ith power during every revival, and then departed to be absent until
the next.

Now we claim that this is directly contrary to the teaching of
the Divine Word.

When Jesus was about to leave His disciples they were filled with
deep sorrow. He gathered them around Him, in that upper chamber at
Jerusalem, and comforted them in those tender, loving words, recorded
in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of John. In these
chapters He promises and speaks much of a Comforter, whom He would
send. The whole discourse goes to show that this Comforter was
intended to be substituted for the visible presence of Himself. His
own visible presence was to be withdrawn. The Comforter was to be sent
to take His place, and thus, in a manner, make good the loss. Jesus
had been their comforter and their joy. They would no longer have Him
visibly among them, to walk with Him, to talk with Him, to hear the
life-giving words that fell from His lips. The announcement made them
feel as if they were to be left "comfortless" and forsaken. But he
says, John xiv. 16: "_I will pray the Father, and He will give you
another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit
of truth_;" verse 18, "_I will not leave you comfortless_:" revised
version, "I will not leave you _desolate_;" more literally still, as
in the margin, "I will not leave you _orphans_." John xvi. 5, 6, 7:
"_But now I go my way to Him that sent me.... But because I have said
these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your hearts. Nevertheless I
tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I
go not away the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I
will send Him unto you._"

Now, from these words, and others in the same chapters, two
things are plain: First, that the Comforter came as _Christ's
substitute_; Secondly, that He came _to abide_. While Jesus was to be
absent, as far as His visible presence was concerned, the divine
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, was to take His place. His presence was to
substitute Christ's. But if He had come to be present only briefly,
and occasionally, after long intervals of absence, it would be a poor
filling of the painful void. Evidently the impression designed to be
made by the words of Jesus was, that the Holy Spirit would come to
abide. And this is made still more clear by the plain words of Jesus
quoted above "I will not leave you _orphans_;" "He shall _abide_
with you _forev