'These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My
name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.'—JOHN xiv. 25, 26.
This wonderful outpouring of consolation and instruction with which our
Lord sought to soothe the pain of parting is nearing its end. We have
to conceive of a slight pause here, whilst He looks back upon what He
has been saying and contrasts His teaching with that of the Comforter,
whom He has once already, though in a different connection, promised to
His followers. He speaks of His earthly residence with them as being
'an abiding,' distinctly therein referring to what He has just said,
that the Father and He will, in the future, 'make their abode' with His
disciples. He contrasts the outward and transitory presence which was
now nearing its end, with the inward and continuous presence, which its
end was to inaugurate.
And, in like manner, with, at first sight, startling humility, He
contrasts 'these things,' the partial and to a large extent
unintelligible utterances which He had given with His human lips, with
the complete, universal teaching of that divine Spirit, who was to
instruct in 'all things' pertaining to man's salvation. We have then,
here, sketched in broad outline, the great truths concerning the
ever-present, inward Teacher of God's Church who is to come, now that
the earthly manifestation of Christ, whom the twelve called their
'Teacher,' had reached a close. I think we may best gain the deep
instruction which lies in the words before us, if we look at three
points of view which they bring into prominence: the Teacher, His
lesson, and His scholars.