A.C. N.A. Mormon, having resumed command of the Nephites, the Lamanites 379 979 twice attack the city of Jordan, and are repulsed. They burn many Nephite towns. The Nephites disastrously routed. 380 980 †Mormon writes to the Lamanite king, asking to be allowed 382 982 to gather all his people to the hill Cumorah, and there give battle. His request is granted. At the end of this year all the Nephites are gathered at 384 984 the hill Cumorah. Mormon hides all the records entrusted to him in the hill Cumorah, save the abridged records, which he gives to Moroni. The final battle, in which all but twenty-four Nephites are 385 985 killed, and a few who escape to the South. Mormon closes his record. Moroni records the death of his father and the extinction 400 1000 of his people, also that the Lamanites were at war with each other all over the land. Moroni closes up the record. 421 1021 TEMPLES AND SACRED PLACES. When the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, determined to make that people a nation to himself, as soon as they had arrived at a safe distance from surrounding peoples, he required them to build a Tabernacle, which is sometimes called the Temple, wherein he could institute certain ordinances and regulations for their guidance and worship. This, at the commencement of their pilgrimage in the wilderness, was made portable, and of the costliest and best material within their reach, and one of the tribes was set apart to have charge of it and its appurtenances. Such has ever been the purpose of the Lord. This served them through their journey and in the promised Canaan, until suitable wealth enabled Solomon to erect a magnificent Temple on Mount Moriah, since called "The Hill of Zion," to which all Israel came annually to worship or attend Conference. The Lord has informed us _Doc. & Cov_., _Sec_. 124, _v_. 39, that his people are always commanded to build Temples, or holy houses, unto his holy name. This accounts for our reading in the Book of Mormon of so many Temples having been erected on this continent. It also explains why the Prophet Joseph so early taught the commencement of a Temple in every important location of the Saints. Not less than eight Temples have been designated, and their sites consecrated, of which there have been dedicated and ordinances administered therein--one at Kirtland, Ohio; Nauvoo, Illinois; St. George, and Logan, Utah. Those at Salt Lake City and Manti are progressing satisfactorily, the latter nearing completion. The places appointed in Independence and Far West are in the hands of our persecutors, who have driven the Saints from their homes, and from the State.