But I apprehend the word ‘Comforter’ sometimes fails (perhaps to most fails) to give an adequate notion of what it is that our Lord Jesus really meant us to gather from thus speaking of the Holy Ghost. We might very naturally draw from it, that the term was in relation to sorrow, that it intimated a person who would console us in the midst of the distresses of this lower world. And, indeed, the Holy Ghost does console us and comfort us.
But this is only a very small part of the functions here conveyed by the word ‘Paraclete.’ This is the expression, if one would give an English reproduction of that which is in point of fact the very word our Lord employed. But the meaning of that word ‘Paraclete’ is not merely ‘Comforter,’ but one who is identified with our interests, one who undertakes all our cause, one who, engages to see us through our difficulties, one who in every way becomes both our representative and the great personal agent that transacts all our business for us. This is the meaning of the ‘Advocate or Paraclete’ or Comforter, whatever equivalent may be preferred. Manifestly, then, it has an incomparably larger bearing than either ‘advocate’ on the one hand, or ‘comforter’ on the other: it includes both, but takes in a great deal more than either. In point of fact, it is One who is absolutely and infinitely competent to undertake for us whatever He could do in our favor, whatever was or might be the limit of our need, whatever our want in any difficulty, whatever the exigencies of God’s grace for the blessing of our souls. Such the Holy Ghost is now; and how blessed it is to have such a One! But remark here, that it never was known before. I have already hinted, and indeed plainly expressed the conviction, that it will never be known again, fully allowing that there will be, as to extent, a larger outpouring of blessing in the world to come. But the personal presence of the Spirit here below as an answer to the glory of Christ at the right hand of God! —such a state of things never can be repeated. While the High Priest is above, the Spirit sent down gives a heavenly entrance into His glory, as well as redemption; when the High Priest comes out for the earthly throne, the Spirit then poured out will give a testimony suited to the earth over which the Lord will reign.”