On May 1st, 1846, a public dedication of the Temple took place at which Elder Woodruff opened the services by prayer. Elder Orson Hyde made appropriate remarks and then offered the dedicatory prayer. On Sunday the 3rd the assembly room of the Temple was filled and addresses were made by Elders Hyde {248} and Woodruff. A point had been gained; under stress and strain the Temple had been completed and dedicated. More, however, than the completion of the Temple had been accomplished by the construction of that sacred edifice. Its rites and ceremonies had enlarged the vision of the Saints and broadened their conceptions of eternity. Their relations and obligations to the dead brought home to them greater responsibilities than they had ever heretofore imagined. Furthermore, they perceived the importance of a new gathering place wherein they might erect other Temples to the worship of their God. From that day to the present time, temple work has had a peculiar influence upon the lives of the Latter-day Saints. It has engendered brotherly love, a spirit of unity, and a steadfast devotion to God that perhaps nothing else in all their experience in the Church has given them. The work in Nauvoo was done; henceforth the city of the Saints was to be nothing more to them than a memory until God should determine otherwise. It brought its joys; but its history was also full of sad reminiscences, apostasy, murderous intent, and destruction. "I was in Nauvoo," says Elder Woodruff, "on the 26th of May, 1846, for the last time, and left the city of the Saints feeling that most likely I was taking a final farewell of Nauvoo for this life. I looked back upon the Temple and City as they receded from view and asked the Lord to remember the sacrifices of His Saints." Elder Woodruff had already left Nauvoo on the 16th and had preached his farewell sermon there on the previous Sunday. The farewell of which he now speaks followed his return to the City a few days later to obtain goods which he had left behind. There he met a company of Saints who had just arrived from Pennsylvania. Among them was Brother Sidwell who gave to Orson Hyde several hundred dollars for the Camp of Israel. He also gave a hundred dollars each for Elders Hyde and Woodruff. The little company of which he had charge consisted of his wife and children, his father, and a few other members of the family. They had three baggage wagons, one family carriage, six yoke of oxen, six cows, four calves, one yearling, and a pair of mules, making in all twenty-five head of animals. The father was {249} aged and had no grown sons other than Wilford to assist him, so that the weight and responsibility fell upon the son.