[Footnote B: Alma, xiv, 26-29.]
[Footnote C: Helaman, v, 43-49.]
[Footnote D: Alma, xvii-xxvii.]
"Therefore they did exercise power and authority over the disciples of Jesus who did tarry with them, and they did cast them into prison: but by the power of the word of God, which was in them, the prisons were rent in twain, and they went forth doing mighty miracles among them. Nevertheless, and notwithstanding all these miracles, the people did harden their hearts, and did seek to kill them, even as the Jews at Jerusalem sought to kill Jesus, according to his word; and they did cast them into furnaces of fire, and they came forth receiving no harm; and they also cast them into dens of wild beasts, and they did play with the wild beasts even as a child with a lamb; and they did come forth from among them, receiving no harm."—4 Nephi, i, 30-33.
This same power has also been abundantly manifested in these latter days in the midst of the Saints of God, in deliverances from evil, in escapes from enemies, in the quelling of mobs, in the stilling of the angry waves of the sea, in the healing of the sick, in the casting out of unclean spirits, and in many other miraculous manifestations of the power and goodness of God, and of the authority with which He has invested His servants who are endowed and clothed upon with the Priesthood, which is endless and after the order of the Son of God.
Thus, through the atonement of Jesus, and the salvation and redemption brought about by that atonement these wonderful manifestations and deliverances have been accomplished by faith in God; and the Priesthood being after the order of the Son of God, and proceeding from Him, through the atonement, those who held this Priesthood possessed, according to their faith, the above mentioned powers; and without that atonement this power never could have existed, for men without that sacrifice could not have been brought into that relationship to God, by which they would have the right, the power and authority to act in His name, or to be His representatives to fallen humanity.
In fact, the power manifested by the Priesthood is simply the power of God, for He is the head of the Priesthood, with Jesus as our President and great High Priest; and it is upon this principle that all the works of God have been accomplished, whether on the earth or in the heavens; and any manifestation of power through the Priesthood on the earth is simply a delegated power from the Priesthood in the heavens, and the more the Priesthood on the earth becomes assimilated with and subject to the Priesthood in the heavens the more of this power shall we possess. Hence Paul, in speaking on this subject, says:
"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."—Heb., xi, 3.
The work of God and the glory of God is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man; as it is written: "For this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Pearl of Great Price.) The creation of man and the multiplication of man was one thing, the immortality and eternal life of man and his exaltation is another thing; and in the organization of the world, and in the calculations of the Almighty pertaining to this immortality and eternal life, it would seem that it was decreed that the Only Begotten Son was provided for the purpose of accomplishing this object; and hence Christ was the Lamb slain, according to the eternal purposes of God, before the foundation of the world.
In relation to the creation of the worlds, as above referred to by Paul, John, in the commencement of his Gospel, somewhat after the manner of a preface or introduction, writes: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John, i, 1-5.) Or to give the passage, in the wording of the inspired translation: "In the beginning was the Gospel preached through the Son. And the Gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made which was made. In him was the Gospel, and the Gospel was the life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shineth in the world, and the world perceiveth it not." From the testimony of John, as given in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, we also extract the following: