The Second Comforter
The promise that the sanctified disciple may know the Lord not only by the witness of His Spirit, but by the unveiling of His face.
On the last night before His suffering, the Savior gathered His disciples and spoke to them words of comfort that reach beyond that upper room and across the centuries to every faithful soul. He promised that those who love Him and keep His commandments would not be left alone. To them He pledged two divine Comforters — and the second of these is the most sacred promise in all of scripture: the personal ministering of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
This is a holy and tender doctrine. It is not a thing to be seized or demanded, but a gift the Lord grants “in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will” to those who have prepared themselves through faith, obedience, and sanctification. It is set forth here reverently, that the disciple might understand the height to which the gospel path ascends.
Two Comforters Are Promised
The Savior’s discourse names two distinct Comforters. The first is the Holy Ghost — the Spirit of truth whom the Father gives to abide with the disciple. Jesus promised:
“And 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.”
The very word “another” signifies that a Comforter had already been with them — the Lord Himself, then present in the flesh. Having promised the Holy Ghost as the first Comforter, the Savior then turned to a second and greater promise. In the next breath He declared:
“I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”
Here is the Second Comforter. It is not the Holy Ghost, for the Holy Ghost had already been promised. It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who pledges, “I will come to you.” The first Comforter testifies of Christ; the Second Comforter is Christ.
The Promise of His Personal Manifestation
This coming is no vague feeling, nor a merely symbolic presence. The Savior made the promise explicit and conditioned it upon love demonstrated by obedience:
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
“I will… manifest myself to him.” The Lord pledges to make Himself known — not in the abstract, but personally, to the obedient soul who loves Him. And the promise grows still greater, for it is not the Son alone but the Father also who is pledged to come:
“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.”
“We will come unto him.” The Father and the Son together promise to come and make their abode with the disciple who loves and obeys. This is the crowning assurance of the Lord’s final discourse.
A Literal, Personal Visitation
Some have supposed that this “abode” means only that God dwells figuratively within the heart. The Lord, in this dispensation, corrected that error directly and unmistakably. Speaking of the very passage in John, He revealed:
“The appearing of the Father and of the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false.”
The promise of John 14 is therefore a literal, personal appearance of glorified, embodied Beings — the Father and the Son in their resurrected glory, ministering to the faithful disciple. The Second Comforter is the fulfillment of this promise: that the Lord Jesus Christ will, of His own grace and in His own time, appear to and minister to the one who has loved and obeyed Him.
Sanctify Yourselves, and You Shall See Him
If such a manifestation is promised, by what means is the disciple prepared to receive it? The Lord answered plainly: by sanctification — the purifying of the soul until the mind is single to God. In modern revelation He set forth both the condition and the promise:
Doctrine and Covenants 88:67–68
“Sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.”
“He will unveil his face unto you.” The path is sanctification — the steady cleansing of heart and mind until the soul is wholly given to God. And the promise that crowns that path is to see His face. Yet note carefully the threefold safeguard the Lord attaches: it shall be “in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.” The disciple labors to be ready; the Lord alone determines when and how the veil is parted.
The Brother of Jared: Faith That Pierced the Veil
Scripture gives us the supreme example of a mortal whose faith was so great that the veil could not be kept between him and the Lord. The brother of Jared, having prepared sixteen stones and pleaded that the Lord would touch them to give light, was met by an answer beyond anything he had asked. He saw the finger of the Lord, and then heard the invitation that few mortals have ever received:
“Behold, I am Jesus Christ… Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you.”
The record testifies that “he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting” (Ether 3:19–20), and the Lord could not withhold Himself from his sight. This is the Second Comforter made manifest in its fulness — a redeemed soul brought back into the very presence of the Lord. And lest any suppose this was for him alone, Moroni records that the same gift is open to all of like faith:
“And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad.”
“Could not be kept from within the veil.” The same faith that pierced the veil for the brother of Jared remains the appointed pattern. The veil is thin to those whose faith is perfect in Christ.
The More Sure Word of Prophecy
This doctrine stands in close relationship to another sacred blessing: the making sure of one’s calling and election. Peter, having beheld the Lord transfigured in glory, exhorted the Saints to press toward that surety:
“Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure… We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.”
To have one’s calling and election made sure is to receive from God, by the Holy Spirit of Promise, the sealing assurance of exaltation — the “more sure word of prophecy.” This sealing of one’s eternal standing often precedes and prepares the way for the Second Comforter. Having received the witness that he is the Lord’s, the sanctified disciple is brought to that condition of faith in which the Lord may grant the further blessing of His personal appearing.
Thus the more sure word of prophecy and the Second Comforter are joined: the one seals the promise of eternal life; the other brings the disciple, while yet in mortality, into the presence of Him who gives it.
A Reverent Caution
Because this is the most sacred of promises, it must be approached with the deepest reverence. It is never to be sought as a sign, demanded as a right, or claimed as a badge of spiritual attainment. The Lord Himself set the bounds: His coming is “in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.” It is the Lord’s gift to grant, never the disciple’s prize to seize.
Those who have received such manifestations have not boasted of them, but treasured them in silence and humility. The disciple does not pursue the experience; he pursues the sanctification that prepares him for it, content to leave the timing and the manner wholly in the Lord’s hands. To seek the gift more than the Giver is to err; to seek the Giver with all the heart is the very path the Lord has marked.
To Know the Lord
Consider where the whole gospel path leads. Faith in Jesus Christ, repentance of sin, the covenant of baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, the patient labor of sanctification — every step is an ascent. And the summit toward which it climbs is this: to know the Lord. Not to know merely about Him, nor only to feel the witness of His Spirit, precious as that witness is — but to know Him, by the unveiling of His face.
The first Comforter bears record of Christ and abides with the faithful forever. But the Second Comforter is Christ Himself, coming to the soul He has redeemed. “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” This is the great consummation of discipleship — that the Redeemer who suffered for us would, in His own time and of His own grace, draw aside the veil and show His face to the soul that loves Him.
Therefore the call of this doctrine is not to demand a sign, but to live worthy of the promise: to keep His commandments, to love Him with a whole heart, to sanctify our minds until they are single to God. To such He has pledged the surest of all comforts — His own coming. And whether that fulness be granted in this life or the next, the disciple who walks this path walks toward the face of the Lord.
For this is the end of the gospel and the desire of every faithful heart: to be brought back into His presence, to behold Him as the brother of Jared beheld Him, and to hear from His own lips the words, “I show myself unto you.”