THE HOLY GHOST.--CHARACTER AND SOURCE.
Can the naturalist find out and comprehend the secret of the endless
variety of life in the vegetable and animal kingdoms? Can the chemist
find out the essences of substances, or make himself master of the
secrets of great nature's laboratory where those wonderful combinations
are wrought which produce the substances that constitute the material
universe? Can the physician or surgeon with scalpel and microscope
"trace to its source the lightning of the soul"--trace out the secret
springs of life and intelligence in the human organism? Can the
astronomer, even with his mightiest telescope, penetrate to the outside
curtains of space where worlds and planetary systems do not exist--can
he circumscribe the creations of God, within the scope of his vision or
knowledge?
To all these questions a negative answer must be given; when man has
done his best, when his whole life has been spent in seeking knowledge
and finding out wisdom, even then the facts which he has mastered,
compared with those beyond the power of his intellect to comprehend,
are insignificant; and the fields of knowledge which he has explored,
compared with those wherein man has never yet set his foot, are as the
few grains of sand compared to the untold millions of such grains that
form old ocean's beach.
The great Sir Isaac Newton at the close of his life--a life devoted
to the search for knowledge in which pursuit he had been more than
ordinarily successful, and most men thought he had accomplished
something of which he could boast--said in accents most humble, "I have
been like a child playing upon the beach; I have succeeded in finding a
few pretty shells, and picking up a few pretty pebbles, but the great
ocean lies before me unexplored."
Questions and considerations like these, are calculated to reveal
the fact that man, with all his boasted intelligence, is, after all,
in this sphere of existence, "cribbed, cabined and confined" to
limits extremely narrow, so far as his ability to comprehend facts is
concerned.
The naturalist will answer "No," to the question I have set down to
him. He will tell us that he can classify the various forms of animal
and vegetable life, basing his classification upon certain similarities
of structure or habits; but when it comes to accounting for the great
variety and forms of life in animated nature; or to telling why it is
that one seed produces the mighty, sturdy oak, and another the supple
willow; or why each species of animals produces its kind--he cannot
inform you. His most careful investigations and patient watching have
failed to rob nature of these secrets.
The chemist of a century ago, who thought he had reduced compound
substances to their primary elements, and had discovered all the
primary elements of substances; could he live today, he would see his
"elements" separated and reduced, and a multitude of other elements
unknown to him, brought within the compass of chemical science;
and yet the existence of the universe itself, remaining as great a
mystery as ever. Indeed, the wonder grows rather than diminishes with
each succeeding discovery; for these things increase the mystery by
revealing the complexity and delicate combinations of substances as
they exist in their varied forms.
To the physician, the surgeon, the scientist, the mystery of life
remains as much an unsolved problem as it ever did. It is true they
claim to have traced it down to its beginning; they say it originates
in a substance known to them as protoplasm; that a single cell of this
wonderful substance has the peculiar power of producing another cell,
and this one still another. This multiplication of protoplasmic cells
continuing until it develops in the varied processes of nature into the
great variety of animal organisms known to us. Yet after all his work,
the scientist at last, with nervous hand and throbbing brow reaches a
point beyond which he cannot go, and the single cell of protoplasm,
with the peculiar power to multiply itself, is as great a mystery as
man with his complex organism of bones and nerves and muscles.
To the question I have put to the astronomer, he would doubtless
answer, with some impatience, that his best instruments but revealed to
him the nearest outposts of the stellar worlds; and that beyond these
few street lamps within his vision, with whose positions he has become
acquainted and marked down on his chart, are numberless planetary
systems out of the reach of his instruments, but whose existence is
revealed by masses of light through which he cannot penetrate. His
science is unsatisfied, the little he has learned but reveals to him
the vastness and extent of those fields of knowledge beyond his power
to enter, much less to reap.
If in relation to these grosser materials or objects, and their
relationship to each other, man's knowledge is so limited, and
his powers of comprehension so restricted, the reader will not be
astonished when I tell him there is very much that is beyond our power
to understand in relation to that most subtle, powerful, sensitive and
intelligent of all influences, known to us as the Holy Ghost.
What little may be learned of this great spiritual force in the
universe, is to be found in the revelations of God, from which we are
given to understand that this Holy Spirit which exists throughout the
universe and is the medium by which it is governed, emanates from God.
Just previous to his crucifixion, Jesus said to his disciples: "But
when the Comforter [which is the Holy Ghost--see John xiv, 26], is
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
Truth, _which proceedeth from the Father_ he will testify of me."[A]
[Footnote A: John xv: 26.]
And this agrees with what the Lord has revealed in this dispensation,
in respect to this Spirit. To a number of Elders who had assembled
together, to learn the will of the Lord concerning them--after
telling them that he was well pleased with them, and that their names
were written in the book of the names of the sanctified--he said:
"Wherefore, I now send upon you another Comforter, even upon you,
my friends, that it may abide in your hearts, even the Holy Spirit
of promise; which other Comforter is the same I promised unto my
disciples, as is recorded in the testimony of John.[B] This Comforter
is the promise which I give unto you of eternal life; even the glory
of the celestial kingdom: which glory is that of the church of the
first-born; even of God, the holiest of all, through Jesus Christ,
his Son: he that ascended up on high, as also he descended below al]
things, in that he comprehended all things, that he might be in all
and through all things [that is, by the power of his Spirit] the light
of truth; which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ [or Holy
Spirit]. As also he is [that is, by this Spirit--the Holy Ghost], 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."[C]
[Footnote B: John xiv.]
[Footnote C: Doc. and Cov., sec. lxxxviii: 1-13.]
The line in italics represents this "light" which quickened the
understanding of the Elders to whom the revelation was addressed, as
proceeding from the presence of God, and this is wherein the testimony
of this revelation agrees with that of John. Both testify that this
Spirit emanates from God, and that this "light" which "proceedeth forth
from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space, which giveth
life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed,"
is identical With that Spirit of which Jesus was speaking, the Holy
Ghost, cannot be doubted. Hence, from this revelation we learn not only
the source of the Holy Ghost, but that it permeates the universe, and
is the power by which the creations of God were brought into existence,
by which they subsist, and by which they are directed in their
respective spheres in such harmony and splendor.
To these ideas respecting the Holy Ghost agree several other
authoritative passages. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that the
Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, "but is a personage of
Spirit;" and then adds: "Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell
in us."[D]
[Footnote D: Doc. and Cov., sec. cxxx.]
Again it is written: "The elements are the tabernacle of God, yea
man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is
defiled, God shall destroy that temple."[E] This cannot allude to God
the Father or to God the Son, because each has a tabernacle of flesh
and bones, as tangible as man's;[F] but it alludes to God the Holy
Ghost, whose tabernacle is in the elements of the universe, giving life
and light and intelligence to all things, and is the grand medium of
communication between God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and their
vast creations.
[Footnote E: Doc. and Cov., sec. xciii; also I. Cor. iii: 16, 17; I.
Cor., vi: 19.]
[Footnote F: The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as
man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and
bones, but is a personage of Spirit. (Doc. and Cov., sec. cxxx: 22; see
also Lectures on Faith, v: 2, 3.)]
So much as to the source and nature of the Holy Ghost; now let us turn
our attention to what it does for those who possess it, what gifts and
graces it bestows and develops in them.