this labor in behalf of the departed.

As to the fidelity with which the Latter-day Saints have sought
to discharge the duties thus divinely required at their hands,
let the temples erected in poverty as in relative prosperity--by
the blood and tears of the people--testify. Two of these great
edifices were constructed by the Latter-day Saints in the days of
their tribulation, in times of their direst persecution,--one at
Kirtland, Ohio, the other at Nauvoo, Illinois. The first is
still standing, though no longer possessed by the people who
built it; and no longer employed for the furtherance of the
purposes of its erection; the second fell a prey to flames
enkindled by mobocratic hate. Four others have been constructed
in the vales of Utah, and are today in service, dedicated to the
blessing of the living, and particularly to the vicarious labor
of the living in behalf of the dead. In them the ordinances of
baptism, and the laying on of hands for the bestowal of the Holy
Ghost, are performed upon the living representatives of the
dead.[6]

[Footnote 6: For a detailed treatment of Temples and Temple labor
among the Latter-day Saints, including a study of the doctrine of
vicarious labor for the dead, see "The House of the Lord, a Study
of Holy Sanctuaries Ancient and Modern," including forty-six
plates illustrative of modern Temples; by James E. Talmage.
Published by the Church: Salt Lake City, Utah; 336 pp.]

But this labor for the dead is two-fold; it comprises the proper
performance of the required ordinances on earth, and the
preaching of the gospel to the departed. Shall we suppose that