“I WILL pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever. . . . I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” Thus did Jesus comfort His disciples that last night before His death. The promise of His presence as the Comforter, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of truth,” was the greatest comfort that the loving Saviour could offer. He did not merely speak comforting words, but He provided actual comfort in the promise of His abiding presence in the Spirit, the real essence of comfort. This was even better than His bodily presence. “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.” Christ in us is better than Christ among us. Sin is the cause of all sadness. The only genuine comfort is found in salvation from sin, and it is only the power of His presence which can save us from sin. We are “saved by His life.” “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” True happiness is found in freedom from sin, in loving obedience to the law of truth through the power of the Spirit of truth. “Happy is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” Thus the greatest comfort to the living concerning the living is found in the Saviour’s coming to be the life of the life, to deliver from every evil thing, to minister the happiness of obedience. This is the message of comfort to all the living, and concerning all the living. It is also true that the only Scriptural comfort concerning those who sleep in Jesus is found in the Saviour’s coming. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” Death is an enemy. Jesus, and not death, is the one who introduces us into eternal happiness. Jesus took our flesh, and “gave himself for our sins,” in order that “He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Death is an enemy, even to those who believe in Jesus, but to them it is a conquered enemy, and this will be made manifest at the coming of Jesus, when the righteous dead “shall be raised incorruptible.” When this experience of sinless immortality and eternal happiness shall be an accomplished fact to the saved, “then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” And this is the comfort to the living concerning the dead who have died in hope. The power of the coming of the Lord is a resurrection power. His presence is life. His coming means deliverance from sin, and deliverance from death. This is the Comforter’s comfort. “I will come to you.” “I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” The coming of the Lord is life for the living, and hope for the dead. His presence is the only lasting basis of comfort and happiness. “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” “As I cast earth’s transient joys behind,
Come thou near, come thou near;
In thy presence all in all I find,
’Tis my comfort here.” “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”