The Farewell Discourse

180:4.1Je­sus con­tin­ued to teach, say­ing: “When I have gone to the Fa­ther, and af­ter he has fully ac­cepted the work I have done for you on earth, and af­ter I have re­ceived the fi­nal sov­er­eignty of my own do­main, I shall say to my Fa­ther: Hav­ing left my chil­dren alone on earth, it is in ac­cor­dance with my prom­ise to send them an­other teacher. And when the Fa­ther shall ap­prove, I will pour out the Spirit of Truth upon all flesh. Al­ready is my Fa­ther’s spirit in your hearts, and when this day shall come, you will also have me with you even as you now have the Fa­ther. This new gift is the spirit of liv­ing truth. The un­be­liev­ers will not at first lis­ten to the teach­ings of this spirit, but the sons of light will all re­ceive him gladly and with a whole heart. And you shall know this spirit when he comes even as you have known me, and you will re­ceive this gift in your hearts, and he will abide with you. You thus per­ceive that I am not go­ing to leave you with­out help and guid­ance. I will not leave you des­o­late. To­day I can be with you only in per­son. In the times to come I will be with you and all other men who de­sire my pres­ence, wher­ever you may be, and with each of you at the same time. Do you not dis­cern that it is bet­ter for me to go away; that I leave you in the flesh so that I may the bet­ter and the more fully be with you in the spirit?

180:4.2“In just a few hours the world will see me no more; but you will con­tinue to know me in your hearts even un­til I send you this new teacher, the Spirit of Truth. As I have lived with you in per­son, then shall I live in you; I shall be one with your per­sonal ex­pe­ri­ence in the spirit king­dom. And when this has come to pass, you shall surely know that I am in the Fa­ther, and that, while your life is hid with the Fa­ther in me, I am also in you. I have loved the Fa­ther and have kept his word; you have loved me, and you will keep my word. As my Fa­ther has given me of his spirit, so will I give you of my spirit. And this Spirit of Truth which I will be­stow upon you shall guide and com­fort you and shall even­tu­ally lead you into all truth.

180:4.3“I am telling you these things while I am still with you that you may be the bet­ter pre­pared to en­dure those tri­als which are even now right upon us. And when this new day comes, you will be in­dwelt by the Son as well as by the Fa­ther. And these gifts of heaven will ever work the one with the other even as the Fa­ther and I have wrought on earth and be­fore your very eyes as one per­son, the Son of Man. And this spirit friend will bring to your re­mem­brance ev­ery­thing I have taught you.”

180:4.4As the Mas­ter paused for a mo­ment, Ju­das Al­pheus made bold to ask one of the few ques­tions which ei­ther he or his brother ever ad­dressed to Je­sus in pub­lic. Said Ju­das: “Mas­ter, you have al­ways lived among us as a friend; how shall we know you when you no longer man­i­fest your­self to us save by this spirit? If the world sees you not, how shall we be cer­tain about you? How will you show your­self to us?”

180:4.5Je­sus looked down upon them all, smiled, and said: “My lit­tle chil­dren, I am go­ing away, go­ing back to my Fa­ther. In a lit­tle while you will not see me as you do here, as flesh and blood. In a very short time I am go­ing to send you my spirit, just like me ex­cept for this ma­te­rial body. This new teacher is the Spirit of Truth who will live with each one of you, in your hearts, and so will all the chil­dren of light be made one and be drawn to­ward one an­other. And in this very man­ner will my Fa­ther and I be able to live in the souls of each one of you and also in the hearts of all other men who love us and make that love real in their ex­pe­ri­ences by lov­ing one an­other, even as I am now lov­ing you.”

180:4.6Ju­das Al­pheus did not fully un­der­stand what the Mas­ter said, but he grasped the prom­ise of the new teacher, and from the ex­pres­sion on An­drew’s face, he per­ceived that his ques­tion had been sat­is­fac­to­rily an­swered.