they often but very dimly describe, sometimes cannot at all perceive. And they often experience a great deficiency of that faith and holy desire which they know to be essential to acceptable prayer. Could they but find their way to their Father's throne, and pour out requests consciously agreeable to His will, and in the assurance of being heard, any affliction could be borne. This seems to have been exactly the state of the psalmist when he said, This is my infirmity. Now, says the apostle, the Spirit helps our infirmity. We have spiritual aid suited to our circumstances. It has been doubted whether the spirit here be the Holy Spirit, personally considered, or the spirit as opposed to the flesh, the spirit of adoption, the new nature. It does not much matter which interpretation is adopted for if it be the spirit personally. It is the spirit working by the instrumentality of the new frame of dispositions which he has formed and sustains. And if it be the new nature, it is that frame of thought and feeling that is influenced by him whose work it is. The expression deserves notice. The spirit himself helps our infirmity. aids us in a very distressed state to which he refers, by groanings that cannot be uttered. The spirit himself, the very same words used to the spirit of adoption, makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. The help is most appropriate. It is just what we need. We feel as if we could not pray, but the spirit prays for us. in us, not it may be in articulate words, but with groanings which cannot be uttered. What is the meaning of these words? Supposing the reference to be to the spirit of adoption, the spirit in opposition to the flesh. Let us take the apostle himself as an example. On a certain occasion he was in a state of great infirmity and affliction. He was a prisoner and might at any time become a condemned prisoner. He had eager desires to depart and be with the Lord, but he had also a deep interest in the cause of Christ and would willingly do and suffer anything to promote it. He wasn't a straight between two. For a time, it would seem, he did not know what to pray for. What I should choose, he says, I don't know. His new nature led him to groan an earnest desire that Christ might be glorified in his life. or in his death, though not able to say whether he should pray for the one or the other. And he that searches the heart, God, knew, observed, the mind of the spirit, the workings of his new nature, and gave the apostle deliverance from the afflicting uncertainty as to what he was to ask. by making it plain to him that it was more needful for the church that he should continue in the flesh and giving him the assurance that he should so abide and continue for a season. The force of the concluding clause according to this mode of interpretation is confirmatory for or because he, the spirit, makes intercession for the saints, literally. according to God, i.e. agreeable to the will of God. The desires which grow out of the renewed mind, even when the individual cannot distinctly express them, will bring down blessings. The appropriate blessings, size, can convey anything to him. The new creature is God's own creature and he understands it thoroughly. better than it does itself. The sobbings of his child have to him a distinct meaning, and while the very utterance of them gives relief, how much greater a support is it to know he regards them all, and that what is good he will give. Such is the meaning, if by the Spirit we understand the spirit of adoption, If, as many most learned and devout interpreter think, the spirit here is to be understood personally of the Holy Spirit, the meaning is not materially different. The Holy Spirit assists us, helps our infirmity, helps us when we are infirm, and especially when under our infirmities we do not know what to pray for as we ought. He excites the right desire in the due degree, and he enables us to utter it. if not in eloquent or even articulate words, in earnest groanings. When the Holy Spirit is said to make intercession for us with groanings, it plainly means he enables us thus to make intercession for ourselves, just as when sent as the Spirit of God's Son, Into the hearts of Christians, he is said to cry, Abba, Father, i.e., he makes them cry, Abba, Father. He gives them true filial affection and enables them to express it. He is, as Phenelon says, the soul of our soul. It is a good remark of Augustine. The Holy Spirit does not grow in himself. with himself as a person of the Trinity, but he groans in us when he makes us groan. The entire distinctness and nature, form, and design of this intercession of the Holy Spirit from the intercession of Christ must be obvious on the slightest reflection, not this deep internal groaning for blessings needed. but the precise nature of which is not distinctly perceived is the work of the Holy Ghost. What it expresses is a part of the mind of the Spirit, of which the Apostle speaks in the beginning of the chapter. God knows the mind of the Spirit, however it is expressed. He distinguishes it, even in His own people, from the mind of the flesh. He will not answer desires uttered or unuttered, utterable or unutterable, that come from the mind of the flesh, which in none can be pleasing to him, which in his people is peculiarly displeasing to him. But he will lend his ear to the prayer which is the expression of the desire which comes from the mind of the spirit. The concluding clause has the same force as in the former mode of interpretation. It is a confirmation, for the Spirit does thus make intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Surely, then, afflictions under which Christians have such helps are no proof that they are not the objects of the peculiar love of God. They are strong proofs of the very reverse. Moses Stewart wrote, The Christian who reads his passage with the Spirit, the response to the sentiment which it discloses, cannot avoid lifting up his soul to God with overflowing gratitude for His mercies. Here we are, poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked and in want of all things. We are crushed before the moth. We all do fade as a leaf and the wind takes us away. We are often in distress and darkness and perplexity and straits from which we can see no escape, no issue. Even in far the greater number of cases, we don't know what will be our ultimate and highest good. and so know not what we should pray for as we ought. But in the spirit of the living God is present with all the true followers of the Savior. He excites desires in their souls of liberation from sin and present evil, of heavenly blessedness and holiness greater than words can express. The soul can only vent itself in sighs. the meaning of which language is too feeble to express. Often do we not know enough of the consequences or designs of present trials and sufferings even to venture on making a definite request with regard to them, because we do not know whether relief from them is best or not. If the humble Christian, who feels his need of chastisement, will very often be brought to such a state, then what a high and precious privilege is it that our unhonorable sigh should be heard and understood of him who searches the heart. Who can read this without emotion? Such are the blessings purchased for sinners by redeeming blood. Such are the consolations which flow from the throne of God for a growing and dying world.