it, and lie under condemnation from that fact. No; the plan of salvation is complete, and, reaching from our pre-existent state, applies to our present condition, and will extend to the future state, until every son and duaghter of Father Adam has had ample opportunity to embrace its tenets, and live in accordance with its spirit.

We have now examined the gospel proof of pre-existence, and quoted the testimony of Jesus and many of the servants of the Most High. We have gone over the ground of the duties that pertain to this life, connected with faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost,[A] and examined the scriptures relative to preaching to spirits in prison.

[Footnote A: Should the reader desire a more complete treatise on these important points, we refer him to Tract No. 1.]

We now take one more step in our investigation, and shall endeavor to learn if there is a way wrought out for the deliverance of the prisoners bound and captive in the grasp of Satan.

The fact of their being preached to, is one evidence that something could be done to mitigate their condition, for it would be cruelty intensified, if, after being taught the gospel, it would be necessary to inform them that there was no deliverance.

The word of the Lord through the prophet Malachi, was "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." (Mal. 4:5, 6.) Here was a work for the translated prophet of Israel to perform at some future period of time, with the fearful consequence of non-compliance placed before us, that the Lord would smite the earth with a curse. The nature of that work is briefly set forth as turning the heart of the fathers to the children, and that of the children to the fathers.

The apostle Paul asserts that they without us could "not be made perfect," or in other words, that their salvation was necessary to our happiness or perfection.

Jesus, speaking to Nicodemus, said: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

"But," asks the reader, "how shall a spirit be born of water, or baptized in water?"

Very many of those who have gone into the spirit world had never submitted to the ordinance of baptism, while vast numbers of those who had been baptized, had the ordinance administered by persons who had no rightful authority whatever, and whose acts God will not by any means recognize.

They stand in the same position to the "kingdom of God" that a man does, who, as an alien to the government of the United States, has received his papers of citizenship from a man who held no office under government, and, as a consequence, had no authority to confer those rights upon any one.

Paul, writing to the Hebrews, speaks of baptism in the plural: "Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, and of the doctrine of baptisms." (Heb. 6:1, 2.)

Many have supposed this passage to sanction the idea of different modes of baptism, but, by turning to another of Paul's epistles, we learn clearly his meaning. We gain also the information how we may be instruments in the hands of a wise Creator in doing a work for the dead: "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptised for the dead?" (I. Cor. 15:29.)

We here have an explanation as to how their prison doors may be opened, and they set free: by the ordinance of the gospel through the baptism for the dead. Those that are in the flesh can do a vicarious work for their dead, and become "saviors upon Mount Zion."

We here insert an account of the visit of Elijah to the earth, in fulfillment of the promise of the Lord through Malachi.

On the 3rd day of April, 1836, the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, while in the temple at Kirtland, had the vision of heaven opened, and Elijah, the prophet, who was taken to heaven without tasting death, stood before them and said: "Behold the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi, testifying that he (Elijah) should be sent before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse. Therefore the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands, and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors." (Doctrine and Covenants, new edition, page 405.)

Elijah the prophet having come, and conferred the authority to baptize for the dead, the Latter-day Saints are assiduously engaged in erecting temples, wherein this ordinance may be performed. The object of Elijah's visit having been partially accomplished, in causing the hearts of the fathers, dead and gone, to turn to the children here on earth, the children are feeling after the fathers and seeking to open their prison doors, and to bring them through the door of baptism into the sheep fold.

Not only are the elders of Israel traveling, preaching the gospel, and baptizing the people by the thousand, but the saints are flocking to the temples of the Lord, and redeeming their dead from the grasp of Satan. They are performing a great and mighty work for the human family who have lived upon the earth in different ages of the world's history, and who, in some instances, by revelation, make manifest to their children or friends the fact that they have accepted the gospel in the spirit world.

The patriarchs and prophets of former days, with Peter, James and the apostles who lived in the meridian of time, with Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other prophets of the "dispensation of the fullness of times" in the latter days, are earnestly engaged in the work of giving information and directing the preaching of the gospel in the spirit world.

Associated with our Father in the heavens, with the angels, and the good and true of the earth, we can afford to smile at the puny efforts of man to overthrow the work of God. What! can man strive against the bucklers of Jehovah? Can the designs that have been in process of fulfillment since the world began, now be stayed in their onward progress, because they do not happen to meet the approval of the people of to-day?

In conclusion, let us examine one more question that has doubtless presented itself to the mind of the reader, and that is the question of future punishment. If, by preaching to the spirits in prison, bringing them to a knowledge of the truth, and being baptized for them, released them from their prison house, it logically follows that there must be an end to future punishment.

We hear the question asked, "Do not the scriptures say it is 'eternal punishment' and 'everlasting punishment'?" We answer, "Yes." But let us not put any private interpretation on these terms, but correctly understand their meaning.

Eternal punishment is God's punishment; everlasting punishment is God's punishment; or, in other words, it is the name of the punishment God inflicts, He being eternal in His nature.

Whosoever, therefore, receives God's punishment, receives eternal punishment, whether it is endured one hour, one day, one week, one year, one age. "And they were judged every man according to their works." (Rev. 20:13.) Some shall be beaten with few and some with many stripes. (Luke 12:47, 48.) Here we have plainly set forth the fact that all men are not punished alike, that some receive a greater punishment than others; that as their works are, so shall be the punishment awarded them. "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God: and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those