(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

THE PROMISE OF THE HOLY GHOST.

SPECIAL TEXT: "Wait for the Promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."—Jesus (Acts 1:4-5.)

DISCUSSION.

1. John the Baptist's Promise of the Holy Ghost: When John the Baptist came with his message of "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"; he also said:

"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."^[A]

[Footnote A: Matt. iii:11; also Mark i:7-9.]

Afterwards John bore record that Jesus of Nazareth was he of whom he spake. "I saw," said he, "the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him (Jesus). And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bear record that this is the Son of God."^[A]

[Footnote A: John i:32-34, in connection with verse 29-31.]

2. The Premise of the Christ: Jesus himself made frequent allusion to this baptism of the Holy Ghost; and, as we have seen in previous lessons, expounded 'the functions and powers of that Spirit. Finally, after his death and resurrection, and just previous to his departure from among his disciples in Judea, he said to them:

"Wait for the promise of the Father, which * * * ye have heard of me. For John, truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence."^[A]

[Footnote A: Acts i:4, 5.]

The reference to the promise made through John the Baptist is obvious; and the disciples who had anxiously looked for its accomplishment were now informed that its fulfillment was not many days hence.

The promise was fulfilled, for in about seven days^[A] after the Messiah's ascension, on the day of Pentecost, the disciples being assembled with one accord, in one place, "Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance."^[B]

[Footnote A: Pentecost came fifty days after the Passover, (reckoning from the second day of the Passover—the 16th of the Month Nisan) on which day the Lord Jesus was crucified. Allowing that he laid three days in the tomb, and was with his disciples forty days after his resurrection (Acts i:3), forty-three days of the fifty between Passover and Pentecost was accounted for, leaving but seven between his ascension and the day of Pentecost, when the promise of the baptism of the Spirit was fulfilled.]

[Footnote B: Acts ii 2-4.]

Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, so abundantly given to himself and companions on that day, preached a discourse which convinced thousands that Jesus was both Lord and Christ, the Savior of the world; and in answering the question of the multitude as to what they should do, after telling them to repent, and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins, he added: "And ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."^[A]

[Footnote A: Acts ii:38,39.]

I call attention to the universality of this promise. It was made to those who were listening to the apostles; but not to them alone, it extended to their children, to them also that were afar off—to those who were a hundred years off, or five hundred, or five or ten thousand years off; the promise was to them; and as if this was not sufficiently universal, the apostle adds, "even to as many as the Lord our God shall call"—call to what? to as many, of course, as are called to yield obedience to the gospel—to all such the promise extends.

4. Special Promise of the Holy Ghost in the New Dispensation of the Gospel: As the promise made by John was repeated and emphasized by the Savior, so, likewise, has this general promise made by the Apostle Peter been repeated and emphasized by the Lord, in restoring the gospel to the earth in this dispensation in which we live. To the first elders of the Church in our day, he said:

As I said unto mine apostles, even so I say unto you, for ye are mine apostles. * * * Therefore, * * * I say unto you again, that every soul who believeth on your words, and is baptized by water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost.^[A]

[Footnote A: Dov. and Cov. Sec. lxxxiv:65, 64.]

So to those who have faith in the revelations which the Lord has given through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the promise of the Holy Ghost is repeated, and assurance is made doubly sure.

5. Sign of the Holy Ghost: The descent of the Holy Ghost upon Jesus and its abiding with him, was to be John's sign that he it was who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire. He knew not who that divine person was in Israel until this sign should be given to him. Hence we have him saying, after the sign had designated Jesus as the one who would baptize with the Holy Ghost—"I knew him not; but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, 'Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptized with the Holy Ghost; and I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God."^[A]

[Footnote A: St. John i:32, 34.]

In the Holy Ghost thus designating Jesus of Nazareth, we are informed, according to John's testimony, that he "saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him";^[A] and to this the other evangelists agree, except that St. Luke emphasizes the account by adding "in bodily form." "The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him."^[B] The incident has been the occasion of much and varied comment. Can it be that the Holy Ghost takes on varied and really physical forms? And is that "spiritual personage," such as we have represented the Holy Ghost to be in these Lessons, really a permanent, personal spirit-personage, or is he an evanescent one? Appearing now in this form, now in that? Now, perhaps, as "burning bush"; now as a "dove"; now as "cloven tongues as of fire"; and now "in form of a man?" It is more in keeping with the dignity of this Divine Personage, as I conceive the revelations describing him, to think of him as a spirit-personage, permanent as to his spirit, individual form; which would lead us necessarily to the conclusion that these other forms of "dove" and "cloven tongues as of fire," were but manifestations of his presence only, not really he, himself; these other forms were but insignia of him.

[Footnote A: St. John i:32.]

[Footnote B: St. Luke iii:22. The International Revision Commentary on the New Testament, says of the passage: "This statement, in which all four evangelists agree, is to be understood literally. A temporary embodiment of the Holy Spirit occurred to inaugurate our Lord as the Messiah."

"In bodily shape;" "that is," says the Commentary of Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, on the passage in Matthew iii:16—"that is, the blessed Spirit, assuming the corporeal form of a dove, descended thus upon his sacred head." "And in this form because the emblem of chastity, purity, meekness, gentleness, beauteousness," Dummelow's Commentary says: "As he (the Christ) rises from the baptismal waters, the Holy Ghost, the living bond of love and unity in the Godhead descends. The appearance of the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove was a symbolic vision, and, as spiritual things are spiritually discerned, the vision was probably seen only by our Lord and the Baptist. The dove is the type of the Spirit because of its innocence, gentleness and affection. (Dummelow Commentary, p. 632).]

To this conclusion one is helped by the teaching of the Prophet of the New Dispensation. Joseph Smith, in a discourse at the Nauvoo Temple, on the 29th day of January, 1843, said—and his remarks were especially prepared as he was answering some doctrinal questions about the mission of John, the Baptist, the greatness of it—"He was entrusted with the important mission to baptize the Son of Man," said the Prophet; "Whoever had the honor of doing that? Whoever had so great a privilege and glory? Whoever led the Son of God into the waters of baptism, and had the privilege of beholding the Holy Ghost descend in the form of a dove, or rather in the sign of the dove, in witness of that administration? The sign of the dove was instituted before the creation of the world, a witness for the Holy Ghost, and the devil cannot come in the sign of a dove. The Holy Ghost is a personage, and is in the form of a personage. It does not confine [conform?] itself to the form of a dove, but in sign of the dove. The Holy Ghost cannot be transformed into a dove; but the sign of a dove was given to John to signify the truth of the deed, as the above is an emblem or token of truth and innocence."^[A]

[Footnote A: History of the Church, Vol. V, pp. 260, 261.]

That exposition, as it excels all other attempts at exposition in beauty and rationality, so does it make it possible to hold to the thought of the Holy Ghost as a Spirit-Personage in form like man—nay, rather, like his two associates of the holy Trinity as to form—the most perfect in beauty and stately grandeur of all forms living—although differing in substantive nature, as spirit matter differs from spirit matter united with tabernacles of flesh and bone.