of the latest dispensation, then a lad in his fifteenth year, received a Divine manifestation,[1] in which both the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared and instructed the youthful suppliant. Through Joseph Smith, the Gospel of old was restored to earth, and the ancient law was re-established. In course of time, through the ministry of the prophet, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, and its establishment was marked by manifestations of Divine power.[2]
It is a significant fact that this Church, true to the distinction it affirms—that of being the Church of the living God as its name proclaims—began in the very early days of its history to provide for the erection of a temple.[3] The Church was organized as an earthly body-corporate on the sixth of April, A. D. 1830; and, in July of the year following, a revelation was received designating the site of a future temple near Independence, Missouri. The construction of a temple on this chosen spot is yet delayed, as is also the case with another temple-site in Far West, Missouri,[4] on which the corner-stones were laid in 1838. The Church holds as a sacred trust the commission to build the temples so located, but as yet the way has not been opened for the consummation of the plan. In the meantime temples in other places have been reared, and already the modern dispensation is marked by the erection of six such sacred edifices.
On the first day of June, 1833, in a revelation to the
- ↑ See the author's "The Articles of Faith," Lecture I, and references thereto.
- ↑ See the author's "The Articles of Faith," specifically Lecture I, and notes thereon.
- ↑ See Doctrine and Covenants 36:8; 42:36; 133:2.
- ↑ See Doctrine and Covenants 115:7-16.
