Across the library

The Kirtland Temple dedication

March 27, 1836: a thousand people packed the first temple, the dedication prayer asked God for a day of Pentecost, and within a week the participants were writing down that they got one. The church's own newspaper printed the account that same month. Every quote links to its source.

The Saints in Kirtland, Ohio spent three years building their first temple, most of them poor, many of them working on it between farm seasons. It was dedicated on March 27, 1836. What makes the dedication worth studying is how fast the record was made: the prayer was published, the eyewitness accounts were printed in the church's newspaper the same month, and the events of the week that followed went into documents that are still in the canon. You do not have to take a later retelling's word for any of it.

The dedication

The church's newspaper, the Messenger and Advocate, printed a full account in its March 1836 issue. The doors had to be closed before nine in the morning:

One thousand persons were now silently and solemnly waiting to hear the word of the Lord from the mouth of his servants in the sacred desk.

Messenger and Advocate, vol. 2, no. 6 (March 1836)

Joseph Smith offered the dedication prayer, which the paper printed in full and which was later canonized as Doctrine and Covenants 109. Two of its requests are worth reading closely. The first asks that the building itself change the people who walk into it:

That thy glory may rest down upon thy people, and upon this thy house, which we now dedicate to thee, that it may be sanctified and consecrated to be holy, and that thy holy presence may be continually in this house; And that all people who shall enter upon the threshold of the Lord's house may feel thy power, and feel constrained to acknowledge that thou hast sanctified it, and that it is thy house, a place of thy holiness.

Doctrine and Covenants 109:12–13, the Kirtland dedication prayer

The second asks for something specific. Not a feeling — the events of the second chapter of Acts:

Let it be fulfilled upon them, as upon those on the day of Pentecost; let the gift of tongues be poured out upon thy people, even cloven tongues as of fire, and the interpretation thereof.

Doctrine and Covenants 109:36

What people said they saw

The same newspaper account records what was said from the stand that day, including a claim from a member of the First Presidency about the meeting itself:

President F. G. Williams bore record that a Holy Angel of God came and set between him and J. Smith sen. while the house was being dedicated.

Messenger and Advocate, vol. 2, no. 6 (March 1836)

The meeting closed with the shout that Latter-day Saints still use at temple dedications today, and this is where it enters the printed record:

…a short prayer which was ended with loud acclamations of Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna to God and the Lamb, Amen, Amen and Amen! Three times.

Messenger and Advocate, vol. 2, no. 6 (March 1836)

A week later

On April 3, 1836, a week after the dedication, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery recorded a vision in the temple after the sacrament had been passed. It became Doctrine and Covenants 110:

The veil was taken from our minds, and the eyes of our understanding were opened. We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber. His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah.

Doctrine and Covenants 110:1–3, April 3, 1836

For behold, I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house.

Doctrine and Covenants 110:7

So the prayer asked for a Pentecost on March 27, and within a week the participants were writing down that they received one. Whether you read those claims as revelation or as religious enthusiasm, the documents themselves are not in dispute: they were printed at the time, by the people who were there, and the library holds them in full. The same Kirtland spring also produced a very different document — the whole season is on the record.