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As set forth in the preceding pages, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims the need of Temples at the present time, reared and dedicated to the service of the Most High; and affirms that upon the Church has been placed the commission to build and maintain these sanctuaries, and to administer therein the saving and exalting ordinances of the Gospel for both living and dead.

This labor has already attained a magnitude at once impressive and surprising. Ordinances of baptism with accompanying confirmation, ordination in the Priesthood, and sealing both in the relation of husband and wife and in that of parents and children, as solemnized in the Temples of the current dispensation, already number many millions; and the continuation of the work is marked by unabated zeal and devotion.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is given for the salvation of human-kind; its requirements apply alike to the living whose blessed privilege it is to hear its glad tidings while in the flesh, and to the dead who may accept the truth in the spirit world. The genius of the Gospel is that of altruism unbounded; its power to save extends beyond the portals of death. As the vicarious work for the dead can be done only in sanctuaries specially devoted thereto, there will be an ever-present need for Temples so long as there are souls awaiting this ministry.

The present is the age of greatest import in all history,