"I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God
unto Salvation to every one that believeth."
We must not infer from this quotation that mere conviction of the mind
to religious truths will secure salvation; for pure belief would lead
men to actual works, thus constituting a living, active faith.
The Apostle James declares that "faith without works is dead." The
Savior taught in His sermon on the mount that "Not every one that saith
unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." From these and
other passages of Scripture we learn that the Gospel is the power of
God unto salvation to all who believe, obey and remain faithful to the
end. This gives us a general definition of what is meant by the term
Gospel.
To understand the principles which constitute the Gospel, we may remind
our readers that mankind find themselves under the necessity of a
redemption which is two-fold in its character. First, by the act of
our first parents, all creation is subject to the death of the mortal
body. Second, by individual sins man becomes unworthy to dwell in the
presence of the Eternal Father.
The Gospel, then, consists of the atonement of Christ, by which all are
entitled to a resurrection of the body; in the language of Paul, "For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." It also
consists of laws and ordinances for man's obedience, by which he is
redeemed from his own sins, placed in communication with God, and led
back into His presence.
In the justice of the Almighty the plan of salvation must be so
comprehensive and general that the human family, without distinction,
shall have the opportunity of receiving it.
We learn from the Pearl of Great Price that before Adam departed
to the life beyond, God revealed to him the plan of salvation. He
obeyed it and communicated this knowledge to his posterity during the
seven generations that lived contemporary with him. With the Gospel,
necessarily came the authority of God to administer in the ordinances
thereof. This authority is called the Holy Priesthood. In a revelation
given the prophet Joseph Smith, September 22d and 23d, 1832, and
contained in Sec. 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants, we learn that the
priesthood was conferred through Father Adam by the laying on of hands
upon Abel, and from Abel or Seth was conferred through the lineage of
their descendants to Enoch, and from Enoch to Noah down to Melchisedek,
who conferred it upon Abraham. In the days of Abraham lived the great
prophet Esaias, who, the revelation informs us, received the priesthood
under the hand of God. From Esaias it was handed down through an
unbroken chain to the prophet Moses, but because of the unbelief and
hardness of the people, "He took Moses out of their midst and the Holy
Priesthood also, and the lesser priesthood continued." (Doctrine and
Covenants, Sec. 84.)
This record shows an unbroken succession of the Holy Priesthood and the
Gospel of Christ from Adam to Moses, a period of about 2,500 years.
Then began those periods of the world's history when the fullness of
the Gospel was not to be had among the children of men, periods when
the spirit of darkness engrossed the human family and left mankind,
in a great degree, as a blind man groping for the wall. The first of
these periods continued from Moses until the Savior came and restored
the higher priesthood, established His church upon the earth, and sent
his apostles to preach the Gospel in all the world. Another similar
period was from the time the Gospel became corrupted, in the first
two or three centuries of the Christian era, to its restoration in
this dispensation through the prophet Joseph Smith. The Christian
dispensation of the Gospel continued to a greater length upon the
American continent, extending to nearly 400 years after Christ. What
success attended the Gospel among the ten lost tribes whom the Messiah
visited and how long it was maintained among them is not yet revealed,
but will be in the due time of the Lord.
The Elders in preaching the Gospel abroad are often confronted with an
objection to this claim of apostasy from the truth, that such periods
of spiritual darkness do not harmonize with the mercy and justice of
God. The objectors, therefore, incline to the belief that the Christian
world has enjoyed the Gospel ever since the coming of the Messiah.
The query then arises, what is the cause of such apparent difference
in the opportunities of human beings? Some are born in the church,
heirs to the Holy Priesthood; others, in a Gospel dispensation, not
in the church, but under conditions favorable to their accepting it;
still another class in the same dispensation is under such adverse
circumstances that believing and obeying are rendered very difficult;
and yet a larger number, counted by millions, live and die where no
voice from God comes to their relief.
In the absence of revelation giving any detailed information on this
question, we may rest contented with the reflection that God is just,
and that a just cause exists for that which appears inconsistent in the
eyes of mortal man, but that reflection is not satisfying; we are in
absolute need of revelation to enable us to comprehend the cause and to
justify in our minds the conditions which exist.
Our works in this life are known to God, and our rewards and
punishments are meted out according to the deeds done in the body. Our
pre-existent merits and demerits are equally well known to our Heavenly
Father. As proof that God knew before this life with all the exactness
that we are known here, I here introduce the following from page 41,
Pearl of Great Price: "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the
intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all
these there were many of the noble and great ones: and God saw these
souls that they were good, and He stood in the midst of them; and He
said, 'These I will make my rulers,' for He stood among those that were
spirits; and He saw they were good; and there stood one among them like
unto God, and He said unto those that were with Him, 'We will go down,
for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we
will make an earth, whereon these may dwell; and we will prove them
herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their
God shall command them; and they who keep their first estate shall be
added upon; and they who keep not their first estate, shall not have
glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and
they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their
heads forever and ever."
In the first chapter fourth and fifth verses of Jeremiah, we have the
following: "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I
formed thee I knew thee, and before thou camest forth, I sanctified
thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." From these
plain teachings of the prophet, it is readily seen that the measure of
integrity attached to our pre-existence was fully understood by our
Father; and as our future condition is based upon our works in this
life, is it not a reasonable conclusion that our situation in this
world is largely due to our conduct in a pre-existent state?
That God has a distinct hand in the appointment of the time for His
children to come upon the earth is very clearly stated by the Apostle
Paul. In the seventeenth chapter of Acts he says: "God that made the
world and all things therein, giveth to all life, and breath, and all
things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell
on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before
appointed and the bounds of their habitations." Thus we learn that this
great emigration of souls from the presence of the Lord to this earth
is controlled and directed by the Almighty. That He designed them all
at some time to learn of Him is stated in the verse following the above
quotation, which reads, "That they should seek the Lord and find Him."
We are compelled from these facts to believe that, as God Himself
sent millions into the world when the Gospel was not had among the
inhabitants of the earth, then His saving plan, to be compatible with
His attributes of mercy and justice, must be of such a character as to
reach these people after they leave this world. We may add here that
this vast host of humanity who lived when the Gospel was not extant is
greatly augmented by the unnumbered millions of people who live during
the dispensation of the Gospel, but who never see or hear an authorized
servant of the Lord.
In connection with this branch of the subject it may be well to refer
to the belief of many that, at death the wicked are consigned to their
final doom and the righteous to full and complete exaltation in the
presence of God. We can explode this fallacy by quotations from Holy
Writ. In line with this mistaken belief we find ministers attending
the culprit at the gallows, urging him to confess Christ, and telling
him that by such confession he will be saved in the kingdom of heaven.
In the face of such doctrine the Scriptures plainly declare that, "The
murderer hath not eternal life abiding in him." We who live in this
dispensation are forbidden by the living oracles of God to receive
temple ordinances for even the suicide. To exhibit the error of many in
the religious world on this point read the forty-second and forty-third
verses of the twenty-third chapter of Luke. The thief on the cross is
recorded as saying to the Savior, "Lord, remember me when Thou comest
into Thy kingdom." Jesus then said to him, "Today shalt thou be with
me in Paradise." The claim is made that such a promise amounted to
salvation, taking the malefactor to a condition of eternal glory. In
the face of this mistaken interpretation of the Scripture, we have the
assertion of Christ Himself, made three days later to Mary: "touch me
not, for I am not yet ascended unto my father." (John xx:17.) This is
conclusive evidence that the paradise spoken of was not the enjoyment
of the presence and glory of God. But we are not left in ignorance of
where He did go. He had previously said to His apostles, as recorded
in John v:25, "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." The object
of this preaching is stated in the fourth chapter, sixth verse, of I
Peter, to be, "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."
This Scripture establishes the truth beyond doubt that death does
not perfect people, and dying without obedience to the Gospel does
not relieve them of the impartial obligation placed upon all men to
believe and obey. It also maintains the doctrine of man's free agency
by showing that salvation is only realized when man exercises his own
volition to receive the Gospel, and by education in the knowledge of
God, step by step, becomes prepared to dwell in the glorious presence
of the Father and the Son. With this testimony of the Savior and the
Jewish apostles, the teachings of the Book of Mormon and of the Prophet
Joseph Smith are in perfect harmony.
The sacred record of the Nephites informs us that the spirit which
possesses a man who dies in his sins will have power to possess him in
a future state. The Prophet Joseph, speaking upon this subject, also
said, on April 10, 1842: "If you wish to go where God is, you must
be like God, or possess the principles which God possesses, for, if
we are not drawing towards God in principles, we are going from Him
and drawing towards the devil. A man is saved no faster than he gets
knowledge, for, if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into
captivity by some evil power in the other world, as evil spirits will
have more knowledge and consequently more power than many men who
are on the earth. Hence, it needs revelation to assist and give us
knowledge of the things of God."
To show still more definitely Christ's mission in the spirit world,
we read from Peter, third chapter, eighteenth verse, as follows: "For
Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the spirit; by which also He went and preached unto the
spirits in prison; which sometimes were disobedient, when once the
long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah."
We may infer safely that the penitent thief had the privilege of
going to the prison house with the Savior and hearing the Gospel; the
distinction between his situation and that of the antediluvians being
that they had remained in purgatory for hundreds of years, while the
penitent man, who had shown some repentance in the last hour of his
life, may have heard, with but little delay, the Gospel. Whether he had
heard it in life and rejected it we are not informed, and how long he
would remain in the spirit world without realizing its full benefits
we do not know, but the above quotations are ample to disprove the
fallacy of the position taken by those in the religious world who deny
salvation after death.
One objection made by the world to this doctrine is, that offering
salvation after this life destroys the incentive to embrace the Gospel
here and holds out the inducement to indulge in the pleasures of sin,
through people believing that they might be redeemed in a future state
where the pleasures of sin would be less delusive. If we admit, for
the sake of argument, this theory, the evil results following are
incomparably less than would be those which offer salvation to some
and deny it to others, for this amounts virtually to a destruction of
the attributes of justice and mercy which dwell in the bosom of a wise
Creator; but there is another side to this part of the question. We
may illustrate by comparison. If a man obey the law of the land simply
because he fears the penalty of violating the law, you have at once an
individual devoid of love for right and of no strength of character,
a man who is a mere slave to the influences which surround him; or
if you find a being who is willing to pay the penalty of stealing
or committing other crimes, for the pleasure he finds in them, with
the knowledge that when he has served his term in prison he may be
liberated only to steal again, you have a man devoid of character, and
to say that this would be the course of mankind relative to the boon of
eternal life is only to belittle the character of the human family and
strip them of those attributes which come from God their Father. This
mission of the Savior was contemplated by the ancient Jewish prophets.
They, knowing that the atonement of Christ and the principles of the
Gospel must apply to those who lived before His coming as well as to
all who came after, understood that the millions who died without the
Gospel in this life must hear and obey in the life to come. Isaiah
prophesied concerning the mission of the Son of God: "I, the Lord, have
called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep
thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the
Gentiles; to open the blind eyes; to bring out the prisoners from the
prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." (Isaiah
xlii:6, 7.)
Thus salvation for the dead is a scriptural doctrine. The Gospel is
preached to the spirits in prison. At the same time, it is evident
from all that we learn upon this subject that the ordinances of
baptism, confirmations, sealings, etc., are received by those living
in the flesh, in behalf of those who die without the Gospel in this
world, but receive it in the next. Paul, in the fifteenth chapter of
I. Corinthians, speaking of the resurrection, says: "Else what shall
they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?
Why are they then baptized for the dead?" While Paul's argument is not
upon the subject of baptism for the dead, why does he thus forcibly
allude to this subject if no such an ordinance belongs to the Gospel?
The theologians of sectarianism have exhausted their ingenuity in a
fruitless effort to mystify or explain away the true meaning of this
passage, for the evident reason that it strikes a deadly blow at their
unjust dogmas respecting the eternal damnation of those who die without
the truth. The plain meaning of the above statement of Paul is that a
living person receives baptism in behalf of those who are dead. This
simple interpretation was adopted by the early writers on Christianity.
Scaliger, Meyer, Erasmus, Calixtus, De Witt, Grotius and others,
counted as good authority, adopted the same view.
Epiphanius, in the fourth century, writing of the Marcionites, makes
use of this language: "A traditional fact concerning them has reached
us, that when any of them had died without baptism, they used to
baptize others in their name, lest in the resurrection they should
suffer punishment as unbaptized."
Another very emphatic evidence that this ordinance was practiced by the
ancient followers of Christ is that the council of Carthage, A. D.,
397, in Canon No. 6, forbids the ordinance of baptism for the dead.
Why would such a decree be issued against this ordinance if it had no
existence in the Church?
Having shown that salvation for the dead is scriptural doctrine,
adopted in theory and practice by the Former-day Saints, let us turn
now to the dispensation of the fullness of times.
We have seen that the mission of Christ to the dead was spoken of by
Isaiah in the forty-second chapter. The same great prophet utters a
prediction in the twenty-fourth chapter as follows: "The earth is also
defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed
the laws, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant."
The context shows clearly that this prophecy refers to the last days,
because it predicts that "the inhabitants of the earth are burned and
but few men left." The term "everlasting covenant" cannot refer to
the Mosaic law, which existed under the lesser priesthood. This law
consisted in the rites and ceremonies of the offering of sacrifice,
pointing to the great sacrifice of the Messiah, and of the law of
carnal commandments, which served, Paul says, as a schoolmaster to
bring them to Christ. The Mosaic law was done away in Him, because he
fulfilled the law. It was not everlasting. Breaking the everlasting
covenant must, therefore, refer to an apostasy from the fullness of the
Gospel as instituted by the Savior.
In connection with this apostasy Isaiah tells us in the same chapter:
"And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the
host of the high ones that are on high and the kings of the earth
upon the earth. 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." In other words, we might say that they
have rejected the Gospel during the Christian era, as the antediluvians
rejected it in the days of Noah; the judgments of God destroyed them
in the flesh, and their spirits were consigned to the prison house
and could not be visited until after many days. Whether the Gospel
dispensations in the spirit would correspond in their divisions of
time to those delivered to men in the flesh, we do not know so far
as preaching to the spirits in prison is concerned; but this much is
evident, that when no Gospel dispensation exists upon the earth, those
in the spirit world, whatever their opportunities to hear, cannot enjoy
the blessings of the Gospel, because no one in the flesh has authority
to receive the ordinances in their behalf. It, therefore, follows that
the haughty ones spoken of by Isaiah could not receive the Gospel
until it should be revealed again from heaven in the latter days; and
to fulfill this prophecy such a revelation must come, comprehending
the keys of a dispensation of the Gospel to the dead as well as to the
living.
Malachi, whose prophecies are the last of those of Jewish prophets
recorded in the Old Testament, in speaking of the great day of the
Lord's second coming and the judgements of God which would precede,
utters the following prediction (Malachi iv:5, 6): "Behold, I will send
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come
and smite the earth with a curse." This prophecy is in beautiful
accord with that of the apostle Peter recorded in the twentieth and
twenty-first verses of the third chapter of Acts: "And He shall send
Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you; whom the heavens must
receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath
spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."
How different these joyful words to those of an apostate Christianity
which denies the necessity of revelation and tells us that the canon of
Scripture is full!
John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of the Messiah at His first
coming, was also the forerunner of the higher priesthood in these last
days. On the 15th of May, 1829, he appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver
Cowdery and ordained them to the Aaronic priesthood, the authority to
preach unto and baptize those living in the flesh. Afterwards came
Peter, James and John, with the keys of the Melchisedek priesthood,
embodying authority to administer all the ordinances of the Gospel to
men in the flesh. But the prophecy of Malachi, chapter iv., was yet to
be fulfilled. On the 3d of April, 1836, in the Kirtland Temple, the
Prophet Joseph testified that "Elijah the prophet, who was taken to
heaven without tasting death, stood before us and said: 'Behold the
time has fully come which was spoken of by Malachi, testifying that
he (Elijah) should be sent before the Lord come to turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest
the whole earth be smitten with a curse. Therefore, the keys of this
dispensation are committed into your hands, and by this ye may know
that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the
doors.'"
In connection with the restoration of the keys of temple ordinances
by Elijah, let us contemplate for a few moments a prediction by the
Prophet Joseph Smith. He stated that the Gospel as preached by the
elders would yet revolutionize the religious world. Without going
into detail regarding the application of this prophecy to several
principles of the Gospel, the subject in hand, salvation for the dead,
will clearly prove the prophecy correct. When Joseph first taught the
redemption of the dead, it was not believed, but was ridiculed by every
denomination of Christendom, so far as we know, and by nearly all the
religious world individually; yet during the past fifteen years this
doctrine has been growing in favor in the minds of prominent men. Dr.
Thomas, of the Methodist church in Illinois, was brought in question
a few years ago by his church for teaching unorthodox doctrine, which
consisted in claiming that those who did not hear the Gospel in this
world would hear it in the spirit world. There is now a vast number in
the various denominations that believe there is hope for the dead such
as was never thought of before the words of the Prophet Joseph were
spoken. Since the glorious visitation of Elijah, the Lord has revealed
definitely how to conduct the ordinance for the dead. He has fulfilled
the words of Jeremiah that He would take "one of a city and two of a
family and bring them to Zion." It required "two of a family," or at
least a male and a female representative of the dead, to receive the
ordinances of salvation for the dead of their respective sexes.
It has been related of Henry Ward Beecher that he said, if a literal
rendering of the Scriptures was to be accepted, then "Mormonism" was
correct. In line with his sentiments on this subject, it has been
reported that he delivered a lecture in Nashville, Tennessee, his
subject being, "What Christianity Has Done to Civilize the World,"
in which he said: "What has Africa done for the world? She has never
produced a sage, a philosopher, a poet nor a prophet, and why not?
Because the name of Christ and the influence of Christianity are
scarcely known in her dark regions. Millions of her children have
lived and passed away without hearing the truth. What will become of
them? Will they be forever damned? No, not if my God reigns, for they
will hear the gospel in the spirit world." He then proceeded to show
by irrefutable evidence that salvation for the dead is a scriptural
doctrine.
The writer was not present at the lecture, but another Latter-day Saint
elder was present, and, at the conclusion of the lecture, stepped up
to the platform and said: "Mr. Beecher, I have been much interested
in your lecture and would like to ask you a question. Jesus said to
Nicodemus, 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God.' Now, how is it possible for a man to
be baptized in water when his body has already crumbled in the earth?"
The great preacher looked at the interrogator for a moment and then
said: "Young man, where do you hail from?" "From the West." "From what
part of the West?" "From Salt Lake City," answered the Elder. "Oh,"
said Mr. Beecher, "you may answer your own question. Good evening,"
and walked away. Mr. Beecher probably had read enough on the subject
of baptism for the dead to know that such a doctrine must be coupled
with preaching to departed spirits, but he did not wish to be accused
of teaching "Mormonism," so he stopped short of that. He said enough,
however, to verify the words of Joseph Smith, and also those of the
Savior, when He said that if men put new wine into old bottles it would
break them to pieces; in other words, new doctrine into old systems.
Other instances might be cited, but this will suffice to illustrate how
the influence of the Gospel is working among the children of men.
We now come to one of the most important, interesting and extensive
branches of this great subject, namely, that of securing the names,
births, marriages and deaths of our ancestors, a class of information
essential for record in order to prosecute this great work of salvation
for the dead. The genealogical research must be an arduous one and
ofttimes attended with great difficulty.
Nathaniel H. Morgan, author of a genealogical history entitled "James
Morgan and His Descendants," makes this observation in the introduction
of his work: "The task of the genealogist, in groping his way amid the
dusty records of the past, is much like that of the African Indians
in pursuing an obscure trail through a tangled wilderness. An acute
faculty of perception and a keen and practiced eye must note and
scrutinize every obscure footprint, every rustled leaf, every bent
twig; now, progressing rapidly, under a clear light, and guided by sure
tokens; and anon, suddenly arrested by a total absence of all further
signs, and forced hopelessly to abandon the trail long and patiently
pursued until, perchance, again some new and unexpected waymark greets
his eye, inspiring fresh pursuit."
While there have been isolated instances of genealogical works in
America since the year 1771, it is a noteworthy fact (and one showing
the hand of God plainly manifest in moving upon the Gentiles to do
this work) that since the coming of Elijah to the Kirtland Temple,
this spirit of writing genealogies has rapidly increased in the United
States.
I cannot do better at this juncture than to include as a part of our
article a letter written to the writer by Elder Franklin D. Richards
on this important subject. Elder Richards, through his researches, has
been instrumental in furnishing printed genealogies to many families of
Latter-day Saints. He says, under date of Nov. 29th, 1895:
"In answer to your question when the first genealogical history was
published, either in this country or in foreign nations, I must say it
is impossible for me to answer, as I have not searched the libraries
of Europe or of any foreign countries to learn when their first
genealogies were published; but, narrowing your question down to this
country, I may say that the first that we have any account of was
published in 1771, consisting of twenty-four pages and was 'A genealogy
of the family of Mr. Samuel Stebbins and Hannah Stebbins, his wife,
from the year 1707 to the year 1771, with their names, time of their
births, marriages and deaths of those that are deceased,' published
at Hartford in 1771. The author, Mr. William H. Whitmore, says: 'This
I believe to be the earliest genealogy in a distinct form published
in the United States.' It is safe to conclude that an interest in
genealogical work did not take very deep root among the people until
after the Lord revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith the great work of
extending salvation to the dead. This is made evident from the dates
noted in the following excerpts taken from works on genealogical lore,
published in Boston and Albany. In the introduction of a work entitled
'The American Genealogist,' by William H. Whitmore, and published by
Joel Munsell, Albany, 1868, the following very interesting pages occur,
in which you will observe the years 1844 (the year of the Prophet's
martyrdom) and 1847 are named as the respective dates when the New
England Historical Genealogical Society was formed, and the 'Register'
was established under its patronage.
"It seems evident that the English element has predominated throughout
our country, and the greater portion of English colonists settled in
New England. Hence the great activity of genealogists there has had
more than a local importance, and will be the means of preserving the
records of the greater portion of our nation. There is difficulty in
tracing the American pedigree of any family. Mr. Savage's admirable
dictionary will furnish the inquirer with the first three generations
of the name, and the indices of the register will enable him to examine
numerous town and county records. There are very few names which will
not be found in one or the other of these easily accessible works. The
county registers of wills and deeds are open to every inquirer, free
of expense, and it is rarely that any town clerk demands a fee for the
inspection of his books. It is safe to say that nowhere else is the
genealogist so favored as in New England, and consequently no community
exists where so great a proportion of its families have had their
records preserved.
"We have been fortunate in our historical records from the first.
Bradford and Winthrop have noted down even the minute particulars of
the settlement of their respective colonies; Mather and Prince have
given us numerous items concerning the lives and pedigrees of the
clergy and magistrates. In establishing the registry of deeds, our
forefathers not only were in advance of England in political science,
but they gave the genealogist a source of information elsewhere wanting.
"Very soon after the Revolutionary war an effort was made to revive
the former taste for historical research. The Massachusetts Historical
Society was formed, and has continued slowly to acquire wealth and
influence, having greatly extended its usefulness within the past ten
years. John Farmer, secretary of the New Hampshire Historical Society,
early devoted himself to the study of genealogy and biography, and by
his genealogical register attracted public attention to the subject.
Our list will show that but little progress was made for thirty years
from the time he issued his Farmer genealogy, but enough was done to
keep the fire alive. In 1844, the Register was established under his
patronage; since then the study of history and genealogy has been
greatly encouraged, and with good results. When the new society was
formed the science of genealogy was little understood. The wealth of
our records was hardly imagined, the necessity of severe examination of
traditions scarcely thought of, and the simplest and most economical
form of arrangement was not yet invented. Soon, however, all these
points were examined, old manuscript published, and the State
authorities were persuaded to enact laws for the preservation of its
documents. Since 1845 numerous local societies have been established
or revived; over two hundred distinct works on genealogy have been
published up to 1868, and innumerable town histories and historical
pamphlets have been issued. In many instances these results have been
known to be due to the establishment of the new societies, and it is
unquestionable that the spirit it fostered has been the mainspring
in all Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have issued large
volumes of their early annals, under the patronage of the respective
governments. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont possess active historical
societies. New York has not only published her own records but assisted
her neighbors, and established the largest and richest historical
society in existence. Similar associations exist in more than half
the States in the Union, and a new magazine, the _"American Notes
and Queries,"_ established as their organ, has continued to the
present time. Circular No. 3 of the New England Historic Genealogical
Society, issued June, 1847, signed by the following gentlemen, viz:
Charles Ewer, Lemuel Shattuck, Samuel G. Drake, Samuel H. Riddle and
W. H. Montague, treats of the great importance which they attach to
genealogical and historical work and works; and in this connection
I may be permitted to suggest that what appealed so directly to
their needs in those early times applies with much greater force to
the Saints of the Latter Days, who are clearly and pleasurably made
aware of the glorious relationship which exists between parents and
children and the vital obligations the living are under to the dead.
These intimations, no doubt you will appreciate, and when time and
opportunity permit let us hope that you will actively take pleasure
in promoting the aims of the Genealogical Society of Utah, which
was especially organized to advance temple work, which includes the
salvation and redemption of both dead and living. F.D. RICHARDS."
With all these prophecies before us, with the keys of salvation
restored to the earth, with the spirit of Elijah moving not only the
Saints but men of the world to action, who can fail to see the truth of
this doctrine and the power of God made manifest to promote the great
work of salvation for the dead?
In conclusion, let us heed the voice of God to the Prophet Joseph,
saying, "Therefore renounce war and proclaim peace and seek diligently
to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the
fathers to the children;" and the exhortation to us of the prophet who
received this commandment, "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great
a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren and on, on to
victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the
earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of
eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained before the world
was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for
the prisoners shall go free."