The reader may endeavor to find other objections to our proposition that the saving message and power of the Gospel reaches the dead who die in ignorance of it. He may take issue with us upon the saying of the Savior, heretofore quoted, "Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." This, being a rule devoid of exception, it may be a question as to how those who have died without a knowledge of the Gospel can possibly gain an entrance into the heavenly kingdom, in view of the impracticability of a spirit's being baptized by immersion, or "born of water." We at once admit that a spirit cannot personally comply with this ordinance, excepting in one way. A departed intelligence can have that ordinance performed by substitute, and his acceptance of that performance will constitute, according to the statutes of the Gospel, compliance with the law, and entitle him to the privileges of the kingdom of God. We trust the reader will not suddenly, in his feelings, object to the vicarious administration of the ordinance of baptism in water. Baptism for the dead is Scriptural, and is a saving provision of the Almighty God, showing the magnitude of His mercy. Let us turn our attention to the 15th chapter of Corinthians. Paul offers strong reasoning in support of the resurrection of the body. One of the most potent of his points was that if the heretics who declaimed against that sublime doctrine were right, the ordinance of the being baptized for the dead would be a useless performance. Paul was, of course, right, for the chief object of such an ordinance must be to entitle the dead, among other blessings, to a part in the resurrection. This agrees with the announcement of Jesus, to the effect that the dead would soon hear his voice, and they who did good would have part in the resurrection of the just. Here are the words of Paul: "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?" Thus even the dead are not exempt from the exceptionless rule laid down by Christ, that the birth of water and of the spirit is an imperative condition of entrance into the kingdom of God. The only difference between the living and the dead is that the {182} former are required to receive it in person and the latter by proxy. How easy for the reader to say, I do not believe one person can do anything in connection with salvation that will affect another. But were such an objection valid, the whole fabric of Christianity would be swept away. That saving plan is built upon this very principle. "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Cor. xv, 22). The atonement is a vicarious work. Who shall say that Christ has not done a saving work for us? He died that we might live!