THÉ KING’S BUSINESS
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going from them, but He was not going to leave them “bereft,” He was coming to them. The coming that He here speaks of, as is evident from the context, is.not His second personal, visible, bodily coming (of which He speakg in verse 3), but a present coming. The meaning is as the con text makes clear, that the Holy Spirit who was coming to them would so reveal Him to them and -form Him within them that it would be a real' coming of Himself. Even while He is bodily absent from us and in the glory representing us before the Father, He Himself is coming to make His abode with us. This is His present day by day coming in and through the power of the Holy Spirit. The coming of the Holy Spirit is a real coming of Jesus Christ, for it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bear witness of Christ (ch. IS :26, R. V.) , to take of the things of Christ, and declare them unto us, and there fore glorify Christ (ch. 16:14, R. V.), and to make Jesus (and the Father, v. 23) dwell, within us (Eph. 3:16, 17) and to form Christ within us (Gal. 4:19). Satan often whispers to the soul, “Where is your Christ, in whom you trust?” We reply, “Our Christ is in heaven preparing a place for us, interceding for us, and soon coming personally for us, to take us to the place prepared, and not only so, He is also here in us individually today, dwelling in us and living His life out through us, that is The promise of verse 26 was, of course, made primarily to the Apostles, and is our Ford’s own guarantee of the absolute accuracy of their recollection of what He taught, and of the inspiration and Divine origin of their own teaching. The ques tion is often asked, how do we know that in the four gospels we have an accurate record of what Jesus said? May not the disciples have forgotten His words and misrepresented them? Yes, the disiiples, left to themselves, might forget, but we have Jesus’ own guarantee that the apos- where Christ is.” Friday, July 28 . John 14 : 25 - 27 .
side to help us in any emergency that may arise. Jesus had been their Ever-Present Helper up to this time in any emergency that arose. In their difficulty and perplex ity they had turned to Him, but now He was going away and was sending another to take His place, just as divine and just as ^sufficient as He. The promise of verse 16 is one of the most precious, if not the most precious there is in the whole Bible for the present dispensation. , If 'the truth of this verse once gets into the heart and s(ays there we shall never have another lonely moment as long as we live, for we shall know that this Divine One is with us, yea, in us, Neither shall we have any fear under any circumstances, and we shall know furthermore that we are ready for any emergency of Christian service that may arise. Jesus had been with them for a time, but was now to leave them. Some day He was coming back to be with them, no more to be separated from them. In the meantime the ‘other Comforter” was to come and to stay with them, not for four years as He had, but “for the age.” How this other ever-present Helper helps, we are told in John 16:13; 14:26; Rom. 8:26; Adts 8:29; 11:11, 12; 16:6, 7; Matt. 10:18-20; Acts 4:8 31; 6:10. This new friend that was coming, of whom Jesus speaks, was not merely to .come as “the Comforter,” but a> “the Spirit of truth,” i. e., as the great Teacher of truth and is Himself the truth. How often many of us have thought, Oh, if I only had Jesus right at hand ds the disciples had. A h! but you have “ANOTHER,” just as wise, just as loving, just as mighty, just as Divine as He, always at hand. Yea, better still,
always within you. Thursday, July 27 . John 14 : 18 - 24 .
Here we have another comforting thought, viz., “I will not leave you comfort less, I will come unto you.” The word “comfortless” is bettet rendered “desolate” in the Revised Version. The Greek word is “orphanous” from which we get our word “orphans,” it means “bereft.” He was
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