A new temple has been dedicated on the hillside above Bountiful, Utah, reminding members and non-members alike that the Latter-day Saints are a temple-building and covenant-making people.

The Bountiful temple is the 47th operating temple in the Church, and like those before it, will allow worthy Latter-day Saints to perform sacred ordinances for themselves and their dead. The history of temple building in this dispensation almost parallels the history of the Church itself. As early as 1833 preparations were being made to commence a house of the Lord. (See History of the Church 1:349.)The emphasis on temple building was portrayed in a painting by Harold I. Hopkinson. The painting is entitled "The Prophet Reigned His Horse: Just One Last Look on Fair Nauvoo."

It depicts the Prophet Joseph Smith, surrounded by some other horsemen, as he heads for Carthage, Ill. He sits astride a magnificent white horse and holds his hat at his side as he gazes back at the city that he and his colleagues dredged out of the marshes along the Mississippi. In the lower left hand corner of the painting stands an unfinished Nauvoo Temple - an undertaking the Prophet would not see to completion.

Following the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph and his brother Hyrum, Church leaders placed such high emphasis on the completion of the Nauvoo Temple that they suspended general conferences until they could convene inside the temple. That occurred in October and November of 1845. Workmen, who were constructing wagons and preparing for the trek west, spent every tenth day at the temple site completing the edifice. As rooms were completed, sacred ordinances, including baptism for the dead, were performed therein.

A ccording to the Comprehensive History of the Church, the Nauvoo Temple holds a unique place in Church history. It's the only temple in which endowments were performed before it was dedicated, and no endowments were performed there after its dedication. Also, neither of the Nauvoo Temple dedicatory prayers was recorded; the private one by Elder Joseph Young on April 30, 1846, and the public one by Elder Orson Hyde in May apparently were impromptu "and no scribe attempted to record them as they were uttered." (Vol. 3, pg. 33.)

As are all the other temples that have been built since the Lord first gave the commandment to the restored Church to build a temple in Kirtland, Ohio, the Bountiful temple, dedicated this week, is a labor of love.

Gracing the top of the newly dedicated temple and most other temples, Moroni beckons Saints to the holy edifices to perform sacred ordinances. Moroni's utterance at the end of the Book of Mormon sums up his plea:

"And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth - that if the day cometh that the the power and gifts of God shall be done away among you, it shall be because of unbelief. . . .

"And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea even as one speaking out of the dust. . . .

And behold they shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the everlasting God; and his word shall hiss forth from generation to generation." (Moroni 10:24, 27-28.)

The footnote on the word "hiss" takes the reader back to 2 Nephi, which then refers to the fifth chapter of Isaiah, verse 26, and its footnote reads: "whistle; i.e. signal for the gathering."

Can anyone doubt that Moroni and the Prophet Joseph have signaled the gathering of Israel. It is up to us, now, to carry on that work in our homes, through missionary work and especially in the temples.

The handiwork of the ages rests on us in these latter days. We need to follow the prophet - even President Howard W. Hunter, who admonished us to establish the temple as the great symbol of our membership and the supernal setting for our most sacred covenants.

The work of the Lord goes forward. Like the Prophet Joseph in Brother Hopkinson's painting, it is good to stop and look back to see the results of our labors and ponder the completion of things holy.

But the time now has come to move forward, to fulfill the messages of Moroni, to not "dwindle in unbelief" but push forward to fulfill the purposes of eternity.

The prophets' voices are not voices from the dust. They are the clear voices of exhortation, challenging us to move forward to meet the outstretched arms of the Savior as he comes to take possession of His work. The temples of the Lord are physical reminders of our spiritual responsibilities.