that it is not said " If ye ask in my name, the Father will do it : " but " I will do it."
15. — [If ye love. ..keep. ..commandments.'] Here we have a direct practical exhortation. " If ye real]y love Me, prove your love not by weeping and lamenting at my departure, but by striving to do my will when 1 am gone. Doing, and not crying, is the best proof of love," The commandments here mentioned must include all the Lord's moral teaching while on earth, and spe- cially such rules and laws as He had laid down in the " Sermon on the Mount."
I cannot but think that in this verse our Lord had in view the disposition of His disciples to give way to grief and distress at His leaving them ; and to forget that the true test of love was not useless and barren lamentation, but practical obedience to their Master's commands.
Let us notice how our Lord speaks of " my commandments." We never read of Moses or any other servant of God using such an expression. It is the language of one who was one with God the Father, and had power to lay down laws and make statutes for His Church.
16. — [And l...pray the Father, etc.] This verse holds up to the eleven another grand consolation, viz, the gift of another abid- ing Comforter in place of Christ, even the Holy Ghost. "When I go to heaven I will ask the Father to give you another friend and helper, to be with you and support you in my stead, and never leave you as I do," In this remarkable verse several points demand special notice.
One principal point is the mention of all the three persons in the blessed Trinity, the Son praying, the Father giving, the Spirit comforting.
When our Lord says, " 1 will pray the Father and He shall give," we must needs suppose that He accommodates language to our minds. The gift of the Holy Ghost was appointed in the eternal counsels of the Trinity ; and we cannot literally say that the gift depended on Christ asking. Moreover, in another place our Lord says, " I will send Him."
Burkitt remarks that the future tense here points to Christ's continual intercession. As long as Christ is in heaven, Chris- tians shall not want a supply of comfort.
When we read of the Holy Ghost being " given," we must not think that He was in no sense in the Church before the day of Pentecost. He was ever in the hearts of Old Testament be- lievers. No one ever served God acceptably, from Abel down- wards, without the grace of the Holy Ghost. John the Baptist was " filled" with Him. It can only mean that He shall come with more fulness, influence, grace, and manifestation, than He did before.