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.