The Seventy's Course in Theology
Fifth Year
Divine Immanence and the Holy Ghost
By B. H. ROBERTS
Of the First Council of Seventy
_"He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all
things are round about him: and he is above all things, and in all
things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and
all things are by him, and of him, even God, for ever and ever."--Doc.
and Cov., Sec. 88._
_"I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ
a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the
Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a Spirit."--Joseph Smith, (June
16th, 1842.)_
Salt Lake City
1912
Introduction.
I. THE CLOSE OF THE SEVENTY'S SPECIAL COURSE IN THEOLOGY.
[Footnote: It is suggested that this Introduction be treated in the
class as a lesson.]
This Introduction is intended to serve two purposes: an Introduction
to the treatise which follows; and a valedictory to the "Seventy's
Course in Theology." The latter has reached a period, for the present
at least, as arrangements are being made to have prepared one course
of study in successive annual manuals for the three quorums of the
Melchizedek Priesthood, the Seventies, High Priests, and Elders
Quorums. The reasons for making this change are that the "Gospel is
one;" that the duty of becoming acquainted with it rests equally upon
High Priests, Seventies, and Elders; that which will qualify one of
these quorums to preach this one gospel abroad, will qualify the others
for preaching it at home; and _vice versa_. Each of these quorums,
where there is a sufficient number in each to form a good, strong
class, will still continue, as now, in their separate classes, though
studying the same manual. Where the quorums in the smaller wards are
not strong enough in numbers to assure a good class separately, they
can meet conjointly for class work and under such circumstances, having
the same text book, will be a very great advantage. The plan will also
economize both time and money in the matter of publishing manuals;
for it is patent that one text book can more readily be produced than
three, and at less expense.
These considerations, it is hoped, will outweigh any feeling of
disappointment which but for them might arise over the discontinuance
of the Seventy's special course in Theology; and then, undoubtedly,
when the new and united course shall be opened, we may reasonably
expect that its lines will be laid on a much larger ground plan, and
in its development there will be employed brethren of such scholarship
and talent as shall warrant the expectation of the very best text books
that can be produced on the great theme of which they will treat--the
Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
II. SUBJECT OF THE PRESENT YEAR BOOK.
So much for the "valedictory" part of this Introduction; and now as to
the subject of the present Year Book. We have here the consideration
of a theme in some respects the loftiest and mightest that the mind
of man can be led to contemplate: God Immanent in the world; and God
in union with men through the medium of the Holy Ghost. Confessedly
the subject is one around which much of mystery gathers; and there are
not wanting those who, on that account, are in favor of leaving it so,
without attempting an exposition of the nature or offices of the Spirit
Immanent in the world, and the Spirit Witness to the soul of man. I
think no one can be more conscious of human limitations to understand
divine things than I am. And I doubt if any one can have greater
appreciation of the need of being careful to keep within the limits of
what God has revealed upon these subjects; for it is only what he has
revealed that can rightly instruct men in the things of God. Moreover
in no department is the frank and honest confession "I don't know,"
more imperative than in Theology; and when it is given as an actual
confession of having reached the limits of our knowledge, it is worthy
of all praise. But if it becomes tainted with the spirit of "I don't
care," then I have no respect for it.
III. MENTAL EFFORT REQUIRED TO MASTER THE THINGS OF GOD.
There is another phase in which the same thing occurs. It requires
striving--intellectual and spiritual--to comprehend the things of
God--even the revealed things of God. In no department of human
endeavor is the aphorism "no excellence without labor"--more in force
than in acquiring knowledge of the things of God. The Lord has placed
no premium upon idleness or indifference here--"seek and ye shall
find;" "knock and it shall be opened unto you;" "seek ye diligently and
teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books
words of wisdom; seek learning even by study and also by faith"--such
the admonitions God gives in reference to our pursuit of knowledge of
divine things.
Oliver Cowdery thought the work of translating from the Nephite
plates would be easy. He sought the privilege of translating and was
given an opportunity. He, it appears, believed that all that would
be necessary would be for him to ask God, and without giving further
thought the translation would be given him. His expectation in this was
disappointed. He failed to translate. Then the Lord said: "You supposed
that I would give it [i. e., the power to translate] unto you, when
you took no thought save it was to ask me; but behold, I say unto you,
that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it
be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn
within you; therefore you shall feel that it is right." (Doc. and Cov.
Sec. 9.)
The incident illustrates the truth here contended for--achievement in
divine things, progress in the knowledge of them, comes only with hard
striving, earnest endeavor, determined seeking.
IV. THE PLEA OF "THUS FAR, BUT NO FURTHER."
Mental laziness is the vice of men, especially with reference to divine
things. Men seem to think that because inspiration and revelation are
factors in connection with the things of God, therefore the pain and
stress of mental effort are not required; that by some means these
elements act somewhat as Elijah's ravens and feed us without effort on
our part. To escape this effort, this mental stress to know the things
that are, men raise all too readily the ancient bar--"Thus far shalt
thou come, but no farther." Man cannot hope to understand the things of
God, they plead, or penetrate those things which he has left shrouded
in mystery. "Be thou content with the simple faith that accepts without
question. To believe, and accept the ordinances, and then live the
moral law will doubtless bring men unto salvation; why then should
man strive and trouble himself to understand? Much study is still a
weariness of the flesh." So men reason; and just now it is much in
fashion to laud "the simple faith;" which is content to believe without
understanding, or even without much effort to understand. And doubtless
many good people regard this course as indicative of reverence--this
plea in bar of effort--"thus far and no farther." "There is often a
great deal of intellectual sin concealed under this old aphorism,"
remarks Henry Drummond. "When men do not really wish to go farther they
find it an honorable convenience sometimes to sit down on the outmost
edge of the 'holy ground' on the pretext of taking off their shoes."
"Yet," he continues, "we must be certain that, making a virtue of
reverence, we are not merely excusing ignorance; or under the plea of
'mystery' evading a truth which has been stated in the New Testament a
hundred times, in the most literal form, and with all but monotonous
repetition." (Spiritual Law, pp. 89, 90.)
This sort of "reverence" is easily simulated, and is of such flattering
unction, and so pleasant to follow--"soul take thine ease"--that
without question it is very often simulated; and falls into the same
category as the simulated humility couched in "I don't know," which so
often really means "I don't care, and do not intend to trouble myself
to find out."
V. THE PRAISE OF SIMPLE FAITH.
I maintain that "simple faith"--which is so often ignorant and
simpering acquiescence, and not faith at all--but simple faith taken at
its highest value, which is faith without understanding of the thing
believed, is not equal to intelligent faith, the faith that is the gift
of God, supplemented by earnest endeavor to find through prayerful
thought and research a rational ground for faith--for acceptance of
truth; and hence the duty of striving for a rational faith in which
the intellect as well as the heart--the feeling--has a place and is a
factor.
But, to resume: This plea in bar of effort to find out the things
that are, is as convenient for the priest as it is for the people.
The people of "simple faith," who never question, are so much easier
led, and so much more pleasant every way--they give their teachers so
little trouble. People who question because they want to know, and
who ask adult questions that call for adult answers, disturb the ease
of the priests. The people who question are usually the people who
think--barring chronic questioners and cranks, of course--and thinkers
are troublesome, unless the instructors who lead them are thinkers
also; and thought, eternal, restless thought, that keeps out upon the
frontiers of discovery, is as much a weariness to the slothful, as
it is a joy to the alert and active and noble minded. Therefore one
must not be surprised if now and again he finds those among religious
teachers who give encouragement to mental laziness under the pretense
of "reverence;" praise "simple faith" because they themselves,
forsooth, would avoid the stress of thought and investigation that
would be necessary in order to hold their place as leaders of a
thinking people.
VI. THE INCENTIVES TO, AND THE GLORY OF, KNOWLEDGE IN THE NEW
DISPENSATION.
Against all the shams of simulated humility and false reverence which
are but pleas to promote and justify mental laziness, I launch the
mighty exhortations and rebukes of the New Dispensations of the Gospel
of the Christ--the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times, in which God
has promised "to gather together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven and which are on earth; even in him." They are as
follows:
_"The glory of God is Intelligence." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 93.)_
_"It is impossible for a man to be saved in Ignorance." (Doc. and Cov.
Sec. 131.)_
_"Whatever principles of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it
will rise with us in the resurrection." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 130.)_
_"If a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life
through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much
the advantage in the world to come." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 130.)_
_"A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for if he does not
get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity by some evil power
in the other world, as evil spirits will have more knowledge, and
consequently more power, than many men who are on the earth." (Joseph
Smith--History of the Church, Vol. IV., p. 588.)_
_"Knowledge saves a man; and in the world of spirits no man can be
exalted but by knowledge; so long as a man will not give heed to the
commandments he must abide without salvation. If a man has knowledge
he can be saved; although he has been guilty of great sins, he will be
punished for them. But when he consents to obey the Gospel, whether
here or in the world of Spirits, he is saved." (Joseph Smith--Minutes
of the General Conference of the Church, April, 1844. "Improvement
Era," Jan., 1909, p. 186.)_
_"Seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek
ye out of the best books words of wisdom: seek learning even by study,
and also by faith." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 88:118.)_
_"I give unto you a commandment, that you teach one another the
doctrine of the Kingdom."_
_"Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be
instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the
law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God,
that are expedient for you to understand;_
_"Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth;
things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly
come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the
wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are
on the land, and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms,_
_"That ye may be prepared in all things when I shall send you again to
magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with
which I have commissioned you." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 88:79-90.)_
_"It is important that we should understand the reasons and causes of
our exposure to the vicissitudes of life and of death, and the designs
and purposes of God in our coming into the world, our sufferings
here, and our departure hence. What is the object of our coming into
existence, then dying and falling away, to be here no more? It is but
reasonable to suppose that God would reveal something in reference
to the matter, and it is a subject we ought to study more than any
other. We ought to study it day and night, for the world is ignorant in
reference to their true condition and relation. If we have any claim on
our Heavenly Father for anything, it is for knowledge on this important
subject." (Joseph Smith--History of the Church, Vol. VI., p. 50.)_
_"God shall give unto you (the saints) knowledge by his Holy Spirit,
yea by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, that has not been
revealed since the world was until now: which our forefathers have
waited with anxious expectation to be revealed in the last times,
which their minds were pointed to, by the angels, as held in reserve
for the fullness of their glory; a time to come in the which nothing
shall be withheld, whether there be one God or many Gods, they shall be
manifest; all thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, shall
be revealed and set forth upon all who have endured valiantly for the
gospel of Jesus Christ; and also if there be bounds set to the heavens,
or to the seas; or to the dry land, or to the sun, moon, or stars;
all the times of their revolutions; all the appointed days, months,
and years, and all the days of their days, months, and years, and all
their glories, laws, and set times, shall be revealed, in the days of
the dispensation of the fulness of times, according to that which was
ordained in the midst of the Council of the Eternal God of all other
Gods, before this world was, that should be reserved unto the finishing
and the end thereof, when every man shell enter into his eternal
presence, and into his immortal rest. How long can rolling waters
remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man
stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed
course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring
down knowledge from heaven, upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints"
(Doc. and Cov. Sec. 121, 26-33.)_
VII. NECESSARY ATTITUDE OF THE CHURCH IN THE MATTER OF MENTAL
ACTIVITY AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT.
Surely, in the presence of this array of incentives, instructions
and commandments to seek for knowledge, taken from the revelations
and other forms of instruction by the Prophet of the New
Dispensation--taking into account also the scope of the field of
knowledge we are both persuaded and commanded to enter--whatever
position other churches and their religious teachers may take, the
Church of Jesus Christ in the New Dispensation can do no other than to
stand for mental activity, and earnest effort to come to a knowledge
of truth up to the very limit of man's capacity to find it, and the
goodness and wisdom of God to reveal it.
The New Dispensation having opened with such a wonderful revelation
respecting God, making known as the very first step in that revealed
knowledge not only the _being_ of God but the _kind_ of
beings both the Father and the Son are--its representatives may not
now attempt to arrest the march of inquiry and plead "mystery" or
"humility" or "reverence" as a bar to entrance into those very fields
of knowledge God has commanded us to enter, and reap in, and of which
he gives us assurance that our harvest shall be abundant.
VIII. THE LIMITS OF OUR INQUIRIES.
Let me not be misunderstood. Again I say, I am aware that there are
limits to man's capacity to understand things that are. That God also
in his wisdom has not yet revealed all things, especially respecting
the Godhead; and that where his revelations have not yet cast their
rays of light on such subjects, it is becoming in man to wait upon the
Lord, for that "line upon line, and precept upon precept" method by
which he, in great wisdom, unfolds in the procession of the ages the
otherwise hidden treasures of his truths. All this I agree to; but all
this does not prevent us from a close perusal and careful study of
what God has revealed upon any subject, especially when that study is
perused reverently, with constant remembrance of human limitations, and
with an open mind, which ever stands ready to correct the tentative
conclusions of today by the increased light that may be shed upon the
subject on the morrow. Which holds as greater than all theories and
computations the facts--the truth. These are the principles by which
I have sought to be guided in these five Year Books of the Seventy's
Course in Theology, and in some more than in the one herewith presented.
But some would protest against investigation lest it threaten the
integrity of accepted formulas of truth--which too often they confound
with the truth itself, regarding the scaffolding and the building as
one and the same thing. The effective answer to that may be given in
the words of Sir Oliver Lodge: "A faith dependent on blinkers and
fetters for its maintenance is not likely in a progressive age to last
many generations.(Science and Immortality, p. 130.) "From age to age,
our knowledge is growing from more to more," remarks John Fiske, in
his "Century of Science." "By this enlarged experience our minds are
affected from day to day and from year to year, in more ways than we
can detect or enumerate. It opens our minds to some notions, and makes
them incurably hostile to others; so that, for example, new truths
well nigh beyond comprehension, like some of those connected with the
luminiferous ether are accepted, and old beliefs once universal like
witchcraft, are scornfully rejected. Vast changes in mental attitude
are thus wrought before it is generally realized." ("Century of
Science," p. 145.) This holds good in theology as in science. Not that
the universal and fundamental truths in theology which God has revealed
change, but that men's method of viewing them and expounding them
changes, and, let us hope, changes for the better, for the more clear
and perfect understanding and development of them--else there would be
no progress in theology--while in all things else there is progress.
But here let me conclude Fiske's noble passage:
"In this inevitable struggle [between vanishing old ideas and incoming
new ones] there has always been more or less pain, and hence free
thought has not usually been popular. It has come to our life-feast
as a guest unbidden and unwelcome; but it has come to stay with us,
and already proves more genial than was expected. Deadening, cramping
finality has lost its" charm for him who has tasted of the ripe fruit
of the tree of knowledge. In this broad universe of God's wisdom and
love, not leashes to restrain us are needed, but wings to sustain
our flight. Let bold but reverent thought go on and probe creation's
mysteries, till faith and knowledge "make one music as before, but
vaster."
IX. THE RIGHT TO SEEK KNOWLEDGE ASIDE FROM REVEALED KNOWLEDGE.
One other thing: Such subjects as are treated in this Year Book
necessarily rest on what God has revealed--that is, for the data, the
facts involved; but that does not necessarily hold as to illustration
and argument for development of the truth and making clear the revealed
things of God. Here one may do as it is said Clement of Alexandrea did
in urging men to strive for a knowledge of Christian truth, rather than
a mere belief of it; "such instruction was to come primarily from the
'Divine Word'; but everything in the range of human learning was to be
welcomed as co-operating with him. For Clement gratefully acknowledged
truth wherever found, whether among heathens or heretics." It should be
observed, however, "that while constantly confirming his propositions
from his Greek writers, he ever turns for a final appeal to the
scriptures"--that, too, must be our course.
So much by way of presenting the spirit in which I have pursued my own
studies upon the high themes of these Seventy's Year Books, and this
present one in particular.
X. JUSTIFICATION FOR USING DOUBLE TITLE.
The subject of Divine Immanence and the Holy Ghost should be considered
together because there are such relations and apparent contrasts
subsisting between them--such a likeness and such apparent differences,
that they may properly be understood only when so considered--that is,
conjointly.
The conception of God immanent in the world, not in bodily presence, of
course, but by his spirit--a divine power, carrying with it everywhere
the influence of God--proceeding forth from the presence of God to
fill the immensity of space; the light which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world--to which all men have access whether following
the light of nature or of revelation, the light which is in all things
and the power by which all things are sustained and in which they live
and move and have their being--this conception, with the conception of
the Holy Ghost as a Spirit-personage, union with whom and companionship
with whom can only be secured by obedience to the laws and ordinances
of the Gospel, is a conception that will correct some errors of
argumentation that have here and there obtained in the literature of
the subject, and leads to an understanding of things at once rational
and uplifting, because it is a development of the truth as God has
revealed it. This is the purpose of the treatise--The Divine Immanence,
and the Holy Ghost.
WORKS OF REFERENCE.
Relative to works of reference I would remind the student that outside
of the scriptures accepted by the Church the works that may be cited to
assist one in studying the subject of this treatise are very scarce,
since the doctrine of the Church on the subject is so radically
different from that of the world. I can therefore only recommend as
helpful the following brief list.
The Seventy's Library, viz.:
_The Bible,_
_The Book of Mormon,_
_The Doctrine and Covenants,_
_The Pearl of Great Price,_ containing the _Book of Moses,_
the _Book of Abraham,_ and some of the _Writings of Joseph
Smith._
The above books are certainly indispensable to every Seventy, and
should be owned by every member of our quorums. The First Council
in their recommendations, added to the above list, _"Richards and
Little's Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel,"_ and called the
set the "Seventy's Indispensable Library."
Elder James E. Talmage's _Articles of Faith,_
Orson Pratt's Works--_Kingdom of God._
_Rays of Living Light,_ by President Charles W. Penrose.
_Scientific Aspects of Mormonism,_ N. L. Nelson.
_The Gospel,_ Roberts.
_The Mormon Doctrine of Deity,_ Roberts.
The Seventy's Year Books, a complete set. There is constant reference
made in the present number to previous numbers; and the student who
is not in possession of those numbers is by so much deprived of the
opportunity to complete his inquiry on the division of the subject he
may have in hand, and as this number completes at present the set of
Seventy's Year Books, each member of the respective quorums, we think,
should be anxious to obtain the complete set.
After enumerating the above books, published by writers in the Church,
I suggest as in a way helpful to an understanding of the trend of
modern thinking, somewhat along the lines of spiritual and scientific
thought with which the Seventies of the Church ought to be acquainted,
the following:
_Natural Law in the Spiritual World,_ Henry Drummond, 1893.
_Studies in Religion,_ Fiske.
_A Century of Science,_ Fiske.
_Reconstruction of Religious Beliefs,_ Mallock.
_The Religious Conceptions of the World,_ Rogers.
_Science and Immortality,_ Sir Oliver Lodge.
All the books enumerated in the above list of works of reference may be
obtained at the Deseret Sunday School Union Book Store, Salt Lake City.
The Seventy's Course in Theology.
FIFTH YEAR
PART I
Divine Immanence.
LESSON I.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
IMMANENCE OF GOD.
ANALYSIS.
I. Definition of "Immanent."
II. Distinction Between "Omnipresence" and "Immanence."
III. Revelation commits the Church to the Doctrine of Divine Immanence.
REFERENCES.
Any of the standard dictionaries.
The Scripture passages cited in the "Discussion" of this lesson.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "The Light which now shineth, which giveth you light, is
through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that
quickeneth your understandings; which Light proceedeth forth from the
presence of God to fill the immensity of space." (Doc. and Cov. Sec.
lxxxviii:11, 12.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. Definition of Immanent:_ The word "Immanent" means
"indwelling," "remaining within;" "opposed to transient," or
"transitive."[A] Such the definition of the adjective. The noun,
"Immanence," is defined as "the state of being immanent," "a permanent
abiding within"--"indwelling."[B] As applied to God it conveys the
idea of essential and permanent Divine presence in all the universe. It
excludes the idea of movement or transition from one place to another
in order for the Deity to be at a given place, since immanence conveys
the idea of Divine presence being already and constantly at every point
in the universe; hence movement conceived as necessary to presence is
not essential, but is excluded from the conception of immanence.
[Footnote A: The Standard Dictionary, Funk and Wagnalls.]
[Footnote B: See both Standard and Century Dictionaries.]
_2. Distinction Between Omnipresence and Immanence:_ It may be
thought that "immanence" is but the restatement in another form, of
the attribute of omnipresence in Deity--simply an affirmation of his
every-whereness; and it must be admitted that there is at least a
close resemblance if not identity between the two things for which
the two terms stand. And yet there is a difference between immanence
and omnipresence. The latter means merely the every-whereness of God,
"present in all places and at the same time."[A]
[Footnote A: Century Dictionary.]
Immanence means that, too; but it means more than that. It means
_presence accompanied by power_; or presence plus power; presence
accompanied by doing, or act, leading to manifestations of God's
power. In modern philosophy the word is applied to the operations of a
Creator conceived of as in organic connection with the creation;[A]
and we shall see presently that this is as true in theology as it is in
philosophy.
[Footnote A: Century Dictionary. Joseph Le Conte, Professor of Geology
and Natural History in the University of California, discussing what
belief in God would be for rational philosophy, says: "It is the belief
in a God not far away beyond our reach, who once long ago enacted laws
and created forces which continue of themselves to run the machine
we call nature, but a God immanent, a God resident in Nature, at all
times and in all places directing every event and determining every
phenomenon; a God in whom in the most literal sense not only we but all
things have their being, in whom all things consist, through whom all
things exist, and without whom there would be and could be nothing.
According to this view the phenomena of Nature are naught else than
objectified modes of divine thought, the forces of Nature naught else
than different forms of one omnipresent, divine energy or will; the
laws of Nature naught else than the regular modes of operation of
that divine will, invariable because he is unchangeable. According
to this view the law of gravitation is naught else than the mode of
operation of the divine energy in sustaining the cosmos--the divine
method of sustentation." ("Evolution and Its Relation to Religious
Thought"--1902--pp. 300, 301.)]
_3. Does Revelation Teach Immanence of God:_ Here we may as well
consider the question whether or not the scriptures teach the doctrine
of immanence as defined above. Of the doctrine of God's omnipresence
there can be no question at all. David states it beautifully:
"Whither shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy
presence? If I ascend up into heaven thou art there: if I make my bed
in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy
hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say surely the
darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea
the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day:
the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."[A]
[Footnote A: Psalms cxxxix:7-12.]
Jeremiah is equally as clear in a statement of the same truth, even if
less poetical:
"Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith
the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord."[A]
[Footnote A: Jeremiah xxiii:24.]
Solomon said of God:
"The heaven, and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less
this house that I have builded?"[A]
[Footnote A: I Kings viii:27.]
Paul declares that God is "not far from every one of us; for in him we
live and move and have our being."[A]
[Footnote A: Acts xvii:26-28.]
_4. Limitations of Foregoing Revelations to Omnipresence:_ These
declarations go at least as far as to establish the omnipresence of
God, not of his bodily, but of his spiritual presence; but they do
not quite express the conception presented in the word immanence
which I have said equals the attribute of omnipresence plus divine
power, and act. It was left for our modern revelations to present that
idea. This is done in the revelation which first declares that "the
elements"--having reference to the elements of the material world--"are
eternal;" that "spirit and element inseparably connected receive a
fulness of joy;" that "the elements are the tabernacle of God."[A] That
is, in some way, God is immanent, ever present and everywhere present,
in the universe.[B]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. xciii:33-35.]
[Footnote B: The Universe: It may be well to bring before the mind of
the student a brief definition of this term "universe," in which we are
saying that God is immanent, in order that we may appreciate somewhat
at least the largeness of things with which we are dealing. I take the
definition from Haeckel:
"(a) The extent of the universe is infinite and unbounded; it is empty
in no part, but everywhere filled with substance.
"(b) The duration of the world (i. e. Universe) is equally infinite and
unbounded; it has no end; it is eternity." (Riddle of the Universe, p.
242.) And in this infinite and eternal universe, God, in some way, is
everywhere present and potentially or actually active--immanent.]
_5. God Not Only Everywhere Present, But Power and Act:_ Our
theology recognizes Jesus Christ as not only divine but Deity;[A] and
this Immanence of God in the world is in some of our modern revelations
spoken of as the "Light of Christ:"[B]
[Footnote A: Seventy's Year Book No. III, Lessons XXXIII and XXXIV.]
[Footnote B: A near equivalent to this phrase, "the light of Christ,"
is also used in the New Testament in connection with the idea of its
being a vital as well as an intelligent principle--the life and the
light of the world: "In him [the Christ, see context] was life; and
the life was the light of men; and the light shineth in the darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not." John was sent to bear witness
of that light: "That was the true light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by
him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own
received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." (St.
John's Gospel i:1-12.) See also Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxiv:45-47.]
"He that ascended up on high, as also he descended below all things; in
that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all and through
all things, the light of truth;
"Which truth shineth. _This is the light of Christ_. As also he is in
the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which It
was made;
"As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power
thereof by which it was made.
"As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they
were made.
"And the earth also, and the power thereof; even the earth upon which
you stand.
"And the light which now shineth, which giveth you light, is through
him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth
your understandings;
"Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the
immensity of space.
"The light which is in all things; which giveth life to all things;
which is the law by which all things are governed: even the power of
God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who
is in the midst of all things."[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:6-13.]
And later in the same Revelation it is said:
"Judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne
[God], and governeth and executeth all things;
"He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all
things are round about him: and he is above all things, and in all
things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and
all things are by him, and of him, even God, for ever and ever.
"And again, verily I say unto you, he hath given a law unto all things
by which they move in their times and their seasons;
"And their courses are fixed; even the courses of the heavens and the
earth, which comprehend the earth and all the planets;
"And they give light to each other in their times and in their seasons,
in their minutes, in their hours, in their days, in their weeks, in
their months, in their years: all these are one year with God, but not
with man.
"The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day,
and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their
light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of
the power of God.
"Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand?
"Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the
least of these, hath seen God moving in his majesty and power.
"I say unto you, he hath seen him; nevertheless, he who came unto his
own was not comprehended.
"The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not;
nevertheless, the day shall come when you shall comprehend even God;
being quickened in him and by him.
"Then shall ye know that ye have seen me, that I am, and that I am the
true light that is in you, and that you are in me, otherwise ye could
not abound."[A]
[Footnote A: Ibid. Sec. lxxxviii:41-50.]
A more complete or thorough-going statement of the ever-whereness of
God in the world, accompanied with the idea of power--God immanent,
dynamic, as well as present,--I do not remember to have seen.
LESSON II.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
NATURE AND POWERS OF THE DIVINE IMMANENCE.
ANALYSIS.
I. Relationship of the Immanent Spirit to the Christ.
II. Powers of the Immanent Spirit:
(a) Creative power;
(b) Sustaining power;
(c) Vital power;
(d) Intelligence-inspiring power.
III. The Relationship of the Immanent Spirit to an Eternal Race of
Divine Beings.
REFERENCES.
The passages of scripture and other works cited in the "Discussion" of
this lesson.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "H. that ascended up on high, as also he descended below
all things; in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all
and through all things, the light of truth; which truth shineth. This
is the Light of Christ the light which is in all things; which giveth
life to all things: which is the law by which all things are governed:
even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom
of eternity, who is in the midst of all things." (Doc. and Cov. sec.
lxxxviii:6, 7, 13.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. The Immanent Spirit as Related to the Christ:_ It is to be
observed that Immanence of God as set forth in the preceding lesson is
associated with a personality; in the passages of scripture quoted in
the preceding lesson, the Immanence is directly associated with the
personality of the Christ. It is "The Light of Christ" that is immanent
in the world.[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:7.]
_2. Creative Power of the Immanent God:_ It is "The Light of
Christ" that is "in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power
thereof by which it was made."[A] It is "The Light of Christ" that is
"in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by
which it was made; as also the light of the stars and the power thereof
by which, they were made; and the earth also, and the power thereof,
even the earth on which you stand."[B]
[Footnote A: Ibid.]
[Footnote B: Ibid, verses 8-10.]
_3. Sustaining Power of the Immanent God:_ This "light which
proceeded forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of
space," "The Light of Christ," is also the sustaining power of the
world as well as the creative power--"the light which is in all things;
which giveth life to all things: which is the law [i. e. power] by
which all things are governed: even the power of God."[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:13. "The law and power by
which all things are governed," is the late Elder Orson Pratt's foot
note on the passage. See foot note "k" from verse 13.]
"The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day,
and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their
light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of
the power of God. * * * Behold all these are kingdoms, and any man who
hath seen any or the least of these, has seen God moving in his majesty
and power"--a manifestation of God in the orderly movement of the
planetary systems of the world.
_4. Vital Force of the Immanent God:_ This "Light of
Christ"--which "fills the immensity of space," is also a vital, or
life-giving force or spirit--"The Light which is in all things; _which
giveth life to all things_."[A] "I am the light of the world," said
Jesus, "he that followed me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the _light of life_."[B] "In him [the Christ] was life; and the life
was the light of men."[C]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:3.]
[Footnote B: St. John viii:12.]
[Footnote C: Ibid i:4.]
_5. Intelligence-Inspiring Power of the Immanent God:_ Nor is
this "Light of Christ," immanent in the world, creative, sustaining
and vital power only; but also it has a power of giving intelligence;
it inspires intelligence; it is the inspiration of God which gives
to the spirit of man understanding:[A] "The light which now shined,"
said the Lord to his servants, "which giveth you light, is through him
[the Christ] who enlightened your eyes, which is the same light that
quickened your understandings; which light proceedeth forth from the
presence of God to fill the immensity of space."[B]
[Footnote A: There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the
Almighty giveth them understanding; (Job xxxiii:8.)]
[Footnote B: Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:11, 12.]
Again, and this from another revelation:
"For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light,
and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ;
"And the Spirit giveth light to every man that cometh into the
world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that
hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit;
"And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit, cometh unto
God, even the Father;"[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxiv:45-47. See also St. John
i:3-12.]
_6. The Immanent Spirit's Relationship to a Race of Divine, Exalted
Intelligences:_ We may now say from the analysis of the scriptures
so far developed that God Immanent in the world--"The Light of
Christ"--the "Spirit of Christ"--is the power creative; the sustaining
power; the life-giving power; and the intelligence-inspiring power. It
is the active principle in all these respects; and is omnipresent.
As observed in the opening paragraph of this lesson, however, God
immanent in the world is associated with a personality; it is directly
associated with the personality of Christ. It is called "The Light of
Christ"--it "proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the
immensity of space." It is not then a personality in itself, that is
in the sense of being of individual form, but proceeds forth from a
personality; it is a presence rather than a person; an influence, a
spiritual atmosphere, a power proceeding from another, and therefore
is dependent on that other for its existence rather than being an
independent existence; but as that "Other" on which it depends is
eternal, so too this that proceeds forth from the personal presence to
fill the immensity of space "is likewise eternal."[A]
[Footnote A: From the nature of things one has to develop his subject
gradually, "line upon line," and the writer suggests that the student,
if he finds the statement not fully established as here made, that he
await its fuller statement in later pages.]
Again: This God Immanent, as we have seen, is called the "Light of
Christ," "The Spirit of Christ." For which reason I have said above
that the God Immanent is associated with the personality of the Christ.
But if the God Immanent may be associated with the Christ, may it not
also be associated with God, the Father, as well as with God the son?
If God the Son has a spiritual influence, a light, an holy atmosphere
radiating forth from him into space, in some manner analogous to
the manner in which rays of light radiate from luminous suns in the
physical world--may it not be reasonably concluded that God, the
Father, also has such an influence, such a spiritual atmosphere
proceeding forth from him? And if Father and Son have such a spiritual
light proceeding forth from their presence, may it not be that all
divine Intelligences have, similarly proceeding forth from their
presence, such divine "light"?
_7. The Spirit Atmosphere of Men:_ Our discussion may be helped
here by an appeal to a matter of common experience. We know that every
man and woman has an individual influence, a personal atmosphere
extending beyond the personal self, more or less pronounced, according
to the strength or weakness of his individuality. So generally is
this conceded to be true that we designate its kind, or dominating
character; as good or bad; refined or coarse; intellectual or boorish;
spiritual or carnal. If, then, one may argue, the intelligences we know
as men possess this atmosphere of personal influence extending beyond
the personal self, how much more angels, arch-angels, and the higher
Intelligences who have taken on, or participated in, the Divine Nature
and entered into their exaltation and glory with other innumerable
Divine Intelligences whom we call Gods--with how much more reason may
we expect that these may have such spiritual influence proceeding forth
from their presence?
_8. The Identity of Spirit Influence Proceeding from all Divine
Beings:_ From the scriptures we learn of the perfect oneness
subsisting between God, the Father, and God, the Son. "I and my Father
are one," is the oft repeated declaration of the Christ.[A] "I in
thee, and thou in me,"[B] is the emphasis he lays upon the oneness of
himself and the Father. Granting this moral and spiritual oneness--not
physical oneness, for physically our theology holds Father and Son
to be distinct and separate individuals[C]--but granting this moral,
intellectual and spiritual alikeness--then it must follow that the
spiritual influence of each, the intellectual and moral atmosphere
of each, will be the same. "The Light of Christ" will be the same or
identical with the light of the Father; and with the light of all
Intelligences who have participated in the divine nature and become one
with the Father and the Son. So that it might be properly held that
the God Immanent is as much the "Light of the Father" as "The Light of
Christ;" and since that light would be identical with the light of all
perfected and holy beings, participating in the Divine nature, it could
receive a name that would generalize it--the "Divine Spirit, Immanent
in the Universe;" or, "God, the Spirit of the Gods,[D] Immanent
in the Universe;" any of these characterizations would doubtless
be admissible; but since it is through the Christ that the Divine
nature and spirit is manifested in our world, it is but proper that
this Divine Light which lighteth every man into the world--which is
creative, sustaining, vital, and intelligence-inspiring power, should
bear the name of Christ--and henceforth we shall recognize it as our
modern revelations do, primarily, as "The Light of Christ." But there
has always been a race of divine beings in existence, an eternal race,
from whom such a divine influence or atmosphere has proceeded forth to
"fill the immensity of space;" and that is what I meant a few paragraphs
back when I said that as the source whence the God Immanent proceeded
is eternal, so too is the immanence eternal, has always existed, and
will always exist by whatsoever name it might have been or may be known.
[Footnote A: St. John x:30; xvii:22, et seq.]
[Footnote B: Ibid, verse 21.]
[Footnote C: Seventy's Year Book III, Lesson XXXV.]
[Footnote D: I have so treated it in my Mormon Doctrine of Deity, pp.
166-169; also in the Seventy's Year Book No. III, Lesson XXXV.]
_9. Being Whom We Call God:_ This is that Spirit which men call
God, but "know no more;" that "something sacred and sublime," which
men recognize as moving "wool-shod" behind the worlds; this that
Spirit that permeates all space; that makes all presence bright; all
motion guides; the Power "unchanged through Time's all-devastating
flight"--God Immanent, the Spirit proceeding from all Divine
Intelligences intermingled and harmonized into one Spirit. This the
true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world; the
light of which John the Baptist was the witness; and of which Jesus,
to us men, was the manifestation,[A] and to which all men have
access--"The Light of Christ."
[Footnote A: St. John i:4-12.]
_10. Brigham Young on Object of Existence:_ "We are created for
the express purpose of increase, there is nothing within us but that
which can increase, from the birth to old age; what is there that
is not ordained after eternal law of existence, for it is the Deity
within us that causes increase. Doth this idea startle you? Are you
ready to exclaim, what! the supreme in you? Yes, he is in every person
upon the face of the earth. The elements that every individual is made
of, and lives in, possesses a portion of the Deity, this you cannot
now understand, but you will hereafter. The Deity within us, is the
great principle that causes men and women to increase and to grow in
grace and truth. The operation once begun, strict obedience to the
requirements of heaven is necessary to obtain the end for which we were
created, but if we never commence to propagate our species, and keep
the commandments of God we cannot attain to the end in view."[A]
[Footnote A: Discourse by Pres. Brigham Young, June 13, 1852. Deseret
News, Vol. 4, No. 6.]
LESSON III.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE IN THE CONCEPTION OF THE DIVINE IMMANENCE.
ANALYSIS.
I. Of the Possibility of the Existence of all the Divine Attributes in
the Immanent Spirit.
II. Christ the Revelation of the Immanent Spirit, as well as of God,
the Father.
III. Moral and Spiritual Effect in the Sense of the Nearness of God in
the Doctrine of Divine Immanence.
REFERENCES.
The Scriptures and other works cited in the text of the lesson.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God
afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see
him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord"
(Jeremiah xxiii:23, 24.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. Possible Attributes of the Immanent Spirit:_ So far I have
refrained from ascribing any attributes, quality, or characteristic
to the Immanent God not directly warranted by the phraseology of the
modern revelations which teach the doctrine of immanence; creative and
sustaining power; vital force, and intelligence-inspiring power.[A]
Yet if the Immanent God is the spirit proceeding from the presence of
Divine Beings, to fill the immensity of space, and called for us men
"the Light of Christ," it may well be regarded as true that the Spirit
carries with it the whole nature of God, and in some way, reflects
all characteristics and attributes of Deity, the moral attributes of
wisdom, holiness, truth, justice, love, and mercy as well as the four
powers before noted.
[Footnote A: See the revelations quoted in preceding lesson.]
_2. The Mission of the Christ:_ Manifestation of the Immanent
Spirit: It was part of the mission of the Christ to manifest this
Immanent God, as well as God the Father. He came to reveal the whole
of the divine nature. He was God manifested in the flesh;[A] in him
dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;[B] it pleased the Father
that in him should all fullness dwell;[C] he was the brightness of
the Father's glory and the express image of his person.[D] But he was
also the manifestation of, "the true Light, which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world."[E] Light of Christ, the God Immanent; the
invisible made visible; the "Unknown God" of the Greeks made known in
Jesus Christ through the preaching of Paul unto them; for whom they
ignorantly worshiped declared he unto them by preaching Christ; saying
that God whom he preached was not afar off--"not far from every one
of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being,"[F] making
direct reference to that Spirit which fills the immensity of space, the
"Unknown God" of the Greeks--the God Immanent, now manifested by the
Christ whom Paul was preaching--from whose presence David could not
flee; and to whom the darkness was the same as the light--to whom the
night shineth as the day.[G]
[Footnote A: Tim iii:16 and marginal rendering of "manifest" in Oxford
Bible.]
[Footnote B: Col. ii:9.]
[Footnote C: Col. i:19.]
[Footnote D: Heb. i:3.]
[Footnote E: St. John i:9.]
[Footnote F: Acts xvii:22-28.]
[Footnote G: Psalms cxxxix.]
_3. Moral Effect of the Conception of Immanence, Negatively
Expressed:_ The conception of God as Immanent in the world is of
utmost importance both as a religious and a philosophical truth. Its
effect upon the mind as establishing a sense of nearness of God is most
salutary in its moral effects, and uplifting in its spiritual power. To
sense that one lives in the presence of the Divine Consciousness--that
known unto God are all his thoughts and all his doings; to dwell with
One from whom the darkness and the light are both alike; from whom
there is no fleeing; for if one ascend into heaven, lo, He is there; if
one make his bed in hell, behold, He is there; if one would take the
wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth or
of the sea--there also is this Immanent Spirit.[A] To live thus in a
consciousness of the Divine Presence and Power, makes for righteousness
of life. For where may sin and wickedness hide themselves? There is
no refuge for them--no escape. If one shall say--"surely the darkness
shall cover me," even the night shall be light about him.[B] Iniquity
may not hide itself, and as sin loves not the light, negatively the
moral force of consciously living in the presence of God is very great.
[Footnote A: Psalms cxxxix.]
[Footnote B: Ibid.]
_4. Moral Effect of the Doctrine of Immanence, Affirmatively
Expressed:_ Affirmatively expressed, the conception and the
result of it are even greater, both morally and spiritually. To live
consciously in the presence of God must be a source of annoyance and
vexation to evil disposed men; and even to men inclined to virtue,
an embarrassment, at times, when they recall their many failures to
live in harmony with their ideals.[A] But, on the other hand, for
these of the latter class, when they realize that the Divine Presence
is sympathetic; that He knows, not only "what's done," but also
"what's resisted;" that He knows of the struggle for the attainment of
virtue--the hungering and the thirsting after righteousness; that He
knows the strength of the temptation, and the weakness of the tempted;
that He knows the heart, "each chord, its various tone; each spring,
its various bias;" and He will judge, not after the sight of the eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of the ears, but with righteousness
shall He judge, and reprove with equity;[B] judging, "not according to
the appearance, but judge righteous judgment."[C] Men can be assured
of a correct registration and truthful report of their deeds, and a
judgment upon them neither partial nor prejudiced; which, while it
may cause the wicked to tremble, to men conscious of the uprightness
of their intentions, and of honest effort in right directions, as God
gives them vision to see the right--what encouragement to earnest
striving this conception of living in the very presence of God must
bring! What calmness it must bring in the midst of conflict! what
peace! what assurance of triumph notwithstanding failures, and losses,
and the sad exhibitions of human weakness--the outgrowth of a fallen
human nature!
[Footnote A: Professor Joseph Le Conte, Professor of Geology and
Natural History in the University of California, answering a supposed
objection that one might not live and work effectively in the presence
of the Immanent Deity, said: "It may alas! be true that this view
[Immanence of God in the world] brings us too near Him in our sense of
spiritual nakedness and short-coming. It may, indeed, be that we can
not live and work in the continual realized presence of the Infinite.
It may, indeed, be that we must still wear the evil of a practical
materialism on our hearts and minds. It may, indeed, be that in our
practical life and scientific work we must still continue to think
of natural forces as efficient agents. But, if so, let us at least
remember that this attitude of mind must be regarded only as our
ordinary work-clothes--necessary work-clothes it may be of our outer
lower life--to be put aside when we return home to our inner higher
life, religious and philosophical. (Evolution in Its Relation to
Religious Thought"--1902--pp. 302-3.)]
[Footnote B: Isaiah xi:3, 4.]
[Footnote C: St. John vii:24.]
_5. The Helpfulness that Comes from the Sense of the Nearness of
God--His Immanence:_ Moreover, if the view point of this treatise be
the true one, and all the attributes of the Divine nature are carried
over into the Divine Spirit that proceeds forth from the presence
of God to fill the immensity of space--being the God Immanent--then
one may be assured that living at all times and in all places in the
presence of the Immanent Spirit, he resides in the atmosphere, at
least, of the wisdom, the love, and the mercy of God; which can but add
to his comfort, to his assurance, to his strength. Such an one with
David can say--
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts:
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting."[A]
[Footnote A: Psalms, cxl:23, 24.]
And else he may say--
"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil; for thou are near me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
mc."[A]
[Footnote A: Psalm, xxiii:24.]
Under this sense of nearness, which springs from the doctrine of
Immanence, one may again say with David:
"Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that
hope in his mercy;
"To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
"Our soul waiteth for the Lord: he is our help and our shield."[A]
[Footnote A: Psalms xxxiii:18-20.]
And yet again:
"The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such
as be of a contrite spirit.
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him
out of them all."[A]
[Footnote A: Psalms xxxiv:18, 19.]
Also:
"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
"Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though
the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
"Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof.
"There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,
the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high.
"God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help
her, and that right early.
"The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved; he uttered his voice, the
earth melted.
"The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."[A]
[Footnote A: Psalms xlvi:1-7.]
All which loving trust comes from that blessed sense of nearness of
God born of the great doctrine of Immanence--God resident in the
world, here and now--a dynamic power in the world--that makes for
righteousness, and of which the Christ was and is the manifestation,
the Revealer; and the Immanent Spirit is "the Light of Christ."
LESSON IV.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
THE PHILOSOPHICAL VALUE OF THE DOCTRINE OF IMMANENCE.
ANALYSIS.
I. The Immanence Conception a Result of Modern Thinking.
II. Philosophical Values in Immanence.
III. Immanence Conversely--"The World Immanent in God."
IV. Immanence Equal--Manifestation Unequal.
REFERENCES.
The Scripture passages and works cited in the lesson text.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "Thou, God, seest me." (Gen. xvi:13.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. Modern Revival of the Doctrine of Immanence:_ On the
philosophical side of this conception of the Immanence of God, we
are assured that it is the result of the modern world's (i.e. _post
Kantian_) thinking.[A] Of its value to human thinking and to religion
itself, John Fiske--after pointing out the fact that both Clement and
Athanasius among the early Christian fathers had held somewhat to the
doctrine of immanence as conceived in more modern philosophy, viz--"God
Immanent in the universe, and eternally creative"--says:
[Footnote A: "One can securely say that nothing of crucial import has
come forward in the interest of human freedom [i.e. freedom of the
human will--man as a free moral agent] since Kant started the inspiring
but hitherto little fruitful conception of moral autonomy. Instead, as
we have seen, the world's thinking has been absorbed in questions that
thus far have ended in a persuasion of the immanence of the eternal in
all things--at best the all-pervasive presence of an immanent spirit."
Howison, "Conceptions of God," Introductions p. 32.]
"Once really adopt the conception of an ever-present God, without whom
not a sparrow falls to the ground, and it becomes self-evident that
the law of gravitation is but an expression of a particular mode of
divine action. And what is thus true of one law is true of all laws.
The thinker in whose mind divine action is thus identified with orderly
action and to whom a really irregular phenomenon would seem like a
manifestation of sheer diabolism, forsees in every possible extension
of knowledge a fresh confirmation of his faith in God. From his point
of view there can be no antagonism between our duty as inquirers and
our duty as worshipers. To him no part of the universe is godless. In
the swaying to and fro of molecules and the ceaseless pulsations of
ether, in the secular shiftings of planetary orbits, in the busy work
of frost and raindrop, in the mysterious sprouting of the seed, in
the everlasting tale of death and life renewed, in the dawning of the
babe's intelligence, in the varied deeds of men from age to age, he
finds that which awakens the soul to reverential awe; and each act of
scientific explanation but reveals an opening through which shines the
glory of the Eternal Majesty."[A]
[Footnote A: Fiske-Studies in Religion, pp. 167-3, Works Vol. IX]
_2. The World Immanent in God:_ Still one other thought from the
philosophical side of the conception of Immanence is that it enables
one to see not only God in nature, but as a necessary corollary, nature
in God--"Divine immanence in the world, and the reciprocal immanence of
the world in God."[A] That is to say, in one view, God's presence and
power penetrates and pervades nature--the universe; in another view,
nature is received into the all-including spiritual presence of God: as
the One indwells in the other; so the other dwells in the One.
[Footnote A: Howison--"The Conception of God." p. 96.]
Before now the student has doubtless looked into the clear depths of a
crystal-like spring of water; and has seen on the sandy floor of the
spring the sunlight that tells him that the sun penetrates the water,
in-dwells in the water, or, in poetic terms--
"The sunshine in water lies sleeping."
And as the sunlight penetrates the water so does the water receive
and hold the sunlight. As it is in the crystal spring, so is it in
the ocean. And so in the universe with the immanence of God and the
reciprocal immanence of the world in God. As saith the revelation:
"Judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne,
and governeth and executeth all things. He comprehendeth all things,
and all things are before him, and all things are round him; and he is
above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is
round about all things; and all things are by nim, and of him, even God
forever and forever."[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:41.]
The chief value of this statement of the case--apart from the fact of
it as a truth--is, it helps one to understand the completeness of the
presence of God in the world; so complete is it, that the world is also
in God! Also it helps one to an understanding of the more restricted
view of the same principle announced in St. John, the declaration of
the Christ: "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in
me"; and that he and the Father are one[A]--i.e., the divine nature
and spirit are one. One nature participated in by both Father and Son
and finally to be participated in by those who are the disciples of
the Christ; for in his prayer immediately preceding the hour of his
passion--the most pathetic and soul-moving prayer preserved in human
language--referring to his disciples he said:
[Footnote A: St. John xiv:11; also xvii.]
"Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou has given
me, that they may be one as we are. Neither pray I for these alone, but
for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they
all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they
also may be one in us, and the glory which thou gavest me, I have given
them, that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and thou in
me, that they may be made perfect in one. * * * I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast
loved me, may be in them, and I am them."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John xvii. Paul doubtless refers to the same principle
when he says: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is
named; that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory,
to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man; that
Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and
grounded in Jove, may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is
the breadth and length and depth, and height; and to know the love of
Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the
fullness of God." (Eph. iii:14-19.)
And also when he said:
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God."
(Philippians ii:5, 6.)]
_3. One Divine Nature in Many Persons:_ One divine nature, then,
is the conclusion; but a divine nature in manifold persons, many,
though indeed one, because harmonized into unity of purpose, and will;
one divine spirit, rising from one divine nature--though participated
in by many; a spirit rising from all Intelligences who have attained to
the divine nature and unity in all and through all, manifesting God in
his splendor and glory, as creating, sustaining, and guiding power in
the universe--both Immanent and personal.
Elsewhere I have said on this subject: One cannot help being profoundly
impressed with the great truth that creation, throughout its whole
extent, bears evidence of being one system: that it presents at
every point unity of design, and harmony in its government. Nor am I
unmindful of the force there is in the deduction usually drawn from
these premises, _viz._, that the Creator and Governor of the universe,
must necessarily be One. But I am also profoundly impressed by another
fact that comes within the experience of man, at least to a limited
extent, _viz._: the possibility of intelligences arriving at perfect
agreement, so as to act in absolute unity. We see manifestations of
this principle in human governments, and other human associations of
various kinds. And this, too, is observable, viz., that the greater
and more perfect the individual intelligence, the more perfect can
the unity of purpose and of effort become for the community of
intelligences; so that one need only conceive the existence of perfect
intelligences to operate together in order to secure perfect oneness;
then shall come the one system evident in the universe, exhibiting at
every point unity of design, and perfect harmony in its government. In
other words, "oneness" can be the result of perfect agreement among
many intelligences as surely as it can be the result of the existence
of One Only Intelligence. Also, the decrees and purposes of the
perfectly united Many can be as absolute as the decrees and purposes of
the One Only Intelligence. One is also confronted with the undeniable
fact that inclines him to the latter view as the reasonable explanation
of the "Oneness" that is evidently in control of the universe--the fact
that there are in existence many Intelligences, and, endowed as they
are with free will, it cannot be denied that they influence, to some
extent, the course of events and the conditions that obtain. Moreover,
it will be found, on careful inquiry, that the explanation of the
"Oneness" controlling in the universe, on the theory that it results
from perfect agreement or unity of Many Intelligences, is more in
harmony with the revelations of God on the subject than the theory that
there is but One Only Intelligence that enters into its government.[A]
[Footnote A: Mormon Doctrine of Deity, pp. 137-8.]
John Stuart Mill, in his Essay on Theism, in speaking of the evident
unity in nature, which suggests that nature is governed by One Being,
comes very near stating the exact truth in an alternative proposition
to his first remark, viz.: "A. least, if a plurality be supposed, it is
necessary to assume so complete a concert of action and unity of will
among them, that the difference is for most purposes immaterial between
such a theory and that of the absolute unity of the Godhead."[A]
[Footnote A: Essays on Religion; Theism p. 133.]
_4. Immanence and Manifestation:_ We must believe from the
scriptures previously considered in these lessons that God by his
spirit is everywhere and equally present, but it does not follow
that the _manifestation_ of God is everywhere and equally the same.
There are doubtless persons, conditions, and places, that present
more favorable natures and conditions to the manifestation of this
universal presence than others. Undoubtedly, if the assumption of
this treatise be the right one, _viz._, that the God Immanent, for
us men in the kingdom of the universe we inhabit known as "the Light
of Christ"--carries with it the divine attributes of truth, wisdom,
justice, holiness, and love, with the rest, then it follows, since like
his affinity[A] to like, that there may be, as said above, persons,
conditions and places more congenial to manifestation of the divine
spirit than others. There are individual men and perhaps races of men
more responsive to the Divine Presence and the divine attributes of
which that presence is the atmosphere, than others; and where this
is the case there will be the larger manifestation of God. Hence the
difference observable among individuals and races and at variant
times and places. Those who draw near to God, he draws near to them
in manifestations of his presence and power; those who love darkness
rather than light, because their deeds are evil, receive not the light;
the manifestation of God in them either in presence or power is not
possible because the conditions which attend upon that manifestation
are not there.
[Footnote A: "For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom
receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light
cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy, and claimeth
its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the
throne, and governeth and executeth all things." (Doc. & Cov. Sec.
lviii:37-40.)]
_6. The Law of Manifestation of the Immanent Spirit:_ "Draw nigh
unto God, and he will draw nigh to you,"[A] is the law of divine
manifestation. Christ, the Revealer of the Divine, Immanent Spirit,
as well as of the person, character, brightness, and glory of the
Father--the manifestation of all that is divine--"Came unto his own,
but his own received him not; but unto as many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed
on his name.[B] He that believeth on him (i. e. the Christ) is not
condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he
hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
[Footnote A: James iv:8.]
[Footnote B: St. John i:11, 12.]
"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and
men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
"For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
"But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be
manifest, that they are wrought in God."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John iii:18-21.]
LESSON V.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
DIFFICULTIES INVOLVED IN THE DOCTRINE OF IMMANENCE.
ANALYSIS.
I. Incompatibility of the Existence of Evil in the World, and the
Immanence of God.
II. Reason for the Existence of Moral Evil.[A]
III. Difficulties that Arise from a Partial View of Man's Life.
IV. The Golden Age Promised--the Millennium.
IV. The Lessons from Broken Harmonies--a World wherein Reigns Evils.
REFERENCES.
The Scripture passages and works cited in the lesson text.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "Thou [God] are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and
canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal
treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man
that is more righteous than he?" (Habakkuk i:13.)_
[Footnote A: Under this subdivision of the lesson should be considered
especially the matter in note m, this lesson, and the lessons cited
from Year Books II and IV above and a review of the lessons cited from
former Year Books in note.]
DISCUSSION.
_1. Incompatibility of Immanence and Evil Stated:_ It is conceded
that the conception of God Immanent in the universe--everywhere
existing and everywhere dynamic power, though not everywhere equally
manifested, carries with it many and great difficulties that attend
upon all forms of human thinking when seeking the harmony that one
feels must exist in the things that are--in truth.
For example: one naturally would say, as soon as the conception of
the Immanence of God takes firm lodgment in his mind,--"why, then,
if God is in his world everywhere present, and everywhere, not only
powerful, but all-powerful; not only knowing, but all-knowing; not
only good but all-good, holy in fact, and cannot look upon sin with
the least degree of allowance[A]--why then is there evil in the world,
physical suffering, and moral wrong, injustice, cruelty?[B] Why is the
sum of human misery so great?[C] Why is the sum of human happiness so
small?[D] Why do the good suffer adversity? Why does prosperity so
frequently, in this world at least, attend upon the wicked? In the
words of the Hebrew prophet addressed to God: "Wherefore lookest thou
upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue, when the
wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he"?[E] Why do the
sins of the wicked involve the innocent--why are the innocent made to
suffer with the guilty?[F] Why does truth make such tardy appearance in
the world, and why of so partial rather than of universal distribution?
How can freedom co-exist, that is, the freedom of man as a free moral
agent, co-exist with the Sovereign will of the All-Powerful and
Immanent God?[G]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. i:31. Also Habakkuk i:13 and Psalms
v:4-6.]
[Footnote B: "We cry out for some explanation--for some philosophy
which shall show us _how_ evil is consistent with the infinite
goodness." (_Le Conte_, "Conceptions of God," p. 71.)]
[Footnote C: "How terribly large is the proportion of evil? comparing
the number of those who are or have been happy, with the number of
those who are or have been unhappy, can we say that the great pessimist
was very far wrong in calling this the worst possible--he did not say
the worst conceivable--world". (Goldwin Smith, discussing "Evolution,
Immortality, and Christianity," in North American Review, October,
1907, p. 196.)]
[Footnote D: "The great quest of humanity is happiness. But was the
world created to make us happy? I've studied people in all places and
conditions and everywhere I've found, when you get below the surface,
that it's mostly the insincere individual who says, 'I am a happy man.'"
(Thomas A. Edison, the great American Inventor in a Vienna-Austria
Interview on "Success in Life," reported in New York World, October 25.
1911.)]
[Footnote E: Habakkuk i:13.]
[Footnote F: See Seventy's Year Book II, Lessons III and IX. Also Year
Book IV, Lessons IV and VII and VIII.]
[Footnote G: In order that it may be seen that this is regarded really
as doubtful by some powerful minds, and also as a question of grave
importance, I quote the following presentation of it by Professor
Howison, and which he prints in italics in the work from which I quote
it: "Can the reality of human free-agency, of moral responsibility
and universal moral aspiration, of unlimited spiritual hope for every
soul,--can this be made out, can it even be held, consistently with the
theory of an Immanent God? This, for a few awakened minds at least,
now becomes the 'burning question.' * * * At all events, the time has
come when the question whether this is not so should be raised with
all emphasis, and examined to the end. For if our genuine freedom is
to disappear when we accept the religion whose God is the Immanent
Spirit, then the new religion is in truth a decline from the highest
conceptions of the historic faith, and in this regard has no advantage
over the religion of the 'Unknowable.'" ("Conceptions of God," p. 30.)]
Professor Le Conte has a valuable passage _apropos_ these questions
which I consider too valuable to omit at this point, though it makes
rather an extended quotation. On the great question of moral evil, its
nature, its origin, its reason--a question inseparably connected with
the conception of God, he says:
"In a general way I agree with his [Professor Royce's] explanation of
the dark problem of evil. Evil cannot be the true meaning and real
outcome of the universe; on the contrary, it means the necessary means
of the highest good. * * * Our moral and religious nature is just as
fundamental and essential as our scientific and rational nature. As
science is not simply passionless acquisition of knowledge, but also
enthusiasm for truth, so morality is not passionless rules of best
conduct, but impassioned love of righteousness. And this last is what
we call religion; for religion is morality touched and vivified with
noble emotion. Now, the necessary postulate of science, without which
scientific activity would be impossible, is a rational order of the
universe; and, similarly, the necessary postulate of religion, without
such religious activity would be impossible, is a moral order of
the universe. As science postulates the final triumph of reason, so
religion must postulate the final triumph of righteousness. Science
believes in the rational order, or in law, in spite of apparent
confusion; she knows that disorder is only apparent, only the result
of ignorance; and her mission is, to show this by reducing all
appearances, all phenomena, to law. So also religion is right in her
unshakable belief in the moral order, in spite of apparent disorder or
evil; she knows that evil is only apparent, the result of our ignorance
and our weakness; and her mission is, to show this by helping on the
triumph of moral order over disorder. We may, if we like,--as many
indeed do,--reject the faith in the Infinite Goodness, and thereby
paralyze our religious activity; but then, to be consistent, we must
also reject the faith in the Infinite Reason, and thereby paralyze our
scientific activity.
So much for a rational justification of the indestructible faith
religion has in the Infinite Righteousness, even in the presence of
abounding evil. It is founded on the same ground as our indestructible
faith in the reign of law in the natural world, and is just as
reasonable. Why is it, then, it may be asked, that every one is
willing to admit the postulate of science, while so many doubt that
of religion? I answer: partly because of feebleness of our moral life
in comparison with our physical life; but mainly because the steady
advance of science, with its progressive conquest of chaos, and its
extension of the domain of order and law, is a continual verification
of the postulate of science, and justification of our faith therein;
while, on the contrary, the progress of morality and religion is
uncertain and often unrecognized, the increase of righteousness and
decrease of evil doubtful and even denied. In the presence of such
uncertainty, our faith is often sorely tried. We cry out for some
explanation--for some philosophy which shall show us how evil is
consistent with the Infinite Goodness. We know it is, for that is a
necessary postulate. But--how?"[A]
[Footnote A: The Conception of God--Le Conte's paper, pp. 70-71.]
This philosophy so earnestly asked for I trust is found in the New
Dispensation of the Gospel, the light from the revelations in which, I
believe, warrant the conclusions in the above paragraph of the Lesson
text, and also the conclusions reached in the lessons of previous
Year Books cited in note f. Then Professor Le Conte himself gives a
reasonably good explanation for the existence of moral evil, which
it is only just should be given here since I have quoted him up to
the question of why evil exists. This is his answer: "It is that the
existence or at least the possibility of a moral being like that of
man [should exist]. There are some things which God himself cannot
do, viz., such things as are contrary to his essential nature, and
such things as are a contradiction in terms and therefore absurd and
unthinkable. Such a thing would be a moral being without freedom
to choose right or wrong. God could not make man eternally and of
necessity sinless, for then he would not be man at all. To make him
incapable of virtue, of righteousness, of holiness, for he must acquire
these for himself by free choice, by struggle and conquest."[A]
[Footnote A: The Conception of God, p. 72.]
_2. Things Seen and Known but in Part:_ One may not find the
complete answer to all the questions of the second paragraph of this
lesson, which make up largely the sum of difficulties for the theist,
who believes in God Immanent in the world; but they are somewhat
lessened by remembering that here on our plane of human life we know
things but in fragments--"We know in part:" We see as through a glass,
darkly; not face to face; and will have to await the time of more
perfect knowing and seeing before we shall comprehend things as they
are in their entirety.
A fine illustration of the mistaken conclusions men form by judging of
things seen only in part is to be found in the Prophet Malachi:
"Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say,
What have we spoken so much against thee?
"Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we
have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the
Lord of hosts?
"And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are
set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.
"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the
Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written
before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his
name.
"And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I
make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son
that serveth him.
"Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the
wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not"[A]
[Footnote A: Mal. iii:13-18.]
All which tends to establish the thought that this world is the scene
of struggle and trial for man, not the place of his full triumph and
reward. "In this world your joy is not full [saith the Lord], but in
me your joy is full. Therefore care not for the body, neither the life
of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul; and
seek the face of the Lord, always, that in patience ye may possess your
souls, and ye shall have eternal life."[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. ci:36-38.]
_3. Amid Broken Harmonies:_ We may be helped somewhat in our
present earth-view of things, by holding in consciousness the fact
that we live at present in our world amid broken harmonies, under the
effects of "the fall," for a wise purpose in God; in a sphere of trial
and test; in a purposely arranged department of God's great university
for the instruction of the spirits of men in certain all-important
matters,[M] involving also our union with earth elements, leading to a
fulness of joy, and without which union men cannot receive a fulness
of joy.[B] Therefore we may say that in our earth-life things are not
in a normal state; but in confusion; under stress of special trial
and development that shall ultimate in higher and better things--in
the golden age of the earth and of humanity, predicted by sages and
poets--the millennium of the seers and prophets of God, and the
apostles of the Christ--these all bid us hope for higher and better
things than we have known on our present plane of existence--a world
where we shall no longer see as through a glass darkly, "but face to
face;" when we shall no longer know only in part, but know even as we
are known; when that which is in part "shall be done away," and that
"which is perfect is come."[C]
[Footnote M: "Religion accounts for the existence of evil as
probationary, resistence to the evil being a training of humanity to
good." (Goldwin Smith in "North American Review," October, 1907. In
connection with this statement see Seventy's Year Book II, Lesson III;
also Lesson VIII, IX, X, which deal with "The Fall," "The Purpose of
Man's Earth Life," and the "Problem of Evil.")]
[Footnote B: Doc. and Cov., Sec. xciii:32-35.]
[Footnote C: I Cor. xiii.]
There remaineth then a rest for the people of God.[A] They may look for
a city "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."[B] The
vision of St. John, in which he saw descending out of heaven the New
Jerusalem, is yet to be realized in fact. Also what he heard proclaimed
by "a great voice"--
[Footnote A: Heb. iv:9.]
[Footnote B: Heb. xi:10.]
"Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them,
and be their God.
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any
more pain: for the former things are passed away.
"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful."[A]
[Footnote A: Revelation xxi; also xxii.]
LESSON VI.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
DOCTRINE OF DIVINE IMMANENCE IN THE NEW DISPENSATION: RECONCILIATION OF
DIFFICULTIES.
ANALYSIS.
I. Difficulty of Regarding the Infinite Power of the Universe as Both
Immanent and Personal.
II. Revelation Represents the Infinite Power of the Universe as
Personal.
III. The Nature of Man Requires the Infinite Power to be a Personal
Intelligence.
IV. Reconciliation of Difficulties in Doctrine of Immanence as taught
in the New Dispensation.
REFERENCES.
The Scriptures and other works in the text of the lesson.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand
at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms shall
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see
for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not another: though my veins
be consumed within me." (Job xix:25-28.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. Immanence and Personality--a Difficulty:_ The view here
presented of the Immanence of God in the world doubtless contributes in
a helpful way to the advanced thought of the modern world in striving
to arrive at a knowledge of things as they are, as they have been, and
as they shall be--the truth.[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. xciii:24.]
Modern thought has forced the conclusion upon men's minds that there
is a power immanent in the world--here and now, and always has been;
and so far as man can see there always will be; it is eternal--"both
ways"--to use a phrase of Professor Le Conte's, looking forward as
well as backward, when using that word "eternal." It is the eternal
cause of things, variously named "energy," "force," "spirit," or
simply "power," used in some cases with the prefix "mechanical" or
"infinite" or "Divine" or the "Unknowable" according to the view point
of the speaker or writer; but by most philosophers recognized as
"the infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed," and
"which is the same power that in ourselves wells up under the form of
consciousness;"[A] and which by theists of all classes is recognized
as God. But those who long to conceive and in their lives feel the
need of conceiving of this universal "power" or "spirit" or "force"
or "energy"--"the infinite and eternal energy from which all things
proceed"--meet with the difficulty of forming the conception of a
"power, infinite, and all pervasive," and at the same time personal,
since it is held by philosophers of high authority--and deservedly
so--that "personality and infinity are terms expressive of ideas
which are mutually incompatible."[B] How then shall this difficulty
be overcome? Professor Le Conte, a most conscientious man of science,
and also a most devout Theist, says, "The only rational view is to
accept both immanence and personality, even though we cannot reconcile
them."[C] This, however, from the standpoint of modern philosophers
and orthodox theologians who identify or confound the immanent power
absolutely as God himself--and the only Deity with whom we have to
deal--is a somewhat forcing of the human understanding--a case of "the
heart breathing defiance to the intellect." "Not that the spirit cannot
do this * * * but that doing it does not amount to philosophy."[D]
I doubt if it amounts to religion either: for religion no less than
philosophy requires harmony in things; and is necessarily a concern
of the intellect as well as of the heart. Its conceptions must appeal
to the understanding as well as to the emotions. As remarked by Mr.
Fiske: "Our reason demands that there shall be a reasonableness in
the constitution of things. This demand is a fact of our psychical
[spiritual] nature as positive and irrepressible as our aceptance
of geometrical axioms, and our rejection of whatever controverts
such axioms. No ingenuity of argument can bring us to believe that
the infinite Sustainer of the Universe will put us to permanent
intellectual confusion." That is in regard of spiritual or religious
matters; any more than in other matters. "Our belief," he continues,
"in what we call the evidences of our senses is less strong than our
faith that in the orderly sequence of events there is a meaning which
our minds could fathom were they only vast enough."[E]
[Footnote A: Fiske, "Studies in Religion," p. 104; Works, Vol. IX. The
parts within single quotation marks are from Spencer, and quoted by
Fiske.]
[Footnote B: Fiske Cosmic Philosophy, Vol. IV, p. 227. Also Professor
Le Conte says: "No one, we admit, can form a clear conception of how
immanence of Deity is consistent with personality." ("Evolution and Its
Relation to Religious Thought," p. 337.)]
[Footnote C: "Evolution and Its Relation to Religious Thought,"
1902, p. 337. The context is also worthy of being brought into view:
"No one, we admit, can form a clear conception of how immanence of
Deity is consistent with personality, and yet we must accept both,
because we are irresistibly led to each of these by different lines of
thought. Science, following one line of thought, uncorrected by a wider
philosophy, is naturally led toward the one extreme of pantheistic
immanence; the devout worshiper, following the wants of his religious
nature, is naturally led toward the other extreme of anthropomorphic
personality. The only rational view is to accept both immanence and
personality, even though we can not clearly reconcile them, i. e.,
immanence without pantheism, and personality without anthropomorphism."]
[Footnote D: Professor Howison in "Conception of God"--Introduction, p.
35.
The situation is well represented in the respective attitudes of Mr.
Henry L. Mansel, a church of England minister, Dean of St. Paul's
in fact, and author of the somewhat celebrated Brampton Lectures on
"Limits of Religious Thought"--1875--; and Mr. Herbert Spencer, author
of the Synthetic Philosophy. Mr. Mansel in his second lecture, after
dealing with the difficulties attending upon finite minds dealing with
questions of the "absolute," "infinite" and "first cause;" declares
that there is a contradiction in the conception of the infinite as
personal (pp. 84-85): and yet in the third lecture he says, "It is our
duty to think of God as personal; and it is our duty to believe that
he is infinite"; notwithstanding, as Mr. Mansel admits, "we cannot
reconcile these two representations with each other, as our conception
of personality involves attributes apparently contradictory to the
notion of infinity." (p. 106):
Commenting upon this very passage Mr. Spencer says: "That this is not
the conclusion here adopted (i.e., by himself) needs hardly be said.
If there be any meaning in the foregoing argument, duty requires us
neither to affirm nor deny personality. Our duty is to submit ourselves
with all humility to the established limits of our intelligence: and
not perversely to rebel against them. Let those who can, believe
that there is eternal war set between our intellectual faculties and
our moral obligations. I for one admit no such radical vice in the
constitution of things." "First Principles" p. 111.]
[Footnote E: Studies in Religion, p. 189. Works Vol. IX.]
2. Revelation Presents a Personal Deity as the Object of Man's Faith
and Worship: The Old Testament's revelation of God presents him to
the world most emphatically as a personal being. "God is referred to
as Almighty, All-Wise, All-Holy, the Eternal Creator, Sustainer, and
Moral Governor of the universe. He is represented as entering into
special relations with his highest creature, man, who is created in his
image, after his likeness,[A] to be his vicegerent on earth,[B] and to
increase in sympathy and fellowship with himself."[C]
[Footnote A: Gen. 1:26, 27.]
[Footnote B: Gen. 1:26-28.]
[Footnote C: "Belief in God"--Drummelow Bible Commentary, p. 49. See
also The Index in both the Oxford and Cambridge Teacher's Bible Helps,
under "God" and especially under the subdivision of "Attributes" in the
former.]
"When we sum up the impressions and teachings about the God of the
ancient Hebrews," says Professor Francis Brown, of Union Theological
seminary, "the general result is very definite. We find a personal
Being of great majesty, dignity and power, the Creator and Ruler of
men, a being of holiness and transcendence; a being of righteousness,
who promotes righteousness in others and punishes every breach of
it; whose government is a moral government and from whose decisions
there is no appeal; a being of kindness, tenderness and helpfulness,
with gracious care for those who confide in him, whose plans are at
length to be worked out and his desires realized in the unity of men
under his benevolent sway amid the exhibition of the divine glories of
righteousness and universal peace."[A]
[Footnote A: The passage is from "The Christian Point of
View"--1902--Prof. Brown's passage represents only that view of God
revealed in the Old Testament that he asserts is not inconsistent
with the New. For he immediately adds to the above paragraph: "With
every stroke of this drawing the New Testament picture is in accord.
To this extent the spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ indorses the
older revelation." (Ibid above). He then proceeds to show that some
conceptions of God presented in the Old Testament, as he apprehends
them, are not in harmony with the New Testament. I use the passage
from Professor Brown, merely to show that other believers in the Old
and New Testament revelation of God, as well as the Latter-day Saints,
regard those revelations as presenting God to human consciousness as a
personal being.]
If anything was lacking in the Old Testament revelation of God as a
personal being, in closest relationship to man, then assuredly it
would be supplied in the New Testament revelation of God through the
person and character of Jesus Christ. For in the New Testament, in the
most emphatic manner, the Christ is represented as "God manifested
in the flesh."[A] He, under the direction of the Father, is Creator
of the world; he is the brightness of the Father's glory; "and the
express image" of the Father's person.[B] He so completely represented
the Father that he declared that those who had seen him had seen the
Father;[C] also after his resurrection he declared that all power in
heaven and in earth had been given unto him, and in the full glory of
that God-Power he sent forth his disciples to teach all nations and to
baptize them in the name of the distinct persons of the God-head.[D]
All that Jesus was and is, God is; for the Christ was God manifested in
the flesh. Emphatically God is revealed as a personal being.
[Footnote A: I Tim. iii:16.]
[Footnote B: Hebrews i. See also Discourse by the writer, "Jesus Christ
the Revelation of God," in Mormon Doctrine of Deity, Ch. IV, also
chapter I, same work.]
[Footnote C: St. John, xiv:8-11.]
[Footnote D: Matt. xxviii:18-20.]
To all this may be added the account of the greatest revelation of all
given to man respecting God, in which both Father and Son are revealed
to be not only persons but each a separate and distinct individual
--the unveiling of both God the Father and God the Son to Joseph Smith;
"I saw," said he, "two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all
description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me,
calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other--
_"This my beloved son, hear him."_[A]
[Footnote A: Writings of Joseph Smith, Pearl of Great Price, p 85.]
Needless to say these personages in form were as men. The whole
volume of revelation, the Old Testament, and the New, and all modern
revelation, both in the Book of Mormon and in the Doctrine and
Covenants; as well also in the discourses and conversations of the
Prophet Joseph Smith, God is represented as a person--of whom Jesus
Christ is the express image, and explicit manifestation; and hence
believers in revelation are bound to regard God as a personal being, in
whose image man was created.
_3. The Nature of Man Requires a Personal God:_ The necessity
of conceiving the being whom men call God as personal, also arises
from the nature of man. As it is inconceivable that God should "love
gases,"[A] so, too, is it impossible for man to love, revere, or
worship mere force, or energy; or regard himself as holding any moral
relationship whatsoever to it, though it be proclaimed infinite and
eternal. It is soul that responds to soul; like responds to like; love
to love. Soul of man cries out for "soul" in the "Infinite Power" to
make rational a universe which otherwise is irrational, empty and void
of meaning--mechanical merely, signifying nothing. The central idea of
religion, consists of certain relationships that exist between men and
the power recognized as God, involving the thought of duties and of
rights.[B] Man knows himself as a person--an intelligence; conscious of
certain existences, of self-existence, and conscious of a great number
of things not self. He is capable of many and wonderful intellectual
and emotional experiences. He deliberates; he compares things,
contrasts things; he measures and weighs things, he sets values upon
them; he prizes one more than another. He is capable of rising from the
particular to the general, from the concrete to the abstract; from the
things of sense-perception to objects of thought, ideas; until at last
"I think," he cries, "Therefore I am."[C]
[Footnote A: The impressive thought is Sir Robert Ball's, see Defense
of the Faith and the Saints, Vol. II. p. 500.]
[Footnote B: See Seventy's Year Book IV, Lesson I. The central and real
meaning of the Christian religion, in which the self-consciousness of
the Wests finds its true expression, and which thus far has found no
home except in the West, lies exactly in the faith that the Creator and
the creature are reciprocally and equally real, not identical; that
there is Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of men; that God recognizes
rights in the creature and acknowledges duties toward him; and that
men are accordingly both unreservedly and also indestructibly real,
both free and immortal. In that religion alone, I venture to assert,
is the union of this triad of faiths to be found--in God, in freedom,
in immortality--faiths that, while three, are inseparably one, since
neither can be stated except in terms of the other two. ("Conceptions of
God"--Howison, p. 94.)]
[Footnote A: Such Descartes formula, and the strength of it as a truth,
and its value as an initial point in philosophy, has not been shaken in
the two and three quarters of a century since it was first published.
See Descartes' Meditations. In the Universal Classics Library edition
of Descartes, there is in the Introduction by Frank Sewell, A. M.,
a very fine and exhaustive discussion of the above principle, "The
Cogito Ergo Sum--Its Nature and Meaning." Subdivision III and IV of the
Introduction. The Meditations were first published in Paris 1641, A.D.]
_4. The Wonders of Man's Mind-Power:_ But not only does man think,
and from consciousness of the fact deduce his own existence, but he
passes judgment upon things, determining that this is a better thing,
or state, or condition than that. He chooses between and among things,
states, and conditions. He is conscious of a power within himself
also to will this or that, and can become a true cause of certain and
very many things within his experience, especially as concerns his
individual movements and conduct.
He is equally conscious of certain emotions that pertain to himself.
He fears, is awed; he experiences sorrow, hate, joy, and, best of
all, love. And, certain abnormal individuals aside, man loves what he
conceives to be the beautiful, the true, the good. In this, too, he is
capable of rising in conception from the concrete to the abstract; from
the relative to the absolute; from the finite to the infinite. He loves
the truth of his experience; but he knows it is limited, relative, and
he longs for the Absolute Truth. He loves the good of his experience,
but again he knows the good of his experience to be relative, finite,
and he longs for and could love, and love supremely, the Infinitely
Good. He aspires to relationship with it, to fellowship, to union, to
one-ship with it.
In order to attain to such relationship, however, it is obvious that
the Infinite Power, the Infinitely Beautiful and the Infinitely
Good must be some thing more than mechanical force. It must be
even more than an "Unknown"; something more than a "Mystery," a
mere "Incomprehensible," an "Inscruitable," if man is to stand in
any sympathetic relationship to it: for the "Infinite Power" as an
admittedly "Unknown," or as "Inscruitable Mystery," leaves that power
as incapable of reciprocal, moral and spiritual relations with man as
the "Power" conceived as mere mechanical force is.[A]
[Footnote A: These remarks are made in view of what Mr. Herbert Spencer
says of the value of "A Mystery ever pressing for an interpretation,"
as an "ultimate religious truth of the highest possible certainty";
but which, if analyzed, will be discovered to be of no more religious
value than the conception of the "Infinite Power" as mechanical force.
Yet Mr. Spencer thus speaks of it: "And thus the mystery which all
religions recognize, turns out to be far more transcendent mystery
than any of them suspect--not a relative, but an absolute mystery.
Here, then, is an ultimate religious truth of the highest possible
certainty--a truth in which religions in general are at one with each
other, and with a philosophy antagonistic to their special dogmas. And
this truth, respecting which there is a latent agreement among all
mankind from the fetish-worshiper to the most stoical critic of human
creeds, must be the one we seek. If Religion and Science are to be
reconciled, the basis of reconciliation must be this deepest, widest,
and most certain of all facts--that the Power which the Universe
manifests to us Is utterly inscrutable." "First Principles," pp. 47,
48.]
_5. The Immanence of the New Dispensation--Reconciliation of
Difficulties:_ The Immanence of God, as we have seen, and as that
conception is commonly held, presents a difficulty. The difficulty of
regarding the Immanent Power as being at once immanent in the world
and at the same time personal. But that difficulty is overcome in the
theology of the New Dispensation by the fact that the Immanent God is
conceived as Spirit or Spiritual Light--"the Light of Christ," for us
men--which "proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the
immensity of space. The light which is in all things; which giveth
life to all things; which is the law by which all things are governed:
even the Power of God."[A] And which is, according to the testimony of
St. John "the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world,"[B] and according to the word of the Lord to Joseph Smith is,
"the light which now shineth, which giveth you light, is through him
who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth
your understandings."[C]
[Footnote A: Doc. & Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:12,13.]
[Footnote B: St. John, i:9.]
[Footnote C: Doc. & Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:11.]
Also, as we have seen (ante-Lesson III), not only is the Immanent
Spirit the Divine Power, but that spirit carries with it into the
immensity of space which it pervades, at least certain attributes
of the Divine Intelligence from whom it proceeds, and becomes the
inspiration to intelligence in men, and the atmosphere of wisdom,
holiness, truth, and of love. Also the Immanent Spirit is a means of
union for man, if he desires it, if he seeks to make it so by drawing
nigh unto God, that God may draw nigh unto him--a means of union with
the Divine Intelligences from whom the spiritual light proceeds,
and of whom the Christ is the type, and with whom man is destined,
ultimately, to associate, living in the physical presence of such
Intelligences as well as in their spiritual presence, on terms of
intimate friendship--face to face communion; personal association in
councils; personal cooperation in the divine purposes, in creation,
in sustentation; in redemptive processes, and, in a word, in all the
Divine activities, until man shall be satisfied to the uttermost with
his fellowship and perfect union with God, finding in the free harmony
of Divine Intelligences, that "City of God," that moral order, that
expression of the "Absolute," that completeness, which seems necessary
to a rational universe for man.
PART II.
The Godhead.
THE HOLY TRINITY.[A]
(Scripture Reading Exercise).
THE HOLY TRINITY.
ANALYSIS.
I. Faith of the Church in God.
II. Scripture Evidence of the Trinity.
III. The Early Christian Conception of the Holy Trinity. The Apostles'
Creed.
IV. Worship of the Godhead.
REFERENCES.
The Scripture passages and works cited in the "Discussion" of this
lesson.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "And Jesus when he was baptized went straightway out of
the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the
Spirit of God, descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo,
a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased." (Matt. iii:16, 17.)_
[Footnote A: This subject is treated more at length in Seventy's Year
Book No. III, also in the writer's "Mormon Doctrine of Deity," Ch. IV,
Lesson XXXI, to which the student is referred. Its treatment here is
merely to get the idea of the relationship that the Holy Ghost sustains
to the other two personages of the Trinity.]
DISCUSSION.
_1. Belief in the Godhead:_ "We believe in God the Eternal Father,
and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."[A]
[Footnote A: "Articles of Faith"--Joseph Smith, from the Wentworth
Letter 1842, Hist. of the Church, Vol. IV, p. 535 et Seq.]
Such is the authoritative declaration of the Church as to its faith in
the Godhead. Such is the Godhead of the New Testament Scriptures--the
Christian Trinity.
_2. Scripture Proof of the Trinity:_ In four separate ways is
this made apparent: (1) at the baptism of Jesus. As Jesus, who is
God, the Son, came forth from his baptism at the hands of John, a
manifestation of the presence of God the Holy Ghost, was given in the
sign of the Dove, which rested upon Jesus; while, lo, a voice from
heaven, the voice of God, the Father, was heard, saying---"This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased";[A] (2) in the commission given
to the apostles to teach all nations: "and Jesus came and spake unto
them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go,
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you."[B] (3) in the vision of
Stephen; the mob rushed upon Stephen--"But he, being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked steadfastly into heaven, and saw the Glory of God, and
Jesus standing on the right hand of God."[C] (4) in the apostolic
benediction, viz., "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of
God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."[D]
[Footnote A: Matt. iii:16, 17.]
[Footnote B: Matt. xxviii:18, 19.]
[Footnote C: Acts vii:55, 56.]
[Footnote D: II Cor. xiii:14.]
This Godhead of three divine persons is emphatically proclaimed in the
Book of Mormon: They shall be "arraigned before the bar of Christ, the
Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal
God, to be judged according to their works."[A] "And after this manner
shall ye baptize in my name [this after giving the baptismal formula--I
baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, see context], for verily I say unto you, that the Father and the
Son, and the Holy Ghost are one"--Jesus.[B] "The Father, and I and the
Holy Ghost are one."--Jesus.[C]
[Footnote A: Alma xi:44.]
[Footnote B: II Nephi xi:24, 27.]
[Footnote C: Ibid ver. 36. See also III Nephi xxxiii:10; and Mormon
vii:7.]
_3. The Doctrine of the Trinity Formulated in the Early Christian
Church:_ To these scriptural groupings of the three persons into
a holy trinity, may be added that earliest of post apostolic symbols
known commonly as the "Apostles' Creed," because of the tradition that
it was formulated by the apostles immediately before their dispersion
into the world to fulfill the commission given to them by the Christ to
teach all nations; but which notion is now very generally discredited,
and the truer notion is held to be that this noted summary of Christian
faith "arose from small beginnings, and was gradually enlarged as
occasion required in order to exclude new errors from the Church."[A]
But, however, and whoever constructed this so-called Apostles' Creed,
this much must be said of it, viz., that it represents the almost
universal belief of the early Christian Church in a Godhead consisting
of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that this is
in harmony with the New Testament scriptures, and is the symbol[B] of
Christian faith that grew out of efforts to express the essentials of
Christianity. The creed, in English, follows:
[Footnote A: In acknowledging that it has no claim to that venerable
title (i. e., the Apostles' Creed), "we must guard against the common
assumption," says Dr. Philip Smith, "that it is the oldest, as well
as the simplest creed of the Catholic Church. True--as we have
seen--it may be traced, in its most essential elements, from an early
post-apostolic age; but, its development belongs solely to the Western
Church, and its formal adoption, as a written creed, is later than the
Nicene. It was the ancient baptismal creed as used in the Church of
Rome, and was known as the Symbolum Romanum, or simply Symbolum, before
it received the epithet of Apostolorum. Its forms were different in
different churches; the earlier forms variously omitting the articles
of the "descent into hell," "the communion of saints," "the life
everlasting," and the epithet "catholic" before "church."]
[Footnote B: "These creeds obtained also the name of Symbols."
Students' Ecclesiastical History, Dr. Philip Smith, Vol I, p. 234.]
THE "APOSTLES' CREED."
"I believe in God, the Father, Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, his only
begotten son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy
Ghost, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, buried, arose from the dead
on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and sits at the right hand
of the Father; whence he will come to judge the living and the dead;
and in the Holy Spirit; the holy church; the remission of sins; and the
resurrection of the body."[A]
[Footnote A: Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Institutes, Vol. I, p. 80,
Murdock's translation. The above form, is as it stood in the fourth
century, a few centuries later it attained in the Romish Church its
ampler form, in which it has since been adopted by most Protestant
churches, as follows:
"I believe in God, the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord; who was conceived by the
Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried, he descended into hell, the third day
he arose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the
right hand of God, the Father, almighty; from thence he shall come to
judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy
Catholic church, the Communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the
resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen." In this form
it is called the "Symbolum Roman--Roman Symbol."]
_4. Man's Allegiance to the Godhead:_ This holy Trinity of Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, the Godhead, constitutes for the Christian the
creating, sustaining, redeeming, witnessing power of the universe--the
supreme God. In this Godhead righteousness, and holiness, and truth,
and knowledge, and wisdom and power, and glory, and justice, and
mercy and love, and all that we do or can recognize as belonging to
the divine nature abound in their perfection. This Godhead is the
source of spiritual power and light and glory; to whom man owes first
allegiance; who is the true and only object--but singularly as well as
in unity--of man's worship; to whom man submits his mind and his will
for guidance--for in such submission alone is true worship.
LESSON VIII.
(Scripture Reading Exercise).
THE UNITY AND THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE PERSONAGES OF THE GODHEAD.
ANALYSIS.
I. The Oneness of the Trinity: its Nature.
II. Distinctiveness of the Father as a Personage.
III. The Distinctiveness of the Son--Divinity of the Son.
REFERENCES.
Mormon Doctrine of Deity, ch. IV; Seventy's Year Book No. III, lessons
xxxiii, xxxiv and xxxv; and all the Scriptures cited in the body of the
"Discussion."
_SPECIAL TEXT: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen." (II Cor.
xiii:14.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. The Unity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost:_ While conceiving
these three Divine Personages, as constituting an organized unit, a
body or Divine Council, it should be remembered that their oneness
consist in moral unity, not physical unity, or identity of substance
or essence. In other words, they are distinct and separate personages,
in the sense of being three separate and distinct individuals, a unity
only in agreement of purpose, and unity of will for the accomplishment
of certain definite ends,[A] to bring to pass the immortality and
eternal progress of man.[B]
[Footnote A: The Three Personagess. "Everlasting covenants was made
between three personages before the organization of this earth, and
relates to their dispensation of things to men on the earth: these
personages, according to Abraham's record, are called God the first,
the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer; and God the third, the
Witness or Testator."--Little & Richards' Compendium--Gems from the
Prophet's Teachings--p. 289.]
[Footnote B: Doc. & Cov., Sec. xciii:26-35. Book of Moses, Pearl of
Great Price, ch. iii., II Nephi ch. ii; also New Witnesses for God, Vol
III, ch xl. where the matter is discussed at great length.]
Jesus himself taught that he and his Father were one,[A] that whosoever
had seen him had seen the Father also;[B] that it was part of his
mission to reveal God, the Father, through his own personality; for as
was the Son, so too was the Father;[C] hence Jesus was God manifested
in the flesh, a revelation of God to the world;[D] a revelation not
only of the being of God, but of the kind of being God is.
[Footnote A: John x:30; xvii:11-22.]
[Footnote B: John xiv:9.]
[Footnote C: John xiv:1-9; John 1:8.]
[Footnote D: I Tim. iii:16.]
[Footnote: Eph iii:14-19.]
Jesus also prayed--and in so doing showed in what the oneness of
himself and the Father consisted--that the disciples might be one with
him, and also with each other, as he and the Father were one. Not one
in person, not all merged into one individual, and all distinctions of
personality lost; but one in mind, in knowledge, in love, in will; one
by reason of the indwelling in all of the one spirit, even as the mind
and will of God, the Father, was also in Jesus Christ.[A]
[Footnote A: John xiv:10, 11, 19, 20.]
_2. The Separate Individual Existence of the Father:_ The
existence of God, the Father, both Jesus and the Apostles accepted as
a reality. Jesus nowhere attempts to prove God's existence. He assumes
that and proceeds from that basis with his doctrine. He declares the
fact that God was his Father and frequently calls himself the Son of
God, and prays to the Father in that capacity: "As the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father. * * * Therefore doth my Father love me,
because I lay down my life for the sheep. * * * This commandment have I
received of my Father. * * * The works that I do in my Father's name,
they bear witness of me. * * * For which of those do ye stone me? The
Jews answered him. * * * Because that that thou being a man makest
thyself God. * * * Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and
sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said I am the Son of
God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John x.]
The statement of Jesus when instituting the Sacrament of the Lord's
Supper: "I will not drink hence forth of this fruit of the vine, until
that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."[A]
[Footnote A: Matt xxvi:29.]
The prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane: "O my Father if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."
And again: "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except
I drink it, thy will be done."[A]
[Footnote A: Ibid, verses 39, 42.]
John represents Jesus as saying in Gethsemane: "Father, the hour is
come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. * * * And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was. * * * Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be
one as we are. * * * That they all may be one: as thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee. * * * O righteous Father, the world hath not known
thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent
me."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John xvii.]
Then, after the resurrection of Jesus, he meets Mary of Magdala
and said to her, when she in her joy was about to lay hold of him:
"Touch me not; for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my
brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father;
and to my God and your God."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John xx.]
The separate and distinct individual existence of God the Father could
not be more emphatically represented than in these scriptures.
_3. The Separate and Individual Existence of the Son:_ The
scriptures which teach the separate existence of the Father, teach also
the separate and individual existence of the Son; but the question
may arise, Was Jesus, the Son of God, also God? The passage already
considered, in which Jesus is given equal rank with the Father and with
the Holy Ghost, strongly implies that he is Divine, that he is Deity.
In the Seventy's Year Book No. III, Lesson xxxiii, in treating at
length upon the subject of the divinity of Jesus, the conclusion that
Jesus, as well as the Father, is God, is worked out from the fact that
Jesus is called God in the Scriptures;[A] that Jesus declares himself
to be God--the Son of God;[B] that Jesus is to be worshiped--hence
God;[C] that Jesus, under the Father's direction, is the Creator, hence
God;[D] that Jesus Christ is declared to be equal with God the Father,
hence God.[E] All these declarations are sustained by the scriptures
and reasoned out in detail in the lesson of Year Book III cited
above, and to that work the student is referred. Here it will be only
necessary to cite the scriptures which sustain these several specific
declarations concerning Jesus, the Christ, which I have done by giving
them in the margin.[F]
[Footnote A: Isaiah vii:14; Matt. i:23; Isaiah ix:6.]
[Footnote B: John x:33; Matt. xxvii:63, 64; Matt. xxviii:18, 19; Heb.
i:8.]
[Footnote C: Rev. xix;10 c. f; Heb. i:5, 6; Phil. ii:9, 10.]
[Footnote D: St. John i:1-4; Col. i:12-17; Heb. i:2.]
[Footnote E: Matt. xxviii:18, 19; Phil. iii:6; Heb. iii:3; Col. i:19:
ii:9; II. Nephi xxvi:12.]
[Footnote F: The student will also find an elaborate discussion on the
subject in the writer's "Mormon Doctrine of Deity," chapter iv. And
also in his "Introduction to the History of the Church," Vol. I, pp.
81-89.]
Jesus, then, is separate and distinct from God, the Father; but is
nevertheless not only divine, but Deity, equally so with the Father;
for God so declares it, through his revelation to the world; but he is
united with the Father in moral union of mind and will, and purpose.
LESSON IX.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
UNITY AND DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE PERSONAGES OF THE GODHEAD (Continued).
ANALYSIS.
IV. The Distinctiveness of the Holy Ghost.
V. The Divinity of the Holy Ghost.
VI. Unity and Distinction.
REFERENCES.
All the scriptures cited in the body of the lesson.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "Whoso believeth in me, believeth in the Father also,
and unto him will the Father bear record of me; for he will visit him
with fire, and with the Holy Ghost. And thus will the Father bear
record of me, and the Holy Ghost will bear record unto him of the
Father and me: for the Father and I and the Holy Ghost are one." (III
Nephi xi:35, 36.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. The Separate and Individual Existence of the Holy Ghost:_
The proofs which set off the Father and Son as separate and distinct
personalities, which present them to us as two separate individuals,
also presents the Holy Ghost as a separate and distinct personality.
For whether we contemplate these divine personages when the three are
represented together, as at the baptism of the Christ,[A] in the vision
of St. Stephen,[B] in the baptismal formula,[C] or in the apostolic
benediction,[D] they are always presented in a manner that implies
distinctiveness as persons, however closely united in purpose.
[Footnote A: Matt. iii:16, 17.]
[Footnote B: Acts vii:54-56.]
[Footnote C: Matt. xxviii:19.]
[Footnote D: II Cor. xiii:12, 14.]
Jesus clearly ascribes to the Holy Ghost a distinct personality. He
represents the Holy Ghost as proceeding from the Father;[A] as sent
forth in the name of the Son;[B] as abiding;[C] as teaching and as
bearing witness;[D] as reproving the world of sin, and of righteousness
and of judgment;[E] as guiding into all truth, and revealing the things
of God to men.[F]
[Footnote A: St. John xvi:26.]
[Footnote B: St. John xiv:26.]
[Footnote C: St. John xiv:16.]
[Footnote D: St. John xiv:26 and xv:26, 27.]
[Footnote E: St. John xvi:8.]
[Footnote F: Ibid, verses 13-15.]
The apostles also refer to the Holy Ghost in much the same manner:
Peter represents the Holy Ghost as speaking by the mouth of David
concerning the treachery of Judas;[A] he also represents Ananias as
having lied to the Holy Ghost;[B] also he represents the Holy Ghost
as bearing witness with himself and his fellow apostle, John, to the
divinity of the Christ;[C] also the Holy Ghost is represented as
sending forth men to the ministry: "The Holy Ghost said, Separate me
Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them * * * so
they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia."[D]
[Footnote A: II Acts i:16, 17; c. f. Psalms xli:9.]
[Footnote B: Acts v:3.]
[Footnote C: Acts v:29-32.]
[Footnote D: Acts xiii:2-4.]
The Holy Ghost is represented as forbidding Paul and Timothy preaching
in Asia, and Bithynia.[A]
[Footnote A: Acts xvi:6-8: "After they were gone through Phrygia and
the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach in
Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia,
but the Spirit suffered them not."]
The fruit of the Spirit (the Holy Ghost) is said to be "love,
joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance;" and as these things can only proceed from a being
possessed of attributes that produce them, we must needs think of the
Holy Ghost as loving, as merciful, as patient, as meek, as temperate,
as gentle. All which with the other things preceding here said of him,
clearly established personality for the third person of the Godhead.
2. The Holy Spirit Distinct from the Father and the Son, Both in
Substance and Personal Action: On this subject Elder Orson Pratt has
the following very valuable passage: "That the substance of the Holy
Ghost is not identical with that of the Father and the Son, is evident
from the whole tenor of scripture." Jesus says, "When the Comforter
is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me."[A]
This Comforter could not be the Father, because he "proceedeth from the
Father." He could not be the Son, because he is sent by the Son. Again,
he could not be the Father, because it is contrary to the order of
heaven for Jesus to send the Father. And furthermore, he could not be
the Son, because he is represented as "another Comforter," to be with
the disciples, in the absence of Jesus. "If I go not away," says our
Savior, "the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I will
send him unto you."[B] The persons of the Father and Son were to be in
one place while the Comforter was to be in another, and therefore, the
Comforter must necessarily be a distinct substance from the Father and
Son."
[Footnote A: John xv:26.]
[Footnote B: John xvi:7.]
"That the Holy Spirit is something more than the mere power or
influence exerted by the Father, is evident from his possessing an
understanding, a will, and a power of distinct operation. Jesus says,
concerning the Comforter, "Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth
is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak
for himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and
he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for he shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."[A] Here the Holy
Spirit is represented as a hearer--a speaker--a guide, receiving and
showing what is received. Now such acts can only be the acts of a
substance, possessing understanding and a will. That this substance
is distinct from the Father is evident from his not speaking of
himself, but only speaking what he hears, which shows, most plainly,
a separate individuality. If the Holy Spirit were the Father, would
it be reasonable to say, that he does not speak of himself? Does not
the Father speak of himself? If the Holy Spirit be only a power or
influence from the Father, what absurdity would run through the whole
of the above passage! What nonsense would it be to say a power or
influence hears--a power or influence speaks--a power or influence
receives and shows! Yet this is the absurdity embraced by the
Socinians. We can only think of speaking, and hearing, and willing,
as applicable to a perceptive substance, and not to a quality. Again,
the Spirit is represented as making intercession for the Saints.
"Likewise," says Paul, "the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities; for
we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself
maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."[B]
How could a power or influence of the Father intercede with the Father?
How could a power or influence groan with groanings unutterable? Would
the Father intercede with himself? The absurdity of supposing the Holy
Spirit to be a mere property or influence of the Father, instead of
being an intelligent agent of himself, is so great, that we do not feel
disposed to bring further evidence or proof to establish the distinct
identity of the two."[C]
[Footnote A: John xvi:13, 14.]
[Footnote B: Rom. viii:26.]
[Footnote C: Mill. Star, Vol. XII, pp. 306-7.]
_3. The Divinity of the Holy Ghost:_ There remains to be
considered the question, Is the Holy Ghost God? Undoubtedly. The proof
is in the fact that he is a member of the Holy Trinity.[A] Also in the
fact that Jesus makes blasphemy against the Holy Ghost a greater sin
than blasphemy against himself.[B] This could not be unless the Holy
Ghost were Deity, and in some peculiar way so related to man that makes
this sin of blasphemy against him especially heinous.
[Footnote A: This subject is to be worked out in greater detail in a
subsequent lesson.]
[Footnote B: "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto
men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven
unto men. * * * Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it
shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world
to come." (Matt. xii:31; also Mark iii:28, 29.)]
"Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost," said
Peter to Ananias, when the latter had dealt deceitfully in the sale of
his land and the gift he had made to the Church. "Thou hast not lied
unto men," said the chief Apostle, "but to God!"[A]
[Footnote A: Acts v:1-14.]
From which it is to be concluded that to lie to the Holy Ghost is to
lie to God, because the Holy Ghost is God.
I may not more fittingly close this and the two preceding lessons on
the Godhead than by quoting a passage upon the subjects of which they
treat from the writings of the late venerable Apostle, Orson Pratt, who
upon both the oneness and the distinctiveness of the three personages
of the Holy Trinity made the following observations:
_4. The Persons of the Godhead One Council:_ "The Godhead may
be illustrated by a council, consisting of three men--all possessing
equal wisdom, knowledge, and truth, together with equal qualifications
in every respect. Each person would be a separate distinct person or
substance from the other two, and yet the three would form but one
council. Each alone possesses, by supposition, the same wisdom and
truth that the three united or the one council possesses. The union of
the three men in one council would not increase the knowledge or wisdom
of either. Each man would be one part of the council when reference
is made to his person; but the wisdom and truth of each man would be
the whole wisdom and truth of the council, and not a part. If it were
possible to divide truth, and other qualities of a similar nature into
fractions, so that the Father should have the third part of truth, the
third part of wisdom, the third part of knowledge, the third part of
love, while the Son and the Holy Spirit possessed the other two-thirds
of these qualities or affections, then neither of these persons could
make 'one God, but only a part of a God.' But because the divisibility
of wisdom, truth, or love is impossible, the whole of these qualities
dwells in the Father--the whole dwells in the Son--the whole is
possessed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one part of the
Godhead in essence; but the whole of God in wisdom, truth, and other
similar qualities. * * * The oneness of the Godhead, as described in the
scriptures, never was intended to apply to the essence, but only to the
perfections and other attributes."[A]
[Footnote A: Orson Pratt's Works, "Absurdities of Immaterialism," p.
30.]
LESSON X.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
SPECIAL OFFICES OF THE PERSONAGE OF THE HOLY TRINITY.
ANALYSIS.
I. Distinctiveness Among Divine Beings.
II. Special Characteristic and Office of the First Personage of the
Trinity.
III. Father and "Fathering"--Creating and "Sustaining"--"Directing the
Creation to Glorious Ends."
REFERENCES.
The works and passages cited in the body of this lesson.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "G. to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my
Father and your Father; and to my God and your God." (Jesus--St. John
xx:17.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. Alikeness and Diversity in the Nature of Divine Beings:_
Whatever may be said in the scriptures of the union in knowledge,
mercy, love, power, and will--in a word, whatever may be said of the
alikeness of these holy and divine Personages of the trinity, it
should be so understood as to allow of the thought of some difference
in office; and of some one or more distinctions in their relations to
each other, and in their relationship towards men; and even in their
physical natures when compared one with another. I feel encouraged
to make this avowal, unusual though it may be, because in nature we
may observe both a unity and a diversity. Though a given species of
grass may have general characteristics in which all the varieties of
grasses are alike, yet men have not yet found two blades of grass
precisely alike. In all the leaves of the forest, there have not yet
been found two leaves exactly alike; among all the hordes of men--the
millions living and the millions dead--no two have yet been found one
of which is a precise counterpart of the other. It is so everywhere
you look in nature; in animal or plant life; in mountains, rivers or
valleys; in the sands or among the shells of the sea shore--everywhere
unity of kind, of groups, but infinite variety of individuals. That
being the general truth taught throughout nature, may it not hold in
reference to Divine Personages as well? Without absolutely insisting
upon it, I shall venture to say I think so; and that in some way--in
office, in function, in appointment, in some respects even in physical
nature also--there are distinctive characteristics in the three divine
Personages of the Godhead.
Setting forth, and in profoundest reverence, the Personages of the
Godhead with reference to their chief functions as each stands related
to man, they appear as God, the Father; God, the Son, Redeemer of man;
God, the Holy Ghost, Witness to man of truth, of all truth.
Let us consider each in these capacities respectively.
_2. God, the Father:_ With this conception of God as "Father"
there is associated the larger--but not higher--idea of "Creator."
There exists, I think, a real difference between the idea of "father"
and "creator," and yet one feels, from our use of terms, and even from
the terminology of holy scripture, that each idea may include the
other. But first as to the distinctions between "father" and "creator."
The term "father" carries with it the notion of generation, begetting
from one's own person, springing from one's own nature, and partaking
of one's own physical and mental qualities and perhaps likeness, but
the term "creator" does not necessarily convey that notion, since a
created thing may be external to the nature of the being who created
it; as, for example, when God created the heaven and the earth.[A] In
this case the heaven and the earth did not bear the image of God; nor
was it made in his likeness, as the result was when God said, "Let us
make man in our image, and after our likeness." So in relation to man;
he begets a son or a daughter by act of generation; he is a father; and
also, in a sense, a creator.[B]
[Footnote A: Gen. i.]
[Footnote B: Athanasius makes the following distinction between
"begotten" and "created," which I believe to be true and of great
importance as a truth. "Let it be repeated," he says, "that a created
thing is external to the nature of the being who creates it; but a
generation, (a begetting, as a father begets a son) is the proper
off-spring of the nature." (Quoted in Shedd's Hist, of Christian
Doctrine, Vol. I, p. 322.)]
He gathers materials and builds a house; or with various colored
pigments, brushes, and stretched canvas he paints a landscape, or from
some rude block of marble with mallet and chisel he hews out the image
of a man; he is a creator. Creator of the house, the painted landscape,
the statue; and also, in a certain sense, after our manner of speech,
we could say the father of them. So that in the terms "father" and
"creator" there is both a distinction and a sameness.
_3. The Dual Idea of "Father" and "Creator:"_ I said a moment
since that scripture terminology justified this dual idea that
goes with the use of "father" and "creator." Now to the proof: In
Hebrews we find this passage: "We have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us, and we gave them reverence: Shall we not much rather be
in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?"[A] From this it is
learned that God is the "Father" of the spirits of men--from which
circumstance comes the title--"God, the Father." In the Book of Moses,
the Lord, following an account of the creation, says: "I, the Lord God,
created all things of which I have spoken spiritually, before they were
naturally upon the face of the earth. * * * And I, the Lord God, had
created all the children of men; and not yet a man to till the ground;
for in heaven created I them. * * * And I, the Lord God, formed man
from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and man became a living soul, the first flesh upon the earth,
the first man also; nevertheless all things were before created; but
spiritually were they created and made according to my word."[B]
[Footnote A: Heb. xii:9.]
[Footnote B: Book of Moses (Pearl of Great Price), ch. iii:5, c. f.
Doc. and Cov. Sec. xxix:30-34; also Book of Abraham, ch. iii:23. Gen.
i:26-27; c. f. Gen. ii:5-7.]
Here we have God saying that he had "created all the children of men,"
and yet there was not a man to till the earth; "for in heaven I created
them," that is, uniting this statement with Paul's passage, he had
become the "Father of spirits;" and "Father" and Creator are seen to be
used synonymously. Conversely: Nothing is clearer than that God, in the
Scriptures, is proclaimed the "Creator:" "Creator of heaven and earth
and all things that in them are." And now comes one of our Book of
Mormon writers, saying: "and they [i. e., Father and Son, see context]
are one God, yea, the very eternal Father of heaven and of earth."[A]
Which can only be understood as "creator of heaven and earth."
[Footnote A: Mosiah xv:4.]
Again: "Is the Son of God the very eternal Father? * * * Yea, he is
the very eternal Father of heaven and of earth, and all things which
in them is."[A] In the quotation following the terms are used in
combination. Samuel, the Lamanite prophet, was sent unto the people of
a certain city, that they "might know of the coming of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, the Father of heaven and of earth, the Creator of all
things, from the beginning."[B] From these passages it is evident that
the term "father" is made to include the idea of "Creator."
[Footnote A: Alma xi:38, 39.]
[Footnote B: Helaman xiv:12. Wherein Jesus is referred to as the
Creator, the "Father of heaven and earth," it should be understood that
he is so under the direction of the God, the Father; "God * * * hath
* * * spoken to us by his Son, by whom also he (God the Father) made
the worlds" (Hebrews i:3). "To us there is but one God, the Father, of
whom are all things,--and we in him: and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by
whom are all things, and we by him" (I. Cr. viii:6) " * * * God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ" (Eph. iii:9). So that while Jesus
was the immediate creator of things he did so under and by the Father's
direction, so that the Father may still be regarded as the first mover
in the creation drama, Jesus the agency through whom he acted.]
_4. "Father" and "Fathering:"_ The chief characteristic, of the
First Personage of the Godhead, then, appears to be that of "Father,"
"Creator." And with this goes the extended idea inseparably associated
with the notion of "Father," viz., "fathering"--caring for, sustaining,
upholding. We contemplate this Holy First Personage, then, not only
as "Father of spirits;" but one anxious for their welfare, for their
progress. And he himself has declared "this is my work and my glory--to
bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."[A] And in the
creation drama we have God, the "Father of the spirits," standing among
them and planning for their advancement. God said unto those who were
with him: "We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take
of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;
and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things
whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; and they who keep
their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their
first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who
keep their first estate, and they who keep their second estate shall
have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever. And the Lord said:
Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of man: Here a.
I, send me. And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the
Lord said: I will send the first."[B]
[Footnote A: Book of Moses, ch. i:39.]
[Footnote B: Book of Abraham, ch. iii:24-27.]
And so the second personage of the Godhead was chosen for his office
of Savior of men. But the first Personage was proposing the plan for
"adding upon" these spirits of heaven. He was planning for their
increase in honor and glory for ever and ever; and that through
development; though increasing their intelligence, knowledge, wisdom
and spiritual power; by experiences to be obtained in earth-life among
broken harmonies, when fidelity to truth and virtue and God should be
tested, where men should find themselves. He was "fathering" them. Just
as in being "Creator" he not only creates--causes to exist--but he
cares for the "creation," he sustains it; upholds it; guides it to some
definite end, to the achievement of some beneficent purpose.
Such must be our thought of this all glorious First Personage of the
Godhead-Father, Creator; also Sustaining, Guiding, Loving Power of the
Universe.
LESSON XI.
(Scripture Reading Exercise.)
SPECIAL OFFICE OF THE PERSONAGES OF THE HOLY TRINITY (Continued).
ANALYSIS.
IV. Special Office of the Second Personage of the Trinity--Redeemer.
V. Special Office of the Third Personage of the Trinity--Witness.
VI. The Three in Union.
REFERENCES.
The citations in the body of this lesson.
_SPECIAL TEXT: "But Christ being come an High Priest of good things to
come * * * through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to
God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God."
(Hebrews ix:11, 14.)_
DISCUSSION.
_1. God, the Son, Redeemer:_ We have found the chief office or
function of the first Personage of the Godhead, so may we find the
chief office and function of the second, and much more briefly. More
briefly because one Year Book of the Seventy's course in Theology has
already been devoted to him and his work. He is the Redeemer of men. To
be such was his appointment in heaven, as incidentally, we have seen in
Lesson IX; and as it is abundantly declared in the scriptures.
_2. Scripture Declaration of the Office of the Christ:_ "And as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of
man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John iii:14.]
"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for
us."[A]
[Footnote A: I John iii:16.]
"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting
life."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John iii:16.]
"For Christ hath also once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God," being put to death in the flesh but
quickened by the Spirit.[A]
[Footnote A: I Peter iii:16.]
"When we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for us. *
* * Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through him. * * * When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by
the death of his Son."[A]
[Footnote A: Rom. v:6-10.]
"It hath also been made known unto me, by the power of the Holy Ghost,
wherefore I know if there should be no atonement made, all mankind must
be lost."[A]
[Footnote A: Jacob, Book of Mormon, vii:12.]
"Behold, he suffereth the pains of all men; yea, the pains of every
living creature both men and women and children, who belong to the
family of Adam;"[A]
[Footnote A: II Nephi ix:21.]
"Surely every man must repent or suffer [i. e. eternal consequence of
sin]. . . . For behold, I God, have suffered these things for all,
that they might not suffer if they would repent, but if they would not
repent, they must suffer even as I, which suffering caused myself, even
God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at
every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit, and would that I might
not drink the bitter cup."[A]
[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. xix:16-18.]
_3. The Offering of the Christ Voluntary:_ The chief office, then,
of the Christ is that of Savior, Redeemer. In that work is revealed the
love of God. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting
life."[A] And Christ so loved men that he voluntarily made the
sacrifice: "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I
lay down my life for the sheep [i. e. for men]. . . . Therefore doth my
Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself."[B]
[Footnote A: St. John iii:14-18.]
[Footnote B: St. John x:15-18.]
"Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall
presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? [i. e. for his
deliverance from those who had taken him for the crucifix]. But how
then shall the scripture be fulfilled, that thus it must be?"[A]
[Footnote A: Matt. xxvi:52-54.]
Though in the shadow of the cross he could have found deliverance from
his voluntarily accepted mission had he so elected; but thanks be to
God, he endured and fulfilled his mission to menward. And in that
office of Savior, Redeemer, one recognizes the devotion of the brother
and the friend of man; and in this he made manifest the love of God for
the world; even also as he manifested the brightness of God's glory,
and the express image of his person, being indeed the full and complete
revelation of God to the world--"God manifested in the flesh."
_4. Christ the Mediator:_ In this second Personage of the Godhead,
then, one may see not only the Redeemer, the Savior, the Revealer of
God; but through those offices one may also see the Brother and Friend
of man. The Mediator, the one who brings God close to man; the one who
brings men close to God. The one who reflects God into the world. The
one who banishes the terror which men have had of God, and reveals the
love of God, and the mercy and compassion of the Father--the one whom
the ages longed for--the need of the world as Mediator between man
and violated law--Herald of grace--Christ the Son of God, by way of
pre-eminence; Christ, the Brother and Friend of Man.
_5. God the Holy Ghost--Witness in the Godhead; Spirit of Truth
and Revealer of Truth:_[A] "I give you to understand, that no man
speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed; and that no man
can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost,"--Paul.[B]
[Footnote A: As this Divine Personage of the Holy Trinity is to be
the subject of several lessons, and the central thought in this
whole treatise here only so much is said of him as will suggest his
relationship to the other two personages of the Godhead, and indicate
his special office.]
[Footnote B: I Cor. xii:3.]
"Then are ye in the straight and narrow path * * * and ye have received
the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and of the Son."[A]
[Footnote A: II Nephi xxxi:18.]
"When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall
testify of me."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John xv:26.]
"Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into
all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall
hear that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
"He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it
unto you.
"All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he
shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John xvi:13, 15.]
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send
in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your
remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John xiv:26.]
In these scriptures we have presented the chief office of the Third
Person of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Ghost by way of pre-eminence is
the Witness of God, and for the truth of God. The Father's witness;
the Son's witness; the Truth's witness; and because of this--as the
outgrowth of it--the Guide into all truth; the Comforter, the Assurer,
the universal Voice to soul of man of certainty; the universal Eye to
the spirit of man, that can and does show him things to come. The Seer
Power in the Souls of men. The Witness for God; who is also God, Deity;
and the bond of union and communion between God and Souls of men.
Spirit Personage of the Godhead; one in moral and spiritual union with
God, the Father, and God, the Son, and the cause and special power of
union between God, and those who receive the truth.