Nauvoo Temple

“ If the Saints cannot so live as to inherit a Temple when it is built, I would rather never see a Temple built. God commanded us to build the Nauvoo Temple, and we built it, and performed our duty pretty well. ”

“ Apostates never build Temples unto God, but the Saints are called to do this work."
The Nauvoo Temple was publicly dedicated May 1, 1846, by Elder Orson Hyde, and the following day about 3,000 Saints met in the building in a public service. It is most likely that the greater number of these Saints were also at the dedication. It is not reasonable to suppose that this building was dedicated until it was finished, for each part had been dedicated as it was finished, and the dedication on the 1st of May, 1846, was of the entire structure. ”

“ No sane man will dare say that the Saints were not hindered by their enemies in the building of the Nauvoo Temple, both before and after the martyrdom. Nevertheless, I maintain that they were diligent in their labors as the following references will show, furthermore that the Temple was completed. In the Times and Seasons, volume 3, page 775, is to be found an editorial written by the Prophet Joseph in which he says:
"This noble edifice is progressing with great rapidity ”

“ The location of the Temple sites at Independence, Kirtland, Far West and Nauvoo were determined and consecrated by or under direction of the Prophet Joseph Smith, who also directed the designs and construction of the Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples. ”

“ The Nauvoo of to-day is a town of only 1321 inhabitants. The people are largely of German origin, and the leading occupation is fruit growing. The site of the Temple is occupied by two modern buildings. A part of Nauvoo House is still standing, as are Brigham Young's former residence, Joseph Smith's "new mansion," and other houses which Mormons occupied. ”

“ He aided very materially in the building of the Nauvoo Temple, from the commencement until its completion; and after it was dedicated he received therein his endowments, sealings and second anointing. ”

“ Strangers from far and near made it a point to visit Nauvoo, and the peace, sobriety, industry and public spirit of the citizens challenged their admiration, whatever views they might entertain respecting their religion. A large bowery was constructed just west of the temple site where the people assembled for worship. Here the Prophet Joseph preached some of his most powerful discourses, and taught his people in the doctrine of the heavenly kingdom; and not infrequently it happened that
Fools who came to mock, remained to pray. ”

“ These labors, together with instructing the Saints, attending debating schools, laboring in the city council, and organizing and instructing women's Relief Societies, occupied the attention of the Prophet until the opening of spring.
Meantime Nauvoo had been rapidly building up. Work on the temple and Nauvoo House was being pushed with considerable vigor; and many neat cottages had taken the place of the rude temporary cabins that had been constructed to shelter the people until their industry could win better homes. The population in the spring of 1842 was between eight and ten thousand. ”

“ It is but seven years since we left Nauvoo, and we are now ready to build another temple. I look back upon our labors with pleasure. Here are hundreds and thousands of people that have not had the privileges that some of us have had. ”

“ Smith’s description of the Panorama, the following account of Nauvoo and the Temple:
“Nauvoo.—A Mormon city and settlement, now deserted. It is one of the finest locations for a town upon the river, it being situated at the second and last rapids below the Falls of St. Anthony, which extend from this place to Keokuk, a distance of 12 miles. The great Mormon Temple stands out conspicuous. It is the finest building in the west, and if paid for would have cost over half a million of dollars. ”

“ From Missouri the saints proceeded to Illinois, and on the sixth of April, 1841, with imposing ceremonies, laid at their new city of Nauvoo the corner-stone of the Temple, [1] an immense edifice, without any architectural order or attraction, which in a few months was celebrated every where as not inferior in size and magnificence to that built by Solomon in Jerusalem. ”

“ It is reserved for us to do a work for those who have passed away, who have not obeyed or had the Gospel in their lifetime. We are here to do a work connected with the redemption of the dead. When the Temple was commanded to be built in Nauvoo, after the Temple had been built in Kirtland, and after so many keys had been turned, and after so many manifestations, visions and ministrations had been had, yet it was said then that there was not a place upon the earth in which to perform the ordinance of baptism for the dead, and Joseph was commanded to build a house for that purpose. ”

“ After the people were addressed by Apostle Woodruff, President Young declared that when the Latter-day Saints should finally reach their resting place, he would labor hard to build another temple. The erection of a temple whose blessings they so meagerly enjoyed in Nauvoo was constantly in the mind of the leaders who were inspired by a desire to enjoy the ordinances for the living and dead which belonged, peculiarly, to the temples of God. ”

“ In Nauvoo, the Mormons seem to have increased and prospered greatly: the town extended fast; the temple gradually rose; and the prophet was the absolute head of a comparatively powerful community, which hardly recognised the ordinary laws of the state. In 1843 he became a candidate for the presidency, and put forth a statement of his views. In 1844, however, occurred the final catastrophe of his life. A Nauvoo paper, having printed certain scandal of him, was, by order of the council of the town, suppressed, and its office razed ”

“ If a record had been kept of all the facts connected with the building of the Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples, it would tell a curious story of poverty, self-denial, dependence upon God and wants providentially supplied.
No doubt such a record has been kept, but not here on earth. We have not access to it. But many, very many of those who had the privilege of aiding in the work of building those temples have gone to meet that record. Some doubtless will meet it with satisfaction, with joy untold; others with remorse and self-reproach. ”

“ It was on May 4th, I believe, that we reached Nauvoo, having passed through Mount Sterling, the county seat of Brown County, also through Carthage, where the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother the Patriarch Hyrum Smith had been assassinated. We found the roads so muddy and such hard traveling that we did not make more than fifteen miles a day. When we came in sight of the Temple at Nauvoo our hearts were filled with mingled joy and sorrow—joy that we had seen the Temple of the Lord, and sorrow that the Saints had been so cruelly driven from it. ”

“ When Father Charles Lambert left Nauvoo he entered upon an order of life that was entirely new to him—that of a frontiersman. In remaining in Nauvoo until the work on the Temple ceased he not only followed the counsel of the authorities of the Church, but fulfilled also the vow that he has personally made to do so regardless of compensation. There was, however, an additional reason for his so doing. While continuously employed upon the Temple he had no opportunity of earning by work elsewhere the necessary equipment for migrating. ”

“ They have reserved a summit level in the heart of the city, for the site of a Temple far superior to that of Nauvoo, which, in the days of their future wealth and power, is to be the landmark of the Basin and goal of future pilgrims.
They mean to seek no other resting-place. ”

“ Besides the temple, there are in Nauvoo two steam saw-mills, a steam flour-mill, a tool-factory on a large scale, a foundry, and a company of considerable wealth, from Staffordshire, have also established there a manufacture of English china.
The population of the holy city itself is rather a mixed kind. The general gathering of the saints has, of course, brought together men of all classes and characters. The great majority of them are uneducated and unpolished people, who are undoubtedly sincere believers in the prophet and his doctrines. ”

“ I fully believe that when that temple is once finished there will be a power and manifestations of the goodness of God unto this people such as they have never before experienced. Every work of this kind that we have accomplished has been attended with increased and wonderful results unto us as a people—an increase of power and of God's blessings upon us. It was so in Kirtland and at Nauvoo; at both places the Elders had an increase of power, and the Saints, since the completion of, and the administration of ordinances in, those buildings have had a power they never possessed previously. ”

“ We have come from Nauvoo, in the State of Illinois, where we had founded our temple. We have come to seek a refuge from the violent man and from the godless, even though it be the heart of the desert. ”

“ At a Council of the leading men of this community in Nauvoo, it was concluded that on finishing the Temple there; a company of one thousand or fifteen hundred pioneers should establish themselves in the mountains, to prepare the way for a safe retreat from the tyranny and oppression which had so long followed this people. This conclusion was unknown to the public, hence the surprise of the mob at our willingness to depart. ”

“ If we do not gain experience and obtain the necessary endowments as we pass along, we shall find ourselves very poorly prepared for the great and glorious endowments that are to be received in that Temple. If we do not prepare ourselves, those endowments, if we are permitted to receive them at all, will be no better for us than the endowments given to some men in Nauvoo—that is, they will prove a curse instead of a blessing. ”

“ People flocked to the place, and as the Mormon missionaries were eager workers the number of converts grew rapidly. A temple was built, which a stranger who saw it in 1843 said was the wonder of the world. Many Mormon emigrants came from England, usually by ship to New Orleans, and thence by river steamboat up the Mississippi to Nauvoo. By the end of 1844 at least fifteen thousand people had settled there, and as many more were scattered through the country in the immediate neighborhood. Nauvoo was the largest city in Illinois, and its only rival in that part of the West was St. ”

“ Those who have joined the Church, as a mass, have been benefitted temporally, though at the time of rendering obedience, they probably could not see how advantages of this nature could result. They could see that their names would be cast out as evil, that they would be hated of all men, persecuted and probably driven from place to place, but how they would be blessed temporally they could not see. But God, our Heavenly Father, has held in reserve until these days great and glorious blessings for his people, who are faithful to the truth. ”

“ But while we have not been in this condition through the years that we have been engaged in the erection of the Logan Temple, we have not been free from attacks and from threats and from combinations for our destruction. Had we been prompted by the ordinary faith of man, the hands of the people would have been weakened in this great work, and they would have hesitated in its performance. ”

“ He has reserved for his Saints the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heavens. Not something beyond the bounds of time and space, not something that we will inherit in eternity alone; but he has also temporal advantages to bestow upon his people here. A great many people imagine that we hold these out as inducements to get people to join the Church; but they who join the Church for the love of these things, and with a desire to obtain them, are invariably disappointed. ”

“ These streets are intersected at right angles by others, which, running northward to the river, are bounded on the south by a rising ground, on the summit of which the temple is in the course of erection. It was to this last-mentioned spot that with my companions I directed my steps. Having ascended the hill, I found myself close to a large unfinished stone building, the walls of which had advanced eight or ten feet above the ground. This was the Temple. The view of the winding Mississippi from this elevation was truly grand, and the whole of the lower part of the town was distinctly seen. ”

“ No man ever calmly sat down with a prayerful heart to ex-amine the claims of this work, popularly termed Mormonism, who did not rise from the investigation convinced that there was a power, an influence and a spirit accompanying this work, that he had never met with before. ”

“ Undismayed and undiscouraged by all the surrounding circumstances, the people have pressed forward the work, and have now the joy and satisfaction of witnessing its completion. It seems as though in the performance of such labor there is a degree of faith required, an unusual degree; for if our views be correct, it is an important work, an important part of the work of the great God, the building of temples by His direct command. ”

“ In substance he replied that the object of his visit was to offer himself to the Saints as a "guardian;" that it had been shown to him in vision at Pittsburg, that The Church must be built up to Joseph the martyr; that all the blessings the Saints could receive would be through their late Prophet; that no man could be a successor to Joseph; that The Church was not disorganized, though the head was gone; that he had been commanded to come to Nauvoo and see that The Church was governed properly, and propose himself to be a "guardian" to the people. ”