He hears me when in the
Solitude of my darkest nights
On Him I call.
He hears me when in silence
My heart tries to hide
My fears that I might fall.
He hears me when in crowds
My mind wanders and doubts
Begin their insidious call.
He hears me whether
I cry to Him or not
Because He knows my very soul,
He knows it all.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
The most
important part of Elijah’s mission was the Melchizedek Priesthood sealing power
by which things that are bound or loosed on earth are bound or loosed in heaven
(D&C 128:8-18). He was the last prophet to have this power before the time
of Jesus Christ.
He appeared
on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and conferred the keys of this priesthood
on Peter, James and John (Matt 17:3). He appeared again, with Moses and others,
on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Ohio Temple and conferred the same keys upon Joseph
Smith and Oliver Cowdery (D&C 110:13-16). It is for this purpose that he
did not taste death. This was the second part of his earthly mission.
Elijah’s
ascension into heaven on a chariot of fire is one of the most endearing
accounts in the Old Testament. Elisha’s grief at the parting is heart rendering.
As he cried after him, calling him ‘father’, he rent his clothes into pieces in
his distress (2 Kings 2:11,12).
There is a
significant connection between Elijah’s mission and the planet we presently
live on. When Moroni delivered his message to Joseph Smith, he said that the earth
would be wasted if Elijah didn’t come to restore the sealing power (D&C
2:2-3). Malachi goes so far as to say that if it were so, the Lord would smite
the earth with a curse at His coming (Malachi 4:5).
Our Mother
Earth which gave us physical birth (Moses 2:7) was foreordained and consecrated
to establish on its face a family system patterned after the order of heaven
and to become the future celestial abode of exalted sons and daughters of God. She
also has a mission to accomplish like the rest of us.
Had Elijah
not come to restore the sealing priesthood power to bind us together, the earth
would not have accomplished its foreordained purpose and would not have been
able to answer the end of its creation. All men and women would be forever
without root and branch, meaning without ancestry and posterity that would
otherwise extend into eternity.
Enoch
learnt from his encounter with Mother Earth that she had a soul as deep as the
river. Grief came over him and made him
weep when he heard her call us her children and witnessed her mourn over our
wickedness (Moses 7:48). So overcome was Enoch at her suffering that he asked
God three times, ‘’when shall the earth rest” (v 49,54,58).
You think
the earth has no soul? Consider how she groaned when the Son of Man was lifted
up and all nature suffered at the death of its creator (Moses 7:56; 1 Nephi 19:
12). Imagine this big beautiful perfect planet, the workmanship of God’s hands,
with a soul as tender and real as you and I, utterly wasted at Christ’s
coming…..Imagine how Father Adam and Mother Eve would feel to see this earth
wasted after they paved the way for humanity by ‘the sweat of their brow’
(Moses 5:1). We think we have it hard…..we don’t even have to slice our bread…
When the
end comes, this earth will be celestialized and crowned with the Father’s
presence to be an eternal abode for those who will accept the sacrifice of His
Beloved Son who was lifted upon the cross of redemption so that we can return
to live with Him on this Mother Earth forever (D&C 88:17-20).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
