"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."
Why would the earth be wasted? Simply because if there is not a welding link between the fathers and the children—which is the work for the dead—then we will all stand rejected; the whole work of God will fail and be utterly wasted. Such a condition of course, shall not be. When Elijah restored this Priesthood, he said that the time spoken of had fully come, and that the dreadful day of the Lord was near, even at the doors.
Let us now see what Joseph Smith had to say in relation to this. Speaking of the baptism and salvation for the dead, he said:
"The GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY in this world that God has laid upon us, is to seek after our dead. The apostle says they without us cannot be made perfect. Now I will speak of them: I say to you, Paul, you cannot be perfect without us; it is necessary that those who have gone before, and those who come after us should have salvation in common with us, and thus hath God made it OBLIGATORY to man. Hence God said He would send Elijah." (Times and Seasons, 6:616).
Moreover, at the conference held October, 1841, to which I have already referred, the prophet said this:
"Baptism for the dead is the only way that men can appear as saviors on Mount Zion. The proclamation of the first principles of the gospel was a means of salvation to men individually, and it was the truth, not men, that saved them; but men by actively engaging in rites of salvation substitutionally, become instrumental in bringing multitudes of their kin into the Kingdom of God."
"This doctrine"—that is, baptism for the dead—"he said, 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."
Now here comes the most important statement.
—"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."
There we have the key to the whole situation. If we neglect the salvation of our dead when we have the opportunity to save them, then we ourselves will be rejected, and that is just what the revelation of January 19, 1841, says. In the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 128, verse 5, we are told that baptism for the dead was prepared from before the foundation of the world, "for the salvation of the dead," mark this, "WHO SHOULD DIE WITHOUT A KNOWLEDGE OF THE GOSPEL!" And in verse 15:
"And now, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, let me assure you that these are principles in relation to the dead and the living that cannot be lightly passed over, as pertaining to our salvation, as Paul says concerning the fathers, 'that they without us cannot be made perfect, neither can we without our dead be made perfect.'"