The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-11-30

Integrity. But Wnen at length the temple
worship lost much of its spirit and power,
though it retaine j its outward form. when
the people religiously become disintegrated,
and finally established places of rival wor-
| ship, then not one but q multitude of des-
| stroying angels appeared in the heavens
with swords drawn, and for a prolonged
period judgment succeeded to judgment,
calamity followed calamity till the nation
was finally delivered over ID the most ap-
palling catastrophe that ever befell peo-
pie. Such then was the use of the temple
with its holy worship to the state of Israel.
l. held thu p ,ople together and was the
strength of their national defence. From
| its smoking affairs rose the incense of its
savory offerings, wherein were waited TO
| the ears OF the Most High the prayers and
supplications OF the people 1t threw
around the nation the protecting arm of
Gods favor and mercy, 1t did for Israel.
after it was built and hal1owed by the altar
and sacrifice, what David's altar did upon
the rock of Ornon's threshing floor. ii
caused the sword OF the avenging angel to
the State mercy in the place OF punish
ment
THE NEW TEMPLE.
But now, dear friends, 1t is to be remem-
bered that Gods temple at Jerusalem, which
was grand and beautiful in its structure,
which had the altar of sacrifice as its
CtuLIc 6S Iuc SlOIg VI lbS
which served the natio in surrounding it
with the favor of jehovah, was q type of
another house that was to be builded in
after years It existed not for Itself, or for
its own time alone. 1t was q prophecy in
stone. It's walls coming together upon the
rock foundation of Mount Moriah, and ris-
ing noiselessly without the SQUAD of an ak
or hammer or iron tool, was prophetic of
the spiritual house that was to be builded
upon the foundation of Him who is the
Rock of Ages, and whose grand and beautI-
full walls were to be built up Of the Ii ely
and precious stones of redeemed souls
This spiritual house to find its constructive
centre and procuring cause In the altar of
sacrifice laid at its foundation. 1t is not
the old wish altar that we see here, but it
is that of which the Jewish altar was type
and shadow 1t is the lamb of God upon
the altar the cross. This is the altar and
the sacrifi 'e which give efficacy to all other
affairs and all other sacrifices. In tie
tabernacle and the temple succe ,sively
dwelt the schecinah of Gods presence In
dwelis the presence Of the incarnate Sol of
God
The pattern showed to Moses in the
Mount, the movable tabernacle of the
wilderness, and finally the fixed temple
upon Mount Morish-these were the types.
The Jews builded better than they
knew. They were indeed the servants
of the Most High God and they builded
house to His glory that was great and
beautiful in its construction, beautiful in
the purpose for which it was constructed,
and beautiful in the service which it
rendered to the State and people. But its
glory and usefulness were to be Infinitely
surpassed in the construction of the
Christian church, the spiritual temple of
the same High God. This material build
ing found its perfect a~d completed s1gnif-
canoe only in this spiritual building. Their
altar of stone derived its chi4fess efficacy
from the altar of the cross Their sacrifices
were perfected in the sacrifice of Christ. the
Lamb of God.
And so it was that when their worship be
came divided and altar was matched
against altar, and the temple no longer
served its purpose in causing to be sheathed
the sword OF the avenging angel, and the
battering rams of the Roman armies were
at its walls, there was rising into being this
other temple of the Christian church Not
now at Jerusalem nor vet at Geriz;m, not at
Bethel or at Gilgal, but IN every land and
every place where the gospel OF the
blessed God was preached and the
%0G Ra Assembly wgTe %SS aa
the sacraments We're duly ministered.
Not beams and pi lars and rate adjusted
composed tn S temple, bu. souls knit to-
gether in the faith and dearship of
prairie, in the forest, or in the desert, that
the worshipping assembly gathered and the
true worship was offered. VIII srever it was
there arose Gods spiritual bouse The
temple roe no selessly, without tool or
weapon, the living stones came together
upon the spiritual rock of Christ, and the
walls of the spiritual house went up. They
rose as By magic, in town and country,
wherever the apostle and priest found his
way. The central truth of this spiritual
house is sacrifice. The alter is its glory I'd
Its beauty, as 1t is the procuring course of
the divine favor. IL exists for the same
purpose, in its relations to the state and the
cit zen, as that for which David builded his
altar in the threshing floor of Crnon, the
Jebusite. or that for which the temple ey-
listed at Jerusalem, namely, to sheath the
sword of the avenging angel.
Our line of thought has now prepared US
to consider that the first emigrdnts to this
western world were living stones in this
spiritual temple Consequently no sooner
Of oia New WsS England and md yPfginis thsn
the walls of the spiritual house began to go
up in this wild land And this very day,
with it's family gatherings and its family
cheer, so full Ofits precious memories, is one
ing which the fathers OF our nation did. The
men and women who were the early settlers
of our country were of the church of the
living God. They brought their faith with
them They brought with them the moral
ideas and traditions and usages OF the rell-
born and marured. They adhered to the
conditions of the worshipping assembly and
the Christian home; the family Biele, and
the family altar. They were handfuls of
corn upon the tops of the mountains OF this
western continent, and the fruit is every
where. The fruit is in the organizations of
States and in the framing of their laws. 1t
is In the schools and colleges which they
planted. 1t is in the churches which a!e
found in every city and village and ham ct.
They believed in God the Father Almighty,
in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord, and
in the Holy Ghost, and in the holy Catholic
Church, the communion of saints, the for
givepess of sins, the resurrection of the
body and the life everlasting. To them God
was no abstraction but the most intense of
all realities, who created nature, and ante
dated nature and was over nature, and ma
lures laws and forces were the instruments
of His will by which He made known to
mans comprehension the manifoldness OF
His creative goodness. They rested on the
supernatural, and hence their faith was q
| working force in their daily life. 1t gave a
| de terminate character to their dom este,
educational and political institutions. 1t
permeated all the forms of life in which the
| early settlers of the country expended their
energies The influence of these mel in
state as certainly as in church was an inf1u-
ence flowing from their faith in God and
| the sacrifice of His Son.