It was one hundred and eighty years since Lehi and his people left Jerusalem. Three generations of Lehi’s family were now history: Lehi, Nephi and Jacob, and Enos. All of these great men were stalwart leaders for Christ. Each seems to have received the Second Comforter or made their calling and election sure. The Prophet Joseph described the Second 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 has promised his Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John, in the 14 chapter, from the 12 to the 27 verses.
Note verses 16, 17, 18, 21 and 23:
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 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.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
21 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.
22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, 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.
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, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God; and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions—Isaiah, Ezekiel, John on the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the First born. [ TPJS, 150–51]
Lehi recorded: “But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love” (2 Nephi 1:15). Nephi said: “my brother, Jacob, also has seen [Christ] as I have seen him” (2 Nephi 11:3). He also said: “I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell” (2 Nephi 33:6). Lehi told Jacob: “I know that thou art redeemed, because of the righteousness of thy Redeemer; for thou hast beheld that in the fullness of time he cometh to bring salvation unto men. And thou hast beheld in thy youth his glory” (2 Nephi 2:3–4). Now Enos declares that he will soon “go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer” (Enos 1:27).They each served as examples for their brethren, the Nephites, and for the readers of their records as well. May we learn from them as well.