I will call the attention of the congregation to a portion of the word
of God contained in the third chapter of Malachi—"Behold, I will send
my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom
ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple; even the messenger of the
covenant whom ye delight in, behold he shall come, saith the Lord of
hosts, but who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand
when he appeareth, for he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's
soap. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall
purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they
may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness."
I have read these words, because of the peculiar prophecy which is
contained therein, of what the Lord will perform about the time of his
coming. A prophecy that the Lord would come, and the nature of that
coming should be such that but a few comparatively will be prepared to
endure that day; that when he does come, he will have a Temple on the
earth, to which he will come. A part of the program which was read
yesterday morning, if I recollect right, for the Elders to speak upon
during Conference, was in relation to building Temples. The building
of Temples of the Lord is promised in his word, for there we read that
in the latter days he would have a house built on the earth. I know
that in the ears of this generation it will sound very strangely to
talk about the Lord having a house built on this globe of ours; yet we have such a promise, strange as it may be, and that when
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, and
shall sit as a refiner's fire and as fuller's soap on the sons of
Levi, to purify them as gold and silver, he will, in that day, come to
his Temple, and come very suddenly. That shows, at once, that he must
have a Temple on the earth in the latter time.
There are two other Prophets, besides Malachi, who have spoken of the
house of the Lord. Isaiah, in his second chapter, refers to the
building of the Lord's house in the latter days. I will repeat the
passage—"It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of
the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains,
and shall be exalted above the hills, and nations shall flow unto it.
Many nations shall say, Come, let us go up unto the mountain of the
Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he shall teach us of his
ways and we shall walk in his paths;" and "the Lord shall rebuke
strong nations afar off" —meaning nations at a great distance from
Jerusalem, where the Prophet delivered the prophecy. "He shall rebuke
strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into
ploughshares and their spears into pruninghooks. Nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
The fourth chapter of Micah contains a similar prediction, which it is
not necessary for me to repeat, as it reads, almost word for word,
like that in the second chapter of Isaiah, showing plainly and clearly
that in the latter days God would have a house built on the earth.
Perhaps there may be objections by our Christian friends to the
Latter-day Saints proclaiming in the midst of Christendom that the
Lord intends to have a house built on the earth. They will probably
say—"He has hundreds of them, and has had for many generations. God
has houses scattered here and there throughout all the Christian
nations, and there never has been a time since the days of the
Apostles but what the Lord has had a house, either at Corinth, Athens,
or somewhere else; and you can read the inscriptions upon them as you
pass through the towns and cities of Christendom." These houses are
called the houses of God, or Jesus, the church of St. John, St. Peter,
St. Paul, St. Mark and others, and all of them are considered the
houses of God. Would to God that this were true! Would to God that he
had given some directions concerning the building of some of these
houses! But alas! When we come to inquire concerning their origin, we
find that they were built by uninspired men, that the architecture and
everything pertaining to them has been devised by the cunning and
wisdom of men. Ask them if God commanded them to select the particular
location on which one of these houses stands? They will say—"No, God
does not direct now-a-days. There was a time when the Lord did direct
in such matters, but now we have wise men, we have bodies of learned
men who have studied theology. We do not need the Lord to interfere in
our day; he don't speak anything to the people in the age in which we
live; these houses were constructed according to the best plans and
architecture we were acquainted with by our wisdom, without any
commandment or revelation from the heavens." Very well, then the Lord
has nothing to do with them. What I understand by the building of a
house of God, is to build one after the pattern that he shall give. I
do not mean a pattern that was given in ancient times, but one
given to the very people to whom the revelation comes to build a
house to his name. Has such been the case with the houses of worship
throughout the Christian nations? Not in one instance. You may travel
all through this great Republic, from one end thereof to the other,
and among all the Christian denominations who deny new revelation, is
there one house which God commanded to be built? Indeed these very
prophecies would seem to indicate that, in the day when they should
begin to be fulfilled, there should be no house of the Lord on the
earth. Is it not a peculiar kind of a saying that in the latter days
the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the tops
of the mountains, and be exalted above the hills? It shows that for a
long period prior to the erection of the house of God in the
mountains, no such thing could be found on the face of the whole
earth, and it was needful for the Lord, in the latter days, to begin a
work of that kind. No place for Jesus to come to. He is to come in the
clouds of heaven, in flaming fire, in power and great glory, clothed
upon with all the brightness of the celestial heavens; his face will
outshine the sun, and cause it to withhold its light in shame. No
place for this glorious personage to come to—no Temple prepared into
which he can come. When he does come, however, this work will have
been accomplished—he will come to his Temple suddenly. It will not be
like his first coming. Then, instead of coming to his Temple suddenly,
we find him born in a very low condition, not even in the common
mansions or dwelling places of the inhabitants of Palestine, but in a
stable or manger. When he visited the great Temple at Jerusa lem, when
about twelve years old, and also after he began his ministry, when
about thirty years old, instead of sitting upon the sons of Levi and
purifying them as gold and silver in a furnace of fire, that they
might offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness, who was it who
rejected the Son of God in that day? The sons of Levi. They cried out
against and persecuted him; they were his greatest enemies; they
crucified him. They were not purged and prepared to offer in the
Temple of the Lord an offering in righteousness. The glory of God did
not appear in their midst, and their offerings were not acceptable in
that Temple before the Lord, but he found his house, in that day, a
den of thieves, occupied by moneychangers and brokers, speculation
going on in the midst of the house of God, and he was under the
necessity of making a small scourge and driving them out by whipping
them. Not so in the latter times, when he comes to his Temple. In that
day, when the mountain of the house of the Lord is established in the
tops of the mountains, it will be an indication of a great period of
peace, a period which is so often spoken of by the mouths of the
ancient Prophets, in which nation shall no more lift up sword against
nation, when they shall no longer have use for firearms or weapons of
war, or anything that is calculated to destroy life; but these deadly
implements will be converted into useful articles of husbandry. Nation
will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war any
more. That time has not come, and such a period was never known on the
earth.
There is another thing connected with the building of the Temple in
the latter days. When it is built, on the place, and according
to the pattern that the Lord shall designate, it will be so strange to
the nations, that they will actually come up from all parts of our
globe. Many of them will say one to another—"Come, let us go up to the
mountain of the house of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob."
"What do you want to go up there for? Why do you want to travel
several thousand miles across land and sea to go to the mountain of
the house of the Lord?" "That he may teach us of his ways, that we may
walk in his paths?" "Can you not be taught in his ways in your own
chapels, which you have built in England, Scandinavia, Switzerland,
Austria, or wherever you may have resided? Can you not worship in your
own chapels?" "Oh, no, there is no house of the Lord, we have no
teachers authorized of God, no Prophets and Apostles inspired by and
called of God to officiate like the ancient Apostles; no one to say to
us 'Thus saith the Lord God,' by new revelation; no visions are
manifested among us; no angels have honored our houses of worship with
their presence; no glory, no fire descending from heaven to light up
these chapels and sanctuaries which we have built, and we have lost
all confidence in our teachers, consequently let us go up to yonder
mountain on which God's house has been built, and when we get there,
he will teach us in his ways, and we will walk in his paths." "Is the
only object you have in going to the mountain of the house of the Lord
to receive teachings?" No, there are other things to be attended to in
the house of God or in Temples that may be built in the tops of the
mountains besides teaching. We have a great many important duties to
perform pertaining to the house of God, duties that cannot be
performed anywhere else acceptably in his sight.
Would you like to know some of the uses of these Temples or houses of
God? I will read a little from one of our modern revelations, given
through Joseph Smith, in Nauvoo, on the 19th day of January, 1841. I
have not time to read the whole of the revelation, but will select a
few sections. Speaking of building a house to his name, the Lord
says—"Verily I say unto you, let all my saints come from afar" —this we
have fulfilled so far as the gathering is concerned.
"And again, verily I say unto you, let all my saints come from afar.
And send ye swift messengers, yea, chosen messengers, and say unto
them: Come ye, with all your gold, and your silver, and your precious
stones, and with all your antiquities; and with all who have knowledge
of antiquities, that will come, may come, and bring the box tree, and
the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees
of the earth; And with iron, with copper, and with brass, and with
zinc, and with all your precious things of the earth; and build a
house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein. 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 fullness of
the priesthood. 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."
I want this Conference to understand that it is not only the Saints
who are here assembled, but all in this Territory, and wherever our
settlements extend, all who have entered into covenant with the Lord
are under this command. I will read further.
"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 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 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
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."
It seems to be a standing command to the Saints, wherever they may be
located, to build a house unto the Lord, wherever there is a
stronghold pointed out for the gathering of the Saints, such as
Kirtland, Nauvoo, Jackson County, Mo., and other places which are
mentioned in revelation. The Lord has commanded his Saints in all
these places to do a work, which will be effectually accomplished in
due time. They are always commanded to build a house unto the Lord.
We have been here twenty-six years and have only a foundation and a
few tier of rock laid towards a house of the Lord. It is true we have
a large tabernacle which will contain some fifteen thousand persons
when they are closely seated, and the standing room also occupied. But
this is not a Temple of the Lord. We meet here to sing praises, and to
be instructed in our duties as Saints, but this is not a house of
ordinances; it is not a house for the baptism of the dead, or in which
the Saints receive their washings and anointings; it is not a house in
which you will receive statutes, and judgments, and laws pertaining to
the kingdom of God. God has ordained a building of a different
pattern wherein laws, statutes, judgments, and ordinances are to be
revealed for the benefit of his people. "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 the foundation of the
world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fullness of
times."
I think that portion of this revelation which I have read, will give
you a general idea of the sacredness of the house of the Lord, which
is to be built in the latter times, a place wherein the angels may
come and visit, as they did in the ancient Temple; a place wherein you
can receive all those ordinances which the Lord has revealed, and
which he will, hereafter reveal, from time to time, preparatory to the
great day of the coming of the Lord.
Now let me mention over some few things which should be administered
in the Temple of the Most High. Marriage, for instance, is an
ordinance of God. We know it to be not only an ordinance administered
among the various nations according to their civil laws, but know also
that it is a religious ordinance, administered by authority from God.
If anyone wants any proof on this point let him read the 6th verse of
the 19th chapter of Matthew. "What God hath joined together let no man
put asunder." It seems, then, that in marriage there is such a
principle as the Lord officiating through his servants, in joining
persons in this sacred and holy ordinance. There are a great many
marriages that may answer the requirements of the civil law of
different countries and nations, and there are some marriages
performed even in our Territory, but the Lord has not directed them,
neither has he directed his servants in their administration. He has
not particularly forbidden these marriages, he permits and suffers
them, but he has no particular hand in their performance. Do you wish
me to explain this matter? I will. For instance, in the distant
settlements of the Territory oftentimes a young man and woman desire
to be married. They go and find a justice of the peace, or an Elder of
the Church, as the case may be, and he officiates in the ceremony and
marries them, somewhat similar to what people are married among the
various nations. Does God really accept of this marriage, or does he
merely suffer it to be so, for the time being? Has he joined them
together, or has the justice of the peace, by virtue of his civil
office? "How is it?" Says one—"I suppose it must be a legal marriage."
It is legal so far as the laws of the Territory are concerned. If a
young man and woman in any part of this Territory wish to be married,
there is nothing illegal in a justice of the peace performing the
ceremony, he has a right to do it, according to the laws of the
Territory. But is it legal in the sight of heaven? No, it is not. Why
not? Because God has appointed a place in which this sacred ordinance
should be administered, and he has appointed certain authority to
officiate in its solemnization, and a certain form, when it is done in
the place and by the authority he has ordained. It is then legal in
the sight of heaven, then they are married or joined together, not for
time alone, but the union is to exist throughout all the ages of
eternity. This is the real order of marriage. This is one of the
purposes for which God has commanded us to build a house, that our young people may have the privilege of entering into that sacred
union not only for time, or until they are parted by death, but that
they may have a legal claim, by virtue of the marriage covenant, upon
each other after the resurrection.
Some may say—"I think I will wait until after the resurrection and
then I will secure me a wife for eternity; or perhaps I will merely
marry a women here for time, and put off the eternal part, until after
the resurrection." What says Jesus on this subject? "In the
resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage." Why not?
Because that is an ordinance, like baptism, that must be administered
by those in the flesh. If, while in the flesh, we fail to secure to
ourselves the remission of our sins, and the baptism of fire and the
Holy Ghost by going down into the water and being baptized for the
remission of our sins, by one having authority to administer this
ordinance, we cannot attend to it in our own persons after the
resurrection. That is an ordinance that cannot be administered after
the resurrection; if it is not done until then, it must be done by
some person still living in the flesh, for and in behalf of the one
who has gone into the spirit world. Those in the spirit world have no
claim upon blessings for eternity, unless they are secured while in
the flesh. It is so with all the ordinances pertaining to eternity,
they must be performed in the flesh, and not in the next life. Hence
if an individual is so unfortunate that he fights against a principle,
or becomes careless and indifferent; or if he goes to a justice of the
peace, thinking that he will secure to himself a wife for eternity, he
is grandly mistaken; and if he dies, having been married according to
this form, he has no promise whatsoever that, after the resurrection,
he will have a wife; for in that world, this sacred ordinance cannot
be attended to.
Another thing which I wish to explain is, that, in the sight of
heaven, their children are illegitimate. Of course they are legitimate
according to the laws of the country. Such children can claim the
property of their parents, they are the legal heirs to the property
descending from parents to children by virtue of the laws of the
country. But when I say illegitimate I mean in the sight of heaven.
Now, all you young people who have been married in this Territory or
abroad, by justices of the peace, or even by Elders of the Church only
for time, when you have the opportunity of coming up here to the house
of God, and receiving these ordinances, and do not, your children are
illegitimate in the sight of heaven.
Perhaps you may enquire, "What is there to be inherited in eternity
that makes it really necessary that our children should be legitimate,
so far as divine authority is concerned?" The Lord our God is a God of
law, his house is a house of order; and all blessings, and honor, and
glory, and inheritance, that are to be received in the eternal worlds
must be according to divine law and divine ordinances, and whosoever
complies with the law of heaven has a legal claim in eternity. That
which is performed by man, without divine law, however perfect human
law may be, has no bearing upon eternity. Man's works are one thing
and God's works another. A blessing bestowed upon men, such as the
legitimate heirship to the property of their parents is one thing, and
a blessing bestowed by the Eternal Father in the heavens is another.
He performs all of his works by law, and he bestows blessings
upon his children, by ordinances and by law. It must be secured here
in this life, if we secure it at all in our own persons.
It may be said, "I do not understand this principle. What will become
of our good fathers and mothers who have gathered up from the nations
that were married before they heard this Gospel?" "Indeed, were they
married?" "Yes." "How?" "According to the laws of their respective
nations. Their offspring are legitimate, so far as the civil laws of
their native countries are concerned, but they are not husbands and
wives for eternity in the sight of heaven." "How are you going to
remedy this?" asks the enquirer. "In the house of God. Temples or
houses of God must be built to remedy this thing." "How can it be
remedied there?" They must be married over again, not according to the
laws of men or nations, but according to the laws and institutions of
heaven." "Will that make their marriage legitimate?" "Of course." "But
they have many children before they gather up here; you tell us they
are illegitimate: how are you going to remedy this?" God has provided
a remedy for all children born out of the covenant." "What do you mean
by that?" enquires one. "I mean the new and everlasting covenant of
marriage, that has a bearing upon eternity as well as time. All who
are born before their parents enter that new and everlasting covenant
have to be made legitimate heirs." "In what way?" "According to the
ordinance and law of adoption." I may be asked—"Is this important?"
"Yes, it matters a great deal. If there are family regulations, to
preserve good order, in this world, you will find that God is more
strict, in such regulations, in regard to the world to come. If
patents hold certain authority over their children in this life, you
will find that such authority, though in higher perfection, is
transferred to the eternal worlds, and in that world there is a
certain jurisdiction which parents hold over their children through
all future ages of eternity. But in order that parents may have their
children legitimately under their control, it is necessary that the
ordinance of adoption in the house of God should be performed in
regard to the children born before their parents entered into the
eternal covenant of marriage. This shows the use or necessity of a
Temple."
Then again, we heard on Sunday afternoon considerable on the subject
of baptism for the dead; it is not necessary, therefore, that I should
dwell upon this subject. It is one thoroughly understood by the
Latter-day Saints, and has been long preached to them, and they know
that this, as well as the ordinance of marriage, pertains to the house
of God. To be acceptable to him there must be a font, the same as
there was in the Temple of Solomon. You recollect there was a brazen
sea, a large place in the basement of the Temple of Solomon,
underneath which were twelve oxen, their heads pointing to the four
points of the compass—three to each point. This great brazen sea,
standing upon these oxen, was a place intended for baptisms for the
dead. As was said last Sabbath, it was underneath those courts, where
the living, from time to time, assembled to attend to their worship;
thus representing those that were in their graves, underneath the
living. That was the reason it was placed in that position; and as
that was intended for sacred and holy purposes, the administration of holy ordinances, so God has commanded, in these latter days,
that there should be a baptismal font, and the ordinance of baptism
for the dead must be performed in the place that God designates, in
order to be legal and acceptable in his sight.
We are told in the revelations which God has given, through his
servant Joseph Smith, something about the pattern of this sacred and
holy ordinance. We are told that the living are not only to be
baptized for and in behalf of the dead, by being immersed in water in
their respective names, but that they are also to receive the
ordinance of confirmation by the laying on of hands, not for
themselves, but for the dead, as far back as they can trace them.
Hundreds of millions of people died before God gave this revelation,
in these latter times, and they had not the opportunity of being
married for time and all eternity, no man on the earth, in their day,
having the authority to unite them. Would you deprive them of the
blessings of this eternal union, because they did not happen to live
in a day when God revealed and restored anew, from the heavens, these
ordinances? No. God is a consistent being, and to say that people who
die in ignorance, without having an opportunity of attending to the
ordinances of the house of God, should not be made partakers of the
blessings thereof, would be imputing injustice to the great Jehovah.
To say that our fathers and mothers, who were only married for time,
must be deprived of a union in the eternal worlds, because of their
ignorance of these things, because there was no person having
authority to administer to them, would be apparently unjust, and would
almost seem to impeach the attributes of Jehovah, if we could suppose
such partiality was his design. But we cannot suppose that God is an
inconsistent Being. And if we have the opportunity of attending to the
ordinance of marriage in the house of the Lord, and of securing
certain eternal blessings for ourselves, our ancestors, who are dead,
must have a plan devised, adapted to their condition, by which they
also may be exalted to the same blessings. But it must be done by law.
No haphazard work, no work of chance or confusion, but everything must
be accomplished by the laws, ordinances and commandments of the Great
Jehovah; then, what is done by his servants here on the earth, being
sealed here is sealed in the heavens, and hence, we not only keep a
record of all the names of the dead, but of all the ordinances
attended to for and in their behalf; and in the great judgment day,
when the books are opened, it will be found that such and such parties
have been baptized for, confirmed for, and administered for, in the
marriage ordinance, and that these various ordinances were recorded in
the presence of witnesses.
The records kept by authority here, will agree with the records kept
in heaven, for they keep records there, as well as we; and the books
on earth, when they are kept by divine authority, will agree with the
records in heaven. When there is divine authority in the
administration of an ordinance here on the earth, that ordinance is
sacred and holy, and is recorded here and in the heavens, and the
records of heaven will agree with the records of earth; and by these
records and books will mankind be judged. The dead will be judged
according to men in the flesh, or, in other words, as we shall be
judged according to our works in the flesh. When we have been
baptized, and it is recorded on the earth, it is for
ourselves, and we will be judged by that, and if we are faithful, we
shall receive the blessings and glories which the Lord has in store
for those who are baptized here and are faithful to the end. So will
the dead be judged according to the works which are done for them; and
when the books are opened, and it is found that they have been
officiated for, by those works will they be judged. Why? Because they
have their agency in the spirit world, to reject what has been done
for them, or to receive it, the same as we have the agency while
living here to reject or to receive what Jesus did through the
atonement of his blood. We have that agency here; it also exists among
those in the spirit world. You need not suppose that their agency is
destroyed because they are baptized for, and because ordinances are
administered for and in their behalf; you need not suppose that this
will be a security to them that they cannot resist. They will have the
same freedom there to resist, that we have here.
If the Latter-day Saints want some evidence or proof in relation to
the agency of spirits that are in prison, or in the spirit world, let
me refer them to the prophecy of Enoch, with which they are familiar,
though strangers may not be acquainted therewith. Enoch saw the people
that should perish in the flood; he saw that there was a prison house
prepared for them, and that they dwelt there for a long period of
time, until the Son of God was manifested, crucified and rose from the
dead; and he saw, when that event should take place, that as many of
the spirits in prison of the antediluvian world who perished in the
flood, as repented, came forth and stood on the right hand of God. As
many as repented had this privilege. Does not this show that there
were some who probably would not repent? Indeed, the very next
sentence says that those who did not repent "were reserved in chains
of darkness until the judgment of the great day." Hence, the agency of
spirits, as well as the agency of men here in the flesh.
A Temple is needed for the Saints who come from abroad, that their
marriages may be recorded on the earth and in the heavens, that they
may not only be for time, but for all eternity; that when they come
forth, male and female, in the morning of the first resurrection, they
may embrace each other as husband and wife by virtue of the covenant
they entered into in the Temple of the Lord, while they were in the
flesh.
Strangers will, perhaps, think that this is rather a partial doctrine,
on one account. They may say, "Your fathers, whom you speak of, are
not known; their names, in general, cannot be obtained for more than
two or three generations back; in a very few instances, perhaps, they
may be found eight or ten generations back; but what will be done with
all the generations, nations, and ages, that have lived since the
Priesthood of God was upon the earth, and since those holy ordinances
were administered in ancient times? How are they going to receive any
of the benefits from this baptism for the dead, seeing that the very
names of the nations, to say nothing of the individuals, are lost?"
Here comes in, again, the use of a Temple of the Lord. The Most High
says—"I deign to reveal unto you hidden things, things that have been
kept hid from the foundation of the world." Among these hidden things
that are to be revealed are the books of genealogy, tracing
individuals and nations among all people, back to ancient times.
It may be inquired—"How can all this be done?" We answer, by the Urim
and Thummim, which the Lord God has ordained to be used in the midst
of his holy house, in his Temple. You may inquire—"What is the Urim
and Thummim?" We reply, it is a divine instrument, prepared in ancient
times, by which he who possessed it could call upon the name of the
Lord, and receive from him answers to all matters it was necessary
that he should know. Aaron, the chief Priest in the midst of Israel,
had this instrument in his breast plate, in the midst of rows of
stones representing the twelve tribes of Israel; and when he passed
certain judgments, he did not do it by his own wisdom, but he inquired
of the Lord and received the same, by this sacred instrument. When
that instrument is restored to the house of God, to the Temple of the
Most High, our ancestry, that is, the ancestry of all the faithful in
the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will be made
manifest. Not all at once, but by degrees. Just as fast as we are able
to administer for them, so will the Lord God make manifest, by the
manifestation of holy angels in his house, and by the Urim and
Thummim, those names that are necessary, of our ancient kindred and
friends, that they may be traced back to the time when the Priesthood
was on the earth in ancient days.
If they could not be traced back, there would be a great chasm, a
broken chain in the genealogies, and it would not be perfect, but when
the Lord God comes suddenly to his Temple, he will come to a people
who have made themselves per fect by obedience to his commandments.
They have sought after the redemption of their dead from generation to
generation, until they can link on all those who were not officiated
for in ancient times, and thus carry it back from one dispensation to
another, until it reaches to our father Adam in the Garden of Eden,
and then, the saying of Scripture will be accomplished—"The hearts of
the children will be turned to their fathers," and the hearts of all
those ancient fathers, who lived thousands of years ago, will be
"turned to their children, lest the Lord should come," as the Prophet
Malachi says, "and smite the earth with a curse."
Why smite it with a curse? Because the people are careless and do not
look after the salvation of their dead, do not let their hearts be
drawn out after their ancestry, do not seek to perform those
ordinances that are necessary for their redemption, that they may be
redeemed by law. If we would not be smitten by a curse, let us seek
after the redemption of our fathers, as well as of ourselves, for says
the Apostle Paul, "they without us cannot be made perfect, neither
can we without them be made perfect." We may do all that we please for
ourselves, and yet if we, through our carelessness and indifference,
neglect to seek after the salvation of the dead, the responsibility
will be upon our own heads; and the sins of the dead will be answered
upon us, because we had the power to act for them, and we were
careless and indifferent about using it.
Many more things might be said in relation to the dead, and what is
necessary to be done in Temples. It was asked, by one of the speakers,
in relation to inheritances, "What man or woman among the Latter-day
Saints has an inheritance sealed to them?" What man among all
this people can determine the very spot of ground that the Lord
intends that he should inherit for an everlasting possession? Not one
of us. The Lord has told us that he intends to give a certain land to
his people, for an everlasting possession. He told the ancients,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the same thing; but they wandered as
strangers and pilgrims in their day; and the martyr Stephen said they
had not as much as to set their foot upon. Yet they had a promise
which secured it to them after the resurrection, and also to their
seed, and that personally, for an everlasting possession. Have you got
any such promise? You have, as far as the great mass is concerned, the
promise of a great region of country. We know where it is, God has
pointed it out. But is there an individual among us who knows what
portion of that great country he shall receive for his future
inheritance, to possess either before or after the resurrection, and
after this earth shall have passed away, and all things are made new?
No. Why have we not got it? Because we have no house of the Lord
built. When we have a house built, whether there be property, or
inheritance, or union for eternity, or blessings for ourselves, or
washings or anointing, or anything that pertains to eternity, it will
be given to us by the ordinances of God's holy house, according to
law. No wonder then, that the nations afar off will say—"Let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he
may teach us of his ways, that we may walk in his paths." He has a
great many ways to teach the people, pertaining to the salvation of
the dead, many ordinances, many principles and laws, statutes and
judgments, and the law will go forth from Zion, and he will rebuke
strong nations afar off, and fulfill and accomplish that which he has
spoken; and wisdom, and knowledge, and glory and intelligence, the
laws of the Most High, and the ministrations of angels will be
unfolded to the Latter-day Saints, just as fast as they are prepared
to receive them.
Wake up, then, Latter-day Saints, and prepare yourselves Temples in
the places that shall be designated, by the oracles of the Most High
God, so that your aged fathers that are in the southern part of the
Territory may not be under the necessity of traveling some six hundred
miles, back and forth, to attend to the ordinance of baptism for the
dead. They must have a Temple there, wherein these ordinances may be
administered; another here, another in the northern part of the
Territory, and multiply them according to the wants of the people; for
the work is becoming continually greater and greater, and the
Latter-day Saints must wake up to these principles, and not have their
minds absorbed with the things of this world, forgetting the great
plan of salvation revealed from heaven.
May God bless the Saints, and wake up their minds to these important
duties. Amen.