The Keys of Preparation.--Past and present are related. It is the relationship of parent and child. Neither is complete without the other. What has been and what is must join, before perfection can reign. Without unity and the perfecting power of righteousness, the Saints would be unprepared to receive the King of Kings. Earth, unable to endure the overpowering glory of his presence, would vanish from before his face, like hoar-frost in the rays of the rising sun. [18] That there might be no such calamity, no converting of an intended blessing into a consuming curse, Elijah restored the Keys of Preparation. The Universal Gathering.--The gathering of the House of Israel is to be supplemented by a greater gathering--the bringing together of all the Gospel dispensations, with all the sacred powers and mighty personages connected therewith. [19] There is to be a general assembly, a universal union, in which sainted souls from all glorified creations will join. [20] All things that are Christs's, both in heaven and on earth, will eventually be brought together, and the divided and discordant parts attuned and blended into one harmonious Whole. Footnotes 1. "Elias," Canto 5, p. 37, annotative edition. 2. Acts 3:21. 3. D. & C. 77:12. 4. Ib. 128:18. 5. Dan. 2:44. 6. D. & C. 76. 7. D. & C. 107:56. 8. Ib. 84:23, 24. 9. Hist. Ch. Vol. 3, pp. 388, 389. 10. D. & C. 13. 11. Ib. 27:12; 128:20. 12. D. & C. 110:12-16; Hist. Ch. Vol. 3, p. 390. 13. See Luke 9:54 and 2 Kings 18:38; also James 5:17 and 1 Kings 17:1. 14. Hist. Ch. Vol. 6, pp. 249, 254. 15. Hist. Ch. Vol. 4, p. 211. Elijah the Tishbite, as he is called in Scripture, figured in the history of the Kingdom of Israel about nine centuries before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. It was a period of idolatry, when the priests of Baal (whom Elijah overthrew) had Ahab the king and his wife, the wicked Jezebel, completely under their sinister influence. Regarding the great Prophet of Restoration, Dr. Geikie, says: "The immense influence of Elijah during his life is seen in the place he held in the memory of after generations in Israel. He takes rank along with Samuel and Moses; not like the former, as the apostle of a system yet undeveloped; or as the founder of a religion, like the latter; but as the restorer of the old when it was almost driven from the earth. The prophet Malachi portrays him as the announcer of the great and terrible day of Jehovah. His reappearance was constantly expected as the precursor of the Messiah. So continually was he in the thoughts of the people of New Testament times, that both John the Baptist and our Lord were supposed to be no other than he. The son of Sirach (See Apocrypha) calls him a fire, and says that his word burned like a torch, and that it was he who was to gather together again the tribes of Israel from the great dispersion . . . .