CANTO TEN

The Parted Veil[1]

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], 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 fleece Of 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! 3010 Watch 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 sight Of 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, 3020 Another 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 prophecy Of glittering cities strewn along thy strand, O golden empire[9] of the sunset sea! 3030 God-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 pioneer Builded his eagle nest, and pure and brave Homed 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, 3040 Redeemed, 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 soul Swept 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, 3050 Binding 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 slain While unfulfilled my mission? Then, like Him Who 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, 3060 Might purchased be, with my poor life the price, Welcome, thrice welcome death. I will the sacrifice.

"Nor marvel at my mood. Could you but gaze Upon 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 alone Reward for all that here hath been your load. Forgive--leave all to heaven, whose highest Throne 3070 Made endless love to endless life the stepping stone.

"Hearken, O House of Joseph! Here must end My mortal toil. Now, as from Nebo's height[14], I see, like him of old, my day descend. But looms afar upon my sinking sight Another Canaan. Clothe for pilgrim flight. A Joshua cometh! Him let Israel heed, And loyal be unto that council's right On whom the Kingdom rolls; for they must lead To 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 send Swift messengers to sound o'er sea and land Last warning to the nations. Hither wend Awakening hosts, who eager hearing lend While 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, 3090 And trample nations all. Anon shall slaves 'Gainst masters rise, and anarchy o'erride Till tyranny be trodden as the paves, Till patriot might puts forth its hand and saves The crimsoned land from chaos. Hearken, all! When ruin's host the blood-red banner waves, Who heeded first the Gospel's warning call Shall be the last of realms to crumble and to fall.

"Britannia! Thou among the during ones, A nursing mother unto Israel's might; 4000 Foremost to send thy daughters and thy sons From 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, 4010 Earthquake and whirlwind, pestilential hail Smiting 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 go To 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; 4020 No 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 bless The 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 sun Points out your path. For you, no peace, no rest, Till firm your weary feet upon the West, 4030 Where, moveless as yon snowy spine of hills, Befriended by the tempest, unopprest, And bounteous as the sun that sends the rills To 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; 4040 Brave sons of battling sires[18], who toiled and bled That 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 bind That clears thy path before thee? Foes shall fly 4050 As 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 dreamed Since wonder oped her eyes. The world's alarm Shall surge, an angry sea; but fear nor harm Can hover near the conquering host of God. 'Gainst Lucifer's shall Michael's legions form, Besoming the chosen soil with chastening rod, 4060 Till 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 stood With me, of late, loyal while treason fanned The 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 lave Her glowing hands in tropic tides, while brave Her 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], 4080 Shadowed 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; 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!"

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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!"

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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.

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