Report on Temple Labors and Temple Work Progress

While listening to the reports made by the Presidents of Missions, I thought it might not be out of place for me to say a few words in relation to some missionary work done at home. I refer now to the work that is done in the house of the Lord. We have in the Salt Lake Temple about fifty missionaries— brethren and sisters who have been called to that labor— and they work without compensation. Some of them have been on that mission for more than nine years. I have in mind one sister who has been working in the temple nine and a half years, and I do not know that she has ever missed a day during all that time, when the temple has been open. She is not quite as old as I am, but she is nearly 81 years of age. If you will pardon me, I can say the same thing for myself: during the nine and a half years I have never been absent from the temple one day when it has been open. ¶

I will give you a few figures bearing upon the work that is being done in the houses of the Lord. In the Salt Lake Temple, during the past six months, there have been 34,758 ordinances performed, and during the past year 73,060 ordinances. Since it was opened in 1893 there have been 726,924 ordinances performed there. In all the Temples now in existence there have been 2,447,000 ordinances performed. ¶

This is a brief sketch of the work that is done by the missionaries who are called to work in the houses of the Lord. ¶

Be it remembered, brethren and sisters, that this Temple work was one of the most important subjects that the mind of the Prophet Joseph Smith, in his last days, was very much exercised over. And it is an individual work. It is the duty of all who have relatives and friends on the other side of the veil to see that this work is done for them. These temples have been erected at great expense; millions of dollars have been expended on them; they are kept open at a heavy expense; and we ought to avail ourselves of the opportunity to obtain blessings in them. There is room in them for all who desire to perform ordinance work. I hope, therefore, you will take this into consideration, and remember the words of the Prophet Joseph, that it is the duty of every person who has received ordinances for themselves to seek after their dead relatives. ¶

There is one more subject that I wish to say a few words upon: it is in relation to the administration of the Lord s supper. When visiting wards and stakes I have thought there is not that solemnity surrounding this ordinance that ought to be. It is a matter that the presiding officers should look after. Call the attention of your people, when the sacrament is being prepared, to the sacredness of the obligations they are about to enter into. I remember the first time I ever visited a Latter-day Saint meeting after I obeyed the Gospel, that when the sacrament was prepared the presiding officer arose and spoke to those present in relation to the obligations they were about to eninto, and time was given for any who had been overtaken in a fault to make confession before partaking of the sacrament of the Lord's supper. I believe we are too careless in relation to this ordinance. When the bread and the water are passed around, we are too apt to partake of it in a mechanical "kind of a way, without thinking scarcely of what we are doing. Consequently, I call the attention of the presiding officers to this subject. ¶

One more subject I want to touch upon. Your attention has been called to the fast offerings, and it has been en id that some stakes and wards had no poor, consequently they did not deem It necessary to fast. Don't you know, brethren and sisters, that a blessing comes from fasting? It is not; so much the dollars and cents as it is the blessing that we are after and unless we observe this we cannot expect the blessing. I could give you some statistics on this question that probably would astonish you, but I will say this: Last year $36,000 had to be drawn from the general tithing office to provide for the poor. Now, if the Latter-day Saints would observe this rule as they ought to, every Bishop would have abundance with which to supply all the poor in Zion. ¶

My brethren and sisters, during the three days we have been here, while hearing the brethren I have felt several times like shouting Hosanna, Hosanna, to God and the Lamb! In the name of Jesus Amen. ¶