The Purpose of Temples

THE PURPOSE OF TEMPLES By D. M. McAllister, Temple Recorder In one of the foremost American magazines some time ago, there appeared an editorial statement evidently intended to convey to readers the idea that there is something of a mysterious, sinful character connected with the "Mormon" temples and their ceremonies. The assertion is made that there are "secret sanctuaries" in the great temple at Salt Lake City, wherein are kept "the records of 'Mormon' revela- tions;" and an ulterior purpose is implied in the magazine's reference to the fact that "none but members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" are permitted to enter that temple. The gentleman who indicted that statement is an accomplished writer, of high standing and intelligence, and doubtless believes what he sought to convey in that comment. The pity is that many entertain similar views, and occasionally give expression to them, apparently without having made proper investigation. To members of the "Mormon" Church, it seems almost incredible that such an erroneous conception concerning our temples, and the purposes for which they are built, should still find lodgment in the mind of any intelligent individual. For over ninety years, the sacred (not secret) purposes to which those edifices have been dedicated have been publicly proclaimed by the elders of the Church. The truths thus sought to be made known have often been misconstrued and misrepresented by people who have, in the past, misunderstood and opposed the declarations of the Latter-day Saints. However, the members of the Church are becoming better known; investigation, searching for the truth, is gradually overcoming the former prejudices and unjust condemnations of their religion and practices. Their patience in persecutions, endured because of their belief in revelations from God in this age; their evident devotion to the service of God and their fellow-men; their remarkable success in establishing a prosperous community in the midst of the Rocky Moun- tain region; their prominence in defending the interests of the United States Government, and the commendable character of their lives, as manifested in association with people of other religious faiths, furnish evidences in overcoming the unfavorable ideas that once generally pre- vailed. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is and has been desirous to inform all relating to their religion and practices; the declaration thereof by many thousands of missionaries, who are con- tinuously preaching among all nations, is supplemented by the free circulation, in printed form, of "Mormon revelations," which the editor above referred to wrongfully intimated are hidden in "secret

THE PURPOSE OF TEMPLES 1081 sanctuaries" in the temple in Salt Lake City. The books containing that information can readily be obtained; they are on sale wherever missionaries locate. Frequently such books are given gratuitously to those who desire to read but cannot afford to purchase them. I have been a member of the Latter-day Saint Church over seventy years, embracing that faith when I was fifteen years of age, and I have had most excellent opportunities for familiar association with thousands of members of that Church, and with many of its leading men. For the past thirty-three years, I have been actively employed in work connected with the services performed in Latter-day Saint temples, more especially in the one located in Salt Lake City. There- fore, the testimony I am able to bear is based upon an intimate acquaintance with the "Mormons," and a knowledge of the purposes for which they have erected their temples. I am clearly conscious of the supreme consequences that depend upon the character of that testimony, which will confront me in the other life to which I am hastening, and I dare not make it other than the truth. What follows is mostly a resume of some statements which are contained in a booklet entitled, The Great Temple, Salt Lake City, which was published by the Church in 1904. As that little brochure was written by me, I am taking the liberty of representing the excerpts from it as my personal testimony, in refutation of the unjust intima- tions made by writers and others. Why Latter-day Saints Build Temples The gospel proclaimed by the Latter-day Saints is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, in its fulness, restored to earth for the redemp- tion of mankind; and it includes all God has revealed that is essential for the salvation and exaltation of his children. In this age, he has made known it is his will that sacred and holy temples should be erected, duly dedicated, accepted by him, and kept pure and undefiled, where his Spirit may abide, and wherein ordinances may be administered which cannot be performed elsewhere. In harmony with this known will of God, and in obedience to his command, the Latter-day Saints have erected temples. Not only was the command given, but every requisite detail was revealed. From the time that the importance and purposes involved in temple building were made known to the Latter-day Saints they have considered no sacrifice too great to comply with what they feel sure is the Divine will in relation thereto. This is manifest in their having already erected nine temples, each one as grand in structure and furnish- ings as it has been possible to make it, considering the circumstances of the people. The Saints have cheerfully expended millions of dollars in money and value of labor in this direction, ungrudgingly, often under most distressing conditions, when even life's necessities were hardly obtainable and comforts were unknown.

1082 improvement era Latter-day Saints' Character History records that the Jews and Romans sought to justify themselves in persecuting and killing the early Christians by declaring that the followers of Messiah were guilty of wicked, immoral and murderous practices. In this generation enemies and ignorant malign- ers have, in like manner, aroused popular hatred and persecution against the Latter-day Saints, by industriously circulating the most abominable falsehoods concerning them. In recent years, however, thousands of people, not of their faith, have met missionaries of the Church abroad, and associated with its members in Utah and elsewhere, with the result that the character of the Latter-day Saints is now better understood, and those who have thus met them recognize the fact that the old unfavorable reputation is untrue. It is now common to hear unprejudiced ladies and gentlemen, who have had opportunity to become acquainted with faithful members of the Church, declare that their lives and conduct are exceptionally pure, their temperance and industry notable, and that they come as near as human beings can come to loving God with all their might, and their neighbors as themselves. These are the people whose upright lives and exemplary conduct earn for themselves the privilege of entering the House of the Lord, and participating in the sacred services and ordinances performed there- in. Scores of thousands of them are living witnesses who solemnly testify that everything said and done in the temples is of the most sublime character, such only as should prevail in a place dedicated to the Most High. There are no individuals on the face of the earth who would more quickly resent and denounce any effort to make them take part in evil or unlawful acts or expressions. They are selected for the great honor of entering the temple because that is their character, and their testimony is that all they see and hear therein has the effect of strengthening their resolves to live in accordance with the commandments of God, to do all the good they can to their fellow-men and to sustain the laws of their country. Non-Members Admitted An erroneous idea prevails, and it is often asserted, that none but members of the Church have ever been admitted to the Temple. On the 5 th of April, 1893, when the temple in Salt Lake City was completed in all essential respects, over six hundred non-"Mormon" residents of that city and vicinity accepted an invitation extended to them, by the Presidency of the Church, entered the temple and freely examined every portion of the interior. These ladies and gentlemen included clergymen of all the denominations represented in Salt Lake City, professional men, bankers, merchants, judges, and Federal officials, with their wives, sons and daughters. Qualified attendants escorted those visitors through the various rooms in the temple.

THE PURPOSE OF TEMPLES 1083 from basement to roof, answered inquiries, and gave everyone ample opportunity to see all he desired. The same may be said of the Canadian temple and the recently finished Arizona temple. Since the final services connected with the dedication of these temples, none but members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in good standing, have been permitted to enter, for reasons which considerate people will readily concede sufficient. Hundreds ot members of the Church crowd the temple almost daily, and engage in the sacred services therein; therefore, if for no other reason, it is not consistently possible to make show places of the interior of those edifices, merely to gratify the curiosity of casual visitors. It should ever be remembered that the great temple in Salt Lake City was planned, and its erection begun, by a small number of despoiled and destitute people, at a time when they were struggling for existence in the midst of adverse surroundings. It may well be said that the completed structure, which has cost about four million dollars, is an unparalleled monument of faith and works. What is the nature of the ceremonies that are performed in the Latter-day Saint temples, in which the Saints zealously labor unself- ishly? The first ceremony that needs to be explained, in answer to that question is designated Baptism for the Dead The mention of this ordinance usually excites surprise in the minds of strangers, for the reason that it is unknown among other denominations. It is necessary, therefore, that a statement be made concerning it. The belief generally prevails, in Christendom, that the con- dition of human souls is eternally and irrevocably fixed, by divine decree; immediately after death, each individual being assigned to never-ending happiness in Heaven, or a limitless duration of torture in Hell, accordingly as they have acknowledged or repudiated belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Latter-day Saints declare that this doctrine is erroneous, and that the gospel proclaimed by the Son of God vindi- cates the mercy and justice of the Father, in providing means of redemption for those who have died without knowledge of, or oppor- tunity to obey, the gospel in this life. That the thief who repented, in his death agony on the cross, had an opportunity of that character, after his death, is indicated in the words of the Savior to him, in response to his dying appeal. "Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). The spirit world, into which the Savior and the thief went, in spirit, is not heaven. We learn that fact from the words of Christ to Mary, when she saw him on the morning of his resurrection. "Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." Peter gives a clear explanation of what Christ did for the thief's

1084 IMPROVEMENT ERA welfare, and for all others of the unredeemed dead, after entering the world of spirits, which the Savior called paradise. In I Peter 3: 18-20, we read: 'Tor Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; by which also he 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, while the ark was a preparing, "wherein few, that is, eight souls*, were saved by water." Also I Peter 4:6: "For 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." Christ, while thus preaching to the dead, undoubtedly would declare to them the same vital part of the everlasting gospel as that which is embraced in his reply to Nicodemus: "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." (John 3:5.) That unqualified declaration, by the Savior, establishes the universal character of the fact that baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost are essential to the salvation of all mankind, including those who die without having complied with that vital ordinance. The ordinance of baptism for the dead was understood and performed by the early Christians, as evidenced by the words of Paul to the Corinthian saints, I Cor. 15:29: "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" i The restoration of the gospel, which is God's plan for the redemption of all his children, would not be complete without this ordinance of baptism for the dead, which extends its saving power to all who have died without hearing and obeying that law in life. Every principle and ordinance associated with the gospel plan of redemption, which has to be believed and obeyed by the living, to insure salvation, must also be accepted by the dead. The dead, how- ever, cannot be baptized in the earthly element of water, as required (John 3:5), consequently that ordinance is performed for them vicariously (I Cor. 15:29). Other essential ordinances have to be performed in like manner, for the dead, and temples are fhe God- appointed places for such sacred work. That vicarious work, of so sacred a character, is acceptable to the eternal Father, is evidenced by divine approval of the offering of his Beloved Son who, by bis death, atoned for Adam's transgression, and extends the possibility of salva- tion to all who yield obedience to his gospel. The ordinances performed in the Latter-day Saint temples, in behalf of the dead, are a direct result of fulfilment of the prophecy contained in Malachi 4:5, 6: "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

THE PURPOSE OF TEMPLES 108 5 with a curse." . That marvelous event was fulfilled in the coming of Elijah, April 3, 1836, to the temple erected by the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, and the bestowal, by him, of authority to perform the necessary ordinances in behalf of the dead. Continuing the explanation of ordinances performed in Latter- day Saint temples, I now proceed with a statement concerning Temple Marriages — Sealings The form of marriage ceremony generally performed by Christian ministers, and by authorized officials according to civil law, incor- porates the statement that the relationship of husband and wife is to continue until death parts them. The Latter-day Saints are made to rejoice in the ceremony of marriage as performed in their temples, by which, under the authority held by the one officiating, the man and woman are married — sealed — for Time and for all Eternity. A man and wife who have been married outside of the temple may afterward have the temple sealing ordinance performed in their behalf; the marriage outside being rec- ognized as a legal ceremony. The sealing ordinance is performed also in behalf of men and women who are dead. No marriages of living persons can be performed in the temple without licenses duly issued therefor by county clerks of the state. Plural marriages have not been solemnized since the issuance of the manifesto by the President of the Church in 1890. Sealing of Children The Latter-day Saints do not entertain the shadow of a doubt concerning the validity and eternal character of the ordinances performed in the temples in their behalf, or in behalf of the dead. They have the most convincing assurance that those ordinances are divinely approved. Their joy is unbounded in this confident reliance upon a never-ending association, in the resurrected state, with those to whom God has united them in this life, and this includes the children born to them after the sealing ceremony has been performed. The family organization is to be perpetuated forever. Children born to parents who were married under the sectarian or civil form of ceremony, which declares that the marital relationship is to exist only until death, must remain under that law, they and their parents no longer related after they pass from this life, unless they comply with the ordinance established eternally to perpetuate the family organization. The ordinance of sealing children to their parents is also one of the glorious provisions connected with the temple work. By divine authority, the husband and wife are married — sealed — for time and all eternity and, by the same power, their children are sealed to them to be theirs forever. The foregoing statements, concerning the character of the or-

1086 IMPROVEMENT ERA dinances performed in the L. D. S. temples, are mere outlines of the subjects. To those who desire more extended details, combined with numerous scriptural references, proving the sacred importance of such ordinances, I commend perusal of a book, published by the Church, entitled The House of the Lord. It was written by an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, James E. Talmage. Said book is an extensive treatise on the subject of temples in general, and the Latter-day Saint temples especially. There are 3 35 pages in the book, 50 of them full-page photo-engravings; many of th: pic- tures are interior views of the great temple in Salt Lake City. I am taking the liberty of quoting part of two or three paragraphs from Dr. Talmage's treatise, where they appear under the heading The Temple Endowment "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. * * * 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 otherwse 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 arc restricted to no 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." The Latter-day Saints justifiably regard the temple, which has been built by them in Salt Lake City, as evidence that divine in- spiration prompted Israel's prophet, Isaiah, to declare: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." (Isaiah 2:2, 3.) This is exactly what has taken place. People from all nations have come to Utah, and erected a House of the Lord amid the moun- tains, wherein they have been taught the ways in which God would

THE PURPOSE OF TEMPLES 108 7 have them walk. God has commanded them to perform ordinances in his temple which are essential to redeem the dead and save the living. The Latter-day Saints continue actively engaged in that glorious and sacred work. Already there have been performed, in the Latter-day Saint temples, more than twelve million ordinances in be- half of the dead, in addition to about six hundred thousand for the living. This is only a beginning; it will be continued, in hundreds of temples, during the Millenium now dawning, until God's almighty purposes concerning the salvation and redemption of all his children are fully accomplished. The Passerby, a Friend of Mine The passerby is a friend of mine, For I am alone today. Sitting my window-sill beside I watch him go with swinging stride, And firm-set feet, in manhood's pride, And I like his suit of grey. • The passerby is a friend of mine, And I feel alone no more; For the maiden fair in rose-strewn gown, And lovely hair-plait hanging down, Tied with a bow of rainbow brown Recalls to me days of yore. The passerby is a friend of mine, As I sit by my window-sill And watch her pass with weight of years That bow her down with old-age fears — Her furrowed face is wet with tears, And I feel my own eyes fill. The passerby is a friend of mine, For I see run down the street The little children blythe and gay, As happy as a fair Spring day. "God keep them in thy care/' I pray, While I watch their skipping feet. The passerby is a friend of mine No longer alone am I. Man and maid, and old bent head Stayed by me till I went to bed, But the bright "Hello!" a small child said Made heaven itself seem nigh. Hobart, Tasmania A. C. A. DEAN HEWER