February 9, 2008
We use the term "mantle" quite frequently in the Church, particularly as it pertains to authority passing from a prophet and president of the Church to his successor in that high office. It can be instructive, at a time like this, to review the scriptural origin of the mantle imagery.
In Chapter 2 of 2 Kings, we read of the occasion when the prophet Elijah was to be translated. In company with Elisha, Elijah smites the river Jordan with his folded mantle and parts the waters so the two can pass over on dry ground. Elijah then says to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee." Elisha responds, "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me" (verse 9).
Then, in a majestic display of glory and power, Elijah is taken up into heaven by a whirlwind, leaving behind his mantle. This Elisha takes up and uses as a divine instrument to part the waters of the Jordan, just as Elijah had done.
Later, upon seeing Elisha, the prophets at Jericho declare, "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha" (verse 15) and bow before him in reverence.
In the early days of the latter-day gospel dispensation, witnesses likewise beheld the mantle of authority passing from one prophet to another.
Prior to his martyrdom in 1844, the Prophet Joseph Smith had given the keys of priesthood leadership to the Quorum of the Twelve, though this fact was not well understood by the members of the Church.
After the Prophet's death, Sidney Rigdon, who earlier had become estranged from the Church, returned to Nauvoo, Ill., where he spoke to a body of the saints and claimed the right of guardianship over the Church. Brigham Young, the senior apostle in the quorum, then spoke to the assembled saints. George Q. Cannon later recollected, "It was the voice of Joseph himself," and attested, "It seemed in the eyes of the people as if it were the very person of Joseph which stood before them." Wilford Woodruff exclaimed, "If I had not seen him with my own eyes, there is no one that could have convinced me that it was not Joseph Smith, and anyone can testify to this who was acquainted with these two men" (quoted in Our Heritage, a Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pp. 66-67).
As president of the Quorum, Brigham Young would guide the Church for the next three and a half years, leading the main body westward to the Rocky Mountains, before the First Presidency ultimately was reorganized in January 1848 with President Young as Church president.
Since then, the precedent has always been followed, wherein the First Presidency is dissolved with the death of the Church president and leadership devolves to the Quorum of the Twelve, which then reorganizes the First Presidency, in each instance with the senior member of the Twelve becoming president of the Church.
The procedure was beautifully explained by our late President Gordon B. Hinckley in April 1995 at the first general conference following his ordination as president of the Church. The presidency, he said, had been reorganized after the death of President Howard W. Hunter, "following a precedent well established through generations of the past. There was no campaigning, no contest, no ambition for office. It was quiet, peaceful, simple and sacred. It was done after the pattern which the Lord Himself had put in place."
In the past week, we again have been privileged to watch that pattern being followed and to see the mantle pass from one prophet to another. That was evident in the quiet, confident and strong manner in which President Thomas S. Monson made his first public appearance as Church president with his newly called counselors on Feb. 4 and fielded questions from news media representatives. Surely, the mantle of priesthood authority and keys rests upon this 16th Church president, prophet, seer and revelator.
In days to come, his influence will be felt, and the words will apply to him that he used on one occasion pertaining to the men who have served in the past in that office: "We have had great presidents of this Church....And each one has been present to guide us, and his writings have stimulated us, and his messages have inspired us. We have those whom the Lord has provided to guide us" (Church News, Feb. 19, 1994, p. 5).
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