"After this vision had closed, another great and glorious vision burst upon us, for 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 the mouth of Malachi, testifying that he (Elijah) should be sent before the great and dreadful day of 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."—(D. and C. 110:1-4, 11-16.)
Elijah's Mission.—"Why send Elijah?" asks the Prophet, and he answers his own question thus: "Because he holds the keys of the authority to administer in all the ordinances of the Priesthood; and without the authority is given, the ordinances could not be administered in righteousness." In the same connection he informs us that "Elijah was the last prophet who held the keys of the Priesthood."—("History of the Church," Vol. IV, p. 211.)
Salvation for the Dead.—The mission of Elijah—the turning of the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, to the end that past and present might be bound together, and the dead as well as the living saved and glorified, was the all-engrossing thought in the mind of the Prophet, as his last day on earth drew near. From his place of retirement, during a period of trouble and persecution, he wrote thus to the Saints upon this all-important theme:
"Verily thus saith the Lord, let the work of my temple, and all the works which I have appointed unto you, be continued on and not cease."
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"When any of you are baptized for your dead, let there be a recorder, and let him be eye witness of your baptisms: let him hear with his ears, that he may testify of the truth, saith the Lord.
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