=23.= Malachi predicted the coming of Elijah specially commissioned with power to inaugurate the work of co-operation between the fathers and the children, and announced this mission as a necessary preliminary to the advent of "the great and dreadful day of the Lord."[22] The angel Moroni confirmed the truth and significance of this prediction in an emphatic reiteration.[23] Joseph Smith and his associate in the ministry, Oliver Cowdery, solemnly testify that they were visited by Elijah the prophet, in the temple at Kirtland, Ohio, on the third day of April, 1836; on which occasion the heavenly messenger declared that the day spoken of by Malachi had fully come; "Therefore," continued he, "the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands, and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors."[24] The particular nature of the union of the fathers and the children, upon which both Malachi and Moroni laid great stress, has been explained as consisting in the work of vicarious ordinances, including baptism for the dead who have passed from earth without a knowledge of the gospel. In teaching this doctrine, and in complying with its behests, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands to-day alone amongst all the sects professing Christianity.
=24.= The ancient scriptures are teeming with prophecies concerning the restoration of Israel in the last days, and the gathering of the chosen people from among the nations and from the lands into which they have been led or driven as a penalty for their waywardness and sin.[25] Such prominence and importance are attached to this work of gathering, in the predictions of olden times, that from the days of Israel's exodus, the last days have been characterized in sacred writ as a gathering dispensation. The return of the tribes after their long and wide dispersion is made a preliminary work to the establishment of the predicted reign of righteousness with Christ on the throne of the world; and its accomplishment is given as a sure precursor of the millennium. Jerusalem is to be re-established as the City of the Great King on the eastern Hemisphere; and Zion, or the New Jerusalem, is to be built on the western continent; the Ten Tribes are to be brought back from their hiding place in the north; and the curse is to be removed from Israel.[26] From the early days of Joseph Smith's ministry, he taught the doctrine of the gathering as imposing a present duty upon the Church; and this phase of the Latter-day Saint labor is one of its most characteristic features. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery declare that the authority for prosecuting this work was committed to the Church through them by Moses, who held the keys of authority as Israel's leader in former times. Their testimony is thus stated, in the description given of manifestations in the Kirtland Temple, April 3, 1836:--"Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north."[27] As to the earnestness with which this labor has been begun, and the fair progress already made therein, consider the hundreds of thousands belonging to the families of Israel already gathered in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, about the house of the Lord, now established; and hear the hymn of the chosen seed among the nations, chanted to the accompaniment of effective deeds, "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."[28]