“According to the Pattern Which I Have Given unto You”
Doctrine and Covenants 94:2
2 And behold, it must be done according to the pattern which I have given unto you.
Elder Orson Pratt said:
“When we came to Kirtland the Lord gave us further commandments, and He revealed a great many things through His servant Joseph. Among others, He gave one that the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, should go to with their might and build a house to His name, wherein He promised to bestow great and choice blessings upon His people. [See D&C 95:3, 8.] He revealed the pattern [see D&C 94:2] according to which that house should be built, pointing out the various courts and apartments, telling the size of the house, the order of the pulpits, and in fact everything pertaining to it was clearly pointed out by revelation. God gave a vision of these things, not only to Joseph, but to several others, and they were strictly commanded to build according to the pattern revealed from the heavens.
“Now, then, no other people was ever commanded to do that work in Kirtland, Ohio, but the people then living there, called Latter-day Saints. It was not a work required of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, nor of any other man that ever existed on the earth, nor of any people but those to whom it was given, then living in the state of Ohio. Supposing they had said, ‘We will not build the house; we can meet in a common meetinghouse, after the order of the Gentiles, and we will take their forms of building, it does not matter, we do not think it necessary to be at all this expense, and we can hire a house.’ Would that have been sufficient? No, the only way we could witness to one another and before the Lord of Hosts that we loved Him with all our hearts was to go to and build a house just according to the pattern.
“Well, when we did build it, did the Lord accept it, according to promise? He did, and He revealed great and important things in that house through His servant, Joseph the Prophet; and not only did Joseph have the privilege of seeing and understanding the mind and will of the Lord, but after the house was built many others had this great privilege given to them.”
(“Discourse,” Deseret Evening News, Sept. 24, 1870, 2.)
