With what joy must these long-suffering spirits, held in confinement, have greeted the Redeemer when He appeared and preached to them the glad tidings of great joy, and presented for their acceptance the EVERLASTING GOSPEL! Through its means they could have their prison doors opened, and themselves delivered from the grasp of Lucifer, the son of the morning, who is appropriately described as one who "made the earth to tremble, and did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that _opened not the house of his prisoners_." (Isaiah 14:16, 17.) How grand and glorious is the plan of salvation that the Creator has ordained for His children, reaching from eternity to eternity, and covering in its details every possible emergency; controlling, guiding and directing their footsteps while in a pre-existent state; teaching them while sojourners upon the earth, and extending beyond the grave into the spirit world, there to cause their hearts to rejoice and gladden under its benign influence, growing and increasing in might and majesty, power and glory, as the ages roll by, until the inspired words of our Divine Master shall be fulfilled: "Every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess." Well might Jesus say to the apostles just previous to His death, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the _dead_ shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live * * * Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in which all that are in the _graves_ shall hear his voice." (John 5:25-28.) Turning again to the epistle of Peter, we find this assertion, "Who shall give account to him who is ready to judge the quick and the _dead_. For, 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." (I. Peter 4:5, 6.) Jesus, upon one occasion, when explaining the gospel to the apostles, said, "Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, _neither in this world, neither in the world to come_." (Matt. 12:32.) This, in perfect plainness, explains itself to mean, that there is a class of sins that can be forgiven in this world, and a class that cannot; also that there is a class of sins that can be forgiven in the world to come, and a class that cannot. Peter, speaking of the patriarch David, says, "For David is not ascended into the heavens." (Acts 2:34.) But David himself, knowing full well that the mercy of the Lord endureth forever, says, "For thou will not leave my soul in hell." (Psalm 16:10.) He knew that after he had paid the penalty of the deeds done in the body, there would be a way whereby he might gain a place in the midst of the righteous in the presence of God.