Love to the Uttermost: Expositions of John XIII.-XXI.Meyer, F. B. (Frederick Brotherton)
Religion
Love to the Uttermost: Expositions of John XIII.-XXI.
Meyer, F. B. (Frederick Brotherton)
Bible. John -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
III. THE LINK BETWEEN THESE TWO.--"He will give you another Comforter."
The word Comforter might be rendered Advocate. We have two Advocates;
one with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and one with us. As
the one went up, the other came down. As the one sat down at the right
hand of God, the other rested on the heads and hearts of the company in
the upper room. As the one has compassion on our infirmities, so the
other helps our infirmities. As the one ever liveth to intercede for
us in heaven, so the other maketh intercession in us for the saints
with groanings that cannot be uttered.
This is the clue to the mystery of prayer. It is all-important that
the Church on earth should be in accord with its Head in His petitions
before the Throne. Of what avail is it for a client and advocate to
enter an earthly court of justice unless they are in agreement? Of
what use is it to have two instruments in an orchestra which are not
perfectly in tune? And how can we expect that God will hear us unless
we ask what is according to His will, and, therefore, what is in the
heart and thought of Jesus?
This, then, is the problem that confronts us. How can we ascertain
what Jesus is pleading for? We may guess it generally, but how be
assured of it particularly? Who will tell us the direction in which
the current of His mighty pleadings is setting, that we may take the
same direction? These inquiries are answered in the ministry of the
Holy Spirit. On the one hand, He fills and moves the Head, and on the
other, His members. There is one Spirit of life between Jesus in the
glory and His believing people everywhere. One ocean washes the shores
of all natures in which the life of God is found.
Be still, therefore, and listen carefully to the voice of the Spirit of
God speaking in thine heart, as thou turnest from all other sounds
toward His still small whisper, and He will tell thee all. Coming, as
He does, from the heart of Jesus, He will tell thee His latest thought.
In Him we have the mind of Christ. Then, sure that we are one with
Him, and therefore with the Father, we shall ask what is according to
His will to give. Prayer goes in an eternal circle. It begins in the
heart of God, comes to us through the Saviour and by the Spirit, and
returns through us again to its source. It is the teaching of the
raindrops, of the tides, of the procession of the year; but wrought out
and exemplified in the practice of holy hearts.
IX
The Other Paraclete
"He shall give you another Comforter."--JOHN xiv. 16.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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