It Circled the Temple

Salt Lake Temple dedication

At the time of the  first dedicatory service of the Salt Lake Temple not all could make it inside the temple for the meeting, there just wasn’t the room to hold all (there were many dedicatory services to give all a chance who wanted to attend). Those inside and outside the temple record that what circled the temple?

a.      Fire

b.      Light

c.       Angels

d.      The Stripling Warriors

Yesterday’s answer:

(B)   Substitute members were called

A practice observed at this meeting and some subsequent meetings of the Frist Council of Seventy requires explanation. At the conference of 17 August 1835 among those men listed as “the seven Presidents of the Seventy Elders” were men who have never been recognized as holding that position (Harpin Riggs, Joseph Hancock, and Almon Babbitt), whereas three of the original members of the Frist Council of Seventy (Hazen Aldrich, Joseph Young, and Zebedee Coltrin) are not listed with the other members of that body. This fact could lead to the conclusion that the latter three were not actually part of the First Seven Presidents of Seventy designated on 28 February. However, the record of the ordination prayers on the occasion indicates that Joseph Young, whose name was not listed at the 17 August meeting, was set apart on 28 February “to be one of the 70 and also to be one of the Presidency of that Mission to preside with thy brethren.” The reason for the confusion is that Riggs, J. Hancock, and Babbitt acted as substitutes for the actual members of the Frist Council of Seventy who were absent at the time of this meeting. This was apparently the last time this practice occurred in a public meeting of the First Council of the Seventy, but in the private council meetings of that body beginning 10 May 1879, “alternate” members of the First Council of the Seventy were appointed in the place of absent members. These alternates functioned only during the deliberative council meetings of that group and were never voted upon by the general membership so as to give them official status in the hierarchy. The practice of using men to substitute in council meeting for absent members of the Frist Council of the Seventy was discontinued on 27 May 1883.

Journal of Mormon History, D. Michael Quinn, The Evolution of the Presiding Quorums of the LDS Church, Vol.1 1974, note 32.