Many millions of the earth's inhabitants have passed away without hearing the name of Jesus, or having any opportunity of the privilege of the second birth. And the query arises, must all these souls be lost in consequence? And if so can the God of the Bible be just? Further; the question comes up, If the world has been in error so long, and the Church of Latter-day Saints is the only true Church of Christ, what has become of the generations of professing Christians, who lived and died in the centuries between the loss of the gospel and the Priesthood and their restoration in the present age? The difficulty arises through lack of a correct understanding of the plan of salvation, and through the erroneous doctrines of unauthorized teachers. Orthodox "Christianity" affirms that the future state of man is fixed at death; that the departing spirit goes either to an eternal heaven or an everlasting hell; and that there is no possibility of change, but, to use a familiar saying, "as the tree falls, so it lies." The light of modern revelation rolls back the darkness of ages and unfolds the glorious plan of human redemption in its fullness, and the illuminated soul perceives the triumph of justice in union with mercy, through the extension of gospel privileges beyond the narrow sphere of this mortal life. Why should the opportunity to learn and the power to obey the truths of the gospel be confined to dwellers in the flesh? Is it to be supposed that when the immortal spirit leaves its domicile of clay its powers of preception, of reason, of reception or rejection of truth or error, of submission or rebellion to the decrees of heaven, are buried with the decaying body? The idea is contrary to all the hopes of the life to come kindled in the heart by the promises of the gospel. It is also antiscriptural. There is nothing in holy writ which establishes any such absurdity. Paul declares that all men shall be judged by the gospel which he preached. If this is true and God is just, must not all men _hear_ that gospel and have the opportunity of receiving or rejecting it? And if this privilege has not been granted to them while in the body, must it not be afforded them when out of the body? Peter states that the Lord shall "judge the quick and the dead," and explains that "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." He mentions this in connection with his history of the mission and works of Jesus, who, he tells us, was "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison."