Insights from Gospel Doctrine Class Today...

My lesson for Sunday school today was on the restoration of the priesthood. The thought that has lingered in my mind from the class, comes from section 84 vs 19-21; particularly where it talks about evidences of God's power being manifest in the ordinances of the priesthood. I asked myself: What is manifest to me from the ordinances of the priesthood?
As I sat observing the priests and deacons administering the sacrament and the other people in the congregation around me I considered: what other authority or power on earth can be given to a group of young men, which when exercised, reconciles all recipients who have prepared themselves back to the originality of their individual baptismal covenants with God and avails a renewed remission of sins? All other earthly authorities may try to imitate the act, but without the restored priesthood, the ordinance is empty and only an outward shadow of a much more powerful and personal communion with our Father in Heaven.
It's fitting really that the "power" of God evident in the priesthood ordinances is, like his voice, still and small by earthly perspectives. To those who prepare themselves spiritually however, that power makes possible healing, blessings, and promises that can be obtained in no other way (and it happens every week!). The security of a family sealed together beyond the reach of mortal death, the right to constant companionship of the Holy Ghost so long as we remain faithful and the countless spiritual gifts associated with that companionship (Moroni 10: 5-18, 1 Corinthians 12: 3-11), are each just a few of the things that become abundantly available with the restoration of the priesthood.
The last thing I'll add to this line of thinking comes from section 110: 11-16, where additional important keys were restored by those ancient patriarchs who held them in their own dispensations of the gospel: Moses, Elias, and Elijah. Each key restored in this section alludes to additional roles of the priesthood which are now being exercised. In the context of all these considerations, it is much clearer to me what the Lord was trying to teach when he said back in section 84, "Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest."