Elias: An Epic of the Ages

Jehovah's land--thy country--once mine own, A sacred soil, a consecrated shore, Where cometh up the universal Throne, 1410 Dominion that endureth evermore. Whose God, with gods,...

Choice Seer, with spirit eye did he behold The sanguine scene that told his tragic fate? Surged by the flood of grief and shame that rolled Above the murdered honor of a State[2...

Garnered in one vast mind[2] the glacial store, The glittering avalanche of heavenly lore, Whose living streams shall slake the burning thirst Of time unborn, of nations yet unn...

"Ocean of dispensations--rivers, rills, 1050 Roll to your source! End, to thine origin! And Israel, to the rock whence ye were hewn[2]! For He that scattered, gathereth His floc...

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 floc...

Where goeth forth, unwittingly the tool Of Truth Eterne, a pathway to prepare, The law and legion of imperial Rome, Mighty to crush and to consolidate, Humbling the hard, the ha...

Self-trammeled cause, harried by hounds and whips Of persecution, whose infuriate maw, Usurping oft the form and force of law,-- To lawless hands a far too ready rod,-- Had fain...

1--Title: **From Out The Dust.** A paraphrase of Isaiah 29:4. The prediction is held to have been fulfilled in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. This entire Canto is based...

Youth's morn was breaking, when I dreamed a dream, Splendid as springtime's weft of wonders rare; Idyllic vision, beauteous, bright romance, Glory of love and glamor of renown....

Alone my soul upon a mighty hill, Ancient with lingering snows of vanished years, Where towering forms the templed azure fill, Wooed by the breath of woodland atmospheres; Where...

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; portrayi...

2--2994. **Honor of a State.** Joseph the Prophet and Hyrum the Patriarch were murdered while under the pledged protection of the Governor of Illinois. The mob that fired its fa...

Sing I a song of aeons gone, 440 Of life from mystery sprung, Ere sun, or moon, or rolling stars Their radiance earthward flung; Ere spirit-winged intelligence Forsook those shi...

1--Title: **Upon the Shoulders of the Philistine.** Under this caption, suggested by Isaiah 11:14, is treated the westward movement of the Latter-day Saints, incidental to the g...

1--Title: **The Arcana of the Infinite.** "Arcana," the Latin plural of "Arcanum," signifies hidden, secret. This title is intended to be an equivalent for "The Mysteries of the...

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 sig...

1--Title: **The Messenger of Morn.** The fore part of this Canto, down to and including the line, "Out, out of her, my people, saith your God," summarizes the message borne by t...

4--2380. **Time Yet Was Young.** Here the main narrative reverts to the story of Enoch and his city, as revealed to Joseph the Seer, and embodied in the Book of Moses (6 and 7)....

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 E...

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...

The work for Him I asked and aimed to do, Ere death should claim my dust, my spirit free,-- That, looking down from where the wise and true Inherit glory, gracious eyes might se...