Another Comforter

The scriptures speak of “another Comforter” in two places.  The first is in the Savior’s final words to His apostles when He said, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you”.  This appears to be different than “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost” of which the Savior spoke later in the same chapter (John 14:16-18, 26).  Then in our dispensation the Lord said to a group of 10 Saints, “Wherefore, I now send upon you another Comforter, even upon you my friends, that it may abide in your hearts, even the Holy Spirit of promise; which other Comforter is the same that I promised unto my disciples, as is recorded in the testimony of John” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:3).  The reference here to the testimony of John surely is referring to this same passage in John, which indicates that both of these verses are referring to the same “another Comforter.”  So what is this other Comforter that the Lord promised He would send to some of His disciples?

               The Prophet Joseph Smith said this about the other Comforter: “The other Comforter spoken of is a subject of great interest, and perhaps understood by few of this generation. After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14th chapter, from the 12th to the 27th verses.… Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and this is the sum and substance of the whole matter; that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him.”  So the first Comforter is to have the presence of one member of the Godhead—the Holy Ghost—and the other Comforter is the presence of another member of the Godhead, even Jesus Christ.  This matches some of the language in John 14, in which the Savior promised, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).  This is a literal promise of the Savior to a personal visit.    

               Section 88, though, describes this other Comforter in different language.  We read, “This Comforter is the promise which I give unto you of eternal life, even the glory of the celestial kingdom” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:4).  If this other comforter is a promise of eternal life (e.g. one’s calling and election made sure) how is it also the presence of the Son?  Perhaps these are really two sides of the same coin; to have a personal witness from the Lord that one will gain eternal life means that one is ready for what eternal life means: to be able to dwell in the presence of the Lord.  And we desire not only to dwell with him but to “be like Him”—that is the eternal life that we seek, and the greatest comforter can we have is to know we can indeed be with Him.