Of old the oracle had a priestly royalty. The story of Alexander the Great and the oracle of Delphi is famous. The conqueror demanded speech from the oracle concerning his destiny. The oracle was a woman; and womanlike she refused to utter the voice of destiny at the imperious bidding of a mortal. But Alexander knew that woman was inspired—that he held in his grip the incarnated spirit of the temple, and he essayed to drag her to the holy ground where speech was given.
"He is invincible!" exclaimed the oracle, in wrath.
"The oracle speaks!" cried Alexander, in exultation.
The prophetess was provoked to an utterance; woman forced to obey the stronger will of man; but it was woman's inspired voice that sent Alexander through the world a conquering destiny.
And the prophet of Mormondom knew that woman is, by the gifts of God and nature, an inspired being. If she was this in the temples of Egypt and Greece, more abundantly is she this in the temples of Israel. In them woman is the medium of Jehovah. This is what the divine scheme of the Mormon prophet has made her to this age; and she began her great mission to the world in the temple at Kirtland.
But this temple-building of the Mormons has a vaster meaning than the temples of Egypt, the oracles of Greece, or the cathedrals of the Romish Church.
It is the vast Hebrew iliad, begun with Abraham and brought down through the ages, in a race still preserved with more than its original quality and fibre; and in a God who is raising up unto Abraham a mystical seed of promise, a latter-day Israel.
Jehovah is a covenant-maker. "And I will make with Israel a new and everlasting covenant," is the text that Joseph and Brigham have been working upon. Hence this temple building in America, to fulfill and glorify the new covenant of Israel.
The first covenant was made with Abraham and the patriarchs in the East. The greater and the everlasting covenant will restore the kingdom to Israel. That covenant has been made in the West, with these veritable children of Abraham. God has raised up children unto Abraham to fulfill the promises made to him. This is Mormonism.
The West is the future world. Yet how shall there be the new civilization without its distinctive temples? Certainly there shall be no Abrahamic dispensation and covenant unless symbolized by temples raised to the name of the God of Israel!