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.