[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:41.]
The chief value of this statement of the case—apart from the fact of it as a truth—is, it helps one to understand the completeness of the presence of God in the world; so complete is it, that the world is also in God! Also it helps one to an understanding of the more restricted view of the same principle announced in St. John, the declaration of the Christ: "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me"; and that he and the Father are one[A]—i.e., the divine nature and spirit are one. One nature participated in by both Father and Son and finally to be participated in by those who are the disciples of the Christ; for in his prayer immediately preceding the hour of his passion—the most pathetic and soul-moving prayer preserved in human language—referring to his disciples he said:
[Footnote A: St. John xiv:11; also xvii.]
"Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou has given me, that they may be one as we are. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, and the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. * * * I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me, may be in them, and I am them."[A]
[Footnote A: St. John xvii. Paul doubtless refers to the same principle when he says: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named; that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in Jove, may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph. iii:14-19.)
And also when he said:
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." (Philippians ii:5, 6.)]
3. One Divine Nature in Many Persons: One divine nature, then, is the conclusion; but a divine nature in manifold persons, many, though indeed one, because harmonized into unity of purpose, and will; one divine spirit, rising from one divine nature—though participated in by many; a spirit rising from all Intelligences who have attained to the divine nature and unity in all and through all, manifesting God in his splendor and glory, as creating, sustaining, and guiding power in the universe—both Immanent and personal.
Elsewhere I have said on this subject: One cannot help being profoundly impressed with the great truth that creation, throughout its whole extent, bears evidence of being one system: that it presents at every point unity of design, and harmony in its government. Nor am I unmindful of the force there is in the deduction usually drawn from these premises, viz., that the Creator and Governor of the universe, must necessarily be One. But I am also profoundly impressed by another fact that comes within the experience of man, at least to a limited extent, viz.: the possibility of intelligences arriving at perfect agreement, so as to act in absolute unity. We see manifestations of this principle in human governments, and other human associations of various kinds. And this, too, is observable, viz., that the greater and more perfect the individual intelligence, the more perfect can the unity of purpose and of effort become for the community of intelligences; so that one need only conceive the existence of perfect intelligences to operate together in order to secure perfect oneness; then shall come the one system evident in the universe, exhibiting at every point unity of design, and perfect harmony in its government. In other words, "oneness" can be the result of perfect agreement among many intelligences as surely as it can be the result of the existence of One Only Intelligence. Also, the decrees and purposes of the perfectly united Many can be as absolute as the decrees and purposes of the One Only Intelligence. One is also confronted with the undeniable fact that inclines him to the latter view as the reasonable explanation of the "Oneness" that is evidently in control of the universe—the fact that there are in existence many Intelligences, and, endowed as they are with free will, it cannot be denied that they influence, to some extent, the course of events and the conditions that obtain. Moreover, it will be found, on careful inquiry, that the explanation of the "Oneness" controlling in the universe, on the theory that it results from perfect agreement or unity of Many Intelligences, is more in harmony with the revelations of God on the subject than the theory that there is but One Only Intelligence that enters into its government.[A]
[Footnote A: Mormon Doctrine of Deity, pp. 137-8.]