Chauncey Giles

“ I might speak of the use of animals to man for food, for clothing, to bear his burdens, to delight him with their beauty and affection animal. He has animal instincts, desires, passions, tastes, habits, powers, in a word, an animal nature. He possesses not merely the special faculties of one animal. The qualities of all animals are embodied in him. Plants and animals are special forms and qualities of life, all of which are combined in every human being. ”

“ Is not that an important and significant quality of life? Does it not give us a hint of love and wisdom" We see it forming the plant into food for animals and men, and moulding them into a diversified and glorious beauty to cultivate the taste, charm the fancy, and win the affections. We see life giving to each plant its own form, its own beauty, its own qualities, and its own use? ”

“ Love is substance and power in their essence and origin. Love is the substance of the Divine Being. It is another name for life; it is life. It contains within itself the promise and potency of the whole creation; of all that is not God. As a Divine and a self-existing substance it contains within itself the power to create all finite substances from itself, and out of them to organize all forms and imbue them with life. Loving is love in action; emotion is the effect of the power of love, as the motion of an engine is due to the power of steam. ”

“ Life cannot be created, but it can create and sustain by the constant communication of its power. It cannot create itself. It cannot give to the forms which it creates an existence independent of itself. ”

“ Here is love in a higher form. Here is wisdom in specific and perfect measure. Does it not demonstrate that it is the essential nature of life to give itself to others in good measure pressed down and running over? Does it not prophesy to us that so far we come into a true order and become pure and perfect forms of life, that the Divine promise will be fulfilled, "Ye may ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you"? ”

“ We keep all that we give, and our own treasures of love and wisdom are multiplied and enriched by drawing from them for the benefit of others. Does not this quality of the mind clearly demonstrate the impossibility of its annihilation? Does it not insure the immortality of man? But it possesses another quality which is directly opposite to those possessed by any material form, and one which gives another proof of its indestructibility. Its capacity for the reception of life never can be filled. ”

“ A child knows that a dead vine will not grow and bear fruit however carefully it may be cultivated and rich the soil. We see the nature of life in higher and more various forms in animals and men. We feel its power in ourselves. We have a clearer and fuller and more various knowledge of life than we have of a stone or plant, of light and heat, or of any material force or object. It is a force. Heat is a force; but life is a much greater and finer power. Heat moves to action; life does the same, but in far higher and more various forms. ”

“ Consider instinct, for a moment, as one of the qualities of life. There is given to every insect, fowl, and animal a specific and perfect knowledge. It is limited to-its own wants. Its range is narrow and it cannot be extended; but it is perfect within its limits. It is given round and complete at once. Here we can see that it is a quality of life to give every form it can create, a full and perfect measure of power according to its capacity to receive. ”

“ It is a fact certified by observation and universal experience, that the more there is put into the mind the more capacious it becomes. It is not filled up and its capacity diminished by what it receives, like a material vessel. ”

“ But it cannot bestow upon them a consciousness of their own life, a knowledge of the use they are serving, and the power to rejoice in the warmth and glory of the sun, and to drink pleasure from dew and rain. ”

“ It selects from mineral and mould, from air and water and light, with unerring precision the substances that will serve its purpose, and weaves them with infinite skill that is above all finite comprehension into grass and vines, shrubs and trees; clothes them with leaves, adorns them with blossoms, and distils from their gross elements delicious juices and nourishing substances, and embodies them in fruits each after its kind. In this kingdom of nature we see life in its means, methods, and results. ”

“ Life therefore cannot be created, it can only be communicated. The Lord is life. All created beings are forms capable of receiving life. But life itself being from its essential nature uncreatable has no origin.
Let us, then, proceed to answer the question, What is life? This is a question which, according to general opinion, it is impossible to answer. But life is no more incomprehensible than a stone or a plant. We do not know what anything is in itself. All our knowledge of material things or of human beings, of mind and matter, is gained and limited by their influence upon us ”

“ It is the force with which steam expands. It is the action of the for of substance we call steam. The power of wind and wave is the force with which they move; the power of men and animals resides in their organization, and has no existence apart from them. We conclude, therefore, that life must be substance; it must be the primary, self-existent, and self-acting substance from which all the worlds and all things are created. The universe was not created out of nothing; it was created by life and out of the substance of life. It has its origin in God who is substance and life. ”

“ He can pass instantly from the present to the past; he can visit all climes and all worlds, while in the body he remains at home. Mountains and oceans and the vast spaces which lie between planets and suns, offer no obstacle to his thoughts. He can be everywhere present within the limits of his knowledge.
He has the power of rational thought and affection. He can see ideas and principles in their true forms and relations, can gain a knowledge of their nature and use, and from the heights of this knowledge he can look down upon his inferior mind. ”

“ The human mind or spirit, though created and consequently finite and only a form receptive of life, is of such a nature that its capacities can be indefinitely enlarged and perfected. Unlike a material substance it is not diminished by giving its own to others. If we give a sum of money, a morsel of food, or any material substance to another, we diminish our store by the amount we part with; but it is not so with any spiritual possession. We cannot part with a truth or an affection. We may give our love to others continually and still retain it. ”

“ Let us again take our stand in the Divine nature as revealed in the Sacred Scriptures, and regard life as it exists and is manifested in another form. God is love and wisdom. God is life. In Him is life, and the life was the light of men. Love is therefore life. God is love. But much more is meant by this simple affirmation than that God is capable of loving. He is not only capable of exercising the affection of love, but He is love itself. What is love? ”

“ He can restrain and guide his thoughts, and provide means for extending his knowledge, a faculty which the animal does not possess. He can see higher truths and finer qualities and more complex and varied uses in nature. He has power to bring rock, and plant, and animal into his service. This is one of the higher qualities of life. It creates and organizes all things and uses them as instruments to effect its purposes.
As life is infinite it cannot weaken its power or diminish its substance by creating and giving itself to others. ”

“ The qualities of his affections and the power of his intellectual faculties will not shade off and blend with the peculiar forms of other beings. A man will become more distinctly masculine in every form and feature and in every quality of his mind; and a woman will become more distinctly feminine in every feature and quality of affection and thought. The more distinctly every human being becomes himself, the more perfect will be the unity in heavenly societies ”

“ We may communicate our thoughts and, if possible, every truth we possess, without diminishing our store of knowledge. Nay, more, our love is increased by giving; our thoughts and our joys are multiplied by sharing them with others. ”

“ Light and heat must be constantly given. They cannot be retained as a permanent possession. They are a form of substance in motion. Motion is one of their factors. Consequently when the motion rests light and heat cease. A more familiar example of this method of creation is sound, one of the factors of which, as every school-boy knows, is the motion of the form of substance we call the atmosphere. The sound dies when the motion ceases. So it is with life. It is not a commodity that can be gained and stored up and used when occasion requires, as we can lay up food or money. ”

“ The purer and more ardent the love, the more energetic and devoted the parent will be to minister to all the wants and secure the happiness of his offspring. Love of home will incite to constant labor; love of country will lead to the surrender of property and, if need be, to the peril of life. Love of the Church and of the Lord, when it is the dominant motive, will lead to giving up all things and following Him. What we are willing to give and to give up is the test of our love. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." ”

“ Is it nothing more than a pleasurable emotion, the effect of a thought, a look, or the conscious presence of another. It is vastly more than any or all of its effects. It is not an abstraction; it is not a feeling; it is not an emotion that comes and goes. ”

“ The plant and the animal have life, but they are not life. Human beings have life, but they are not life itself. Life can be given to all organized forms, and it can be taken away from them. We live and move and have our being in the Lord. Life cannot be created and deposited in plant, animal, or man, and remain as an independent and self-sustaining power. ”

“ The human spirit was created to receive life from the Lord in conscious forms and in ever-increasing measures. All it acquires it retains, and all it retains adds to its capacity to receive. As life cannot be created, so it cannot be destroyed. ”

“ We can give and receive solid and fluid substances, leave them in the possession of others, and withhold all connection with them. We can receive a mineral, a sum of money, a flower, or a fruit, and it will remain in our hands after the giver has departed. But light cannot be given and held in that way. It does not remain after the source, the luminous body, is removed. The light which fills this room and seems steady and permanent cannot be retained when the source from which it originates is extinguished. Heat is of the same nature. ”

“ I invite your attention to a brief statement of what our doctrines teach upon the origin and nature of life, and to some illustrations which may help us to see their reasonableness and ground in the nature of things. By the origin of life I mean life as it appears in the creation, in plants, animals, and men, and not in its primary source. ”

“ In this kingdom life reveals its nature in clearer characters, in higher and more varied forms. It shows that it is of its nature to feel, to know, to associate with others, to enjoy, and to bring many material substances into its own service. ”

“ If such is the nature of human love, weak and imperfect as it is, what must be the nature of the Divine love" If love impels men to use all the means at their command to effect its purposes, will not the Lord whose love is infinite, do the same thing? ”

“ But it differs in form, organization, and qualities from the vine which bore it. When we eat a cluster of delicious grapes we are not eating a grape-vine. The earth, the scientists truly tell us, was created from substances derived from the sun; but the assertion that the earth was a part of the sun would be regarded. as absurd. So there is a distinct cleavage and an impassable gulf between the creature and the Creator. All created things and beings are forms having no life in themselves, but capable of receiving it. Men and, angels are not God; they have no underived independent life. ”

“ In this latter sense it has no origin. It is in its essential nature untreatable and consequently has no beginning. This is the affirmation of the Lord Himself. The name of the Supreme Being means existence in itself. When asked His name He replied, I am the I am." That is the meaning of the word Jehovah. He not merely lives; He is life itself. He has life in Himself. ”

“ The material forms, which it creates can be destroyed, but the human form organized of spiritual substances cannot. This assures not only our immortality, but the possibility of endless progress.
Time prevents me from mentioning only one more quality of life. ”

“ They are simply forms capable of receiving life from Him and being constantly blessed by it. This is the ineradicable distinction between the creature and the Creator. This is the gulf which never can be passed. ”

“ In this condition they cannot receive and become forms of life. They can only serve as materials for life to build itself a body, a house to dwell in and an instrument to reveal its nature. Life can only show itself in organic forms. We find, therefore, in the vegetable kingdom the first indications of life in its lowest qualities. ”

“ We can see that it is a quality of its nature to organize, to reduce chaotic elements to order, and establish relations between them, and bring the various substances which stand apart into mutual service. ”