Ghost Wispere Native America and Holy Ghost a quest

The principal ceremonial riteof a peculiar Indian religionwith originated about 1887 with Wovoka, alias jackWilson, an Indian of the Piutetribe in Nevada. He claimed to have obtained hisrevelation in a vision in which he had been taken into the spirit world and talked with God, Who had promised a speedy return to the oldIndian life through thereincarnation of all the deadIndians, the buffalo and other game, upon a new earth, which was already advancing from the west and would push before it the alien whites to their own proper country beyond the ocean, while the Indianbelievers would be taken up, as by wings, upon the new surface, and there reunited with their old-time friends. By performance of the prescribed dance and songs the consummation would be hastened, while in the frequent hypnotic trances brought about by the efforts of the priests the more sensitive subjects were enabled to anticipate the event in visions.

The belief spread among nearly all of the tribes eastward of the Missouri, and produced much excitement for several years, until several dates of the great change had passed without realization of theprophecy, when the ferment gradually subsided. InDakota it lead indirectly to an outbreak among the Sioux in the winter of 1890-1, notable events of which were thekilling of Sitting Bull and the massacre at Wounded Knee. In the dance, men andwomen held hands, facing toward the centre, singing the ghost songs, without instrumental accompaniment, while thepriests within the circle brought the more sensitive subjects into the trancecondition by means of hypnotizing performances. An essential doctrine of the new religion was the brotherhood of man, and in consequence of this all actsor ceremonies of a warlikenature were prohibited. Yet not prohibited The Holy Ghost is a Personreally distinct as such from the Father and the Son;He is God andconsubstantial with the Father and the Son.

The first statement is directly opposed to Monarchianismand to Socinianism; the second to Subordinationism, to the different forms ofArianism, and toMacedonianism in particular. The same arguments drawn from Scripture and Traditionmay be used generally toprove either assertion. We will, therefore, bring forward the proofs of the two truthstogether, but first call particular attention to some passages that demonstrate more explicitly the distinction of personality.

Scripture

In the New Testament the word spirit and, perhaps, even the expression spirit ofGod signify at times the soulor man himself, inasmuch as he is under the influence ofGod and aspires to things above; more frequently, especially in St. Paul, they signify God acting in man; but they are used, besides, to designate not only a working of God in general, but a Divine Person, Who is neither the Father nor the Son, Who is named together with the Father, or the Son, or with Both, without the context allowing them to be identified. A few instances are given here. We read inJohn 14:16-17: "And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with, you for ever. The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive"; and in John 15:26: "But when the Paracletecometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me." St. Peter addresses hisfirst epistle, 1:1-2, "to the strangers dispersed . . . elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, unto the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood ofJesus Christ". The Spirit of consolation and of truth is also clearly distinguished inJohn 16:7, 13-15, from theSon, from Whom He receives all He is to teach theApostles, and from the Father, who has nothing that the Son also does not possess. Both send Him, but He is not separated from Them, for the Father and theSon come with Him when He descends into our souls(John 14:23).

Many other texts declare quite as clearly that the Holy Ghost is a Person, a Persondistinct from the Father and the Son, and yet One Godwith Them. In several placesSt. Paul speaks of Him as if speaking of God. In Acts 28:25, he says to the Jews: "Well did the Holy Ghost speak to our fathers byIsaias the prophet"; now theprophecy contained in the next two verses is taken from Isaiah 6:9-10, where it is put in the mouth of the "King the Lord of hosts". In other places he uses the words God and Holy Ghost as plainly synonymous. Thus he writes (1 Corinthians 3:16): "Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" and in 6:19: "Or knowyou not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you . . . ?" St. Peter asserts the same identity when he thus remonstrates with Ananias (Acts 5:3-4): "Why hath Satantempted thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Ghost . . . ? Thou hast notlied to men, but to God." The sacred writers attribute to the Holy Ghost all the works characteristic of Divine power. It is in His name, as in the name of the Father and of the Son, that baptism is to be given (Matthew 28:19). It is by His operation that the greatest of Divine mysteries, the Incarnation of the Word, is accomplished (Matthew 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35). It is also in His name and by His power that sins are forgiven and souls sanctified: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them" (John 20:22-23); "But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you arejustified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and theSpirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6:11); "Thecharity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by theHoly Ghost, who is given to us" (Romans 5:5). He isessentially the Spirit of truth(John 14:16-17; 15:26), Whose office it is to strengthen faith (Acts 6:5), to bestow wisdom (Acts 6:3), to give testimony of Christ, that is to say, to confirm His teaching inwardly (John 15:26), and to teach theApostles the full meaning of it (John 14:26; 16:13). With these Apostles He will abide for ever (John 14:16). Having descended on them atPentecost, He will guide them in their work (Acts 8:29), for He will inspire the new prophets (Acts 11:28;13:9), as He inspired theProphets of the Old Law(Acts 7:51). He is the source of graces and gifts (1 Corinthians 12:3-11); He, in particular, grants the gift of tongues (Acts 2:4; 10:44-47). And as he dwells in our bodies sanctifies them (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19), so will and them he raise them again, one day, from the dead (Romans 8:11). But he operates especially in thesoul, giving it a new life (Romans 8:9 sq.), being the pledge that God has given us that we are his children (Romans 8:14-16; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5;Galatians 4:6). He is theSpirit of God, and at the same time the Spirit of Christ(Romans 8:9); because He is in God, He knows the deepest mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11), and He possesses all knowledge. St. Paul ends his Second Epistle to the Corinthians (13:13)with this formula ofbenediction, which might be called a blessing of theTrinity: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and thecharity of God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost be with you all." — Cf. Tixeront, "Hist. des dogmes", Paris, 1905, I, 80, 89, 90, 100, 101.