-- May 1, 1846
Nauvoo (Destroyed) Temple; Location: Nauvoo, Illinois; Announcement: August 1840; Dedication: 1 May 1846 by Orson Hyde; Style: Greek revival; Notes: Some sources claim a private dedication on 30 April 1846 by Joseph Young. Abandoned in 1846, destroyed by fire on 19 November 1848, rebuilt in 2002 (1)
-- May 2, 1846
[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 2d I spent the day in doing business in the city. (2)
[Hosea Stout Diary] Saturday May the 2nd 1846. Sent James Allred & Green Taylor to Pleasant Point after Jones things with an ox team which left me and Hunters family destitute of any help for my men were now gone and I had to herd cattle today though I was scarcely able to walk[.] It was a lonesome day to me after being so much accustomed to the hum of public life to be in the prairie confined to a herd of cattle and sick at that[.] I came in before night almost fainting with the sick headache. In fact during my stay here I was almost confined to my bed & some times felt that my constitution was giving away. (3)
[Nauvoo Temple] Second day of dedicatory services. (4)
-- Saturday, May 2, 1846.
[Apostle Willard Richards Journal] Garden Grove. Morning pleasant. President Young engaged fitting up his wagons for the mountains. The brethren were making rails and building a bridge. The earth is too wet to dig wells or more house logs. President Young wrote to the trustees at Nauvoo requesting them to credit the orders of John Taylor settling his affairs in the city. President Young was employed about 4 hours in chopping and scoring some white maple logs to make boards to fit his wagons for the mountains. The historian walked down to the bridge to see him labor. The historian wrote to William Clayton, general clerk, requesting him to report the whole number of persons in the Camp of Israel, agreeable to the order of a council of the 27 of March last. Presidents Young and Richards spent a part of the evening with Captain Elijah Averett in Young Doyle’s (John Doyle Lee Young) tent. Captain Averett reported that the feelings of the Missourians were softened towards us, that himself and Brother Elisha Averett and their company of about 30 men had received about 100 dollars worth of grain and bacon in exchange for clearing land, building 2 barns, etc., and they had furnished our provision teams with about 40 lbs. of bacon, 10 bushel corn, and 35 of wheat, that the water was so high the mill could not grind. Evening warm and cloudy with a south wind. Brother Samuel Thomas died in camp of consumption at 15 minutes past 10 this evening, having been sick from Sugar Creek. (5)
-- May 3, 1846
[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 3d May + Sunday The Saints began to gather at the Temple at an early hour And by ten oclock the House was filled to a great extent. My wife, Father, Mother, Cousin & others took A seat in front of the Melchezidec Priesthood. I occupied the uper stand in company with Br Hyde & Stratton. After singing Elder J A. Stratton opened the meeting by Prayer After which Elder Orson Hyde Arose And Addressed the Assembly from the following words:
"What is man that thou art mindful of him or the sun of man that thou visits him." My object says the speaker is to inquire what kind of A being man is. Man is As Eternal as God himself And is Just As much in Eternity now as he ever will be after Death. The period called time is ownly one portion of Eternity the same as the outer wall of A building incloses many rooms within or As the months Days, Hours minutes or seconds in a year. While in any portion of them we are in the year still. While we exhist before the world was, or in the flesh or after Death, it is all in eternity.
The world opposes the principle of Revelation and does not wish man to obtain knowledge in that way. But what Earthly Father that feels interested in the welfare of his Children but what desires to teach his Children & reveal to them the knowledge He possesses And would feel interested in there Advancement? So with the Lord. He gives gifts & knowledge to his Children and the more intelligence men get the more refined are there feelings. The knowledge [of God] is great & so was his sympathy in giving his Son Jesus Christ to save man The world may oppose Revelation but God does not. We have recieved Revelation & visions & God hath shown us many things.
It is true these blessings have cost us great sacrafizes. We have been oppressed all the day long And at last are now driven to the wilderness. But we will go & not stay with the world. And when we go we remove the candle light from there midst And take it to the sons of Nature who have not shed the blood of Prophets. I will leave my testimony with you though it should be like A Harpoon.
As respects the finishing of this House I will ask why have we laboured to Complete it when we were not expecting to stay. There is two sides to every thing but Mormonism. As to that there is but one side on earth. The other is in Heaven. If we moved forward & finished this House we should be recieved & accepted as A Church with our dead but if not we should be rejected with our dead. These things have inspired And stimulated us to Action in the finishing of it which through the blessing of God we have been enabled to accomplish And prepared it for dedication. In doing this we have ownly been saved as it were by the skin of our teeth. The enemy Prophe-syed we should not get the roof on but we have finished it And on Thursday night we met in this temple prayed in our white robes & dedicated it unto God And truly An interesting season we enjoyed. I am willing to live And Die for the Cause.
You may wish to know what we have been doing in this house. I will tell you. We have been anointing And ordaining Kings And Priest unto God. I have been Anointed A king & Priest unto God. If any one wishes to kill me for it let them do it.
We have laboured hard to ordain kings & Priest unto God to reign here on the earth but not now, but I will tell you when it will be. When the LORD JESUS CHRIST comes to reign and recieve his Crown And sit upon his Throne. The Twelve Apostles will sit upon there Thrones & Judge the Twelve tribes of Israel. Then is the time we expect to recieve our crown And inherit this earth. We look forward for A new Heaven & earth but it will be the old Concern made gloriously and renewed. Those who have been ordained unto this office will be born at the resurrection in the royal linage.
If this religion Gospel & Priesthood has not power to bind on earth and in heaven, it is good for nothing. When A man has recieved this gospel Anointing And endowments let him go to the dust but He will arise And take his place on his throne. Then will the Nations serve And obey us. They are now Persecuting us And there Persecutions Are bringing gray hairs upon the Saints but the Heads of the persecutors will be coverd with blackness.
Men may have been ordained from before the foundation of the world to have performed certain works.
There are different stations in the next world And men will be delt with here according to the deeds done in the body. A man ought to be good Here as he grows older. A man that does his duty And obtaines the Priesthood and honors it will have his reward His exhaltation thrones & dominions according to his faithfulness. We like our Master have desended below all things. So shall we arise above all things. I have seen this by vision. We shall be connected with the kingdom of Jesus Christ to the vary place And station will A man arise in the resurrection to which He Has been sealed & anointed on earth.
It is Said that God will judge the world. So will the Saints. On earth Presidents & Govornors do not Judge but Judges Apointed for the purpose. So in Heaven we shall judge the world Holding the keys of the kingdom And will rise in judgment against our enemies who are heaping there persecutions upon our heads. So with the Ancient Twelve. They will judge Israel for they brought evil upon them.
I see the thousands of poor Saints going out to the wilderness in there oppressions drove out by wicked men. Such men I will not bless but testify against them. They may kill me but I will speak my mind. That man that has the Priesthood and honors it, is God Himself as much as Moses was to the People. We are sons of God And Saviors on Mt Zion. If ye are the sons of God ye shall have all things. He that over cometh shall inherit all things, sit down upon my throne &c. The Lord owns all the Thrones & will give us some.
A man in the Priesthood has persons sealed to him in his kingdom And is subject to him in the dominions of God. Worlds and dominions are continually being formed which adds to the glory of God. Blessed is he who escapes the second death.
Evry Saint has A guardian Angel with him so death cannot kill him. The Angels accompanied the Ancients. So they do us. The Angels of the waters & there was 4 on the cornors of the earth. When the guardian Angel is called away we are left to grapple with death. So with Jesus. He said my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In three days the Angel returned rolled back the stone And raised the Lord. The Angels will [not] stay away forever but will all come with Jesus Christ to raise all the bodies every man in his own order.
This is the way the resurrection is brought about. Jesus Christ was slain And buried yet Arose, assended on high And was crowned Lord of all. So with the Prophets martered in Carthage Jail. They must come forth And be Crowned And sit upon there thrones And Judge there persecutors. If ye were of the world the world would love its own but because I have chosen you out of the world therefore they hate you but they must be judged of you at last.
Man is destined to occupy A great place toincrease in dominion And Power And this is thesecret spring of our Action.I have A word of Caution to all. For one I feel to resign my citizenship because I Cannot enjoy it. I would Advise all the Saints that they Cast not another vote in this state but resign alloffices that they hold And all our friends to do thesame. I do not say they shall do it but advise them to. There is a foundation in this that may serve usin days to come. As our father And Mother or the Nation that has bourn us has rejected us And driven us out there is A Nation of Calamity At the door. All things are not known at once. This Temple was built for A certain purpose. That is gained.Will we now sell? A vote was taken last fall not to sell it, but A key that will not open a door And shut it again is not A good one. So if we have to sell the Temple to remove the Poor the People that make us do it must pay the bill & meet the consequences. All who are in favor of selling this House if it meets with the Council of the Twelve manifest it by raising the right hand. It was A unanimous vote save one. Elder Hyde Closed his remarks And was follow by Elder W. Woodruff [ ] who backed up the testimony of Elder Hyde. And in speaking of the martydom of the Smiths Said they would rise in Judgment against this Nation, the State of Illinois Hancock Co And esspecially Carthage And the murderers it contains. They are the most Suitable persons to rise in judgment against them, for they were martered by them. Yes the mob of Hancock Co had not yet got through with Joseph Smith for He was in the Presence of God and the Lamb in Company with Abram Isaac & Jacob And was our senator in the Court of Heaven And would plead our Cause And his own And knowing the Cause to be a just [one] will do sum-thing that will have effect.
The Saints had laboured faithfully & finished the Temple & were now recieved as A Church with our dead. This is glory enough for building the Temple And thousands of the Saints have recieved there endowment in it. And the light will not go out. Many other remarks were made by Elder Woodruff when the meeting & dedication of the Temple Closed. (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Wikipedia, List of Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
2 - Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/
3 - Diaries of Hosea Stout
4 - Brown, Lisle (compiler), Chronology of the Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction of the Nauvoo Temple
5 - Apostle Willard Richards Journal
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