Commenting
on events on the day of the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Newel Knight
(1800-1847) wrote the following:
March the 27th 1836. The lower room at the
temple was dedicated to the Lord to day & the power of God, the ministering
of Angels attended. Brother Frederick G Williams bore testimony to the whol
Congregeation that that during the first prayer made by Phs Smith an Angel came
& Sat between him & Father smith. When Bro. Williams gave a discription
of the Angel & his dress, Bro Joseph Said it was Christ. This was to me a
Satisfaction to [know] that the Lord did come in to the house we had labored so
diligently to build unto his mame & that he had accepted it of his Saints. (The Rise of the Latter-day Saints: The
Journals and Histories of Newel Knight, eds. Michael Hubbard MacKay and William
G. Hartley [Salt Lake City/Provo: Deseret Book and BYU Religious Studies Center,
2019], 89; spellings in original retained)
For more on the visionary experiences involving the dedication of the
Kirtland Temple, see the essay by Steven C. Harper, "A Pentecost and Endowment
Indeed": Six Eyewitness Accounts of the Kirtland Temple Experience in John
Welch, ed. Opening
the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820-1844.
