testimony to the inspiration and divine calling of joseph smith derived from the comprehensiveness of the work he introduced—continued.

at once intimately connected with the coming of the lord jesus, and fatal to all claims of a divine commission on the part of joseph smith had he omitted it from the new dispensation, is the mission of elijah. this, too, is the subject of one of malachi's prophecies. "behold," that prophet represents the lord as saying, "i will send you elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the lord: and he will 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."[1] according to the testimony of joseph smith and oliver cowdery, on the 3rd of april, 1836, elijah appeared to them in the kirtland temple and fulfilled this prophecy. "therefore," said he, on that occasion, "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."[2]

the nature of elijah's mission, the manner in which the hearts of the fathers would be turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, has been and is a mystery to christendom; and only by a revelation from god could it be made plain. the mission of elijah related to the salvation of the dead; and the introduction of that doctrine was the beginning of a revolution in the theology of christendom. up to that time—1836—i may say it was universally believed by christians that the souls of men who died without conversion to the christian religion were everlastingly lost. as i have said elsewhere,[3] it was believed that the application of the gospel of jesus christ was limited to this life; and those who failed, through whatever cause, to obtain the benefits of the means of salvation it affords, are forever barred from such benefits. "if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be;"[4] and they argued from this that in whatever state a man died so he remained. if he died in a state of justification his salvation was assured; but if not, then justification, and consequently salvation, were forever beyond his hope.

this sectarian doctrine which does so much violence to the justice of god—since it closes the door of salvation against so many millions of god's children through no other circumstance than that they never so much as heard of the gospel of jesus christ, and therefore could not either believe or obey it—arose, first, through a misconception of the doctrine of eternal punishment with which the wicked are threatened in the scriptures; and, second, through a very narrow conception of the sure mercies of god.

christians believed that to receive eternal punishment was to be punished eternally. this popular error was corrected in a revelation to martin harris through joseph smith, even before the church was organized.[5] in that revelation it is explained that god is "endless," that is one of his names; as also is "eternal," one of his names. "wherefore eternal punishment is god's punishment." in other words the punishment that will overtake the wicked is eternal's punishment; endless' punishment. but christians mistaking the name of the punishment for the sign of its duration, taught that men were punished eternally for the sins committed in this life. god's punishment is eternal; that is, it always exists; it is eternal as god is, but the transgressor receives only so much of it, endures it only so long as may be necessary to satisfy the reasonable claims of justice, tempered with mercy. then, when the insulted law is vindicated, the offender is released from the punishment. but as "the bars survive the captive they enthrall," as the prison remains after the transgressor has served his time in it; so in god's government, the punishment eternally remains after transgressors have satisfied the claims of justice, and are relieved from its pains and penalties. it remains to vindicate the law of god whenever it shall be broken.

but men read, "he that believeth not" (the gospel) "shall be damned,"[6] and they have been taught to believe that they are damned to all eternity—that they are consigned forever to the flames of hell. the so-called early fathers of the church, justin martyr, clement of alexandria, tertullian and cyprian, all taught that the fire of hell is a real, material flame; and that the wicked were punished in it eternally. augustine in the fifth century stated the same doctrine with great emphasis and argued against those who sought to modify it.[7] thomas aquinas of the mediaeval school of theologians, rising head and shoulders above divines of his day, teaches in his summa theologia, that the fire of hell is of the same nature as ordinary fire, though with different properties; that the place of punishment though not definitely known is probably under the earth. he also taught that there was no redemption for those once damned, their punishment is to be eternal. coming to more modern times, we read in the westminster confession of faith—adopted in the seventeenth century by the puritan party in england—the following on the subject: "the wicked who know not god, and obey not the gospel of jesus christ, shall be cast into eternal torment and be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord and the glory of his power."[8] question twenty-nine of the larger catechism and the answer to it are as follows: "what are the punishments of sin in the world to come?"

"ans. the punishments of sin in the world to come are everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of god, and most grievous torment in soul and body, without intermission, in hell fire forever." the westminster confession and the larger catechism are still the standards of the presbyterian churches. indeed the above expresses the orthodox christian faith, from the second and third centuries until the present time.

one would think that right conceptions of the attributes of justice and mercy as they exist in god's character would lead men to the rejection of the horrible dogma of eternal punishment as taught by orthodox christianity. but if that be not sufficient then the scriptures themselves refute it, as will appear in the following paragraphs:

from a remark made in the writings of the apostle peter,[9] we learn that after messiah was put to death in the flesh "he went and preached to the spirits in prison, which sometime" [aforetime] "were disobedient, when once the long suffering of god waited in the days of noah."

during the three days, then, that messiah's body lay in the tomb at jerusalem, his spirit was in the world of spirits preaching to those who had rejected the testimony of righteous noah. the christian traditions no less than the scriptures teach that jesus went down into hell and preached to those there held in ward. "in the second and third centuries, every branch and division of christians, so far as their records enable us to judge, believed that christ preached to the departed; and this belief dates back to our earliest reliable sources of information in the former of these two centuries."[10] "as christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed that he went down into hell."[11] a writer in kitto's cyclopaedia of biblical literature referring to the passage in peter on preaching to the spirits in prison, says: "these 'spirits in prison' are supposed to be the holy dead. * * * the most intelligent meaning suggested by the context is, however, that christ by his spirit preached to those who in the time of noah, while the ark was a preparing, were disobedient, and whose spirits are now in prison, abiding the general judgment. the prison is doubtless hades, but what hades is must be determined by other passages of scripture; and whether it is the grave or hell, it is still a prison for those who await the judgment day."

not only is the mere fact of messiah's going to prison stated in the scripture, but the purpose of his going there is learned from the same source. "for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to god in the spirit."[12] this manifestly means that these spirits who had once rejected the counsels of god against themselves, had the gospel again preached to them and had the privilege of living according to its precepts in the spirit life, and of being judged according to men in the flesh, or as men in the flesh are judged; that is, according to the degree of their faithfulness to the precepts of the gospel.

naturally the question arises why was the gospel preached to the spirits in prison who had once been disobedient if there were no means by which it could be applied to them for their salvation. we can scarcely suppose that messiah would preach the gospel to them if it could do them no good. he did not go there to mock their sufferings or to add something to the torture of their damnation by explaining the beauties of that salvation now forever beyond their reach. such a supposition would at once be revolting to reason, insulting to the justice of god, and utterly repugnant to the dictates of mercy. the very fact, therefore, that the gospel was preached to the departed is sufficient to assure us of the existence of some method by which its powers of salvation may be applied to all unto whom it is preached, including those who are dead. following that question comes another: if the gospel is preached again to those who have once rejected it, how much sooner will it be presented to those who have never heard it, who have lived in those generations when the gospel and the authority to administer its ordinances were not in the earth? seeing that those who once rejected the offer of salvation had it presented to them again—after paying the penalty of their first disobedience—it would seem that those who lived when it was not upon the earth, or who when it was upon the earth perished in ignorance of it, will much sooner come to salvation.

of the things we have written, this is the sum: (1) the gospel was preached by messiah to the spirits in prison who had rejected the teachings of noah; therefore there must be some means through which its precepts and ordinances may be applied to them. (2) if the gospel can be made available to those who once rejected the proffered mercies of god, its privileges will much sooner and doubtless more abundantly be granted to those who died in ignorance of it. let us next consider how the ordinances of the gospel wherein the power of godliness is made manifest, and without which it is not made manifest, may be applied to the dead.

the manner in which the ordinances of the gospel may be administered to those who have died without receiving them is hinted at by paul. writing to the corinthians on the subject of the resurrection—correcting those who said there was no resurrection—he asks: "what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?"[13] in this the apostle manifestly referred to a practice which existed among the christian saints of the living being baptized or the dead, and argues from the existence of that practice that the dead must rise, or why the necessity of being baptized for the dead? though this is the only passage in the new testament, or in the whole bible that refers to the subject, yet of itself it is sufficient to establish the fact that such a principle was known among the ancient saints.

while not maintaining the view that there is such a thing as a living man being baptized for one who is dead, a writer in biblical literature (kitto's), expresses these views: "from the wording of the sentence (why are they then baptized for the dead?) the most simple impression certainly is, that paul speaks of a baptism which a living man receives in the place of a dead one. this interpretation is particularly adopted by those expounders with whom grammatical construction is of paramount importance and the first thing to be considered." this view is also upheld by ambrose among the early christian writers; and by erasmus, scaliger, grotius, calistus among the moderns; and still more recently by agusti meyer, billroth and ruckert. de wette considers this the only possible meaning of the words. epiphanius, a writer of the fourth century, in speaking of the marcionites, a sect of christians to whom he was opposed, says: "in this country—i mean asia—and even galatia, their school flourished eminently; and a traditional fact concerning them has reached us, that when any of them had died without baptism, they used to baptize others in their name, lest in the resurrection they should suffer punishment as unbaptized."[14]

this proves beyond controversy the fact that vicarious baptism for the dead was practiced among some of the sects of the early christians.

another fact proves it still more emphatically than this statement by epiphanius. the council of carthage, held a. d., 397, in its sixth canon, forbids the administration of baptism and holy communion for the dead; why should this canon be formed against these practices if they had no existence among the christians of those days?

from the revelations of god to the church in this dispensation, the following may be learned: elijah in fulfillment of ancient prophecy, appeared to joseph smith and oliver cowdery, and delivered to them those keys or powers of the priesthood which give to the living the right to do a work for the salvation of the dead. as a consequence, the hearts of the children are turned to the fathers; and of course, since the fathers in the spirit world through the preaching of the gospel learn that it is within the power of their children to do a work for them, their hearts are turned to the children, and thus the result to follow elijah's predicted mission is fulfilled.

the work that the living may do for the dead is attending to outward ordinances—baptisms, confirmations, ordinations, washings, anointings and sealings—all being appointed by revelation from the lord, and all sealed and ratified by the power of the priesthood of god, which binds on earth and in heaven. it is required that all baptisms and other ordinances of the gospel performed for the dead, be attended to in temples dedicated for such holy purposes. these ordinances performed on earth by the living, and accepted in the spirit world by those for whom they are administered, will make them a potent means of salvation to the dead, and of exaltation to the living, since they become in very deed "saviors upon mount zion."

this work that can be done for the dead enlarges one's views of the gospel of jesus christ. one begins to see indeed that it is the "everlasting gospel;" for it runs parallel with man's existence both in this life and in that which is to come. it vindicates the character of god, for by it we may see that justice and judgment, truth and mercy are in all his ways.

the servants of god and the saints generally have been earnest in seeking to erect temples in which to attend to these ordinances of the gospel for the dead.[15] at first thought i was tempted to say that this work for the dead was by far the greatest part of the work contemplated in the new dispensation; for as the leaves upon the trees in a single summer are insignificant in comparison to the leaves that have flourished upon the trees in all the summers since creation's dawn, so the number of men now living is insignificant in comparison to the unnumbered millions that have passed away; but i chanced to remember that this work extends to the future as well as to the past; that it will effect the generations to come, as well as those that have gone, and so i checked the thought that the work in relation to past generations was greatest. it is enough to say for this phase of the work that relates to salvation for the dead, that it recognizes the great truth, which paul also teaches, in part, that the fathers who have died without us cannot be made perfect;[16] nor can we without them be made perfect. hence in the great dispensation of the fullness of times those principles are made active, and those sentiments excited which shall turn the hearts of the present generation backward to the fathers, and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, a circumstance that shall eventuate in the complete salvation and linking together not only of all the generations of men, but also all the families and kindred of the earth.

closely associated with the matter treated in the foregoing paragraphs, is the subject of the different degrees of glory. nothing is more clearly stated in holy writ than that men will be judged and rewarded according to their works.[17] and as their works vary in degree of righteousness, so will their rewards vary, and so will they have bestowed upon them different degrees of glory according as their works shall merit, and their intelligence be capable of receiving and enjoying. messiah said to his disciples: "in my father's house are many mansions: if it were not so i would have told you. i go to prepare a place for you; * * * that where i am there ye may be also."[18] still it is commonly held among christian sects, that he who attains heaven partakes immediately of the highest glories; while he who misses heaven goes direct to hell and partakes of all its miseries forever. yet nothing is clearer than the fact that there are different heavens spoken of in scripture and different degrees of glory. when solomon dedicated the temple he had builded, he exclaimed in his prayer: "behold the heaven and heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee; how much less this house which i have builded!"[19] paul in writing to the corinthians says: "i knew a man in christ above fourteen years ago, * * * such an one caught up to the third heaven; and i knew such a man, * * * how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."[20]

reasoning on the resurrection, the last writer quoted says: "there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial, but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars: for as one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead." in all this, however, the great subject is but vaguely hinted at, for a full understanding of it we are indebted to a revelation given to joseph smith, february 16th, 1832. from that revelation we summarize the following:[21]

they who receive the testimony of jesus, who believe on his name, and are baptized after the manner of his burial; who keep the commandments of god and are washed and cleansed from all sin; who receive the holy ghost by the laying on of hands; who overcame by faith, and are sealed by the holy spirit of promise—these become the church of the first born. they are they into whose hands the father hath given all things—they are priests and kings, who have received of god's fullness, and of his glory; they are priests of the most high, after the order of melchisedek, which is after the order of the son of god—therefore they are gods, even sons of god. all things are theirs. whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs, and they are christ's, and christ is god's. they shall overcome all things; they shall dwell in the presence of god and christ forever and forever; they are they whom christ will bring with him when he shall come in the clouds of heaven to reign on the earth over his people; they have part in the resurrection of the just; their names are written in heaven, where god and christ dwell; they are just men made perfect through jesus the mediator of the new covenant; these are they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory the sun in heaven is spoken of as typical—they inherit the celestial glory, they see as they are seen and know as they are known.

the terrestrial glory differs from the celestial glory as the light of the moon differs from the light of the sun. these are they who died without law, and also they who are the spirits of men in prison, whom the son visited and preached the gospel unto, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh; who received not the testimony of jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it. these are they who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by the craftiness of men. these are they who receive of god's glory but not of his fullness. they will enjoy the presence of the son, but not the presence of the father; these are they who are not valiant in the testimony of jesus, therefore they obtain not the crown over the kingdom of god.

the telestial glory differs from the terrestrial as the light of the stars differs from the light of the moon. the inhabitants of the telestial glory are those who neither receive the gospel of christ in the flesh nor the testimony of jesus in the spirit world. these are they who are thrust down to hell, and will not be redeemed from the devil until the last resurrection, when christ shall have finished his work. these are they who are of paul and of apollos and of cephas; some of christ and some of john; some of moses and some of elias; but received not the gospel nor the testimony of jesus. these are they who will not be gathered with the saints, to be caught up unto the church of the first born and received into the cloud. these are liars, and sorcerers and adulterers, and whoremongers, and whoso loves and makes a lie. they suffer the wrath of god on earth and the vengeance of eternal fire; but they will be judged every man according to his deeds and receive according to his works, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared; and they shall be servants of the most high,[22] but where god and christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end. they of the telestial glory enjoy neither the presence of the father nor the son, but receive the ministration of angels and of the holy ghost, for even they of the telestial glory are accounted heirs of salvation.

the prophet joseph and sidney rigdon in their vision saw that the inhabitants of the telestial glory were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the sea shore—and they heard the voice of god saying—"these all shall bow the knee and every tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne forever and ever; for they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his own dominions in the mansions which are prepared, and they shall be servants of the most high, but where god and christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end."

these are the great divisions of glory in the world to come, but there are subdivisions or degrees. of the telestial glory it is written: "and the glory of the telestial is one, even as the glory of the stars is one, for as one star differs from another star in glory, even so differs one from another in glory in the telestial world."[23] from this it is evident that there are different degrees of glory within the celestial and the telestial glories; and though we have no direct authority for the statement, it seems but reasonable to conclude that there are different degrees of glory in the terrestrial world also. it appears but rational that it should be so, since the degrees of worthiness in men are almost infinite in their variety; and as every man is to be judged according to his works, it will require a corresponding infinity of degrees in glory to mete out to every man that reward of which he is worthy, and that also which his intelligence will enable him to enjoy.

the question of advancement within the great divisions of glory celestial, terrestrial, and telestial; as also the question of advancement from one sphere of glory to another remains to be considered. in the revelation from which we have summarized what has been written here, in respect to the different degrees of glory, it is said that those of the terrestrial glory will be ministered unto by those of the celestial; and those of the telestial will be ministered unto by those of the terrestrial—that is, those of the higher glory minister to those of a lesser glory. i can conceive of no reason for all this administration of the higher to the lower, unless it be for the purpose of advancing our father's children along the lines of eternal progression. whether or not in the great future, full of so many possibilities now hidden from us, they of the lesser glories after education and advancement within those spheres may at last emerge from them and make their way to the higher degrees of glory until at last they attain to the highest, is not revealed in the revelations of god, and any statement made on the subject must partake more or less of the nature of conjecture. but if it be granted that such a thing is possible, they who at the first entered into the celestial glory—having before them the privilege also of eternal progress—have been moving onward, so that the relative distance between them and those who have fought their way up from the lesser glories may be as great when the latter have come into the degrees of celestial glory in which the righteous at first stood, as it was at the commencement. thus: those whose faith and works are such only as to enable them to inherit a telestial glory, may arrive at last where those whose works in this life were such as to enable them to entrance into the celestial kingdom—they may arrive where these were, but never where they are.

there is a class of souls with whom the justice of god must deal, which will not and cannot be classified in the celestial, terrestrial or telestial glories. they are the sons of perdition. but though they will not be assigned a place in either of these grand divisions of glory, the revelation from which we have drawn our information respecting man's future state describes the condition of these sons of perdition so far as it is made known unto the children of men. it also informs us as to the nature of the crime which calls for such grievous punishment.

the sons of perdition are they of whom god hath said that it had been better for them never to have been born; for they are vessels of wrath doomed to suffer the wrath of god with the devil and his angels in eternity. concerning whom he hath said there is no forgiveness in this world nor in the world to come. these are they who shall go away into everlasting punishment, with the devil and his angels and the only ones on whom the second death shall have any power; the only ones who will not be redeemed in the due time of the lord after the sufferings of his wrath. he saves all the works of his hands except the sons of perdition; but they go away to reign with the devil and his angels in eternity, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment. the end thereof, the place thereof no man knoweth. it has not been revealed nor will it be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof. it has been partially shown to some in vision, and may be shown again in the same partial manner to others; but the end, the width, the heighth, the depth and the misery thereof they understand not, nor will it be revealed to any but those who receive the terrible condemnation.[24]

such the punishment, now, as to the crime that merits it. it is the crime of high treason to god which pulls down on men this fearful doom. it falls upon men who know the power of god and who have been made partakers of it, and then permit themselves to be so far overcome of the devil that they deny the truth that has been revealed to them and defy the power of god. they deny the holy ghost after having received it. they deny the only begotten son of the father after the father has revealed him, and thus crucify him unto themselves anew, and put him to an open shame. they commit the same act of high treason that lucifer in the rebellion of heaven did, and hence are condemned to the same punishment. thank god, the number who commit that fearful crime is few! only those who attain to a very great knowledge of the things of heaven are capable of committing it; and the number among such is few indeed who become so recklessly wicked as to rebel against and defy the power of god. but when such characters do fall, they fall like lucifer, never to rise again; they get beyond the power of repentance or the hope of forgiveness.[25]

carried away by the beauty, consistency and grandeur of these doctrines, how far i have wandered from the line of direct argument! and yet not so; for these very doctrines breathing as they do a spirit so purely charitable, laden with joy for the living and hope for even the unconverted dead, manifesting such a spirit of universal love, so every way broad, noble and godlike, they are within themselves the strongest arguments that they are not merely human conceptions. as "the heavens declare the glory of god, and the firmament sheweth his handiwork," so these doctrines proclaim that the mind which fashioned them was inspired of god. in other words they were not conceptions of the human mind, but are the outgrowth of revelation direct from god; and bespeak a divine authority for him who in this generation first taught them to the world.

but how comprehensive is this new dispensation! the dispensation of the fullness of times, truly; in which god is gathering "together in one all things in christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth!" a dispensation in which all former dispensations find their complement, and without which they would be meaningless. nothing is omitted essential to its completeness. in it all the prophecies of the scripture either have been fulfilled, are in process of fulfillment, or are in contemplation, that is, the way is being prepared for their accomplishment.

in viewing a work so vast in its designs, so complete in what it is accomplishing and what it contemplates, one stands over-awed at the boldness of the conceptions involved in it; and as its real greatness begins to be comprehended by the understanding, the folly of accrediting such a work to joseph smith uninspired of god becomes apparent. there is no proportion between such a work and the uninspired intelligence of joseph smith, or any other man. it is too universal in its sympathies, too broad in its contemplated achievements, too great, in every way too splendid to be referred to a merely human origin. and i assert again that as the grandeur of the universe forces upon the mind the conviction that behind all its phenomena, there must be an intelligence operating infinitely greater than that possessed by man, so the comprehensiveness of the new dispensation proclaims an intelligence superior to that possessed by man for the origin of it; and which can only be attributed to the inspiration of god in him who was the instrument by which it was brought into existence.