Mormon now turns to the problems that might be created if one were to suggest that children needed baptism. The argument is encapsulated in the exclamatory sentence “How many little children have died without baptism!” Although infant deaths sadly still occur, the modern world has made great strides in preserving children and mothers through childbirth. That was not the case in more ancient history. There were few families where a child had not been lost early, perhaps even during childbirth.
The argument Mormon presents is the contrast between the declared need for any baptism at all, and the death of very young children. While he would agree that baptism is essential, if it applied to infants, there would be a painfully large number who had not been able to be baptized, and would be condemned to an everlasting hell without any chance to live their life—and to repent in order to bring forth fruit meet for baptism.
It is this result, the implicit condemnation of innocent children, that Mormon believes is the mockery of God’s plan: “For awful is the wickedness to suppose that God saveth one child because of baptism, and the other must perish because he hath no baptism.” In a more modern world, it might be assumed that all children might have had access to a priest for baptism, but in the ancient world it was hardly assured.