Page:The City of the Saints.djvu/408

this principle or attribute away from the Deity, he would cease to exist." ("Lectures on Faith," sec. 1.) "Faith, then, is the first great governing principle which has power, dominion, and authority over all things." (Ibid.) Of the second ordinance, it was revealed, "Say nothing but repentance unto this generation" ("Covenants and Commandments," sec. 37); a very comprehensive and valuable rule to those under whom their brethren must sit. As regards the third, the child succeeds its parent in moral responsibility at eight years of age, when it must be baptized "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen," into the Church. Infant baptism is regarded as a Bida'at or innovation—a sin. Baptism by immersion—any other method being considered a vain ceremony—remits our peccata, but it must be repeated after each mortal act. ("Covenants and Commandments," sec. 2, par. 21.) Vicarious baptism for the dead is founded upon St. Paul's saying concerning the fathers, that they can not without us be made perfect, and "otherwise what shall they do that are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not again at all? Why are they then baptized for them?" (1 Cor., xv., 29.) Immersion in water is the symbol of death, emersion of the resurrection, and the baptismal font is a simile of the grave; but baptism for the dead is acceptable only in the Temple. ("Covenants and Commandments," sec. 103.) There being a probationary state while the earth endures in the Spirit world—the purgatorial doctrine of Virgil and others—the dead can by proxy "fulfill all righteousness;" and the Saints are enjoined that "the greatest responsibility that God has laid upon us is to look after our dead;" so Mr. Joseph Smith, in his "Last Sermon," says, "Every man who has got a friend in the eternal world can save him, unless he has committed the unpardonable sin; so you can see how you can be a Savior." A man baptized for deceased relations traces back the line to one that held the priesthood among his progenitors, who, being a saint, will take the place of sponsor, and relieve him of farther responsibility. All thus admitted to salvation will be added at the resurrection to the household of the baptized person, who will reign as a patriarch forever, his rank and power among kingly spirits being proportioned to his wives and his children—adopted or begotten—and his baptizées. The fourth ordinance, or laying on of hands by the water's side, is a perfection of the regeneration begun in baptism, and whereby the recipient is promoted to the Melchisedek priesthood; the order was revealed, or rather renewed, in 1831. ("Covenants and Commandments," sec. 66.) The fifth ordinance, touching the Eucharist, is instituted "in remembrance of the Lord Jesus:" the elder or priest administers it kneeling with the Church, praying and blessing first the bread and then the wine. ("Covenants and Commandments," sec. 2.) The second element was changed by a direct revelation (Sept., 1830), saying, "You shall not purchase wine nor strong