10. See illustrated description of the stairway and other approaches to Manti Temple published in the "Deseret Evening News," December 28, 1907, under the caption, "Manti Has Biggest Cement Stairway in the Country." In a letter to the author, Lewis Anderson, the present president of the Manti Temple, vouches for the correctness of the data given. 11. For assistance in compiling data regarding the Manti Temple the writer is indebted to the presiding officer of the Temple, President Lewis Anderson, and his associates. CHAPTER XI CONCLUSION {233} As set forth in the preceding pages, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims the need of Temples at the present time, reared and dedicated to the service of the Most High; and affirms that upon the Church has been placed the commission to build and maintain these sanctuaries, and to administer therein the saving and exalting ordinances of the Gospel for both living and dead. This labor has already attained a magnitude at once impressive and surprising. Ordinances of baptism with accompanying confirmation, ordination in the Priesthood, and sealing both in the relation of husband and wife and in that of parents and children, as solemnized in the Temples of the current dispensation, already number many millions; and the continuation of the work is marked by unabated zeal and devotion. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is given for the salvation of human-kind; its requirements apply alike to the living whose blessed privilege it is to hear its glad tidings while in the flesh, and to the dead who may accept the truth in the spirit world. The genius of the Gospel is that of altruism unbounded; its power to save extends beyond the portals of death. As the vicarious work for the dead can be done only in sanctuaries specially devoted thereto, there will be an ever-present need for Temples so long as there are souls awaiting this ministry. The present is the age of greatest import in all history, {234} embodying as it does the fruition of the past and the living seed of the yet greater future. The present is the dispensation of fulness, for which the dispensations of bygone centuries have been but preliminary and preparatory. The saving and sanctifying labor incident to modern Temples surpasses that of the Temples of earlier times as the light of the full day exceeds the twilight of the dawn. The authority of administration in the Temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod, was that of the Lesser or Aaronic Priesthood; for the Higher or Melchisedek Priesthood, otherwise known as the Holy Priesthood after the order of the Son of God, had been taken from Israel with Moses. The temples of the present are administered under the greater authority. The importance of the distinction between these two orders of Priesthood may warrant a further consideration in this place. That the two are essentially separate and distinct is made plain by Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews: