"One dies and is buried, having never heard the gospel of reconciliation; to the other the message of salvation is sent, he hears and embraces it, and is made the heir of eternal life. Shall the one become the partaker of glory and the other be consigned to hopeless perdition? Is there no chance for his es cape? Sectarianism answers 'none.' Such an idea is worse than atheism. The truth shall break down and dash in pieces all such bigoted Pharisaism; the sects shall be sifted, the honest in heart brought out, and their priests left in the midst of the corruption. "This doctrine presents in a clear light the wisdom and mercy of God in preparing an ordinance for the salvation of the dead, being baptized by proxy, their names recorded in heaven and they judged according to the deeds done in the body. This doctrine was the burden of the scriptures. Those Saints who neglect it in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation."[F] [Footnote F: "History of the Church," Vol. IV, pp. 425-6.] Again, in September of the year following, while he was in hiding from his enemies who pursued him without cause, the Prophet wrote two epistles to the Church.[G] In these he confesses that the subject of salvation for the dead is uppermost in his mind. He gives detailed instructions for the proper recording of the vicarious work of those who have gone before. He shows by scriptural evidence why it is necessary to preserve an accurate record of all that is done upon the earth. He reviews with spirit the whole of the sublime doctrine of the salvation of the dead. And, finally, he bursts into a beautiful modern psalm[H] praising the King Immanuel, who ordained before the world was a means whereby the uninitiated dead might be redeemed. [Footnote G: Doc. and Cov. secs. 127, 128.] [Footnote H: Doc. and Cov. 128:22-24.] "It is sufficient to know," he says, discussing the prediction that Elijah should come, "that the earth will be smitten with a curse, unless there is a welding link of some kind or other, between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other, and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they or we, be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulness of times; which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete, and perfect union and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time."[I] [Footnote I: Doc. and Cov. 128:18.]