The House of the Lord: A Study of Holy Sanctuaries Ancient and Modern
by James E. Talmage · English · Gutenberg #45149 · 499,793 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The House of the Lord: A Study of Holy Sanctuaries Ancient and Modern
Author: James E. Talmage
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF THE LORD: A STUDY OF HOLY SANCTUARIES ANCIENT AND MODERN ***
THE HOUSE OF THE LORD
A STUDY OF HOLY SANCTUARIES ANCIENT AND MODERN
INCLUDING FORTY-SIX PLATES ILLUSTRATIVE OF MODERN TEMPLES
By
JAMES E. TALMAGE
One of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints
Published by the Church
Salt Lake City, Utah
1912
PREFACE
{iii} Among the numerous sects and churches of the present day, the
Latter-day Saints are distinguished as builders of Temples. In this
respect they resemble Israel of olden time. It is not surprising that
great and widespread interest is manifest respecting this peculiarity
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nor that questions
are continually arising as to the purpose and motive behind this great
labor, and the nature of the ordinances administered in these modern
Houses of the Lord. To answer some of these questions, and to place
within the reach of earnest inquirers authentic information concerning
the doctrine and practise of Temple ministration, this book has been
written.
By way of affording means of easy comparison between the
Temple-building achievements of past and those of current time, a
brief treatment of the sanctuaries of earlier dispensations has been
included. While detailed information pertaining to ancient Temples and
related sanctuaries is accessible to all, through cyclopedias, Bible
dictionaries and works of more special scope, but little concerning
the Temples of today and the sacred service therein rendered has
been published in separate form. The official "History of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" contains abundant data on the
subject; but the information is distributed through many tomes, and is
of access to comparatively few.
Among the special publications in this field, most of which are
primarily devoted to the history and description of the Temple at Salt
Lake City, are the following:
{iv} "Temples: Descriptive and historical sketches of ancient and
modern sacred edifices," a pamphlet of 28 pages, by J. M. Sjodahl, Salt
Lake City, 1892. This covers the history of the Salt Lake City Temple
to the time of the laying of the capstone, April, 1892. The pamphlet
contains outline drawings.
"The Salt Lake Temple," an article by James H. Anderson, published in
"The Contributor," Vol. XIV, No. 6, April, 1893, 60 pages with numerous
illustrations of the Temple at different stages, together with details
of construction, and portraits of Church officials and others connected
with the erection of the great structure.
"Historical and descriptive sketch of the Salt Lake Temple," an
illustrated pamphlet of 36 pages published by the Deseret News, Salt
Lake City, April, 1893.
"A Description of the Great Temple, Salt Lake City, and a statement
concerning the purposes for which it has been built," a pamphlet of
40 pages, by D. M. McAllister, Salt Lake City, 1912. This contains
half-tone engravings of both exterior and interior views.
In the present undertaking the author has been the recipient of many
courtesies and much assistance from the officials of the several
Temples, the Church Historian and his assistants, the general
authorities of the Church, and many others. To all who have assisted in
the pleasing labor his obligations are respectfully acknowledged.
The photographs showing interior views of the Salt Lake City Temple are
the work of the C. R. Savage Company, to whom thanks are tendered for
liberal, courteous, and efficient service.
James E. Talmage
Salt Lake City, Utah, September 21, 1912.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
A PRE-VIEW OF THE SUBJECT.
A general view of sanctuaries of ancient and modern times.
CHAPTER II.
SANCTUARIES IN EARLIER DISPENSATIONS.
The "Testimony."--Provisional Tabernacle.--Third Tabernacle.--Temple
of Solomon.--Temple of Ezekiel's vision.--Temple of
Zerubbabel.--Temple of Herod.
CHAPTER III.
NEED OF TEMPLES IN THE PRESENT DISPENSATION.
Necessity of obedience to the laws and ordinances of the
Gospel.--Authority to labor in behalf of the dead.--Temples
required for vicarious service.
CHAPTER IV.
MODERN TEMPLE ORDINANCES.
Baptism for the dead.--Ordination and endowment.--Salvation and
exaltation.--Degrees of glory.--Sealing in marriage.--Other
sealing ordinances.
CHAPTER V.
MODERN DAY TEMPLES.
Temple-site at Independence, Missouri.--Kirtland Temple.--Temple-site
at Far West, Missouri.--Nauvoo Temple.
CHAPTER VI.
THE GREAT TEMPLE AT SALT LAKE CITY--HISTORICAL.
Beginning of the work.--Early description.--Laying of
the capstone.--Completion of the building and its
dedication.--Dedicatory Prayer.
{vi}
CHAPTER VII.
THE GREAT TEMPLE AT SALT LAKE CITY--EXTERIOR.
Architectural style.--General description.--Emblematical stones.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE GREAT TEMPLE AT SALT LAKE CITY--INTERIOR.
The Annex.--Corridors and rooms of the Temple.
CHAPTER IX.
TEMPLE BLOCK.
The Old Tabernacle.--The Tabernacle.--General Service Plant
CHAPTER X.
OTHER UTAH TEMPLES.
St. George Temple.--Logan Temple.--Manti Temple.
CHAPTER XI.
CONCLUSION.
The Lesser or Aaronic Priesthood operative in ancient Temples.--The
Higher or Melchisedek Priesthood operative in Temples of today.
PLATES.
Illustrations of Modern Temples.
CHAPTER I
A PRE-VIEW OF THE SUBJECT
{1} Both by derivation and common usage the term "temple," in its
literal application, is of restricted and specific meaning. The
essential idea of a temple is and ever has been that of a _place_
specially set apart for service regarded as sacred, and of real or
assumed sanctity; in a more restricted sense, a temple is a _building_
constructed for and exclusively devoted to sacred rites and ceremonies.
The Latin _Templum_ was the equivalent of the Hebrew _Beth Elohim_, and
signified the abode of Deity; hence, as associated with Divine worship,
it meant literally the HOUSE OF THE LORD.[1]
Structures regarded in their entirety as sanctuaries, {2} or enclosing
apartments so designated, have been reared in many different ages, both
by worshippers of idols and by the followers of the true and living
God. Heathen temples of antiquity were regarded as abiding places of
the mythical gods and goddesses whose names they bore, and to whose
service the structures were dedicated. While the purlieus of such
temples were used as places of general assembly and public ceremony,
there were always inner precincts, into which only the consecrated
priests might enter, and wherein, it was claimed, the presence of
the deity was manifest. As evidence of the exclusiveness of ancient
temples, even those of heathen origin, we find that the altar of
pagan worship stood not within the temple proper, but in front of the
entrance. Temples have never been regarded as places of ordinary public
assembly, but as sacred enclosures consecrated to the most solemn
ceremonials of that particular system of worship, idolatrous or Divine,
of which the temple stood as visible symbol and material type.
In olden times the people of Israel were distinguished among nations as
the builders of sanctuaries to the name of the living God. This service
was specifically required of them by Jehovah, whom they professed to
serve. The history of Israel as a nation dates from the exodus. During
the two centuries of their enslavement in Egypt, the children of Jacob
had grown to be a numerous and powerful people; nevertheless they were
in bondage. In due time, however, their sorrows and supplications came
up before the Lord, and He led them forth by the outstretched arm of
power. No sooner had they escaped from the environment of Egyptian
idolatry, than they were required to prepare a sanctuary, wherein
Jehovah {3} would manifest His presence and make known His will as
their accepted Lord and King.
The Tabernacle, which from the time of its construction in the
wilderness and thence onward throughout the period of wandering and for
centuries thereafter, was sacred to Israel as the sanctuary of Jehovah,
had been built according to revealed plan and specifications. It was a
compact and portable structure as the exigencies of migration required.
Though the Tabernacle was but a tent, it was made of the best, the
most prized, and the costliest materials the people possessed. This
condition of excellence was appropriate and fitting, for the finished
structure was a nation's offering unto the Lord. Its construction
was prescribed in minutest detail, both as to design and material;
it was in every respect the best the people could give, and Jehovah
sanctified the proffered gift by His divine acceptance. In passing, let
us be mindful of the fact that whether it be the gift of a man or a
nation, the best, if offered willingly and with pure intent, is always
excellent in the sight of God, however poor by other comparison that
best may be.
To the call for material wherewith to build the Tabernacle, there was
such willing and liberal response that the need was more than met: "For
the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and
too much."[2] Proclamation was made accordingly, and the people were
restrained from bringing more. The artificers and workmen engaged in
the making of the Tabernacle were designated by direct revelation, or
chosen by divinely appointed authority with special reference to their
skill and devotion. The completed Tabernacle, viewed in {4} relation to
its surroundings and considered in connection with the circumstances
of its creation, was an imposing structure. Its frames were of rare
wood, its inner hangings of fine linen and elaborate embroideries with
prescribed designs in blue, purple, and scarlet; its middle and outer
curtains of choice skins; its metal parts of brass, silver, and gold.
Outside the Tabernacle, but within its enclosing court, stood the
altar of sacrifice and the laver or font. The first apartment of the
Tabernacle proper was an outer room, or Holy Place; and beyond this,
screened from observation by the second veil, was the inner sanctuary,
the Most Holy Place, specifically known as the Holy of Holies. In the
appointed order, only the priests were permitted to enter the outer
apartment; while to the inner place, the "holiest of all," none but the
high priest might be admitted, and he but once a year, and then only
after a long course of purification and sanctification.[3]
Among the most sacred appurtenances of the Tabernacle was the Ark
of the Covenant. This was a casket or chest, made of the best wood
obtainable, lined and overlaid with pure gold, and provided with four
rings of gold to receive the rods or poles used in carrying the Ark
during travel. The Ark contained certain objects of sacred import, such
as the golden pot of manna, preserved as a remembrance; and to this
were afterward added Aaron's rod that had budded, and the tablets of
stone inscribed by the hand of God. When the Tabernacle was set up in
the camp of Israel, the Ark was placed within the inner veil, in the
Holy of Holies. Resting upon the Ark was the Mercy Seat, surmounted by
a pair of cherubim made {5} of beaten gold. From this seat did the Lord
manifest His presence, even as promised before either Ark or Tabernacle
had been made: "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune
with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims
which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will
give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel."[4]
No detailed description of the Tabernacle, its appurtenances or
furniture, will be attempted at this place; it is sufficient for our
present purpose to know that the camp of Israel had such a sanctuary;
that it was constructed according to revealed plan; that it was the
embodiment of the best the people could give both as to material and
workmanship; that it was the offering of the people to their God, and
was duly accepted by Him.[5] As shall yet be shown, the Tabernacle
was a prototype of the more stable and magnificent Temple by which in
course of time it was superseded.
After Israel had become established in the land of promise, when,
after four decades of wandering in the wilderness, the covenant people
possessed at last a Canaan of their own, the Tabernacle with its sacred
contents was given a resting place in Shiloh; and thither came the
tribes to learn the will and word of God.[6] Afterward it was removed
to Gibeon[7] and yet later to the City of David, or Zion.[8]
{6} David, the second king of Israel, desired and planned to build a
house unto the Lord, declaring that it was unfit that he, the king,
should dwell in a palace of cedar, while the sanctuary of God was but
a tent.[9] But the Lord spake by the mouth of Nathan the prophet,
declining the proposed offering, and making plain the fact that to be
acceptable unto Him it was not enough that the gift be appropriate,
but that the giver must also be worthy. David, king of Israel, though
in many respects a man after God's own heart, had sinned; and his sin
had not yet found atonement. Thus spake the king: "I had in mine heart
to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and
for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building: But
God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because
thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood."[10] Nevertheless,
David was permitted to gather material for the House of the Lord, which
edifice not he, but Solomon, his son, should build.
Soon after Solomon's accession to the throne he set about the labor,
which, as heritage and honor, had come to him with his crown. He laid
the foundation in the fourth year of his reign, and the building
was completed within seven years and a half. With the great wealth
accumulated by his kingly father and specifically reserved for the
building of the Temple, Solomon was able to put the known world under
tribute, and to enlist the co-operation of nations in his great
undertaking. The temple workmen numbered scores of thousands, and every
department was in charge of master craftsmen. To serve on the {7} great
structure in any capacity was an honor; and labor acquired a dignity
never before recognized. Masonry became a profession, and the graded
orders therein established have endured until this day. The erection
of the Temple of Solomon was an epoch-making event, not alone in the
history of Israel, but in that of the world.
According to commonly accepted chronology, the Temple was finished
about 1005 B. C. In architecture and construction, in design and
costliness, it is known as one of the most remarkable buildings in
history. The dedicatory services lasted seven days--a week of holy
rejoicing in Israel. With fitting ceremony, the Tabernacle of the
Congregation and the sacred Ark of the Covenant were brought into the
Temple; and the Ark was deposited in the inner sanctuary, the Most
Holy Place. The Lord's gracious acceptance was manifest in the cloud
that filled the sacred chambers as the priests withdrew: "So that the
priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the
glory of the Lord had filled the house of God."[11] Thus did the Temple
supersede and include the Tabernacle, of which, indeed, it was the
gorgeous successor.
A comparison of the plan of Solomon's Temple with that of the earlier
Tabernacle shows that in all essentials of arrangement and proportion
the two were so nearly alike as to be practically identical. True,
the Tabernacle had but one enclosure, while the Temple was surrounded
by courts, but the inner structure itself, the Temple proper, closely
followed the earlier design. The dimensions of the Holy of Holies, the
Holy Place, {8} and the Porch, were in the Temple exactly double those
of the corresponding parts in the Tabernacle.
The glorious pre-eminence of this splendid structure was of brief
duration. Thirty-four years after its dedication, and but five years
subsequent to the death of Solomon, its decline began; and this
decline was soon to develop into general spoliation, and finally to
become an actual desecration. Solomon the king, the man of wisdom, the
master-builder, had been led astray by the wiles of idolatrous women,
and his wayward ways had fostered iniquity in Israel. The nation was
no longer a unit; there were factions and sects, parties and creeds,
some worshipping on the hill-tops, others under green trees, each party
claiming excellence for its own particular shrine. The Temple soon lost
its sanctity. The gift became depreciated by the perfidy of the giver,
and Jehovah withdrew His protecting presence from the place no longer
holy.
The Egyptians, from whose bondage the people had been delivered, were
again permitted to oppress Israel. Shishak, king of Egypt, captured
Jerusalem--the city of David and the site of the Temple--"and he
took away the treasures of the house of the Lord."[12] Part of the
aforetime sacred furniture left by the Egyptians was taken by others,
and bestowed upon idols.[13] The work of desecration continued through
centuries. Two hundred and sixteen years after the Egyptian spoliation,
Ahaz, king of Judah, robbed the Temple of some remaining treasures,
and sent part of its remnant of gold and silver as a present to a
pagan king whose favor he sought to {9} gain. Furthermore, he removed
the altar and the font, and left but a house where once had stood a
Temple.[14] Later, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, completed the
despoiling of the Temple, and carried away its few remaining treasures.
He then destroyed the building itself by fire.[15]
Thus, about six hundred years before the earthly advent of our Lord,
Israel was left without a Temple. The people had divided; there were
two kingdoms--Israel and Judah--each at enmity with the other; they had
become idolatrous and altogether wicked; the Lord had rejected them
and their sanctuary. The Kingdom of Israel, comprising approximately
ten of the twelve tribes, had been made subject to Assyria about 721
B. C., and a century later the Kingdom of Judah was subdued by the
Babylonians. For seventy years the people of Judah--thereafter known
as Jews--remained in captivity, even as had been predicted.[16] Then,
under the friendly rule of Cyrus[17] and Darius[18] they were permitted
to return to Jerusalem, and once more to rear a Temple in accordance
with their faith. In remembrance of the director of the work, the
restored Temple is known in history as the Temple of Zerubbabel. The
foundations were laid with solemn ceremony; and on that occasion
living veterans who remembered the earlier Temple, wept with joy.[19]
In spite of legal technicalities[20] and other obstructions, the
work {10} continued, and within twenty years after their return from
captivity the Jews had a Temple ready for dedication. The Temple of
Zerubbabel was finished 515 B. C., specifically on the third day of
the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
The dedicatory services followed immediately.[21] While this Temple
was greatly inferior in richness of finish and furniture as compared
with the splendid Temple of Solomon, it was nevertheless the best the
people could build, and the Lord accepted it as an offering typifying
the love and devotion of His covenant children. In proof of this Divine
acceptance, witness the ministrations of such prophets as Zechariah,
Haggai, and Malachi, within its walls.
About sixteen years before the birth of Christ, Herod I, king of Judea,
commenced the reconstruction of the then decayed and generally ruinous
Temple of Zerubbabel. For five centuries that structure had stood,
and doubtless it had become largely a wreck of time. Many incidents
in the earthly life of the Savior are associated with the Temple of
Herod. It is evident from scripture that while opposed to the degraded
and commercial uses to which the Temple had been betrayed, Christ
recognized and acknowledged the sanctity of the temple precincts. The
Temple of Herod was a sacred structure; by whatsoever name it might
have been known, it was to Him the House of the Lord. And then, when
the sable curtain descended upon the great tragedy of Calvary, when
at last the agonizing cry, "It is finished," ascended from the cross,
the veil of the Temple was rent, and the one-time Holy of Holies was
bared. The absolute {11} destruction of the Temple had been foretold by
our Lord, while yet He lived in the flesh.[22] In the year 70 A.D. the
Temple was utterly destroyed by fire in connection with the capture of
Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus.
The Temple of Herod was the last temple reared on the eastern
hemisphere. From the destruction of that great edifice onward to the
time of the re-establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ in the
nineteenth century, our only record of temple building is such mention
as is found in Nephite chronicles. Book of Mormon scriptures affirm
that temples were erected by the Nephite colonists on what is now known
as the American continent; but we have few details of construction
and fewer facts as to administrative ordinances pertaining to these
western temples. The people constructed a Temple about 570 B. C. and
this we learn was patterned after the Temple of Solomon, though greatly
inferior to that gorgeous structure in grandeur and costliness.[23]
It is of interest to read that when the resurrected Lord manifested
Himself to the Nephites on the western continent, He found them
assembled about the Temple.[24] The Book of Mormon, however, makes no
mention of temples even as late as the time of the destruction of the
Temple at Jerusalem; and moreover the Nephite nation came to an end
within about four centuries after Christ. It is evident, therefore,
that on both hemispheres temples ceased to exist in the early period
of the apostasy and the very conception of a Temple in the distinctive
sense perished amongst mankind.
{12} For many centuries no offer of a sanctuary was made unto the Lord;
indeed, it appears that no need of such was recognized. The apostate
church declared that direct communication from God had ceased; and in
place of Divine administration a self-constituted government claimed
supreme power. It is evident that, as far as the Church was concerned,
the voice of the Lord had been silenced; that the people were no longer
willing to listen to the word of revelation, and that the government of
the Church had been abrogated by human agencies.[25]
When, in the reign of Constantine, a perverted Christianity had become
the religion of state, the need of a place wherein God would reveal
Himself was still utterly unseen or ignored. True, many edifices, most
of them costly and grand, were erected. Of these some were dedicated
to Peter and Paul, to James and John; others to the Magdalene and the
Virgin; but not one was raised by authority and name to the honor of
Jesus, the Christ. Among the multitude of chapels and shrines, of
churches and cathedrals, the Son of Man had not a place to call His
own. It was declared that the pope, sitting in Rome, was the vicegerent
of Christ, and that without revelation he was empowered to declare the
will of God.[26]
Not until the Gospel was restored in the nineteenth century, with its
ancient powers and privileges, was the Holy Priesthood manifest again
among men. And be it remembered that the authority to speak and act in
the name of God is essential to a Temple, and a Temple is void without
the sacred authority of the Holy Priesthood. In the year of our Lord
1820, Joseph Smith, the prophet {13} of the latest dispensation, then
a lad in his fifteenth year, received a Divine manifestation,[27] in
which both the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared and
instructed the youthful suppliant. Through Joseph Smith, the Gospel
of old was restored to earth, and the ancient law was re-established.
In course of time, through the ministry of the prophet, The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, and its establishment
was marked by manifestations of Divine power.[28]
It is a significant fact that this Church, true to the distinction
it affirms--that of being the Church of the living God as its name
proclaims--began in the very early days of its history to provide for
the erection of a temple.[29] The Church was organized as an earthly
body-corporate on the sixth of April, A. D. 1830; and, in July of the
year following, a revelation was received designating the site of a
future temple near Independence, Missouri. The construction of a temple
on this chosen spot is yet delayed, as is also the case with another
temple-site in Far West Missouri,[30] on which the corner-stones were
laid in 1838. The Church holds as a sacred trust the commission to
build the temples so located, but as yet the way has not been opened
for the consummation of the plan. In the meantime temples in other
places have been reared, and already the modern dispensation is marked
by the erection of six such sacred edifices.
On the first day of June, 1833, in a revelation to the {14} Prophet
Joseph Smith, the Lord directed the immediate building of a holy
house, in which He promised to endow His chosen servants with power
and authority.[31] The people responded to the call with willingness
and devotion. In spite of dire poverty and in the face of unrelenting
persecution, the work was carried to completion, and in March, 1836,
the first Temple of modern times was dedicated at Kirtland, Ohio.[32]
The dedicatory services were marked by Divine manifestations comparable
to those attending the offering of the first Temple of olden times; and
on later occasions heavenly beings appeared within the sacred precincts
with revelations of the Divine will to man. In that place the Lord
Jesus was again seen and heard.[33] Within two years from the time of
its dedication the Kirtland Temple was abandoned by the people who
built it; they were forced to flee because of persecution, and with
their departure the sacred Temple became an ordinary house, disowned of
the Lord to whose name it had been reared. The building still stands
and is used as a meeting-house by a small and comparatively unknown
sect.
The migration of the Latter-day Saints was to the west; and they
established themselves first in Missouri, and later in Illinois with
Nauvoo as the central seat of the Church. Scarcely had they become
settled in their new abode when the voice of revelation was heard
calling upon the people to again build a house sacred to the name of
God.
The corner-stones of the Nauvoo Temple were laid April 6, 1841, and
the capstone was placed in position {15} May 24, 1845; each event was
celebrated by a solemn assembly and sacred service. Though it was
evident that the people would be forced to flee again, and though they
knew that the Temple would have to be abandoned soon after completion,
they labored with might and diligence to finish and properly furnish
the structure. It was dedicated April 30, 1846, though certain
portions, such as the baptistry, had been previously dedicated and used
in ordinance work. Many of the Saints received their blessings and holy
endowments in the Nauvoo Temple, though, even before the completion
of the building, the exodus of the people had begun. The Temple was
abandoned by those who in poverty and by sacrifice had reared it. In
November, 1848, it became a prey to incendiary flames, and in May,
1850, a tornado demolished what remained of the blackened walls.
On the 24th of July, 1847, the "Mormon" pioneers entered the valleys
of Utah, while yet the region was Mexican territory, and established
a settlement where now stands Salt Lake City. Four days later Brigham
Young, prophet and leader, indicated a site in the sage-brush wastes,
and, striking the arid ground with his staff, proclaimed, "Here will
be the Temple of our God." That site is now the beautiful Temple
Block, around which the city has grown. In February, 1853, the area
was dedicated with sacred service, and on the 6th of April following,
the corner stones of the building were laid to the accompaniment of
solemn and imposing ceremony. The Salt Lake City Temple was forty years
in building; the capstone was laid on the 6th of April, 1892, and the
completed Temple was dedicated one year later.
Of the four Temples already erected in Utah, the one {16} in Salt Lake
City was the first begun and the last finished. During its course
of construction three other Temples were built by the Latter-day
Saints, one at St. George, one at Logan, and one at Manti, Utah. Add
to these the two earlier Temples--at Kirtland, Ohio, and at Nauvoo,
Illinois--and we have six of these sacred structures already erected in
the present and last dispensation of the Priesthood--the dispensation
of the fulness of times.
It is not the purpose of the present chapter to consider in detail any
particular Temple, either ancient or modern; but rather to show the
essential and distinguishing features of Temples, and to make plain
the fact that in both ancient and modern times the covenant people
have regarded the building of Temples as a labor specifically required
at their hands. 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 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims that it is
the possessor of the Holy Priesthood again restored to earth, and that
it is invested with Divine commission to erect and maintain Temples
dedicated to the name and service of the true and living God, and
to administer within those sacred structures the ordinances of the
Priesthood, the effect of which shall be binding both on earth and
beyond the grave.
FOOTNOTES
1. In this connection it is interesting and instructive to consider
the significance of the name _Bethel_, a contraction of _Beth Elohim_,
as applied by Jacob to the place where the presence of the Lord was
manifest unto him. Said he, "Surely the Lord is in this place; and I
knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place!
this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of
heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that
he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil
upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el."
(Genesis 28:16-19; read verses 10-22.)
2. Exodus 36:7.
3. Hebrews 9:1-7; Leviticus chap. 16.
4. Exodus 25:22.
5. Exodus 40:34-38.
6. Joshua 18:1; see also 19:51; 21:2; Judges 18:31; I Samuel 1:3, 24;
4:3, 4.
7. I Chron. 21:29; II Chron. 1:3.
8. II Samuel 6:12; II Chron. 5:2.
9. II Samuel 7:2.
10. I Chron. 28:2, 3; compare II Samuel 7:1-13.
11. II Chron. 5:14; see also 7:1, 2, and compare Exodus 40:35.
12. I Kings 14:25, 26.
13. II Chron. 24:7.
14. II Kings 16:7-9, 17 and 18; see also II Chron. 28:24, 25.
15. II Chron. 36:18, 19; see also II Kings 24:13; 25:9.
16. Jeremiah 25:11, 12; 29:10.
17. Ezra, chaps. 1 and 2.
18. Ezra, chap. 6.
19. Ezra 3:12, 13.
20. Ezra 4:4-24.
21. Ezra 6:15-22.
22. Matt. 24:2; Mark 13:2; Luke 21:6.
23. See Book of Mormon, II Nephi 5:16.
24. See Book of Mormon, III Nephi 11:1.
25. See the author's "The Great Apostasy," chap. IX.
26. See the author's "The Great Apostasy," chap. X.
27. See the author's "The Articles of Faith," Lecture I, and references
thereto.
28. See the author's "The Articles of Faith," specifically Lecture I,
and notes thereon.
29. See Doctrine and Covenants 36:8; 42:36; 133:2.
30. See Doctrine and Covenants 115:7-16.
31. See Doctrine and Covenants, Section 95.
32. See Doctrine and Covenants, Section 109.
33. See Doctrine and Covenants, 110:1-10.
CHAPTER II
SANCTUARIES IN EARLIER DISPENSATIONS
{17} As understood and applied herein, the designation "temple" is
restricted to mean an actual structure, reared by man, hallowed and
sanctified for the special service of Deity, such service including
the authoritative administration of ordinances pertaining to the Holy
Priesthood, and not merely a place, however sacred the spot may have
become. If sacred places were to be classed with sacred buildings as
essentially temples, the category would include many a holy Bethel
rarely considered as such. In the more extended application of the
term, the Garden in Eden was the first sanctuary of earth, for therein
did the Lord first speak unto man and make known the Divine law. So
too, Sinai became a sanctuary, for the mount was consecrated as the
special abode of the Lord while He communed with the prophet, and
issued His decrees. The sanctity of such places was as that of Horeb,
where God spake unto Moses from the midst of the flame; and where,
as the man approached he was halted by the command: "Draw not nigh
hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground."[1] A temple, however, is characterized not
alone as the place where God reveals Himself to man, but also as the
House wherein prescribed ordinances of the Priesthood are solemnized.
THE "TESTIMONY"
{18} Prior to the construction of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and
indeed during the early stages of the memorable journey from Egypt,
the people of Israel had a certain depository for sacred things, known
as the Testimony. This is definitely mentioned in connection with the
following incident. Under Divine direction a vessel of manna was to be
preserved, lest the people forget the power and goodness of God, by
which they had been fed:
"And Moses said. This is the thing which the Lord commandeth,
Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that they may
see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness, when I
brought you forth from the land of Egypt.
"And Moses said unto Aaron, Take a pot, and put an omer full of
manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your
generations.
"As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the
Testimony, to be kept."[2]
There appears little room for doubt that the Testimony here referred
to was a material structure, and that its name is suggestive of Divine
witness as to its sacred character. Inasmuch as the account of the
exodus contains no mention of the making of such a structure, and
moreover as its existence and use were definitely affirmed before the
people had had time or opportunity to shape it in the wilderness, it
would seem that they must have brought the sacred Testimony with them
from Egypt. This incident is of interest and importance as indicating
the existence of a holy sanctuary during the formative {19} stages of
Israel's growth as a nation, and while the people were in subjection
to idolatrous rulers. This application of the term Testimony must not
be confused with later usage by which the tables of stone bearing the
divinely inscribed Decalogue are so designated.[3] It is to be noted
further that the Tabernacle, wherein was housed the Ark of the Covenant
containing the sacred tables of stone, is distinctively called the
Tabernacle of Testimony. These several uses of the term lead to no
ambiguity if the context be duly considered in each case.
THE PROVISIONAL TABERNACLE
While Moses communed with the Lord on Sinai, the people, left for a
time to themselves, set up a golden calf in imitation of Apis, an
Egyptian idol; and in consequence of their idolatrous orgies, the
Lord's anger was kindled against them. During the period of their
consequent estrangement, before a reconciliation had been effected
between Jehovah and His people, Divine manifestations ceased within
the camp and only afar off could the Lord be found. In connection with
this condition we read of the establishment of a temporary place of
meeting--possibly the dwelling tent of Moses, which became sanctified
by the Divine Presence. Thus runs the record:
"And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp,
afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the
congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the
Lord went out into the tabernacle of the congregation, which was
without the camp.
"And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that
all the people rose up, and stood every man {20} at his tent door,
and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.
"And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the
cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle,
and the Lord talked with Moses.
"And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle
door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his
tent door.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto
his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant
Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the
tabernacle."[4]
That the tent here called the Tabernacle of the Congregation[5] is
not the elaborate and costly structure specially built as the Lord
directed, is evident from the fact that the greater and more enduring
Tabernacle had not been constructed at the time referred to in the
scripture last cited. Unlike the later Tabernacle, which was set up in
the center of the camp with the tribes massed about it in specified
order, this Provisional Tabernacle was pitched outside the camp--afar
off--perhaps as an indication of the Lord's withdrawal following
Israel's idolatrous turning away from Him. That the Provisional
Tabernacle was, however, a holy sanctuary is attested by the personal
communion therein between Jehovah and His servant Moses.
THE TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION
From amidst the clouds, and to the accompaniments of thunders and
lightnings on Sinai, the Lord gave unto {21} Moses the law and the
testimony. Not alone did Moses there talk with the Lord in person, but
by Divine command, Aaron and his sons Nadab and Abihu, together with
seventy of the elders of Israel, went up upon the mountain and did see
God, even the God of Israel. Over Sinai the glory of the Lord abode
for many days: "And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat
him up into the mount; and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty
nights."[6]
When he descended Moses bore with him the commission to call upon the
children of Israel for contributions and offerings of their substance
and all their precious things, such as would be suitable for the
construction of a sanctuary for service in the wilderness.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
"Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering:
of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take
my offering.
"And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and
silver, and brass,
"And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair,
"And rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood,
"Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,
"Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the
breastplate.
"And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
"According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of {22} the
tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so
shall ye make it."[7]
The response of the people was so liberal and prompt that a surplus of
material was soon amassed.
"And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than
enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to
make.
"And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed
throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any
more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were
restrained from bringing.
"For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it,
and too much."[8]
Divine direction was manifest in the appointment of men who should be
in charge of the labor. Bezaleel, the son of Uri, and Aholiab, the son
of Ahisamach, were designated by revelation as the master craftsmen
under whose direction the other workers should labor until all had
been finished in direct accord with the revealed pattern and plan. And
when so finished it was the embodiment of the best in material and
workmanship.
The Tabernacle stood in an outer enclosure or court, walled in by
canvas screens with entrance curtains finely embroidered. The curtains
that formed the walls of the court were suspended from pillars, which
stood at intervals along the sides of an oblong. The longer walls ran
east and west, with the main entrance to the enclosure on {23} the
eastern side. Of the two squares within the curtains, the easterly was
reserved for assemblies of the people, while the square to the west
constituted the more sacred area pertaining to the Tabernacle itself.
The entire space so enclosed covered one hundred cubits east and
west and fifty cubits north and south, or approximately one hundred
and fifty feet by seventy-five feet.[9] In the easterly section,
and therefore removed from the Tabernacle, stood the altar of
burnt-offerings. Between the altar and the Tabernacle stood the
laver; this was a large vessel of brass standing upon a pedestal and
containing water for the ceremonial cleansing of the hands and feet
of the priests. It is interesting to note that the laver and its
supporting pedestal were made by special contribution of the women,
who gave their brazen mirrors for this purpose. The Tabernacle stood
with its longer axis east and west, and with its entrance on the
easterly side. The structure was but thirty cubits long by ten cubits
broad, or forty-five by fifteen feet; these are the dimensions given
by Josephus, and they are practically in accord with the description
in Exodus, which states that the walls comprised twenty boards on a
side, each board one and a half cubits wide; at the west end there were
six boards, each one and a half cubits wide or nine cubits in all;
these with the angle posts would make the entire breadth equal to that
given by Josephus, ten cubits. The boards of the walls {24} were held
together by tenon-joints having sockets of silver, two to each board;
the boards themselves were overlaid with gold and were provided with
rings of the same metal to receive the bars, which also were overlaid
with gold.
It will be seen that the Tabernacle was but a small structure, entirely
unsuited to the accommodation of large assemblies, but it is to be
remembered that for such it was never intended. Within the Tabernacle,
only the appointed bearers of the Priesthood officiated; and of these
none but the few actually engaged in the service of the day could be
admitted.
The Tabernacle was divided by a curtain, specifically called the Veil,
into two compartments, the outer of which was known as the Holy Place,
and the inner as the Most Holy Place or Holy of Holies. Josephus and
some others state that the Tabernacle comprised three parts; the third
division, however, was really outside the main tent and appeared as
a porch at the east end, five cubits deep, and extending across the
entire front. The Veil, which separated the Holy Place from the Holy
of Holies, was of fine workmanship, "of blue, and purple, and scarlet,
and fine twined linen of cunning work," and was embroidered with
cherubim. It was hung upon four pillars of wood overlaid with gold;
the hooks were of gold and the sockets of silver. The wood used for
these pillars, as indeed that used in other parts of the structure, was
the rare, costly, and durable shittim or acacia, sometimes known as
thorn-wood. Beyond the Veil the enclosure was most holy, and therein
was placed the Ark of the Covenant with its Mercy Seat bearing the
sacred cherubim, the description of which appears in the record as
follows:
{25} "And Bezaleel made the ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a
half was the length of it, and a cubit and a half the breadth of
it, and a cubit and a half the height of it:
"And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a
crown of gold to it round about.
"And he cast for it four rings of gold, to be set by the four
corners of it; even two rings upon the one side of it, and two
rings upon the other side of it.
"And he made staves of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold.
"And he put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, to
bear the ark.
"And he made the mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half was
the length thereof, and one cubit and half the breadth thereof.
"And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out of one piece made he
them, on the two ends of the mercy seat:
"One cherub on the end on this side, and another cherub on the
other end on that side: out of the mercy seat made he the cherubims
on the two ends thereof.
"And the cherubims spread out their wings on high, and covered with
their wings over the mercy seat, with their faces one to another;
even to the mercy seatward were the faces of the cherubims."[10]
Outside the Veil, yet within the Tabernacle, was the Holy Place; in
this were placed the table of shewbread, the altar of incense, and the
golden seven-branched candlestick.[11]
The rich fabrics of delicate workmanship forming the walls and roof
of the Tabernacle were protected by coarser hangings of goats' hair,
and these in turn by a covering of skins. The structure as completed
is referred to in the scripture sometimes as the Tent of the {26}
Congregation and at others as the Tabernacle of the Congregation; the
former expression occurs thirteen times, the latter one hundred and
thirty-three times; yet notwithstanding this difference, the original
in each case was _Ohel Moed_, the best authenticated translation of
which is the Tent of Meeting. Let it not be supposed, however, that
this means in the ordinary sense a meeting-house, for the meeting here
expressed is not that of a concourse of worshippers, but the place of
communion between God and His Priesthood. The Tent of Meeting, or the
Tabernacle of the Congregation, in Israel, was the Lord's tent wherein
He met the authorized representatives of His people.
On the first day of the second year following Israel's exodus from
Egypt, the Tabernacle was set up for the first time, and all the sacred
furniture was disposed according to the direct commands of the Lord.
The veil was hung, and the place was consecrated as a most holy spot,
ineffably sacred as the dwelling place of Jehovah. Then, even as on
Sinai a cloud had shrouded the temporary abiding place of God, so was
it with the Tabernacle:
"Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory
of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
"And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation,
because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled
the tabernacle.
"And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the
children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:
"But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till
the day that it was taken up.
"For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by {27} day, and
fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel,
throughout all their journeys."[12]
The all-pervading and all-controlling thought in the erection of
this portable sanctuary was that of expressing the close association
between Jehovah and His people. The people were to consider themselves
specifically the people of God, and amongst them should be His
dwelling, surpassing in a transcendent degree the presence of the gods
of wood and stone housed among the idolatrous nations with whom Israel
had to contend. This thought was expressed in the earliest commandment
respecting the building of the Tabernacle: "And let them make me a
sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."[13]
Even more truly indispensable than Tabernacle or Temple, in the
maintenance of close relationship with Deity, is the Priesthood. It
was therefore to be expected that with the establishment of a holy
sanctuary, appointments and ordinations should be made whereby men
would be truly set apart to the sacred offices of the Priesthood. While
Moses was the great high priest of Israel, standing at the head of a
distinctive dispensation of Divine authority and power, there were many
priestly functions pertaining to the less exalted orders, and unto
these Aaron and his four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazer, and Ithamar, were
set apart. As the Tabernacle had been built under express direction
extending even into minute detail, so the ministrations of the
Priesthood were prescribed and the order of worship was established,
whereby the people should be reminded that amongst them dwelt {28}
Jehovah, before whom they should set none other gods.[14]
The Tabernacle was prepared primarily for migratory service; its parts
therefore were separately finished and so fitted as to permit of easy
putting together or taking apart. When set up within its court, the
Tabernacle occupied the place of honor in the center of the camp.
On the east, and therefore immediately before the entrance to the
court, were the tents of the Priests; while on the other three sides
the Levites were encamped. These, being closest in attendance have been
likened to the body-guard of the Great King[15] whose throne was within
the sanctuary; and beyond them were stationed the other tribes in order
of established precedence. While dismantled and in transit, when the
people were on the march, the Tabernacle still held the central place;
its bearers were the Levites, and the whole army of Israel was its
guard.
Until Israel had become permanently established in the land of promise,
the Tabernacle of the Congregation had but temporary resting places. As
the people moved the sanctuary was carried, until it found a somewhat
more permanent home at Shiloh. There, at the door of the Tabernacle,
the final apportionment of Canaan among the tribes was made.[16]
There it remained during the period of the Judges, and until after
the Ark of God had been allowed to pass from the custody of Israel
to that of the Philistines, because of sin.[17] The glory of the
sanctuary {29} was largely lost, and though the Tabernacle continued
in existence its sacred service was in abeyance. Sadly was the truth
declared, "The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is
taken."[18] There is evidence that for a short time during the reign
of Saul, the Tabernacle was established at Nob; for there we find the
priest Ahimelech maintaining the service of the shew-bread,[19] but
the Ark of the Covenant was certainly not there.[20] We next learn of
the Tabernacle having been set up at Gibeon, though the conditions
resulting in its removal thither are not fully stated.[21] The Ark was
housed in another tent, and finally both were brought into the splendid
Temple of Solomon by which all earlier sanctuaries were superseded.
THE THIRD TABERNACLE
Yet another tent of sanctuary was made and used in Israel prior to the
erection of the great Temple. This we may call for convenience the
Third Tabernacle; it was erected by David the king, in his own city, as
a shelter for the Ark of the Covenant. As already cited, the scriptural
record tells of the capture of the Ark by the Philistines, and of its
return to Israel. This incident occurred during the latter part of the
administration of the Judges, before Israel had bowed to a king in
Canaan.[22]
Throughout the reign of Saul, the Ark remained under the roof of a
private dwelling; wherein, however, a priest was maintained for its
care and ministry. One of the early acts of David after he became king,
was to {30} plan the removal of the Ark to a more suitable situation.
In the course of this removal, Uzzah was stricken, because without
authority he essayed to take hold of the sacred vessel; and this
manifestation of Divine displeasure so affected David that he delayed
his purpose of setting up the Ark in his own city and placed it in
another private house--that of Obed-edom the Gittite.[23] While the Ark
remained beneath that roof the household was blessed and prospered.
In course of time the original plan was carried into effect and the
Ark was set up in a tent specially prepared for its reception in the
City of David: "And they brought in the ark of the Lord, and set it in
his place, in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for
it: and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the
Lord."[24]
Thus, during the reign of David there were two places regarded as
sanctuaries; and the worship of the people was divided. Solomon
appears to have acknowledged the sanctity of both places--the resting
place of the Ark at Jerusalem and the place of the Tabernacle of the
Congregation at Gibeon.[25] Through him both shrines were again brought
together.[26]
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
Scarcely had the Ark of the Covenant been deposited at the capital
of the kingdom--the City of David,--when the king became desirous of
erecting for its accommodation a more enduring shelter than the tent
in which it had {31} been installed with pomp and ceremony. It appears
that the conscience of the king was troubled by the thought that he
was better housed than was the sanctuary of the Lord: "Now it came to
pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet,
Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the
Lord remaineth under curtains."[27] It was David's desire to build a
suitable House for the Lord and Nathan the prophet at first encouraged
the undertaking. The Lord spake to Nathan however, and directed him to
decline the king's proffered gift. Although Jehovah had been without a
fixed place recognized by the people as His, though as He said He had
not dwelt in a house amongst Israel, but had gone from tent to tent
and from one tabernacle to another,[28] though as the context implies,
the Lord had been neglected in the long delay attending the erection
of a house to His name, nevertheless David could not be honored with
the commission or even the permission to build such a house for he
was accounted a man of blood.[29] Let us not undertake to judge the
extent of David's offending; to do so would be to usurp the Divine
prerogative; it is enough for us to know that even the gift of royalty
may be declined if there be aught requiring reconciliation between the
mortal and his God. David, however, was permitted to provide means and
to gather material which afterward should be used in the erection of
the Temple,[30] moreover, the very site on which the great building
was subsequently erected was chosen and sanctified through his agency.
A great pestilence had fallen {32} upon Israel, and the Angel of the
Lord, sent forth with the warrant of destruction, was seen by David,
standing, sword in hand, on Mount Moriah at the threshing floor of
Araunah the Jebusite.[31] That spot, hallowed by the presence of a
heavenly messenger, though that messenger was the Angel of Death, was
marked by the erection of an altar, as the Lord directed through the
prophet Gad.[32]
As David realized that his years of life were few, he laid upon
Solomon, his son and chosen successor, the solemn charge to build the
house he had been forbidden to build. The king dwelt pathetically upon
his own disqualification, and then repeated the Lord's promise of
acceptance at the hand of Solomon. The scriptural record runs thus:
"So David prepared abundantly before his death.
"Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an
house for the Lord God of Israel.
"And David said to Solomon. My son, as for me, it was in my mind to
build an house unto the name of the Lord my God:
"But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood
abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house
unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in
my sight.
"Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest;
and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his
name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto
Israel in his days.
"He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I
will be his father: and I will establish the throne of his kingdom
over Israel for ever.
{33} "Now, my son, the Lord be with thee; and prosper thou, and
build the house of the Lord thy God, as he hath said of thee.
"Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee
charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord
thy God.
"Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfill the
statues and judgments which the Lord charged Moses with concerning
Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed.
"Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the
Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand
talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it
is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou
mayest add thereto.
"Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and
workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for
every manner of work.
"Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no
number. Arise therefore, and be doing, and the Lord be with thee.
"David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his
son, saying,
"Is not the Lord your God with you? and hath he not given you rest
on every side? for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into
mine hand; and the land is subdued before the Lord, and before his
people.
"Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise
therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the
ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God, into
the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord."[33]
David gave Solomon detailed instructions as to the design and
specifications of the house and its appurtenances, the plan of the
porch and that of both the main {34} structure and the accessory
buildings, "and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit."
Furthermore he gave directions as to the ministry of the various
courses of Priests and Levites, "and for all the work of the service of
the house of the Lord, and for all the vessels of service in the house
of the Lord."[34]
The actual work of construction was begun in the fourth year of
Solomon's reign, and the Temple was ready for dedication in the
twelfth, or about 1005 B. C. At the inception of the labor, Solomon
entered into an agreement with Hiram, a neighboring king, whereby the
resources of Tyre and Sidon were annexed in the great undertaking.
Through this alliance the splendid forests of Lebanon were made
accessible; cedar, and fir, and other trees were felled and floated by
the thousand to the most convenient point for land transportation to
Jerusalem. It had been previously explained to Hiram that the demand
would be a heavy one, for, as Solomon had said: "The house which I
build is great: for great is our God above all gods."[35] Sidonian
hewers were put to work,--the most skilful of all known woodmen; and
the timbers of Lebanon were supplied in abundance. The extent of the
demand may be judged from the enormous payment proffered and made by
Solomon.[36]
Israelitish workmen were employed in great numbers, both in
co-operation with the Sidonians and at home. Thus we read:
"And King Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was
thirty thousand men.
{35} "And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses:
a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home: and Adoniram
was over the levy.
"And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and
fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains;
"Beside the chief of Solomon's officers which were over the work,
three thousand and three hundred, which ruled over the people that
wrought in the work.
"And the king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly
stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house.
"And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the
stonesquarers: so they prepared timber and stones to build the
house."[37]
For the successful employment of such great numbers of workmen an
effective system of organization was necessary; we are not surprised,
therefore, in reading that thirty-three hundred overseers were in
service. The efficiency of the system is attested by the success
attending the great undertaking. The Israelites and the men of Tyre and
Sidon worked in harmony, and much of the building material was shaped
by pattern and measurement in forest and quarry; therefore "the house,
when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was
brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor ax nor any tool
of iron heard in the house, while it was in building."[38]
Our primary source of information relating to the erection of the great
Temple is the scriptural record contained in I Kings, chapters 6 and
7; a later account appears in II Chronicles, chapter 3 and 4, which
account as {36} well as the description given by Josephus[39] appears
to have been derived from the record first cited.
In general, the design of Solomon's Temple was that of the specially
constructed Tabernacle of the Congregation, though the dimensions of
the Temple were double those of the Tabernacle. It will be remembered
that the porch of the Tabernacle was five cubits deep; that of
the Temple measured ten cubits in depth; in each case the porch
extended across the full width of the house. The Holy Place, or first
compartment within the walls, was twenty cubits long, ten cubits wide
and ten high in the Tabernacle; that of the Temple was forty by twenty
cubits and twenty cubits high. The inner sanctuary, Oracle, or Holy of
Holies, in the Tabernacle was cubical and measured ten cubits each way;
in the Temple this sacred enclosure was a cube of twenty cubits. Thus
the ground plan of the Tabernacle covered thirty-five by twenty cubits,
and that of the Temple seventy cubits by forty. These measurements
do not take into account the side chambers, which in the Tabernacle
were five cubits wide; those connected with the Temple measured ten
cubits in extreme width; with these included, the entire area of the
Tabernacle was forty by twenty cubits, and that of the Temple eighty
by forty cubits; or, at the usually accepted equivalent for the cubit,
sixty by thirty feet for the Tabernacle, and one hundred and twenty
feet by sixty feet for the Temple. In height the same relation was
maintained; the Tabernacle rose fifteen cubits and the Temple thirty
cubits. The Temple porch appears to have towered above the height of
the main structure.[40]
{37} In the porch, standing as a guard at the threshold of the Temple,
were two brazen pillars, of elaborate design, and doubtless of
emblematical significance. They were regarded as of such importance
as to merit detailed description, and the name of their maker was
inscribed in the Temple archives. They were wrought by Hiram of
Tyre,--not the king who bore the same name--but a master-artisan,
skilled in the working of brass. Hiram fashioned the pillars, each
twelve cubits in circumference and eighteen cubits high exclusive of
the massive chapiters, which were ornamented with pomegranates and lily
work. The pillar at the right of the entrance was named Jachin, meaning
"He shall establish," and that at the left was called Boaz, signifying
"In it is strength."[41] Whatever deeper meaning may have been attached
to these massive columns, their suggestive symbolism of strength and
firmness is plainly apparent. As to whether they actually supported the
roof of the porch, or were free, standing as embellishments and symbols
alone, the scriptural text is not definite.
The walls of the great Temple were of hewn stone, yet on the inside no
stone was visible; for the walls were wainscotted from floor to ceiling
with cedar, richly decorated with carvings of flowers, trees, and other
designs, and the flooring was of fir.[42] Moreover, the interior was
richly embellished with overlaid work in pure gold. The partition by
which the Oracle or Holy of Holies was divided off, corresponding to
the veil in the Tabernacle, was thus overlaid, and was hung with chains
of gold.[43] The cherubim that stood as the symbol of guardianship {38}
over the Oracle were of olive wood, covered with gold, the precious
metal being fitted upon the carved work.[44]
The vestibule or porch stood at the east end; and this constituted the
only entrance to the Temple proper. On the other three sides, therefore
surrounding both the Holy Place and the Oracle, were numerous small
chambers, built in three tiers or stories. The width of these was five
cubits in the lowest story, six cubits in the middle, and seven cubits
in the top story; this peculiarity in width increasing with height was
made possible by the decrease in the thickness of the walls. By this
rebatement of the walls, the cedarn chambers were well supported yet
they formed no part of the main structure; it was so designed "that
the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house."[45] These
small apartments were therefore "chambers round about, against the
walls of the house," yet of independent construction. From the mention
made by Ezekiel[46] these chambers are supposed to have numbered
thirty, though no precise specification is found. They were probably
used for service required of the priests aside from the ceremonial
labor connected with the general ritual. Entrance to these chambers was
provided on the right side of the building with winding stairs leading
to the upper rooms. Above the level of the upper chambers were windows
by which the outer apartment or Holy Place was lighted; the Holy of
Holies, however, was without natural light.
The furniture within the Temple comprised but few objects, yet every
piece was of special design and for exclusive use. In the Holy Place
stood the table, or a {39} series of tables to bear the sacred
shew-bread. Mention is made also of an altar of gold, and of ten
candlesticks of pure gold set in front of the entrance to the Oracle,
five on either side; furthermore there were tongs of gold, bowls and
snuffers, basins and spoons. The Oracle was prepared for the reception
of the Ark of the Covenant, and to overshadow that holy vessel there
were prepared the two great cherubim, each ten cubits high; these were
of olive wood overlaid with gold.
The Temple stood within walled enclosures, generally spoken of as outer
and inner courts respectively. The wall of the inner court is described
as consisting of three courses of hewn stone, in which was set a course
of cedar beams. This corresponded to the single enclosure of the
ancient Tabernacle. Inasmuch as all the specified measurements show
the Temple to have been double the size of the Tabernacle, this court
may have been of corresponding proportion; it is therefore generally
believed to have extended one hundred cubits north and south and two
hundred cubits east and west.[47]
Within the court, "before the porch of the Lord" stood the altar of
sacrifice. This was of brass twenty cubits square and ten cubits high.
To the service of the altar belonged many of the utensils such as
basins, pots, and shovels, specially made under the direction of the
master craftsman, Hiram of Tyre. Another prominent object within the
court was the molten sea, called also the brazen sea.[48] This great
font measured thirty cubits in circumference and stood five cubits
high, and was richly {40} ornamented. The walls were a hand-breadth
in thickness, and the brim was embellished with flower work. It was
mounted on twelve brazen oxen, arranged in groups of three, the groups
facing respectively north, south, east and west. The great font stood
between the altar and the porch "on the right side of the house,
eastward, over against the south."[49] Associated with the molten sea
were ten smaller vessels called lavers, mounted on bases of special
construction and provided with wheels to facilitate removal.[50] The
lavers were used in connection with the service of the altar, for the
washing of the offerings; but the main font or molten sea was reserved
for the ceremonial cleansing of the priests.
When the House of the Lord was completed, elaborate preparations were
made for its dedication. First came the installation of the Ark of the
Covenant and its appurtenances, the Tabernacle of the Congregation,
and the holy vessels. With great solemnity and to the accompaniment of
ceremonial sacrifice, the Ark was brought by the priests and placed
within the Holy of Holies beneath the wings of the cherubim. At this
time the Ark contained only the two tables of stone "which Moses put
there." The staves by which the Ark was borne were so drawn out as to
be visible from within the Holy Place, and then "it came to pass, when
the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the
house of the Lord, So that the priests could not stand to minister
because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of
the Lord."[51]
{41} Then Solomon addressed the assembled multitude, reciting the
circumstances under which the building of the Temple had been conceived
by his father David and executed by himself, and proclaiming the mercy
and goodness of Israel's God. Standing before the altar of the Lord, in
the court of the Temple, the king spread forth his hands toward heaven,
and offered the dedicatory prayer. The king then blessed the people,
saying "Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people
Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one
word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses
his servant. The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers:
let him not leave us, nor forsake us."[52]
The principal services with the attendant festivities lasted seven
days, and "on the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed
the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all
the goodness that the Lord had done for David his servant, and for
Israel his people."[53]
For only a third of a century did this splendid edifice maintain its
supremacy and glory. In the later years of his reign Solomon had done
wickedly in the sight of God and the people had not been slow to follow
their king in evil paths. Israel had grown weak in their allegiance to
Jehovah and had gone after strange gods. Following the death of Solomon
the nation was disrupted. In the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam,
Shishak king of Egypt besieged the City of David and even despoiled
the Temple {42} and carried away part of the sacred treasures. Next,
Jehoash, king of one part of the divided nation, took away gold and
silver and sacred vessels from the House of the Lord and carried
them into Samaria.[54] It is thus shown that the desecration of the
Temple was not effected wholly by the enemies of Israel; the people to
whom the House had once been sacred contributed to its profanation.
Ahaz, the wicked king of Judah, removed the altar from its place and
substituted therefore another fashioned by his own order after the
pattern of the altars of the heathen; moreover he took down the molten
sea and dismantled the lavers.[55] Mannasseh, another evil king who
reigned in Judah, followed after Baal and set up idolatrous shrines
within the very precincts of the Temple.[56] The precious things of the
House of the Lord were used as barter between kings. So, Asa king of
Judah purchased the aid of Ben-hadad, to fight against Israel;[57] so
also did Jehoash purchase peace from Hazael king of Syria;[58] and so
did Hezekiah strip the House of the Lord for plunder wherewith to pay
tribute to the Assyrians.[59]
Some attempts were made to repair the worst of the ravages upon and
within the Temple[60] but it seemed that the House had been abandoned
to its fate. In the year 586 B. C., Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,
completed the destruction of the Temple in connection with {43} his
conquest of the kingdom of Judah. Whatever of value was yet there he
carried away, and the building was destroyed by fire.[61]
There occurs yet one later mention of some of the vessels that had been
made for the service of Jehovah,--when they were brought out to crown
the triumph of Belshazzar in his heathenish feast. Then was manifest
the displeasure of the Lord, and the trembling king heard from the
lips of Daniel his doom,--for he had been unmindful of the fate that
had overtaken his father, and had lifted up himself against the Lord
of heaven; and had brought out the vessels of the house of God that he
and his lords, his wives and his concubines might drink wine therefrom;
and he had praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood,
and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; but the God in whose hand
was his breath and whose were all his ways had he not glorified. He had
been weighed in the balances and was found wanting; and his kingdom was
taken from him. That night, Belshazzar the king was slain.[62]
THE TEMPLE OF EZEKIEL'S VISION
In the twenty-fifth year of the Babylonian captivity, while yet the
people of Israel were in exile in a strange land, the word of the Lord
came to the prophet Ezekiel; the power of God rested upon him; and he
saw in vision a glorious Temple, the plan of which he minutely {44}
described.[63] As to whether the prophet himself considered the design
so shown as one to be subsequently realized, or as but a grand yet
unattainable ideal, is not declared. Certain it is that the Temple of
the vision has not yet been builded.
In most of its essential features Ezekiel's ideal followed closely the
plan of Solomon's Temple; so close, indeed, is the resemblance, that
many of the details specified by Ezekiel have been accepted as those
of the splendid edifice destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. A predominant
characteristic of the Temple described by Ezekiel was the spaciousness
of its premises and the symmetry of both the Holy House and its
associated buildings. The area was to be a square of five hundred
cubits, walled about and provided with a gateway and arches on each
of three sides; on the west side the wall was to be unbroken by arch
or portal. At each of the gateways were little chambers regarded as
lodges,[64] and provided with porches. In the outer court were other
chambers. The entire area was to be elevated, and a flight of steps led
to each gateway. In the inner court was seen the great altar, standing
before the House, and occupying the center of a square of one hundred
cubits.[65] Ample provision was made for every variety of sacrifice
and offering, and for the accommodation of the priests, the singers,
and all engaged in the holy ritual.[66] The main structure comprised
a Porch, a Holy Place, and an inner sanctuary or Most Holy Place, the
last named elevated above the rest {45} and reached by steps. The plan
provided for even greater exclusiveness than had characterized the
sacred area of the Temple of Solomon; the double courts contributed
to this end. The service of the Temple was prescribed in detail; the
ordinances of the altar, the duties of the priests, the ministry of the
Levites, the regulations governing oblations and feasts were all set
forth.[67]
The immediate purpose of this revelation through the vision of the
prophet appears to have been that of awakening the people of Israel to
a realization of their fallen state and a conception of their departed
glory. The prophet was thus commanded:
"Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that
they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the
pattern.
"And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, show them the
form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out
thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and
all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the
laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the
whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.
"This is the law of the house; Upon the top of the mountain the
whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is
the law of the house."[68]
THE TEMPLE OF ZERUBBABEL
For three score years and ten the Jews had grieved and groaned under
Babylonian rule. The greater part of the once proud Kingdom of Judah
had been carried {46} away captive, and such as remained in the land
of their fathers had lost their national status and had become largely
merged with the Gentiles. With dreadful exactness had been fulfilled
the dire prediction of Jeremiah. Through that prophet the Lord had
spoken, saying:
"Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Because ye have not heard
my words,
"Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith
the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar [Nebuchadnezzar] the king of Babylon,
my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the
inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations around about,
and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and
an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
"Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice
of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the
bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
"And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment;
and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy
years."[69]
However, the gloom of the saddening prophecy had been lightened by one
ray of hope and promise--the assurance that when the seventy years of
the Lord's chastisement had been completed, the people should return
to the land of their inheritance, and once again be recognized as the
Lord's own.[70] In the encouragement of that hope the people had lived;
by its inspiration their prophets, even while in captivity, had sought
the Lord, and declared His will to the people; by its light Ezekiel had
seen in the {47} vision of seership the re-establishment of his people
and the possibility of a Temple greater and grander than the first. In
due time the God of Israel made good His word, and vindicated anew His
power as King of kings; He ruled and overruled the passions of nations
and the acts of earthly rulers, and once again brought His people
from the land of their bondage. Persia had become the controlling
power among the nations, and by decree of the Persian king, Judah was
emancipated. Behold the power of God in directing the rulers among
mortals:
"Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word
of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the
Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made
a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in
writing, saying,
"Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given
me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build
him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
"Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and
let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.
"And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the
men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with
goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house
of God that is in Jerusalem."[71]
Under this gracious permission the people returned to the land of their
fathers, and set about the work of building anew a House to the Lord.
Cyrus had issued his royal decree that the structure be worthy the
great Name to which it was to be reared--the foundations were to {48}
be strongly laid; the height was to be three score cubits, and the
breadth the same; there were to be set three rows of great stones and a
row of new timber; moreover, the expenses were to be met by the royal
treasury.[72] The king restored to the people the vessels that had been
taken by Nebuchadnezzar from the first Temple,--all these, numbering
many thousands, were formally delivered by the king's treasurer.[73]
So great was the enthusiasm of the people, so strong their desire to
have individual part in the holy undertaking, that many who had been
careless of their heritage now claimed priestly standing; but, as
their genealogy had not been preserved, they were debarred from the
priesthood, though permitted to return with the rest. The prerogatives
of the priestly order were denied them until one would arise with power
to declare their genealogy through Urim and Thummim.[74]
Zerubbabel and Jeshua had charge of the work; and without delay they
builded anew the altar of the God of Israel and re-established the
ritual of sacrifice, and the observance of the sacred festivals.[75]
Masons and carpenters, workmen and artisans of all kinds and degrees
were brought into service; again were Tyre and Sidon put under friendly
tribute, and once more the wealth of the forests of Lebanon was brought
to Jerusalem. Priests and Levites were marshalled in order as of old,
and the sound of trumpets and cymbals was mingled with the voices of
the singers. Is there cause for wonder that {49} as the foundations
were laid, old men who remembered the first House and its glory wept
aloud and shouted in their tearful joy?[76]
But adversaries arose who put obstacles in the way of the builders.
The people of Canaan--Israelites who had forgotten their allegiance to
God, and had mingled with idolaters, took offense at the activity of
the returned Jews. At first they offered to assist in the work, but
being refused recognition because of their idolatrous associations,
they became obstructionists, and "weakened the hands of the people of
Judah, and troubled them in building; and hired counsellors against
them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia,
even until the reign of Darius king of Persia."[77] The claim was made
that of old the people of Judah had been a trouble to other nations,
and that with the restoration of their Temple they would again become
seditious. At last the protests and charges reached Darius, the
reigning monarch; and he, having investigated the whole matter, issued
a decree, that not only should the Jews be free from interruption in
the building of the Temple, but that a portion of the king's tribute,
the regular taxes of the land, should be devoted to the work; and, said
the king:
"Also I have made a decree, that whosoever shall alter this word,
let timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him
be hanged thereon; and let his house be made a dunghill for this.
And the God that hath caused his name to dwell there destroy all
kings and people, that shall {50} put to their hand to alter and to
destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made
a decree; let it be done with speed."[78]
With such support the people soon completed the building. Though nearly
twenty years elapsed between the laying of the foundation and the
finishing, the greater part of the labor was done during the last four
years. The dedicatory services were solemn and inspiring. For seven
days the Feast of Unleavened Bread was observed; the Passover was eaten
by those who had returned from captivity and by such others as had
"separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of
the land, to seek the Lord God of Israel."[79]
This, the second Temple, was finished in the year 515 B. C.; it is
known in history as the Temple of Zerubbabel. In general plan it was
patterned after the Temple of Solomon, though in many of its dimensions
it exceeded its prototype. The court was divided into a section for
priests only and another for the public; according to Josephus the
division was effected by a wooden railing.[80] An alter of unhewn
stone was erected in place of the great brazen alter of old.[81] The
Holy Place was graced by but one candlestick instead of ten; and by a
single table for the shew-bread instead of the ten tables overlaid with
gold which stood in the first Temple. We read also of a golden altar
of incense, and of some minor appurtenances. The Most Holy Place was
empty, for the Ark {51} of the Covenant had not been known after the
people had gone into captivity.
In many respects the Temple of Zerubbabel appeared poor in comparison
with its splendid predecessor and in certain particulars, indeed, it
ranked lower than the ancient Tabernacle of the Congregation--the
sanctuary of the nomadic tribes. Critical scholars specify the
following features characteristic of the Temple of Solomon and lacking
in the Temple of Zerubbabel: (1) the Ark of the Covenant; (2) the
sacred fire; (3) the Shekinah, or glory of the Lord, manifested of old
as the Divine Presence; (4) the Urim and Thummim, by which Jehovah made
plain His will to the priests of the Aaronic order; (5) the genius
or spirit of prophecy, indicative of the closest communion between
mortals and their God. Notwithstanding these differences the Temple of
Zerubbabel was recognized of God and was undoubtedly the site or seat
of Divine revelation to duly constituted prophets.
The inferiority of the second Temple as compared with the first is
generally conceded; the difference, however, was rather in matter of
splendor than in point of size.[82] But even such glory as it did
possess was not to be long maintained. Again the people became recreant
to their God, and the voice of the prophet was unheeded. Again did
Jehovah permit the heathen to oppress Judah. Of the later history
of this Temple the Biblical record gives but few details; but from
other sources we learn of its vicissitudes. In connection with the
Maccabean persecution the House of the Lord was profaned. A Syrian
king, Antiochus Epiphanes, captured Jerusalem (168 to 165 B. C.) {52}
and perpetrated blasphemous outrage against the religion of the people.
He plundered the Temple and carried away its golden candlestick, its
golden altar of incense, its table of shewbread, and even tore down the
sacred veils, which were of fine linen and scarlet. His malignity was
carried so far that he purposely desecrated the altar of sacrifice by
offering swine thereon, and erected a heathen altar within the sacred
enclosure. Not content with the violation of the Temple, this wicked
monarch had altars erected in the towns and ordered the offering of
unclean beasts upon them. The rite of circumcision was forbidden on
pain of death, and the worship of Jehovah was declared a crime.[83] As
a result of this persecution many of the Jews apostatized, and declared
that they belonged to the Medes and Persians--the nations from whose
dominion they had been delivered by the power of God.
Among those who remained true to the religion of their fathers was
Mattathias, who was a priest, and a man of prominence. He was besought
to offer heathen sacrifice; not only did he refuse but in righteous
indignation he slew those who did attempt the sacrilege. This act
led to further strife and for three years the struggle continued.
Judas, son of Mattathias, came into prominence and is known as Judas
Maccabeus,--the first of the Maccabees. Under his leadership the
people returned to Jerusalem and found the Temple deserted, as it had
been left by the army of Antiochus. Its gates had been broken down
and burned; and within the walls weeds were growing. Judas tried to
cleanse and rehabilitate the House; he brought in new vessels, and
replaced the candlestick, the altar of incense, the table of shewbread,
and the veils, {53} and built a new altar for burnt offerings. Then
in the year 163 B. C. the House was rededicated; and the occasion was
remembered in annual festival thereafter under the name of the Feast of
Dedication.[84]
In the interest of self-preservation the Jews entered into an alliance
with the Romans, who eventually became their masters. During the reign
of the Maccabees the Temple fell into decay, and when the last of that
dynasty had been succeeded by Herod the Great, the House was little
more than a ruin. Nevertheless the priestly orders had been maintained;
and some semblance of ritualistic worship had continued. The history of
the Temple of Zerubbabel is merged with that of the Temple of Herod.
THE TEMPLE OF HEROD
In the year 37 B. C. Herod I, known in history as Herod the Great,
was established on the throne as King of Judea. He had already served
successively as procurator and tetrarch, and, indeed, had been king in
name for some time prior to his enthronement, during which period he
had been in hostile conflict with the people over whom the decree of
the Roman Senate had made him ruler. He came to the throne noted for
arrogance and cruelty; and his reign was one of tyranny, in which even
family relationship and the closest ties of blood proved unavailing
to protect the victims of his displeasure. In the early part of his
reign he put to death nearly all the members of the Sanhedrin, the
great Jewish Council, and throughout he ruled with increasing severity.
Nevertheless he was successful in maintaining peace with other {54}
governments, and by his Roman masters was accounted an able ruler.
Among his acts of cruelty was the slaughter of the babes of Bethlehem,
a murder planned and executed in the hope of including among the
victims the Child Jesus.[85]
Such is the character of the man who proposed to replace the time-worn
Temple of Zerubbabel by a new and more splendid structure. Can it be
thought that a proffered gift from such a donor could be acceptable to
the Lord? David had aforetime offered to build a House to the Lord,
but had been restrained, for he was a man of blood. Herod's purpose in
the great undertaking was that of aggrandizing himself and the nation,
rather than the rendering of homage to Jehovah. His proposition to
rebuild or restore the Temple on a scale of increased magnificence was
regarded with suspicion and received with disfavor by the Jews, who
feared that were the ancient edifice demolished, the arbitrary monarch
might abandon his plan and the people would be left without a Temple.
To allay these fears the king proceeded to reconstruct and restore the
old edifice, part by part, directing the work so that at no time was
the Temple service seriously interrupted. So little of the ancient
structure was allowed to stand, however, that the Temple of Herod must
be regarded {55} as a new creation. The work was begun about sixteen
years before the birth of Christ; and while the Holy House itself was
practically completed within a year and a half, this part of the labor
having been performed by a body of one thousand priests specially
trained for the purpose, the temple area was a scene of uninterrupted
building operations down to the year 63 A. D. We read that in the
time of Christ's ministry the Temple had been forty-six years in
building;[86] and at that time it was unfinished.
The Biblical record gives us little information regarding this the
last and the greatest of ancient temples; for what we know concerning
it we are indebted mainly to Josephus, with some corroborative
testimony found in the Talmud. In all essentials the Holy House or
Temple proper was similar to the two earlier houses of sanctuary,
though externally far more elaborate and imposing than either; but in
the matter of surrounding courts and associated buildings, the Temple
of Herod preeminently excelled. In proceeding from the outer wall to
the innermost enclosure occupied by the Holy House one would traverse
successive courts, each at a higher level than the last, to which
arrangement the slopes of Mount Moriah were favorable. The courts
extended as enormous platform-terraces, supported by foundations of
massive masonry, which rose vertically in some places seven hundred
feet from the foot of the hill.
The outer wall enclosing the entire temple area, which approximated
the form of a square, measured four hundred cubits, or one stadium,
(about six hundred feet) along each side. The east wall, constituting
the principal {56} defense of the city on that side, was unbroken
by gates; on each of the other three sides one or more large and
beautiful portals afforded passage through the fortress-like wall.
The four sides of the great enclosure, immediately within the outer
wall, were occupied by a series of magnificent porticoes, of Grecian
design, forming a covered colonnade in which every pillar was a
massive monolith of white marble. This colonnade was interrupted at
the north-west corner, where the continuity of the wall was broken
by the Tower of Antonia, in reality a fortified castle, from which a
subterranean passage led into the inner enclosure where stood the Holy
House. The colonnade or line of porticoes along the south side was
particularly elaborate, and was known as the Royal Porch. Here were
four rows of huge columns, and consequently three corridors, of which
the inner was forty-five feet wide and one hundred feet high, while
each of the side corridors measured thirty feet in width and sixty feet
in height. The imposing effect of the Royal Porch is dwelt upon by
Josephus, who states that its beauty was incredible to those who had
not seen it, and amazing to those who beheld.
The east colonnade or row of porticoes was known as Solomon's
Porch,[87] the name having reference to a tradition that the porch
covered and included part of the original wall erected by the builder
of the first Temple. Within the colonnade was a spacious area, to which
general admission was allowed; this was the Court of the Gentiles. It
was in this court that money-changers and traffickers in animals used
for sacrifice had established their stalls at the time of our Lord's
ministry, and from which {57} they were expelled through His righteous
indignation, the while He declared: "It is written, My house shall be
called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves."[88]
Between the Court of the Gentiles and the inner courts rose a wall
twenty-five cubits high; this marked the boundary of the more sacred
precincts within which no Gentile could be lawfully admitted. At
intervals along the wall were inscription tablets, warning all who were
not of Israel to enter not on pain of death. A literal translation
of such inscription reads: "Let no alien enter within the balustrade
and embankment about the sanctuary. Whoever is caught makes himself
responsible for his death which will follow."
The inner courts were accessible from the Court of the Gentiles through
nine gates, of which one was on the east, and four were on the north
and south respectively; as in the earlier Temples the west wall was
without a gate. Of these portals the principal one was on the east;
this was an elaborate structure built of the costly Corinthian brass,
and known as the Corinthian Gate, though sometimes called from the name
of its donor, the Gate of Nicanor; furthermore this is held by many
authorities to be the Beautiful Gate, before which sat the lame man who
was healed through the ministrations of Peter and John.[89]
Part of the space within the inner courts was open to Israelites of
both sexes, and was known distinctively as the Court of the Women.
This was a colonnaded enclosure, and constituted the place of general
assembly in the prescribed course of public worship. Chambers used
for {58} ceremonial purposes occupied the four corners of this court;
and between these and the houses at the gates, were other buildings,
of which one series constituted the Treasury wherein were set
trumpet-shaped receptacles for gifts.[90]
Beyond the Court of the Women and really a continuation thereof, was a
section sufficiently described by its name, the Court of the Men; these
two courts are sometimes referred to as one and designated the Court
of Israel. Within this court were numerous buildings reserved for the
storage of sacred things or devoted to special assemblies. Within and
above the Court of Israel was the Court of the Priests, wherein was
placed the great altar of sacrifice, and to which were admitted none
but duly appointed priests and laymen who came to make offerings. The
altar was a large structure of unhewn stones, forty-seven feet square
at the base, and diminishing upward to the hearth which was a square
of thirty-six feet. The inclined way of approach was on the south
side.[91] A laver or font, reserved for the prescribed ablutions of the
officiating priests, stood nearby on the west.
Within the Court of the Priests, on an elevation reached by twelve
steps, stood the Holy House, the Temple itself. In comparison with
its many and massive outliers, this was a small edifice, but in the
architectural plan it was made the most impressive, if not the most
imposing feature of the whole. It has been properly described as "a
glittering mass of white marble and gold."[92] {59} Like the earlier
Temples, this comprised Porch, Holy Place, and Most Holy Place or
Holy of Holies. The Porch measured one hundred cubits both in width
and height. The Holy Place was forty by twenty cubits, as in the
Temple of Zerubbabel, but its height was increased to forty cubits.
By adding side chambers, with a passage between them and the main
building, Herod made the new Temple greater and grander than either
of its predecessors. The Holy of Holies retained the original form
and dimensions, making it a cube, twenty cubits in each measurement.
Between this and the Holy Place hung a double veil, of finest material,
elaborately embroidered. The outer of the two veils was open at the
north end, the inner at the south; so that the high priest who entered
at the appointed time once a year could pass between the veils without
exposing the Holy of Holies. The sacred chamber was empty save for a
large stone upon which the high priest sprinkled the sacrificial blood
on the Day of Atonement; this stone occupied the place of the Ark and
its Mercy Seat. Outside the veil, in the Holy Place, stood the altar of
incense, the seven-branched candle-stick, 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. Its ritual and service were largely man-prescribed; for while
the letter of the Mosaic Law was professedly observed, the law had
been supplemented and in many features supplanted by rule and priestly
prescription. The Jews professed to consider it holy, and by them it
was {60} proclaimed as the House of the Lord. Devoid though it was
of the Divine accompaniments of earlier shrines accepted of God, and
defiled as it was by priestly arrogance and usurpation, as also by the
selfish interest of traffic and trade, it was nevertheless recognized
even by our Lord the Christ as His Father's House.[93] Therein the
Boy Jesus was presented as required by the Law,[94] thereto came He
with His people at the time of the Passover;[95] within its precincts
He declared Himself and the Father who sent Him.[96] When at last,
rejected by His own, and by them brought to the cross, He wrought the
sacrifice through which salvation was made possible to man, the veil of
the Temple was rent by an unseen power and the last vestige of supreme
sanctity departed from the place.[97]
As long as it stood, however, the Temple was held by the Jews in high
veneration. An utterance of the Savior, construed by the dark-minded as
an aspersion upon the Temple, was used against Him as one of the chief
accusations on which His death was demanded. When the Jews clamored
for a sign of His authority He predicted His own death and subsequent
resurrection, saying, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up."[98] They blindly regarded this remark as a disrespectful
allusion to their Temple, a structure built by human hands, and they
refused to forget or forgive. That this veneration continued after the
crucifixion of our Lord is evident from accusations brought against
Stephen, and still later against Paul. In their murderous rage the
people accused {61} Stephen of disrespect for the Temple, and brought
false witnesses who uttered perjured testimony saying, "This man
ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place."[99]
And Stephen was numbered with the martyrs. When it was claimed that
Paul had brought with him into the temple precincts, a Gentile, the
whole city was aroused, and the infuriated mob dragged Paul from the
place and sought to kill him.[100]
For thirty or more years after the death of Christ, the Jews continued
the work of adding to and embellishing the temple buildings. The
elaborate design conceived and projected by Herod had been practically
completed; the Temple was well-nigh finished, and, as soon afterward
appeared, was ready for destruction. Its fate had been definitely
foretold by the Savior Himself. Commenting on a remark by one of the
disciples concerning the great stones and the splendid buildings on
the Temple hill, Jesus had said, "Seest thou these great buildings?
There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown
down."[101]
This dire prediction soon found its literal fulfilment. In the great
conflict with the Roman legions under Titus, many of the Jews had taken
refuge within the temple courts, seemingly hoping that there the Lord
would again fight the battles of His people and give them victory. But
the protecting presence of Jehovah had long since departed therefrom
and Israel was left a prey to the foe. Though Titus would have spared
the Temple, his legionaries, maddened by the lust of conflict, started
the conflagration {62} and everything that could be burned was burned.
The slaughter of the Jews was appalling; thousands of men, women and
children were ruthlessly butchered within the walls, and the temple
courts were literally flooded with human blood. This event occurred
in the year 70 A. D.; and according to Josephus, in the same month
and on the same day of the month as that on which the once glorious
Temple of Solomon had fallen a prey to the flames kindled by the king
of Babylon.[102] Of the temple furniture the golden candlestick and the
table of shewbread from the Holy Place were carried by Titus to Rome as
trophies of war; and representations of these sacred pieces are to be
seen on the arch erected to the name of the victorious general.
Since the destruction of the splendid Temple of Herod no other
structure of the kind, no Temple, no House of the Lord as the terms are
used distinctively, has been reared on the eastern hemisphere. Sometime
between 361 and 363 A. D. the Roman emperor Julian, surnamed because
of his reversion from Christianity to paganism Julian the Apostate,
attempted to reconstruct the Temple at Jerusalem. His purpose was
not that of devotion to nor love for God; but that of controverting
prophecy, and thus proving false the Christian belief.[103] So ends the
category of Temples reared to the name of the living God prior to the
dispensation of the fulness of times.
FOOTNOTES
1. Exodus 3:5.
2. Exodus 16:32-34.
3. See Exodus 31:18; 25:16; 32:15; 34:28, 29.
4. Exodus 33:7-11.
5. In the Authorized Version of the Holy Bible this sanctuary is called
the Tabernacle of the Congregation; in the Revised Version it is
designated the Tent of Meeting; preponderance of authority is in favor
of the latter reading.
6. Exodus 24:9, 10, 18; read the entire chapter.
7. Exodus 25:1-9. For details of the building and furnishings of
the Tabernacle of the Congregation see Exodus chapters 25-31, more
particularly chapter 25, which account is in part repeated in 36:8-38.
8. Exodus 36:5-7.
9. The cubit is an ancient measure of length, the value of which
varied in different countries and at different times. As the term
occurs in the Bible, it denotes varying lengths. In line with modern
encyclopedias, Bible dictionaries, etc., the length herein adopted
is one foot six inches. See Encyclopaedia Britannica. Smith's Bible
Dictionary, etc.
10. Exodus 37:1-9; compare 25:10-22.
11. See Exodus 37:10-29; compare 25:23-40.
12. Exodus 40:34-38.
13. Exodus 25:8.
14. See Exodus chapter 28.
15. See Smith's Dictionary of the Bible (Barnum's ed.), art.
"Tabernacle."
16. Joshua 18:1-3; 19:51; see also 21:2; Judges 18:31; I Sam. 1:3, 24;
4:3, 4.
17. See I Samuel 4:10-18.
18. I Samuel 4:22.
19. See I Samuel 21:1-6.
20. See I Samuel 7:1, 2.
21. See I Chron. 21:28-30; compare II Chron. 1:3-6.
22. I Samuel 4:10-22; also chapters 5 and 6; and 7:1-2.
23. II Samuel 6:1-12; see also I Chron. chapter 13.
24. II Samuel 6:17; see also I Chron. 15:1, and 16:1.
25. See I Kings 3:15 and II Chron. 1:3, 4.
26. See I Kings 8:1-4.
27. I Chron. 17:1; see also II Samuel 7:1, 2.
28. I Chron. 17:4, 5.
29. See I Chron. 22:8; compare 28:3; and I Kings 5:3.
30. See I Chron. 22:1-5.
31. II Samuel 24:15-25; see also I Chron. 21:15-17; and II Chron. 3:1.
32. See I Chron. 21:18-30; compare II Samuel 24:18-25.
33. I Chron. 22:5-19; see also 28:1-8; 29:1-7.
34. I Chron. 28:11-13.
35. II Chron. 2:5; see also the entire chapter.
36. See I Kings 5:11; and II Chron. 2:10, 15 15.
37. I Kings 5:13-18.
38. I Kings 6:7; compare Deuteronomy 27:5, 6.
39. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book VIII: chaps. 2, 3, 4.
40. See II Chron. 3:4.
41. See I Kings 7:13-22.
42. I Kings 6:15-18, 29.
43. Verses 19-22.
44. Verse 35.
45. Verses 5, 6.
46. Ezekiel 41:6, 7.
47. For specifications as to the courts, see I Kings 6:36; compare
7:12; see also II Kings 23:12; II Chron. 4:9; 33:5 33:5.
48. I Kings 7:23-26; II Chron. 4:2; see also II Kings 25:13; compare
Jeremiah 52:17.
49. I Kings 7:39.
50. I Kings 7:27-39; compare II Chron. 4:6.
51. I Kings 8:10, 11.
52. I Kings 8:56, 57; for the dedicatory services in full see the
entire chapter.
53. Verse 66.
54. II Kings 14:13, 14.
55. II Kings 16:10-18: see also II Chron. 28:24.
56. II Kings 21:1-7; see also II Chron. 33:1-7.
57. I Kings 15:18.
58. II Kings 12:18.
59. II Kings 18:15, 16.
60. See II Kings 12:2-14; compare II Chron. 24:7-14; see also II Kings
22:3-7; compare II Chron. 34:8-13.
61. II Kings 24:13; 25:9-17; II Chron. 36:7, 19; compare Isaiah 64:11;
Jeremiah 27:16, 19-22; 28:3; 52:13, 17-23; Lamentations 2:7; 4:1; and
Ezra 1:7.
62. See Daniel, chapter 5.
63. See Ezekiel, chapters 40 to 43.
64. So designated in the Revised Version.
65. Ezekiel 40:47.
66. Verses 44-46.
67. Ezekiel, chapters 44-48.
68. Ezekiel 43:10-12.
69. Jeremiah 25:8-11; see also 29:10.
70. See Jeremiah 25:12-14. See also the author's "The Articles of
Faith," Lecture XVII, "The Dispersion of Israel."
71. Ezra 1:1-4.
72. Ezra 6:3-4.
73. Ezra 1:7-11.
74. See Ezra 2:61-63.
75. Ezra 3:1-6.
76. Ezra 3:8-13.
77. Ezra 4:1-6; see also verses 7-24, and chapter 5.
78. Ezra 6:11, 12; see also verses 7-10.
79. Ezra 6:21.
80. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews: XIII, 13:5.
81. Compare Exodus 20:25; Deut. 27:5; Joshua 8:31.
82. See Haggai 2:1-4; compare Zech. 4:10.
83. See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, 5:3-5.
84. See Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, chaps. 6 and 7;
and II Maccabees 2:19; 10:1-8; see also John 10:22.
85. See Matt. 2:1-10, 16-18. "A little child made the great Herod
quake upon his throne. When he knew that the magi were come to hail
their King and Lord, and did not stop at his palace, but passed on to
a humbler roof, and when he found that they would not return to betray
this child to him, he put to death all the children in Bethlehem that
were under two years old. The crime was great; but the number of the
victims, in a little place like Bethlehem, was small enough to escape
special record among the wicked acts of Herod from Josephus and other
historians, as it had no political interest."--Smith's Comprehensive
Dictionary of the Bible, art. "Jesus Christ," page 466.
86. John 2:20.
87. See John 10:23; Acts 3:11; 5:12.
88. Matt. 21:12-13; see also Mark 11:15; Luke 19:45; John 2:14.
89. See Acts 3:2, 10.
90. See Mark 12:41-44.
91. Compare Exodus 20:26.
92. See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., art. "Temple."
93. Matt. 21:12; compare Mark 11:15; Luke 19:45.
94. See Luke 2:22-38.
95. Luke 2:42-50. See also John 2:13-23; 5:1; 12:12-20.
96. Luke 19:47; John 10:22-39.
97. Matt. 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45.
98. John 2:19-22; see also Matt. 26:61; 27:40; Mark 14:58; 15:29.
99. Acts 6:13.
100. See Acts 21:26-40.
101. Mark 13:1, 2. See also Matt. 24:1, 2; Luke 21:5, 6.
102. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book VI; 4:5, 8. For a detailed and
graphic account of the destruction of the Temple see chapters 4 and 5
in their entirety.
103. "He actually began excavations, but his workmen were driven in
great panic from the spot, by terrific explosions and bursts of flame.
The Christians regarded the occurrence as miraculous; and Julian
himself, it is certain, was so dismayed by it that he desisted from the
undertaking."--P. V. N. Meyers, General History, page 334.
CHAPTER III
NEED OF TEMPLES IN THE PRESENT DISPENSATION
{63} Among the numerous sects and churches professing Christianity,
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands alone in the
teaching and practise of temple ministration. The devotion of this
people to the sacred labor of building temples and administering
therein the saving ordinances of the Gospel has attracted the attention
and aroused the wonder of both philosopher and layman. It is not
enough to attempt an explanation of this singular and stupendous
sacrifice by ascribing it to assumed and unproved fanaticism; the
earnest investigator, the careful observer, and even the cursory
reader, indeed, if he be honest, admits that beneath this devotion is
a deeply-seated and an abiding faith. It cannot be affirmed that the
Latter-day Saints build temples as monuments of communal wealth nor
in the pride of human aggrandisement; for we find them thus arduously
engaged even while bread was scarce and clothing scant among them; and
throughout their history the people have looked upon their temples
as edifices belonging to the Lord, and upon themselves as stewards
entrusted with the custody of the consecrated properties. Nor can it
be said that this Church builds temples as other sects erect chapels,
churches, cathedrals, and synagogues; for the Church has the equivalent
of these, and indeed the meeting-houses and places of public worship
maintained by the Latterday Saints are proportionately greater in
number than {64} are those of other denominations. Moreover, as already
stated, these temples are not used as places of common assembly, nor as
houses of general and congregational service.
Why, then, does The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints build
and maintain temples? In answer let the following pertinent facts be
carefully considered.
NECESSITY OF OBEDIENCE TO THE LAWS AND ORDINANCES OF THE GOSPEL
As part of its declaration of faith, the Church proclaims:
"_We believe that through the atonement of Christ, all mankind may be
saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel_."[1]
While professing belief in the possibility of a universal salvation,
the Church affirms that salvation is assured only on condition of
individual compliance with the requirements established by the
Redeemer, without whose atoning sacrifice none could be saved. The
atonement wrought by the Christ on Calvary was a vicarious offering, in
the beneficent results of which all mankind are made partakers. As to
redemption from the thrall of mortality incident to the transgression
in Eden, the sacrificial death of Christ met in full the exactions
incident to the broken law; and none but Adam shall be held accountable
for Adam's disobedience, nor for any results thereof. In the just
judgment to which every mortal shall come, all conditions of inherited
weakness, temptation due to {65} environment, the capacity to choose
and to act, the measure of knowledge to which the subject has attained,
the meed of truth he has accepted or rejected, the opportunities he has
used aright or wrongly spurned, the fidelity with which he walked in
the light or the depravity through which he wandered in the forbidden
paths of darkness,--these and every other fact and circumstance
entering into the individual life will be duly weighed and considered.
At the bar of God the distinguishing feature of Divine mercy will
be, as in the affairs of mortal life it now is, not an arbitrary
forgiveness of sin nor unearned annulment of the debts of guilt, but
the providing of a way whereby the sinner may be enabled to meet the
requirements of the Gospel, and so in due course pass from the prison
house of sin to the glorious freedom of a righteous life.
There is but one price set on forgiveness for individual transgression,
and this is alike to all,--to poor and rich, to bond and free, to
illiterate and learned; it knows no fluctuations, it changes not with
time; it was the same yesterday as today it is, and even so shall be
forever,--and that price, at which may be bought the pearl beyond all
price, is _obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel_.
Hear this further declaration of faith taught by the restored Church:
"_We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel
are:--(1) Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; (2) Repentance; (3) Baptism
by immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying-on of hands for the
Gift of the Holy Ghost_."[2]
{66} _Faith_ in the Lord Jesus Christ is the fundamental principle of
the Gospel, the first letter in the alphabet of salvation with which
are spelled the words of life eternal. Yet who can have faith in aught
of which he knows nothing? Knowledge is essential to faith, and faith
impels its possessor to seek further knowledge, and to make of that
knowledge, wisdom, which is but knowledge applied and put to use. To
preach Christ and Him crucified[3] is the one and only way by which
faith in Him may be taught through the medium of either precept or
example. While knowledge and faith are thus closely associated, the two
are not identical, nor is the one an assured outgrowth of the other. A
man may have learned the truth, and yet may ignore it. His knowledge,
far from developing within his soul the faith that leads to right
action, may but add to his condemnation, for he sins without even the
mitigation of ignorance. Evil spirits have testified of their knowledge
that Jesus is the Christ, nevertheless they remain the fallen followers
of Satan.[4] As living faith develops within the soul of man it leads
its possessor to seek a means whereby he may rise from the thraldom
of sin; and the very thought of such emancipation inspires a loathing
for the evil contamination of the past. The natural fruitage of that
glorious growth is repentance.
_Repentance_, as a requirement made of all men, constitutes the second
principle of the Gospel of Christ. It comprises a sincere sorrow for
the sins of the past, and a resolute turning away therefrom with
the solemn determination to endeavor by Divine assistance to return
thereto no more. Repentance comes as a gift from God {67} to him who
has treasured and nurtured the earlier gift of faith. It is not to be
had for the careless asking; it may not be found upon the highway; it
is not of earth, but a treasure of heaven, and is given with care, yet
with boundless liberality unto those who have brought forth works that
warrant its bestowal. That is to say, all who prepare themselves for
repentance will, by the humbling and softening influence of the Holy
Spirit, be brought to the actual possession of this great gift. When
Peter was charged by his fellow-worshippers with a breach of law in
that he had associated with Gentiles, he told his hearers of the Divine
manifestations he had so recently received; they believed and declared
"Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." Paul
also, in writing to the Romans, teaches that repentance comes through
the goodness of God.[5]
Wilful persistency in sin may lead to the loss and forfeiture of the
ability to repent; and for man to procrastinate the day of repentance
is to invite and eventually to insure such forfeiture. The Divine word
through the mouth of a modern prophet is thus explicit:
"For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of
allowance;
"Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the
Lord shall be forgiven;
"And he that repents not, from him shall be taken even the light
which he has received, for my Spirit shall not always strive with
man, saith the Lord of Hosts."[6]
The Latter-day Saints believe and teach that repentance {68} will
be possible, and indeed required to the yet unrepentant, even after
death; and they affirm that this doctrine is supported by scripture
both ancient and modern. We read that while the body of our Lord lay
in the tomb, between the evening of the day of crucifixion and the
glorious resurrection morn, He was engaged in ministerial labor in the
world of disembodied spirits. Peter specifically declares that our
Lord "went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime
were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the
days of Noah."[7] The context with which appear these words of the
inspired apostle, shows that the event referred to occurred prior to
the Savior's resurrection. Furthermore, it will be remembered that one
of the condemned malefactors, whose cross of death stood alongside
that of Jesus, manifested faith and even some degree of repentance,
and received from the suffering Christ the benediction and assurance
"Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise."[8] It cannot be maintained
that this promise implied the passing of the repentant sinner directly
from the cross into Heaven--the abode of the redeemed in the presence
of God; for surely there had been no opportunity for the suffering
penitent to put his repentance into effect by complying with the
established laws and ordinances of the Gospel, and without such
compliance, even as to the single requirement of water-baptism alone,
the man could neither enter nor see the Kingdom of God, or the word of
Christ would have been proven false.[9] Moreover, as conclusive proof
of the fact that between the time of Christ's death and resurrection,
neither He nor the contrite {69} sinner had gone to the abode of God,
we have the words of the Risen Lord to the sorrowing Magdalene: "I am
not yet ascended to my Father."[10]
In view of scriptural affirmation that the disembodied Christ did visit
and minister among the spirits who had been disobedient, and who,
because of unpardoned sin were still held in duress, it is pertinent to
inquire as to the scope and object of our Savior's ministry among them.
His preaching must have been purposeful and positive; moreover, it is
not to be assumed that His message was other than one of relief and
mercy. Those to whom He went were already in prison, and had been there
long. To them came the Redeemer, to preach, not to further condemn,
to open the way that led to light, not to intensify the darkness of
despair in which they languished. Had not that visit of deliverance
been long predicted? Centuries before that fateful time Isaiah had
prophesied of proud and wicked spirits: "And they shall be gathered
together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in
the prison, and after many days shall they be visited."[11] And again,
referring to the appointed ministry of the Christ, the same inspired
voice of prophecy declared part of that work to be "to open the blind
eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in
darkness out of the prison house."[12] David, filled with the emotions
of contrition and hope, sang in measures of mingled sadness and joy:
"Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also
shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell."[13]
{70} From these and other scriptures we learn that the ministry of
Christ was not confined to the few who lived in mortality during the
short period of His earthly life, nor to them and the generations
then future; but to all, dead, living, and yet unborn. It cannot be
denied that myriads had lived and died before the meridian of time,
and of these multitudes, as of the many since born, unnumbered hosts
have died without a knowledge of the Gospel and its prescribed plan of
salvation. What is their condition, as indeed what shall be the state
of the present inhabitants of earth, and of the multitudes yet future,
who shall die in ignorance and without the faith that saves? Let us ask
again, how can those who know not Christ have faith in Him, and how,
while lacking both knowledge and faith can they avail themselves of the
provision made for their salvation?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints affirms that the
plan of salvation is not bounded by the grave; but that the Gospel
is deathless and everlasting, reaching back into the ages that have
gone, and forward into the eternities of the future. The ministry
of the Savior among the dead doubtless included the revelation of
His own atoning death, the inculcation of faith in Himself and in
the divinely-appointed plan He represented, and the necessity of a
repentance acceptable unto God. It is reasonable to believe that the
other essential requirements comprised within the _laws and ordinances
of the Gospel_ were made known.
To the less thoughtful reader it may appear that to teach the
possibility of repentance beyond the grave may tend to weaken belief
in the absolute necessity of repentance and reformation in this life.
A careful consideration {71} of the matter, however, will show that
this doctrine affords no reason for such objection. To reject or ignore
in any degree a gift of God is to forfeit to the corresponding extent
one's claim upon that gift. To the soul that has wilfully neglected the
opportunities for repentance here offered, repentance in the hereafter
may be, and indeed it is reasonable to believe will be, so difficult as
to be long unattainable. This conception is justified by scripture, as
witness the words of Amulek, a Nephite prophet, who thus admonished the
Church on the western continent four score years before the birth of
Christ:
"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God;
* * * therefore, I beseech of you, that ye do not procrastinate the
day of your repentance until the end; * * * Ye cannot say, when ye
are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will
return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit
which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this
life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that
eternal world. For behold, if ye have procrastinated the day of
your repentance, even until death, behold, ye have become subjected
to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his."[14]
_Baptism by water_ is taught by the Church in this dispensation as an
essential ordinance of the Gospel. Baptism is the gateway leading into
the fold of Christ, the portal to the Church, the established rite
of naturalization in the Kingdom of God. The candidate for admission
into the Church, having obtained and professed faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and having sincerely repented of his sins, is properly required
to give evidence of this spiritual sanctification by some outward
ordinance, prescribed {72} by authority as the sign or symbol of the
new profession. The initiatory ordinance is baptism by water, to be
followed by the higher baptism of the Holy Spirit; and, as a result of
this act of obedience, remission of sins is granted.[15]
That baptism is essential to salvation is attested by many specific
scriptures; yet even without such its essentiality appears in view of
the unconditional requirement of repentance, and the evident fact that
to be of value and effect repentance must imply obedience to the Divine
requirements, which include baptism by water. Be it remembered that
Jesus, the Christ, though untouched by the taint of sin, submitted in
person to this ordinance, which was administered by the Baptist in the
waters of Jordan. The burden of John's teaching was "Repent ye; for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand," and to such as came to him professing
repentance he administered baptism by water immersion. Then came Jesus
unto John, to be baptized of him; and the Baptist, regarding Him as one
without sin, demurred, saying:
"I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
"And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for
thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered
him.
"And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the
water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
"And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased."[16]
{73} It is evident from the foregoing that the baptism of Jesus was
acceptable unto the Father, and was by Him characterized as an act of
humility and obedience on the part of the Son, with which He was well
pleased. Some time after His own baptism Jesus affirmed, in words at
once forceful and unequivocal, that baptism is required of all men as
a condition of entrance into the kingdom of God. To Nicodemus, a ruler
among the Jews, who came by night professing some measure of faith,
Jesus said: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."[17]
When in the resurrected state He manifested Himself to the apostles,
He instructed them by way of final and special commission: "Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."[18] The necessity and
purpose of the ordinance appear in His further words on the same solemn
occasion: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he
that believeth not shall be damned."[19]
The Apostles, inspired by that Divine commission, ceased not to teach
the necessity of baptism, even as long as their ministry endured among
mortals.[20]
The elders of the Church in the present dispensation have been directed
and empowered by the same authority, and almost in the same words:
"Go ye into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature,
acting in the authority which I have given you, baptizing in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and {74} he
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth
not shall be damned."[21] On another occasion the Lord added, in a
revelation through the modern prophet, Joseph Smith: "Therefore, as
I said unto mine apostles I say unto you again, that every soul who
believeth on your words, and is baptized by water for the remission of
sins, shall receive the Holy Ghost." And further, "Verily, verily, I
say unto you they who believe not on your words, and are not baptized
in water, in my name, for the remission of their sins, that they may
receive the Holy Ghost, shall be damned, and shall not come into my
Father's kingdom, where my Father and I am."[22]
_The Gift of the Holy Ghost_ follows baptism by water, and its
authoritative bestowal constitutes the next essential ordinance of the
Gospel.[23] In both ancient and modern times this endowment has been
regarded as a higher baptism, lacking which the baptism of water is
incomplete. John, distinctively known as the Baptist, so taught on the
very eve of our Savior's personal ministry. Consider well his words: "I
indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after
me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire."[24] John testifies
further that the One who should thus inaugurate the higher baptism
was Jesus, Himself. Not until after he had administered the ordinance
of water baptism to Jesus, did John recognize Him as the Christ;
but immediately {75} after that recognition, the Baptist fearlessly
proclaimed his testimony:
"Behold the Lamb of God * * * This is he of whom I said, After me
cometh a man which is preferred before me * * * And I knew him not:
but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me,
Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on
him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost."[25]
Jesus repeatedly promised the apostles that the "Comforter" or the
"Spirit of Truth"[26] should be given unto them; and this assurance
was made specific and final immediately prior to the ascension. He
"commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait
for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the
Holy Ghost not many days hence. * * * Ye shall receive power, after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto
me."[27] The promise was fulfilled at the succeeding Pentecost when
the apostles received power never before known to them, the endowment
being marked by an outward manifestation of fiery tongues.[28] The
apostles thereafter promised the Holy Ghost to those who sought
salvation. Peter's exhortation to the multitude, on that same memorable
day of Pentecost, is particularly explicit and forceful. In answer to
the inquiry, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" the chief of the
apostles replied: {76} "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive
the gift of the Holy Ghost."[29]
A similar assurance as to the higher endowment of the Holy Ghost
following the ordinance of water-baptism was made by Nephite
prophets,[30] and by the resurrected Christ in His visit to the people
of the western continent.[31] And later still this has been repeated
through the Church in the current dispensation, that of the fulness of
times: "I say unto you again," said the Lord in a revelation to certain
elders of the Church, "that every soul who believeth on your words, and
is baptized by water for the remission of sins, shall receive the Holy
Ghost."[32]
By way of summary let it be repeated: The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints holds as a fundamental doctrine, attested and
proved by scripture both ancient and modern, that compliance with _the
laws and ordinances of the Gospel_ is an absolute and irrevocable
requirement for admission into the Kingdom of God, or in other words,
for the securing of individual salvation to the souls of men, and that
this requirement is universal, applying alike to every soul that has
attained to age and powers of accountability in the flesh, in whatever
period or dispensation that soul has lived in mortality. It follows as
a necessary consequence that if any soul has failed, either through
ignorance or neglect, to render obedience to these requirements, the
obligation is not removed by death.
VICARIOUS SERVICE OF THE LIVING FOR THE DEAD
{77} A question now arises as to how it is possible for the dead to
comply with the terms of the Gospel and do in the spirit what they had
failed to do in the flesh. The exercise of faith and the manifestation
of repentance by disembodied spirits may offer no great difficulty to
human understanding; but that the dead shall obey the ordinances of
the Gospel requiring water-baptism and the baptism of the Spirit by
the authorized laying-on of hands, appears to many as truly impossible
as seemed the new birth to Nicodemus. He listened in amazement to the
Savior's words: "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom
of God;" and asked: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" At last he
learned that the new birth referred to was baptism by water and the
baptism of the Spirit. With equal pertinency it may now be asked: How
can a man be baptized when he is dead? Can he enter the second time
into his body of flesh and be immersed in water by human agency? The
answer is that the necessary ordinances may be performed for the dead
by their living representatives, the mortal subject acting as proxy for
the departed one. Thus, even as a man may be baptized in his own person
for himself, he may be baptized as proxy for and in behalf of the dead.
The validity of vicarious service, in which one person acts in
behalf of another, is generally recognized as an element of human
institutions; and that such service may be acceptable unto God is
attested by the written word. Ancient and modern scripture, the
record of {78} history other than sacred, the traditions of tribes
and nations, the rites of bloody sacrifice, and even the sacrificial
abominations of pagan idolatry, involve the essential conception
of vicarious propitiation and of service rendered by proxy. The
scape-goat[33] and the altar victim[34] in the Mosaic dispensation,
when offered by constituted authority and with due accompaniment of
acknowledgment and repentance, were accepted by the Lord as sacrifices
in mitigation of the sins of His people.
The most significant sacrifice of all, the greatest work ever wrought
amongst mankind, the pivotal event in human history, the supreme
achievement which was at once the most glorious consummation and the
most blessed beginning, is the Atonement of Christ; and this was
pre-eminently a vicarious offering. No one who believes that Jesus died
for man can doubt the validity and efficacy of vicarious ministration.
He gave His life as a fore-ordained sacrifice, voluntarily offered and
duly accepted as a propitiation for broken law, and the means by which
salvation was made possible unto man. That His death was literally an
accepted offering in behalf of human kind is thus set forth in the
words of the resurrected Christ, given through modern revelation:
"For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that
they might not suffer if they would repent, but if they would not
repent, they must suffer even as I, which suffering caused myself,
even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to
bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit: and would
that I might not drink the bitter cup and shrink--nevertheless,
glory be to the Father, {79} and I partook and finished my
preparations unto the children of men."[35]
The vicarious effect of the atonement of Christ is twofold; it has
wrought a universal redemption of all men from the mortal death
incident to the transgression of Adam; and it has provided a means of
propitiation for individual sin whereby the sinner may attain salvation
through obedience. It is by His mortal life and sacrificial death
in behalf of others,--and those others, all who have lived or shall
live,--that Jesus the Christ earned His title, Savior and Redeemer of
mankind. And as He by effort, sacrifice, and suffering, did for men
what they never could accomplish for themselves, and so became in very
truth the one and only Savior and Redeemer of the race, so may each of
us by opening the way to our departed dead whereby they may be brought
within the saving law of the Gospel, become in a small measure saviors
unto those who would otherwise be left in darkness.[36]
In every instance of vicarious ministration, it is an indispensable
requisite that the proxy be worthy and acceptable; and of necessity he
must himself have obeyed the laws and ordinances of the Gospel before
he can officiate in behalf of others. Further, the ministrations of the
living representative must be in accordance with Divine appointment,
and in no wise a merely human assumption. The acceptable sacrifices of
ancient Israel were such as had been definitely specified and minutely
prescribed; and the sacrificial rites could be solemnized only by
authorized priests. The supreme sacrifice involved {80} in the atoning
death of Christ was as truly appointed and fore-ordained. Prophets,
through the long centuries antedating the Christian era, predicted the
birth, life, and death of our Lord as already provided for;[37] and
these prophecies were confirmed by Jesus Himself.[38] Consider also
the testimony of the apostles to the same effect. Peter specifically
designates Christ as "a Lamb without blemish and without spot: who
verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world."[39] The
designation "Lamb" is indicative of a sacrificial victim. Paul in
writing to the Romans characterizes our Lord as the one "Whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past."[40]
The Latter-day Saints affirm that their vicarious work in behalf of
the dead is required of them by the call of the Lord through direct
revelation; and that it becomes the duty and privilege of every
individual who accepts the Gospel and enters the Church to labor
for the salvation of his dead. He is expected and required by the
obligations and responsibility he has assumed as a member of the Church
of Jesus Christ, so to live as to be a worthy representative of his
departed ancestors, in holy ordinance, and to be of clean life, that he
may not forfeit his right to enter the sacred confines of the Lord's
House, where alone he may officiate in that privileged capacity.
Let it not be assumed that this doctrine of vicarious {81} labor for
the dead implies even remotely, that the administration of ordinances
in behalf of departed spirits operates in any manner to interfere with
the right of choice and the exercise of free agency on their part.
They are at liberty to accept or reject the ministrations in their
behalf; and so they will accept or reject, in accordance with their
converted or unregenerate state, even as is the case with mortals to
whom the Gospel message may come. Though baptism be duly administered
to a living man in behalf of a dead ancestor, that spirit will derive
no immediate advancement nor any benefit therefrom if he has not yet
attained faith in the Lord Jesus Christ or if he be still unrepentant.
Even as Christ offered salvation to all, though few there be who accept
in the flesh, so temple ordinances may be administered for many in the
realm of the departed who are not yet prepared to profit thereby.
It is evident, therefore, that labor in behalf of the dead is two-fold;
that performed on earth would remain incomplete and futile but for
its supplement and counterpart beyond the veil. Missionary work
is in progress there--work, compared with which the evangelistic
labor of earth is but a small undertaking. There are preachers and
teachers, ministers invested with the Holy Priesthood, all engaged
in declaring the glad tidings of the Gospel to spirits who have not
yet found the light. As has been shown, this great labor amongst the
dead was inaugurated by Jesus the Christ, during the brief period of
His disembodiment.[41] The saving ministry so begun was left to be
continued by others duly authorized and commissioned; even as the work
of preaching the Gospel {82} and administering therein amongst the
living was committed to the apostles in the Church of old.
AUTHORITY TO LABOR IN BEHALF OF THE DEAD
In the closing chapter of the compilation of scriptures known to us
as the Old Testament, the prophet Malachi thus describes a condition
incident to the last days, immediately preceding the second coming of
Christ:
"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all
the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the
day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that
it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness
arise with healing in his wings."
The fateful prophecy concludes with the following blessed and
far-reaching promise:
"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of
the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and
the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite
the earth with a curse."[42]
It has been held by theologians and Bible commentators that this
prediction had reference to the birth and ministry of John the
Baptist,[43] upon whom rested the spirit and power of Elias.[44]
However, we have no record of Elijah having ministered unto the
Baptist, and furthermore, {83} the latter's ministry, glorious though
it was, justifies no conclusion that in him did the prophecy find its
full realization. In addition, it should be remembered, that the Lord's
declaration through Malachi, relative to the day of burning in which
the wicked would be destroyed as stubble, yet awaits fulfilment. It is
evident, therefore, that the commonly accepted interpretation is at
fault, and that we must look to a later date than the time of John for
the fulfilment of Malachi's prediction. The later occasion has come;
it belongs to the present dispensation, and marks the inauguration of
a work specially reserved for the Church in these latter days. In the
course of a glorious manifestation to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery,
in the Temple at Kirtland, Ohio, April 3rd, 1836, there appeared unto
them Elijah, the prophet of old, who had been taken from earth while
still in the body. He declared unto them:
"Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth
of Malachi, testifying that he (Elijah) should be sent before the
great and dreadful day of the Lord come, to turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the
whole earth be smitten with a curse. Therefore 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."[45]
One of the fundamental principles underlying the doctrine of salvation
for the dead, is that of the mutual dependance of the fathers and
the children. Family lineage and the sequence of generations in each
particular line of descent are facts, and cannot be changed {84} by
death; on the other hand it is evident from the olden scriptures
already cited, and attested by the equally sure word of modern
revelation, that the family relationships of earth are recognized
in the spirit world. Neither the children nor the fathers, neither
progenitors nor descendants, can alone attain perfection; and the
requisite co-operation is effected through baptism and related
ordinances, administered to the living in behalf of the dead.
In this way and through this work are the hearts of the fathers and
those of the children turned toward each other. As the living children
learn that without their ancestors they cannot attain a perfect status
in the eternal world, their own faith will be strengthened and they
will be willing to labor for the redemption and salvation of their
dead. And the dead, learning through the preaching of the Gospel
in their world, that they are dependent upon their descendants as
vicarious saviors, will turn with loving faith and prayerful effort
toward their children yet living.
This uniting of the interests of fathers and children is a part of the
necessary preparation for the yet future advent of the Christ as ruling
King and Lord of earth. Joseph Smith thus taught:
"The earth will be smitten with a curse, unless there is a welding
link of some kind or other, between the fathers and the children,
upon some subject or other, and behold what is that subject? It
is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made
perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect."[46]
{85} The Church today cites as authority for its administration
of ordinances in behalf of the dead, the special bestowal of this
power and office through the ministry of Elijah; and furthermore,
the Church holds that the giving of that power marked the fulfilment
of Malachi's portentous prediction. There appears an element of
particular fitness in the fact that the minister through whom this
great work has been inaugurated in the present dispensation, is none
other than Elijah,--who, not having passed the portals of death, held
a peculiar and special relation to both the dead and the living. As
to the fidelity with which the Church has served under this special
commission, the temples it has reared with such sacrifice and
self-denial on the part of its devoted adherents, and the ordinance
work already performed therein, are sufficient proof.
The importance with which the Latter-day Saints regard their temple
work in behalf of the dead naturally produces among this people a vital
interest in the genealogical records of their respective families.
Ordinance work in the temples, in behalf of any departed person, can be
done only as that person may be described on the record, as to name,
relationship, time and place of birth and death, etc., by which data
he may be fully and certainly isolated and identified.[47] It is a
matter of common knowledge that interest in genealogical research has
greatly increased in the United States and in Europe during the last
seven or eight decades. Genealogical societies have been formed, and
individual investigators have devoted great treasures of time and money
to the compilation of records showing {86} numerous lines of family
descent and the many ramifications of complicated relationship. In all
this work the Latter-day Saints profess to see the operation of an
over-ruling power, by which their service for the dead is facilitated.
TEMPLES REQUIRED FOR VICARIOUS SERVICE
While the ordinances of baptism, imposition of hands for the bestowal
of the Holy Ghost, and others, such as ordination to the Priesthood,
may be performed upon the living in any suitable and proper place, the
corresponding ordinances for and in behalf of the dead are acceptable
unto the Lord, and therefore valid, only when administered in places
specially provided, set apart, and dedicated for these and kindred
purposes; that is to say, such ordinances belong exclusively to the
House of the Lord. For a very brief period only, and that the earliest
in modern Church history, before the people had opportunity to erect
temples, did the Lord graciously accept a temporary sanctuary, even
as He accepted the Tabernacle of old as a temporary temple during the
period of Israel's wanderings.
In a revelation given to Joseph Smith, the prophet, at Nauvoo,
Illinois, January 19th, 1841, the Lord called upon His people to build
a house to His name "for the Most High to dwell therein," and added by
way of explanation and instruction:
"For there is not a place found on earth that he may come and
restore again that which was lost unto you, or which he hath taken
away, even the fulness of the Priesthood;
{87} "For a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they,
my saints, may be baptized for those who are dead;
"For this ordinance belongeth to my house, and cannot be acceptable
to me, only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not able to
build a house unto me.
"But I command you, all ye my saints, to build a house unto me; and
I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me, and
during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me.
"But behold, at the end of this appointment, your baptisms for
your dead shall not be acceptable unto me; and if you do not these
things at the end of the appointment, ye shall be rejected as a
church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God.
"For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time
to build a house to me, wherein the ordinance of baptizing for the
dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before
the foundation of the world, your baptisms for your dead cannot be
acceptable unto me,
"For therein are the keys of the holy Priesthood, ordained that you
may receive honor and glory.
"And after this time, your baptisms for the dead, by those who are
scattered abroad, are not acceptable unto me, saith the Lord;
"For it is ordained that in Zion, and in her Stakes, and in
Jerusalem, those places which I have appointed for refuge, shall be
the places for your baptisms for your dead.
"And again, verily I say unto you, How shall your washings be
acceptable unto me, except ye perform them in a house which you
have built to my name?
"For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a
tabernacle, that they should bear it with them in the wilderness,
and to build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances
might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was;
"Therefore, verily I say unto you, that your anointings, and
your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn
assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrifices, {88} by the
sons of Levi, and for your oracles in your most holy places,
wherein you receive conversations, and your statutes and judgments,
for the beginning of the revelations and foundation of Zion, and
for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals, are
ordained by the ordinance of my holy house which my people are
always commanded to build unto my holy name.
"And verily I say unto you, Let this house be built unto my name,
that I may reveal mine ordinances therein, unto my people;
"For I deign to reveal unto my church, things which have been kept
hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to
the dispensation of the fulness of times."[48]
* * * *
This then is sufficient answer to the question as to why the Latter-day
Saints build and maintain temples. They have been instructed and
required so to do by the Lord of Hosts. They have learned that many
essential ordinances of the Church are acceptable only when performed
in temples specially erected and reserved for the purpose. They know
that within these precincts of sanctity the Lord has revealed many
great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God; and that
He has promised to reveal yet more to man in houses sacred to His name.
They have learned that a great part of the mission and ministry of the
restored Church is the administration of vicarious ordinances in behalf
of the unnumbered dead who never heard the tidings of the Gospel, and
that for such sacred and saving service
_Temples are a necessity_.
FOOTNOTES
1. See the author's "The Articles of Faith," Lecture IV; and references
therein given.
2. See the author's "The Articles of Faith," Lectures V--VIII with
references therein given.
3. I Cor. 1:23; 2:2.
4. See Mark 1:24; 3:11; 5:1-18; and Matt. 8:28-34.
5. Acts 11:18; Rom. 2:4; see also the author's "The Articles of Faith,"
Lecture V:19-30 and references therein given.
6. Doctrine and Covenants 1:31-33.
7. I Peter 3:19-20; compare 4:6.
8. See Luke 23:39-43.
9. Consider our Lord's declaration to Nicodemus, John 3:1-5.
10. John 20:17.
11. Isaiah 24:22.
12. Isaiah 42:6, 7.
13. Psalms 16:9-10.
14. Book of Mormon, Alma 34:32-35.
15. "The Articles of Faith," Lecture VI:1. For a general treatment of
Baptism see Lectures VI and VII.
16. Matt. 3:13-17.
17. See John 3:1-7.
18. Matt. 28:19.
19. Mark 16:16.
20. See Acts 2:38; 9:1-18; 10:30-48; 22:1-16; I Peter 3:21.
21. Doctrine and Covenants 68:8, 9.
22. Doctrine and Covenants, 84:64, 74; see also 112:28, 29.
23. See "The Articles of Faith," Lecture VIII.
24. Matt. 3:11; compare Mark 1:7, 8; Luke 3:16.
25. John 1:29-33.
26. John 14:16, 17, 26; 15:26; 16:7, 13.
27. Acts 1:4, 5, 8.
28. Acts 2:1-4.
29. Acts 2:37, 38.
30. For an instance, see Book of Mormon, II Nephi 31:8, 12-14, 17.
31. III Nephi 11:35; 12:2.
32. Doctrine and Covenants 84:64.
33. Lev. 16:20-22.
34. Lev. chap. 4.
35. Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-19.
36. See Obadiah 21; I Timothy 4:16; James 5:20.
37. Deut. 18:15, 17-19; Job 19:25-27; Psalms 2:1-12; Zech. 9:9; 12:10;
13:6; Isa. 7:14; 9:6, 7; Micah 5:2.
38. See Luke 24:27, 45, 46.
39. I Peter 1:19, 20.
40. Rom. 3:25. See further Rom. 16:25, 26; Eph. 3:9-11; Col. 1:24-26;
II Tim, 1:8-10; Titus 1:2, 3; Rev. 13:8.
41. See pages 68-70.
42. See Malachi 4:1, 2, 5, 6.
43. Compare Matt. 11:14; 17:11; Mark 9:11; Luke 1:17.
44. Luke 1:17.
45. Doctrine and Covenants 110:13-16.
46. Doctrine and Covenants 128:18.
47. See Doctrine and Covenants 128:5-8.
48. Doctrine and Covenants 124:28-41. Read the entire section.
CHAPTER IV
MODERN TEMPLE ORDINANCES
{89} A more detailed consideration of modern temple service now claims
our attention. The ceremonial work comprises:
1. Baptism, specifically Baptism for the Dead.
2. Ordination and associated Endowments in the Priesthood.
3. Marriage Ceremonies.
4. Other Sealing Ordinances.
As will be understood from what has been already written, each of
these ceremonies or ordinances may be performed either for the living,
present in person, or for the dead who are represented each by an
individual living proxy. The living are but few compared with the dead;
and it follows of necessity that the ordinance-work for the departed
exceeds by a great preponderance that done for the living. The temples
of today are maintained largely for the benefit and salvation of the
uncounted dead.
BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD
As demonstrated in the preceding pages, the law of baptism is of
universal application; in short, baptism is required of all who have
lived to the age of accountability. Only those who die in infancy
are exempt. Children, having no sin to expiate, and being unable to
comprehend {90} the nature of the baptismal obligation, are not to be
baptized while living, nor is the ordinance to be performed for them
should they die before reaching a responsible age and state. As to the
child's part in the heritage of mortality incident to the transgression
of Adam, the atonement of Christ is of full effect, and the redemption
of the child is assured.[1] Regarding the general applicability of the
law prescribing baptism as essential to salvation, the scriptures make
no distinction between the living and the dead. The atoning sacrifice
of Christ was offered, not only for the few who lived upon the earth
while He was in the flesh, nor for those alone who were born in
mortality after His death, but for all inhabitants of earth then past,
present, and future. He was ordained of the Father to be a judge of
both quick and dead;[2] He is Lord alike of living and dead,[3] as men
speak of dead and living, though all live unto Him.[4]
Among the pernicious dogmas taught by a perverted and mis-called
Christianity, is the heinous doctrine that never-ending punishment or
interminable bliss, unchanging in kind or degree, shall be the destiny
of every soul,--the award being made according to the condition of that
soul at the time of bodily death; a life of sin being thus nullified
by a death-bed repentance, and a life of honor, if unmarked by the
ceremonies of established sects, being followed by the tortures of hell
without a possibility of relief. Such a dogma is to be ranked with the
dread {91} heresy which proclaims the condemnation of innocent babes
who have not been sprinkled by man's assumed authority. In the justice
of God no soul shall be finally condemned under a law of which he has
had no chance to learn. True, eternal punishment has been decreed
as the lot of the wicked; but the real meaning of the punishment so
decreed has been made known by the Lord Himself.[5] Eternal punishment
is God's punishment; endless punishment is His; for "Endless" and
"Eternal" are among His names, and the words are descriptive of His
attributes. No soul will be punished for sin beyond the time requisite
to work the needed reformation and to vindicate justice, for which
ends alone punishment is imposed. And no one will be eligible to enter
any kingdom of glory in the abode of the blessed to which he is not
entitled through obedience to law.
It follows as a plain necessity that the Gospel must be proclaimed
in the spirit world; and that such ministry is provided for, the
scriptures abundantly prove. Peter, defining the mission of the
Redeemer, thus declares this solemn truth: "For this cause was the
gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged
according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the
spirit."[6] As already shown, the inauguration of this work among
the dead was wrought by Christ in the interval between His death and
resurrection.
In his first epistle to the Saints in Corinth, Paul presents a brief
yet comprehensive treatment of the doctrine of the resurrection,--a
subject which at that time and among those to whom he wrote, had given
rise to much {92} contention and debate;[7] and, having shown that
through Christ the resurrection of the dead had been made possible, and
that in due course all mankind shall be redeemed from bodily death,
the apostle asks, "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the
dead, if the dead rise not at all? why then are they baptized for the
dead?"[8] As the question is put by way of finality and climax to the
preceding argument, it is evident that the subject so introduced was
no new or strange doctrine, but on the contrary, one with which the
people addressed must have been familiar, and which to them required
no argument. Baptism for the dead was, therefore, both known as a
principle and practised as an ordinance in apostolic times. That the
practise was continued in some form for a century or more after the
apostles had passed from the earth is evidenced by numerous passages in
the writings of the early Christian Fathers, and by later authorities
on ecclesiastical history.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proclaims the present
as the dispensation of the {93} fulness of times, in which shall be
gathered and re-established all the saving principles and essential
ordinances of earlier dispensations, and during which the great plan of
universal redemption shall be fully revealed. The Church, therefore,
provides for the actual work of baptism for the dead, and in the
temples of today this sacred labor is in uninterrupted progress.
As will be seen, each of the temples is provided with a baptismal
font, with every necessary provision for the administration of this
ordinance.[9]
The rite of water-baptism in behalf of the dead is followed by that
of the laying-on of hands for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost; and in
this as in the preceding, the dead person is represented by the living
proxy. The imposition of hands for the conferring of the gift of the
Holy Ghost constitutes the higher baptism of the Spirit required
alike of all, and includes the rite of confirmation by which the
person becomes a member of the Church of Christ. In all essentials
the ordinances of baptism and confirmation are identical, whether
administered to the living for themselves or as proxy for the dead. As
these ordinances are administered in existing temples it is required
that, beside the recorder and the officiating elder, two witnesses be
present, and that they attest the ceremony as duly performed.
ORDINATION AND ENDOWMENT
Water-baptism, and the higher baptism of the Spirit by the authorized
imposition of hands for the conferring of the Holy Ghost, constitute
the two fundamental ordinances of the Gospel. The repentant soul who
has thus {94} entered the Church of Christ may afterward attain to
position and authority in the Holy Priesthood--not as an earthly honor,
not as a title of personal aggrandizement, not as a symbol of power to
rule and possibly to oppress,--but as an endowment bespeaking authority
and the express responsibility to use that authority in the service of
his fellows and to the glory of God. In the temple service, the man
who appears as proxy for his dead relative must be ordained to the
Priesthood before he can pass beyond the baptismal font.
It is a precept of the Church that women of the Church share the
authority of the Priesthood with their husbands, actual or prospective;
and therefore women, whether taking the endowment for themselves or
for the dead, are not ordained to specific rank in the Priesthood.
Nevertheless there is no grade, rank, or phase of the temple endowment
to which women are not eligible on an equality with men. True, there
are certain of the higher ordinances to which an unmarried woman cannot
be admitted, but the rule is equally in force as to a bachelor. The
married state is regarded as sacred, sanctified, and holy in all temple
procedure; and within the House of the Lord the woman is the equal and
the help-meet of the man. In the privileges and blessings of that holy
place, the utterance of Paul is regarded as a scriptural decree in full
force and effect: "Neither is the man without the woman, neither the
woman without the man, in the Lord."[10]
Faith and sincere repentance, followed first by water-baptism and
then by the laying-on of hands for the bestowal of the Holy Ghost,
are the prescribed means of {95} admission into the Church of Christ
and prospective salvation in the Kingdom of God. But there is a
distinction between salvation and exaltation. At this point it may be
well to consider this distinction, and to set forth the doctrines of
the restored Church as to the graded degrees of exaltation beyond the
grave.[11]
_Salvation and Exaltation:_--Some degree of salvation will come to all
who have not forfeited their right to it; exaltation is given to those
only who by active labors have won a claim to God's merciful liberality
by which it is bestowed. Of the saved, not all will be exalted to the
higher glories; rewards will not be bestowed in violation of justice;
punishments will not be meted out to the ignoring of mercy's claims.
No one can be admitted to any order of glory, in short, no soul can
be saved, until justice has been satisfied for violated law. In the
Kingdom of God there are numerous degrees of exaltation provided for
those who are worthy of them. The old idea, that in the hereafter there
will be but two places for the souls of mankind,--a heaven and a hell,
with the same glory in all parts of the one, and the same terrors
throughout the other,--is wholly untenable in the light of Divine
revelation.
_Degrees of Glory:_--That the privileges and glories of heaven are
graded to suit the various capacities of the blessed, is indicated in
Christ's teachings. To His apostles He said: "In my Father's house
are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again, and receive you unto myself; that {96} where I am,
there ye may be also."[12] This declaration is supplemented by that of
Paul, who speaks of the graded glories of the resurrection as follows:
"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the
glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is
another.
"There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and
another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another
star in glory.
"So also is the resurrection of the dead."[13]
A fuller knowledge of this subject has been imparted in the present
dispensation. From a revelation given in 1832[14] we learn the
following: Three great kingdoms or degrees of glory are established
for the future habitation of the human race; these are known as the
Celestial, the Terrestrial, and the Telestial. Far below the last and
least of these, is the state of eternal punishment prepared for the
sons of perdition.
_The Celestial Glory_ is provided for those who merit the highest
honors of heaven; in the revelation referred to, we read of them:
"They are they who received the testimony of Jesus, and believed
on his name and were baptized after the manner of his burial,
being buried in the water in his name, and this according to the
commandment which he has given, that by keeping the commandments
they might be washed and cleansed from all their sins, and receive
the Holy Spirit by the laying on of the hands of him who is
ordained and sealed unto this power, and who overcome by faith, and
are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds
forth {97} upon all those who are just and true. They are they who
are the Church of the First-born. They are they into whose hands
the Father has given all things--they are they who are Priests and
Kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory, and are
Priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchisedek, which was
after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only
Begotten Son; wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even
the sons of God--wherefore all things are theirs, whether life or
death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and
they are Christ's and Christ is God's. * * * * These shall dwell
in the presence of God and his Christ for ever and ever. These are
they whom he shall bring with him, when he shall come in the clouds
of heaven, to reign on the earth over his people. These are they
who shall have a part in the first resurrection. These are they who
shall come forth in the resurrection of the just. * * * These are
they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of
the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement through
the shedding of his own blood. These are they whose bodies are
celestial, whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God,
the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written
of as being typical."[15]
_The Terrestrial Glory:_--This, the next lower degree, will be received
by many whose works do not merit the highest reward. We read of them:
"These are they who are of the terrestrial, whose glory differs
from that of the Church of the First-born who have received the
fulness of the Father, even as that of the moon differs from the
sun in the firmament. Behold, these are they who died without law,
and also they who are the spirits of men kept in prison, whom the
Son visited, and preached the Gospel unto them, that they might be
judged according to {98} men in the flesh, who received not the
testimony of Jesus in the flesh, but afterwards received it. These
are they who are honorable men of the earth, who were blinded by
the craftiness of men. These are they who receive of his glory,
but not of his fulness. These are they who receive of the presence
of the Son, but not of the fulness of the Father; wherefore they
are bodies terrestrial, and not bodies celestial, and differ in
glory as the moon differs from the sun. These are they who are not
valiant in the testimony of Jesus; wherefore they obtain not the
crown over the kingdom of our God."[16]
_The Telestial Glory:_--The revelation continues:
"And again, we saw the glory of the telestial, which glory is that
of the lesser, even as the glory of the stars differs from that of
the glory of the moon in the firmament. These are they who received
not the gospel of Christ, neither the testimony of Jesus. These are
they who deny not the Holy Spirit. These are they who are thrust
down to hell. These are they who shall not be redeemed from the
devil, until the last resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the
Lamb shall have finished his work."[17]
We learn further that the inhabitants of this kingdom are to be graded
among themselves, comprising as they do the unenlightened among the
varied opposing sects and divisions of men, and sinners of many types,
whose offenses are not those of utter perdition:
"For as one star differs from another star in glory, even so
differs one from another in glory in the telestial world; for these
are they who are of Paul, and of Apollos, and of Cephas. These are
they who say they are some of one and some of another--some of
Christ and some of John, and {99} some of Moses, and some of Elias,
and some of Esaias, and some of Isaiah, and some of Enoch; but
received not the gospel, neither the testimony of Jesus, neither
the prophets, neither the everlasting covenant."[18]
The three kingdoms of widely differing glories are organized on an
orderly plan of gradation. We have seen that the telestial kingdom
comprises several subdivisions; this also is the case, we are told,
with the celestial;[19] and, by analogy, we conclude that a similar
condition prevails in the terrestrial. Thus the innumerable degrees
of merit amongst mankind are provided for in an infinity of graded
glories. The celestial kingdom is supremely honored by the personal
ministrations of the Father and the Son. The terrestrial kingdom will
be administered through the higher, without a fulness of glory. The
telestial is governed through the ministrations of the terrestrial, by
"angels who are appointed to minister for them."[20]
Exaltation in the kingdom of God implies attainment to the graded
orders of the Holy Priesthood, and with these the ceremonies of the
endowment are directly associated.
_The Temple Endowment_, as administered in modern temples, comprises
instruction relating to the significance and sequence of past
dispensations, and the importance of the present as the greatest and
grandest era in human history. This course of instruction includes
a recital of the most prominent events of the creative period, the
condition of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, their {100}
disobedience and consequent expulsion from that blissful abode, their
condition in the lone and dreary world when doomed to live by labor
and sweat, the plan of redemption by which the great transgression may
be atoned, the period of the great apostasy, the restoration of the
Gospel with all its ancient powers and privileges, the absolute and
indispensable condition of personal purity and devotion to the right in
present life, and a strict compliance with Gospel requirements.
As will be shown, the temples erected by the Latter-day Saints provide
for the giving of these instructions in separate rooms, each devoted to
a particular part of the course; and by this provision it is possible
to have several classes under instruction at one time.
The ordinances of the endowment embody certain obligations on the part
of the individual, such as covenant and promise to observe the law of
strict virtue and chastity, to be charitable, benevolent, tolerant and
pure; to devote both talent and material means to the spread of truth
and the uplifting of the race; to maintain devotion to the cause of
truth; and to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation
that the earth may be made ready to receive her King,--the Lord Jesus
Christ. With the taking of each covenant and the assuming of each
obligation a promised blessing is pronounced, contingent upon the
faithful observance of the conditions.
No jot, iota, or tittle of the temple rites is otherwise than uplifting
and sanctifying. In every detail the endowment ceremony contributes
to covenants of morality of life, consecration of person to high
ideals, devotion to truth, patriotism to nation, and allegiance to
God. The blessings of the House of the Lord are restricted to no {101}
privileged class; every member of the Church may have admission to the
temple with the right to participate in the ordinances thereof, if he
comes duly accredited as of worthy life and conduct.
SEALING IN MARRIAGE
The Latter-day Saints regard the marriage ceremony performed
exclusively within temple precincts, as the one and only perfect
contract of matrimony.[21] They recognize the full legal validity and
moral obligation of any marriage entered into under the secular law;
but civil marriages and indeed all marriages made without the binding
authority of the Holy Priesthood they regard as contracts for this
life only, and therefore lacking the higher and superior elements of a
complete and perpetual union. They hold that the family relationships
of earth may be made lasting and binding beyond the veil of death. They
say that under the perfect law operative in the celestial worlds, the
earthly relation of husband and wife, parent and child, will endure in
full force and effect, provided such relationship has been sealed on
earth by the power and authority of the Holy Priesthood. The ordinary
rite of matrimony as established by secular law, and as prescribed by
sectarian rule, unites the man and the woman for this world only; the
higher law of marriage as divinely revealed joins the parties for time
and eternity.
"Celestial Marriage" is a term in current use among the Latter-day
Saints, though it does not occur in any revelation contained in the
standard works of the Church. {102} The Church adopts and validates
the scriptures of earlier dispensations with respect to marriage. It
holds that marriage is honorable[22] and ordained of God.[23] Under
the teachings of the Church, marriage is the duty of all who are not
debarred by physical or other effective disability from assuming the
responsibilities of the wedded state. The Latter-day Saints declare
that part of the birthright of every worthy man is to stand at the head
of a family as husband and father; and equally strong is the right of
every worthy woman to be an honored wife and mother.
The Church denounces as false and pernicious the teachings of misled
and morbid men who say that the union of the sexes is but a carnal
necessity inherited by man as an incident of his degraded nature; and
it repudiates the thought that celibacy is a superior condition more
pleasing to God. Concerning such false teachers the Lord has spoken in
this day:
"Whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is
ordained of God unto man * * * that the earth might answer the end
of its creation, and that it might be filled with the measure of
man, according to his creation before the world was made."[24]
The Latter-day Saints affirm that perfect marriage provides for the
eternal relation of the sexes. With this people marriage is not merely
a contract for time, effective only as long as the parties shall live
on earth, but a solemn covenant of union which shall endure beyond the
{103} grave. In the complete ceremony of marriage as ordained by the
Church and as administered only within the temple halls, the man and
the woman are placed under covenant of mutual fidelity, not until death
do them part, but for time and for all eternity.
A contract as far-reaching as this, a covenant declared to be effective
not only throughout the period of mortal life, but in the realm of
the hereafter, of necessity requires for its validation an authority
superior to any that man may originate. It is admitted without argument
that men have the right to form among themselves associations and
communities, to organize sects, parties, companies, churches, clubs, or
any other union they may choose to create, provided, of course, such
bodies are not inimical to law and order. It is further admitted that
any established association of men may enact laws and ordain rules
for the government of its members, provided the rights of individual
liberty are not infringed thereby. Both church and state, therefore,
may enact, prescribe, and ordain, lawful regulations as to marriage or
as to any other form of contract; and such regulations are acknowledged
to be of full effect within the domain of actual jurisdiction. Thus,
marriages may be legally and properly authorized by states and nations,
and the contracts of marriage so made are effective during the life of
the parties thereto.
But, can it be said that any association of men may create and
establish an authority that shall be effective after death? Can any
power legislate beyond its lawful jurisdiction? Can a man sitting in
his own home prescribe family rules for the household of his neighbor?
Can our nation ordain laws that shall be valid in a foreign {104}
realm? Can man enact laws to regulate the affairs of the Kingdom of God?
Only as God delegates authority to man, with the assurance that
administration under that authority shall be acknowledged in heaven,
can any contract be made on earth and be of assured effect after the
death of the parties concerned. Authority to act in the name of the
Lord is the distinguishing characteristic of the Holy Priesthood. As
the Lord hath said:
"All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows,
performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that
are not made, and entered into, and sealed, by the Holy Spirit of
promise, of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all
eternity, and that too most holy, by revelation and commandment
through the medium of mine anointed, whom I have appointed on
the earth to hold this power, * * * are of no efficacy, virtue
or force, in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all
contracts that are not made unto this end, have an end when men are
dead."[25]
In application of this principle to the covenants of matrimony, the
revelation continues:
"Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry
her not by me, nor by my word; and he covenant with her so long as
he is in the world, and she with him, their covenant and marriage
are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the
world; therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out
of the world.
"Therefore, when they are out of the world, they neither marry, nor
are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which
angels are ministering servants, to minister {105} for those who
are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight
of glory;
"For these angels did not abide my law, therefore they cannot be
enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in
their saved condition, to all eternity, and from henceforth are not
gods, but are angels of God, for ever and ever."[26]
This system of holy matrimony, involving covenants for both time and
eternity, is known distinctively as _Celestial Marriage_, and is
understood to be the order of marriage that exists in the celestial
worlds. This sacred ordinance is administered by the Church to those
only who are adjudged to be of worthy life, fit to be admitted to
the House of the Lord; for this holy rite, together with others of
eternal validity, may be solemnized only within the temples reared and
dedicated for such exalted service.[27] Children born to parents thus
married under the celestial law are heirs to the Priesthood; "children
of the covenant" they are called; no ordinance of adoption or sealing
is required to give them place in the blessed posterity of promise.
The Church, however, sanctions and acknowledges legal marriages for
time only, and indeed solemnizes such unions between parties who may
not be admitted to the House of the Lord, or who voluntarily choose the
lesser and temporal order of matrimony.
Within the temple and not elsewhere, are marriages solemnized for and
in behalf of parties who are dead. Husbands and wives who have lived in
mortality together and now are dead, may be sealed under the authority
{106} of the Priesthood, provided, of course, the preliminary temple
ordinances have been administered in their behalf. In the marriage rite
for the dead as in other ordinances, the parties are represented by
their living descendants acting in the capacity of proxy.
The ordinance of celestial marriage, whereby the contracting parties,
whether living or dead, are united under the authority of the Holy
Priesthood for time and eternity, is known distinctively as the
ceremony of _Sealing in Marriage_. Husband and wife so united are said
to be sealed, whereas if united under the lesser law for time only,
either by secular or ecclesiastical authority, they are only married.
Husband and wife who have been married for time only, either by
secular or ecclesiastical ceremony, may afterward be sealed for time
and eternity, provided they have become members of the Church, and
are adjudged worthy to enter the temple for this purpose; but no
such confirmation of an existing union, nor any sealing of married
persons is possible unless the parties furnish proof that they have
been legally and lawfully married. No marriage of living persons is
performed in any of the temples except under license duly issued as
required by the laws of the state. The sealing ordinance extends to
other associations than those of matrimony as will be shown.
The actuality of the sealing ordinance in marriage finds an
illustration in the personal teachings of the Savior. On one occasion
there came unto Him certain Sadducees,[28] and these, be it remembered,
denied the possibility of the {107} resurrection of the dead. They
sought to entrap Him by a difficult question. They thus stated their
case:
"Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother
shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.
"Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had
married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto
his brother:
"Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.
"And last of all the woman died also.
"Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the
seven? for they all had her."
Note the sequel:
"Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the
scriptures, nor the power of God.
"For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in
marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven."
It is evident that in the resurrected state there could be no contest
among the seven brothers as to whose wife the woman was,--for after
death there was to be no marrying nor giving in marriage. The question
of marriage between individuals was and is to be settled before that
time. The woman would and could be the wife of but one in the eternal
world, and that one the man to whom she was given by the authority of
the Holy Priesthood on earth, as a consort for time and eternity. In
short, the woman would be the wife of the man with whom she entered
into covenant for eternity under the seal of Divine authority; and
no contract or agreement for time only would be effective in the
resurrection.
{108} This exposition seems to have been convincing; the multitude
were astonished, and the Sadducees were silenced;[29] moreover some
of the Scribes declared: "Master, thou hast well said."[30] Our Lord
added what appears to have been a supplementary question, coupled with
instruction of the greatest import:
"But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read
that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
"I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."[31]
OTHER SEALING ORDINANCES
Children born outside celestial marriage, yet within legally
established wedlock, are the lawful and legitimate heirs of their
parents in all affairs of earth. They are the offspring of an earthly
union that is in every respect a legal, moral, and proper relation
under the laws of man. That these children will belong to their parents
in the hereafter is as uncertain as that the parents will belong to
each other. The parents have been but temporally and temporarily
married, and the offspring are theirs for the period of their own
contract only. Even as husband and wife though legally wedded under the
secular law must be sealed by the authority of the Holy Priesthood if
their union is to be valid in eternity, so must children who have been
born to parents married for time only be sealed to their parents after
father and {109} mother have been sealed to each other in the order of
celestial marriage.
The Church affirms the eternal perpetuity of all family relationships
existing on earth under the seal and authority of the Priesthood; and
declares that none other relationship will be binding after death. The
offspring of parents not joined in celestial marriage are thus sealed
to or adopted by their parents as members of the family organization
which shall endure through eternity; thus, husbands and wives who are
dead are married or sealed to each other by proxy ministration, and
their children are similarly sealed to them in the family relationship.
It will be seen, therefore, that the vicarious labor of the living for
the dead, as performed in the temples of the present day, comprises
more than baptism and confirmation. The work is completed on earth only
when the parties, in the persons of their living representatives, have
been baptized, confirmed, endowed, and sealed both in the relationship
of husband and wife as once existent and in the family union of parents
and children.
FOOTNOTES
1. For a concise treatment of Infant Baptism, see the author's "The
Articles of Faith," Lecture VI, 13-17; and for treatment of Baptism for
the Dead, see Lecture VII, 18-33.
2. Acts 10:42; II Tim. 4:1; I Peter 4:5.
3. Rom. 14:9.
4. Luke 20:36, 38.
5. Doctrine and Covenants 19:10-12.
6. I Peter 4:6.
7. I Cor. chap. 15; see specifically verse 29.
8. This passage has been the subject of much controversy. Dr. Adam
Clarke, in his masterly Commentary of the Scriptures, says: "This
is certainly the most difficult verse in the New Testament; for,
notwithstanding the greatest and wisest men have labored to explain it,
there are to this day nearly as many different interpretations of it as
there are interpreters." Yet, notwithstanding its enigmatic meaning,
this passage of scripture is part of the prescribed burial service
in the Episcopal Church, and is duly spoken by the priest at every
funeral. But wherein lies the difficulty of comprehension? The passage
is of plain import, and only when we attempt to make it figurative
do difficulties arise. It is plain that in Paul's day the ordinance
of baptism for the dead was both understood and practised, and the
apostle's argument in support of the doctrine of a literal resurrection
is sound: If the dead rise not at all, why then are they baptized for
the dead?
9. Read Doctrine and Covenants 128:12, 13.
10. I Cor. 11:11.
11. See the author's "The Articles of Faith," Lectures IV and XII,
portions of which are included in the present treatment.
12. John 14:1-3.
13. I Cor. 15:40-42.
14. Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 76.
15. Doctrine and Covenants 76:51-70.
16. Doctrine and Covenants 76:71-79.
17. Doctrine and Covenants 76:81-86.
18. Doctrine and Covenants 76:98-101.
19. Doctrine and Covenants 131:1; see also II Cor. 12:1-4.
20. See Doctrine and Covenants 76:86-88.
21. See the author's treatment of "Marriage" in "The Articles of
Faith," Lecture XXIV, pp. 455-460.
22. Heb. 13:4.
23. Gen. 2:18, 24; 1:27; 5:2; 9:1, 7; Lev. 26:9.
24. Doctrine and Covenants, 49:15-17.
25. Doctrine and Covenants 132:7.
26. Doctrine and Covenants 132:15-17.
27. Doctrine and Covenants 124:30-34.
28. See Matt. 22:23-33; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-40.
29. Matt. 22:33, 34.
30. Luke 20:39.
31. Matt. 22:31, 32.
CHAPTER V
MODERN DAY TEMPLES--THE TEMPLES AT KIRTLAND AND NAUVOO
{110} As to general design, and indeed as to details of plan and
construction of the earlier sanctuaries, much has been preserved to
us through the pages of sacred writ. From the Biblical record alone
it would be possible to practically reproduce the Tabernacle of the
Congregation and the later Temple of Solomon; though, had we no
information to supplement the Biblical account, we would know but
little as to procedure requisite to the administration of ordinances
specifically pertaining to temples.
Regarding the plan of building and the structural design of temples,
we find no close similarity, far less of aught approaching identity,
in these holy houses as erected in different dispensations; on
the contrary we may affirm that direct revelation of temple plans
is required for each distinctive period of the Priesthood's
administration, that is to say for every dispensation of Divine
authority. While the general purpose of temples is the same in all
times, the special suitability of these edifices is determined by the
needs of the dispensation to which they severally belong.
There is a definite sequence of development in the dealings of God with
man throughout the centuries; and it is this unity of order and purpose
that constitutes the {111} eternal unchangeableness of the Supreme
Being. Today is no mere repetition of yesterday; on the contrary, every
today is a sum of all precedent time, so that in each succeeding age
the Divine plan is farther advanced, and the grand finale in the great
drama of human salvation is brought nearer.
From the days of the ancient Tabernacle of the Congregation, and thence
onward to the meridian of time, animal sacrifice was required as an
ordained rite of propitiation and worship; and such was in prototype of
the sacrificial death predicted as part of the mission of the Son of
Man. The temples of the Hebrews who were living under the Mosaic law,
provided, therefore, for the slaughter of animals, for the ceremonial
dividing of the carcasses and for the due disposal of the blood, for
the convenient immolation of the offerings, and for numerous other
details of ceremony associated with worship under the law of Moses.
The Latter-day Saints are one with other Christian sects in the
unreserved acceptance of the doctrine that the atoning death of Christ
terminated the Mosaic rites of sacrifice involving the ceremonial
shedding of blood, that, in truth, the prototype was consummated in the
reality. The temples of today are provided with no altars of sacrifice,
no courts of slaughter, no shambles red with the blood of beasts, no
pyres on which carcasses are burned, no censers of incense to becloud
the fumes from burning flesh.
Even among the temples of the present dispensation there is a graded
variety in the details of construction. The first temple of modern
times was in a measure incomplete as compared with the holy houses of
later construction. {112} The fact was doubtless known to the Lord,
though wisely hidden from common knowledge, that the Kirtland Temple
would serve but for the beginning of the re-establishment of those
distinctive ordinances for which temples are essential. Even as the
Tabernacle of old was but an inferior type of what would follow,
designed for temporary use under special conditions, so the earlier
temples of the latter-day dispensation, specifically those of Kirtland
and Nauvoo, were but temporary Houses of the Lord, destined to serve
for short periods only as sanctuaries.
Scarcely had The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints been
organized when the Lord indicated the necessity of a temple, in which
He could reveal His mind and will to man, and in which the sanctifying
ordinances of the Gospel could be administered. In a revelation given
as early as December, 1830, the Lord said: "I am Jesus Christ the Son
of God: wherefore gird up your loins and I will suddenly come to my
temple."[1] In February 1831, the Lord further indicated His purpose
thus: "That my covenant people may be gathered in one in that day
when I shall come to my temple. And this I do for the salvation of
my people."[2] More definite instructions as to the practical labors
incident to the procuring of a site and the rearing of a temple soon
followed.
TEMPLE SITE AT INDEPENDENCE, MISSOURI
The principal seat of the Church had been temporarily established at
Kirtland, Ohio; nevertheless the prophet had learned through early
revelation that Zion would be {113} established far to the west. In
June, 1831, a conference of elders was held at Kirtland, on which
occasion a revelation[3] was received directing certain of the elders
to start westward, traveling in pairs and preaching by the way. In the
month following, these elders reassembled at a designated place in
western Missouri, all rejoicing in their ministry and eager to learn
the further will of the Lord. The burden of their prayer and song is
thus expressed by the prophet: "When will the wilderness blossom as
the rose? When will Zion be built up in her glory, and where will thy
temple stand, unto which all nations shall come in the last days?"[4]
In answer to their supplications the Lord spake by the mouth of His
prophet, designating the western part of Missouri as the land of Zion,
and the site occupied by the town of Independence as the "center
place," and specifying a spot as that upon which a temple should be
built.[5]
On the third of August, 1831, the prophet Joseph Smith and seven other
elders of the Church assembled on the temple lot and dedicated the
same to its sacred purpose. Though the company was small, the occasion
was one of great solemnity and impressiveness. The prophet himself
offered the prayer of dedication.[6] The temple so projected is yet to
be built. Though the Latter-day Saints acquired by purchase title to
and possession of the {114} temple lot, they were later by violence
compelled to abandon their rightful possessions.
THE KIRTLAND TEMPLE
The building of a temple in Missouri was regarded, even by the prophet
and those who assisted him in dedicating the site, as an event of the
future, perhaps even of the far distant future. The center of activity,
the seat of the Church for the time being, was in Ohio, and Kirtland
was the place of temporary gathering. In Kirtland too was to be erected
the first temple of modern times.
In a revelation given December 27, 1832, the Lord commanded the
establishment of a holy house.[7] Perhaps because their eyes were
directed too steadily toward the "center place," and because the people
were prone to contemplate too absorbedly the glory of the future to
the neglect of then present duties, compliance with the requirement
to proceed at once with the erection of a temple was not prompt; and
the Lord rebuked the people for their tardiness and neglect, declaring
again His will that a house be reared to His name and promising success
on condition of faithful effort.[8]
The Saints were aroused to great activity in the matter of erecting
a temple for immediate use. A building committee was organized, and
a call issued to all branches of the Church.[9] On the second day of
August, 1833, the voice of the Lord was heard again respecting the
matter of temple building, and while the specific requirement {115}
appears to directly apply to the temple of the future in Jackson
County, Missouri, nevertheless the revelation had immediate effect in
inspiring greater effort in the building of a temple at Kirtland.[10]
The Kirtland Temple was built as projected and designed, though the
work was marked by an unbroken course of supreme sacrifice on the part
of a poverty-laden people. Consider the words of one who was present
and saw, one who helped and suffered, one who spoke from personal
knowledge and keen remembrance. Eliza R. Snow, a gifted poetess and
historian of modern-day Israel, has written:
"It [the Temple] was commenced in June, 1833, under the immediate
direction of the Almighty, through his servant, Joseph Smith, whom
he had called in his boyhood, like Samuel of old, to introduce the
fulness of the everlasting gospel.
"At that time the Saints were few in number, and most of them very
poor; and had it not been for the assurance that God had spoken,
and had commanded that a house should be built to His name, of
which He not only revealed the form, but also designated the
dimensions, an attempt towards building that Temple, under the
then existing circumstances, would have been, by all concerned,
pronounced preposterous.
* * * * * *
"Its dimensions are eighty by fifty-nine feet; the walls fifty feet
high, and the tower one hundred and ten feet. The two main halls
are fifty-five by sixty-five feet in the inner court. The building
has four vestries in front, and five rooms in the attic, which were
devoted to literature and for meetings of the various quorums of
the Priesthood.
"There was a peculiarity in the arrangement of the inner {116}
court which made it more than ordinarily impressive--so much so
that a sense of sacred awe seemed to rest upon all who entered.
Not only the Saints, but strangers also, manifested a high degree
of reverential feeling. Four pulpits stood, one above another, in
the center of the building, from north to south, both on the east
and west ends. * * * In front of each of these two rows of pulpits
was a sacrament table, for the administration of that sacred
ordinance. In each corner of the court was an elevated pew for the
singers--the choir being distributed into four compartments. In
additi
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