4. Mode of Union Between the Holy Ghost and Men: The question will be asked, however, how the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Ghost, in the sense of his being a spirit-personage, in the form of man, is to be made compatible with the idea that the Holy Ghost operates simultaneously upon the minds of many persons; in fact becomes an indwelling influence and power in them. "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," is said to all those who accept the ordinances of the gospel—both the first and second part of the Christian baptism; and the theory is that though these become an innumerable host, such as no man can number, there would still be for each a personal relationship with the Holy Ghost. Each would receive him; each would be baptized of the Spirit; and that which each would receive would be his bond of fellowship with God, his union with the divine life, his re-established communion with God, hitherto severed by sin. To each the Holy Ghost would be his special source of knowledge, as we have seen, of God the Father, and Jesus the Son;[A] the Holy Ghost would be the life of God in the life of each; the power by which he would be conformed to the very image and likeness of God—inducted in fact into the divine nature. How can all this be if the Holy Ghost be regarded as a personage, in the sense of his being an individual; and necessarily limited by the laws of form and substance? That is to say, that as a personage, he is not everywhere present; as a personage, not capable of being in two places at the same moment of time; as a personage, limited as to the amount of substance or spiritual essence of which he subsists; as a personage, not of unlimited or inexhaustible substance, extending throughout the universe. These conclusions are inevitable from the nature of beings, however refined of substance or essence, or however exalted in office and power, or however glorious, if to them we ascribe form; or if God in his word prescribes form to them, as in this case. These conclusions are inevitable where form is the mode of existence.
[Footnote A: No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost. I Cor. xii:3. "I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me." III Nephi xi:32.]
Happily the task does not devolve upon the writer to advance a positive theory with reference to this difficulty. Frankly he confesses himself inadequate to such a task. If the Son of God, so far the Master Teacher in this world, felt it necessary to say, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit"[A]—if the Master Teacher said this, surely it is becoming in this writer not to attempt in any positive way to give an exposition of that which our Lord saw proper to leave in the above status. Still, reverently, and subject to correction that may come with the further unfolding of God's revealed word, one may without presumption suggest how conception of the Holy Ghost as a personal spirit may not be incompatible with effectual, personal contact with each one that shall obey the commandment to be born both of the water and of the Spirit; and how the Holy Ghost may become an indwelling power in each of such persons regardless of numbers.
[Footnote A: St. John iii:8.]
In Lesson II of this treatise I discussed the immanence of God in the world, and developed the thought, I trust clearly, that there was both with human and divine persons an influence radiating forth from them. And that so far as divine persons were concerned, since they had attained to participation in the divine nature, which is essentially one, their influence was one, with others likewise so developed, and divine; and that so blended into one spiritual atmosphere this influence or "Spirit of God" became the Immanent Deity, the Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and through which God is everywhere present and a power in his creations, throughout the immensity of space.[A]
[Footnote A: It is suggested that the student refresh his mind by reading again Lesson II.]
The point to be made here by reference to the discussion in Lesson II is, that if other Divine Intelligences radiate a spiritual influence and power, is it not conformable to reason to think that the Holy Ghost will also radiate a spiritual influence and power from himself that will be all sufficient to bring him in personal contact with the soul of every man who obeys the gospel—the conditions essential to fellowship with the Holy Ghost? And may it not be, and indeed from the nature of the revealed knowledge we have of this Spirit, are we not under the necessity of believing that such is his peculiar nature—wholly spiritual, as we have seen—that he acts more immediately, and more powerfully upon the consciousness and soul of man than any other spiritual power whatsoever? And is not this the explanation of the fact that he who sins against the testimony which union with the Holy Ghost gives, is under greater condemnation than for any other sin whatsoever?[A]
[Footnote A: "He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness." (St. Mark iii:28.) "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." (Hebrew vi:6).]
Illustration; Analogy: Let us see if analogy will not help us here. We know that self-luminous bodies send forth vibrations that in turn produce light waves; and these acting upon the organs of sight render visible the objects from which the vibrations proceed. The sun is such a luminous body; and though its material body is some 92,000,000 of miles distant, yet to us men it is a glorious earth-presence, this sun, flooding the earth with light and warmth and life-giving power, without which all life would languish and die. And it is possible, and to this writer's thought very probable, that not only to the planet earth of our solar system, but to some of the other major planets of the system, though by many hundreds of millions of miles more distant from the sun than our earth, the sun may perform the same kindly office for them, not only in the matter of giving them light, which we know to be the case, but also the warmth and vital energy essential to their forms of life. But with this we need not concern ourselves now.
The analogy I suggest is this, and I press it no further than illustration: If a physical, luminous body can send forth from its presence an energy into such immense space depths, as we know our sun does, and conveys its essential qualities of light and heat and vital force to planets at least so distant as our earth is from the sun; may it not be that a spirit of such dignity and power as we have a right from what is revealed of him to believe the Holy Ghost is, cannot he, more abundantly, and even to infinity, give forth spiritual energy that shall unite to himself all those who are born again—those who obey the gospel? And as one may not separate the ray of light from the luminous object whence it proceeds, so one may not, or so it would seem—fail to be completely united with the spirit-personage of the Holy Ghost by the direct spiritual energy proceeding forth from his divine presence.