Temple Work

Our meetings were enjoyed very much yesterday, and to me they were spiritual feasts—I hope that our meetings today and tomorrow may be like them, that we may enjoy a rich portion of the Holy Spirit ¶

I was much impressed yesterday with Brother Clawson's remarks concerning temple work—I thought to myself, What a glorious principle this is! How thankful we are that the Lord brought this forth through His servant Joseph—It was in the latter years of his life that he was more deeply impressed to lay this matter of salvation for the dead before the Saints; but it was not a new principle—Though he preached and wrote upon this subject a year or two only before his death, still we find this principle referred to in the revelations given to him in the early years of the Church—In that glorious vision given to the Prophet Joseph and Sidney Rigdon concerning the different glories, we are told about a certain class that had not received the Gospel while alive, but had received it in prison after death—This shows that the Lord gave His Saints to understand at that early day that there is an opportunity for salvation after death—It manifests the great mercy of God, and places salvation beyond the narrow bounds within which it is placed by other denominations—The Prophet Joseph could not have received this from man, because man did not teach this doctrine—It was revealed to him, and he gave it unto the people—In looking upon and examining this principle, we cannot help but be—struck with the wisdom and mercy of God in providing salvation for the many, many millions that have died without a knowledge of the truth—Even before this allusion to the principle of salvation for the dead was made, it was given unto the Prophet Joseph—That first night when he received a visit from the Angel Moroni, the angel explained to him several principles that were not known to the world, and he also explained several chapters of the prophets—Among others, he alluded to the prophecy in Malachi, to the effect that Elijah should be sent to turn the hearts of the children to the fathers and the hearts of the fathers to the children—"Who had understood the deep meaning in these words? When the Lord revealed more to Joseph we began to understand it, and now we know that that prophecy pertains to salvation for the dead—I suppose that the boy Joseph did not understand the import of the prophecy at the time, but the Lord wanted these things brought forth—They were not evolved as the Church grew, but they were principles given before the world was—Hence in these first revelations to the Prophet they are pointed at and indicated, and gradually, as the people were ready for them, they were explained ¶

These principles are not new—They were understood by the prophets of old and by the writers of the New Testament—Paul alludes to the ordinance of baptism for the dead—I have attended several funerals in England, and I have been surprised to hear them repeat the 29th verse of the 15th chapter of I Corinthians: ¶

"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?" ¶

How few understood the meaning of the words in this verse! Paul understood them, and I believe the first-day Saints understood this principle clearly, for Paul uses this as an argument in favor of the resurrection—What would be the use of being baptized for the dead if the dead rose not? That was his argument—The Saints no doubt practiced the principle in those days, because we find in the Church afterwards that decrees were made against the custom of being baptized for the dead—Some ten hundred years after, up in Russia, when some of their princes were converted to Christianity, they felt impressed to ask for that ordinance to be performed for their forefathers—Whether they had any knowledge from the history of the first-day Saints, or not, I do not know; but such an ordinance was actually performed in Russia—The Apostle Peter understood the principle of salvation for the dead, and our Savior understood it, and, I believe, laid it before the congregation in Nazareth—After he had been out teaching and returned to his home at Nazareth, he was called upon to read from the roll, as was the custom in their synagogues, and when it was handed to him he read from the 61st chapter of Isaiah—When I was in Nazareth I visited that synagogue (at least, they tell us its is the same), and when I stood inside that old building, I wondered where He had stood when He spoke on that occasion, and I thought of the glorious doctrine that He alluded to — salvation for the dead—I wish to read a few verses from this chapter: ¶

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; ¶

"To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn " ¶

He read these verses, which describe His own mission—Among other things, His mission, He tells us, was to liberate the captives and to open their prison doors—This part of His mission He did not fulfill while living in the flesh, so far as we have any account, but we have an account that He fulfilled it afterwards—Peter tells us that He preached to the spirits in prison— those that Job speaks of when he says that they should be brought forth out of the pit and out of their prison—Jesus went and opened their prison doors; He led captivity captive; He brought joy to the many millions that were waiting in prison, for His coming, who were there because at one time they had rejected the Gospel—They belonged to the antediluvians, and when Noah preached the Gospel to them they rejected him; hence they had a long time to wait, but finally the joyful tidings came to their prison house—Jesus went and preached the Gospel to them, and salvation was offered to them once more—They had learned by sad experience what it meant to reject the Gospel ¶

This doctrine of salvation for the dead docs not have the effect, as some say, to make men neglect the present opportunity, thinking that there will always be a chance for them—For there is punishment meted out to those who reject the Gospel—It was a long time for the antediluvians to wait before the door of grace was opened unto them—We endeavor to impress upon the hearts of men the necessity of repenting and of living according to the commandments of God in this life—We want all men to understand that there is a law which must be obeyed by every one who shall enter the kingdom of God—Jesus laid it down to Nicodemus when he said that no man can enter the kingdom of heaven, except he is born of the water and of the spirit—The many millions that have passed away without having obeyed this ordinance, if they shall enter the kingdom of heaven, must be born of water and of the spirit, and as this cannot be done in the spirit world, God has provided that that ordinance may be performed for them here upon the earth—We cannot avoid obedience to this law and still be permitted to enter the kingdom of God—Here is the mercy and grace of God manifested unto His children, in that He has devised means whereby they can receive the blessings even after they have departed from this life—You who have entered the Temples of God and performed ordinances for your dead, know what a glorious work it is—You have unselfishly labored for your relatives, and you have been blessed in doing so, for your testimonies have been strengthened, and you have felt that you were in the presence of departed beings, and that you were bringing blessings unto them ¶

The reason why I dwell on this subject this morning is because many of the Saints who are imbued with a love for their relatives, and who would like to enter the Temples and do work for them, cannot do so because they have not their genealogy—Now, my brethren and sisters, we want you to be diligent in your search for genealogies—For this is a day in which the hearts of the children are turned unto the fathers—As soon as the Prophet Joseph brought this doctrine before the world and the necessity arose of searching for the fathers, the hearts of the people were turned that way—The Lord worked on the hearts of men, genealogical societies sprang up everywhere; men began to search for the the names of their forefathers, and many works have been published on this subject—Those who put forth these efforts had no idea of salvation for the dead, but the work of these devoted men has come to the Saints as a very great blessing—We want to gather up all we can in this regard—Many of the Saints are not acquainted, perhaps, with the fact that we have a genealogical society in our midst—We have some four hundred volumes on genealogies, and we want to get more—We would like to get all that is published, both in England and in this country, that can be of any aid to the Saints; and as the same spirit works upon the hearts of men in Germany, Denmark and other countries, we want to gather the information collected there—They are working now in those countries in this direction—In Denmark, Sweden and Norway it will be a difficult task to gather genealogies, on account of the change that formerly took place in names, the children being called after the first name of the father—This changes the surname from one generation to another, like it was in olden times—In the Bible we read of Simon Bar-jona—"Bar" means son — Simon Jonason—Hence it is hard to trace the names of families in those countries—Yet there are several archives in Denmark where we can obtain genealogy, and as the opportunity opens' in Sweden and Norway we want to have brethren there to work in this line—We have agents in Germany and Switzerland, so that our German and Swiss brethren can be helped in getting names of their relatives—The same may be said concerning New England—The society is trying to open communication with all the countries from where the Saints have come—Now it costs a little to get work of this kind done, and we would like our brethren who are interested in obtaining genealogy to become members of the society—It requires only a small entrance fee, and you will get ¶

that back in paying less for your names and in having the chance to visit the library and search the books that are already on hand—All that is paid in will go toward increasing our library of genealogical works—I hope that this matter will be remembered by the Saints—If you write to the Genealogical Society at the Historian's office, you can obtain all the information we can give you and we will help you to get more ¶

I want to say a few words in regard to records—We advise our missionaries to keep diaries on their missions and to jot down the events of their lives—These by and by will be very precious—Many of our brethren from the early decades of the Church have kept records—We would like to get hold of these daybooks at the Historian's office, sq that if there is any new matter or anything that might give a sidelight upon events already known, we may obtain the information—We have men at the office, such as Andrew Jenson and others, who are well—acquainted with the events of our Church history, and who can soon gather out of such day-books things that are not known and that will be a help to us—We would not ask children who have possession of their father's records to give them to the office; but if they would lend them to us, we would gather from them what would be of use in our Church history—There may be some who would like to have them deposited in the Historian's office, and we would be glad to take them, mark them, and keep them safely—We are a people that make history every day; but we want this history written by ourselves—When you read history you find many a character that is described to you far different from the reality, because his history has been written by an enemy—Many of the sects that have sprung up since the days of the Apostles have been represented to us in a very unfavorable light, because their histories were written by their enemies—We do not want coming generations to read our history in a different light from the real truth ¶

Before I sit down there is another matter that I would like to lay before our brethren—It is now time for school—During the summer months our religion ¶

classes have not been maintained, except in a few places—Now that the school year has commenced we hope that the superintendents and teachers of religion classes will see to it that the classes are again started and that renewed interest is taken in this good work—We have just issued a new edition of outlines, explaining the religion class movement and the procedure, and any of our superintendents or teachers can obtain this by writing to Superintendent Maeser—"We hope that this work will not lag, but that we will all see the necessity of giving our children that kind of education that they cannot obtain in our district schools, and that we cannot give at home because we have not the time—This religion class movement has been established in order that our children may be trained religiously as well as mentally and physically, and I trust that we will not neglect it—May God bless you, brethren and sisters; may our conference be a feast indeed unto all present, is my prayer, in the name of Jesus—Amen ¶