The House of the Lord

The House of the Lord by James E. Talmage (in Portuguese)

212 pages

Started: 21 December 2010
Finished: 9 February 2011

This was an amazing book to read. First, it tested my Portuguese. Next month it’s been ten years since I came home from Brazil, so I was very happy that I was able to pick up this book and read it. There were several words I learned. I haven’t had opportunity to talk about gilded work much in Portuguese before. But it was also comforting. The language of the Gospel was what I learned Portuguese in. So while I enjoy reading Harry Potter in Portuguese as well, it’s the language of the Gospel that feels most familiar.

This book talks about the ancient Israelite temples and tabernacles, what they were made of, what they looked like, how they were used, and why they were necessary.

The book then goes on to discuss temples today built by the Lord’s people, what they are made of, what they look like, how they are used, and why they are still necessary.

It starts with the first temple in modern days, the Kirtland temple, as well as other temple sites that were dedicated by the early pioneers, and the glorious things that happened there. And then it moves to Nauvoo and what it meant for the pioneers to both build, and then leave, that temple. The original edition of the book then finishes with beautiful descriptions of the construction and final buildings of the Salt Lake, St. George, Logan, and Manti temples, with the other buildings on Temple Square in Salt Lake City also being discussed.

And in 1912 when the book was first published, that’s all the temples there were.

Three appendices were added to the book in the early 1970s, almost 60 years later. And by that time 9 more temples had been built and dedicated and they are briefly described, and ground had been broken for two more temples.

Since then, in the last 40 years, 121 temples have been built around the world, making 134 total in operation. And 23 more have been announced. There are more temples in operation in Utah right now then there were in the whole world in 1970. It truly is great and marvelous.

To learn more about the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, see this page. And perhaps one of the 23 currently announced, or one yet to be announced, is near you and you can attend an open house before it is dedicated and see the inside of one of these magnificent buildings for yourself.

Rating: 10

Alphabet of Books – T