(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

NATURE AND FORM.

SPECIAL TEXT: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." (Phil. ii:5 c. f. Acts x:38.)

DISCUSSION.

1. As Heretofore Considered: I have already considered the Holy Ghost as a member of the Trinity; as a separate Personage in that Trinity; and have spoken to a limited extent of his special office as a Witness of the truth. But all that has been said has been to present a view of him in association with the other Personages of the Godhead. It is now proposed to consider him by himself, alone—his nature, his office, the principles upon which men may unite their lives with his life, and thus attain perfect spiritual life.

2. The Spirit of the Inquiry: Most reverently, and rather reluctantly, do I address myself to this task. Certainly no one could approach it lightly, much less arrogantly, as knowing all about it, when really, after all, one knows and can know so little about it; and that only which it has pleased God to reveal in his word, and inspired his prophets to teach. Beyond what is of record in these revelations, the writer may claim no knowledge of the subject. It is merely to set forth what may be learned from these sources, grouping the facts as they may be learned by all in that manner which appeals to him as being most orderly and clear, and that will make for a reverent attitude towards this holy Personage of the Godhead.

3. Distinctions in Nature: It appears that the Holy Ghost differs from the other personages of the Godhead, in this; that while "the Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's, the Son also;^[A] * * * * the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit. Were it not so the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us."^[B]

[Footnote A: For collected evidence of this truth, and the doctrine that as the Son is, so is the Father, see Seventy's Year Book, No. III, Lesson xxiii, notes 7, 8, 11.]

[Footnote B: Doc. and Cov., sec. 130:22.]

Such the declaration of Joseph, the Prophet, in some instruction given to the Church at Ramus, Illinois, April 2nd, 1843;^[A] and admitted into the body of the Doctrine and Covenants as doctrine of the Church.

[Footnote A: Hist. of the Church—the Journal History of the Prophet—Vol. V, p. 325.]

With this also, of course, the teaching of President Young agrees: "The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Lord, and issues forth from himself, and may properly be called God's minister to execute his will in immensity; being called to govern by his influence and power; but he is not a person of tabernacle as we are and as our Father in heaven and Jesus Christ are."^[A]

[Footnote A: Journal of Discourses, Vol. I, p. 50.]

4. "Spirit," Its Substantive^[A] Nature: To aid in a proper understanding of the meaning of the Prophet in the passage just quoted, it is necessary to ascertain what is meant by him in using the terms "spirit" and "personage." At Ramus, Illinois, 17th of May, 1843, the Prophet, "speaking of Eternal Duration of Matter," said: "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but is more fine or pure, [i. e. than gross matter] and can only be discerned by purer eyes. We can not see it, but when our bodies are purified, we shall see that it is all matter."^[B] "In tracing the thing to foundation," said the Prophet in an editorial of the Times and Seasons, April, 1842, "and looking at it philosophically, we shall find a very material difference between the body and the spirit; the body is supposed to be organized matter, and the spirit, by many, is thought to be immaterial, without substance. With this latter statement we should beg leave to differ, and state that spirit is a substance; that it is a material, but that it is more pure, elastic and refined matter than the body; that it existed before the body, can exist in the body; and will exist separate from the body, when the body will be mouldering in the dust; and will in the resurrection, be again united with it."^[C]

[Footnote A: Substantive (2) "Having substance or reality." Example of use: "The mind is a substantive existence, possessing a uniform structure of character, however fundamentally different from the bodily structure." G. T. Curtis, Creation and Evolution, p. 470.]

[Footnote B: "History of the Church," Vol. V, p. 393. The passage, except the introductory sentence, is admitted into the body of the Doctrine and Covenants (sec. cxxxi:7, 8).]

[Footnote C: Hist. Ch, Vol. IV, p. 575.]

From this, one is justified in concluding that because the Prophet refers to the Holy Ghost as a "spirit," he does not thereby mean an immaterial being, or personage; a being not matter; but a being, a personage of finer and more subtle material than flesh and bone, else the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.^[A]

[Footnote A: An important truth hinges upon this doctrine and is considered later.]

5. Substantive Existence of the Holy Ghost: Upon this line of thought, that is, as to immateriality of spirit, the late Elder Orson Pratt has a most enlightening passage, which I here give at length:

"Some have supposed the Holy Spirit to be merely a power or influence, and not a substance; these are the views of Unitarians: they do not believe that there is a substantive Holy Spirit, but that the Holy Spirit is only a quality or attribute of the Father's substance. We shall first show that the Holy Spirit can have no existence as a mere attribute, or quality, without some substance to which such quality appertains. It is an admitted principle in all sound philosophy, that all qualities or powers must be the qualities or powers of something. Abstract qualities or powers are inconceivable. Motion implies a substance capable of moving or being moved. Force implies a substance capable of exerting a power on itself, or on something external to itself. The various colors of the prism imply a substance capable of producing the sensations of color upon the optic nerve. Sound implies a substance in a certain state or condition, affecting the organ of hearing. Taste implies a substance, exciting its appropriate sensation. As all these qualities and properties imply substance to which they belong, so do wisdom, knowledge, power, goodness, love, and such like qualities, imply substances to which they adhere. And as we cannot conceive of motion, force, color, or sound existing without a substrate, so we cannot conceive of wisdom, knowledge, goodness, or virtue subsisting without a substantive being to which these qualities belong.

"Some writers who have obtained a degree of celebrity among the speculative philosophers of modern times, have advocated a theory (if indeed, it may be called a theory), that power, forces, etc., in the abstract constitute the whole universe. Boscovich and his disciples maintained this idea, and contended that there was no such thing as substance in existence—that the universe was made up, not of substance, but of an infinitude of mathematical points, attracting, repelling, and combining with each other according to certain laws. According to this theory it is assumed that repulsions of a certain degree of intensity produce solidity—that those of less intensity produce liquidity, and that the various degrees of rarity or density depend, not upon substance, but upon the attractions and repulsions of points in different degrees of proximity. A celebrated writer of our own day—Isaac Taylor—is inclined to this theory. After suggesting the idea that substance was not necessary in the constitution of the universe, he says, 'The visible and palpable world then, according to this theory, is motion, constant and uniform, emanating from infinite centres, and springing, during every instant of its continuance from the Creative Energy.' (Isaac Taylor's Physical Theory of Another Life, p. 238.)

"According to this theory, attractions and repulsions must exist without anything to be attracted or rexpelled—motion must exist without anything being moved—there must be 'a springing' from 'infinite centres' continuing 'every instant' without anything to be sprung. Here are energies, forces, and motion, ascribed not to a substance, but to empty space, or nothing. The latter writer, it is true, admits a 'Creative Energy.' What he means by this is, that all those varieties of motions were created. But if there is no substance, there can be nothing but empty space; but space is not capable of motion, therefore, 'Creative Energy' could not create a motion, until there was something in space to be moved. Therefore, to speak of motion where nothing exists is an absurdity, only equaled by the absurdity of the notion of a 'God without body or parts.'

"As it is impossible for motion to exist without a substance, so it is equally impossible and absurd for wisdom, knowledge, goodness, love, power, will, or any other similar attribute or quality to exist separate and apart from substance; hence the 'Creative Energy' itself could not exist unless a substance existed to which it appertained. The most eminent philosophers of modern times, with very few exceptions, have considered substance necessary to the existence of every quality. These were the views of that great master spirit—the renowned Sir Isaac Newton. In the Scholium, at the end of the 'Principia,' when speaking of God, he says, 'He is omnipresent, not by means of his virtue alone, but also by his substance, for virtue cannot subsist without substance.' The Holy Spirit, therefore, is a substance, and must, like all other substances, have parts, bearing relation to space and duration."^[A]

[Footnote A: Millennial Star, Vol. XII, No. 20.]

Then as to "personage:" The Prophet used this term always in the sense of meaning an individual, including bodily form, with all that belongs to it; never in the subtle and vague sense of the philosophers or school men, mediaeval or modern.^[A] This is evident from use of the term in describing his first vision: "I saw two personages whose brightness and glory defy all description."^[B] These two "personages" were the Father and the Son, of the holy Trinity, and whom in later years, as already seen, the Prophet declares to possess bodies of flesh and bone as tangible as man's, and in form like man's. It follows, then, that describing the Holy Ghost as a "personage of Spirit," means only that the Holy Ghost differs from the other glorious personages of the Godhead in the nature of the substance of which, for want of a better term, we may say he subsists, but not necessarily different in form; and of which we can only say—that is, of his substance—he is not flesh and bone as are the tabernacles of the Father and the Son.

[Footnote A: Never, for example, as Calvin uses it: "What I denominate a person is a subsistence of the divine essence which is related to the others and yet is distinguished from them by an incommunicable property." Calvin's Institutes i:13; or as the philosophers use it, where consciousness, thought and will seem to be the essentials of "personality," without any reference to form. (See Evolution in Relation to Religious Thought, Dr. Jos. Le Conte, p. 339.)]

[Footnote B: Pearl of Great Price, Writings of Joseph Smith, ch. ii.]