"The last stone is laid upon the Temple, and I pray the Almighty in the name of Jesus to defend us in this place, and sustain us until the Temple is finished and we have all got our endowments."[[37]]

Then followed the solemn and sacred shout: "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! To God and the Lamb! Amen! Amen! and Amen!" This was repeated a second and a third time; and in conclusion the President said: "So let it be, thou Lord Almighty."[[38]]

The somber clouds of persecution were gathering and thickening about the devoted people. Under counsel from their leaders the people prepared once again to leave their homes; and this time they resolved to go beyond the boundaries of civilization. A general exodus was imminent; and as early as February, 1846, this had begun. Most of the Saints, however, remained for a short time; and with these the completion of the Temple was the main purpose and object of life. Though they knew the sacred edifice would soon be abandoned, they labored diligently to complete it, even to the smallest detail.

By October, 1845, the building was so well advanced that large assemblies therein were possible. The general autumnal conference of the Church for that year was held within the walls; and the congregation present on October 5th numbered fully five thousand souls. During December, 1845, and the early months of 1846, many of the Saints received their blessings and endowments in the Temple, for which purpose parts of the structure had been duly consecrated; but not until the end of April was the building as a whole ready for dedication.

The Nauvoo Temple was constructed for the most part of a close-grained, light-gray limestone, a material at once hard and durable, yet easily tooled, and therefore readily adapted to ornamental finish. The entire building was one hundred and twenty-eight feet by eighty-eight feet, and sixty-five feet high in the clear. The top of the spire was one hundred and sixty-five feet above the ground and bore the figure of a flying herald sounding a trumpet. The plan of construction was that of a solid and stable four-walled building, two and a half stories high, with a hexagonal tower at the front rising in four terraces and a dome. Over the front center door, and immediately beneath the base of the tower, appeared an inscription:

THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

Built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Holiness to the Lord

On the outside were thirty pilasters, nine on each side and six at each end. At its base each pilaster presented in hewn relief the crescent moon, and ended above in a capital of cut stone depicting the face of the sun allegorically featured, with a pair of hands holding horns. Above the capitals was a frieze or cornice in which appeared thirty star-stones. In the late hours of April 30, 1846, the Temple was privately, yet officially, dedicated, in the presence of such general authorities of the Church as could be convened. President Joseph Young of the First Council of Seventy offered the dedicatory prayer. The semi-private character of the dedication was due to the thought that possibly there would be interference in a public ceremony, so active was the spirit of intolerance and persecution. On the day following, that is to say May 1, 1846, services of a general and public nature were held in the Temple, under the direction of Elders Orson Hyde and Wilford Woodruff of the Council of the Twelve Apostles.

The Saints had met the requirement made of them by the Lord in the building of another House to His name. Ordinance work continued a few months more, even though the exodus of the people was in progress. In September, 1846, the Nauvoo Temple was in possession of the mob; and the people whose energy and substance, whose sweat and blood had been spent in its rearing, were driven into the wilderness or slain. For two years the once hallowed structure stood as an abandoned building; then on November 19, 1848, it fell a prey to the wanton act of an incendiary. After the conflagration, only blackened walls remained where once had stood so stately a sanctuary. Strange to say, an attempt was made by the Icarians, a local organization, to rebuild on the ruins, the professed intent being to provide for a school; but while the work was in its early stages a tornado demolished the greater part of the walls. This occurred on May 27, 1850. What remained of the Temple has been taken away as souvenirs or used as building material for other structures. Stones of the Temple have been carried into most of the states of the Union and beyond the seas, but upon the site where once stood the House of the Lord not one stone is left upon another. Before the demolition of the Nauvoo Temple was complete, the Latter-day Saints had established themselves in the vales of Utah, and were already preparing to build another and a greater sanctuary to the name and service of their God.

FOOTNOTES

[1]. Doctrine and Covenants 36:8; compare Malachi 3:1.