It is said in the Jewish Scripture that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.[A] But the very fact that the keys of authority are restored to preach the gospel to the living presupposes a loss of that authority, and a departure from the true doctrine of the Christ. There have died many hundreds of thousands who have not confessed Jesus. Indeed, even at the present time, there die daily in the best Christian lands thousands of persons who have never heard the joyful sound of the Gospel of the Lord. Yet, only through obedience to the Gospel, may mortals be saved. The living may by good chance hear it; but what provision has been made for the dead? [Footnote A: Phil. 2:11.] During the visions of the night of September 21st, 1823, the Angel Moroni read to the Prophet Joseph these words of Malachi: "Behold I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers; if it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at its coming."[B] [Footnote B: Doc. and Cov. sec 2.] The words of the prophet predict undoubtedly a plan for the salvation of the dead. And that the unconverted dead shall have the opportunity of being saved becomes absolutely necessary to the accomplishment of the great scheme of redemption. The Gospel was not designed to save only a few. The whole human family, both the living and the dead--and those yet to be, as well--may gain eternal life through obedience to the Gospel. The world hereafter will be a kingdom of glories, and a glory of kingdoms. Each one who has lived upon the earth will be awarded the degree of exaltation he merits. The children of the great Father of all will be assigned in His kingdom of glories to places they have earned; and each in his place will inherit, to the glory of the Father, a position equal to his earthly achievement. All this seems simple enough. But the kingdoms of the Father will include all His earth-children; and the more that have proved themselves worthy of exaltation and blessing, the greater will be His eternal joy. So also with each of the children, in turn. In the celestial glory each one's kingdom will comprise those of one's own family; and thus the glory of kingdoms will increase from generation to generation, each bound to the other--and all to the great Father--by the ties of kindred. The perfecting of the ties of kindred through a work done by the living for the dead, is undoubtedly what Paul had in mind when he said, speaking of the fathers of Israel, that "they without us should not be made perfect;"[C] and again, "for to this end Christ both died, and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living."[D] Hence, it becomes a matter of first importance to provide for the salvation of