be builded and maintained;
and revelation of necessity implies revelators, through whom the will of
God may be made known respecting His Church. As a gift from God comes
the testimony of Jesus into the heart of man. This principle was
comprized in the Master's teachings at Capernaum, that none could come
to Him save such as the Father would bring.[768] The Lord's promise,
that unto Peter He would give "the keys of the kingdom of heaven,"
embodies the principle of divine authority in the Holy Priesthood, and
of the commission of presidency. Allusion to keys as symbolical of power
and authority is not uncommon in Jewish literature, as was well
understood in that period and is generally current today.[769] So also
the analogies of binding and loosing as indicative of official acts were
then usual, as they are now, particularly in connection with judicial
functions. Peter's presidency among the apostles was abundantly manifest
and generally recognized after the close of our Lord's mortal life.
Thus, it was he who spoke in behalf of the Eleven, in the council
meeting at which a successor to the traitor Iscariot was chosen; he was
the spokesman of his brethren on the occasion of the Pentecostal
conversion; it was he who opened the doors of the Church to the
Gentiles;[770] and his office of leadership is apparent throughout the
apostolic period.

The confession by which the apostles avowed their acceptance of Jesus as
the Christ, the Son of the living God, was evidence of their actual
possession of the spirit of the Holy Apostleship, by which they were
made particular witnesses of their Lord. The time for a general
proclamation of their testimony had not arrived, however; nor did it
come until after Christ had emerged from the tomb a resurrected,
immortalized Personage. For the time being they were charged "that they
should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ." Proclamation of Jesus
as the Messiah, particularly if made by the apostles who were publicly
known as His most intimate disciples and associates, or open assumption
of the Messianic title by Himself, would have aggravated the hostility
of the rulers, which had already become a grave interference if not an
actual menace to the Savior's ministry; and seditious uprisings against
the political government of Rome might easily have resulted. A yet
deeper reason for the secrecy enjoined upon the Twelve appears in the
fact that the Jewish nation was not prepared to accept