The erection of the Temple at Kirtland seemed to increase the hostile opposition to which the Church had been subjected since its organization; and persecution soon became so violent that all of the Saints who could dispose of their property and leave did so and joined their fellow religionists in Missouri. Within two years following the dedication, a general exodus of the Saints had taken place, and the Temple soon fell into the hands of the persecutors. The building is yet standing, and serves the purposes of an ordinary meeting-house for an obscure sect that manifests no visible activity in temple building, nor apparent belief in the sacred ordinances for which temples are erected. The people whose sacrifice and suffering reared the structure no longer assert claims of ownership. What was once the Temple of God, in which the Lord Jesus appeared in person, has become but a house,--a building whose sole claim to distinction among the innumerable structures built by man, lies in its wondrous past. TEMPLE SITE AT FAR WEST, MISSOURI From Ohio the Church migrated westward, and gathering-centers were established in Missouri, principally in Jackson, Clay, and Caldwell counties. No time was lost in useless grieving over the enforced abandonment of the Temple at Kirtland. Even at that early day, but seven years after the organization of the Church, the people {124} had come to regard persecution as an inevitable incident of their religion, and spoliation as their heritage. Resolutely they went to work in preparation for another temple, and a site was chosen at Far West, Caldwell County, Missouri. On the 5th of August, 1837, "the Presidency, High Council, and all the authorities of the Church in Missouri, assembled in council at Far West, and unanimously resolved to go on moderately and build a house unto the name of the Lord in Far West, as they had means."[20] On the 26th of April, 1838, a revelation was received directing the time and manner of beginning the work: "Let the city, Far West, be a holy and consecrated land unto me, and it shall be called most holy, for the ground upon which thou standest is holy; therefore I command you to build an house unto me, for the gathering together of my Saints, that they may worship me; and let there be a beginning of this work, and a foundation, and a preparatory work, this following summer; and let the beginning be made on the fourth day of July next, and from that time forth let my people labor diligently to build an house unto my name, and in one year from this day let them re-commence laying the foundation of my house."[21]