2

A House of Glory
Hugh W. Nibley

There are many aspects of the temple that we could talk

about; so1:1eof these may be freely discussed in public, oth-
ers may not. But we seem to forget that for over one hun-
1

dred fifty years the Church has published, proclaimed, and

circulated the most enlightening treatment of the subject,
and to this no one seems to pay any attention. That is the
dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple. Let us briefly
analyze Section 109 of the Doctrine and Covenants.
Verses 1-4. The temple has been built by express com-
mand as a means of administering salvation to the children
of men. The Saints have responded, and as the Lord has
called them, they now call upon the Lord. We are never pas-
sive in these matters, and here the Prophet initiates the next
action. In our dealings with the Lord we are expected to
move of our own volition: "Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
you" (Matthew 7:7). Or, as the Jews say, there must be a stir-
ring below before there can be a stirring above; one does not
ask a blessing over an empty table. The temple exists for
training us: What kind of house can we build you, asks
Solomon at the dedication of his temple, since the heaven is
your throne and the earth is your footstool?
But let us get down to business.
Verse 5. First of all, the temple is a place in which God

29
30 HUGH W. NIBLEY

Figure 2. These 1870 photographs (above and facing page) are among
the earliest known photographs of the Kirtland Temple. The School of
the Prophets met together in the attic story.

manifests himself, a place of appointment, a meeting place.

You will go to the tabernacle, the Lord says to Moses, "and
there I will meet with thee" (Exodus 25:22; cf. 29:42). When
Jesus manifested himself to all the apostles after the
Resurrection, he arranged ahead of time, as he instructed
Mary and as the angel instructed some of the apostles, that
they should all meet him at a certain time in GaJilee (see
Matthew 28:7, 10, 16; Mark 16:7). So the temple is where the
people come together at a particular prescribed time and
place. The next question is, what people?
Verse 6. The answer is all the Saints in "solemn assem-
bly." This makes them a special society that is to initiate the
work of bringing all things together-a sort of grand unify-
ing theory toward which all the sciences seem to be looking
today, bringing everything together in one. It is in the
A HOUSE OF GLORY 31

Figure 3. This photograph shows the western end of the Lower Court
and the pulpits of the Melchizedek Priesthood. The hinged sacrament
table at the front is raised, and the rollers for the privacy veils can be
seen on the ceiling. It was on Sunday, 3 April 1836, after the sacrament
was passed and the veils were lowered, that Joseph Smith and Oliver
Cowdery beheld the great vision of the Savior (see D&C 110).

temple we are taught expressly that all truth may be encom-

passed within a single whole.
Verse 7. They are to bring their brains with them. That is
the first qualification, that your brain and intellect may be
clear and active. For they are here to seek diligently, to seek
out of the best books, to seek learning. This is our initiative.
We are to "teach one another words of wisdom; ... [to] seek
learning even by study and also by faith." And from what
sources? Out of the best books? Where is the list? Why no
syllabus? Because we are to do the seeking. It is we who
must decide which are the best books, and to do that we
must "prove all things [and] hold fast that which is good"
32 HUGH W. NIBLEY

(1 Thessalonians 5:21). We must make our own syllabus as

part of organizing ourselves and preparing "every needful
thing," as it expressly tells us in the next verse. The temple
is to be a place of study and learning, a school of real mental
discipline. The temple marks the universal meeting place of
all great societies. It is actually the source of everything that
makes civilization. 2
Verse 8. First of all, it is a house of prayer. That is most
important-to make your cosmic connections and establish
lines of communication with intelligence greater than ours.
The main function of the temple is to supply a binding link
between the worlds. Without that, it is nothing but a civic
social center or a senior citizens' club.
Next it is a house of fasting. Fasting is the most effective
way to slacken the grasp of this telestial world on the mind
and to move toward another ambience. To fast is to do with-
out some normal necessities; your everyday considerations
must be put aside because you will be doing other things
that require a totally different mind-set. To fast is to disen-
gage from the temporal and wasteful activities of the "real
world."
It is a house of faith. Without that, those who go through
the motions are hypocrites, as the Lord told the Jews in the
temple: "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise
it up" (John 2:19)-that would test their faith as to whether
it was really God's house. You find yourself in the temple
on faith, not exactly sure whether all this is real or whether
your work will be accepted, though I must say that in the
temple more than anywhere else my doubts disintegrate.
Next, it is a house of learning.Is this a surprise? If we are
supposed to be studying and teaching diligently, thinking
deeply, we must have something to think about, as well as
something to show for our mental effort. That is called
A HOUSE OF GLORY 33

learning. We are suspicious of too much learning in the

Church Educational System where it is viewed as "unspiri-
tual," but if anyone was ever more passionately dedicated
than Brigham Young to learning all he possibly could about
everything he possibly could, it was Joseph Smith.
It is also a house of glory. This must come next in order.
And what is glory? How do you generate that intangible
quantity? Glory, we are told, is intelligence (see D&C 93:36).
Can we be more specific? That says it all, but what is intel-
ligence? Intelligence is defined as problem-solving ability,
i.e., intelligence is as intelligence does. What problem does
it solve? It is the supremely difficult problem of endowing
weak and foolish man with immortality and eternal life.
God says this is his "work and [his] glory-to bring to pass
the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39)-that
we return to his presence and with him partake of eternal
life and exaltation. Since his glory is intelligence, he shares it
with us. Glory is shared intelligence. The temple is certainly
the place for that.
Order comes next. What crimes have been committed in
its name! We have noted that the temple is a place of disci-
plined thought and action, but regimentation? When I ask
what the temple teaches me, the answer is loud and clear:
to control my actions. That is self-discipline and that is what
I promise to exercise with every covenant. The law of sacri-
fice requires me to do things I could more easily not do; the
law of the gospel requires self-control in everyday situa-
tions, avoiding the same unseemly acts as are condemned
in the instructions of the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as laughing
too loudly, gossiping, and immodest dress. That chastity is
nothing but self-control needs no argument. And the hard-
est of all, the law of consecration, can only be faced against
sore temptation, and still confronts us with unresolved
34 HUGH W. NIBLEY

dilemmas. What I promise to do with every covenant is to

order my life and, specifically, as it is fully laid out in the
Book of Moses for all the world to see, to do all that I do
in the name of the Son, to "repent and call upon God in
the name of the Son forevermore" (Moses 5:8). Note that
the covenant is between me and the Father. I am to order my
life, and no one else is to do it for me; the only judge of my
behavior is the Father. Only the two of us know how I really
qualify in this. We establish our agreement in the temple
because it is a house of God.He takes over completely. It is in
no sense an ordinary house. This should be borne in mind at
all times, even to the forgetting of time and place.
Verse 9. This makes the temple a very special place set
off from the world. When you enter and leave, you pass
from one sphere to another. "That your incomings may
be in the name of the Lord, that your outgoings may be in
the name of the Lord, that all your salutations may be in the
name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High."
This is not rhetoric, it is very clear. The raised hands
announce your entering and leaving the sacred place. They
are a sign of recognition, as well as of praise. Common
courtesy even in ordinary society demands signs of polite
recognition upon entering or leaving a company. Like a mil-
itary salute whenever the general enters and leaves, every-
one rises and salutes and he salutes too, announcing their
presence to each other and getting down to business.
Hence, all these greetings are "unto the Most High" for He
is the General, He is the one in command. This puts every-
thing into perspective. The next verse makes this clear.
Verse 10. "We ask thee to assist us ... in calling our
solemn assembly, that it may be done to thine honor and to
thy divine acceptance." Things must not subside into every-
day routine, the light of common day. People in the temple
A HOUSE OF GLORY 35

are aware of something unusual, something definitely more

than mere formal or offhand routine. This requires a disci-
pline and concentration that may try our capacity, and so
we ask God to assist us in it, in this common effort between
the worlds.
Verse 11. This is made clear in the manner in which
things are carried out. The state of mind is all-important.
President Joseph F. Smith said that much temple work
would likely have to be done over again because of the slip-
shod manner in which it was done. 3 The day before yester-
day I got-his meaning when I enjoyed participating in just
one initiatory ordinance. It was performed in such an off-
hand and perfunctory manner that I told one of the officia-
tors that if I had not known the words by heart, I could not
have understood a word he was saying.
Verse 12. The basic meaning of "sanctified" and "conse-
crated" -hagios, kadosh, sanctus, holy, etc.,-is "fenced off
from the world." That is the permanent condition of the
temple: "that thy holy presence may be continually in this
house." Many holy places are open to secular use through-
out the year except during the formal set times of assembly
and celebration. Not so with the temple; there everything
that happens is removed from the everyday world.
Verse 13. All people feel power at the threshold of the
Lord's house; it "constrains" them. It is something not self-
induced. Throughout history temples have enlisted the aid
of incense, dance, mantras, drums, drugs, hypnosis,
exhausting fasts, processions, tapers, stunning architectural
settings, etc., to convince their devotees of supernatural
forces. In the temple the Word of Wisdom alone secures
stone-cold sobriety. John Chrysostom warned against all
such stimulants, including paintings and images, as impos-
ing an artificial discipline on the church and striving for
36 HUGH W. NIBLEY

theatrical and emotional effect. You cannot see, hear, smell,

taste, or touch power, but you can feel it, and you cannot
deny what you feel, nor can you prove it to anyone else. Is
not all feeling awareness of an indefinable energy? St.
Augustine urged the Christians to stop depending on
promptings of the Spirit because they were too vague,
unpredictable, and beyond our control, and suggested
putting in their place office and ceremony, "forms and
observances," which can be directed and employed at will."
Verse 14. After these initiatory statements we get down
to business: what do we do in the temple? Answer: We are
"taught words of wisdom out of the best books," we "seek
learning even by study, and also by faith, as thou hast said."
But do we do that in the temple? Apparently we do, for this
is equivalent to "worship in this house." The School of the
Prophets was held in the temple. Central to all great
temples was the great library. The temple is definitely a
school, a very high school of intense study, as temples in the
past have been. It was in the temple that the child Jesus
astounded the wise men with his knowledge of scripture.
Study is personal, but your own thoughts that may be help-
ful to others should be exchanged as you "teach one
another" -learning is a two-way process. Lest you be keep-
ing something of value locked in your bosom, the temple
gives you the opportunity to share what excites,you. The
classic words for school are schole and ludus; both have the
basic meaning of play and denote a place of liberal educa-
tion, where we do not concern ourselves with the business
of making a living but are free to sit down, relax, and
exchange ideas.
Verse 15. This verse is the classic statement of the pur-
11
pose of education: And that they may grow," but here a
special kind of growth: to "grow up in thee, and receive a
A HOUSE OF GLORY 37

fulness of the Holy Ghost, and be organized according to

thy laws, and be prepared to obtain every needful thing."
Growth, fulness, organization, not organization for organi-
zation's sake, but to expedite "obtain[ing] every needful
thing." To do this we are instructed to stay alert, pay atten-
tion, and to come often. We are not to sit like bags of sand
but to receive a fulness-nothing left out, "every needful
thing," in short, all that one is able to receive. The Lord has
much to say about fulness. If I could do more than I am
doing, or carry more than I am carrying, and learn more
than I am learning, etc., I am quite literally rejecting the ful-
ness. This is a situation ominously set forth in 3 Nephi
16:10-12, where, speaking of the church in our day, the Lord
says, "If they ... shall reject the fulness of my gospel,
behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my
gospel from among them ... and I will bring my gospel
unto them" -i.e., another branch of Israel, the descendants
of Lehi. Is the phasing out or neglecting of certain temple
activities a rejection of the fulness? That is not for me to
decide.
Verse 16. The next verse recapitulates: A house of prayer,
of fasting, of faith, of glory, of God. These things all belong
together. They are steps to exaltation; the ordinances mark
distinct degrees or steps. This concept of gradus ad
Parnassum is the root of civilization.
Verses 17-19. With incomings and outgoings in the
name of the Lord and salutations with holy hands uplifted,
we find ourselves in a very special society; here we are
really entering into things. All temples are marked by
boundaries, stations, levels, doors, stairs, passages, gates,
veils, etc.-they all denote rites of passage going from one
condition or state to another, from lower to higher, from
dark to light, a complete transition from one world, telestial
38 HUGH W. NIBLEY

Figure 4. A scene from Mozart's Magic Flute, in which a priest leads

Prince Tamino to his trials. The opera portrays several motifs familiar
to Latter-day Saint audiences, such as temple instruction concerning the
meaning of life and initiation to become like the gods.

or terrestrial, to another, ultimately the celestial. At certain

crucial passages one must identify oneself by an exchange
of names and tokens and show oneself qualified by an
exchange of words. This was characteristic of all ancient
temples. It is the origin of the Hermetic tradition, which
comes down to us in such altered but interesting forms as
Free Masonry and such fanciful presentations as the Magic
Flute, in which Mormon audiences recognize familiar
motifs.
Verses 20-21. No unclean thing is permitted to come into
the House and pollute it. Uncleanness and pollution, as we
are increasingly aware today, are not only unpleasant but
dangerous. One of the most striking doctrines of the
Egyptian temple and funerary literature is that "pollution"
A HOUSE OF GLORY 39

is the name of the telestial world. We live in pollution. We

take from the terrestrial world, the world as God made it,
only what we find wholesome, pure, and delicious-"of
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat" (Genesis
2:16). But what do we make of it? What do we return to the
earth? Sewage!
In these verses we see the two-fold function of the
temple. It repels evil and pollution of the carnal world, like
Teflon, while at the same time it exercises a gravitational
pull upon transgressors, an urge to "clean up their act,"
to wit, to ,"repent and return ... and be restored." The
suggestion of the expanding or contracting universe, the
ever-conflicting and creative functions of radiation and
gravitation are reinforced in the next verse.
Verse 22. Here we see the temple like some supernova,
expanding irresistibly in all directions as "thy servants ...
go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that
thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about
them, and thine angels have charge over them"; i.e., the
angels are there to supervise the operation, keeping every-
thing running properly-an ancient Jewish and Christian
teaching.
Verse 23. The great expansion goes out to the limits of
time and space "unto the ends of the earth," bearing
"exceedingly great and glorious tidings ... that thou hast
put forth thy hand, to fulfil that which thou hast spoken."
Verses 24-28. Meantime, in this world it must serve as a
fortress, a "safe house," sheltered place or marshaling
area-note the buttresses and battlements and the garden
walls of all our older temples. The security is guaranteed by
God himself, who will both decide and execute whatever
smiting and fighting needs to be done. We have neither the
time nor the energy to engage in combat, and contention
40 HUGH W. NIBLEY

has been strictly forbidden in all circumstances. All the

world has felt a sort of unassailable aloofness about our
temples.
Verse 29. The state of the opposition is to be one of
astonishment and confusion. The work is bound to invite
comments and vicious fictions. This part of the prophecy
has been fulfilled strangely, no matter what position the
Church has found itself in-it seems that as long as the proj-
ect goes forward, it will excite animosity and resistance. It
is the work of the temple more than anything else, as
Brigham Young noted, that sets all the bells of hell to ring-
ing-"! want to hear them ring again!" he said. 5
Verse30. But the resistance shall be frustrated-again no
comment is necessary, but there is a hint of things to come
in the upheavals of our time when we are told that their
works shall be "swept away by the hail." That is ominous
and by no means so fantastic as it sounded not so long ago.
Hail is the infallible indicator of atmospheric extremes such
as the world is experiencing today for the first time of
which we are aware.
Verses31-33. This is the historical part, something of an
established pattern of recurrent events where the temple is
concerned. The Saints do not enjoy a glory of the eternities
cheaply; theirs is a heavy yoke to bear. This comes almost
as a relief when we realize that we too are required to exert
to the utmost in participating. When the building of the
Provo Temple was turned over to contractors who put up
signs banning all but company employees from the build-
ing site, many Latter-day Saints who remembered the
building of other temples felt cheated. Since the most
ancient times the building of the temple has been a work
in which all, from king to peasant, joyfully participated.
This could lead to riotous confusion unless the work was
A HOUSE OF GLORY 41

skillfully coordinated and directed, which it was. It was pre-

cisely the exercise demanded and inspired by the building
of temples which produced the planning and discipline that
gave us all the world's great civilizations. The prompt and
eager oversubscribing of money to the building of every
temple shows how everyone yearns to be part of the action.
Verse 34. "As all men sin forgive the transgressions of
thy people." The history of the temple at Jerusalem was one
of recurrent sinning and forgiving. It was while he was gaz-
ing at the temple that Jesus remarked to the apostles, "O
Jerusalem,Jerusalem, ... how often would I have gathered
[you] ... as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not!" (Matthew 23:37). Again we have no real
cause to complain; we know where we have fallen short.
These sad conditions merely emphasize the vast importance
of the issues at stake.
Verse 35. To carry us over, we receive "anointing ... sealed
... with power from on high." Without that power we
have nothing, as we clearly see when we try to put on our
own show, such as Church films of various kinds, includ-
ing much sentimental kitsch with professional, non-LDS
actors waxing emotional about situations that they have
never experienced. Illustrations in study manuals, tear-
jerking stories, photographs of sacred ordinances suffused
with frosted light to make them spiritual-do we need all
this rhetorical and theatrical Hollywood and Disneyland
if we have the real thing? The most impressive temple ses-
sions I have attended have been at Manti, where elderly
farm people put on a far more intelligent display than the
slick professionals. Do we take the real thing seriously
enough?
Verse 36. "The gift of tongues ... , even cloven tongues
as of fire." This is a strange figure. To cleave means both to
42 HUGH W. NIBLEY

stick together, glue, kleben,etc., and also to split or separate.

A cloven tongue is a loosened and articulate tongue. The
image here employed recalls both the two-edged sword
which is the word of or tongue of God, which "is quick and
powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing
asunder of the joints and marrow, soul and spirit" (D&C
33:1),6 and the fiery sword of the cherubim (kherev means
sword) that turned every which way, guarding the way of
the tree of life.
Verse37. The next verse confirms the use of metaphors,
where "tongues as of fire" is matched by the filling of the
house "as with a rushing mighty wind." Was there real fire
or a real wind? No, but there was something real that can
best be described in those terms. Everything about the
temple is symbolic and yet, like the equations of the scien-
tists, goes beyond mere symbols, bidding us to look to
something that lies beyond. We know that things really
happened in the Kirtland Temple, where we read also of a
sound as of rushing waters and hair as white wool.
Verse38. The covenant prepares the Saints to hold up in
the day of trouble. Here the words sealing and binding are
significant. "Seal up the law" -you seal a thing up for
preservation from the elements, the accidents, and the rav-
ages of time. That is the situation here, for the world is
going to be a dangerous place. The temple is holding open
the door, so to speak, during this climactic dispensation. Is
there more trouble coming? Where is the happy ending? It
is here and now! As long as we have the temple, "in the
world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have
overcome the world" (John 16:33). As long as we know the
happy ending, we can anticipate a better world to come in
our visits to the temple.
Verse 39. We are gathering up the righteous out of the
A HOUSE OF GLORY 43

world from the cities of the world into the city of Zion.
From the earliest times even wandering tribes have had
their holy centers that quickly became cities. The cities
where the elders have success are to serve as feeders into
Zion, while the destroying angels are held back and the
skies darken.
Verse 40. We ask God to hold off while the gathering is
going on. This is the basic principle with the Jews, the
Sodom and Gomorrah situation-as long as there are righ-
teous people to be saved, God extends the time of a wicked
world. It was "in process of time" that Enoch's converts
were taken up to Zion-it lasted many years (Moses 7:21).
Verse 41. But in due time and after due warning to
everyone, judgment descends.
Verse 42. Here we can clearly understand that it is going
to be a very close call.
Verse 43. And now comes a surprise-the acid test of the
righteousness and sincerity of the Saints. They pray for the
wicked mob, "O Lord, we delight not in the destruction of
our fellow men; their souls are precious before thee." We do
not fall into the easy, almost irresistible temptation to clas-
sify the human race as good guys and bad guys. As long as
the selection is going on, we should be as impartial as pos-
sible.
Verse 44. The decision is left entirely up to the Lord:
"Thy will be done, 0 Lord, and not ours."
Verse 45. There can be no doubt that "in the last days ...
thou wilt pour out thy judgments, without measure."
Verse 46. Under these horrendous conditions it is neces-
sary to "enable thy servants to seal up the law, and bind up
the testimony, that they may be prepared against the day of
burning." We seal and bind up things to keep them safe
from fire and flood, or, in nautical terms, we "batten down
44 HUGH W. NIBLEY

the hatches" for what is to come, in this case a burning-can

this also be partly metaphor? It makes little difference. The
words sealing and binding are not vague theological jargon;
they actually mean putting things in such a condition as to
resist destructive forces.
Verses 47-54. Here we see just such a situation in the
grim business of Jackson County. After all that has hap-
pened, Joseph can pray, "Have mercy, 0 Lord, upon the
wicked mob, ... that they may repent of their sins if repen-
tance is to be found" (verse 50). In such a climactic condi-
tion the decision is of course entirely with the Lord (see
verses 51-52). He is asked to "have mercy ... upon all
nations" (verse 54).
For our part we have invaluable inside support in the
"principles ... [of the] Constitution." Joseph has explained
the Bill of Rights as the expression of those principles and the
rest of the Constitution as providing a flexible means of
their implementation. Whether an election is held on a
Monday or Tuesday, whether a state has two or three sena-
tors, whether a majority or two-thirds shall decide an issue,
these are not eternal and unchanging principles, such as
free assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, etc.,
in short, free agency. 7
Verses 55-56. Verse 55 is a blessing on all the human race
from "the kings [and] princes" to all "the poor, the needy,
and afflicted ones of the earth." To soften their hearts, "that
their prejudices may give way before the truth, and that thy
people may obtain favor in the sight of all." The Prophet
does not ask for their destruction but for a change of heart.
We all must live together, and the temple should not alien-
ate anyone.
Verses 57-59. The servants are going to the ends of the
earth and everywhere seek out the lost sheep; this is no time
A HOUSE OF GLORY 45

to be blasting the planet. Not only Judah but the other

eleven tribes shall build the Holy City, and the faster the
stakes grow the shorter will be the time. This is the gather-
ing of Israel on a grand scale. But the whole thing will be
"cut short in righteousness." One thing is certain here. We
are never going to develop Zion out of the present order of
things, as many are tempted to believe during our short
periods of prosperity.
Verses 60-61. The gathering is on a number of fronts.
Though we "are identified with the Gentiles," there are
many "children of Jacob, who have been scattered upon the
mountains." The gathering is a complex operation entailing
the cooperation of the Gentiles, Israel, the Jews, and the
very mixed blood of Lehi. This refers us to Doctrine and
Covenants 49:24-26: "But before the great day of the Lord
shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the
Lamanites shall blossom as the rose. Zion shall flourish
upon the hills and rejoice upon the mountains, and shall be
assembled together unto the place which I have appointed .
. . . Go forth as I have commanded you." And so we have
come full circle.
Verses 62-64. This was the very time that saw the found-
ing of Zionism at the first stirrings of the final return of the
Jews to Palestine, "that Jerusalem, from this hour, may
begin to be redeemed, ... and the children of Judah may
begin to return to the lands which thou didst give to
Abraham, their father."
Verses 65-66. "That the remnants of Jacob [the Indians]
... be converted from their wild and savage condition to the
fulness of the everlasting gospel." Wonderfully prophetic:
"At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel,
and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, ... behold, saith
the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among
46 HUGH W. NIBLEY

them. And then will I remember my covenant which I have

made unto my people ... , and I will bring my gospel unto
them .... The Gentiles shall not have power over you; but I
will remember my covenant unto you, 0 house of Israel,
and ye shall come unto the knowledge of the fulness of my
gospel" (3 Nephi 16:10-12).
Verse 67. This refers to "all the scattered remnants of Is-
rael, who have been driven to the ends of the earth." There
is no need to look in just one place, or to argue about where
they are.
Verses 68-74. This is the work of Joseph Smith and his
brethren in leading their part of the gathering "out of the
wilderness of darkness ... [to] shine forth fair as the moon,
clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners; ...
adorned as a bride for that day when thou shalt unveil the
heavens." The apocalyptic imagery here has always sug-
gested more than mere imagination. The grandiose
panorama of the work that is going on is more magnificent
than anyone could suppose. This is followed by an equally
impressive picture of the state of the world. The Saints have
had a part to play in this process, to be responsible to the
Church when being leaders entailed particular danger-
"Remember, 0 Lord, ... all the presidents of thy church ...
and their immediate connections." Hence the presidents
and their families require particular consideration.
Verse 74. Flowing mountains and exalted valleys have
always sounded extravagant, but today as we view our sci-
ence documentaries and see the instability of the elements
with tectonic movements and massive volcanic distur-
bances, we are not so sure.
Verses 75-76. Here we get the final break with this world
as we know it. The separation and the joining are both
A HOUSE OF GLORY 47

finally completed, and so we find the Saints in glory after

they have been caught up to another sphere.
Verses 77-78. Adam's prayer is repeated three times-
we have come full circle and reached "an infinity of ful-
ness." Since there is no end to fulness, there will be no end
to what we are capable of receiving-as long as we do not
reject it!
Verses 79-80. Here is the end and object of it all-to
mingle with the Gods, to return to God's presence and par-
take of eternal life.
Notes
1. See, for example, Ensign 23 (March 1993), which discusses a
number of aspects of the temple.
2. Hugh Nibley, "Looking Backward," in Truman G. Madsen, ed.,
The Temple in Antiquity (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1984),
39-51.
3. Cf. Bruce McConkie, ed., Doctrines of Salvation: Sermons and
Writings of JosephFielding Smith, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft,
1955), 2:208-9.
4. Hugh Nibley, The Worldand the Prophets,in CWHN, 3:243-48.
5. JD, 8:355-56.
6. Cf. Doctrine and Covenants, sections 6, 11, 12, and 14, the sec-
ond verse in each case.
7. See TPJS, 147-48, 326-27.