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THE SPIRIT OF LIFE

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 2, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 22.

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THE SPIRIT OF LIFE.

God is the source of all life. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” “He is thy life.”
He is the one life, His own life, given to all His creatures, and designed to be developed in each according to the law of each, in rock, and tree, and fish, and bird, and beast, and man. Each and all constantly receive life from the great Fountain, whose life-currents flow to all parts of the created universe.
God’s life is eternal life, even as He is “the eternal God.” We could not conceive of His having any other kind of life. He did not design that His creatures should die; “an enemy hath done this.” To give a life which is not eternal, is to give death; for the end of a life which is not eternal is death; and death, the “enemy,” does not come from the great Fountain.
“But God is a person; how can His life be everywhere present?” God is everywhere present by His Spirit. “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith Jehovah.” And the psalmist, in speaking of God, by inspiration asks: “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I go from Thy presence. If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.”
The presence of God is therefore His Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is therefore the life of God. And so we read of “the Spirit of life” (Rom. 8:2), that “the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (verse 10); that “the Spirit giveth life” (2 Cor. 3:6).
We have common illustrations in life which may help us to comprehend the all-pervasiveness of God’s Spirit, or life. It is known by every thinking person that each individual is surrounded by a sphere of influence, called by some “aura,” in which the individuality, the personality, the force, of that person, is felt. With some this is most marked, according to strength of character and power of will. With some this influence is used for good; with many it is an agent of evil.
Sometimes it is manifest to us seemingly outside of our senses. How many of our readers have been in a room of total darkness, seeing or hearing no one, and yet have felt, tho not by physical touch, that another person was present, which subsequent light or sound demonstrated? How did we know it?—Our aura, or sphere of force, and personality came in contact with that of the person present.
It is by the perversion and subversion of these facts and powers that men and women fall victims to mesmerism or hypnotism. God designed that every person should be free, and he who wholly submits to the will or force of another endangers his eternal liberty.
Well, the force of the illustration is this: As finite man is surrounded by an aura, or sphere of force and influence, reaching far out beyond himself, capable at times of controlling many, and as this sphere is filled with his own personality or individuality, so the infinite God is surrounded by a limitless sphere, to every part of which flows, from the great central Fountain, the life-force of God, carrying with it the power and personality of God. There are two things which oftentimes make us conscious of the personality of another, namely, harmony and antagonism. There may be others present in a promiscuous assembly whose aura, or influence, is as potent, but we do not become conscious of it, through indifference on their part or ours, or both. But the influence is there, tho not felt. So God’s life-force may not be consciously felt, but its currents flow everywhere, carrying with them the power of the Infinite. It is the all-pervading Spirit of God shed forth as life around, upon, and within the universe.
The law of God’s life will be the subject of our next study.