Page:The House of the Lord.djvu/171

Rh an ante-building,—in which preliminary services are held, and wherein record is made of the ordinance work to be done by the parties present, before they are permitted to enter the Temple on the day of service. The Annex to the Temple in Salt Lake City stands about one hundred feet north from the main structure.

Even as late as one month prior to the date set for the dedication, there was so much yet to be done, as to make many feel that for once at least, the people had been mistaken in their belief that the Lord had spoken, and that the completion of the work by the time set, was a physical impossibility. On the 18th of March, 1893, the First Presidency issued the following epistle:

"To the Officers and Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

"The near approach of the date for the dedication of the temple of our God moves us to express with some degree of fulness our feelings to our brethren, the officers of the Church, who with us bear the Priesthood of the Son of God, and to the Latter-day Saints generally; to the end that in entering that holy building we may all be found acceptable ourselves, with our households, and that the building which we shall dedicate may also be acceptable unto the Lord.

"The Latter-day Saints have used their means freely to erect other Temples in these valleys, and our Father has blessed us in our efforts. Today we enjoy the great happiness of having three of these sacred structures completed, dedicated to and accepted of the Lord, wherein the Saints can enter and attend to those ordinances which He, in His infinite goodness and kindness, has revealed.  But for forty years the hopes, desires, and anticipations of the entire Church have been centered upon the completion of this edifice in the principal city of Zion.  Its foundation was laid in the early days of our settlement in these mountains; and from that day until the present, the eyes of the members of the Church in every land have been lovingly directed toward it.  Looking upon it as the Temple of temples, the people during all these years have labored with unceasing toil, undiminished patience, and ungrudging expenditure of means to bring it to its present condition of completion; and now that the toils and the sacrifices of forty years are crowned so successfully and happily,