The Holy Spirit is our Comforter. He is
mighty to comfort as well as to sanctify.
His name is “the Comforter.”
His office is to console.
In the discharge of this office He puts forth
His power, not only mediately and indirectly
through the Word, but immediately and
directly upon the soul, sustaining and
strengthening it when fainting and troubled.
It is an unspeakable consolation to know that
there is a hand, a divine and omnipotent hand,
laid upon our wounded spirit, not only upholding
it, but drying up, as it were, the very springs of
grief within.
In the day of oppressive sorrow, when bowed
down to the dust, what is it that we feel so
much our need of, as a hand that can come
into close and direct contact with our souls
to lift them up and strengthen them?
It is here that human consolation fails.
Friends can say much to soothe us, but they
cannot lay their finger upon the hidden seat
of sorrow. They can put their arm around the
fainting body, but not around the fainting spirit.
Here the heavenly aid comes in!
The Spirit throws around us the everlasting
arms, and we are invincibly upheld. We
cannot sink, for He sustains, He comforts,
He cheers. And who knows so well as He
how to sustain, and comfort, and cheer?
