The Seventy's Course in Theology, Fifth Year / Divine Immanence and the Holy Ghost

LESSON IV.

(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

THE PHILOSOPHICAL VALUE OF THE DOCTRINE OF IMMANENCE.

SPECIAL TEXT: "Thou, God, seest me." (Gen. xvi:13.)

DISCUSSION.

1. Modern Revival of the Doctrine of Immanence: On the philosophical side of this conception of the Immanence of God, we are assured that it is the result of the modern world's (i.e. post Kantian) thinking.^[A] Of its value to human thinking and to religion itself, John Fiske—after pointing out the fact that both Clement and Athanasius among the early Christian fathers had held somewhat to the doctrine of immanence as conceived in more modern philosophy, viz—"God Immanent in the universe, and eternally creative"—says:

[Footnote A: "One can securely say that nothing of crucial import has come forward in the interest of human freedom [i.e. freedom of the human will—man as a free moral agent] since Kant started the inspiring but hitherto little fruitful conception of moral autonomy. Instead, as we have seen, the world's thinking has been absorbed in questions that thus far have ended in a persuasion of the immanence of the eternal in all things—at best the all-pervasive presence of an immanent spirit." Howison, "Conceptions of God," Introductions p. 32.]

"Once really adopt the conception of an ever-present God, without whom not a sparrow falls to the ground, and it becomes self-evident that the law of gravitation is but an expression of a particular mode of divine action. And what is thus true of one law is true of all laws. The thinker in whose mind divine action is thus identified with orderly action and to whom a really irregular phenomenon would seem like a manifestation of sheer diabolism, forsees in every possible extension of knowledge a fresh confirmation of his faith in God. From his point of view there can be no antagonism between our duty as inquirers and our duty as worshipers. To him no part of the universe is godless. In the swaying to and fro of molecules and the ceaseless pulsations of ether, in the secular shiftings of planetary orbits, in the busy work of frost and raindrop, in the mysterious sprouting of the seed, in the everlasting tale of death and life renewed, in the dawning of the babe's intelligence, in the varied deeds of men from age to age, he finds that which awakens the soul to reverential awe; and each act of scientific explanation but reveals an opening through which shines the glory of the Eternal Majesty."^[A]

[Footnote A: Fiske-Studies in Religion, pp. 167-3, Works Vol. IX]

2. The World Immanent in God: Still one other thought from the philosophical side of the conception of Immanence is that it enables one to see not only God in nature, but as a necessary corollary, nature in God—"Divine immanence in the world, and the reciprocal immanence of the world in God."^[A] That is to say, in one view, God's presence and power penetrates and pervades nature—the universe; in another view, nature is received into the all-including spiritual presence of God: as the One indwells in the other; so the other dwells in the One.

[Footnote A: Howison—"The Conception of God." p. 96.]

Before now the student has doubtless looked into the clear depths of a crystal-like spring of water; and has seen on the sandy floor of the spring the sunlight that tells him that the sun penetrates the water, in-dwells in the water, or, in poetic terms—

  "The sunshine in water lies sleeping."

And as the sunlight penetrates the water so does the water receive and hold the sunlight. As it is in the crystal spring, so is it in the ocean. And so in the universe with the immanence of God and the reciprocal immanence of the world in God. As saith the revelation:

"Judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne, and governeth and executeth all things. He comprehendeth all things, and all things are before him, and all things are round him; and he is above all things, and in all things, and is through all things, and is round about all things; and all things are by nim, and of him, even God forever and forever."^[A]

[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.]

John Stuart Mill, in his Essay on Theism, in speaking of the evident unity in nature, which suggests that nature is governed by One Being, comes very near stating the exact truth in an alternative proposition to his first remark, viz.: "A. least, if a plurality be supposed, it is necessary to assume so complete a concert of action and unity of will among them, that the difference is for most purposes immaterial between such a theory and that of the absolute unity of the Godhead."^[A]

[Footnote A: Essays on Religion; Theism p. 133.]

4. Immanence and Manifestation: We must believe from the scriptures previously considered in these lessons that God by his spirit is everywhere and equally present, but it does not follow that the manifestation of God is everywhere and equally the same. There are doubtless persons, conditions, and places, that present more favorable natures and conditions to the manifestation of this universal presence than others. Undoubtedly, if the assumption of this treatise be the right one, viz., that the God Immanent, for us men in the kingdom of the universe we inhabit known as "the Light of Christ"—carries with it the divine attributes of truth, wisdom, justice, holiness, and love, with the rest, then it follows, since like his affinity^[A] to like, that there may be, as said above, persons, conditions and places more congenial to manifestation of the divine spirit than others. There are individual men and perhaps races of men more responsive to the Divine Presence and the divine attributes of which that presence is the atmosphere, than others; and where this is the case there will be the larger manifestation of God. Hence the difference observable among individuals and races and at variant times and places. Those who draw near to God, he draws near to them in manifestations of his presence and power; those who love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil, receive not the light; the manifestation of God in them either in presence or power is not possible because the conditions which attend upon that manifestation are not there.

[Footnote A: "For intelligence cleaveth unto intelligence; wisdom receiveth wisdom; truth embraceth truth; virtue loveth virtue; light cleaveth unto light; mercy hath compassion on mercy, and claimeth its own; judgment goeth before the face of him who sitteth upon the throne, and governeth and executeth all things." (Doc. & Cov. Sec. lviii:37-40.)]

6. The Law of Manifestation of the Immanent Spirit: "Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh to you,"^[A] is the law of divine manifestation. Christ, the Revealer of the Divine, Immanent Spirit, as well as of the person, character, brightness, and glory of the Father—the manifestation of all that is divine—"Came unto his own, but his own received him not; but unto as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name.^[B] He that believeth on him (i. e. the Christ) is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

[Footnote A: James iv:8.]

[Footnote B: St. John i:11, 12.]

"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

"For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

"But he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought in God."^[A]

[Footnote A: St. John iii:18-21.]

LESSON V.

(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

DIFFICULTIES INVOLVED IN THE DOCTRINE OF IMMANENCE.

SPECIAL TEXT: "Thou [God] are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?" (Habakkuk i:13.)

[Footnote A: Under this subdivision of the lesson should be considered especially the matter in note m, this lesson, and the lessons cited from Year Books II and IV above and a review of the lessons cited from former Year Books in note.]

DISCUSSION.

1. Incompatibility of Immanence and Evil Stated: It is conceded that the conception of God Immanent in the universe—everywhere existing and everywhere dynamic power, though not everywhere equally manifested, carries with it many and great difficulties that attend upon all forms of human thinking when seeking the harmony that one feels must exist in the things that are—in truth.

For example: one naturally would say, as soon as the conception of the Immanence of God takes firm lodgment in his mind,—"why, then, if God is in his world everywhere present, and everywhere, not only powerful, but all-powerful; not only knowing, but all-knowing; not only good but all-good, holy in fact, and cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance^[A]—why then is there evil in the world, physical suffering, and moral wrong, injustice, cruelty?^[B] Why is the sum of human misery so great?^[C] Why is the sum of human happiness so small?^[D] Why do the good suffer adversity? Why does prosperity so frequently, in this world at least, attend upon the wicked? In the words of the Hebrew prophet addressed to God: "Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue, when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he"?^[E] Why do the sins of the wicked involve the innocent—why are the innocent made to suffer with the guilty?^[F] Why does truth make such tardy appearance in the world, and why of so partial rather than of universal distribution? How can freedom co-exist, that is, the freedom of man as a free moral agent, co-exist with the Sovereign will of the All-Powerful and Immanent God?^[G]

[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. i:31. Also Habakkuk i:13 and Psalms v:4-6.]

[Footnote B: "We cry out for some explanation—for some philosophy which shall show us how evil is consistent with the infinite goodness." (Le Conte, "Conceptions of God," p. 71.)]

[Footnote C: "How terribly large is the proportion of evil? comparing the number of those who are or have been happy, with the number of those who are or have been unhappy, can we say that the great pessimist was very far wrong in calling this the worst possible—he did not say the worst conceivable—world". (Goldwin Smith, discussing "Evolution, Immortality, and Christianity," in North American Review, October, 1907, p. 196.)]

[Footnote D: "The great quest of humanity is happiness. But was the world created to make us happy? I've studied people in all places and conditions and everywhere I've found, when you get below the surface, that it's mostly the insincere individual who says, 'I am a happy man.'" (Thomas A. Edison, the great American Inventor in a Vienna-Austria Interview on "Success in Life," reported in New York World, October 25. 1911.)]

[Footnote E: Habakkuk i:13.]

[Footnote F: See Seventy's Year Book II, Lessons III and IX. Also Year Book IV, Lessons IV and VII and VIII.]

[Footnote G: In order that it may be seen that this is regarded really as doubtful by some powerful minds, and also as a question of grave importance, I quote the following presentation of it by Professor Howison, and which he prints in italics in the work from which I quote it: "Can the reality of human free-agency, of moral responsibility and universal moral aspiration, of unlimited spiritual hope for every soul,—can this be made out, can it even be held, consistently with the theory of an Immanent God? This, for a few awakened minds at least, now becomes the 'burning question.' * * * At all events, the time has come when the question whether this is not so should be raised with all emphasis, and examined to the end. For if our genuine freedom is to disappear when we accept the religion whose God is the Immanent Spirit, then the new religion is in truth a decline from the highest conceptions of the historic faith, and in this regard has no advantage over the religion of the 'Unknowable.'" ("Conceptions of God," p. 30.)]

Professor Le Conte has a valuable passage apropos these questions which I consider too valuable to omit at this point, though it makes rather an extended quotation. On the great question of moral evil, its nature, its origin, its reason—a question inseparably connected with the conception of God, he says:

"In a general way I agree with his [Professor Royce's] explanation of the dark problem of evil. Evil cannot be the true meaning and real outcome of the universe; on the contrary, it means the necessary means of the highest good. * * * Our moral and religious nature is just as fundamental and essential as our scientific and rational nature. As science is not simply passionless acquisition of knowledge, but also enthusiasm for truth, so morality is not passionless rules of best conduct, but impassioned love of righteousness. And this last is what we call religion; for religion is morality touched and vivified with noble emotion. Now, the necessary postulate of science, without which scientific activity would be impossible, is a rational order of the universe; and, similarly, the necessary postulate of religion, without such religious activity would be impossible, is a moral order of the universe. As science postulates the final triumph of reason, so religion must postulate the final triumph of righteousness. Science believes in the rational order, or in law, in spite of apparent confusion; she knows that disorder is only apparent, only the result of ignorance; and her mission is, to show this by reducing all appearances, all phenomena, to law. So also religion is right in her unshakable belief in the moral order, in spite of apparent disorder or evil; she knows that evil is only apparent, the result of our ignorance and our weakness; and her mission is, to show this by helping on the triumph of moral order over disorder. We may, if we like,—as many indeed do,—reject the faith in the Infinite Goodness, and thereby paralyze our religious activity; but then, to be consistent, we must also reject the faith in the Infinite Reason, and thereby paralyze our scientific activity.

So much for a rational justification of the indestructible faith religion has in the Infinite Righteousness, even in the presence of abounding evil. It is founded on the same ground as our indestructible faith in the reign of law in the natural world, and is just as reasonable. Why is it, then, it may be asked, that every one is willing to admit the postulate of science, while so many doubt that of religion? I answer: partly because of feebleness of our moral life in comparison with our physical life; but mainly because the steady advance of science, with its progressive conquest of chaos, and its extension of the domain of order and law, is a continual verification of the postulate of science, and justification of our faith therein; while, on the contrary, the progress of morality and religion is uncertain and often unrecognized, the increase of righteousness and decrease of evil doubtful and even denied. In the presence of such uncertainty, our faith is often sorely tried. We cry out for some explanation—for some philosophy which shall show us how evil is consistent with the Infinite Goodness. We know it is, for that is a necessary postulate. But—how?"^[A]

[Footnote A: The Conception of God—Le Conte's paper, pp. 70-71.]

This philosophy so earnestly asked for I trust is found in the New Dispensation of the Gospel, the light from the revelations in which, I believe, warrant the conclusions in the above paragraph of the Lesson text, and also the conclusions reached in the lessons of previous Year Books cited in note f. Then Professor Le Conte himself gives a reasonably good explanation for the existence of moral evil, which it is only just should be given here since I have quoted him up to the question of why evil exists. This is his answer: "It is that the existence or at least the possibility of a moral being like that of man [should exist]. There are some things which God himself cannot do, viz., such things as are contrary to his essential nature, and such things as are a contradiction in terms and therefore absurd and unthinkable. Such a thing would be a moral being without freedom to choose right or wrong. God could not make man eternally and of necessity sinless, for then he would not be man at all. To make him incapable of virtue, of righteousness, of holiness, for he must acquire these for himself by free choice, by struggle and conquest."^[A]

[Footnote A: The Conception of God, p. 72.]

2. Things Seen and Known but in Part: One may not find the complete answer to all the questions of the second paragraph of this lesson, which make up largely the sum of difficulties for the theist, who believes in God Immanent in the world; but they are somewhat lessened by remembering that here on our plane of human life we know things but in fragments—"We know in part:" We see as through a glass, darkly; not face to face; and will have to await the time of more perfect knowing and seeing before we shall comprehend things as they are in their entirety.

A fine illustration of the mistaken conclusions men form by judging of things seen only in part is to be found in the Prophet Malachi:

"Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee?

"Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

"And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.

"And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

"Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not"^[A]

[Footnote A: Mal. iii:13-18.]

All which tends to establish the thought that this world is the scene of struggle and trial for man, not the place of his full triumph and reward. "In this world your joy is not full [saith the Lord], but in me your joy is full. Therefore care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul; and seek the face of the Lord, always, that in patience ye may possess your souls, and ye shall have eternal life."^[A]

[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. ci:36-38.]

3. Amid Broken Harmonies: We may be helped somewhat in our present earth-view of things, by holding in consciousness the fact that we live at present in our world amid broken harmonies, under the effects of "the fall," for a wise purpose in God; in a sphere of trial and test; in a purposely arranged department of God's great university for the instruction of the spirits of men in certain all-important matters,^[M] involving also our union with earth elements, leading to a fulness of joy, and without which union men cannot receive a fulness of joy.^[B] Therefore we may say that in our earth-life things are not in a normal state; but in confusion; under stress of special trial and development that shall ultimate in higher and better things—in the golden age of the earth and of humanity, predicted by sages and poets—the millennium of the seers and prophets of God, and the apostles of the Christ—these all bid us hope for higher and better things than we have known on our present plane of existence—a world where we shall no longer see as through a glass darkly, "but face to face;" when we shall no longer know only in part, but know even as we are known; when that which is in part "shall be done away," and that "which is perfect is come."^[C]

[Footnote M: "Religion accounts for the existence of evil as probationary, resistence to the evil being a training of humanity to good." (Goldwin Smith in "North American Review," October, 1907. In connection with this statement see Seventy's Year Book II, Lesson III; also Lesson VIII, IX, X, which deal with "The Fall," "The Purpose of Man's Earth Life," and the "Problem of Evil.")]

[Footnote B: Doc. and Cov., Sec. xciii:32-35.]

[Footnote C: I Cor. xiii.]

There remaineth then a rest for the people of God.^[A] They may look for a city "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."^[B] The vision of St. John, in which he saw descending out of heaven the New Jerusalem, is yet to be realized in fact. Also what he heard proclaimed by "a great voice"—

[Footnote A: Heb. iv:9.]

[Footnote B: Heb. xi:10.]

"Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful."^[A]

[Footnote A: Revelation xxi; also xxii.]

LESSON VI.

(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

DOCTRINE OF DIVINE IMMANENCE IN THE NEW DISPENSATION: RECONCILIATION OF DIFFICULTIES.

SPECIAL TEXT: "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms shall destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not another: though my veins be consumed within me." (Job xix:25-28.)

DISCUSSION.

1. Immanence and Personality—a Difficulty: The view here presented of the Immanence of God in the world doubtless contributes in a helpful way to the advanced thought of the modern world in striving to arrive at a knowledge of things as they are, as they have been, and as they shall be—the truth.^[A]

[Footnote A: Doc. and Cov., Sec. xciii:24.]

Modern thought has forced the conclusion upon men's minds that there is a power immanent in the world—here and now, and always has been; and so far as man can see there always will be; it is eternal—"both ways"—to use a phrase of Professor Le Conte's, looking forward as well as backward, when using that word "eternal." It is the eternal cause of things, variously named "energy," "force," "spirit," or simply "power," used in some cases with the prefix "mechanical" or "infinite" or "Divine" or the "Unknowable" according to the view point of the speaker or writer; but by most philosophers recognized as "the infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed," and "which is the same power that in ourselves wells up under the form of consciousness;"^[A] and which by theists of all classes is recognized as God. But those who long to conceive and in their lives feel the need of conceiving of this universal "power" or "spirit" or "force" or "energy"—"the infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed"—meet with the difficulty of forming the conception of a "power, infinite, and all pervasive," and at the same time personal, since it is held by philosophers of high authority—and deservedly so—that "personality and infinity are terms expressive of ideas which are mutually incompatible."^[B] How then shall this difficulty be overcome? Professor Le Conte, a most conscientious man of science, and also a most devout Theist, says, "The only rational view is to accept both immanence and personality, even though we cannot reconcile them."^[C] This, however, from the standpoint of modern philosophers and orthodox theologians who identify or confound the immanent power absolutely as God himself—and the only Deity with whom we have to deal—is a somewhat forcing of the human understanding—a case of "the heart breathing defiance to the intellect." "Not that the spirit cannot do this * * * but that doing it does not amount to philosophy."^[D] I doubt if it amounts to religion either: for religion no less than philosophy requires harmony in things; and is necessarily a concern of the intellect as well as of the heart. Its conceptions must appeal to the understanding as well as to the emotions. As remarked by Mr. Fiske: "Our reason demands that there shall be a reasonableness in the constitution of things. This demand is a fact of our psychical [spiritual] nature as positive and irrepressible as our aceptance of geometrical axioms, and our rejection of whatever controverts such axioms. No ingenuity of argument can bring us to believe that the infinite Sustainer of the Universe will put us to permanent intellectual confusion." That is in regard of spiritual or religious matters; any more than in other matters. "Our belief," he continues, "in what we call the evidences of our senses is less strong than our faith that in the orderly sequence of events there is a meaning which our minds could fathom were they only vast enough."^[E]

[Footnote A: Fiske, "Studies in Religion," p. 104; Works, Vol. IX. The parts within single quotation marks are from Spencer, and quoted by Fiske.]

[Footnote B: Fiske Cosmic Philosophy, Vol. IV, p. 227. Also Professor Le Conte says: "No one, we admit, can form a clear conception of how immanence of Deity is consistent with personality." ("Evolution and Its Relation to Religious Thought," p. 337.)]

[Footnote C: "Evolution and Its Relation to Religious Thought," 1902, p. 337. The context is also worthy of being brought into view: "No one, we admit, can form a clear conception of how immanence of Deity is consistent with personality, and yet we must accept both, because we are irresistibly led to each of these by different lines of thought. Science, following one line of thought, uncorrected by a wider philosophy, is naturally led toward the one extreme of pantheistic immanence; the devout worshiper, following the wants of his religious nature, is naturally led toward the other extreme of anthropomorphic personality. The only rational view is to accept both immanence and personality, even though we can not clearly reconcile them, i. e., immanence without pantheism, and personality without anthropomorphism."]

[Footnote D: Professor Howison in "Conception of God"—Introduction, p. 35.

The situation is well represented in the respective attitudes of Mr. Henry L. Mansel, a church of England minister, Dean of St. Paul's in fact, and author of the somewhat celebrated Brampton Lectures on "Limits of Religious Thought"—1875—; and Mr. Herbert Spencer, author of the Synthetic Philosophy. Mr. Mansel in his second lecture, after dealing with the difficulties attending upon finite minds dealing with questions of the "absolute," "infinite" and "first cause;" declares that there is a contradiction in the conception of the infinite as personal (pp. 84-85): and yet in the third lecture he says, "It is our duty to think of God as personal; and it is our duty to believe that he is infinite"; notwithstanding, as Mr. Mansel admits, "we cannot reconcile these two representations with each other, as our conception of personality involves attributes apparently contradictory to the notion of infinity." (p. 106):

Commenting upon this very passage Mr. Spencer says: "That this is not the conclusion here adopted (i.e., by himself) needs hardly be said. If there be any meaning in the foregoing argument, duty requires us neither to affirm nor deny personality. Our duty is to submit ourselves with all humility to the established limits of our intelligence: and not perversely to rebel against them. Let those who can, believe that there is eternal war set between our intellectual faculties and our moral obligations. I for one admit no such radical vice in the constitution of things." "First Principles" p. 111.]

[Footnote E: Studies in Religion, p. 189. Works Vol. IX.]

2. Revelation Presents a Personal Deity as the Object of Man's Faith and Worship: The Old Testament's revelation of God presents him to the world most emphatically as a personal being. "God is referred to as Almighty, All-Wise, All-Holy, the Eternal Creator, Sustainer, and Moral Governor of the universe. He is represented as entering into special relations with his highest creature, man, who is created in his image, after his likeness,^[A] to be his vicegerent on earth,^[B] and to increase in sympathy and fellowship with himself."^[C]

[Footnote A: Gen. 1:26, 27.]

[Footnote B: Gen. 1:26-28.]

[Footnote C: "Belief in God"—Drummelow Bible Commentary, p. 49. See also The Index in both the Oxford and Cambridge Teacher's Bible Helps, under "God" and especially under the subdivision of "Attributes" in the former.]

"When we sum up the impressions and teachings about the God of the ancient Hebrews," says Professor Francis Brown, of Union Theological seminary, "the general result is very definite. We find a personal Being of great majesty, dignity and power, the Creator and Ruler of men, a being of holiness and transcendence; a being of righteousness, who promotes righteousness in others and punishes every breach of it; whose government is a moral government and from whose decisions there is no appeal; a being of kindness, tenderness and helpfulness, with gracious care for those who confide in him, whose plans are at length to be worked out and his desires realized in the unity of men under his benevolent sway amid the exhibition of the divine glories of righteousness and universal peace."^[A]

[Footnote A: The passage is from "The Christian Point of View"—1902—Prof. Brown's passage represents only that view of God revealed in the Old Testament that he asserts is not inconsistent with the New. For he immediately adds to the above paragraph: "With every stroke of this drawing the New Testament picture is in accord. To this extent the spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ indorses the older revelation." (Ibid above). He then proceeds to show that some conceptions of God presented in the Old Testament, as he apprehends them, are not in harmony with the New Testament. I use the passage from Professor Brown, merely to show that other believers in the Old and New Testament revelation of God, as well as the Latter-day Saints, regard those revelations as presenting God to human consciousness as a personal being.]

If anything was lacking in the Old Testament revelation of God as a personal being, in closest relationship to man, then assuredly it would be supplied in the New Testament revelation of God through the person and character of Jesus Christ. For in the New Testament, in the most emphatic manner, the Christ is represented as "God manifested in the flesh."^[A] He, under the direction of the Father, is Creator of the world; he is the brightness of the Father's glory; "and the express image" of the Father's person.^[B] He so completely represented the Father that he declared that those who had seen him had seen the Father;^[C] also after his resurrection he declared that all power in heaven and in earth had been given unto him, and in the full glory of that God-Power he sent forth his disciples to teach all nations and to baptize them in the name of the distinct persons of the God-head.^[D] All that Jesus was and is, God is; for the Christ was God manifested in the flesh. Emphatically God is revealed as a personal being.

[Footnote A: I Tim. iii:16.]

[Footnote B: Hebrews i. See also Discourse by the writer, "Jesus Christ the Revelation of God," in Mormon Doctrine of Deity, Ch. IV, also chapter I, same work.]

[Footnote C: St. John, xiv:8-11.]

[Footnote D: Matt. xxviii:18-20.]

To all this may be added the account of the greatest revelation of all given to man respecting God, in which both Father and Son are revealed to be not only persons but each a separate and distinct individual —the unveiling of both God the Father and God the Son to Joseph Smith; "I saw," said he, "two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other—

"This my beloved son, hear him."^[A]

[Footnote A: Writings of Joseph Smith, Pearl of Great Price, p 85.]

Needless to say these personages in form were as men. The whole volume of revelation, the Old Testament, and the New, and all modern revelation, both in the Book of Mormon and in the Doctrine and Covenants; as well also in the discourses and conversations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, God is represented as a person—of whom Jesus Christ is the express image, and explicit manifestation; and hence believers in revelation are bound to regard God as a personal being, in whose image man was created.

3. The Nature of Man Requires a Personal God: The necessity of conceiving the being whom men call God as personal, also arises from the nature of man. As it is inconceivable that God should "love gases,"^[A] so, too, is it impossible for man to love, revere, or worship mere force, or energy; or regard himself as holding any moral relationship whatsoever to it, though it be proclaimed infinite and eternal. It is soul that responds to soul; like responds to like; love to love. Soul of man cries out for "soul" in the "Infinite Power" to make rational a universe which otherwise is irrational, empty and void of meaning—mechanical merely, signifying nothing. The central idea of religion, consists of certain relationships that exist between men and the power recognized as God, involving the thought of duties and of rights.^[B] Man knows himself as a person—an intelligence; conscious of certain existences, of self-existence, and conscious of a great number of things not self. He is capable of many and wonderful intellectual and emotional experiences. He deliberates; he compares things, contrasts things; he measures and weighs things, he sets values upon them; he prizes one more than another. He is capable of rising from the particular to the general, from the concrete to the abstract; from the things of sense-perception to objects of thought, ideas; until at last "I think," he cries, "Therefore I am."^[C]

[Footnote A: The impressive thought is Sir Robert Ball's, see Defense of the Faith and the Saints, Vol. II. p. 500.]

[Footnote B: See Seventy's Year Book IV, Lesson I. The central and real meaning of the Christian religion, in which the self-consciousness of the Wests finds its true expression, and which thus far has found no home except in the West, lies exactly in the faith that the Creator and the creature are reciprocally and equally real, not identical; that there is Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of men; that God recognizes rights in the creature and acknowledges duties toward him; and that men are accordingly both unreservedly and also indestructibly real, both free and immortal. In that religion alone, I venture to assert, is the union of this triad of faiths to be found—in God, in freedom, in immortality—faiths that, while three, are inseparably one, since neither can be stated except in terms of the other two. ("Conceptions of God"—Howison, p. 94.)]

[Footnote A: Such Descartes formula, and the strength of it as a truth, and its value as an initial point in philosophy, has not been shaken in the two and three quarters of a century since it was first published. See Descartes' Meditations. In the Universal Classics Library edition of Descartes, there is in the Introduction by Frank Sewell, A. M., a very fine and exhaustive discussion of the above principle, "The Cogito Ergo Sum—Its Nature and Meaning." Subdivision III and IV of the Introduction. The Meditations were first published in Paris 1641, A.D.]

4. The Wonders of Man's Mind-Power: But not only does man think, and from consciousness of the fact deduce his own existence, but he passes judgment upon things, determining that this is a better thing, or state, or condition than that. He chooses between and among things, states, and conditions. He is conscious of a power within himself also to will this or that, and can become a true cause of certain and very many things within his experience, especially as concerns his individual movements and conduct.

He is equally conscious of certain emotions that pertain to himself. He fears, is awed; he experiences sorrow, hate, joy, and, best of all, love. And, certain abnormal individuals aside, man loves what he conceives to be the beautiful, the true, the good. In this, too, he is capable of rising in conception from the concrete to the abstract; from the relative to the absolute; from the finite to the infinite. He loves the truth of his experience; but he knows it is limited, relative, and he longs for the Absolute Truth. He loves the good of his experience, but again he knows the good of his experience to be relative, finite, and he longs for and could love, and love supremely, the Infinitely Good. He aspires to relationship with it, to fellowship, to union, to one-ship with it.

In order to attain to such relationship, however, it is obvious that the Infinite Power, the Infinitely Beautiful and the Infinitely Good must be some thing more than mechanical force. It must be even more than an "Unknown"; something more than a "Mystery," a mere "Incomprehensible," an "Inscruitable," if man is to stand in any sympathetic relationship to it: for the "Infinite Power" as an admittedly "Unknown," or as "Inscruitable Mystery," leaves that power as incapable of reciprocal, moral and spiritual relations with man as the "Power" conceived as mere mechanical force is.^[A]

[Footnote A: These remarks are made in view of what Mr. Herbert Spencer says of the value of "A Mystery ever pressing for an interpretation," as an "ultimate religious truth of the highest possible certainty"; but which, if analyzed, will be discovered to be of no more religious value than the conception of the "Infinite Power" as mechanical force. Yet Mr. Spencer thus speaks of it: "And thus the mystery which all religions recognize, turns out to be far more transcendent mystery than any of them suspect—not a relative, but an absolute mystery. Here, then, is an ultimate religious truth of the highest possible certainty—a truth in which religions in general are at one with each other, and with a philosophy antagonistic to their special dogmas. And this truth, respecting which there is a latent agreement among all mankind from the fetish-worshiper to the most stoical critic of human creeds, must be the one we seek. If Religion and Science are to be reconciled, the basis of reconciliation must be this deepest, widest, and most certain of all facts—that the Power which the Universe manifests to us Is utterly inscrutable." "First Principles," pp. 47, 48.]

5. The Immanence of the New Dispensation—Reconciliation of Difficulties: The Immanence of God, as we have seen, and as that conception is commonly held, presents a difficulty. The difficulty of regarding the Immanent Power as being at once immanent in the world and at the same time personal. But that difficulty is overcome in the theology of the New Dispensation by the fact that the Immanent God is conceived as Spirit or Spiritual Light—"the Light of Christ," for us men—which "proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space. The light which is in all things; which giveth life to all things; which is the law by which all things are governed: even the Power of God."^[A] And which is, according to the testimony of St. John "the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,"^[B] and according to the word of the Lord to Joseph Smith is, "the light which now shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings."^[C]

[Footnote A: Doc. & Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:12,13.]

[Footnote B: St. John, i:9.]

[Footnote C: Doc. & Cov., Sec. lxxxviii:11.]

Also, as we have seen (ante-Lesson III), not only is the Immanent Spirit the Divine Power, but that spirit carries with it into the immensity of space which it pervades, at least certain attributes of the Divine Intelligence from whom it proceeds, and becomes the inspiration to intelligence in men, and the atmosphere of wisdom, holiness, truth, and of love. Also the Immanent Spirit is a means of union for man, if he desires it, if he seeks to make it so by drawing nigh unto God, that God may draw nigh unto him—a means of union with the Divine Intelligences from whom the spiritual light proceeds, and of whom the Christ is the type, and with whom man is destined, ultimately, to associate, living in the physical presence of such Intelligences as well as in their spiritual presence, on terms of intimate friendship—face to face communion; personal association in councils; personal cooperation in the divine purposes, in creation, in sustentation; in redemptive processes, and, in a word, in all the Divine activities, until man shall be satisfied to the uttermost with his fellowship and perfect union with God, finding in the free harmony of Divine Intelligences, that "City of God," that moral order, that expression of the "Absolute," that completeness, which seems necessary to a rational universe for man.

PART II.

The Godhead.

THE HOLY TRINITY.^[A]

(Scripture Reading Exercise).

THE HOLY TRINITY.

SPECIAL TEXT: "And Jesus when he was baptized went straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. iii:16, 17.)

[Footnote A: This subject is treated more at length in Seventy's Year Book No. III, also in the writer's "Mormon Doctrine of Deity," Ch. IV, Lesson XXXI, to which the student is referred. Its treatment here is merely to get the idea of the relationship that the Holy Ghost sustains to the other two personages of the Trinity.]

DISCUSSION.

1. Belief in the Godhead: "We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."^[A]

[Footnote A: "Articles of Faith"—Joseph Smith, from the Wentworth Letter 1842, Hist. of the Church, Vol. IV, p. 535 et Seq.]

Such is the authoritative declaration of the Church as to its faith in the Godhead. Such is the Godhead of the New Testament Scriptures—the Christian Trinity.

2. Scripture Proof of the Trinity: In four separate ways is this made apparent: (1) at the baptism of Jesus. As Jesus, who is God, the Son, came forth from his baptism at the hands of John, a manifestation of the presence of God the Holy Ghost, was given in the sign of the Dove, which rested upon Jesus; while, lo, a voice from heaven, the voice of God, the Father, was heard, saying—-"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased";^[A] (2) in the commission given to the apostles to teach all nations: "and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."^[B] (3) in the vision of Stephen; the mob rushed upon Stephen—"But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked steadfastly into heaven, and saw the Glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God."^[C] (4) in the apostolic benediction, viz., "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."^[D]

[Footnote A: Matt. iii:16, 17.]

[Footnote B: Matt. xxviii:18, 19.]

[Footnote C: Acts vii:55, 56.]

[Footnote D: II Cor. xiii:14.]

This Godhead of three divine persons is emphatically proclaimed in the Book of Mormon: They shall be "arraigned before the bar of Christ, the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works."^[A] "And after this manner shall ye baptize in my name [this after giving the baptismal formula—I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, see context], for verily I say unto you, that the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one"—Jesus.^[B] "The Father, and I and the Holy Ghost are one."—Jesus.^[C]

[Footnote A: Alma xi:44.]

[Footnote B: II Nephi xi:24, 27.]

[Footnote C: Ibid ver. 36. See also III Nephi xxxiii:10; and Mormon vii:7.]

3. The Doctrine of the Trinity Formulated in the Early Christian Church: To these scriptural groupings of the three persons into a holy trinity, may be added that earliest of post apostolic symbols known commonly as the "Apostles' Creed," because of the tradition that it was formulated by the apostles immediately before their dispersion into the world to fulfill the commission given to them by the Christ to teach all nations; but which notion is now very generally discredited, and the truer notion is held to be that this noted summary of Christian faith "arose from small beginnings, and was gradually enlarged as occasion required in order to exclude new errors from the Church."^[A] But, however, and whoever constructed this so-called Apostles' Creed, this much must be said of it, viz., that it represents the almost universal belief of the early Christian Church in a Godhead consisting of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that this is in harmony with the New Testament scriptures, and is the symbol^[B] of Christian faith that grew out of efforts to express the essentials of Christianity. The creed, in English, follows:

[Footnote A: In acknowledging that it has no claim to that venerable title (i. e., the Apostles' Creed), "we must guard against the common assumption," says Dr. Philip Smith, "that it is the oldest, as well as the simplest creed of the Catholic Church. True—as we have seen—it may be traced, in its most essential elements, from an early post-apostolic age; but, its development belongs solely to the Western Church, and its formal adoption, as a written creed, is later than the Nicene. It was the ancient baptismal creed as used in the Church of Rome, and was known as the Symbolum Romanum, or simply Symbolum, before it received the epithet of Apostolorum. Its forms were different in different churches; the earlier forms variously omitting the articles of the "descent into hell," "the communion of saints," "the life everlasting," and the epithet "catholic" before "church."]

[Footnote B: "These creeds obtained also the name of Symbols." Students' Ecclesiastical History, Dr. Philip Smith, Vol I, p. 234.]

THE "APOSTLES' CREED."

"I believe in God, the Father, Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, buried, arose from the dead on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and sits at the right hand of the Father; whence he will come to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit; the holy church; the remission of sins; and the resurrection of the body."^[A]

[Footnote A: Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Institutes, Vol. I, p. 80, Murdock's translation. The above form, is as it stood in the fourth century, a few centuries later it attained in the Romish Church its ampler form, in which it has since been adopted by most Protestant churches, as follows:

"I believe in God, the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, he descended into hell, the third day he arose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father, almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic church, the Communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen." In this form it is called the "Symbolum Roman—Roman Symbol."]

4. Man's Allegiance to the Godhead: This holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Godhead, constitutes for the Christian the creating, sustaining, redeeming, witnessing power of the universe—the supreme God. In this Godhead righteousness, and holiness, and truth, and knowledge, and wisdom and power, and glory, and justice, and mercy and love, and all that we do or can recognize as belonging to the divine nature abound in their perfection. This Godhead is the source of spiritual power and light and glory; to whom man owes first allegiance; who is the true and only object—but singularly as well as in unity—of man's worship; to whom man submits his mind and his will for guidance—for in such submission alone is true worship.

LESSON VIII.

(Scripture Reading Exercise).

THE UNITY AND THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE PERSONAGES OF THE GODHEAD.

SPECIAL TEXT: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen." (II Cor. xiii:14.)

DISCUSSION.

1. The Unity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost: While conceiving these three Divine Personages, as constituting an organized unit, a body or Divine Council, it should be remembered that their oneness consist in moral unity, not physical unity, or identity of substance or essence. In other words, they are distinct and separate personages, in the sense of being three separate and distinct individuals, a unity only in agreement of purpose, and unity of will for the accomplishment of certain definite ends,^[A] to bring to pass the immortality and eternal progress of man.^[B]

[Footnote A: The Three Personagess. "Everlasting covenants was made between three personages before the organization of this earth, and relates to their dispensation of things to men on the earth: these personages, according to Abraham's record, are called God the first, the Creator; God the second, the Redeemer; and God the third, the Witness or Testator."—Little & Richards' Compendium—Gems from the Prophet's Teachings—p. 289.]

[Footnote B: Doc. & Cov., Sec. xciii:26-35. Book of Moses, Pearl of Great Price, ch. iii., II Nephi ch. ii; also New Witnesses for God, Vol III, ch xl. where the matter is discussed at great length.]

Jesus himself taught that he and his Father were one,^[A] that whosoever had seen him had seen the Father also;^[B] that it was part of his mission to reveal God, the Father, through his own personality; for as was the Son, so too was the Father;^[C] hence Jesus was God manifested in the flesh, a revelation of God to the world;^[D] a revelation not only of the being of God, but of the kind of being God is.

[Footnote A: John x:30; xvii:11-22.]

[Footnote B: John xiv:9.]

[Footnote C: John xiv:1-9; John 1:8.]

[Footnote D: I Tim. iii:16.]

[Footnote: Eph iii:14-19.]

Jesus also prayed—and in so doing showed in what the oneness of himself and the Father consisted—that the disciples might be one with him, and also with each other, as he and the Father were one. Not one in person, not all merged into one individual, and all distinctions of personality lost; but one in mind, in knowledge, in love, in will; one by reason of the indwelling in all of the one spirit, even as the mind and will of God, the Father, was also in Jesus Christ.^[A]

[Footnote A: John xiv:10, 11, 19, 20.]

2. The Separate Individual Existence of the Father: The existence of God, the Father, both Jesus and the Apostles accepted as a reality. Jesus nowhere attempts to prove God's existence. He assumes that and proceeds from that basis with his doctrine. He declares the fact that God was his Father and frequently calls himself the Son of God, and prays to the Father in that capacity: "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father. * * * Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life for the sheep. * * * This commandment have I received of my Father. * * * The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. * * * For which of those do ye stone me? The Jews answered him. * * * Because that that thou being a man makest thyself God. * * * Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not."^[A]

[Footnote A: St. John x.]

The statement of Jesus when instituting the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper: "I will not drink hence forth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."^[A]

[Footnote A: Matt xxvi:29.]

The prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane: "O my Father if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." And again: "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done."^[A]

[Footnote A: Ibid, verses 39, 42.]

John represents Jesus as saying in Gethsemane: "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. * * * And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. * * * Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are. * * * That they all may be one: as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. * * * O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me."^[A]

[Footnote A: St. John xvii.]

Then, after the resurrection of Jesus, he meets Mary of Magdala and said to her, when she in her joy was about to lay hold of him: "Touch me not; for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God."^[A]

[Footnote A: St. John xx.]

The separate and distinct individual existence of God the Father could not be more emphatically represented than in these scriptures.

3. The Separate and Individual Existence of the Son: The scriptures which teach the separate existence of the Father, teach also the separate and individual existence of the Son; but the question may arise, Was Jesus, the Son of God, also God? The passage already considered, in which Jesus is given equal rank with the Father and with the Holy Ghost, strongly implies that he is Divine, that he is Deity. In the Seventy's Year Book No. III, Lesson xxxiii, in treating at length upon the subject of the divinity of Jesus, the conclusion that Jesus, as well as the Father, is God, is worked out from the fact that Jesus is called God in the Scriptures;^[A] that Jesus declares himself to be God—the Son of God;^[B] that Jesus is to be worshiped—hence God;^[C] that Jesus, under the Father's direction, is the Creator, hence God;^[D] that Jesus Christ is declared to be equal with God the Father, hence God.^[E] All these declarations are sustained by the scriptures and reasoned out in detail in the lesson of Year Book III cited above, and to that work the student is referred. Here it will be only necessary to cite the scriptures which sustain these several specific declarations concerning Jesus, the Christ, which I have done by giving them in the margin.^[F]

[Footnote A: Isaiah vii:14; Matt. i:23; Isaiah ix:6.]

[Footnote B: John x:33; Matt. xxvii:63, 64; Matt. xxviii:18, 19; Heb. i:8.]

[Footnote C: Rev. xix;10 c. f; Heb. i:5, 6; Phil. ii:9, 10.]

[Footnote D: St. John i:1-4; Col. i:12-17; Heb. i:2.]

[Footnote E: Matt. xxviii:18, 19; Phil. iii:6; Heb. iii:3; Col. i:19: ii:9; II. Nephi xxvi:12.]

[Footnote F: The student will also find an elaborate discussion on the subject in the writer's "Mormon Doctrine of Deity," chapter iv. And also in his "Introduction to the History of the Church," Vol. I, pp. 81-89.]

Jesus, then, is separate and distinct from God, the Father; but is nevertheless not only divine, but Deity, equally so with the Father; for God so declares it, through his revelation to the world; but he is united with the Father in moral union of mind and will, and purpose.