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." Another very emphatic evidence that this ordinance was practiced by the ancient followers of Christ is that the council of Carthage, A. D., 397, in Canon No. 6, forbids the ordinance of baptism for the dead. Why would such a decree be issued against this ordinance if it had no existence in the Church? Having shown that salvation for the dead is scriptural doctrine, adopted in theory and practice by the Former-day Saints, let us turn now to the dispensation of the fullness of times.