**By Personal Appearance.** In answer to prayer, God may appear personally. There is no physical or spiritual reason why God should not appear to his children in person whenever he so desires. In fact, sacred history indicates that God appeared to Adam in the Garden of Eden, to Abraham in the Holy Land, to Moses on the mountain, to Joseph in the sacred grove, and to many others at various times during the earth's history. Likewise, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived upon this earth and walked and talked with men. To limit the powers of God by saying that he cannot or will not now appear to man, is to make him a creature of less power than is possessed by man.
**By the Visitation of Angels.** The will of God may be transmitted to man by visible representatives who are beings of a lower degree of intelligence. Angels have frequently visited men and brought to them divine messages concerning their own affairs or the affairs of the world. After Adam was driven out of the Garden of Eden, an angel came and laid before him the philosophy of man's existence. Similarly, angels appeared to Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joseph Smith and numerous others, many of which are not recorded in history. These vivid personages, intelligent beings vastly superior to man, knowing well the laws of nature and therefore able to control them, may be with man, though they are not seen with the natural eye. Most probably we walk in the midst of such invisible intelligent spirits. The development from the earth-journey comes largely from the self-efforts of man, who, apparently, must depend upon himself. If at will he could bring to his aid visible, supernatural beings, to tide him over his difficulties, his need of self-development and self-dependence would become very small, and the man would not grow strong.
**By the Holy Spirit.** God is a personal being of body—a body limited in extent. He cannot, therefore, at a given moment be personally everywhere. Time and space surround him as they surround us. It is difficult to believe that God can in person answer the numberless petitions reaching his throne. Nevertheless, it is known distinctly that God, by his power, will and word is everywhere present. It is almost as difficult to believe that, in spite of the hosts of heavenly beings, personal administrations are possible in the great majority of the countless petitions to God. God must be, therefore, in possession of other agencies whereby his will may be transmitted at his pleasure to the uttermost confines of space. The chief agent employed by God to communicate his will to the universe is the holy spirit, which must not be confused with the Holy Ghost, the personage who is the third member of the Godhead. The holy spirit permeates all the things of the universe, material and spiritual. By the holy spirit the will of God is transmitted. It forms what may be called the great wireless system of communication among the intelligent beings of the universe. The holy spirit vibrates with intelligence; it takes up the word and will of God as given by him or by his personal agents, and transmits the message to the remotest parts of space. By the intelligent domination and infinite extent of the holy spirit, the whole universe is held together and made as one whole. By its means there is no remoteness into which intelligent beings may escape the dominating will of God. By the holy spirit, God is always with us, and "is nearer than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet." The intelligent earthly manifestations of the holy spirit are commonly spoken of as the natural forces. It is conceivable that the thunders and the lightnings, the movements of the heavenly bodies, the ebb and flow of the oceans, and all the phenomena known to man, are only manifestations of the will of God as transmitted and spread by the measureless, inexhaustible, infinite, all-conducting holy spirit.
By the holy spirit, which fills every person, man may obtain information from God. By its means come the messages which transcend the ordinary methods of acquiring knowledge. By it man may readily communicate with God, or God with him. When a person utters his prayer in faith it is impressed upon the holy spirit, and transmitted, so that God may read the man's desire.
This doctrine of a rational theology has been duplicated in a modest way by the development of wireless telegraphy. According to science, the universe is filled with a subtle substance called the ether, on the waves of which the message is spread throughout the universe to be taken up by any person who has the proper receiving apparatus.
**The Eternal Record.** So thoroughly permeated with the holy spirit is the immensity of space that every act and word and thought is recorded and transmitted everywhere, so that all who know how to read may read. Thus we make an imperishable record of our lives. To those whose lives are ordered well this is a blessed conception; but to those of wicked lives, it is most terrible. He who has the receiving apparatus, in whose hands the key is held, may read from the record of the holy spirit, an imperishable history of all that has occurred during the ages that have passed in the world's history. This solemn thought, that in the bosom of the holy spirit is recorded all that pertains to the universe—our most secret thought and our faintest hope—helps man to walk steadily in the midst of the contending appeals of his life. We can not hide from the Master.
CHAPTER 14.
MAN WALKS WITH GOD.
The knowledge of means of communication between man and God is of great help to man in all the affairs of his life.
**Reading God's Message.** In possession of the holy spirit is a record of the will of God with respect to all things and all occurrences, great or small, in the universe from the first day. The big problem of man is to read the message of God as it is held by the holy spirit. In wireless telegraphy, a spark coil sets up waves in the ether and other coils similarly "tuned," receive the waves anywhere in the universe. In wireless telegraphy the all-important thing is that the transmitting and receiving instruments be tuned alike, for only then may the message be read. The same principle holds with the holy spirit. The giver and the receiver must be "tuned" alike, that is, must be in harmony, if the messages are to pass readily and understandingly from one to the other. The clearness of the message depends wholly upon the degree to which this tuning approaches perfect harmony.