"Not in the least, Mrs. Sutherland; it is merely another one of those cases where we read but fail to understand. 'The letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life,' you know. Christ kept His word with the malefactor, and He also spoke truthfully to Mary. He and the sinner undoubtedly went on the day mentioned to paradise, but the great mistake, made by many, lies in believing that paradise is heaven." "Well, if paradise is not heaven, what is it? If they went to some other place, where is that place?" exclaimed Mr. Williams. "I believe it was heaven." "I do not doubt your statement for a moment. Prof. A. Hindercoper, a German writer, says: 'In the second and third centuries every branch and division of the Christian church, so far as their records enable us to judge, believed that Christ preached to the departed spirits.' This is in harmony with the belief of the Latter-day Saints, as well as in harmony with the Bible. Peter speaking upon this subject answers your question by saying: 'For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometimes were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.' Christ undoubtedly understood that His mission would not end with His crucifixion, but as He finished His mission to mortals by opening to them the gospel gates, it would be the beginning of His mission, for a similar purpose, with those on the other side of the vail, and realizing that His mission there would begin immediately upon His release here, and that the malefactor would meet him there, He made the promise mentioned: 'Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.' Peter declares that they were visited and preached to in order that they might be judged according to man in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. (I. Peter iv: 6.) Bishop Alford, speaking of the declaration made by the chief apostle, said: 'I understand these words (I. Peter iii: 19) to say that our Lord in his disembodied state, did go to the place of detention of departed spirits, and did there announce his work of redemption; preach salvation in fact, to the disembodied spirits of those who refused to obey the voice of God when the judgment of the flood was hanging over them." "That seems reasonable, and it has given me a pew idea and something to consider," said Williams, "but how about the ordinances you claim are necessary for all? How can those who did not hear the gospel before they died, receive the ordinances?"