Chief link of Satan's world-encircling chain; 4090
The secret craft and crime--iniquities
Whereby 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, 5000
And 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 pen
Can tell the tale, dispel the mystery,
That hides me from the dim, dull gaze of men. 5010
Sojourning 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 hail
As mightiest of the mighty? I avow
That even He was once as we are now; 5020
That we like Him can be--yea, by degrees,
Mount unto loftiest heights, till on each brow
Be 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, 5030
Honoring 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 state
His own creation. What the Judgment finds, 5040
The 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 time
The 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, he
Who planned to seize all worlds, all worlds enslave, 5050
And would have damned, destroyed, what Christ came down
to save.
"As now, in lesser liberty's abode,
Incarnate spirit of fell tyranny
Would 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, 5060
When hurled from yon dread height the power of Lucifer.
"Fear not--Truth's cause shall triumph. Sown the seed
Whose 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 ray
On 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. 5080
Hark 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.
EPILOGUE
The Angel Ascendant[1]
But what are life, death, earth, and time to thee,
Eternal Truth? Thou goest on for aye. 5090
Lives, deaths, earths, times, their plurals multifold,
These but the bubbles on thy boundless wave,
The sands of thy great glass, the flickering gleams
Of 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; 6010
That 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, 6020
The 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, 6030
Oceans 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 loved
Bringeth 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. 6040
Blazed I through him who flamed as fire from heaven
At 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 deliverance
Wrought out by Him who died all worlds to win.
"Then burst the long sealed canopy[12] o'er him
Revealed to whom were holy Sire and Son, 6050
And angel guardian of the book of gold;
That truth might vanquish error, and once more
Be 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 give
The 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. 6070
Came 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; 6080
Hand 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 Melchizedek
The fullness of the glory here unfold,
Whelming, O Earth! as once with watery wave,
Thy form with fire, from founts of heavenly flame; 6090
Sealing, 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; 7000
The 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 give
The 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. 7020
The 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, 7030
When, iris-crowned and clothed as with a cloud,
Thy face the sun, thy feet as pillared fire,
Thou comest down from Heaven, and swearest by
Eternity, that Time shall be no more!
Ancient of Ages! Angel of the East!
Spirit of Promise! Prophet of the Dawn[22]!
NOTES
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 to
John'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.
---
CANTO ONE
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).
---
CANTO TWO
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.)
---
CANTO THREE
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."
---
CANTO FOUR
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.
4--706. **She-Wolf's Might.** The She-Wolf, traditionally the nurse
of Romulus and Remus, who founded Rome, was also an emblem of that
world-conquering power, which, though eventually it persecuted the
Christians, at first protected them from their Jewish oppressors.
Judah's emblem was the Lion. As for the remaining figure in the
allusion, it is written that the Saviour said to his disciples: "I
send you forth as lambs among wolves."