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.