That Joseph Smith does not here have in mind an omnipresent God, is proved by the emphatic doctrine that God is personal and cannot be everywhere present.[A]
[Footnote A: Ibid, 130:22.]
Lest it be thought that the words are forced, for argument's sake, to give the desired meaning, it may be well to examine the views of some of the persons to whom the Prophet explained in detail the meanings of the statements in the revelations which he claimed to have received from God.
Parley P. Pratt, who, as a member of the first quorum of apostles, had every opportunity of obtaining the Prophet's views on any subject, wrote in considerable fullness on the subject of the Holy Spirit, or the light of truth:
"As the mind passes the boundaries of the visible world, and enters upon the confines of the more refined and subtle elements, it finds itself associated with certain substances in themselves invisible to our gross organs, but clearly manifested to our intellect by their tangible operations and effects." "The purest, most refined and subtle of all these substances—is that substance called the Holy Spirit." "It is omnipresent." "It is in its less refined particles, the physical light which reflects from the sun, moon and stars, and other substances; and by reflection on the eye makes visible the truths of the outward world."[A]
[Footnote A: Key to Theology, 5th ed., pp. 38-41.]
Elder C. W. Penrose, an accepted writer on Mormon doctrine, writes, "It is by His Holy Spirit, which permeates all things, and is the life and light of all things, that Deity is everywhere present. * * By that agency God sees and knows and governs all things."[A]
[Footnote A: Rays of Living Light, No. 2, p. 3.]
Such quotations, from the men intimately associated or acquainted with the early history of the Church, prove that Joseph Smith taught in clearness the doctrine that a subtle form of matter, call it ether or Holy Spirit, pervades all space; that all phenomena of nature, including, specifically, heat, light and electricity, are definitely connected with this substance. He taught much else concerning this substance which science will soon discover, but which lies without the province of this paper to discuss.
By the doctrine of the ether, it is made evident all the happenings in the universe are indelibly inscribed upon the record of nature. A word is spoken. The air movements that it causes disturbs the ether. The ether waves radiate into space and can never die. Anywhere, with the proper instrument, one of the waves may be captured, and the spoken word read. That is the simple method of wireless telegraphy. It is thus that all our actions shall be known on the last great day. By the ether, or the Holy Spirit as named by the Prophet, God holds all things in His keeping. His intelligent will radiates into space, to touch whomsoever it desires. He who is tuned aright can read the message, flashed across the ether ocean, by the Almighty. Thus, also, God, who is a person, filling only a portion of space is, by His power carried by the ether, everywhere present.