expression of this desire was the circumstance, that the Saviour had been praying before His apostles. Doubtless, as they listened to the prayer of the Lord, the only-begotten of the Father, they felt that never man spake unto God as this Man; that in Him the filial spirit of prayer had found its perfect expression; that He was the true High Priest, who entered into the very presence of God. John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray, for the object of all God-sent teachers is to bring souls into communion with God. But the master cannot give more than he possesses; and the disciples of Jesus felt that all previous instructions on prayer must yield in depth and power to the teaching of Him whose nearness to God infinitely excelled the position of the most favoured saints of old. Then they themselves, through one of their number, requested the Saviour to teach them to pray. Their desire was, that the great High Priest should show them how they might become priests with Him, approaching and worshipping God in His Spirit with that liberty and confidence which He possessed. They wished to breathe the same atmosphere of divine love; though as yet they did not understand how Jesus would grant their desire more abundantly and fully than their boldest hope anticipated. For Christ, by His Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, prays in us; it is the Spirit of the Son of God who in our hearts cries now, Abba, Father.
Jesus teaches not merely what and how we are to
