THE SAVIOR CONTINUES HIS MINISTRATIONS--HE RAISES A MAN FROM THE
DEAD--THE LABORS OF THE TWELVE--THE NAME OF THE CHURCH--THE THREE WHO
SHOULD REMAIN.
(III. NEPHI CHAP. 27 TO 30.)
For three days did the Savior mingle with the Nephites and instruct
them; and even after that he met with them oft, and with them partook
of the Sacrament of the Lord's supper.
More than this, he ministered to and blessed the children of the
Nephites. He loosed the tongues of these little ones, that they spoke
great and marvelous things unto their parents, even, we are told,
greater things than Jesus had revealed to the people.
Jesus also healed all their sick. The lame, the blind, the deaf, were
made whole, and one man he raised from the dead.
From this time the twelve disciples began to baptize and teach as many
as came unto them; and as many as were baptized in the name of Jesus
were filled with the Holy Ghost. Many of them saw and heard wondrous
things which are not lawful to be written.
On one occasion when the disciples were thus traveling, preaching,
and baptizing, they united together in fasting and mighty prayer. The
subject about which they prayed the most earnestly was, what should be
the name of the Church, for its members were not united on this matter.
While they were thus engaged Jesus again showed himself unto them, and
in answer to their inquiries regarding the name of his church he told
them, Whatsoever ye shall do ye shall do it in my name; therefore ye
shall call the church in my name; and ye shall call upon the Father in
my name, that he will bless the church for my sake. He further said
to them if they called the church by the name of a man it would be
that man's church, if by Moses' name it would be Moses' church; but
being his church it should be called by his holy name. And many other
instructions gave he unto them at this time.
It was during this interview that the Savior asked the Twelve, one by
one, What is it that you desire of me, after I am gone to the Father?
Then nine of them said, We desire after we have lived unto the age of
man, that our ministry wherein thou hast called us, may have an end,
that we may speedily come unto thee in thy kingdom.
And he said unto them, Blessed are ye, because ye desire this thing of
me; therefore after that ye are seventy and two years old, ye shall
come unto me in my kingdom and with me ye shall find rest.
Then he turned to the three who had not answered, and again asked
them what they would have him do for them. But they faltered in their
answer; their wish was such a peculiar one, that they were afraid to
express it. And he said unto them, behold, I know your thoughts, and ye
have desired the thing which John, my beloved, who was with me in my
ministry before that I was lifted up by the Jews, desired of me;
Therefore more blessed are ye, for ye shall never taste of death, but
ye shall live to behold all the doings of the Father, unto the children
of men, even until all things shall be fulfilled, according to the will
of the Father, when I shall come in my glory, with the powers of heaven;
And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in
my glory, ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality
to immortality: and then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my
Father.
And again, ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh,
neither sorrow, save it be for the sins of the world: and all this will
I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have
desired that ye might bring the souls of men unto me, while the world
shall stand;
And for this cause ye shall have fullness of joy; and ye shall sit down
in the kingdom of my Father; yea your joy shall be full, even as the
Father hath given me fullness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and
I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one.
These are the three Nephites of whom we sometimes hear and who either
singly or together have appeared to believers in this generation.
Then Jesus with his finger touched the nine who were to die, but the
three who were to live he did not touch; and then he departed. And
behold, the heavens were opened, and the three were caught up into
heaven, and saw unspeakable things.
And it was forbidden them that they should utter, neither was it given
unto them power that they could utter, the things which they saw and
heard;
The sacred record gives no information as to who the three were who
were not to taste of death. Mormon was about to write their names, but
the Lord forbade him.
Some have supposed that Nephi, the senior of the disciples, was one
of these three undying ones, who remained to minister on the earth
to the people of the latter days; that is hid from our knowledge, no
doubt for a wise purpose. If he was, he lived through that most happy
era of Nephite history, when all was righteousness, and joy, and
peace throughout America's vast domain; he lived to suffer, with his
two brethren, all the persecutions which the wicked, in later days,
so frequently imposed upon these three favored servants of the Lord,
and in the end he retired from the midst of mankind when overwhelming
corruption again paralyzed the life of the Nephite nation. If he
was one of the nine who passed away to the presence of their Savior
and their God after they had dwelt three score and twelve years in
mortality he must have laid aside his earthly tabernacle under as
happy circumstances as ever prophet or apostle died, surrounded by a
loving, faithful people, amongst whom the practice of iniquity was
a remembrance of the past. No ruffian hands cut short his life, or
tortured his latest hours, but in the midst of the most holy peace he
passed away to the glories of the eternal world.