Joseph F. Smith
"The work for our dead, which the
Prophet Joseph Smith laid upon us with more than ordinary injunction,
instructing us that we should look after those of our kinsfolk and our
ancestors who have died without a knowledge of the gospel, should not be
neglected. We should avail ourselves of those sacred and potent ordinances of
the gospel which have been revealed as essential to the happiness, salvation
and redemption of those who have lived in this world when they could not learn
the gospel and have died without the knowledge of it, and are now waiting for
us, their children, who are living in an age when these ordinances can be
performed, to do the work necessary for their release from the prison house.
Through our efforts in their behalf their chains of bondage will fall from
them, and the darkness surrounding them will clear away, that light may shine
upon them and they shall hear in the spirit world of the work that has been
done for them by their children here, and will rejoice with you in your
performance of these duties."
(Gospel
Doctrine, pp. 596-601)
The Purpose of Temple
Ordinances
"This great work for the redemption of
our dead, the uniting together of the living and the dead, the sealing power
that takes the living children and unites them in the bond of the new and
everlasting covenant with their fathers and mothers who have gone before them;
the great principle that binds on earth and it is bound in heaven, that takes
the woman, chosen by the man, and seals her to the husband of her choice with
an everlasting, unbreakable covenant, or a covenant that can only be broken by
sin or by the transgression of the laws of God; a covenant that can never be
broken by death, by time, or distance, because God has confirmed it, it is
sealed by His power for time and for all eternity; the work of
baptism and other saving ordinances for the dead; the endowments, and all the
ordinances that have been revealed to be performed in the sacred edifices
called temples, which we are under commandment from God always to build unto
His holy name, (D&C 124:3 9) these things have been revealed to us
in this dispensation in greater fullness and in greater plainness than ever
before in the history of the world so far as we know."
(Conference Report, p. 9-10,
October, 1913)