Need of a Comforter

A. The Comforter. But let us, with God's blessing, examine a little more closely the words that the blessed Lord spoke, and whereby He brings before our eyes more distinctly who and what this promised Comforter is. The Lord Himself when here below was the Comforter of His people. While He was with them, they needed no other; but when He left them they required one to supply His place. They needed one who could be to them what Jesus had been. How plainly we gather from this the Deity and distinct personality of the Holy Spirit! When Jesus was present with them, it was His Person that comforted and shielded them. To supply His place was not therefore a Person needed? How short of this would fall a mere influence, an emanation, a virtue, or any other such inferior consolation! Any person, too, that was not Divine and equal with Jesus could not fill His place, or be to them what Jesus had been. Let us, therefore, hold fast by the Deity and personality of the Holy Spirit. Those who deny them have neither part nor lot in His teachings or consolations, in His regeneration or His sanctification.

1. But what the disciples needed, all other true disciples of Jesus equally need?a Comforter who can speak peace to their hearts, who can relieve the various troubles and sorrows through which they are called upon to pass, and that by administering an inward consolation which shall be an effectual remedy. Here lies the vast difference between the comfort that the world bestows and that which is communicated by the Holy Spirit. The world has to a certain extent its comforts to give; in fact, we are surrounded on every side by a vast number of earthly comforts; but these can speak no peace or pardon to a troubled conscience; these can take no load of guilt off a burdened soul; these can give no sweet anticipations of eternal joy when life comes to a close; these cannot smooth a dying pillow, rob death of its sting, or spoil the grave of its victory. Here everything falls short but the consolations of the blessed Spirit.

2. But besides this the saints of God are called upon for the most part to pass through many trials and afflictions in this valley of tears. Their very character, as determined by the mouth of God, is to be "an afflicted and poor people," as much as "to trust in the name of the Lord" (Zeph. 3:12). It is "through much tribulation that they are to enter the kingdom" (Acts 14:22). And as these afflictions and tribulations are chiefly internal, they need an internal Comforter to relieve and comfort them under their weight and pressure. Many of the Lord's family are pressed down exceedingly with guilt and distress of mind on account of their sins against a holy God. Can earthly comforts relieve these distressing pangs? Can they remove this heavy burden of guilt? Can they pour oil and wine into this bleeding conscience? No; they need a deliverance, a remedy, a consolation that can reach their case; and as this is beyond all human help, none but the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, can whisper it into their souls. Spiritual maladies lie too deep for any other remedy. The same hand which shot the arrow can alone extract it. A woe is pronounced against those who "heal the hurt of God's people slightly" (Jer. 6:14). Only He, then, who brings health and cure can reveal to the soul "the abundance of peace and truth" (Jer. 33:6).

3. But besides the affliction of a troubled mind and a guilty conscience that every saint of God is called upon to pass through at one time or other of his earthly pilgrimage, which above all other troubles makes a Comforter so needful, and when He comes so valued, there are few of the living family who have not many trials and sorrows spread in their path. Circumstances arise in Providence as connected with their daily business or occupation which often deeply and acutely try their mind. Nor is it always with them as regards their families as they would have it to be. They may have, with David, to lament that their "house is not so with God," that is so favored and blessed as he himself was (2 Sam. 23:5). They would gladly see their children walking in the strait and narrow path that leads to eternal life, but rarely find a favor so great. As David had to mourn over the vile lust of Amnon and the rebellion of Absalom, so some of the saints of God have even to mourn over profligate or rebellious children, whom no discipline can control or kindness alter. Under these trials they need special support to reconcile their minds in submission to God's sovereignty. As Aaron held his peace when he saw his two sons consumed by fire from heaven at the very altar (Lev. 10:1, 2); as David had a blessed persuasion that the Lord had made with him an everlasting covenant, though his house was not with God as he could wish; so many of the most highly favored saints have had to put their mouth into the dust before God in solemn silence, and to submit to His holy will. But can they do this without special grace? Do not they almost above all others need the Comforter to support them under such heart-rending trials? Who else can silence the murmurs of their rebellious heart, and bend and bow it into submission to these heavy strokes?

4. Many, too, of the choicest of God's people have to drink the bitter cup of poverty, to labor hard for the bread that perishes. But that bread is scanty, and their minds are often filled with anxiety as to the coming morrow, whence a fresh supply is to come. These also need an inward Comforter to stay their murmurings and fretfulness, and to set before their eyes how their Master "had not where to lay His head"; how He was "a Man of sorrows," and passed through this world as a poor, despised carpenter's son. Poverty is one of the greatest of earthly trials, and has a peculiar tendency to stir up unbelief, as well as fretfulness and envy against those who seem to be more favorably dealt with. But the blessed Spirit, the Comforter, can subdue every murmuring thought, and can so bless the soul with inward consolation, that poverty and need lose their keen edge, and a crust with the Lord's blessing may become sweeter food than all the delicacies under which the tables of the wealthy groan.

5. Many, too, of the Lord's people are suffering under bodily disease. Their body is racked with pain, or their constitution is shattered with ailments of long standing, or their nerves are weak and trembling, or their general health broken by multiplied afflictions. This often causes inward murmuring, fretfulness, and rebellion, for few trials are heavier than continued ill health. Hence the need of a Comforter to support them under the pain and languor of an afflicted body; and while they are thus reminded that their time is but short and that life itself is held by a slender thread, so to manifest the power of His grace that as "the outward man perishes, so the inward man may be renewed day by day."

6. But time will not suffice to enumerate a tenth of the numerous trials and afflictions that the Lord's people have to pass through. They have temptations also which in some respects are harder to bear and need more special help. Their own treacherous, unstable, and wicked heart is continually presenting snares in which their unwary feet are too readily caught, and they have to prove again and again, to their sorrow and shame, the truth of the word:
"Seldom do we see the snares
Before we feel the smart."

Satan, too, is continually tempting them to despair, or infidelity, it may be, even to suicide, and distressing their mind with many suggestions which, though groundless, appear at the time to have some solid foundation. Under these temptations they need that special relief and consolation which nothing short of the Spirit of God can communicate. For when severely pressed down by the weight of temptation, they deeply feel that His inward comforts alone can relieve their distress or speak a solid peace to their souls.