Chapter 187—A Comforter Like Christ
Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away:
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I
depart, I will send him unto you.
John 16:7
.
The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven,
is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of
divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour.
With the consecrated worker for God, in whatever place he may be, the
Holy Spirit abides. The words spoken to the disciples are spoken also to us.
The Comforter is ours as well as theirs.
There is no comforter like Christ, so tender and so true. He is
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. His Spirit speaks to the heart.
Circumstances may separate us from our friends; the broad, restless ocean
may roll between us and them. Though their sincere friendship may still
exist, they may be unable to demonstrate it.... But no circumstances, no
distance, can separate us from the heavenly Comforter. Wherever we are,
wherever we may go, He is always there, one given in Christ’s place, to act
in His stead. He is always at our right hand, to speak soothing, gentle words;
to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer. The influence of the Holy Spirit is
the life of Christ in the soul. This Spirit works in and through every one
who receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of this Spirit reveal its
fruit—love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith.
The Holy Spirit ever abides with him who is seeking for perfection
of Christian character. The Holy Spirit furnishes the pure motive, the
living, active principle, that sustains striving, wrestling, believing souls
in every emergency and under every temptation. The Holy Spirit sustains
the believer amid the world’s hatred, amid the unfriendliness of relatives,
amid disappointment, amid the realization of imperfection, and amid the
mistakes of life. Depending upon the matchless purity and perfection of
Christ, the victory is sure to him who looks unto the Author and Finisher of
our faith.... He has borne our sins, in order that through Him we might have
moral excellence, and attain unto the perfection of Christian character.
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