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.