Had not that visit of deliverance been long predicted? Centuries earlier Isaiah had voiced the word of Jehovah concerning the state of proud and wicked spirits: "And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited." (Isa. 24:22; see also 42:6, 7.) David, conscious of his own transgression, but thrilled with contrition and hope, sang in measures of mingled sorrow and joy: "Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell." (Psa. 16:9-10.) Inasmuch as Christ preached the Gospel to the dead, His ministry must have included the affirmation of His own atoning death, the inculcation of faith in Himself and in the whole plan of salvation, which includes as a fundamental essential, contrite repentance acceptable unto God. Peter specifies the purpose of the Savior's introduction of the Gospel to departed spirits as "that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." (1 Pet. 4-6.) Through latter-day revelation we learn that among the inhabitants of the terrestrial world, or lesser kingdom of glory, are "they who are the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the Son visited, and preached the gospel unto them, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh; who received not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it." (D&C 76:73-74.) Progression, then, is possible beyond the grave. Advancement is eternal. Were it otherwise, Christ's ministry among the disembodied would be less than fable and fiction. Equally repugnant is the thought that though the Savior preached faith, repentance and other principles of the Gospel to the imprisoned sinners in the realm of spirits, their compliance was impossible. It is not difficult to conceive of disembodied spirits being capable of faith and repentance. Death has not destroyed their status as individual intelligences. As they hear the glad tidings of the Gospel some will accept, and others, the obstinate and rebellious, will reject and for a further period will have to languish in prison.