Page:The House of the Lord.djvu/208

192 consists of chairs for the officiating elder, the witnesses, and persons awaiting the ordinances at the altar.

Sealing Room for the Living: The easterly room of the three is in size and shape a counterpart of the last described. Its finishing, however, is in brighter tone; the altar and chairs are upholstered in crimson velvet, and the walls are of light tint. A mirror extends from floor to ceiling on the east wall. This is the Sealing Room for the Living. Here is solemnized the sacred ordinance of marriage between parties who come to plight their vows of marital fidelity for time and eternity, and to receive the seal of the eternal Priesthood upon their union. Here also are performed the ordinances of sealing or adoption of living children by their parents who were not at first united in the order of celestial marriage. On the south side of this room is a door with transom and side panels of jeweled glass in floral design, leading into a reception room which is provided for the accommodation of parties awaiting the sealing ordinance. This room connects on the west by a short passage with a smaller apartment,—another waiting room, and this in turn opens upon the upper corridor at the head of the grand stairway.

The Holy of Holies: The central of the three small apartments connected with the Celestial Room,—situated therefore between the Sealing Room for the Living and the Sealing Room for the Dead,—is of all the smaller apartments within the Temple walls by far the most beautiful. Yet its excellence is that of splendid simplicity rather than of sumptuous splendor. It is raised above the other two rooms and is reached by an additional flight of six steps inside the sliding doors. The short staircase is bordered