Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1901-04-20
SPIRITS IN PRISON.

IN English paper has been sent TO
the Deseret News, containing a report
OF discourse by the Venerable Arch
deacon Taylor, on the subject Of THE
spirits in prison" II is an attempt to
explain the statement OF the Apostle
Peter in First Eplstle, chapter III;
1920.
For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that
He might bring US to God being put 10
death In the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit
by which also He went and preach.
ed unto the spirits in prison,
Which some time were disobedient,
when once the longsuffering Of God
waited In the days Of Noah. while the
ark was preparing, wherein few, that
Is eight souls We're saved by water"
The learned divine presented three
questions arising from the text, namely,
who are the spirits spoken OFF When,
where and how was the preaching? And
for what purpose did Christ preach to
them He went on to describe the con-
tradlctions among the various religious
sects as to these questions, and after
showing, as he supposed, that there is
no obvious scrlptura answer. ne adj
yanced the same theory that the Elders
Of the Mormon" Church have met and
overturned time and again, and many
years ago It is this
That the preaching was not during
the interval between Chrlsts death and
resurrection, but In the days Of Noah
While the ark was preparing; that It
was not by Christ In person, but by His
spirit In Noah and that the people then
preached to were spirits when Peter
wrote. He admitted, however, that the
text is by no means obvious in it's
meaning but that any idea that 1T
gives some hope Of a further chance
after lie" Is to be utterly rejected as
having no warrant Of holy scripture"
The theory that there can be no op-
portunlty for salvation to mankind af-
ter they leave the mortal body, Is the
stumbling block in the way 10 the un-
derstanding Of Peters declaration con-
corning Chrlst's preaching, Remove
that from the path Of the inquirer. and
the scripture Is as plain and Obvious"
as anything revealed by the sun at
monday. Peter states that Christ died,
the just for the UNJUST that being put
to death in the flesh He was quickened
by the spirit; that by this He went and
preached to the spirits In prison.
Who died? Why Christ. Who was
quickened by the spirit? Christ. Who
went somewhere? Christ. Who preach
ed to the spirits in prison? Christ.
What spirits were they 10 whom
he went and preached? Those who were
disobedlent In the days Of Noah while
the ark was preparing. If 1t was
Christ who died In person. and who
was quickened by the spirit in person,
II was Christ in person who, being
IN spirit Himself, went and preached
to spirits who had been dlsobedient
and were in prison. Then Peter speaks
In the following verses Of His resur-
rection and His ascension to heaven.
The sequence is regular and natural.
Christ made His atonement. died as to
the flesh, lived as TO the spirit. went
and preached TO the spirits in prison,
was raised from the dead and then
went into heaven
Observe, II was not Noah who did
any of these things II was Christ
Himself. And what lie preached and
why He preached. to those spirits who
so long before their incarceration had
been disobedlent to Noahs preaching
and warnings, is not so obscure as the
Venerable Archdeacon intimated In his
learned discourse, For the same Apos-
tie, In the same epistle tells it In the
clearest manner. In the very next
chapter we read:
who shall give account to him that
Ia ready to judge the quick and the
dead
For, for this cause was the gospel
preached also TO them that are dead
that they might be judged according
TO men In the flesh. but live according
TO God in the SPIRIT Peter iv; 3, 6.
Here are two classes of persons
spoken Of, all Of whom are TO give an
account to Christ; they are the quick,
that is, alive in the flesh, and the dead,
that ia, those who are not in
the flesh. The latter had to be
preached to as well as the former, that
they might be justly called to account.
The dead, who we're not men in the
fesh,' had the same gospel preached
TO them that was preached TO "the
quick" so that they might be judged
in the same way. and by the same
Gospel as those who heard II In the
flesh, and also that by receiving 1t they
might live according TO God in the
spirit just as the quick who received
II might live according TO God in the
flesh, The disobedieut in the days Of
Noah thus heard the Gospel from
Christ Himself in the spirit, and both
what He preached and why He
preached II are definitely explained.
The scriptures are all right, 1t is the
creeds OF Christendom that need to be
revised.
The learned Archdeacon, when con-
templating this subject. ought to have
remembered the third OF the thrty-nine
articles Of his own creed which says;
"As Christ died for US, and was
buried; so also Is II 20 be believed, that
He went down into He'll [Hadesl
The questions might be turned on the
Church Of England divine. what did
Christ 60 there for? Did lie 80 In per.