The Lifted Ensign[1]
Armed now with knowledge, panoplied with power,With two-edged sword of God's authority,Girded by heavenly hands on shepherds twain[2],The first and second of a gathering flock,Transcribers of the buried book of gold,Whose mystic page, unsealed by gift divine, 2360Save part withheld of mightier mystery,Now challenges the wise and wondering world;—Armed and equipt, with staff, and stone in sling,Strong in the Lord, the God of Israel,The dauntless David of a later dayFares forth to meet the Giant of Untruth[3].
Thenceforth a warrior and a wanderer,A victor hated for his victories;Targe for the javelin of jealousy;Hunted and hounded through the wilderness; 2370Outlawed by all, all save a loyal few,The patient sharers of his painful lot,Companions of his mortal pilgrimage,Recalled with him, their earthly errand o'er,To grace the courts of High Jerusalem.
But ere a day for that departure dawns,Unveiled once more the face of mystery.Speaks from the musty tomb of buried time,The all-remembering Spirit of the Past:
"Time yet was young[4], but old iniquity, 2380Outcast of worlds redeemed, on earth was rife,And, self-enchained, a fallen race lay proneAt feet of Lucifer. And demons laughed,And hell rejoiced, and all that ribald hostClapt hand, and danced and jeered derisively;While gods and angels wept, their pitying tearsWhitening the spectral mountains cold and lone,Wakening to virile springs a spirit waste.
"And there the sainted commonweal[5] arose,Haven divine, hill of the sanctified, 2390Oasis-like 'mid burning sands of sin;God's people, pure in heart, and one in all,No poor among them, pride and greed unknown;Saved by the tidings first to Adam taught,And next to Enoch's generation told.
"Righteous, they dreamt no evil, feared no ill,And death, the universal doom, defied.Earth not their pillow; they shall one day passFrom mortal to immortal painlessly.
"Self's chain was sundered[6]; devils glared aghast, 2400And gnashed their teeth with disappointed rage,Trembling in terror lest perdition's pitEngulf them ere the time. Then gathering power,As if for Armageddon's conflict[7] dire,When triumphs Michael o'er the foe unchained,Hell's molten belch of burning hatred hurledUpon those hapless sons of earth who scornedThe refuge of the righteous; her bright towers,Far-beaming with terrestrial radiance[8]—The promise fair of full celestial change,— 2410Bidding the vile beware, nor venture nearThe awful mountain of God's holiness.
"Waxed foul the world in wickedness, piled highA hideous monument of shame and crime,Which, toppling with its own weight, crashing fell,Whelming in ruin the guilty race of man,Whose spirits, as fierce seas their dust devoured,By fiercer fiends to dungeon deeps were driven.Nor thence redeemed till He who died for allSoared from the cross to set the captive free[9]. 2420
"The while, on fearless wings of purity,Cleaving as bird or ransomed soul the air,The sainted city entered into rest,Envied of Babel, climbing robber-like[10];Bride of the Highest, midway hovering,Till folded in the bosom of the Gods,Where Zions from unnumbered worlds have fled.Type temporal of spirit antitype,A future moral height foreshadowing.
"Foreseen the fatal deluge. Ere the doom 2430Of all save faithful Noah and his seven,—Tri-branching tree[11] of race regenerate,Yielding anew life's fruit and foliage,—Earth mourned as Rachel, Rizpah, o'er the slain,The slain of men unborn, who yet must dieDegenerate in the days that were to be.
"Then Enoch wept, and sued in sympathy,And God gave answer thus:
'Earth yet shall rest,And, sanctified, shall see her Saviour reign, 2440Monarch of worlds, His realms as ocean sands.But it shall be within the latter days,The days of vengeance and of wickedness,When men the Sole-begotten crucify,And He shall go again to judge the world,Proclaimed by truth, forerun by righteousness,Gathering the pure-in-heart unto a place—A holy place my people shall prepare,There to await my coming, mine and thine.Then shown the resurrection's shadowing: 2450Zion above, from all creations past,Shall meet and blend with Zion from below;Spirits and bodies of the just shall join,And in the midst my tabernacle be.Yea, as I live, so will I forth again,My oath to thee, my covenant, to fulfill;And earth shall garb in glory of her God,And Noah's righteous seed in Me rejoice.'"
These things spake God to Moses, from the mountWhose name is veiled to ken of humankind; 2460And thus that prophet, but through unbeliefAnd cunning craftiness, at war with Light,The fulness of his message sleeps till now,When one like unto him[12] and Him he typed,Brings forth the buried meaning from its grave.
On twain of ocean-parted hemispheres,Saw noon of time a twofold type[13] of peace,A pledge, a token, of millennial rest,An earnest of the Commonweal to come;But no fulfillment of the promise old, 2470No ripe fruition of the ancient oath,To Enoch sworn, through Moses re-affirmed,By Ephraim's prophet made to live again.
—-
Promise now sought fulfillment[14],—it was time;For weary earth lay groaning 'neath her load."Unclean, unclean," her cry, as leprous sinWith foul intent clasped close her shrinking form,And baned with foetid breathing all her soul.
Long she had mourned and wept o'er life's decay;Her waning strength, from age and weariness, 2480Her mother powers, unholy passion's prey,Bringing, in lieu of giants, pygmies forth,To fall untimely on her withered breast.Dwindling and dwarfed in all save wickedness,And knowledge, oft made pander unto ill,With learning gorged, for wisdom famishing,Man both a glutton and a starveling seemed.
For Self, the sordid, sat once more enthroned,Binding in servile chains a universe,Where mightily men strove for place and fame, 2490Greedy for power, as gluttonous for gold.And who sought neighbor's weal, save kith and kinOr petted friendling prest a favored claim?
Disorder reigned, and satire laughed to scornGrotesque, invidious inconsistency:Talent on title waiting, brain on birth!Genius at oars, and dullards at the helm!The prancing war-steed fastened to the plow,The ass unto the chariot—oft with rein,Curbing the mettled courser's noble rage, 2500Or goading him with needless cruelty!
Matter was monarch; Spirit stood apart,Unknown, unseen, or spurned and thrust asideBy thronging myriads, bending supple knee,And basking in the proud usurper's smile.
Men bowed not down to sun and moon and stars,To bird, nor beast, nor reptile, as of yore;But worshipt still at other creature shrines,Ignoring the Creator's primal claim.
Pride sneered at poverty—if poor of purse, 2510But gave its hand to beggared intellect,To bankrupt soul, and greeted them as peers.Learning, if lowly pillowing its head,A pauper deemed, and pitied or condemned.And many, stung by adder glance of scorn,Shunning a life of noble toil and care,To Mammon, e'en in marriage, sold themselves,Offering a lawless fire at passion's shrine,Or staining hands and heart with sabler sins.
Shameful the serfdom of the earth-bound soul, 2520Base passion's basest slave and prisoner;Charmed by no music but the clink of coin;Cankered and crusted o'er with avarice;Dupe, dreaming shadow real, and substance show.
Where party more than principle was prized,Where private gain was labeled "public good,"And "patriotism" masked hypocrisy,Science, when sordid, or subservientTo worldly ends, to aims material,Stood pedestaled and robed in honors rare: 2530While art fell fainting at the patron's door,Or starved and froze in cheerless attic den.
For aye the flesh must first be comforted,And e'en the body's luxuries abound,Ere mind of man may clothe its nakedness,Or hungering heart and spirit have their own.
Music, the drama, all art, still divine,Though oft to ends ignoble basely bent,In atmospheres miasmic, fever-fraught,To folly pandering and to lechery; 2540Or using gifts God-lent for good of all,Gain's maw to glut, fame's lust to gratify.Forgot the Giver, and adored the gift,As in the pagan days of olden time.
And thou, where thou, O sage philosophy,Heir to a hundred shadows of thy name!Where thy spent waves on speculation's strand?Still striving, finite for the infinite,Man groping for the mystery of God,A river that would fain engulf the sea! 2550
Religion dead, and poesy so deemed,Because unwedded to a carnal age,Unprostituted to its paltry aims,Or hid beneath vast verbal rubbish heaps,The dust and debris of the former fires.Religion dead, but bigotry alive,And ne'er more active upon earth than now,When sect 'gainst sect in battle order stood,And schisms and dissensions multiplied.Some worshipt nothing, naming it a god; 2560Some deemed the mortal dust a thing divine;Religious, irreligious, bigotry,Each counted victims by the hecatomb.
What wonder, when truth's meanings tortured were,The living God dethroned, and in His stead,A monster crouching on the Mercy Seat,Whose mere caprice, naught else, did save or damn?Wafting the blood-stained criminal to bliss,If he but gasped, half hung, the holy Name?Thrusting the spotless infant into hell, 2570If un-elect, or unbaptized for sin!To endless woe or weal forefating all.What wonder justice, reason, stood aghast,While faith, revolting, rushed to doubt's extreme?
Critics, high-soaring, sought to clip the wingsOf arrogance in all creeds save their own.Half-fledged conclusion, findings premature,Grounded on tale of rock or ruin old,More credence had, more reverence, from men,Than sacred lore of heaven-lit centuries. 2580All miracle was myth, nor aught worth while,Save, leaded down with learned theories,It crawled, an earth-worm, wanting will to climbAbove the level of the commonplace.
Fanatics in the state as in the church,Their prejudices palmed for principle,Vain vagaries and dreams for doctrine sound;And woe to him who lisped of liberty,Or thought aloud one thought unthought before!Freedom to think and breathe—God-granted boons, 2590Alike, to savage, serf, and citizen—Was all that freedom signified to some,Who, as they doled a gift already given,Boasted themselves magnanimous and wise.Freedom to speak and act as conscience bade,As God commanded, crushed or captive bound,E'en where men vaunted most of liberty.
And peace was yet a dream unrealized,For war still sowed and reaped his harvests red;And Christian guns were mightiest and slew most. 2600
Nor yet stood toil 'gainst capital arrayed,The starving masses 'gainst the Midases,As erst arose, 'gainst moss-grown old regimes,The trampled Terror[15], scrawling with fierce handOn history's flaming scroll his red revenge,With that blood-reeking pen, the guillotine;Nor yet faced frowning mass contemning class[16],Jeering, oblivious of the lurking doom,The glooming clouds where groaned the gathering storm.But murderous craft and oath-bound anarchy, 2610With secret deeds of darkness, had begunTo sap the life of human government,And plot against the safety of mankind;While greeds and lusts and passions manifold,Preying on frailty and on innocence,Ran riot 'mid the fairest, brightest, best.
Where, promise, thy fulfillment, pledged of yore?'Twas time—full time—the far-seen ensign waved,Hailing the morn on heights of holiness,Proclaiming peace and freedom to the world. 2620'Twas time disorder fled, time justice reigned,And rightfully were held dominion's keys;Time pure religion's sceptre should return,By poesy extolled, by art adorned,With science and with reason reconciled;Time feeble earth her panacea found,Time health gave life its old longevity,Time pride should bend, time lust to love should yield,And self confess the joy of sacrifice.'Twas time an Enoch came[17], a Zion rose. 2630
Sound, trump of God! as when old Jordan's waveShook with the thunder-tread of Joshua's host,Shook with the shouting and the trumpet blasts,Heard the loud roar of crumbling Jericho,And in mad haste ran shuddering to the sea!Speak now the doom foreshadowed by that fall—The mightier doom of Modern Babylon:
Bow down thy head, proud mistress of the world!Humble thy haughty crest, degenerate queen!Lift but thine eyes to where God's finger glows 2640In fiery warning on thy festal wall,Drowning in dread the voice of revelry,Thy saturnalia's ribald shout and song.Ended thine empire, Weighed-and-Wanting-Found!Down to the dust in all thy worldliness,Thou thing of brass, of iron, and of clay!Sound, trumpet, sound! The looked-for signal looms!The fateful stone upon the image rolls!
"On you, my fellow servants, I conferThe priestly power of Aaron, with the keys 2650Of angel ministries, of penitence,Of water-birth that washes free from sin.And greater things than these shall yet be given—The holier powers of high Melchizedek,Which Mightier by three shall minister."
And on each head was laid a holy hand[18];Time making good the promise plighted there,Welding another link in wonder's chain,Writing new chapters of a story strange,Confounding human learning, fools and wise. 2660
—-
So came once more the panoply of power[19].So rose the ensign o'er a waiting world.
Armed thus with knowledge and authority,Armed and equipt, with staff, and stone in sling,Fares forth a champion for Israel,To grapple with Philistia and prevail.
Guide unto God, repointer of the path,Untrodden through a thousand years nigh twained,The while men roamed, as once o'er trackless wild,The savage, by the untaught trapper trained; 2670Blind leading blind through thick and thorny wold.
Light 'mid the darkness, beam from heaven's full blaze,Driving the mists, that comprehended notHis brightness nor their own obscurity;Holding him blind who saw as few have seen.He, blind, forsooth, who more than all beheld!
Sinking deep shafts to mines of mystery,Shallow and empty to the worldly wise;Soaring to heights by human lore undreamt,Yet deemed an earth-mole, groping, groveling. 2680
Aloft, alone, an exile among men,A wanderer in a solitary way,Pariah of prejudice and unbelief,Whose lowering features fiercely on him frowned.Thought's prisoner and truth's, that maketh freeThe spirit, though the body pine in chains,Albeit the tongue, the pen, in durance be,Consigned to silence, captive unto light,And crucified betwixt ideal and real.
But who art thou that lookest forth sublime, 2690A soul upsoaring as from sepulture,Body and spirit pure and free from stain,As gold and silver tried by seven-timed fire?
Speak! Art not thou the Woman Wonderful[20],Summoned from out the silent wilderness,Arisen from the grave of centuries,No more to be despoiled or trodden down?A symbol of exalted sanctity,The consecration of the contrite heart;Of ancient types the modern complement, 2700Chief splendor of time's sparkling firmament,Whose silver stars bespoke this sun of gold.
But when did darkness comprehend the day?When welcomed pleasure thorn-crowned sacrifice,Whose higher, holier joys than sin can know,As dust and ashes to the sensual soul?Jewels to swine, that, turning, rent the hand,And fain 'neath foot had torn and trampled all.Such was Truth's fate, alas! in modern time,'Mid Christian men;—but not her final fate. 2710
For who can stay the sun-like march of Truth?Who dim with bloody hand her beam divine?First shall he halt the progress of the stars,The bright procession of the infinite;Blot out the day-beam, dull the scythe of time,Shear morning's wings, roll back eternal night,Or shake the moveless throne of destiny.
Lifted an ensign never to be furled,Unsheathed a falchion evermore to flame,Till earth-born realms, in one wide empire rolled, 2720Hail conquering Christ as life and light of all.
Upon The Shoulders of The Philistine[1]
The Eaglet's nest is empty[2]—void the lairOf the young Lion. Where, O Ephraim, where?
Where billows break along a storied strand[3],Heroic wave, a fair and favored land.Realm of a rising glory—this thy name!The cradle of the Kingdom—this thy fame!
There rose the morn—though flecked with fire and blood—The morn benign of human brotherhood,Foredestined to a passing cloud's eclipse. 2730
Self-trammeled cause, harried by hounds and whipsOf persecution, whose infuriate maw,Usurping oft the form and force of law,—To lawless hands a far too ready rod,—Had fain engulfed the growing work of God.
Widowed, bereft, a land left desolate,A wounded bird that mourns a driven mate,The plumage from its bleeding body torn,And scattered wide o'er realms remote, forlorn.
On, Ephraim, on! thy pilgrim flight renew. 2740Land of the Sun—Shinea's land[4]—adieu!
Yet stay! Ere storm could burst, was visioned there,Within the portal of the House of Prayer,A promise, a fulfillment, long foretold:Elias and Messias there behold!With angel keepers of the ancient keysOf gathering and of sealing mysteries.Haloed with fire, while burns the heavenly glow,Upon the Prophet they their powers bestow[5].
Speed then swift messengers his face before, 2750To blaze his sacred name on every shore;Chosen and missioned from the sending skies,The slumbering nations to evangelize.Resounds 'gainst error's shield truth's ringing lance,Unlettered light 'gainst learned ignorance;Priestcraft dethroned, by Priesthood downward hurled,While ancient thunder shakes the modern world.
Already, to redeem red Laman's bands[6],Have virile footprints prest those virgin lands,Where westering empire, in creative might, 2760Rolls a new world upon the wondering sight;Where flower-starred prairies, in the far extent,Kiss with soft lips the bending firmament,And sea-like rivers, solitary, lone,Pour their proud waters toward the burning zone.
Land of all lands the rarest[7], where shall rise,—Mirrored magnificence of earth and skies,Each gate a pearl, each pinnacle a gem,—The jasper walls of New Jerusalem;The golden glory of the hemispheres, 2770Jehovah's throne through all the Thousand Years.The land where Adam fell, where Enoch rose,Where time began and history shall close.
Thereto and thence, by brand and fagot driven,His fault to man, his fealty to heaven,With here and there, perchance, an idle wordVainglorious zeal or vengeful might afford,Flies Ephraim, scorched and scourged, from Japheth'swrath[8],Pushed on and on o'er steep and thorny path, 2780Whipt, plundered, wounded, bleeding, to the goal,Where joy in fullness crowns the conquering soul.
Then hath not war, that bringeth woe and pain,The right betimes, like gentle peace, to reign?What strife, what tempest, wreaks its wrath in vain?Prosperity and persecution blend,As sun and storm, faith's branch with fruit to bend.Twain are the shoulders[9] of the Philistine,That Israel onward bear, as breeze and brineThe tempest-driven bark that safe o'er sea 2790Carried calm Caesar[10] and his destiny.Progression fails with opposition's flight,And darkness is but handmaid unto light.
Mistrustful of "the law of liberty[11],"Sounding from far the doom of slavery,Maddened by jealous fear, the Gentile seesPeril in purling stream, in whispering breeze,Telling of wondrous thrift, of mystic power,Of spirit gifts—the Bride's becoming dower;Sees menace[12] in that migrant fold's increase, 2800A menace to his power, his pride, his peace;And, as of old, when Egypt's despot frownedOn Jacob's increase, growth from fruitful ground,Or when fell Herod, fain to slay life's Lord,Pierced Rachel's bosom with unpitying sword;With feigned or real suspicion of intentThat could but lurk in minds by malice bent,And ne'er found lodgment in the dreams of thoseNow fearfully beset by whelming foes,Force joins with fraud, impelled by lust of crime, 2810And innocence bewails the evil time.
A second Pharaoh now o'er Israel see!A Herod[13] in the home of Liberty!Where wingĕd Nemesis shall find her own,Gathering the whirlwind[14] where the wind was sown.
Friendless, unsheltered, forth the exiles go,Lit by their burning homes athwart the snow,Till crimson footprints stamp the frozen path,And icy billows bar them from the wrathOf cruel fiends, whose fellows, masked as men, 2820Where languish sons of light in darksome den,Gloat, while they guard, and flout with jest obsceneThe helpless victims of that heartless scene;Exulting foully, boastingly, the while,O'er deeds none else than devils would defile.
Till patience, past enduring, dures no more;Heard, above jackal's yell, the lion's roar.Thunders and flames Jehovah's threatening rod,And shakes the dungeon[15] with the wrath of God—A lightning tongue to scorch His cowering foes, 2830And scourge them to the kennels whence they rose.When known such power, such might of word and will,Since Christ bade tempest sleep and waves be still?
Free, whereso'er he wends, is hope renewed,Demons unhoused, disease and death subdued[16].
Where Sire of Waters[17] sweeps o'er silvery sands,Prest by the pilgrim feet of many lands,Aloft, alone, a sacred city stands.City, mother of many[18], none more rare,A blossoming waste shall yield, now burnt and bare; 2840City, mother of empire, famed as fair,Whose birth the solemn muse must yet declare.
Where groaned the land with dread malarial ill,Healed by a hand divine, o'er vale and hillSee roof and dome and glittering fane arise!Unworldly link[19], rewelding Earth and Skies!
Then comes Elijah's mightier mission[20] forth,And mortal vows take on immortal worth,Kindling anew hope's ever living fires,Turning the mutual hearts of sons and sires, 2850While doors to spirit dungeons open swing,That love to light the living dead may bring!
But gaze from sinking unto soaring sun!Beyond the wave the conquering word hath wonPast horrent hosts of Lucifer that rose,With wrath of man, the message to oppose.Vain strife, where fiends archangels would assail,Warring 'gainst mightiness that must prevail—Prevail to save a periled ship. 'Tis done;The crisis past[21] with Albia stormed and won; 2860East floweth West—"The Gathering" hath begun.
And now, to fruitful lands, 'neath favoring skies,Befriended by the just[22], the brave, the wise,Till truth, too mighty for the common ken,Hath put a sword betwixt the souls of men,Fares garnered Ephraim, earliest offering[23]Of Israel's hope, Idumea's harvesting.
Nations besprent with Abrahamic bloodMeet there and mingle in that widening flood.Impelled by helping hand or hostile power, 2870By friendly looks or frowns that darkly lower,Gathers the flock of faith from every landWhere roving Ephraim mixt with Japheth's band;Philistia's shoulder bearing Israel's flight,That Japheth, too, may come to Zion's light,And Joseph be o'er all his brethren blest,A saviour in his Egypt of the West[24],Where corn and wine, 'mid famine, comfort life,Where peace and plenty shame a world at strife,And, bending from the ice-barred North, shall come— 2880As bent their stars in his, the dreamer's dome—Assyria's long lost captives[25], wending home.
Westward, far westward, chase the lingering night,Impelling Spirit! Angel of the Light!Westward, still westward, till the morn shall burnIn high meridian glory; till shall turnFate's restless tide, re-rolling o'er the East,Spoiling the spoiler, spreading freedom's feast,Foiling dark anarchy, thy fellest foe,Land, chosen land! stunned, staggering 'neath its blow; 2890Rallying the loyal[26] in a common cause,Rending the eagle from the bear's red claws;Hurling invasion backward o'er the Isles,Building anew upon the olden piles,Beginnings of the crowning commonhood—A modern Zion where the ancient stood.
Backward, roll backward, river of the blood!Back to thy fountain, hurrying human flood—To Adam's land, the far Edenic shore;For last is first and old is new once more, 2900And nations rise where nations fell before!
Joseph, uprisen from the grave-like mound,His ancient and inglorious battle ground[27],Retreads with modern step the painful pathWhere erst he fled[28], a fugitive from wrath;Fated to flee till ebbs that westward flow,Bearing from Japheth bitter curse and blow,While patient heaven holds off the woeful fateThat cometh swift and layeth desolateThe powers that prey on Jacob—all that hate 2910The God of Joseph, and the just decreeThat builds him here a boundless destiny.
Westward, burn westward, morn divinely bright!Morn of Jehovah, morn of Jacob's might!But stand thou still on Zion, glorious light!For there must dawn the day that knows no night.
Beginnings that have here in beauty stood,Prone, as from withering fire or wasting flood,A little season wrecked and ruined lie[29],Till they that build put pride and passion by, 2920And, taught by pain, through suffering's fiercest fires,Part with all lustful, covetous desires.
When faith shall wear the armor without flaw,And union such as sainted Enoch saw[30]Honors the fullness of celestial law,Then—sword of God and blade of Gideon,Dazzling, confounding, driving on and on,Till besomed as with fire the fated land,Where Zion, guileless, glorious, shall stand,A terror only to her trembling foes[31], 2930Ensign of peace and Eden of repose,Where life's tree blossoms and light's fountain flows.
Meanwhile her valiant ones, her tried and trueDaughters and sons, shall they not dare and do?In vain, alas! in vain of such to sing,With trembling hand a tuneless harp I string.For who can count the cost, the painful price,Measure the sorrow and the sacrifice,Rare spirits of a more than Spartan raceCompelled their souls of halting dread to face? 2940Harp of the Hebrew seer! Be thine to breakThe muse's slumber, bid the world awake,And glow o'er deeds yet done for conscience' sake.What tongue than Zion's own can loose the spell?Whose voice than modern Leah's, Rachel's, tellThe story of a burden borne so well?
Bending, not breaking, 'neath thy load of care,Sowing to joy, thou shalt not reap despair!Planting the hope of human purity,That righteousness may crown futurity,— 2950Patience! endure! for pain shall bring thee power[32].Time but a dream—eternity thy dower.Where perfect love casts forth the jealous fear,A diamond in thy diadem each tear;And every sigh that rent thy suffering breast,A wave of rapture on the shores of rest.My lot as thine, purest of pure-in-heart!Be mine the bitter as the better part.
But sorrows else have shadowed all things there;The voice of mourning drowns the voice of prayer. 2960Dampened e'en now with death's prophetic dew,Thy cold, pale brow, O fated, fair Nauvoo!
Remains for thee no peace, for thine no rest,Till on the parching plain, the frozen crest;A desert land of unlocked mystery,Frowning on hope, and dumb to history.
Yet ere the burning wilderness be won,Shines down on other deeds the shuddering sun.City of Joseph[33]! Look! from 'leaguered walls,Where Calvary's crimson light on Carthage falls! 2970
Ere murderous fate the martyr's bolt hath sped,While deepening darkness glooms a sky of lead,And thundrous threatenings tone their notes of dread,Looms to the fore an archangelic form,A sunlit summit shining o'er the storm;A towering rock above the rushing tideOf eager souls that surge on every side,Where living waters from the fountain play,And glowing words light up the darkened way.
Undaunted 'neath the shadow of his doom, 2980Calm as a statue, solemn as a tomb,Heedless of self, while hoarsely rumbles nearHate's fiery flood, that alien to all fear,That more than man, nor less than godlike soul,Erect upon life's summit, at death's goal,Unlocks time's portal, swings the future's gate,And opes to Ephraim's gaze his glorious fate.
O diver in the days and years to be!Searching the caves of that prophetic sea,What bringest from the deeps of destiny? 2990
The Parted Veil[1]
Choice Seer, with spirit eye did he beholdThe sanguine scene that told his tragic fate?Surged by the flood of grief and shame that rolledAbove the murdered honor of a State[2],Where innocence again fell prey to hate?There be who say he visioned all to come—Forsaken cities, weeping, desolate,The desecrated fane, the blazing dome[3],The weary wanderings far in quest of peace and home.
Saw, then, a tender hopeful tragedy 3000(Pathetic omen of his tribe's increase)Uncurtained 'neath the star-hung canopy:Babes, new-born babes[4], there slumbering in a fleeceOf moon-lit frost, as buds that bide release,When winter casts its mantle white and cold,Protecting life where life hath seemed to cease;Frail lambs, fresh penned within the Saviour's fold,And, like Him, manger-nurst, homeless on earth's threshold.
Homeless a nursing nation, born e'en so—Born in a day. O Day! and eyes of Night! 3010Watch now the "little one" "a thousand"[5] grow,As grows the torrent from the trickling height,The blaze of noonday from the dawning light;—The birth-throes of an empire, whose blest reign,Bounding from lowliness, soars past the sightOf all save prophecy, while cities twain[6]Sceptre the universe, with foot on land and main!
Whose but a prophet's eye such end could see?Whose but a prophet's tongue the issue tell?—A modern march of ancient destiny, 3020Another Exodus and Israel,Bidding his bonds, his all, save hope, farewell;Widening, 'mid alien wastes, true freedom's fame,Where bondage, chained to darkness, fain would dwell[7];And rearing temples to Jehovah's name,Where looms the Aztec's altar[8], quenched of its ancient flame.
There bringing forth the promise of thy land,O rare and wondrous West!—the prophecyOf glittering cities strewn along thy strand,O golden empire[9] of the sunset sea! 3030God-gifted Seer, while gazing endlessly,Sawest thou an Eden on the desert brine[10],Begirt with desolation's mystery,Ere gusht the riven rock with milk and wine,Where all was treeless waste and sun-baked alkaline?
Sawest thou, O prophet! till the pioneerBuilded his eagle nest, and pure and braveHomed on the white-helmed peak and crystal mere?O matchless land—the home their valor gave,Mighty in will to bless, in work to save, 3040Redeemed, redeeming, all must own thy worth!Slander may wound thee, tyranny enslave,Still thou art mine, loved land of all the earth,Land of the honey-bee[11], land of my mortal birth!
Land prest by footprint of my pilgrim sire[12];Land visioned by my more than sire, whose soulSwept the far future with a glance of fire,Bade hope, as memory, her page unroll;Beheld uplifting, as a parted scroll,The curtain from a kingdom yet to be, 3050Binding in one world-realms from pole to pole;Saw monarchs bow, saw nations bend the knee,Saw dead and risen time take on eternity.
"Hear me, my people[13]! I shall not be slainWhile unfulfilled my mission? Then, like HimWho holds my hand, linked in an endless chain,Which cannot die, whose light can ne'er grow dim,Must I return to Home and Elohim.Though here I fain would linger—human choice!If weal to friend or foe—ay, e'en to them, 3060Might purchased be, with my poor life the price,Welcome, thrice welcome death. I will the sacrifice.
"Nor marvel at my mood. Could you but gazeUpon the wonders of the worlds of God,Where burn, amid the universal blaze,The Father's fullness and the Son's abode,Won by their feet who walk the rightful road,Nor weary in well-doing; 'twere aloneReward for all that here hath been your load.Forgive—leave all to heaven, whose highest Throne 3070Made endless love to endless life the stepping stone.
"Hearken, O House of Joseph! Here must endMy mortal toil. Now, as from Nebo's height[14],I see, like him of old, my day descend.But looms afar upon my sinking sightAnother Canaan. Clothe for pilgrim flight.A Joshua cometh! Him let Israel heed,And loyal be unto that council's rightOn whom the Kingdom rolls; for they must leadTo where privation's hand shall sow dominion's seed. 3080
"A glacier's might, your gathered strength shall stand,Stalwart upon the mountains[15], and shall sendSwift messengers to sound o'er sea and landLast warning to the nations. Hither wendAwakening hosts, who eager hearing lendWhile yet the voice of grace, the voice of God,Summons the house of Abraham his friend;Calls them the wave to cleave, the wild to plod,On, on to that safe rest, ere falls the reckoning rod.
"For war shall wound[16] this nation—rend it wide, 3090And trample nations all. Anon shall slaves'Gainst masters rise, and anarchy o'errideTill tyranny be trodden as the paves,Till patriot might puts forth its hand and savesThe crimsoned land from chaos. Hearken, all!When ruin's host the blood-red banner waves,Who heeded first the Gospel's warning callShall be the last of realms to crumble and to fall.
"Britannia! Thou among the during ones,A nursing mother unto Israel's might; 4000Foremost to send thy daughters and thy sonsFrom shores afar, from darkness unto light.As thou hast favored truth and 'friended right,Their tongues shall plead for thee in time to come,And nerve thine arm when perilous thy plight.Borne on thy shoulder o'er the billowing foam,Joseph and Judah find their heritage, their home.
"I saw, while justice showed the vision dire,Till mercy's hand let fall the lifted veil,The goal of the ungodly—blood and fire, 4010Earthquake and whirlwind, pestilential hailSmiting earth's face with desolating flail.And this, the mere beginning of their woe,Whose final fate a doom the damned bewail;While they that follow Christ, anon shall goTo guide and save lost souls, groping in shades below.
"Good fears not evil—grapples with it strong,Hell turns to heaven, the unclean purifies;For evil is but good, the right bent wrong.No weakling unto loftiest worlds can rise; 4020No coward e'er hath scaled celestial skies;'Tis strength that wins the goal of blessedness,'Tis knowledge saves, 'tis wisdom glorifies;Intelligence alone can lift and blessThe fallen, innocent till snared in sin's duress.
"What matter, if my mortal race be run,Where earth enfolds me to her mother breast?While ye, my people—yonder setting sunPoints out your path. For you, no peace, no rest,Till firm your weary feet upon the West, 4030Where, moveless as yon snowy spine of hills,Befriended by the tempest, unopprest,And bounteous as the sun that sends the rillsTo bless the vales, God's first-born fold[17] His purpose fills.
"Affliction here, but friendship there and peace;(More cruel Christian white than savage red),And in a day when warning tongues shall cease,And plain be seen what prophets all have said;When peace shall have no pillow for her head,Save lofty heights where loyal hosts abound; 4040Brave sons of battling sires[18], who toiled and bledThat this might evermore be freedom's ground,Shall give to you their strength God's Kingdom here to found.
"Bide mountain-walled, my people! stalwart, strong,Till poureth down from hallowed founts on high,The might that doth to righteousness belong,The might of faith, the power of purity—Despair and terror to iniquity.Then, Ephra-Judah, who the hand shall bindThat clears thy path before thee? Foes shall fly 4050As driven dust, as ashes in the wind;The crouching Lion springs, and He the prey shall find.
"And by that power[19] shall Zion be redeemed,Yea, with a mighty hand, an out-stretched arm,With marvels, miracles, ne'er done nor dreamedSince wonder oped her eyes. The world's alarmShall surge, an angry sea; but fear nor harmCan hover near the conquering host of God.'Gainst Lucifer's shall Michael's legions form,Besoming the chosen soil with chastening rod, 4060Till sainted towers arise on Eden's ancient sod.
"The place appointed. Naught else is designed;Naught else can heaven accept. Put forth the hand,Plant stakes of Zion, tight her cords to bind,Where'er ye move, O fated pilgrim band!But bring forth Zion's self on Zion's land[20];The consecrated soil, whereon ye stoodWith me, of late, loyal while treason fannedThe flame still thirsting for a martyr's blood.There build, in time to be, a city unto God. 4070
"Nor there alone; for all is Zion's land,North unto South, East unto Western wave,Far as the hemisphere's wide wings expand,She sits, a sovereign queen, ice-crowned, to laveHer glowing hands in tropic tides, while braveHer snowy feet in faith the southern sea.Arm patient, slow to smite, yet swift to save,A friend to right, a foe to tyranny.And there be living now who then shall live and see.
"While here the glory of the Common Good[21], 4080Shadowed and symboled by a patriot band,Whose triumph wrought for human brotherhood,Extending that high cause from strand to strand,Shall bring deliverance unto every land.But anarchy would foil the lofty aim,The peace, the union, by Jehovah planned;Wherefore 'tis doomed to failure and to shame,With all unrighteous rule, whate'er its place or name.
"The sceptered harlot,[22] throned on human seas,Chief link of Satan's world-encircling chain; 4090The secret craft and crime—iniquitiesWhereby the Wicked One extends his reign;All these must perish from the Lord's domain,Nor aught of guile be found His Kingdom through.Truth's sun hath risen—all lesser lights must wane;And wrong and false that masks as right and true,Shall feel the scourge of flame that Sodom's sin o'erthrew.
"More would I tell that in my bosom burns,But bigot fires would flame as ne'er before;For truth, rejected, friend to traitor turns, 5000And damns where fain 'twould save. Six mounting o'er,My spirit to a seventh realm[23] did soar,And saw and heard—Ah, would that I might say!Though memory but renewed a former lore,What all may learn when full the dawning day,When twinkling, twilight faith to knowledge shall give way.
"Hope not till then to have my history,What life hath scribed to scan; nor tongue nor penCan tell the tale, dispel the mystery,That hides me from the dim, dull gaze of men. 5010Sojourning here, within this shadowed scene,A medial stage, a mortal compromise,The spirit's might, the body's weight, between,Deem not that e'en earth's wisest can be wise,Till heaven the blindness touch that seals all human eyes.
"One little fold I lift of that vast veil:How came he God, to whom all gods must bow—The very Sire, whom all the sons now hailAs mightiest of the mighty? I avowThat even He was once as we are now; 5020That we like Him can be—yea, by degrees,Mount unto loftiest heights, till on each browBe writ the Name of Names. Not angels these,But Gods, e'en Sons of God, through all eternities.
"Weighed in the balance here, nor wanting found;Tried in the fire, triumphant from the test;Though wrung their hearts, their finest feelings ground,Betwixt life's upper, nether, millstones prest,Till proved, of good and brave, the bravest, best.Less faith than theirs who follow Abraham, 5030Honoring o'er all Jehovah's high behest,Uplifts no gate of that Jerusalem—The Bosom of the Gods—the Glory of I AM.[24]
"Bide valiant here, as ye were valiant there.Whence came delightsome bodies, soaring minds,Aspiring thrones to win and crowns to wear?Spring not all seeds according to their kinds?Each act, each word, each thought, delivers, binds,Dwarfs or develops. Man's all-crowning stateHis own creation. What the Judgment finds, 5040The soul reveals; and weal or woe the fate,'Tis freedom's chainless choice, for all on will must wait.
"Stand as ye stood, my legion brave, what timeThe starry host, celestial symphony,Choraled the anthem seraphic, sublime,To the spelled ear of all eternity!Lifted your hands for light and liberty[25],When fraud with force progression's path would pave.Fought we with Michael, drove the dragon, heWho planned to seize all worlds, all worlds enslave, 5050And would have damned, destroyed, what Christ came downto save.
"As now, in lesser liberty's abode,Incarnate spirit of fell tyrannyWould trample on the type of Freedom's Code[26],Befriending human right where'er it be.But hear me, Heaven! Come life, come death, to me,Jehovah's captain, in His name and fear,I vow to Him His people shall be free—Ay, free all men, as in that former sphere, 5060When hurled from yon dread height the power of Lucifer.
"Fear not—Truth's cause shall triumph. Sown the seedWhose harvest knows no failure, no delay.Crooked shall straighten to the future need,And crudeness unto culture shall give way;And part shall change to perfect in that day.Firm, strong—not smooth, the building's basic stone,Hidden from view; while rests the heavenly rayOn polished wall, on gleaming spire and cone:Jacob's, not Esau's hand[27] shall rear Messiah's throne. 5070
"Great the beginning—glorious the end;Elijah comes, the Kingdom to complete[28].Farewell! This from your father, brother, friend.No more your prophet, patriarch, ye meet,Till here all prophets, patriarchs, ye greet,Mingling with Gods, while heaven on earth shall dwell,To drink the wine of wisdom at His feet,The Husbandman and Vine of Israel.Thus saith the God of Jacob—Joseph's God. Farewell!"
—-
Then sank to rest, his mortal mission done. 5080Hark to those shouts that hail a homing king!A crimson aureole rounds the sinking sun,Omen of golden dawn swift following;Death's winter promise of eternal spring—Celestial Edens, empires, throne on throne,And worlds once waste, redeemed, there blossoming.Future now present, and the past unflown,While all unguised, unveiled, life, death, earth, time, are known.
The Angel Ascendant[1]
But what are life, death, earth, and time to thee,Eternal Truth? Thou goest on for aye. 5090Lives, deaths, earths, times, their plurals multifold,These but the bubbles on thy boundless wave,The sands of thy great glass, the flickering gleamsOf life that knows nor origin nor end.These but the sparks flung from thy flaming forge,The falling star-dust of thy firmament,Where stars go down that straightway suns may rise.
Each ray of light, each principle of power,Each epoch-measuring hap of history,Had it a tongue would it not testify: 6000"There cometh after me a mightier;I but prepare the way his face before;I but baptize with water, he with fire?"Till now tells not the past this oft-told tale,Which yet the future shall proclaim and prove?
Thou Angel, there ascending from the East,Who criest unto four, Hurt not, but spare,Till we the servants of our God have sealed!Who art thou and why risest now to view?
"I am that Voice which crieth in the waste; 6010That wandereth through all worlds, invisible;That sayeth unto all, Prepare, prepare,Behold He cometh! Go ye out to meet.
"As His, my goings forth are from of old:A minister to Earth from Eden's hour,Reopening the guarded heavenward way,Whereby the fallen Michael rose again[2];Lifting to rest the city sanctified[3],Awaiting there my mandate to descend.
"Wrought I through him whom Gods name Gabriel, 6020The Noah of a world once water-doomed,By whom was earth besprent with life anew,Nor less with light from truth's rekindled flame,Still burning, though with error's incense dimmed,And fouled with alien fire[4] in many lands.
"Wrought I through him whom men call Abraham,The root of Shiloh[5], righteous branch of Shem;Quarry of Israel, rock whence he was hewn;Blesser of races with believing blood[6],Sprinkler of spirits faithful o'er the world, 6030Oceans of nations, fountainward that flow,As the soiled floods unto the filtering sea.
"Led I when Israel cast Egypt's chain[7],And cleft the wave 'twixt bonds and liberty;As lead I shall when one the Shepherd lovedBringeth the sheep from long captivity[8].Smote I by him who carved to Canaan's land,Whose sword[9] gave Israel his inheritance,Whose high behest e'en day and night obeyed,On Gibeon, in the vale of Ajalon. 6040Blazed I through him who flamed as fire from heavenAt Kishon's brook[10], where sunk the pride of Baal;Sealer, unsealer, of the sending skies,Renewer of the worship primal, pure.My hand in his, the anointed, named ere born[11],To sunder brazen-gated Babylon,Foreshadowing the great deliveranceWrought out by Him who died all worlds to win.
"Then burst the long sealed canopy[12] o'er himRevealed to whom were holy Sire and Son, 6050And angel guardian of the book of gold;That truth might vanquish error, and once moreBe known to men the true and living God.
"When spake the angels of authority,Mine was the hand that gave the Kingdom's keys[13],Lifting an ensign for the gathering;Beginning of an ending yet to be,When I a second time shall set my hand,Judah, with Joseph, joining to the fold,And long lost tribes and remnants ransoming. 6060
"The martyred Seer who gave up life to giveThe warning unto Ephraim, God's first born,Came I to him the Abrahamic keys[14],The Abrahamic covenant, to restore;That Jacob, to the end increasing still,Might be as sands and stars for multitude.
"How tell the sum[15] of all my ministries?Wrought I through him who gave to East the West,Through him whose pen of fire proclaimed it free,Through him whose blade the blood-bought soil redeemed. 6070Came I to thee, lone muser on the mount,My minstrel—I thy muse. Dost know me now?
"All, all that make for freedom and for peace,That loose the captive, and the lost restore,That teach, in part or whole, eternal truth,By science, art, or might of melody;—All these my ministers, who aid my aims.Elias I, their tasks Elias-given.
"Spirit of Progress, speeding on for aye;Gleam of the glory of Omnipotence; 6080Hand of the Arm Omnific—cause of all;A mighty making way for Mightier,Coming, as Jacob upon Esau's heel[16],Eternity upon the trail of time.
"Jehovah's ancient covenant Messenger,Come I again, again, His courier,Till plenal powers of great MelchizedekThe fullness of the glory here unfold,Whelming, O Earth! as once with watery wave,Thy form with fire, from founts of heavenly flame; 6090Sealing, unsealing, binding o'er and o'er,Till all is order, as of old ordained.
"Then shall the Watchman on the Wall proclaim:'Be glad, O Zion and Jerusalem!Rejoice, O Earth! No longer grieve and mourn.Ended the empire of iniquity,Broken oppression's rod forevermore.Gone are the gold, the silver, and the bronze,The conquering iron, and the crumbling clay;World-wide, heaven-high, the Stone of Israel stands; 7000The Chaldean image as the Chaldean dream[17]!'
"And who is She that looketh forth sublime,Clothed with the sun, shod with the moon's pale beam,Her matchless brow bediademed with stars?Fairer than eve, mightier than bursting morn,As noon-day majesty magnificent?
"Perfection, heaven-retained unto this hour,Immanuel's Spouse, the glorious Bride of Christ,Arrayed in all her garments beautiful,Adorned and ready[18], waiting for her Lord! 7010
"Now, Heaven's loud trumpets, all Earth's secrets tell!Death and hell's dungeons, liberate your dead!For 'mid the shouts of saints, the risen, the changed,Day dawns, hour strikes, skies burst—the King descends!
"Await that time destroyers four[19], who giveThe Gospel, God's last warning unto man;Await likewise the thousands, twelve times twelve[20],Who for the coming King the way prepare.Hold I the signet of the Living God—Lift unto light, or hurl to darkness down. 7020The hour is imminent. Heed well the sign:Mark when the Bow's bright promise[21] is withdrawn!"
—-
Enough, I know thee, Strong and mighty One,That standest in the presence of the Lord!That leadest Israel from bondage old,That liftest up the Ensign unto all!Know thee, thou Muse and Minstrel of the Mount,Thou Harper on the Hills of Melody?I know thee, and am here to work thy will,To hymn thy praise, perchance behold thy power, 7030When, iris-crowned and clothed as with a cloud,Thy face the sun, thy feet as pillared fire,Thou comest down from Heaven, and swearest byEternity, that Time shall be no more!
Ancient of Ages! Angel of the East!Spirit of Promise! Prophet of the Dawn[22]!
Explanation: The first figure at the beginning of the Note indicates the word or phrase marked in the text; the second figure gives the number of the line in which it is found.
NOTE TO DEDICATION. The Dedication is to President Joseph F. Smith, sixth in succession to the leadership of the Latter-day Saints, nephew to Joseph the Prophet, and son of Hyrum the Patriarch, who were martyred at Carthage, Illinois, June 27, 1844. The poem made its appearance during President Smith's administration, and the author owes much to his kind encouragement and appreciation.
NOTE TO THEME. The words of the Theme are a passage from the "Key toJohn's Revelation" (Doctrine and Covenants 77:9).
NOTE TO PRELUDE. The Author, while ill, prayed that he might live to produce a work that would continue his ministry as a teacher after his mortal tongue was stilled. The beginning of the answer to his prayer was an immediate inspiration to write this poem.
—-
1—Title: **As From a Dream.** The subject of this Canto is the author's spiritual awakening.
2—20. **Baal and Astoreth** (also rendered Ashtoreth). Pagan deities, frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. They were worshiped by the idolatrous Israelites. The Prophet Elijah's controversy with the priests of Baal is one of the most dramatic episodes in sacred history. (I Kings 18:19-40). Baal was the sun god, chief male divinity of the Phoenicians; Ashtoreth, representing the moon, a goddess of the Philistines—the same as Astarte of the Zidonians. The corresponding deities among the Greeks and Romans were Zeus or Jupiter and Aphrodite or Venus.
3—60. **Truth's Triple Key.** The Spirit of Truth, revealing past, present and future.
4—86. **Ambrosial Gardens.** The Gardens of the Gods—Heaven.
5—92. **Paradise.** The Spirit World, a place of rest for the righteous, awaiting resurrection and exaltation to glorious spheres beyond. (Alma, 40:11-14; "Joseph Smith's Teachings," pp. 184, 185; Key to Theology, 14.)
6—101. **Love's Eyes.** Love is usually represented as a blind boy, Cupid, shooting his arrows aimlessly. Love, when spiritually enlightened, is no longer blind, but has a definite purpose in view.
7—111. **Lethean Ground.** Lethe, in classic mythology, signifies oblivion. It was the name of a river in Hades, of which the dead drank and forgot all.
8—117. **O Thou, Of Beauty!** The stanza beginning with these words is an apostrophe to Woman.
9—130. **Apple of Ashes.** On the shores of the Dead Sea there grows, it is said, a fruit resembling the apple, beautiful and inviting to the eye, but turning to ashes at the touch.
10—167. **Equally May Win.** The vanquished, as well as the victorious, may gain, through experience, development.
11—174. **What Soul Can Grow?** Pride, greed, hate, and all other perverted passions, are as weeds and thorns in the garden of the heart. It is fair to presume that the Saviour, when he exhorted his disciples to forgive and love their enemies, had in view the welfare of the disciples themselves. It was more for their sake than for the sake of their enemies, that He gave the exhortation.
12—185. **The Spirit of the Infinite.** The Holy Spirit, assumed throughout the poem to be acting through "Elias," the Genius of Progress, who also has his agents or instruments.
13—219. **Time's Hills and Vales.** A metaphor suggested by the Book of Abraham (3:18, 19).
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1—Title: **The Soul of Song.** Herein the author is represented as soliloquising upon his native mountains, where he meets the Soul of Song and is inspired to sing the epic of time and eternity. As the Soul of Song, "Elias" makes his first appearance in the action of the poem.
2—261. **The Sacred Garden.** The Garden of Eden.
3—263. **Titan Stand.** The Titans were a group of mythical giants, descended from the gods. (Greek and Roman mythology.)
4—276. **Orphean Boon.** Orpheus, son of the Muse Calliope, received from Apollo or Minerva a lyre upon which he played so skillfully that rocks and trees were moved, rivers ceased to flow, and savage beasts forgot their wildness, charmed by the wonderful sounds. (Ibid.)
5—281. **Oh, Were My Words!** A paraphrase of Job 19:23, 24.
6—288. **Melting Gift.** The power of speech or of song.
7—384. **Voice of the Stars.** Another reference to Job (38:7).
8—390. **The Body's Bard.** This allusion is to poets who exalt the material over the spiritual, the sensuous over the intellectual, the body of things over the soul of things.
9—407. **This Most Ancient Shore.** Modern science, confirming modern revelation, is beginning to regard America as the Old World, not the New.
10—408. **And Man Shall Rise.** Zion, City of the Pure-in-Heart, is to stand upon the ancient site of the Garden of Eden.
11—415. **Shepherd Psalmist.** David, who played before King Saul, exorcising the evil spirit which held the monarch bound. (I Samuel 18:10 and 19:9.)
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1—Title: **Elect of Elohim.** Elohim, or Eloheim, the Hebrew plural for God. To the modern Jew it means the plural of majesty, not of number; but to the Latter-day Saint it signifies both. As here used it stands for "The Council of the Gods," or, as in Psalms 82:1, "The Congregation of the Mighty." In that council or congregation was elected, before Earth was formed, the Redeemer of the World. (Pearl of Great Price—Moses 4:1-4; Abraham 3:22-28; Compendium p. 285.) This Canto glimpses the choosing of Messiah, the rebellion of Lucifer, the Saviour's descent to Earth, his crucifixion and return to Glory. It is the beginning of the poem proper.
2—450. **Olea's Silver Beam.** Olea, according to the Book of Abraham, is Moon; Shinehah (Shinea) Sun; and Kokaubeam, Stars. Kolob, according to the same authority, is a great governing planet "nigh unto the throne of God." (Abraham 3; D. and C. 76:25, 28.)
3—504. **Mighty Michael.** Michael the Archangel, leader of the hosts of Heaven against Lucifer and his rebellious legions, became Adam and fell from an immortal to a mortal state that he might become the progenitor of the human family.
4—516. **Tried Souls.** In "Mormon" theology "soul" means body and spirit combined, but in general literature, and especially poetry, "soul" and "spirit" are synonyms.
5—522. **The Stepping-Stone.** God's children, such as kept the first or spirit estate, were given bodies upon this planet, thus becoming souls, capable of eternal increase and advancement. (Abraham 3:26.) Two-thirds of the spirits then populating the Spirit World were found worthy of opportunities for experience and development in mortality, while one-third—those who rebelled—were denied that privilege. (Compendium p. 288.)
6—528. **The Love That Hath Redeemed All Worlds.** The Gospel of the Christ, the highest expression of God's love for man, has saved many worlds, and is destined to save many more. (Moses 1:33-39.) But the Gospel is more than a means of escape from impending ills; it existed before man had need of salvation. A divine plan for human progress, embracing both the Fall and the Redemption, it was framed in the heavens before this earth was organized, and is a free gift from God to man. Man, however, to avail himself of its benefits, must yield obedience to its requirements. Redemption (resurrection) comes unconditionally, but salvation and exaltation depend upon human works as well as upon divine favor. A soul may be redeemed—raised from the dead—and yet condemned at the final judgment for evil deeds done in the body. Likewise may a soul be redeemed and saved, and yet come short of the glory that constitutes exaltation. To redeem, save and glorify is the threefold purpose of the Gospel of Christ. The English word "Gospel" comes from the Anglo-Saxon "Godspell" or God-Story—the story of God. In its fullest sense it signifies everything connected with the redemptive career of that Divine Being who gave His life that man might eternally live.
7—548. **Exception Scorns.** Lucifer, who fain would have been the Redeemer, proposed to save by coercive methods, involving the destruction of human agency, and demanded as his reward the honor that belongs to God. (Moses 4:1-4; Abraham 3:22-28)
8—560. **My Messenger.** It was Jehovah the God of Israel who became Jesus of Nazareth and died to redeem mankind (D. and C. 110:1-4). He is Son Ahman, concerning whom Orson Pratt, citing an unpublished revelation, says: "What is the name of God in the pure language? The answer says 'Ahman.' What is the name of the Son of God? Answer, 'Son Ahman, the greatest of all the parts of God, excepting Ahman.' What is the name of men? 'Son Ahman,' is the answer." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. II, p. 342.)
9—562. **Thy Face Before.** An allusion to Elias, the lesser going before the greater.
10—571. **My Friend.** Abraham, the friend of God, and father of the faithful.
11—572. **Idumea.** The World—here used as a synonym for Earth.
12—589. **This Wandering Planet Bring.** "This earth will be rolled back into the presence of God and crowned with celestial glory."—Joseph Smith (Compendium, p. 288).
13—613. **The Hour of Noon.** The Meridian Dispensation.
14—615. **Light's Sun and Moon.** Christ, the light of the sun, moon and stars, and the power by which they were made. (D. and C. 88:7, 8, 9.)
15—619. **Elias? Yea and Nay.** John the Baptist, forerunner of the Christ, was an Elias, a restorer; but, according to Joseph Smith, not the Elias who is to restore all things. There are many Eliases, Joseph says: "When God sends a man into the world to prepare for a greater work, holding the keys of the power of Elias, it was called the doctrine of Elias even from the early ages of the world." (Compendium, p. 281.)
16—621. **Learned to Shine.** Before the Twelve Apostles were chosen, John the Baptist proclaimed the Lamb of God, and said concerning Him: "He must increase, and I must decrease." John was therefore as the waning Moon in the presence of the rising Sun.
17—640. **A City Doomed.** Jerusalem, over which the Saviour wept, prophesying its downfall. (Matthew 23:37-39.)
18—656. **Gloom-Wrapt Gethsemane.** The Saviour's agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is an incident familiar to every reader of the New Testament.
19—675. **Immanuel.** One of the titles of the Saviour, meaning "God with us."
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1—Title: **Night and the Wilderness.** This part of the poem is an allegory of the Christian or Meridian Dispensation, following the death of Jesus and his forerunner; portraying the mission of the Comforter, and showing the departure from the primitive Faith, after the passing of the apostolic Twelve, one of whom—the Church having gone into the Wilderness—remains to testify of things to come. The "Night" is the spiritual night that followed the setting of the Sun of Righteousness—a night lit by Moon and Stars, with lesser lights twinkling through the Dark Ages and onward into modern times. The "Wilderness" is the world invisible. (D. and C. 88:66.)
2—688. **An Eagle's Wings.** The Roman Empire, emblemized by the Eagle, dominated the then known world.
3—696. **Peace to Flow.** "(I) The immense field covered by the conquests of Alexander gave to the civilized world a unity of language, without which it would have been, humanly speaking, impossible for the earliest preachers to have made known the good tidings in every land which they traversed. (II) The rise of the Roman Empire created a political unity which reflected in every direction the doctrines of the new faith. (III) The dispersion of the Jews prepared vast multitudes of Greeks and Romans for the unity of a pure morality and a monotheistic faith. The Gospel emanated from the capital of Judea; it was preached in the tongue of Athens; it was diffused through the empire of Rome; the feet of its earliest missionaries traversed the solid structure of undeviating roads by which the Roman legionaries—'those massive hammers of the whole earth'—had made straight in the desert a highway for our God. Semite and Aryan had been unconscious instruments in the hands of God for the spread of a religion which, in its first beginnings, both alike detested and despised. The letters of Hebrew and Greek and Latin inscribed above the cross were the prophetic and unconscious testimony of three of the world's noblest languages to the undying claims of Him who suffered to obliterate the animosities of the nations which spoke them, and to unite them all together in the one great Family of God."—Dean Farrar, in "The Life and Work of St. Paul," abridged edition, Book II, pp. 61, 62.