God also bearing them
witness both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the
Holy Spirit." And that the apostles preached the gospel with the Holy
Spirit sent down from heaven.

It was communicated to the prophets and apostles by the Savior, and to the
world at large through them. As proof of this proposition Peter says, "The
prophets searched diligently with reference to the time which the Spirit
of Christ, that was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand of
the sufferings of Christ and of the glory which should follow." It was an
important work for Christ to teach his apostles, and when they had heard
him through all his toils they were not suffered to go forth, or shine as
stars in the church's crown, until they were moved upon by the Spirit of
God to bring to their remembrance those things which Jesus had taught
them. But one other course could have been pursued, and there were
insurmountable difficulties in the way of its adoption, and that was to
make the extraordinary ordinary by causing the Holy Spirit to move upon
all hearts throughout all time, and give to each member of the race,
regardless of his character and the manner in which he might abuse it, the
entire revelation. The first difficulty is in the fact that wicked men who
wilfully deceive would have confronted the best men upon the earth, and
confusion without remedy would have been the result of leaving our world
without a common and infallible test.

Another difficulty appears, in the fact that it would have compromised the
purity of God through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all
the vile and abominable sinners of earth. There was one way to avoid these
results, and that was to irresistibly destroy all disposition in human
hearts to have their own way, and so remain unworthy of the presence of
the Divine Spirit; but this would have been a complete destruction of
moral freedom along with all the principles of accountability, and
consequently a destruction of God's moral government. Moral freedom was so
sacred with God that "the spirit of the prophets was subject to the
prophet." Hence, the importance of the searcher of hearts choosing his own
prophets out from among men. "God, who in ancient times and diverse
manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath, in
these last days, spoken unto us by his son." The Lord of Hosts guarded
this great work with reference to the deliverance of man by