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Show NEW YEARS Tils Salt Lake Temple. 'HAT a flood of emotions the sight, the name, even the 0 o thought, of tins splendid building arouses in the breasts of the Latter-da- y With what anxiety thev Saints listen lor news as to the pi ogress of the work, now that the last stages of its comWith pletion have been entered upon what joy, and gratitude, and exaltation, they anticipate the glad message which shall go forth on the 6th day of April nxt The House of the Lord in the chief city of Zion is completed, and is e this day dedicated to our God, come, faithful, and be pai takers of the blessings great joy, the Fverlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell upon the earth? Does it not in its various stages represent the condition and circumstances of those whose means and toil have budded id Its history fully told would be in great measure their history, and since they came to these mountains there are but few pages that cannot be read in the enduring stone of its walls We have mentioned forty years as the period that has been passed in its growth In reality its conception was even of an earlier date Scarcely had the weary feet of the Pioneers pressed the parched soil of this valley in the closing days of July, 1847, when their great leader, Brig ham Young, standing upon what we now call Temple Block, struck the ground The therein For has it not during wrell nigh forty years the most momentous m the worlds history and fraught to the Church of God with vast experiences, both sweet and bitter, with trials severe, and oys serene been as a strong anchor to their hopes, a sure sup port to their faith, a mighty link that was to connect them with the ages that are past and the eternities that are to come ? Does it not typify in its own construction the record of the Church of which they are members with its foundation broad and deep, with slow yet steady step marching forward and upward to perfection, with pinnacles pushing ever higher into heavens blue, crowned with the image of one who brought tidings of to be given 1893. Slt 3 ward it The memory of the tender sanctity of their already desecrated Temple at beloved Nauvoo made them keenly anxious to restore in their new abiding place the holy ordinances which they had been permitted to enjoy all too briefly on the Mississippis banks But the desire would not diminish through delay, and the work of providing homes for their families, their brethren and sisters and those who might follow them across the The work of plains was more pressing planting and building w'ent forward, and the Temple waited for a brief season. A general conference of the Church was held in Salt Lake City in April, 1S51, and the congregation unanimously voted that a Temple should be b nit Utah's capit il contained at the time a population Lake Temple with Ins cane and exclaimed, Here be the Temple of our God This on the evening of the 28th of July, fourth day after their arrival , and will of not more than 5,000, and the Territory was altogether had a little more than twice as the many On the morning of the 14th of the February, 1853 actual work in puisuance Apostles then and there decided that the of this resolution wras begun. The ground building of the city should begin at that was measured and laid off under direcpoint As originally designed, the Tem- tion of the First Presidency and the Aposple Block was to contain forty acres, tles, there was music by the band, and this and other features nf the city building an address by President Young, the plan being ratified by unanimous vote of prayer consecrating the ground was ofthe Pioneer company It was not until fered by President Heber C. Kimball, some time later that the size of the Tern and the Apostles assisted in breaking the pie Block was reduced from forty to ten ground for the foundations By the 6th acres in area anof April of that year, the twenty-thir- d Desirous as they may have been to niversary of the Church, the excavations again rear a house to the Most High, the had so far progressed that the ceremony circumstances of the Saints at this time of laying the corner stones of the structforbade any but the preliminary steps to- - ure could be performed. It was an oc- - |