Page:History of Utah.djvu/411

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and finest in America at the time it was built. The acoustic properties of the oval-shaped room and ceil- ing are wonderful; stationed at one point, a pin may be heard drop at the opposite end. The singers, thirty or forty in number, are stationed on the main stage, facing the audience in front of the organ. In front of them are the church officials, seated on a series of platforms according to their respective grades, the first presidency highest, next the twelve apostles, and finally the teachers, priests, and bishops, who have charge of administering the sacrament of the Lord's supper, which is done regularly every Sunday. In the first organization of the church, bread and wine were specified as the proper elements to be used, but it was soon after revealed that it makes no difference what the emblems are, and now bread and water are used. Tabernacle services are held Sunday after- noons; there are Sunday-schools at the ward meeting- houses Sunday mornings, and preaching at the same places in the evening by subordinate officials, who often repeat the main points of the morning taber- nacle discourse. In the tabernacle, several rows of the best seats are reserved for gentile strangers, and are filled for the most part by travellers and tourists, American and European, who take no pains to hide their contempt for all about them, and return the courtesy extended by smiles and sneers, which, to say the least, is in bad taste for people pretending to a superior culture.^^

•* Oae or two other matters of belief I may mention here. There was early established the order of Enocti. The prophet Joseph not only indorsed the biblical account of the translation of Enoch, but added to it. There was not only one Enoch, but a whole city full. This city of Enoch was located where are now the waters of the gulf of Mexico, and its inhabitants were absolutely perfect. Many sought to reach this place, for its fame had be- come noised abroad; but none were successful, owing to wanderings and bickerings by the way. Within its gates all things were held in common, and unalloyed happiness reigned. And inasmuch as the people of Enoch were unfitted by their moral excellence to mingle with other earthly inhabi- tants, they were removed to celestial realms. Joseph's idea at this time seems to have been to induce his followers to surrender all rights, including that of property, into the hands of the cliurch. In May 1831 it was revealed, 'And again, let the bishop appoint a storehouse unto this church, and let all