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.