Brigham Young
"What do you suppose the fathers would say if they could speak from
the dead? Would they not say, `We have lain here thousands of years,
here in this prison house, waiting for this dispensation to come? Here we are,
bound and fettered, in the association of those who are filthy?' . . . Why, if
they had the power the very thunders of heaven would be in our ears, if we
could but realize the importance of the work we are engaged in. All the angels
in heaven are looking at this little handful of people, and stimulating them to
the salvation of the human family. . ."
(Discourses of Brigham
Young, pp. 618-619)
"We
are trying to save the living and the dead. The living have their choice, the
dead have not (in this world): Millions of them died without the Gospel,
without the Priesthood, and without the opportunities that we enjoy. We shall
go forth in the name of Israel's God and attend to the ordinances for them ... and we will bring
them up, and form the chain entire, back to Adam."
(Discourses of Brigham
Young, pp. 618-619)
"The ordinances of sealing must be performed
here man to man, and woman to man, and children to parents etc., until the
chain of generations is made perfect in the sealing ordinances back to Father
Adam; hence we have been commanded to gather ourselves together, to come out
from Babylon and sanctify ourselves and build up the Zion of our God, by
building cities and temples, redeeming countries from the solitude of nature,
until the earth is sanctified
and prepared for the residence of God and angels."
(Journal of Discourses 12:165, February 16, 1868)