Third Temple

“ The Temple itself, that fair incarnation of the soul of an unconquerable Faith, and the first fruit of the Plan now set in motion, stands in its silent beauty, ready to reinforce the strenuous endeavors of its prosecutors. Towering in grandeur and resplendent in its majesty it calls aloud incessantly for a greater, a far greater number of pioneers who, both at home and in foreign fields, will scatter to sow the Divine seeds and gather the harvest into its gates. ”

“ 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?” ”

“ 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. ”

“ The East Temple, which rises directly opposite and two miles back from the rim, is a fitting companion. It is a thousand feet higher. Its central structure is a steep truncated cone capped like the West Temple. Its wings are separated half-way down, one an elongated pyramid and the other a true cone, both of magnificent size and bulk but truly proportioned to the central mass. Phrase does not convey the suggestion of architectural calculation in both of these stupendous monuments. One can easily believe that the Mormon prophet in naming them saw them the designed creations of a personal deity. ”

“ They must have a Temple there, wherein these ordinances may be administered; another here, another in the northern part of the Territory, and multiply them according to the wants of the people; for the work is becoming continually greater and greater, and the Latter-day Saints must wake up to these principles, and not have their minds absorbed with the things of this world, forgetting the great plan of salvation revealed from heaven. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ Outside the veil, in the Holy Place, stood the altar of incense, the seven-branched candlestick, and the table of shewbread.
That the Temple of Herod was by far the grandest structure ever erected as a Temple in any age is generally admitted; yet its beauty and grandeur lay in architectural excellence rather than in the sanctity of its worship or in the manifestation of the Divine Presence within its walls. ”

“ From what has been said it is plain that a Temple is more than chapel or church, more than synagogue or cathedral; it is a structure erected as the House of the Lord, sacred to the closest communion between the Lord Himself and the Holy Priesthood, and devoted to the highest and most sacred ordinances characteristic of the age or dispensation to which the particular Temple belongs. Moreover, to be indeed a holy Temple—accepted of God, and by Him acknowledged as His House—the offering must have been called for, and both gift and giver must be worthy. ”

“ The same great truth is taught us in such texts as speak of all Christians forming one spiritual building, of which the Jewish Temple was the type. They are temples one by one, simply as being portions of that one Temple which is the Church. "Ye are built up," says St. Peter, "a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Within two years following the dedication, a general exodus of the Saints had taken place, and the Temple soon fell into the hands of the persecutors. The building is yet standing, and serves the purposes of an ordinary meeting-house for an obscure sect that manifests no visible activity in temple building, nor apparent belief in the sacred ordinances for which temples are erected. The people whose sacrifice and suffering reared the structure no longer assert claims of ownership. ”

“ The priest, contrasting the man before him, now aged and solemn faced, with what he was then, thought “of the two ruined temples, the man is the sadder one. A quarter of a century slipping over a life, though with noiseless feet, generally leaves its tracks; if pain and passion have been the companion of the years, havoc is wrought.” Solemnly, and in measured tones, the priest’s meditations having given him free utterance, he spoke, quoting the words long before sadly pronounced by the Savior concerning Jerusalem’s holy place: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” ”

“ The temple wherein is offered the perpetual sacrifice of the victim of expiation is a visible profession of faith. The most grand and characteristic expression of the architecture is displayed in the imitation which man fabricates of that temple of the universe which was built by the hands of God. And as its solidity typifies the duration which every one attributes to true religion, so it outlives the hands which raised it up. ”

“ The penitential tears of centuries had incrusted the whole interior with their glittering stalactites. Divided into five naves, with external rows of chapels, but separated by no screens or partitions, the great temple forming an imposing whole, the effect was the more impressive, the vistas almost infinite in appearance. The wealthy citizens, the twenty-seven guilds, the six military associations, the rhythmical colleges, besides many other secular or religious sodalities, had each their own chapels and altars. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The print exhibits the entrance of the Middle Temple, which is elegant, together with the east side of Temple Bar, as it appears from the end of Chancery lane in Fleet street, the situation of the Temple along the side of the river is very fine, yet nothing can be more void of harmony or decoration than the buildings of which it is composed, owing chiefly to the division and subdivision of property, which renders regularity next to impossible. The thing most worthy of notice in the Temple is the old church which belonged to the knights Templars of Jerusalem. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Yes, in this gorgeous edifice, raised to such a [264] stupendous height, wrapped in a splendor that the eye can scarcely look upon; deep within the edifice in a spot of mysterious darkness and solitude, is shadowed forth the presence of Jehovah; and this Temple belongs not to Jerusalem, but to the whole world. And He, the Deity, whose very name is awful, and should be used with reverence, hath blessed this spot with his peculiar presence; and it is meet that man should look upon it with deep and solemn feeling. ”

“ Two bonzes (Buddhist priests) , enveloped in black gauze, followed by a big dog, served as guides to us. The Temple is surrounded by a magnificent shady park of camphor and other aromatic trees. We inhaled with delight the perfume of myrtle and orange blossoms. We found our way into a courtyard open to the sky, where a fountain played over a marble basin. Beyond is a long, low building, the sides are simple wooden screens. It is the Temple. Men and women kneel and pray before the entrance of the Temple. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The temple, from early times on, is the exclusive possession of a single deity. The idea of harbouring several deities in a single structure could arise only later, as a result of special cult conditions and of the increasing size of the sacred edifices. Even then, however, the need for unity in the cult generally caused each temple to be dedicated to a specific deity, the chief god of the temple. Hand in hand with this went a striving for richness and diversity in architecture. ”

“ I can see women in this congregation to-day that would have sold all they had to help to build the Temple in Kirtland, and for this they are and will be blest, for the Lord loves a willing heart and an obedient spirit. ”

“ The Lord will not dwell in our hearts unless they are pure and holy, neither will he enter into a Temple that we may build to his name, unless it is sanctified and prepared for his presence. If we could overlay the aisles of the Temple with pure gold, for the Lord to walk upon, it would please me, and not suffer them ever to be corrupted by mortal feet. ”

“ 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? ”

“ 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. ”

“ There is no people or community on the face of the earth to-day, except the Latter-day Saints, who think of rearing unto the Lord of Hosts a temple upon the same principle and for the same objects and ends that the temple was reared in Jerusalem. ”