Thus we venture, in advance, to explain the sentences which now follow. It is true that St Paul does not explicitly say that the Spirit makes intercession _in_ us, as well as _for_ us. But must it not be so? For _where is He_, from the point of view of Christian life, but _in us_? [Sidenote: Ver. 26.] =Then, in the same way, the Spirit also=--as well as "the hope"--=helps,= as with a clasping, supporting hand (συναντιλαμβάνεται), =our weakness,[139]= our shortness and bewilderment of insight, our feebleness of faith. =For what we should pray for as we ought, we do not know; but the Spirit Itself interposes to intercede (ὑπερεντυγχάνει) for us, with groanings unutterable; but= (whatever be the utterance or no utterance) [Sidenote: Ver. 27.] =the Searcher of our (τὰς) hearts knows what is the mind,= the purport, =of the Spirit; because God-wise,[140]= with divine insight and sympathy, the Spirit with the Father, =He intercedes for saints.= Did He not so intercede for Paul, and in him, fourteen years before these words were written, when (2 Cor. xii. 7-10) the man thrice asked that "the thorn" might be removed, and the Master gave him a better blessing, the victorious overshadowing power? Did He not so intercede for Monnica, and in her, when she sought with prayers and tears to keep her rebellious Augustine by her, and the Lord let him fly from her side--to Italy, to Ambrose, and so to conversion?[141] But the strain rises now, finally and fully, into the rest and triumph of faith. "_We know not_ what we should pray for as we ought"; and the blessed Spirit meets this deep need in His own way. And this, with all else that we have in Christ, reminds us of a somewhat that "_we know_" indeed; namely, that all things, favourable or not in themselves, concur in blessing for the saints. And then he looks backward (or rather, upward) into eternity, and sees the throne, and the King with His sovereign will, and the lines of perfect and infallible plan and provision which stretch from that Centre to infinity. These "_saints_," who are they? From one view-point, they are simply sinners who have seen themselves, and "fled for refuge to the" one possible "hope"; a "hope set before" every soul that cares to win it. From another view-point, that of the eternal Mind and Order, they are those whom, for reasons infinitely wise and just, but wholly hidden in Himself, the Lord has chosen to be His own for ever, so that His choice takes effect in their conversion, their acceptance, their spiritual transformation, and their glory.