First Temple

“ By killing all that will not worship him and his Image, the first Temple, illuminated by the lamps of the seven Churches, is demolished, and a new Temple built for them who will not worship him; and the outward court of this new Temple, or outward form of a Church, is given to the Gentiles, who worship the Beast and his Image: while they who will not worship him, are sealed with the name of God in their foreheads, and retire into the inward court of this new Temple. ”

“ A Temple is needed for the Saints who come from abroad, that their marriages may be recorded on the earth and in the heavens, that they may not only be for time, but for all eternity; that when they come forth, male and female, in the morning of the first resurrection, they may embrace each other as husband and wife by virtue of the covenant they entered into in the Temple of the Lord, while they were in the flesh. ”

“ If they are entering the city for the first time and crave exceeding virtue, they approach the great temple on the hill by lying face down at every step and beating their foreheads upon the ground. Wooden shrines of dazzling whiteness stand in quiet streets or cluster by themselves behind the temples. ”

“ The Temple itself is a beautiful structure. They expect to have the walls up to the square in another season. I think they have built up the wall this year some 28 feet. It is built of beautiful white rock—or at least very light, clear rock and is hewn on the outside where the joints come together, and presents a very beautiful and creditable appearance. ”

“ It is true, imposing edifices have been erected for the purposes of worship; but a colossal structure does not necessarily constitute a temple. A temple is more than a church-building, a meeting-house, a tabernacle, or a synagogue; it is a place specially prepared by dedication unto the Lord, and marked by His acceptance, for the performing of the ordinances pertaining to the Holy Priesthood. The Latter-day Saints, true to the characteristics of the chosen of God, [449] have been from the first a temple-building people. ”

“ The steps in front must be arranged so that there shall always be an odd number of them; for thus the right foot, with which one mounts the first step, will also be the first to reach the level of the temple itself. ”

“ How far can the Presidency of this Church bear off this kingdom? Why, they can only do that which devolves upon them; they can only do their share the same as any other persons.
If you will reflect for a moment, brethren and sisters, you will see it is one of the easiest things in the world for us to build that Temple. Here are the men who understand quarrying and cutting the rock, and laying them up ”

“ Robed in his Syrian garb, and looking for all the world like the "real article," he passed through the cosmopolitan crowd always making his way upwards to where the marble and gold of the wonderful Temple reared itself.
Arrived outside the great main gates, he stood awed at the wonder and magnificence of all that he saw. The whole structure was complete. Not a pole or plank of scaffolding was left standing, no litter or rubbish heaps were to be seen; every approach, every yard of the enclosure was beautifully swept. ”

“ Visions of love-awaking females flit before his drooping eye-lids, showing him such sights as might have once been seen in some cytherean temple.
All the girls whom he evokes are young and of entrancing beauty, but, unlike himself,—for love delights in contraries—most of them are slender, frail, as fair as moon-breams, as pliable as willow-boughs, as lithe as Elfland fairies, with complexions like the snows of Mount Rosa when flushed by the first faint rays of the dawning sun. ”

“ The Saints of these valleys have grown in riches, and abundance of the comforts of life, in a manner hitherto unparalleled on the page of history, and if they will do by their Heavenly Father as He has done by them, soon will this Temple be inclosed. But if you go in for a speculation with passers by, as many have hitherto done, you will not live to see the Topstone of this Temple laid; and your labors and toils for yourselves and, friends, dead and alive, will be worse than though you had had no existence. ”

“ The spirit of Temple-building seems to have taken possession of the people. One Temple has already been built, and it is designed to build three more. We are prompted by holy influences to embark in this labor. ”

“ The groves were God's first temples. ”

“ Within this again another, probably a lower, wall separated the court of the priests from that of the Israelites. To each court the ascent was by steps, so that the platform of the inner court was on a higher level than that of the outer.
The Temple itself was rather a monument of the wealth than the architectural skill and science of the people. It was a wonder of the world from the splendor of its materials, more than the grace, boldness, or majesty of its height and dimensions. ”

“ They also abstain from eating certain kinds of food, more at some seasons of the year than others. Among these temples there is one which far surpasses all the rest, whose grandeur of architectural details no human tongue is able to describe; for within its precincts, surrounded by a lofty wall, there is room for a town of five hundred families. Around the interior of this enclosure there are handsome edifices, containing large halls and corridors, in which the religious persons attached to the temple reside. ”

“ The public ground here has to be inclosed before we can put forth a hand to build a Temple to the name of our God; and you are ready to feed everybody else under the heavens but the workmen. Have you turned from the Lord your God, and forgot His purposes? ”

“ I wish that temple to be like the palace of King Assar, the model of which Sargon brought to my father.”
“Those are great plans,” said the high priest, shaking his head, “but it is impossible to execute them. The Babylonian towers are not lasting because of their form, they overturn easily, while our edifices must endure for ages. A temple to the One God we may not raise, for he needs no food, drink, or raiment. The whole world is his dwelling-place. Where, then, is the temple which could hold him? Where is the priest who would dare to make offerings before him?” ”

“ Here, then, is a Temple to be built, the foundation of which is laid, and considerable rock has been hauled for the walls, and large amounts of hewing done. This work must be consummated, and in doing that, we are learning to listen to the word of the Lord to us and becoming used to the harness. It is a nice thing to get our endowments, and there is something yet to be got which we have not yet received. ”

“ How long will it take this people to build the Temple on this Block, supposing that every man and woman, and every child that has arrived at the years of accountability, will unitedly strive for its completion? ”

“ This edifice, into which man may enter and come into the presence of the deity, stimulates the incomparably deeper impulse to build a structure worthy of the deity for whom it is erected. Thus, then, we have the temple, designed at the outset for the protection of the sacrificial altar, which had originally been erected in the open, upon consecrated ground. Since it is located at the seat of government, at the place where the citizens assemble for the conduct of political affairs and for purposes of trade, the temple is indicative also of the city and of the State. ”

“ See to it, my brother, that you lend a hand and help to rear the true temple, which is rising slowly through the ages, at which successive generations toil, and from whose unfinished glories they dying depart, but which shall be completed, because the true Builder 'ever liveth,' and is 'a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.' Above all, brethren! take heed that you are yourselves builded in that temple. Travellers sometimes find in lonely quarries long abandoned or once worked by a vanished race, great blocks squared and dressed, that seem to have been meant for palace or shrine. ”

“ I consider that the building of Temples is one of the important things required by the Lord of the Latter-day Saints in the dispensation of the fullness of times, that we may go into those Temples and not only redeem the living but redeem our dead. ”

“ If we desire to obtain the blessings of the Almighty in a Temple prepared for that purpose; if we esteem these blessings to be of any importance, and if we do not feel to do without them, what should be our policy and course in such a matter? Why, I should say, let us build the Temple, in which we may receive our blessings from the Almighty. We have no interest with other people; we have a separate community, and our interests are our own ”

“ The temple is built of sun-baked brick, probably in accordance with hieratic tradition, which held to the ancient building material used in an age when the architects were unacquainted with the finer and more durable burnt brick. Small courts with side chambers lead into an inner holy of holies, where in a niche stood the symbol or effigy of the goddess. Behind the sanctuary there is a narrow blind passage where the priests could lurk behind the cult image and confound the common folk with mysterious sounds and hidden voices. ”

“ There are some eighty men cutting these stones, and there is a party of men now engaged in laying them. I invite all the brethren from a distance to go on to the ground when the men are at work, and see how beautifully they handle these large stones, and how accurately they place them in their position, for I hope that every Latter-day Saint feels enough interest in the building of the Temple to lift his heart in prayer to the Most High that he will enable us to build the Temples which we have commenced, that we may continue the work of salvation for ourselves and our dead. ”

“ I will build a temple, a great illimitable temple, a second Pantheon, a church which shall unite all churches within itself, in which it shall be granted to every man to have his own altar, and adopt his own religious exercises. ”

“ I used to wonder how the needed temple work could ever be done for the millions of earth's inhabitants, but now I can see how simple it is. Tens of thousands of Saints, in thousands of temples, in a thousand years of millenium can accomplish it. Every son and daughter of Adam must have a chance; every tangled thread must be straightened out; every broken link must be welded; every wrong must be righted; every created thing that fills the measure of its creation must be perfected;—all this must be before the 'winding-up scene' comes. ”

“ Three hundred men consecrated to the service of religion, and who can give proofs of ancient and illustrious descent, serve this temple, and present to the idol the offerings which are brought from all the provinces of the empire. They inhabit a vast and magnificent edifice, belonging to the temple, and surrounded with gardens where art has combined with nature to produce enchantment. ”

“ At the rear is an unexplored forest, in which there may be ruins. There are no remains of palaces or private buildings, and the principal part is that which stands on the bank of the river, and may, perhaps, with propriety be called the Temple.
The temple is an oblong enclosure. The front or river wall extends on a right line north and south six hundred and twenty-four feet, and it is from sixty to ninety feet in height. It is made of cut stones, from three to six feet in length, and a foot and a half in breadth. ”

“ No town was without its church, few of them, without beauty, many monuments of the genius of their builders. Because the Saviour was born in a stable, it was not held an article of faith that he should be worshipped in barn. The church believed that the temple should show that it was built not for the service of man, but of God. ”

“ Kēhoivas Edda, being the most powerful Sovereign of Ento, and his purpose a most pious one, his proposal received universal acceptance, and very soon from all parts of Ento came a multitude of artisans and laborers to assist in the building of the Temple. Each nation contributing according to its means, quickly vast treasure and material for the undertaking accumulated and within two Ento years the great temple reared its majestic beauty above the loftiest structures of the wide spreading city. ”

“ No sooner are you inside the great red gateway of the temples than you are in the world of fairy-tales. For temple 39after temple opens up before you, low fantastic structures, on which Oriental imagination has run riot in colour and form. You are bewildered by the innumerable courtyards of stone lanterns, the paraphernalia of drum-tower and bell-tower, fountain and dancing-stage, which surround them. You are sobered by the dark groves between the temples, which contain the tombs. ”

“ No one who has seen that building in its late dress of plaster and whitewash will recognize it when restored to its antient magnificence. This venerable structure was one of the chief ecclesiastical edifices of the Knights Templars in Europe, and stood next in rank to the Temple at Jerusalem. As I have performed the pilgrimage to the Holy City, and wandered amid the courts of the antient Temple of the Knights Templars on Mount Moriah, I could not but regard with more than ordinary interest the restoration by the societies of the Inner and the Middle Temple of their beautiful Temple Church. ”

“ My continual prayer and desire are, that we may live to see a Temple built to the name of the Most High God. I feel myself honored of God and my brethren, in having the opportunity of standing here to-day, in speaking, and realizing what I have, since I came on the Temple ground. ”