Blocks cut to represent the moon in its several phases, and known as moon-stones, occupy conspicuous places in the buttresses immediately below the second string-course or water-table; they are therefore on a level with the top of the first or lower line of oval windows corresponding to the ceiling of the Mezzanine story. There are fifty such moon-stones; each four feet seven inches high, three feet six inches wide, and one foot thick.
Sun-stones are set in the buttresses directly under the third belt-course or water-table, which is practically the level of the roof. There are fifty of these, each cut to represent the body of the sun, with a serrated edge of fifty-two points illustrative of the sun's rays. These stones are each four feet seven inches high, three feet six inches wide, and ten inches thick.
Star-stones are numerous; each bears in relief the figure of a five-pointed star. On the east center-tower immediately below the battlements are sixteen of these, four of each face; and on each of the east corner-towers are twelve such stones, making forty on these towers alone. The keystones of the doorways and those of the window arches belong to this class, each bearing a single star.
Star-stones of another kind appear on the face of the center tower at the west. Here, above the highest window and extending to the base of the battlement course, are seen the seven stars of the northern constellation Ursa Major or Great Bear, otherwise known as the Dipper. The group is so placed that the two stars called pointers are practically in line with the North Star itself.
Cloud-stones, two in number, are seen on the upper face of the east center tower, immediately under the cap-pings of the main buttresses. These show a cluster of cumulus clouds through which the sun's rays are breaking. The face so carved is five feet by three and a half feet in area.
Reference has been made to inscription-stones which form part of the exterior walls. The principal stone of this class is seen on the east centre tower, above the windows, corresponding in position to the starry constellation on the center tower at the west. The main inscription, which occupies a surface a little over twenty by six feet, consists of letters deeply cut and heavily gilded.[[5]] In the arches over the great windows of the central towers appear inscriptions which are alike at both ends of the building. The keystone of the lower window bears on a carven scroll "I am Alpha and Omega."[[6]] This inscription, a figurative epitome of both time and eternity, and a proclamation of Him who is without beginning and without end, has a peculiar appropriateness over the central casements of this, the House of the Lord; and he who pauses to read may well consider the text and its context in full: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."[[7]]
Immediately beneath this inscription in the lower window arch of the centre tower appears in relief the emblem of the clasped hands, betokening the bond of brotherhood and the free offering of the right hand of fellowship. On the corresponding stones above the upper windows in each of the center towers is a carven emblem of the All-seeing Eye.
Entrance to the Temple directly from without is afforded by four great doorways, two at either end; each of these portals occupies a court between the center tower and the adjoining corner tower. The four door-ways are of like construction. A flight of sixteen granite steps leads up the court; the lowest of these steps is approximately sixteen feet in length, the top step about nine feet, and each of the steps between about ten feet long. On the uppermost granite slab rests the threshold or door-step proper, which is of cast bronze. The door-way is eight feet wide, and sixteen feet six inches in extreme height. This is closed by double doors with arched transom. The doors proper are twelve feet high, and each single door is four feet wide. In each door the bottom panel is of oak, while the middle and upper panels are occupied by beveled plate glass protected by bronze grills of intricate pattern carrying a bee-hive medallion in the center. The hardware attachments are all of cast bronze, and are of special design. The door-knob bears in relief the bee-hive, above which, in a curved line, appear the words, "Holiness to the Lord." The escutcheon presents in relief the clasped hands within a wreath of olive twigs, an arch with keystone, and the dates "1853-1893"—the years in which the great building was commenced and completed.
On the side of each of the doorways flanking the center tower is a canopied niche in the granite, large enough to receive a statue of heroic proportions.[[8]]
Such is the great Temple as seen from without. The massive pile impresses even the casual observer as a type of permanency, and the embodiment of the stable and the durable. It stands as an isolated mass of the everlasting hills. As nearly as any work of man may so do, it suggests duration.