Comfort. There is music in the word: Like David’s harp, it charms away the evil spirit of melancholy. It was a distinguished honor to Barnabas to be called ‘the son of encouragement’;1 it is one of the illustrious names of one greater than Barnabas, for the Lord Jesus is the comfort of Israel. ‘Eternal comfort’! This is the best of all, for the everlasting nature of comfort is its crown and glory.
What is this ‘eternal comfort’? It includes a sense of pardoned sin. A Christian man has received in his heart the witness of the Spirit that his iniquities are put away like a cloud, and his transgressions like a thick cloud.