fetters of despair. “Oh, I am the man,” they say, “who has seen affliction; pity me, pity me, oh my friends”; and the more you try to comfort such people, the worse they get; and therefore, we lose all heart, we leave them to wander alone among the tombs of their former joys. But the Holy Spirit never loses heart with those whom he wishes to comfort. He attempts to comfort us and we run away from the sweet cordial; he gives some sweet draught to cure us, and we will not drink it; he gives some wondrous potion to charm away all our troubles, and we put it away from us. Still he pursues us; and though we say that we will not be comforted, he says we shall be, and when he has said, he does it; he is not to be wearied by all our sins, not by all our murmurings.
13. And oh, how wise a Comforter is the Holy Spirit. Job had comforters, and I think he spoke the truth when he said, “Miserable comforters are you all.” But I dare say they esteemed themselves wise; and when the young man Elihu rose to speak, they thought he had a world of impudence. Were they not “grave and reverend seniors?” Did they not comprehend his grief and sorrow? If they could not comfort him, who could? But they did not find out the cause. They thought he was not really a child of God, that he was self-righteous; and they gave him the wrong medicine. It is a bad case when the doctor mistakens the disease and gives a wrong prescription, and so, perhaps, kills the patient. Sometimes, when we go and visit people we mistaken their disease, we want to comfort them on this point, whereas they do not require any such comfort at all, and they would be better left alone than spoiled by such unwise comforters as we are. But oh! how wise the Holy Spirit is! he takes the soul, lays it on the table, and dissects it in a moment; he finds out the root of the matter; he sees where the complaint is; and then he applies the knife where something is required to be taken away, or puts a plaster where the sore is; and he never is mistaken. Oh! how wise, the blessed Holy Spirit! from every comforter I turn and leave them all, for you are he who alone gives the wisest consolation.
14. Then note how safe a Comforter the Holy Spirit is. All comfort is not safe; note that. There is a young man over there who is very melancholy. You know how he became so. He stepped into the house of God and heard a powerful preacher, and the word was blessed and convicted him of sin. When he went home, his father and the rest found there was something different about him, “Oh,” they said, “John is mad; he is crazy”; and what did his mother say? “Send him into the country for a week, let him go to the ball or to the theatre.” John! Did you find any comfort there? “Ah no; they made me worse, for while I was there, I thought hell might open and swallow me up.” Did you find any relief in the gaieties of the world? “No,” you say, “I thought it was an idle waste of time.” Alas! this is miserable comfort, but it is the comfort of the worldling; and when a Christian gets into distress, how many will recommend to him this remedy and the other. “Go and hear Mr. So-and-So preach; have a few friends at your house; read such-and-such a consoling volume”; and very likely it is the most unsafe advice in the world. The devil will sometimes come to men’s souls as a false comforter, and he will say to the soul, “What need is there to make all this ado about repentance? you are no worse than other people,” and he will try to make the soul believe that what is presumption is the real assurance of the Holy Spirit; thus he deceives many by false comfort. Ah, there have been many, like infants, destroyed by elixirs given to lull them to sleep; many have been ruined by the cry of “peace, peace,” when there is no peace, hearing gentle things when they ought to be stirred to the quick. Cleopatra’s asp was brought in a basket of flowers; and men’s ruin often lurks in fair and sweet speeches. But the Holy Spirit’s comfort is safe, and you may rest on it. Let him speak the word, and there is a reality about it; let him give the cup of consolation, and you may drink it to the bottom, for in its depths there are no dregs, nothing to intoxicate or ruin, it is all safe.
15. Moreover, the Holy Spirit is an active Comforter: he does not comfort by words, but by deeds. Some comfort by “Be warmed and be filled, giving nothing.” But the Holy Spirit gives, he intercedes with Jesus; he gives us promises, he gives us grace, and so he comforts us. See again, he is always a successful Comforter; he never attempts what he cannot accomplish.
16. Then to close up, he is an ever present Comforter, so that you never have to send for him. Your God is always near you, and when you need comfort in your distress, behold, the word is near you, it is in your mouth, and in your heart; he is an ever present help in time of trouble. I wish I had time to expand these thoughts; but I cannot.
17. II. The second thing is the COMFORT. Now there are some people who make a great mistake about the influence of the Holy Spirit. A foolish man, who had a fancy to preach in a certain pulpit, though in truth he was quite incapable of the duty, called upon the minister, and assured him solemnly that it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he was to preach in his pulpit. “Very well,” said the minister, “I suppose I must not doubt your assertion, but as it has not been revealed to me that I am to let you preach, you must go your way until it is.” I have heard many fanatical people say the Holy Spirit revealed this and that to them. Now that is very generally revealed nonsense. The Holy Spirit does not reveal anything fresh now. He brings old things to our remembrance. “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatever I have told you.” The canon of revelation is closed; there is no more to be added. God does not give a fresh revelation, but he rivets the old one. When it has been forgotten, and laid in the dusty chamber of our memory, he fetches it out and cleans the picture, but does not paint a new one. There are no new doctrines, but the old ones are often revived. It is not, I say, by any new revelation that the Spirit comforts. He does so by telling us old things over again; he brings a fresh lamp to reveal the treasures hidden in Scripture; he unlocks the strong chests in which the truth had long lain, and he points to secret chambers filled with untold riches; but he comes no more, for enough is done. Believer! there is enough in the Bible for you to live upon for ever. If you should outnumber the years of Methuselah, there would be no need for a fresh revelation; if you should live until Christ should come upon the earth, there would be no necessity for the addition of a single word; if you should go down as deep as Jonah, or even descend as David said he did, into the belly of hell, still there would be enough in the Bible to comfort you without a supplementary sentence. But Christ says, “He shall take of mine and shall show it to you.” Now let me just tell you briefly what it is the Holy Spirit tells us.
18. Ah! does he not whisper to the heart, “Saint, be of good cheer; there is one who died for you; look to Calvary; behold his wounds; see the torrent gushing from his side; there is your purchaser, and you are secure. He loves you with an everlasting love, and this chastisement is meant for your good; each stroke is working your healing; by the blueness of the wound your soul is made better.” “Whom he loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.” Do not doubt his grace, because of your tribulation, but believe that he loves you as much in seasons of trouble as in times of happiness. And then, moreover, he says, “What is all your suffering compared with that of your Lord’s? or what, when weighed in the scales of Jesus’ agonies, is all your distress?” And especially at times the Holy Spirit pulls back the veil of heaven, and lets the soul behold the glory of the upper world! then it is that the saint can say, “Oh, you are a Comforter to me!”
Let cares like a wild deluge come,
And storms of sorrow fall;
May I but safely reach my home,
My God, my heaven, my all.
Some of you could follow me, if I were to tell about manifestations of heaven. You too have left sun, moon, and stars, at your feet, while in your flight, outstripping the tardy lightning, you have seemed to enter the gates of pearl, and tread the golden streets, borne aloft on wings of the Spirit. But here we must not trust ourselves, lest, lost in reverie, we forget our theme.
19. III. And now thirdly, who are the COMFORTED people! I like, you know at the end of my sermon to cry out “Divide! divide!” There are two parties here — some who are the comforted, and others who are the comfortless ones — some who have received the consolation of the Holy Spirit, and some who have not. Now let us try and sift you, and see which is the chaff, and which is the wheat; and may God grant that some of the chaff may this night be