History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

TABERNACLE SERVICE. 359
and finest in America at the time it was built. The
acoustic properties of the oval-shaped room and ceiling
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 afternoons;
there are Sunday-schools at the ward meetinghouses
Sunday mornings, and preaching at the same
places in the evening by subordinate officials, who
often repeat the main points of the morning tabernacle
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. 18
18 One or two other matters of belief I may mention here. There was
early established the order of Enoch. 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 become
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 inasmnch as the people of Enoch
were unfitted by their moral excellence to mingle with other earthly inhabitants,
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 church. In May 1S31 it was revealed, 'And
again, let the bishop appoint a storehouse unto this church, and let all