... look forward unto Christ with steadfastness] There is a steadiness and a quiet maturity that characterize the righteous; their vision of the Lord and of his work is undimmed by struggles and competing circumstances.
The faithful who lived before the meridian of time were taught to “look to God and live” (Alma 37:47), to believe in Christ and live the principles of his gospel as though he had already come (see Jarom 1:11; Alma 39:17-19).
The spiritual-minded who lived during his mortal ministry recognized Jesus of Nazareth for what he was—the God of their fathers and the promised Messiah. Those with an eye of faith who have lived since the first century gladly acknowledge the mission and ministry of the Christ as the pivotal moment in all of history and seek with earnestness to be ready for that day of the Second Advent which will come upon the wicked as a thief in the night.
All righteous people of all ages, those “who had offered sacrifice in the similitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, and had suffered tribulation in their Redeemer’s name,” those who have “departed the mortal life, firm in the hope of a glorious resurrection” (D&C 138:13-14)—these have learned to read the signs of the times given in their own day and have thereby come unto Christ and his Church.