The keys of this wonderful and impressive doctrine were restored when Elijah conferred his Priesthood. The mission of Elijah in this dispensation, as prophesied of by Malachi, was to restore the sealing, or binding power, through which covenants and contracts, as here described by the Lord, are approved and ratified in the heavens. Referring to this subject, President Joseph Smith remarked in one of his discourses: "Elijah was the last prophet that held the keys of the Priesthood. . . . It is true that the Savior had authority and power to bestow this blessing; but the sons of Levi were too prejudiced. 'And I will send Elijah the Prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord,' etc. Why send Elijah? Because he holds the keys of the authority to administer in all the ordinances of the Priesthood; and without the authority is given, the ordinances could not be administered in righteousness." Again: "The spirit, power, and calling of Elijah is, that ye have power to hold the key of the revelation, ordinances, oracles, powers and endowments of the fulness of the Melchizedek Priesthood and of the kingdom of God on the earth; and to receive, obtain and perform all the ordinances belonging to the kingdom of God, even unto the turning of the hearts of the fathers unto the children, and the hearts of the children unto the fathers, even those who are in heaven. . . . What is this office and work of Elijah? It is one of the greatest and most important subjects that God has revealed. He should send Elijah to seal the children to the fathers, and the fathers to the children." In the Temple these Blessings are Obtained In the temple of the Lord these sealing blessings may be obtained. Only in the days of poverty, when there is no temple, can they be received elsewhere. The Prophet added further instruction to this subject in a discourse, Sunday, June 11, 1843, wherein he said: "One of the ordinances of the house of the Lord is baptism for the dead. God decreed before the foundation of the world that that ordinance should be administered in a font prepared for that purpose in the house of the Lord. "If a man gets a fulness of the Priesthood of God, he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord. . . . "All men who become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, will have to receive the fulness of the ordinances of his kingdom; and those who will not receive all the ordinances will come short of the fulness of that glory, if they do not lose the whole" (_Documentary History of the Church_, vol. 5:423). Plural Marriage