[Footnote D: John xvi:13, 14.]
[Footnote E: John xvi:8.]
Moreover, as we have seen in a previous lesson, the Holy Ghost does those things, performs those offices which may be done only by a "person" in the sense here considered, viz. He is represented as proceeding from the Father; as sent forth in the name of the Son; as abiding; as teaching; as bearing witness; as reproving the world; as guiding; and revealing.[A]
[Footnote A: See Lesson viii, this treatise where citation to scripture for all these things is given.]
It is, however, proper that attention should be called to the fact that in some cases the Holy Ghost is represented by the neuter pronoun "It" and "Itself." "The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit."[A] John calls the Holy Spirit "the anointing;" "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teach you all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught, ye shall abide in him."[B] Here we see that the neuter pronoun "it" is applied to the Spirit which "teacheth all things."[C] "That this anointing," says Orson Pratt, "referred to the Holy Spirit is evident, not only from its 'teaching all things,' but the word is so applied by Peter: 'God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.'"[D] Elder Pratt also cites the following instances from the Book of Mormon: "The Book of Mormon in two places uses the neuter pronoun 'it' when speaking of the Holy Ghost. Nephi says, 'Behold, there are many that harden their hearts against the Holy Spirit, that it hath no place in them.' And again, he says, 'If ye will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will show unto you all things what we should do.' In another place the Book of Mormon represents the Spirit of the Lord as a person. Nephi says of this spirit, 'I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet, nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another.'"
[Footnote A: Rom, viii:16.]
[Footnote B: I John ii:27.]
[Footnote C: Acts x:38.]
[Footnote D: Mill. Star, Vol. XII, p. 307.]
It is, in his described activities, however, that one may find the best idea of the nature of the personal quality of the Holy Ghost, and these activities can only obtain, as we hope is abundantly set forth in these lessons, in connection with a personality, and in the sense of that personality being an individual spirit.