NECESSITY OF BUILDING TEMPLES - THE ENDOWMENT

Oration by President Brigham Young, Delivered on the South-EastCorner Stone of the Temple at Great Salt Lake City, after the First Presidencyand the Patriarch had laid the Stone,

April 6, 1853.

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This morning we have assembled on one of the most solemn, interesting,joyful, and glorious occasions, that ever have transpired, or will transpireamong the children of men, while the earth continues in its present organization,and is occupied for its present purposes. And I congratulate my brethrenand sisters that it is our unspeakable privilege to stand here this day,and minister before the Lord on an occasion which has caused the tonguesand pens of Prophets to speak and write for many scores of centuries whichare past.

When the Lord Jesus Christ tabernacled in the flesh-when he had leftthe most exalted regions of His Father's glory, to suffer and shed his bloodfor sinning, fallen creatures, like ourselves, and the people crowded aroundhim, a certain man said unto him, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoeverthou goest." Jesus said unto him, "Foxes have holes, and the birdsof the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay HIS head."And we find no record that this man followed him any farther.

Why had not the Son of Man where to lay his head? Because his Fatherhad no house upon the earth-none dedicated to Him, and preserved for Hisexclusive use, and benefit of His obedient children.

The Ark containing the covenant-or the Ark of the Covenant in the daysof Moses, containing the sacred records, was moved from place to place ina cart. And so sacred was that Ark, if a man stretched forth his hand tosteady it, when the cart jostled, he was smitten, and died. And would toGod that all who attempt to do the same in this day, figuratively speaking,might share the same fate. And they will share it sooner or later, if theydo not keep their hands, and tongues too, in their proper places, and stopdictating the order of the Gods of the Eternal Worlds.

When the Ark of the Covenant rested, or when the children of Israel hadan opportunity to rest, (for they were mobbed and harassed somewhat likethe Latter-day Saints,) the Lord, through Moses, commanded a Tabernacleto be built, wherein should rest and be stationed, the Ark of the Covenant.And particular instructions were given by revelation to Moses, how everypart of said Tabernacle should be constructed, even to the curtains-thenumber thereof, and of what they should be made; and the covering, and thewood for the boards, and for the bars, and the court, and the pins, andthe vessels, and the furniture, and everything pertaining to the Tabernacle.Why did Moses need such a particular revelation to build a Tabernacle? Becausehe had never seen one, and did not know how to build it without revelation,without a pattern.

Thus the Ark of the Covenant continued until the days of David, Kingof Israel, standing or occupying a Tabernacle, or tent. But to David, Godgave commandment that he should build Him a house, therein He, Himself,might dwell, or which He might visit, and in which He might commune withHis servants when He pleased.

From the day the children of Israel were led out of Egypt to the daysof Solomon, Jehovah had no resting place upon the earth, (and for how longa period before that day, the history is unpublished,) but walked in thetent or Tabernacle, before the Ark, as it seemed Him good, having no placeto lay His head.

David was not permitted to build the house which he was commanded tobuild, because he was a "man of blood," that is, he was besetby enemies on every hand, and had to spend his days in war and bloodshedto save Israel, (much as the Latter-day Saints have done, only he had theprivilege to defend himself and people from mobocrats and murderers, whilewe have hitherto been denied that privilege,) and, consequently, he hadno time to build a house unto the Lord, but commanded his son Solomon, whosucceeded him on the throne, to erect the Temple at Jerusalem, which Godhad required at his hands.

The pattern of this Temple, the length, and breadth, and height of theinner and outer courts, with all the fixtures thereunto appertaining, weregiven to Solomon by revelation, through the proper source. And why was thisrevelation-pattern necessary? Because that Solomon had never built a Temple,and did not know what was necessary in the arrangement of the differentapartments, any better than Moses did what was needed in the Tabernacle.

This Temple, called Solomon's Temple, because Solomon was the masterworkman, was completed some time previous to the appearance of the Son ofMan on the earth, in the form of the babe of Bethlehem, and had been dedicatedas the House of the Lord, and accepted as a finished work by the Father,who commanded it to be built, that His Son might have a resting place onthe earth, when he should enter on his mission.

Why, then, did Jesus exclaim to the man who volunteered to follow himwheresoever he went, that "the Son of Man hath not where to lay hishead?" Jesus knew the pretended Saint and follower to be a hypocrite,and that if he told him plainly that he would not fare as well as the birdsand, foxes, he would leave him at once, and that would save Him much trouble.

But how could Jesus' saying, that he had "not where to lay his head,"be true Because the house which the Father had commanded to be built forhis reception, although completed, had become polluted, and hence the saying,"My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves,"and he made a scourge of cords, and drove the money-changers, and dove-sellers,and faro-gamblers, all out of his house, and overthrew their tables; butthat did not purify the house, so that he could not sleep in it, for anholy thing dwelleth not in an unholy Temple.

If Jesus could not lay his head in an unholy, polluted temple, how canthe Latter-day Saints expect that the Holy Spirit will take and abide itsresidence with them, in their tabernacles and temples of clay, unless theykeep themselves pure, spotless, and undefiled?

It is no wonder that the Son of Man, soon after his resurrection fromthe tomb, ascended to his Father, for he had no place on earth to lay hishead; his house still remaining in the possession of his enemies, so thatno one had the privilege of purifying it, if they had the disposition, andotherwise the power, to do it; and the occupants thereof were professorsin name, but hypocrites and apostates, from whom no good thing can be expected.

Soon after the ascension of Jesus, through mobocracy, martyrdom, andapostacy, the Church of Christ became extinct from the earth, the Man Child-theHoly Priesthood, was received up into heaven from whence it came, and wehear no more of it on the earth, until the Angels restored it to JosephSmith, by whose ministry the Church of Jesus Christ was restored, re-organizedon earth, twenty-three years ago this day, with the title of "Latter-daySaints," to distinguish them from the Former-day Saints.

Soon after, the Church, though our beloved Prophet Joseph, was commandedto build a Temple to the Most High, in Kirtland, Ohio, and this was thenext House of the Lord we hear of on the earth, since the days of Solomon'sTemple. Joseph not only received revelation and commandment to build a Temple,but he received a pattern also, as did Moses for the Tabernacle, and Solomonfor his Temple; for without a pattern, he could not know what was wanting,having never seen one, and not having experienced its use.

Without revelation, Joseph could not know what was wanting, any morethan any other man, and, without commandment, the Church were too few innumbers, too weak in faith, and too poor in purse, to attempt such a mightyenterprise. But by means of all these stimulants, a mere handful of men,living on air, and a little hominy and milk, and often salt or no salt whenmilk could not be had; the great Prophet Joseph, in the stone quarry, quarryingrock with his own hands and the few then in the Church, following his exampleof obedience and diligence wherever most needed; with laborers on the walls,holding the sword in one hand to protect themselves from the mob, whilethey placed the stone and moved the trowel with the other, the KirtlandTemple,-the second House of the Lord, that we have any published recordof on the earth, was so far completed as to be dedicated. And those firstElders who helped to build it, received a portion of their first endowments,or we might say more clearly, some of the first, or introductory, or initiatoryordinances, preparatory to an endowment.

The preparatory ordinances there administered, though accompanied theministration of angels, and the presence of the Lord Jesus, were but a faintsimilitude of the ordinances of the House of the Lord in their fulness;yet many, through the instigation of the devil, thought they had receivedall, and knew as much as God; they have apostatized, and gone to hell. Butbe assured, brethren, there are but few, very few of the Elders of Israel,now on earth, who know the meaning of the word endowment. To know, theymust experience; and to experience, a Temple must be built.

Let me give you the definition in brief. Your endowment is, to receiveall those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you,after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presenceof the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabledto give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the HolyPriesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell.

Who has received and understands such an endowment, in this assembly?You need not answer. Your voices would be few and far between, yet the keysto these endowments are among you, and thousands have received them, sothat the devil, with all his aids, [aides] need not suppose he can againdestroy the Holy Priesthood from the earth, by killing a few, for he cannotdo it. God has set His hand, for the last time, to redeem His people, thehonest in heart, and Lucifer cannot hinder Him.

Before these endowments could be given at Kirtland, the Saints had toflee before mobocracy. And, by toil and daily labor, they found places inMissouri, where they laid the corner stones of Temples, in Zion and herStakes, and then had to retreat to Illinois, to save the lives of thosewho could get away alive from Missouri, where fell the Apostle David W.Patten, with many like associates, and where were imprisoned in loathsomedungeons, and fed on human flesh, Joseph and Hyrum, and many others. Butbefore all this had transpired, the Temple at Kirtland had fallen into thehands of wicked men, and by them been polluted, like the Temple at Jerusalem,and consequently it was disowned by the Father and the Son.

At Nauvoo, Joseph dedicated another Temple, the third on record. He knewwhat was wanting, for he had previously given most of the prominent individualsthen before him their endowment. He needed no revelation, then, of a thinghe had long experienced, any more than those now do, who have experiencedthe same things. It is only where experience fails, that revelation is needed.

Before the Nauvoo Temple was completed, Joseph was murdered-murderedat sun light, under the protection of the most noble government that thenexisted, and that now exists, on our earth. Has his blood been atoned for?No! And why? A martyr's blood to true religion was never atoned for on ourearth. No man, or nation of men, without the Priesthood, has power to makeatonement for such sins. The souls of all such, since the days of Jesus,are "under the altar," and are crying to God day and night, forvengeance. And shall they cry in vain? God forbid! He has promised He willhear them in His own due time, and recompense a righteous reward.

But what of the Temple in Nauvoo? By the aid of sword in one hand, andtrowel and hammer in the other, with fire arms at hand, and a strong bandof police, and the blessings of heaven, the Saints, through hunger, andthirst, and weariness, and watchings, and prayings, so far completed theTemple, despite the devices of the mob, that many received a small portionof their endowment, but we know of no one who received it in its fulness.And then, to save the lives of all the Saints from cruel murder, we removedwestward, and being led by the all-searching eye of the Great Jehovah, wearrived at this place.

Of our journey hither, we need say nothing, only, God led us. Of thesufferings of those who were compelled to, and did, leave Nauvoo in thewinter of 1846, we need say nothing. Those who experienced it know it, andthose who did not, to tell them of it would be like exhibiting a beautifulpainting to a blind man.

We will not stop to tell you of the sufferings of widows and orphanson Omaha lands, while their husbands and fathers were traversing the burningplains of the South, to fight the battles of a country which had banishedthem from civilization, for they secured the land on which we dwell, fromour nation's foe, exposed the gold of California, and, turned the worldupside down. All these things are before you-you know them, and we neednot repeat them.

While these things were transpiring with the Saints in the wilderness,the Temple at Nauvoo passed into the hands of the enemy, who polluted itto that extent the Lord not only ceased to occupy it, but He loathed tohave it called by His name, and permitted the wrath of its possessors topurify it by fire, as a token of what will speedily fall on them and theirhabitations, unless they repent.

But what are we here for, this day? To celebrate the birth day of ourreligion! To lay the foundation of a Temple to the Most High God, so thatwhen His Son, our Elder Brother, shall again appear, he may have place wherehe can lay his head, and not only spend a night or a day, but find a placeof peace, that he may stay till he can say, "I am satisfied."

Brethren, shall the Son of Man be satisfied with our proceedings thisday? Shall he have a house on the earth which he can call his own? Shallhe have place where he can lay his head, and rest over night, and tarryas long as he pleases, and be satisfied and pleased with his accommodations?

These are questions for you to answer. If you say yes, you have got todo the work, or it will not be done. We do not want any whiners about thisTemple. If you cannot commence cheerfully, and go through the labor of thewhole building cheerfully, start for California, and the quicker the better.Make you a golden calf, and worship it. If your care for the ordinancesof salvation, for yourselves, your living, and dead, is not first and foremostin your hearts, in your actions, and in everything you possess, go! Payyour debts, if you have any, and go in peace, and prove to God and all HisSaints that you are what you profess to be, by your acts-a God of Gods,and know more than He that made you.

But if you are what you profess to be, do your duty-stay with the Saints,pay your Tithing, and be prompt in paying, as you are in feeding your family;and the Temple, of which we have now laid the South-east Corner Stone, willarise in beauty and grandeur, in a manner and time which you have not hithertoknown or contemplated.

The Saints of these valleys have grown in riches, and abundance of thecomforts of life, in a manner hitherto unparalleled on the page of history,and if they will do by their Heavenly Father as He has done by them, soonwill this Temple be inclosed. But if you go in for a speculation with passersby, as many have hitherto done, you will not live to see the Topstone ofthis Temple laid; and your labors and toils for yourselves and friends,dead and alive, will be worse than though you had had no existence.

We dedicate this, the South-east Corner Stone of this Temple, to theMost High God. May it remain in peace till it has done its work, and untilHe who has inspired our hearts to fulfil the prophecies of His holy Prophets,that the House of the Lord should be reared in the "Tops of the Mountains,"shall be satisfied, and say, "It is enough." And may every tongue,pen, and weapon, that may rise against this or any other Corner Stone ofthis building, feel the wrath and scourging of an incensed God! May sinnersin Zion be afraid, and fearfulness surprise the hypocrite, from this hour.And may all who do not feel to say Amen, go speedily to that long nightof rest from which no sleeper will awake, till roused by the trump of theSecond Resurrection.