M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

Sacred Stone: The Temple at Nauvoo
by Heidi Swinton

A Homeward Journey
No other story in American religious history can match the drama of the Mormon effort to build the kingdom of God on earth. The near completion of the Nauvoo Temple in 1845 and the Saints' experiences within its walls represented "the beginning of a new era. . . . the beginning of a homeward journey.1

The story of the Nauvoo Temple is so much more than the account of constructing a building, its limestone walls, and distinctive carved stones of the sun, moon, and stars. It is about a people and their commitment to God, their willingness to gather together, leave homes and families, face rancor and persecution, poverty, sickness, disappointment, and even death to fulfill what was to them a divine command. Their effort was shaped not day-to-day, but with an eye to "eternal glory." Their hope was to build a house suitable for God, a house where they could be taught and blessed by promises of salvation. Most had little idea what that really meant, but they labored faithfully, nevertheless.

Their use of the temple for special religious rites was epoch in importance, but only weeks as we measure time. Yet it was enough time for nearly 6,000 to receive all they had hoped at the hands of the Lord's anointed. "December 20, 1845. Saturday . . . 564 Persons have passed through, 95 this day," wrote William Clayton in the official record of the Nauvoo Temple.2 "Passed through" seems an odd term for the culmination of a work that took an entire community five years of sacrifice and grueling labor. Yet the term fits so well when we understand that to these LDS faithful synonymous with opening "the gate of heaven."

Said Sarah Rich of that singular time, "Many were the blessings we had received in the House of the Lord, which has caused joy and comfort in the midst of all our sorrows, and enabled us to have faith in God, knowing He would guide us and sustain us in the unknown journey that lay before us."3

For them, the journey ahead was much more than the forced exodus west; the journey was going home to God. In the temple hung maps illustrating the wilderness to be settled, part of the journey that lay ahead of them. But the rites of the temple were so much more significant than the decor. They, too, were directions for a journey so sacred that Apostle George A. Smith admonished the Saints, "whatever transpires here ought not to be mentioned any where else."4 The solemnity of the temple experience for the LDS faithful has not changed. Hence, the writing of this account of the building and rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple focuses on how they did it and why, without compromising the essence of the experience inside. Suffice it to say that participants shared the feelings of Joseph Kingsbury who wrote, "these blessings I feel to be thankful for and I pray I may always remember the goodness of the Lord to me."5

This book joins with the television documentary Sacred Stone: Temple on the Mississippi, produced by Lee B. Groberg, to tell the remarkable story of the Nauvoo Temple. But the essence of the story is not size, dimensions, timetables, and floor plans. Nor is it the story of the town. For years, the Latter-day Saints have told of Nauvoo, elaborating on its picturesque setting, the social, cultural, and economic development of a boomtown on the river. Somewhere in the chronicle, the temple is given a chapter. Then the commentary returns to the brick buildings on the flat, and the accounts of growth and business. Curious. For the real story of Nauvoo is the story of building a temple. Saints gathered to Nauvoo by divine command to build the temple. The economic structure of the town embraced the practice of tithing one day in ten to temple labor. The visitors who streamed into town came to view the enormous public works project on the hill. Children ran about the walls until they reached a height that was dangerous; patrols guarded the facility at night; distant congregations as far away as England contributed to the building coffers. And all who were engaged in the work of the temple were promised entrance when it was finished. Nauvoo was a Mormon town; and the centerpiece of Mormon worship elaborated by President Brigham Young "a house of prayer . . . a house of order, a house of God" ( D&C 109:8).

The Saints who built this temple were seeking God's presence on the fringes of the frontier. They asked for peace; they did not get it in calm or tranquility. But they received in the temple the jump-start for their wilderness journey in His holy house. On the wall of the temple they left a message in brilliant gold letters: "Come After Us."

The story of the Nauvoo Temple is, for most people, but a footnote in America's nineteenth-century march to the Pacific. To the Latter-day Saints, the building of the Nauvoo Temple is a benchmark chapter in the history of this religion raised on American soil. The temple took five years to complete, yet was used by the faithful for only six weeks. It is a curious saga.

Why build a temple? Was not a church or meetinghouse sufficient for communion with God? These faithful followers of Christ believed as did those in ancient times that temples are houses of God where the Lord can reveal to His people the glories of His kingdom and the special ordinances and spiritual covenants necessary for their salvation. It was in the temple that time and space came together, where barriers collapsed between this life and the next, where past, present, and future were framed as one. What was bound in the temple was bound in eternity in what the Prophet Joseph Smith termed "sealings."

He called for the Saints "to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto His people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose."2 He also taught that the whole of mankind stood at the gates of the temple awaiting saving ordinances, and that these rites returned to God's children in their purity and promise in the Nauvoo Temple.

Joseph Smith drew upon the substance, funds, faith, and zeal of all to fashion the temple. Construction began in the early 1840s when a crew of these religious refugees started chipping away the limestone walls of a Mississippi riverbank on the western edge of Illinois. Like the Israelites of old, these Latter-day Saints were intent on building a house for God one stone at a time. The builders had no power tools; they did not fully understand the mathematics of structural engineering; they were farmers and common laborers; they were poor. Through their efforts, much of it volunteer labor and for the most part unskilled, they completed the temple and then used it day and night for only six weeks. Their efforts drew interest; visitors by the dozens streamed into the city to view the grand structure.

A visitor to Nauvoo described the completed temple as "a large and splendid edifice, built on the Egyptian style of architecture," adding he was astonished by "its grandeur and magnificence."36 The New York Sun credited "the Mormon prophet" as being the man who "in the blaze of this nineteenth century" founded a new religion and built "a city, with new laws, institutions, and orders of architecture."37

By 1845 the dramatic structure's walls could be seen for more than a mile. The temple—128 feet long, 88 feet wide, 65 feet to the roof, and 165 feet from the ground to the top of the tower's spire-created a town center very different from any other community. It was a curious blend of architectural styles, and a bold statement of a community at odds with its neighbors in social, religious, and cultural practices. Their dazzling white temple was an amazing accomplishment, a phenomenon of their time; yet their efforts had never been intended to make a statement to anyone but God.

Temple construction became a community-bonding enterprise with doctrinal roots Joseph Smith described as "gathering." For six years, thousands of religious converts had steamed up the river, docked at one of the town's wharfs, and stepped into a new life, one centered on gathering to give service to God. That's why they had come. By 1846 they were gone, driven out by neighbors and one-time believers who could not abide the unfolding religion, its prophets, or its people.

Nauvoo—the town and its temple—stood silent on the banks of the Mississippi—as the river ripples quietly lick the wounds of war.

On the heels of the Mormons' forced exodus to the desert basins of the Rocky Mountains, arsonists torched the abandoned Nauvoo Temple in 1848. Two years later a tornado toppled the walls. The once-proud edifice that spoke of a peculiar people—their faith and sacrifice—was gone.

More than 150 years later, in April of 1999, President Gordon B.Hinckley, thirteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, made a surprise announcement regarding the reconstruction of this revered edifice. The rebuilding "says that we are aware and conscious and grateful for a great history that lies behind us," President Hinckley said, "and that we are aware and conscious of a great opportunity and challenge that lies ahead of us. This restoration stands as something of a monument to that maturity in the Church." The construction immediately went on a fast track.

Though temple building has a rich heritage in antiquity, it was an anomaly in religious circles in the nineteenth century with the exception of the Latter-day Saints. The Mormons began to build temples in the Church's infancy; they continued that tradition when they went west in 1847. The completion of the rebuilt Nauvoo Temple will bring to 113 the number of functioning LDS Temples around the nation and the world. Nauvoo was the first LDS temple where holy rites and promises were administered to the faithful to prepare them for salvation. And it will continue to fulfill these purposes today.

The rebuilt Nauvoo Temple looks over a still-quiet Nauvoo. Its presence commemorates the past and heralds the future. It stands on the same footprint as it predecessor, replicates the original architectural design, hosts a golden angel atop the tower, and bears a near-perfect match to those original walls—of sacred stone.

©© Covenant Communications 2002

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