| 604 15. And now my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation. For their salvation is necessary and essential to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers, "that they without us cannot be made perfect;" neither can we without our dead be made perfect.
16. And now in relation to the baptism for the dead, I will give you another quotation of Paul. 1 Corinthians 15:29, "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?"
17. And again, in connection with this quotation, I will give you a quotation from one of the prophets, who had his eye fixed on the restoration of the priesthood, the glories to be revealed in the last days, and in an especial manner this most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting gospel; viz.: the baptism for the dead; for Malachi says, last chapter, verses 5 and 6, "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."
18. I might have rendered a plainer translation to this but it is sufficiently plain to suit my purpose as it stands. It is sufficient to know in this case that the earth will be smitten with a curse, unless there is a welding link of some kind or other, between the fathers and the children upon some subject or other, and, behold, what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they or we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fullness of times which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole, and complete, and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed, from the days of Adam even to the present time; and not only this but those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this the dispensation of the fullness of times.
19. Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? "A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth, glad tidings for the dead: a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things and that say unto Zion, Behold, thy God reigneth! As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them."
20. And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from Cumorah! Moroni, an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfillment of the prophets-the book to be revealed. A voice of the Lord in the wilderness of Fayette, Seneca County, declaring the three witnesses to bear record of the book. The voice of Michael on the banks of the Susquehanna, detecting the Devil when he appeared as an angel of light. The voice of Peter, James, and John, in the wilderness between Harmony, Susquehanna County, and Colesville, Broome County, on the Susquehanna River declaring themselves as possessing the keys of the kingdom, and of the dispensation of the fullness of times.
21. And again, the voice of God in the chamber of old Father Whitmer in Fayette, Seneca County, and at sundry times, and in divers places through all the travels and tribulations of this Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And the voice of Michael, the archangel, the voice of Gabriel, and of Raphael, and of divers angels, from Michael or
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