As this last is a general law, I do not consider it necessary to cite further passages, though the revelations of the Lord contained in the Doctrine and Covenants are replete with them. Sufficient has been said to show that the doctrine has been made prominent in this dispensation.
To my mind this ordinance is the most philosophical of any in the Gospel. On one occasion as Jesus passed through a throng of people, a woman who had been troubled with an issue of blood for twelve years, and had spent all her living upon physicians, but received no benefit from them, came up behind him, saying in her heart, if I can but touch the hem of his garment I shall be healed. And it was so, even according to her faith; for pressing through the crowd she laid hold of his garment and was immediately made whole. "And Jesus said, who touched me?" When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, "Master, the multitude throng thee, and press thee, and sayest thou who touched me? And Jesus said, somebody hath touched me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me."[N]
[Footnote N: Luke viii: 43, 46.]
Now, what had happened. And why the expression—"Somebody hath touched me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me." My answer would be that the person of Jesus, aye, and also the very garments he wore, were so charged with that divine influence, known to us as the Holy Spirit, that when the woman with the issue of blood touched his garments, so much of that Spirit left him to heal her that it was perceptible to him, and he exclaimed, "Virtue is gone out of me!"
So, when a servant of God, filled with that Spirit, and with authority to act in the name of Jesus Christ, lays his hands upon one who has prepared himself for the reception of the Holy Ghost, through faith, repentance, and baptism, a portion of that Holy Spirit passes from the one who administers, to him upon whom he lays his hands and he is baptized with it. These are the laws by which it is received and conveyed; these are the conditions that must exist, in order that men may obtain this holiest of all influences, and its full and free enjoyment. And its transmission from one person to another by an observance of the ordinances and principles of righteousness we have now considered, is as natural and philosophical in the spiritual things of the universe, as it is for electricity or steam to perform the wonders which these forces are now made to enact in the commercial and mechanical worlds; and which they will not perform, unless the conditions by which their power is made available, are complied with.
I cannot do better in concluding this chapter than to quote a paragraph or two from the works of Apostle Parley P. Pratt:
"To impart a portion of the Holy Spirit by the touch, or by the laying on of hands; or to impart a portion of the element of life, from one animal body to another, by an authorized agent who acts in the name of God, and who is filled therewith, is as much in accordance with the laws of nature as for water to seek its own level; air its equilibrium; or heat and electricity their own mediums of conveyance.
"This law of spiritual fluid, its communicative properties, and the channel by which it is imparted from one person to another, bear some resemblance or analogy to the laws and operations of electricity. Like electricity, it is imparted by the contact of two bodies, through the channel of the nerves.
"But the two fluids differ widely. The one is a property nearly allied to the grosser elements of matter; not extensively endowed with the attributes of intelligence, wisdom, affection or moral discrimination. It can therefore be imparted from one animal body to another, irrespective of the intellectual or moral qualities of the subject or recipient. The other is a substance endowed with the attributes of intelligence, affection, moral discrimination, love, charity and benevolence pure as the emotions which swell the bosom, thrill the nerves, or vibrate the pulse of the Father of all.
"An agent filled with this heavenly fluid cannot impart of the same to another, unless that other is justified, washed, cleansed from all his impurities of heart, affections, habits or practices by the blood of atonement, which is generally applied in connection with the baptism of remission.