THE HEART OF AN EAGLE

Seems that a certain man went through the forest looking for any kind of a bird of interest and he came upon a little baby eagle that had fallen out of his nest. He took it home and put it in a pen with the chickens and the turkeys and the ducks.

Several years later a naturalist came by his house and passing through the garden said:
"Sir, that's an eagle, not a chicken."
"Yes Sir, but I've trained it to be a chicken. It's no longer an eagle, it's a chicken even though it measures 15' from tip to tip of his wings."
"No" said the naturalist, "It's an eagle, it has a heart of an eagle and if you let me, I'll make it soar to the heights of the heavens."
"No" said the owner, "it's a chicken. It will never fly."
They agreed to test it.
The naturalist picked up the eagle and said:
"Eagle, thou doest belong to the sky and not to this earth. Stretch forth thy wings and fly."
The eagle turned this way and that and very nervously looked down and then jumped to be with his friends the chickens.
The owner said:
"I told you it was a chicken."
"No" said the naturalist, "it's an eagle, give it another chance tomorrow."

So the next day he took it to the top of the house and said:
"Eagle, thou art an eagle, stretch forth thy wings and fly."
But again the eagle seeing the chickens jumped down and fared with them.
The owner said again:
"I told you it was a chicken."
"No" said the naturalist, "it's an eagle, it has a heart of an eagle and if you give it another chance it will soar like an eagle".
The next morning he arose early and took the eagle outside the city away from the house to the foot of a great mountain.
The sun was just rising gilding the top of the mountain with gold and every crack was glistening with the joy of that beautiful morning. He picked up the eagle.
"Eagle, thou art an eagle, thou doest belong to the sky, not to the earth, stretch forth thy wings and fly."
The eagle looked and trembled as if new life was coming to it but it did not fly. The naturalist then made it look straight into the sun. 
Suddenly it stretched forth it's mighty wings and with the screech of an eagle, it flew."

- Author Unknown

The beginning of early Christianity was also the beginning of the Great Apostasy. Within mere 30 years following Christ's ascension into heaven, the profound and simple truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ started to be blended with philosophies of men and eventually 'the wisdom of God was rejected as foolishness. The miracles of the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the ordinances were diluted and deleted. Men, blinded to the wisdom of God by their own intellectual conceit, added and subtracted at will from the truths revealed by God. Gradually and inevitably, these precious truths were changed, perverted, and lost. The simple was embellished, the holy corrupted, the truth falsified' (The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p. 229). Under the Saviour's admonition to take the Gospel to other nations, Paul and the Apostles took the Gospel beyond the walls of Jerusalem to dispersed Jews, then Samaritans and then the Gentiles, more specifically, the Mediterranean world ruled by the Roman Empire. The Gospel which they preached was grounded in the eyewitness testimony of Jesus for many had seen the Saviour following His resurrection, therefore, their testimony and message was not based on Christ's teachings only but more importantly, on their witness of His resurrection which left no room for speculation. This non-speculative nature of the Christian faith conflicted with the philosophical conjecture in the Mediterranean which was heavily under the Hellenic influence, meaning Greek philosophy. Where Jews sought signs, Greeks sought wisdom and it is the wisdom of men which they revered more than the simple truths of the Gospel. With time the Christian resistance to Greek philosophy broke down and the strange admixture of Christian truth with pagan philosophy and practice constituted the Great Apostasy (see The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles, p 233).

The tragedy of the Great Apostasy and the loss of simple truths of the Gospel cannot be over-stated. From about 100 A.D. until 1820, the children of men groped in darkness relying on the wisdom of men regarding their origin and destiny. Even today, despite the restoration of the truth, the world at large does not understand the meaning and purpose of life and looks to the wisdom of men, men who are 'ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth' (2 Timothy 3:7). This means many of us are confused not knowing who we truly are and what we can become. We cast our lot with men of the world who are as chickens pecking the group for gems of knowledge. We are looking down when we should be looking up. The tragedy of this is that the wisdom of men cannot elevate us above this telestial world. It teaches us to live here and now and gives no hope of anything better. The wisdom of men strives to keep us in the chicken coop not allowing us to believe that we are eagles meant for greater heights than this mortal sphere in this telestial world.

The restored Gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us of our divine nature. It teaches us that within each one of us are seeds of excellence, seeds of perfection, seeds of godhood. We are meant to soar to greater heights with our eyes fixed on the glory of the sun for the glory of the sun is also the glory of the "Son" by whom we receive the same glory unto ourselves. Let us be wise and not look to the philosophies of men but to the Son who disperses confusing doctrines and false teachings of men.We do not belong to the telestial realm with the chickens, pecking the crumbs of their wisdom. We are eagles who belong to the skies, reaching for the sun which reflects the glory of celestial kingdom, which is our eternal home. It is there we want to find rest, from all our burdens, from all our sorrows, from all our tears. We are meant for greatness to which only the Saviour can lift us. He is the one that gives might to our wings, He is the sun which shines brightly and guides us to our eternal home. He is the one who He gives power to those He loves and He loves those who would have Him be their God (1 Nephi 17:40).

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no fathoming of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint"

(Isaiah 40:28-31)

ON THE ROAD TO EMMAUS

"Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened unto us the scriptures?"

(Luke 24:32)

Following His crucifixion, Christ showed himself numerous times to His apostles and other faithful disciples. Perhaps the most endearing and most relevant to us in this dispensation is His encounter with two of His disciples as they travelled to a village called Emmaus on the very day Jesus was resurrected (Luke 24:13). As they travelled they talked and they talked about Jesus and they sorrowed over His crucifixion and disappearance from the tomb where He was laid. Not fully understanding the scriptural prophecies of His life and resurrection and not expecting to see the risen Lord, they did not recognise Him as He drew near and questioned their sorrow. As in all other things that Jesus did, this occurrence had significance and meaning both to the apostles of old and to us as we reflect upon it in our day and age.

Expounding all things spoken of Him beginning with Moses and all the prophets, the Saviour opened the Apostles' understanding so they could see the hidden, obscured and veiled testimony of Him in the scriptures, and to prove to them that 'all things must be fulfilled, which were written' of Him (Luke 24:44). The prophetic Messianic testimony of the Saviour had indeed been hidden, obscured and veiled in ancient scripture by typifying His mission and ministry among men through many ways such as the lives of the prophets. The most obvious example of this would be Joseph of Egypt whose life very closely resembled the life of the Saviour. Nephi recorded that many plain and precious things would be lost and taken away from the Old Testament (1 Nephi 13:26-29). That which was not so plain, like the life of Christ, was preserved.  By opening the Apostles' understanding the Saviour was showing that the veil placed over the minds of the people was done away in Him (2 Cor 3:14), and only through Him because He is the light, the truth, the way.

Perhaps there existed a more subtle reason for the Saviour's way of teaching the two Apostles from the scriptures. As He departed from them, they marveled and reflected on their experience saying that their hearts burnt within them as the Saviour opened to them the scriptures. As the testimony of Christ unfolded to their view, the Spirit burned the truthfulness of His divinity into their soul. It must have been another way for Him to say, you cannot have me with you in body but in spirit you can have me with you always. So it is with us, we can feel Him, know of Him and learn to be like Him through the scriptures which testify of Him. Every time we open the scriptures we can have the Saviour with us. Whether in body or in spirit, it is the same. Every time we read of Him or hear of Him our hearts will burn within us:

"One day, two men were walking near Emmaus, a town not far from Jerusalem, and a man suddenly appeared by their side. They did not recognize him. After he left them, they said, 'Did not our hearts burn within us....?' (Luke 24:32). Luke tells us about that incident, after he had inquired of many people who had had some intimacy with Jesus.

I think that there are many in this congregation...who have had their hearts 'burn within them' as they have listened not only to the inspirational singing, but to the sublime testimonies and I hope as their hearts have burned within them, that they realized the message that went into their hearts. I hope that they have an inkling, at least, of the divine truth that they are sons of God, and that that burning within them was just a touch of harmony between them and the infinite...... (David O. Mckay in CR, Apr 1960, pp 121-122)"

Our hearts can burn with us every time we testify of His divinity, whenever we live His teachings and every time we serve in His name. We can take the road to Emmaus to assuage our thirsty souls, to bring light to our weary minds and to lighten each other's loads:

"Never was her teaching so dynamic nor its impact more everlasting as one Sunday morning when she sadly announced to us the passing of a classmate's mother. We had missed Billy that morning, but knew not the reason for his absence. The lesson featured the theme, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'. Midway through the lesson, our teacher closed the manual and opened our eyes and our ears and our hearts to the glory of God. She asked, 'How much money do we have in our class party fund?' 

Depression days prompted a proud answer: 'Four dollars and seventy-five cents'.

Then ever so gently she suggested: 'Billy's family is hard-pressed and grief stricken. What would you think of the possibility of visiting the family members this morning and giving to them your fund?'

Ever shall I remember the tiny band walking those three city blocks, entering Billy's home, greeting him, his brother, sisters, and father. Noticeably absent was his mother. Always I shall treasure the tears which glistened in the eyes of all as the white envelope containing our precious party fund passed from the delicate hand of our teacher to the needy hand of a heartbroken father. We fairly skipped our way back to the chapel. Our hearts were lighter than they had ever been: our joy more full; our understanding more profound. A God-inspired teacher had taught her boys and girls an eternal lesson of divine truth: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'.

Well could we have echoed the words of the disciples of the way to Emmaus: 'Did not our hearts burn within us.....while [she] opened to us the scriptures?' (Luke 24:32). 

(Thomas S. Monson in CR, Apr 1970, pp 99)

IN WHOM THERE IS HOPE

Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust!

The stone is rolled away.

Shines from the opened tomb

The light of resurrection's day.

(Ted L. Gibbons)

Through His resurrection, the Saviour Jesus Christ, placed an indelible stamp of divine authority upon all His claims and teachings and thereby fulfilled all that was prophesied of Him (Luke 24:44-46). With His resurrection, the Atonement was complete. This Atonement was performed in three parts:

1. The sanctification of the Garden of Gethsemane;

2. The blood sacrifice of Calvary;

3. The victory over death through the Resurrection.

If there was no resurrection, the suffering of the Garden and Calvary would have been in vain for the suffering alone would not have brought about eternal life. If there was no sanctification in the Garden but there was only death and resurrection, all mankind would have been resurrected in corruption and sin, not fit to enter the Kingdom of God. By completing the act of Atonement through His victory over the grave, Christ not only conquered death for Himself and brought forth His own glorious resurrected body, but in so doing He also brought about a universal resurrection. What is universal, however, is also intensely personal. Consider the fact that Jesus chose to appear as a resurrected being to only one person first, Mary of Magdala, and not to a group of people. "After the other disciples left the empty tomb, 'Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping.' Then, alone in the garden, she was the first mortal to encounter the risen Lord: 'Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him Rabboni; which is to say, Master' (John 20:11,16). It is hard to overstate the significance of this moment to each of us, for each of the faithful followers of Christ will someday have this identical experience: Jesus will call each of us by name, we will meet Him face to face, and we will recognise Him as our Master. This is what is meant by Atonement, to come into the loving presence of the Lord, to have Him know us for our faithfulness, and to know Him for who He is. For this moment, the faithful Saint lives and gives everything" (Breck England, Lesson 27, He Is Not Here, For He Is Risen, Meridian Magazine). In that moment of private audience with the resurrected Christ, Mary must have understood the personal nature of the Atonement, that for her individually Christ had suffered, died and risen again, so that she could have eternal life.  

"Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." 

(Isaiah 55:3)

Nothing can help us understand better the 'resurrection for the one' than 'the sure mercies of David'. In his youth, King David, was a man after the Lord's own heart (1 Sam. 13:13-14). David loved the Lord and praised Him through his victories and led Israel in righteousness. In turn the Lord blessed him with a throne and kingdom of power and King David became the symbol of the future throne and kingdom of the Son of David. But David fell and adultery stained his soul and innocent blood dripped from his hands. In sincere remorse and tears he sought forgiveness, which, because of Uriah's murder, was not forthcoming. Despite his heart searing repentance David, with the wicked, will suffer the 'vengeance of eternal fire' until the fullness of time and be resurrected to the telestial glory at the end of the Millenium (D&C 76:105-6, 132:39). "In the doctrinal laws which guaranteed him [David] a resurrection and a lesser degree of eternal reward, are two great truths: (1) That the Holy One of Israel, the Holy one of God, the Son of David, would die and then be resurrected; and (2) that because he burst the bands of death and became the first-fruits of them that slept, all men also would be resurrected, both the righteous and the wicked, including saints who became sinners, as was the case with David the king. These two truths became known as and were called 'the sure mercies of David', meaning that David in his life and death and resurrection was singled out as the symbol to dramatize before the people that their Holy One would be resurrected and that all men would also come forth from the grave" (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 272). 

God had promised David that Jesus, the Messiah, would come from "the fruit of his loins" (Acts 2:30), meaning the Saviour would be David's direct descendant. The sublime beauty of this arrangement cannot be overlooked: Jesus brings salvation to the ancestor from whom He inherits a mortal body and is born of the "symbol of hope" to be "the hope". David knew and understood this when he wrote 'Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou will not leave my soul in hell...' (Psalms 16:9-10). Isaiah also wrote about "the sure mercies of David" (Isaiah 55:3) which means the principle was known and taught in ancient Israel and Peter and Paul taught this truth in the meridian of time: "And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David" (Acts 13:22-37). Thus David is made the 'witness' and symbol of hope in the power of resurrection. Universally this means, that all will be saved from hell and death, unconditionally. This is salvation. Being saved in the Kingdom of God, however, to enjoy the fruits of exaltation is conditional and dependent on our worthiness.

We likewise, must cultivate this hope of resurrection that will bring us to eternal life. When Ammon recounted to his brethren how merciful God had been to them by snatching them from their 'awful, sinful and polluted state' and had brought them 'over that everlasting gulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls' (Alma 26:17-20) he joyed in this knowledge to the point of exhaustion (Alma 27:17). The people of Ammon, once converted, forsaking their weapons of war and murder, were not afraid to die at the hands of their brethren the Lamanites because they 'never did look upon death with any degree of terror, for their hope and views of Christ and the resurrection; therefore, death was swallowed up to them by the victory of Christ over it' (Alma 27:28). Moroni spoke extensively of faith, hope and charity and said that you cannot have faith without hope: "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise" (Moroni 7:41). What a glorious truth to have hope in when the world has no hope. When many refuse to glimpse life beyond the grave; when so many falsehoods are taught to the children of men; when false beliefs abound and there is no hope of eternal and continuing associations with those we love. But in Christ all this is made possible through the power of His glorious resurrection. In Him is our salvation, in Him is our faith, in Him is our hope.

Jesus remained on earth for 40 days following His resurrection to teach and instruct those He had placed in authority over His Church. Many were witnesses of His resurrection for He came to them, spoke to them, ate with them. Mary Magdalene who saw Him first; other women who came to anoint His body, Mary the mother of Joses, Salome, the mother of James and John, Joanna and others who were not named; two disciples on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and another, possibly Luke, as he is who records the event (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 279); Peter and Thomas and the rest of the Apostles; Paul on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1-9); John as he suffered banishment on Patmos; 2,500 Nephites saw him, heard him and bore record 'every man for himself' (3 Nephi 17:35); and in our day He was seen by Joseph Smith and others, "not a few. Of some of these appearances we have record; others are sealed in secrecy in the hearts of the recipients'. All this is scarcely the beginning of His resurrected ministry among men. Every faithful member of His Church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - has power, through righteousness, to see His face and become a special witness of His holy name in this personal sense, while he or she yet dwells in mortality (D&C 67:10-14; 93:1; 107:18-19)"  (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 281). The Saviour desires to encircle us in the arms of His love, to hold us close, to receive us into His bosom, and when we forsake our sins He has promised "the veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am" (D&C 67:10). Each one of us can be a witness of His resurrected glory as we journey towards our own immortality through Him who has rescued us from the sting of death and won the victory over the grave.

"The ever-enlarging ocean of true believers will continue to increase until the knowledge of God shall cover the earth 'as the waters cover the sea' (Isa 11:9), until all men know, as this disciple knows, that Jesus is Lord of all, and that He rose from the dead, as all men shall. There is no fact of revealed religion more surely established than the fact of resurrection. And there is no Messianic utterance more certainly known than that the great Jehovah, Israel's Deliverer and Saviour, is the Messiah who came and who has now risen from the grave" (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p. 283).

"The Light, the Life, the Way"

"I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matt 28:20)

IN WHOM THERE IS JOY

Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,

He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities,

The chastisement of our peace was laid upon him.

With his stripes we are healed.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all,

He is brought as a lamb to slaughter.

(Isaiah 53)

Enduring the unspeakable suffering of Gethsemane, exhausted and bathed in blood and sweat from the agony, betrayed by one and forsaken by the rest who loved Him (Matt 26:56), Jesus was arrested as a thief in the night and forced to walk to Caiaphas' Palace, to the Antonia Fortress, to Herod's palace, and back to Antonia Fortress. In the process he had been without food for twelve hours, slapped, beaten with fists, palms and rods and mocked and scourged. Treated like the basest of criminals and betrayed for the price of a slave yet innocent of all the charges they could bring against Him, He subjected Himself to the cruelest and most unjust of all trials and deaths, for the greater good of all who in the realms above had chosen Him to pay the ransom for their souls and to bring them to life eternal.  

Accused unjustly for blasphemy during an illegal nightly court held by the Sanhedrin, Jesus was taken to Pilate, the Roman procurator who had the power to sanction death, the power which the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court of justice and the supreme legislative council at Jerusalem, did not possess. The Sanhedrin condemned Jesus to death for blasphemy but knowing that blasphemy would bear no weight with the Roman law, they accused Him of treason against the Roman State saying He claimed He was the King of the Jews, unwilling to pay tribute to Caesar. Not being able to find any fault in Jesus (Luke 23:4) and attempting to pass the judgment of death onto Herod and the Jewish people with no success, Pilate violated his own best instincts and indulged his hypocrisy by condemning Jesus to death. Pilate feared the Jewish people because of many minor acts of violence, extortion and cruelty which the Jews held against him. 'He realised that his tenure was insecure, and he dreaded exposure. Such wrongs had he wrought that when he would have done good, he was deterred through cowardly fear of the accusing past' (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pp 648-649). Making it clear to this man of hypocrisy that it is not really within his power to save or take away His life, the Saviour just about exonerated him from His imminent death by telling him: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world" (John 18:37). 

"Reproach [had] broken [his] heart; and [he was] full of heaviness: and [he] looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but [he] found none."

(Psalm 69:20)

"Stripped, He was raised on the cross with a mocking sign over His head: 'JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS'. As He hung in anguish, the rulers and people gaped and cursed and condemned Him, taunting: 'He saved others; let him save himself' (Luke 23:35). Through the anguish, He had only loving words. To His mother, Mary, who must have felt the pangs of near-death in her own body, it was concern that she be cared for. To the thief who would repent, He gave hope. At noon the heavens grew black for three hours, as if the universe itself were weeping for the agony of the Creator. In that time all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane returned, and His Father's spirit itself withdrew that the victory might be His. At the ninth hour, 3:00 pm, 'Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying....My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? (Matt 27:46). In that eerie mid-afternoon darkness, someone ran and filled a sponge with vinegar. Having received the vinegar, Jesus said: 'Father, it is finished, thy will is done' (JST Matt 27:54). As He died, the veil of the temple was rent, and the earth quaked and rocks were rent as if to say with a nearby centurion, 'Truly this man was the son of God' (Mark 15:39). (Scot and Maurine Proctor, Lesson 26, To This End Was I Born, Meridian Magazine)

We may ask ourselves why the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane alone did not suffice as the Atonement for the sins of mankind? Why all this emphasis on the shedding of blood? Why is the Atonement incomplete without it? Why do we need to dwell with such emphasis, and so repetitively, on Christ's death and the manner in which it was executed? The reason is startling and compelling: "Where salvation is concerned, we are dealing with life and death; we are born into mortality so that we may have the privilege of dying and coming forth in immortality. In our search for salvation, we are dealing with mortal life and the natural death; we are dealing with immortality and eternal life; we are seeking to learn how mortality becomes immortality, and how men, having bowed to the natural death, can yet come forth and gain eternal life. To crystallize in our minds and to dramatize before our eyes what is involved in all this, the Lord has chosen blood as the symbol of both life and death" (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p. 259).  It was never the flesh of the sacrificial animals that was required for mortal men to understand the infinite sacrifice that would bring life eternal, but the blood. Because life is in the blood (Lev 17:14), blood is the element and symbol of life, thus the necessity for the blood atonement, for as the shedding of man's blood brings death, the shedding of Christ's blood brings life. Thus the blood atonement becomes the symbol of eternal life.

It was through the agony of Gethsemane and the blood Atonement of Calvary that the Saviour could offer freedom and eternal life to those who languished in spirit prison following His crucifixion. With what joyful hope they must have received word that they could be freed from the prison of death, of hell and of endless torment now that the sacrifice was complete. That they would, through repentence and acceptance of His gospel be 'free from the sorrow of sin, free from the chains of hell, free from that spiritual death which is to be dead as pertaining to the things of righteousness - all this is part of the glorious doctrine of salvation for the dead, and it includes the fact that our Lord ministered personally to the spirits in prison' (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 240).  It was of these captives that Zechariah prophesied when he spoke of 'prisoners of hope', that the Lord their God would save them 'by the blood of thy covenant', meaning the gospel covenant, which would only have effect through the shedding of the blood of Christ (Zech. 9:11,12). With what gratitude those in spirit prison must have bowed before Him knowing the atoning blood had been spilt, the mercy extended, the justice satisfied. 

And what of us who had not yet been born, who were valiant in our testimonies of Jesus? Could we have been been with the departed spirits of the just who had rejoiced to hear of the accomplished sacrifice and had gathered to welcome the triumphant Saviour back into their midst? If we shouted for joy at the time of creation (Job 38:6,7), we must have shouted for joy at the time of redemption: "And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality; And who had offered sacrifice in the similitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, and had suffered tribulation in their Redeemer's name. All these had departed the mortal life, firm in the hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. I beheld that they were filled with the joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand (D&C 138:12-15). How joyous we must have been knowing that godhood which we so valiantly fought for was now within our reach. For if the chosen Saviour had overcome the world, the power would be ours to do likewise. And so 'trailing clouds of glory' we each took our turn, with eagerness and joy, coming to a fallen world to work out our salvation through the grace of Him who has paved the way, Immanuel, The Lord of Hosts, The Lord of Glory, Eternal King, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

"Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel........Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness.. Let the woods and all the threes of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever!" 

(D&C 128:22)