=19.= A short time after this event, Peter, James, and John appeared to Joseph and Oliver, and ordained the two to the higher or Melchizedek priesthood, bestowing upon them the keys of the apostleship, which these heavenly messengers had held and exercised in the former gospel dispensation. This order of priesthood holds authority over all the offices in the Church, and includes power to administer in spiritual things;[583] consequently all the authorities and powers necessary to the establishment of the Church were by this visitation restored to earth. [583] Doc. and Cov. cvii. =20.= No one is authorized to officiate in any of the ordinances of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unless he has been ordained to that calling by those holding the power; thus, no man receives the priesthood except under the hand of one who holds that priesthood himself; that one must have obtained it from others previously commissioned; and so every holder of the priesthood to-day can trace his authority to the hands of Joseph the Prophet, who, as already stated, received his ordination under the hands of heavenly messengers clothed with power divine. That men who are called of God to the authority of the ministry on earth may have been selected for such appointment even before they took mortal bodies is evident from the scriptures. This matter may properly claim attention in the present connection; and its consideration leads us to the subjects which follow. FORE-ORDINATION AND PRE-EXISTENCE. =21. Fore-ordination.=--In a wonderful interview with Abraham, the Lord revealed many things ordinarily withheld from mortal eyes. Said the patriarch:--"Now the Lord had shewn unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; and God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said, These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me, Abraham, thou art one of them, thou wast chosen before thou wast born."[584] This is one of the many scriptural proofs that the spirits of mankind existed prior to their earthly probation:--a condition in which these intelligences lived and exercised their free agency before they assumed bodily tabernacles. Surely then the natures, dispositions, and tendencies of men are known to the Father of their spirits, even before these beings are born in mortality; and He needs not to wait till they develop and prove their capacities on earth before they are appointed to special labors in the fulfillment of Divine purposes. [584] Pearl of Great Price: Abraham iii, 22-23; see also Jer. i, 4-5.