Chapter V: Part 5

In conclusion, as a true definition of repentance, let us quote the words of Paul to the Ephesians, iv: 25, 30: "Wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor. * * * Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole, steal no more. * * * Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. * * *" This is the only repentance taught in Holy Writ, and simply means to forsake all sin and accomplish a reformation of life.

BAPTISM.

We come now to considering the necessity of the ordinance of baptism. When men have repented of their sins it is natural for them to desire a forgiveness of those sins. How shall this boon be obtained? That repentance alone does not blot out the sins of the past may be illustrated in part by a comparison between the temporal and the spiritual. A man acquires a debt by purchasing goods on credit, and finding it a ruinous policy, resolves, for the future, to pay as he goes. This changes his course and constitutes in his business life a reformation, but it does not pay the debt already incurred. He must liquidate the obligation, or be forgiven the debt by the creditor. Some may say that this is the difference between the earthly transaction of men and the dealings of God with His children. God forgives, it is true, but every blessing is predicated upon a condition, and the condition is laid down by the Lord; hence it is written in Mark i:4: "John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." From this scripture it is evident that baptism is to follow repentance, and that at least one object of baptism is the remission of sins.

Let us now examine some statements of Holy Writ which point out clearly the necessity of this ordinance. "Then cometh Jesus from Gallilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade Him, saying, 'I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus, answering: said unto him, 'Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he suffered Him." (Matt. iii:13-15.) Every thoughtful, God-fearing person must be impressed with the feeling that if it was essential for the "Only Begotten of the Father," "who is full of grace and truth," to be baptized, none can be exempt who have arrived at the years of accountability. It appears also from the language used in the quotation that without being baptized he could not fulfill "all righteousness." After teaching His disciples for three years, being crucified and risen from the dead, He gave to them this commission: "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark xvi:15, 16. ) Also in Matthew xxviii:19: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"; and in Luke xxiv:45-47: "Then opened He their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." In the latter quotation the word baptism is not used, but the same writer says in Luke iii:3, regarding the mission of John: "And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," thus enunciating the doctrine that remission of sins is obtained through baptism.

The same writer gives us the following (Luke vii:29, 30): "And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of Him." From this it is manifested that by receiving baptism they honored and obeyed God, and that the rejection of this simple yet divine institution amounted to rejecting the counsel of God, with all the terrible consequences attendant upon such disobedience.

We read in the eighth chapter of Acts that Philip baptized the Samaritans and the Ethiopian. In the same book is related the baptism of Saul, of Lydia, of the Philippian jailor, and of Cornelius. It is not necessary to multiply quotations to show that baptism was taught and practiced all through the apostolic dispensation, as being essential to salvation. As a direct statement of Jesus Himself, to close this part of the subject, we quote His words to Nicodemus, St. John iii:5: "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." The birth of the water can only be accomplished by baptism, and if an accountable being cannot enter into the kingdom of God without baptism, then that ordinance must be essential to salvation.

Let us next consider the object of this sacred rite. It is evident that inasmuch as a man cannot enter into the kingdom of God without the baptism of water, then his sins must necessarily be remitted through faith, repentance and baptism from the fact that "no unclean person * * * hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."

In Mark i:4 and Luke iii:3 we read that "John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." On the day of Pentecost, when the mighty power of God rested upon the apostles and the Spirit bore witness to the multitude that they were in sin, notwithstanding their devoutness, they cried out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" To this Peter answered, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." (Acts ii:38.)

Paul narrates before King Agrippa his conversion, in Acts xxii:16, and says that Ananias, to whom he had been commanded to apply, said: "And now, why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." The foregoing quotations will suffice to show that God instituted baptism for the remission of sins, but from other passages already quoted. Mark i:4, also xvi:15-16, and the account of Simon, the sorcerer, in the eighth chapter of Acts, it is very evident that the result--forgiveness--is not secured unless baptism is accompanied on the part of the candidate by faith and a genuine repentance in turning aside from sin. Otherwise there would be the solemn mockery of administering a sacred ordinance to a hypocrite. Hence the apostles said to Simon, "Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money." (Acts viii:20.) Notwithstanding he had been baptized he was still in his sins, because his heart was not pure, and he had not repented. For this reason the apostles said to him, "Repent therefore of this wickedness. * * * For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." (Acts viii:22-23.) This should be a warning to those modern professors whose religion is in many instances a cloak, hidden beneath which is the depraved heart that garnishes the sepulchres of the dead prophets but is ready to slay the living ones.

We now come to that part of the subject which formerly caused so much dissension among the Christian sects, but which latterly is smoothed over with the assertion that it makes no difference which mode--sprinkling, pouring, or immersion--is used; "either will do," "let the candidate take his choice; it is immaterial." To these unwarranted assertions we reply: First, that if either mode will do, none will do, for still other forms may be added by the whims of men. Christ established but one true mode, "One Lord, one faith, _one baptism,"_ and if one is right, the others are wrong. This is a plain proposition. Again, the dissension and conflict on this point is proof against the inspiration of the sectarian world, if they have any, for the reason that the Spirit of God will not lie nor contradict itself. If, therefore, the Spirit of the Lord teaches me that immersion is right, it will not teach another sprinkling, and yet another pouring. This division, then, is because men are guided by opinion and preference and not by the spirit of revelation from God, which guides into all truth and brings those who possess it to a unity of faith.

Now as concerning the baptism of Jesus, who is the pattern, we have Matt. iii:16, which says, "And Jesus when He was baptized went up straightway out of the water." It is not likely that John would be baptizing in Jordan and that Jesus would have gone down into the water if anything less than immersion would have fulfilled the law. This also agrees with the account of the Ethiopian's baptism by Philip (Acts viii:38): "And they went down both into the water, _both Philip and the eunuch,_ and he baptized him." As making still plainer this using a river of water and going _"down into the water"_ to receive the sacred rite, we quote from St. John iii:23: "And John also was baptizing in Enon, near to Salim, because there was _much water there."_ A statement so plain as the foregoing needs no comment. It speaks for itself. He was baptizing not only in Enon, but at a certain point in the stream "because there was much water there." Such a reason could not have been given if sprinkling or pouring had been a proper mode.

We refer further to the New Testament statements where not only the mode of baptism is indicated by the language, but the fact that baptism symbolizes the birth into the world, the death, and the resurrection of the body. To Nicodemus, Jesus 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." (St. John iii:5.) When man comes forth into the world, he is born or brought out from the watery element, being first buried in it, and this constitutes his birth. To be "born of water" as a sacred ordinance would be impossible if the rite of sprinkling or pouring be the mode employed. Only complete immersion will answer the ordinance indicated in the language of Jesus to Nicodemus.

Paul also said to the Romans, "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection." (Rom. vi:3-5.) The foregoing shows that baptism is a likeness of burial. When the body is laid lifeless in the tomb it is covered completely; it is not left partly buried and partly uncovered; and as the body comes forth in the resurrection, immortal, and free from the conditions of mortality, thus walking in "newness of life," so by the remission of sins through faith, repentance and baptism, the obedient candidate comes forth free from sin, and walks in a new life, prepared for the birth of the spirit, thus symbolizing in beautiful similarity the death and resurrection of the body. This is still farther emphasized by the language, "For if we have been planted," etc., thus using a word which implies a complete burial as in planting seeds in the earth.

Again, we quote the words of Paul to the Colossians, ii:12: "Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead." This corresponds with the statement before quoted from Romans, and also the teachings of Christ to Nicodemus.

From the Scriptures already quoted on the necessity, object and mode of baptism, we may deduce the conclusion that the ordinance established to follow and go with faith and repentance, and which constitutes the third principle of the gospel, is baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.

RECEPTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Having shown that faith, repentance and baptism are essential to the remission of sins, let us now consider the reception of the Holy Spirit. That this should follow, and not precede, the birth of the water must be evident to every thoughtful person. It is clear that a man is not prepared for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost unless he repents of his sins and becomes freed from them by obedience to the laws of God. Some people may contend that, because Jesus stated that man must be born again, in order to see the kingdom of heaven, such a birth precedes baptism, and is synonymous with the birth of the Spirit mentioned by the Savior in the third chapter of St. John; but being born again, in order to see the kingdom, evidently shows that a man must have some light above the natural senses, sufficient to the light of Christ to make him see the kingdom of God. In other words, to secure, and we may say, consistently constitute his conversion.

This light which guides him to the truth does not, however, forego the absolute necessity of obeying the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. As proof of this we cite the conversion of Paul. He received a personal manifestation of the Savior's power, even hearing his voice and witnessing a light from heaven. Notwithstanding this, Jesus commanded him to go to Ananias, an authorized servant of Christ, who should instruct him regarding his salvation. He was therefore required to be born of water and of the Spirit. Cornelius, also, as related in the tenth chapter of Acts, saw an angel and received a manifestation of the Holy Ghost previous to baptism. Yet both men were required to obey the ordinances enjoined by the Gospel of Christ. If they rejected these requirements, undoubtedly the light they had received would have departed from them and this would have added to their condemnation.

The historical fact of the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost is not, in every instance, recorded in the Scriptures, and it is not necessary that it should be, in order to prove that the ordinance was established by the Messiah. In the matter of baptism He said to John, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." He made no exception of Himself, but gave the example by his own obedience. How can others be excused? To show that the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, by those having divine authority was practiced by the ancient apostles, we refer to Acts viii:14, 17: "Now, when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost."

Philip did not have the authority to lay on hands for this gift, hence Peter and John were sent from Jerusalem for the express purpose of performing this higher ordinance of the Gospel. In the nineteenth chapter of Acts is an account of Paul's visit to the city of Ephesus, where he found about twelve men who claimed to have received the same form of baptism as administered by John the Baptist. But in answer to Paul's question, "Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" they told him they had not so much as heard of it, and his action in re-baptizing them would strongly indicate that some imposter had counterfeited in form the true baptism. This being performed without legitimate authority, their sins were not remitted, and they were not in a condition to receive the Holy Ghost. Hence Paul baptized them; and the sixth verse says: "And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied."

An imposter can baptize in water by physical force, imitate the true form at the submission of the candidate, but the gift of the Holy Ghost cannot be given without authority from God; and while the water baptism is equally destitute of its legitimate results when not performed by authority, the imposture is not so readily detected because not usually accompanied by the same manifestation of divine power; therefore designing or ignorant men have taken pains either to deny the gift of the Holy Ghost as being essential with its ancient spiritual powers, or to tell the people that no outward ordinance was essential to confer it, thus endeavoring to dispense with this sacred ordinance.

The following references also indicate the laying on of hands as a sacred rite which would not have been adopted by the apostles unless 'commanded of God to do so: I Tim. iv:14-"Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery." II Tim. i:6-"Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." Also showing that this ordinance was laid down as a positive doctrine, we call attention to the sixth chapter of Hebrews, first and second verses: "Therefore leaving (another translation, that of the prophet Joseph Smith, reads 'not leaving') the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands."

That man might duplicate in form this divine ceremony without authority and without effect, we do not deny; but we confidently assert that without this ordinance being administered by an acknowledged authority from God, the operation would be of non-effect. The undeniable facts of religious history for seventeen centuries prove that men did not receive the Holy Ghost. Where the tree is, there will the fruit be produced, unless the tree is dead; and no one will contend that the Holy Spirit is dead.

The following quotations will point out the fruits of the Holy Spirit: "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (St. John xiv:26.) "Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is Come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He shall show you things to come." (St. John xvi:13.) "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, 'Separate me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them.'" (Acts xiii:2.) "Wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. * * * For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another, the word of Knowledge by the same Spirit; To another, faith by the same Spirit; to another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another discerning of Spirits; to another, divers kinds of tongues." ( I Cor. xii:3, 4, 8, 9, 10.) "But the fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." (Gal. v:22-23.)

The same cause will ever produce the same effect; a tree is known by its fruits, and to be convinced that we need such gifts today it is only necessary to look at the spectacle of jarring "Christianity" with its many creeds. Where is the Spirit that guides into all truth, which does not contradict itself, but teaches the "common salvation" of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all?" That brings us "to a unity of faith," and makes us one in Christ, as He prayed that His disciples and all whom the Father should give Him out of the world might be one even as I am one in the Father and the Father in me, that they may be one in us, "that the world may believe that thou hast sent me?" Where is the Spirit of prophecy? "The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy," the gifts of revelation, healings and all the glorious powers enumerated in the Scripture quotations made. Well did Isaiah say, "The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances and broken the everlasting covenant." (Isa. xxiv:5.)

Without further comment on the gifts of the Spirit, we will introduce quotations to show that the laying on of hands was practiced also for ordination to office in the Church of Christ, and for the healing of the sick, as well as to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost: "Whom they set before the apostles; and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them." (Acts vi:6.) This refers to the ordination of Stephen and six others. "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away." (Acts xiii:2, 3.)

The same ordinance was also had in ancient times before the coming of the Savior. Paul informs us in Gal. iii, that the Gospel was preached before unto Abraham. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay thine hands upon him. And he laid his hands upon him and gave him a charge, as the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses." (Num. xxvii:18, 23.) "And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the Spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him." (Deut. xxxiv:9.)

It is most reasonable to conclude from the evidence presented that this practice came down from the beginning, and was before and after Christ a divine ordinance. That it was practiced for the healing of the sick is evident from the following historical and doctrinal statements made in the New Testament by the Messiah and His apostles: "They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover." (Mark xvi:18.) "And He could there do no mighty work save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk and healed them." (Mark vi:5.) "Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them." (Luke iv:40.) "And putting His hands on him, said Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight," etc. (Acts ix:17.) "And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever, and of a bloody flux; to whom Paul entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands on him, and healed him." (Acts xxviii:8.) "Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up," etc. (James v:14, 15.).

Although the laying on of hands is not expressly mentioned in the last quotation, it is readily seen that the sick could not be anointed without the imposition of hands.

The foregoing should be sufficient to convince all Bible believers that the laying on of hands is a sacred ordinance for the purposes specified in Holy writ, that it follows the baptism of water, and occupies its relationship in the plan of salvation as the fourth essential principle to fully establish men in the Church of Christ; the order is, faith, repentance, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is the door into the sheepfold; "he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." (St. John x:1.)

PRE-EXISTENCE.

As Latter-day Saints we believe that all creation existed spiritually before the physical organism was brought into existence; "And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew." (Gen. ii:5.)

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing. And beast of the earth after his kind; and it was so." (Gen. i:24.) Therefore each kind, whether beast, bird or fish, as well as man, existed before it came to occupy a physical being, otherwise how could each have been created after its own kind? The spirit and the body must be the soul, as enunciated by the Lord in a revelation to the prophet Joseph Smith. (Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 88, verse 15.) "And the spirit and the body is the soul of man." Otherwise there might be an eternal fullness when the spirit and the body are separated. When Jesus was crucified He went, as stated by Peter, to preach to the spirits in prison, and did not enter into the fullness of His Father's glory until He ascended after His resurrection. This was the pattern to all men.

Without the union of the spirit and the body there is not a fullness of glory. As the spirit exists between death and the resurrection, so the spirit existed before the birth of the mortal body. God is the God and Father of the spirits of all flesh, as stated by Moses: "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt Thou be wroth with all the congregation?" (Num. xvi:22.) "Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation." (Num. xxvii:16.) This declaration is corroborated by the apostle Paul in writing to the Hebrews: "Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?"

We associate in this life with our natural fathers; we see them as they are. They teach, guide and direct us by virtue of their fatherhood and their advanced experience, which qualify them to teach us and direct our footsteps in the way we should walk. So in our pre-existence did we mingle with our heavenly Father and His children, our brother and sister spirits. We knew God and partook of His influence and power. We were agents to ourselves, and when propositions affecting man's eternal welfare were placed before us, we were left to choose for ourselves and be responsible for our own course. Thus Lucifer rebelled, and drew one-third part of the heavenly host away. They were cast out, and denied a body. So keenly have they felt this curse that they seek to possess the bodies of the human family. When Jesus cast the evil spirits from the men coming out of the tombs, so eager were they to possess some physical tabernacle, that they besought Him that they might enter the herd of swine. The request was granted, and the swine, possessed of evil spirits, ran down violently into the sea.

Not only the fact of man's pre-existence, but also his power to do good and ill, seemed to be understood by the ancient apostles when they said, "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents." (John ix:2, 3.) Jesus did not deny the possibility of sinning before birth. Why should not the spirit be just as capable of intelligent action before the birth into this world, as it is during its existence between death and the resurrection? As to that time, Jesus taught that all that were in their graves should hear His voice. (St. John v:25, 29.) When Job was in the depth of his affliction the Lord said unto him, "Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? * * * When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job xxxviii:3, 4, 7.) Doubtless Job was somewhere in existence or the Almighty would never have propounded such a question. The sons of God shouted for joy, and without doubt Job was among that honored number. Solomon also gives us to understand that the spirit once dwelt in the presence of the Lord. He says: "And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

The subject of pre-existence is made very plain in the first chapter, 5th verse of Jeremiah: "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Thus in his pre-existent state did Jeremiah receive his ordination to be a prophet of the Lord to the nations of the earth. If such were the case with Jeremiah, why not with thousands of the sons of God? Indeed it is evident from Paul's writings that the time of man's coming to this world is not mere chance, neither is it regulated by the arrangements of human philosophy in this world: "God that made the world * * * hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth: and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitations." (Acts xvii:24, 26.) In other words, the Father of our spirits determined when we should come and those portions of the earth where should be set the bounds of our habitation. It was no chance-work, then, that Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Savior, Joseph Smith, and the founders of liberty in this and other lands came to the earth in their respective times and to those countries where they played their great parts in the purposes of God and the drama of life. "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father." (St. John xvi:28.) "And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." (St. John xvii:5.) Jesus dwelt with the Father before He came here, so did we. Entering our temples of mortality we forget all that has passed before in our spiritual existence. This mortal state is a veil which hides the eternal past, from our recollection, and shuts off the visions of the eternal future, only as from time to time the revelations of the Holy Ghost bring "things past to our remembrance and shows us things to come."

It is probable, from some references in the Scriptures, that if our spirits were sent here unembodied, the remembrance of the past would come with us. At least, this was doubtless the case with Lucifer and his rebel host. When he tried to tempt the Savior, as recorded in Matthew, fourth chapter, he knew Him undoubtedly from their acquaintance in a pre-existent state. When the man with evil spirits met the Savior in the synagogue, the spirits cried out, "saying, let us alone. What have we to do with Thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who thou art, the Holy One of God." (Luke iv:34.) A similar testimony was borne by evil spirits possessing the men coming out of the tombs, as recorded in Matthew, viii:29. "And behold they cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee? Jesus, thou Son of God? art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?" "And unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried saying, Thou art the Son of God." (Mark iii:11) In Luke, viii:28, we have the testimony of the historian that the devils possessing a certain man cried out, "and with a loud voice" said, "Jesus, Thou Son of God." It is not probable that these evil spirits knew Jesus because of a testimony from above, while all Judea failed to recognize in Him the Messiah, the Savior of the world. Many likely knew Him because they had been associated and acquainted with Him before the world was.

John the Revelator in Revelations, twelfth chapter, describes the war in heaven, which took place between Satan and his followers on the one hand and Michael and his angels on the other. This description refers to their spiritual existence, as do the foregoing quotations from Holy Writ. These show us clearly that man did not begin with this world, nor does he end with this earthly life. Man is eternal, and will have no end. He lived and reigned with God in the heavens. His course there largely affects his condition here, as our conduct in this life will have all to do with the glory we attain to in the world to come. Man will live on forever. He dies as to the body, lives in the spirit world, and will again take up his body, a resurrected, glorified being, prepared on certain conditions to dwell with God throughout the countless ages of eternity, to become like unto Him. Possessing all things, even as Jesus, being in the image of His Father, "thought it not robbery to be made equal with him." "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the Son of Man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." (Psalms viii:4-6.)

SALVATION FOR THE DEAD.

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth."

We must not infer from this quotation that mere conviction of the mind to religious truths will secure salvation; for pure belief would lead men to actual works, thus constituting a living, active faith.

The Apostle James declares that "faith without works is dead." The Savior taught in His sermon on the mount that "Not every one that saith unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." From these and other passages of Scripture we learn that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe, obey and remain faithful to the end. This gives us a general definition of what is meant by the term Gospel.

To understand the principles which constitute the Gospel, we may remind our readers that mankind find themselves under the necessity of a redemption which is two-fold in its character. First, by the act of our first parents, all creation is subject to the death of the mortal body. Second, by individual sins man becomes unworthy to dwell in the presence of the Eternal Father.

The Gospel, then, consists of the atonement of Christ, by which all are entitled to a resurrection of the body; in the language of Paul, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." It also consists of laws and ordinances for man's obedience, by which he is redeemed from his own sins, placed in communication with God, and led back into His presence.

In the justice of the Almighty the plan of salvation must be so comprehensive and general that the human family, without distinction, shall have the opportunity of receiving it.

We learn from the Pearl of Great Price that before Adam departed to the life beyond, God revealed to him the plan of salvation. He obeyed it and communicated this knowledge to his posterity during the seven generations that lived contemporary with him. With the Gospel, necessarily came the authority of God to administer in the ordinances thereof. This authority is called the Holy Priesthood. In a revelation given the prophet Joseph Smith, September 22d and 23d, 1832, and contained in Sec. 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants, we learn that the priesthood was conferred through Father Adam by the laying on of hands upon Abel, and from Abel or Seth was conferred through the lineage of their descendants to Enoch, and from Enoch to Noah down to Melchisedek, who conferred it upon Abraham. In the days of Abraham lived the great prophet Esaias, who, the revelation informs us, received the priesthood under the hand of God. From Esaias it was handed down through an unbroken chain to the prophet Moses, but because of the unbelief and hardness of the people, "He took Moses out of their midst and the Holy Priesthood also, and the lesser priesthood continued." (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 84.)

This record shows an unbroken succession of the Holy Priesthood and the Gospel of Christ from Adam to Moses, a period of about 2,500 years. Then began those periods of the world's history when the fullness of the Gospel was not to be had among the children of men, periods when the spirit of darkness engrossed the human family and left mankind, in a great degree, as a blind man groping for the wall. The first of these periods continued from Moses until the Savior came and restored the higher priesthood, established His church upon the earth, and sent his apostles to preach the Gospel in all the world. Another similar period was from the time the Gospel became corrupted, in the first two or three centuries of the Christian era, to its restoration in this dispensation through the prophet Joseph Smith. The Christian dispensation of the Gospel continued to a greater length upon the American continent, extending to nearly 400 years after Christ. What success attended the Gospel among the ten lost tribes whom the Messiah visited and how long it was maintained among them is not yet revealed, but will be in the due time of the Lord.

The Elders in preaching the Gospel abroad are often confronted with an objection to this claim of apostasy from the truth, that such periods of spiritual darkness do not harmonize with the mercy and justice of God. The objectors, therefore, incline to the belief that the Christian world has enjoyed the Gospel ever since the coming of the Messiah. The query then arises, what is the cause of such apparent difference in the opportunities of human beings? Some are born in the church, heirs to the Holy Priesthood; others, in a Gospel dispensation, not in the church, but under conditions favorable to their accepting it; still another class in the same dispensation is under such adverse circumstances that believing and obeying are rendered very difficult; and yet a larger number, counted by millions, live and die where no voice from God comes to their relief.

In the absence of revelation giving any detailed information on this question, we may rest contented with the reflection that God is just, and that a just cause exists for that which appears inconsistent in the eyes of mortal man, but that reflection is not satisfying; we are in absolute need of revelation to enable us to comprehend the cause and to justify in our minds the conditions which exist.

Our works in this life are known to God, and our rewards and punishments are meted out according to the deeds done in the body. Our pre-existent merits and demerits are equally well known to our Heavenly Father. As proof that God knew before this life with all the exactness that we are known here, I here introduce the following from page 41, Pearl of Great Price: "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones: and God saw these souls that they were good, and He stood in the midst of them; and He said, 'These I will make my rulers,' for He stood among those that were spirits; and He saw they were good; and there stood one among them like unto God, and He said unto those that were with Him, 'We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth, whereon these may dwell; and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them; and they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate, shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads forever and ever."

In the first chapter fourth and fifth verses of Jeremiah, we have the following: "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee I knew thee, and before thou camest forth, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." From these plain teachings of the prophet, it is readily seen that the measure of integrity attached to our pre-existence was fully understood by our Father; and as our future condition is based upon our works in this life, is it not a reasonable conclusion that our situation in this world is largely due to our conduct in a pre-existent state?

That God has a distinct hand in the appointment of the time for His children to come upon the earth is very clearly stated by the Apostle Paul. In the seventeenth chapter of Acts he says: "God that made the world and all things therein, giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitations." Thus we learn that this great emigration of souls from the presence of the Lord to this earth is controlled and directed by the Almighty. That He designed them all at some time to learn of Him is stated in the verse following the above quotation, which reads, "That they should seek the Lord and find Him."

We are compelled from these facts to believe that, as God Himself sent millions into the world when the Gospel was not had among the inhabitants of the earth, then His saving plan, to be compatible with His attributes of mercy and justice, must be of such a character as to reach these people after they leave this world. We may add here that this vast host of humanity who lived when the Gospel was not extant is greatly augmented by the unnumbered millions of people who live during the dispensation of the Gospel, but who never see or hear an authorized servant of the Lord.

In connection with this branch of the subject it may be well to refer to the belief of many that, at death the wicked are consigned to their final doom and the righteous to full and complete exaltation in the presence of God. We can explode this fallacy by quotations from Holy Writ. In line with this mistaken belief we find ministers attending the culprit at the gallows, urging him to confess Christ, and telling him that by such confession he will be saved in the kingdom of heaven. In the face of such doctrine the Scriptures plainly declare that, "The murderer hath not eternal life abiding in him." We who live in this dispensation are forbidden by the living oracles of God to receive temple ordinances for even the suicide. To exhibit the error of many in the religious world on this point read the forty-second and forty-third verses of the twenty-third chapter of Luke. The thief on the cross is recorded as saying to the Savior, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." Jesus then said to him, "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." The claim is made that such a promise amounted to salvation, taking the malefactor to a condition of eternal glory. In the face of this mistaken interpretation of the Scripture, we have the assertion of Christ Himself, made three days later to Mary: "touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto my father." (John xx:17.) This is conclusive evidence that the paradise spoken of was not the enjoyment of the presence and glory of God. But we are not left in ignorance of where He did go. He had previously said to His apostles, as recorded in John v:25, "The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." The object of this preaching is stated in the fourth chapter, sixth verse, of I Peter, to be, "For, 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."

This Scripture establishes the truth beyond doubt that death does not perfect people, and dying without obedience to the Gospel does not relieve them of the impartial obligation placed upon all men to believe and obey. It also maintains the doctrine of man's free agency by showing that salvation is only realized when man exercises his own volition to receive the Gospel, and by education in the knowledge of God, step by step, becomes prepared to dwell in the glorious presence of the Father and the Son. With this testimony of the Savior and the Jewish apostles, the teachings of the Book of Mormon and of the Prophet Joseph Smith are in perfect harmony.

The sacred record of the Nephites informs us that the spirit which possesses a man who dies in his sins will have power to possess him in a future state. The Prophet Joseph, speaking upon this subject, also said, on April 10, 1842: "If you wish to go where God is, you must be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses, for, if we are not drawing towards God in principles, we are going from Him and drawing towards the devil. A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for, if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity by some evil power in the other world, as evil spirits will have more knowledge and consequently more power than many men who are on the earth. Hence, it needs revelation to assist and give us knowledge of the things of God."

To show still more definitely Christ's mission in the spirit world, we read from Peter, third chapter, eighteenth verse, as follows: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit; by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah."

We may infer safely that the penitent thief had the privilege of going to the prison house with the Savior and hearing the Gospel; the distinction between his situation and that of the antediluvians being that they had remained in purgatory for hundreds of years, while the penitent man, who had shown some repentance in the last hour of his life, may have heard, with but little delay, the Gospel. Whether he had heard it in life and rejected it we are not informed, and how long he would remain in the spirit world without realizing its full benefits we do not know, but the above quotations are ample to disprove the fallacy of the position taken by those in the religious world who deny salvation after death.

One objection made by the world to this doctrine is, that offering salvation after this life destroys the incentive to embrace the Gospel here and holds out the inducement to indulge in the pleasures of sin, through people believing that they might be redeemed in a future state where the pleasures of sin would be less delusive. If we admit, for the sake of argument, this theory, the evil results following are incomparably less than would be those which offer salvation to some and deny it to others, for this amounts virtually to a destruction of the attributes of justice and mercy which dwell in the bosom of a wise Creator; but there is another side to this part of the question. We may illustrate by comparison. If a man obey the law of the land simply because he fears the penalty of violating the law, you have at once an individual devoid of love for right and of no strength of character, a man who is a mere slave to the influences which surround him; or if you find a being who is willing to pay the penalty of stealing or committing other crimes, for the pleasure he finds in them, with the knowledge that when he has served his term in prison he may be liberated only to steal again, you have a man devoid of character, and to say that this would be the course of mankind relative to the boon of eternal life is only to belittle the character of the human family and strip them of those attributes which come from God their Father. This mission of the Savior was contemplated by the ancient Jewish prophets. They, knowing that the atonement of Christ and the principles of the Gospel must apply to those who lived before His coming as well as to all who came after, understood that the millions who died without the Gospel in this life must hear and obey in the life to come. Isaiah prophesied concerning the mission of the Son of God: "I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes; to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." (Isaiah xlii:6, 7.)

Thus salvation for the dead is a scriptural doctrine. The Gospel is preached to the spirits in prison. At the same time, it is evident from all that we learn upon this subject that the ordinances of baptism, confirmations, sealings, etc., are received by those living in the flesh, in behalf of those who die without the Gospel in this world, but receive it in the next. Paul, in the fifteenth chapter of I. Corinthians, speaking of the resurrection, says: "Else 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?" While Paul's argument is not upon the subject of baptism for the dead, why does he thus forcibly allude to this subject if no such an ordinance belongs to the Gospel? The theologians of sectarianism have exhausted their ingenuity in a fruitless effort to mystify or explain away the true meaning of this passage, for the evident reason that it strikes a deadly blow at their unjust dogmas respecting the eternal damnation of those who die without the truth. The plain meaning of the above statement of Paul is that a living person receives baptism in behalf of those who are dead. This simple interpretation was adopted by the early writers on Christianity. Scaliger, Meyer, Erasmus, Calixtus, De Witt, Grotius and others, counted as good authority, adopted the same view.

Epiphanius, in the fourth century, writing of the Marcionites, makes use of this language: "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."