THE FAMILY ALTAR

June 5.

"I will not leave you comfortless ; I will come to you." John 14:18.

Our compassionate Savior knew how desolate His dear dis-

ciples would be after His leaving them in order to suffer and to die.

Bereft of His beloved presence, they would be like forsaken, home-

less orphans who are left alone in the world with no father to

cherish and protect them, no mother to love and comfort them.

And such was actually the sorrowful condition of the disciples

during the three days their Lord and Master lay in the grave.

But He did not leave them such forsaken, comfortless orphans.

He kept His promise given them here in our text. After three

short days He comes to them again as the victorious Conqueror

of death and the grave; and when He ascends into heaven, He

sends them His Holy Spirit, through whom He abides with them

all the days of their life. This sweet and precious promise our

merciful Savior gives to us also : "I will not leave you comfortless ;

I will come to you." In His Holy Spirit He came to us also in

our baptism and comes daily to us in His blessed Word. If we

believe in Him, His Spirit dwells in our heart and teaches us to

pray: "Abba, Father." Though father and mother forsake us,

though we be lonely orphans, or desolate widowers, or grief -stricken

widows in this world, He does not leave us comfortless. He comes

to us in His divine Word with the cheering promise: "I will

never leave thee nor forsake thee." In Him we have a rich pro-

vider ; for "The Lord is my Shepherd ; I shall not want." In Him

we find an almighty protector; for He says: "I am with you

alway, even unto the end of the world." In Him we have a home,

a blessed home, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Does He not say to us: "Where I am, there shall also My ser-

vant be"? May God help us to be His faithful followers, and

then, with Jesus at our side, we shall never be comfortless in

this world.