To these ideas respecting the Holy Ghost agree several other authoritative passages. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, "but is a personage of Spirit;" and then adds: "Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us."[D]
[Footnote D: Doc. and Cov., sec. cxxx.]
Again it is written: "The elements are the tabernacle of God, yea man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple."[E] This cannot allude to God the Father or to God the Son, because each has a tabernacle of flesh and bones, as tangible as man's;[F] but it alludes to God the Holy Ghost, whose tabernacle is in the elements of the universe, giving life and light and intelligence to all things, and is the grand medium of communication between God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and their vast creations.
[Footnote E: Doc. and Cov., sec. xciii; also I. Cor. iii: 16, 17; I. Cor., vi: 19.]
[Footnote F: The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. (Doc. and Cov., sec. cxxx: 22; see also Lectures on Faith, v: 2, 3.)]
So much as to the source and nature of the Holy Ghost; now let us turn our attention to what it does for those who possess it, what gifts and graces it bestows and develops in them.
[CHAPTER XXIX.]
THE HOLY GHOST.—ITS POWER.
As the time drew near for Jesus to make his great sacrifice, and then depart from the immediate presence of his disciples, he manifested a great desire to comfort them in prospect of this separation, and this he did by promising to send to them from the Father the Holy Ghost, that he might abide with them for ever;[A] and in explaining to them the powers of this Spirit, he said: "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."
[Footnote A: John xiv: 16, 26.]
In continuation of his remarks on this subject, he told them he had many things to say unto them, but they could not bear them at that time. "Howbeit," said he, "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 show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: Therefore, said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you."[B]