companionship with their won derful Saviour these disciples had learned to lean upon Him in every way. Their lives were bound up with His. Now He was going away. They would have to face the reali ties of existence without His physi cal presence. There was a great commission to carry out. The Gos pel entrusted to them would arouse the hatred of evil men. Their lives would be in constant peril. Christ painted no rosey picture about the future. His frank words were, "In the world ye shall have tribula tion." Never did a handful of men face a harder or a more seemingly hopeless task from a human stand point. This is the background for the promise of the Comforter, which means "the One who will come alongside to help." Christ mentioned that it would be "another" Comforter. That meant that the Holy Spirit would be to them everything that the Saviour had been while He was on earth. The Lord's leaving was not the disaster that it appeared it might have been. It was necessary to the success of the program God had established. Dr. Robert E. Speer pointed out, "The going of Christ, that is in His resurrection and ascension, was as blessed as His coming. It was nec essary that He should come born of the Virgin Mary. Only Cod in the flesh could do for us what needed to be achieved. But it was also necessary that He should go away. Suppose He had not? That which had come to humanity by way of His cross could not have found its way into humanity." Nothing short of a spiritual re birth and regeneration could meet the needs of sinning men and wo men. Their message was that of the Page 53
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