(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

SPECIAL OFFICE OF THE PERSONAGES OF THE HOLY TRINITY (Continued).

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.