If he be the spirit of a just man made perfect he will come in his glory; for that is the only way he can appear—
 Ask him to shake hands with you, but he will not move, because it is contrary to the order of heaven for a just man to deceive; but he will still deliver his message. (D&C 129:6-7)
Section 129 contains instructions from Joseph Smith making known three grand keys by which the nature of ministering angels and spirits can be distinguished. 

One thing that puzzled me about verse 6 was where it says “he will come in his glory; for that is the only way he can appear.”  I wasn’t sure what it meant.  Since then, I remembered that Joseph Smith has said elsewhere that spirit matter is finer than can be discerned by the natural eye (see D&C 131:7-8), so to our eyes light rays would go straight through without reflecting off these just spirits.  The only way they would be seen by us is if they were to emanate light themselves.


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