Judged by the Reorganite standards of faith and doctrine will this statement bear the light of investigation? Baptism a _local commandment, not binding on the Saints_! "To the law and the testimony," said Isaiah, "if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." In section 128 of the Doctrine and Covenants (sec. CX Reorganite edition), verse 17, in a revelation [7] to the Prophet Joseph Smith, we read the following: "I will give you a quotation from one of the Prophets, who had his eye fixed on the restoration of the priesthood, the glories to be revealed in the last days, and in an especial manner this _most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting gospel_, viz.: the baptism for the dead; for Malachi says, last chapter, verses 5, 6, 'Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.'" Not only is the Priesthood which was revealed by Elijah the Prophet, pertaining to the "most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting Gospel," but it is of the most importance, for the Prophet Joseph says: "The _greatest responsibility_ in this world that God has laid upon us, is to _seek after our dead_. The apostle says they without us cannot be made perfect. Now I will speak of them: I say to you, Paul, you cannot be perfect without us; It is necessary that those who have gone before, and those who come after us should have salvation in common with us, and thus hath God made it _obligatory_ to man. Hence God said he would send Elijah." (Times and Seasons, 6: 616.) Moreover, at the conference of the Church held October 3, 1841, he presented, "Baptism for the dead as the only way that men can appear as saviors on Mount Zion. The proclamation of the first principles of the Gospel was a means of salvation to men individually, and it was the truth, not men, that saved them; but men by actively engaging in rites of salvation _substitutionally_, become instrumental in bringing _multitudes of their kin_ into the kingdom of God. * * * There is {90} a way to release the spirit of the dead; that is by the power and authority of the Priesthood--by binding and loosing on earth. "This doctrine appears glorious inasmuch as it exhibits the greatness of divine compassion, and benevolence in the extent of the plan of human salvation. This glorious truth is well calculated to enlarge the understanding, and to sustain the soul under troubles, difficulties, and distresses. * * *