As photographs show, one can look at the new Nauvoo temple a dozen different ways.

Journalists might see it as a watershed moment; as the emblem of a religious institution that weathered ill will and ridicule but has now come to embrace the world.

It has been a long, strange journey.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints may have come to light during America's "Great Awakening," but it was also born into an era of harsh intolerance. Early LDS members saw that persecution as a badge of God's favor. The forces of evil work to destroy what they fear most, the thinking went.

And many LDS sermons and hymns of the time were clarion calls to bear up under the attacks. In older hymn books, for example, the anthem "Praise to the Man" declares that President Joseph Smith's blood will "stain Illinois" while the earth lauds his fame.

That line and others like it have been softened over the years, however. So have many elements found in the early church. Today, the faithful tend to view the bounty of God's goodness more than the buffetings of detractors as a validation of the church's message and mission.

Still, for more than 150 years, the site where the original Nauvoo temple stood has served as a memorial to the sufferings of the early saints. The difference is that now, nearby, the new Nauvoo temple works as a counter-balance.

The old temple was an example of "grace under pressure."

The new an example of "grace abounding."

The taut defensive stance of the early years has become a posture of open arms. Once buffeted about by ragtag local politicians, the church is now an international power. In the coming years it will likely be even more so.

The focus is on the future.

Still, members of the church will forever cherish their birthright. It is a legacy sewn into the very fabric of their lives. It is a stormy history, filled with harrowing stories of pain and perseverance. Yet even in the darkest hours, the early Mormons held to their unrelenting optimism. They knew the tempest would be stilled. They knew the light would come.

"Ye fearful Saints, fresh courage take," wrote the British poet William Cowper, long before the church was born, "the clouds ye so much dread, are big with mercy, and shall break, with blessings on your head."

The old Nauvoo temple continues to be a symbol of that storm; the new temple, a symbol of the blessing.

And together like the title of Cowper's hymn both temples stand in high relief in the minds of believers. They are proof that, indeed, God moves in a mysterious way.