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."
5—707. **Iron-Limbed.** The phrases "iron-limbed," "brazen-loin," "silver-breasted," "golden Babylon," characterize respectively the Roman, Graeco-Macedonian, Medo-Persian, and Babylonian empires, which, in reverse order, ruled successively the ancient world. Beginning with Babylon, the "head of gold," these four universal powers figure in the Prophet Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Daniel 2).
6—713. **Asian Kin.** Alexander the Great extended his conquests as far eastward as India, whose native inhabitants claim kinship with European peoples through a common Aryan ancestry. If this claim be true, then the Hindoos, like the Europeans, are descended from Japheth, the eldest son of Noah, and consequently are "Gentiles"—a word springing from "Gentilis," meaning "of a nation," that is, a nation not of Israel.
7—718. **Kurush.** Cyrus, founder of the Medo-Persian empire.
8—730. **Lofty Vineyards.** D. and C. 88:51-61.
9—731. **Spirit Moon and Speaking Stars.** The Holy Ghost and the Apostolic Twelve.
10—732. **The Woman Wonderful.** The Church of Christ, represented by a Woman (Revelation 12), and referred to in other places as the Bride, the Lamb's Wife.
11—736. **Glory's Symboling.** Sun, moon and stars, symbolizing celestial, terrestrial, and telestial glories. (D. and C. 76:96-98.)
12—742. **Vicegerent.** The Comforter, concerning whom Jesus said, "It is needful that I go, or He will not come unto you." In other words, the greater Light had to depart, before the lesser could shine in its fulness.
13—743. **The Unembodied One.** Says Joseph the Seer: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones, as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit." (D. and C. 130:22.)
14—748. **After and Ere.** God and Christ, the Father and the Son, by the power of the Holy Ghost created all things, and by that power will raise all from the dead.
15—756. **Prophet Still Pleading.** The Spirit of Prophecy, typified by John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness.
16—774. **Those Fluent Stars.** The Twelve Apostles, oracles of God and crown of the Church of Christ. (Rev. 12:1.)
17—781. **Save Haply One.** John the Beloved. (John 21:20-23; D. and C. 7 and 77.)
18—789. **Leading the Lost.** It is believed that John the Revelator will lead the Lost Tribes from "The Land of the North." (D. and C. 77:14; Rev. 10:8-11.)
19—806. **The Man-Child.** The Man-Child of the Apocalypse (Rev. 12:5) represents the Priesthood—divine authority—which was taken from the Earth, with the fulness of the Gospel, after the passing of the Apostles.
20—815. **Japheth Sways.** Gentile domination over Israel, particularly in those nations where the Jews have been and are still oppressed.
21—820. **Antaeus-Like.** Antaeus was a fabled giant, vanquished by Hercules. Each time that Hercules threw him the giant gained fresh strength from coming in contact with the ground.
22—822. **Conquering His Dust-Adoring Conqueror.** The modern Jew is said to hold the purse-strings of the world.
23—831. **That Gentile Hosts Might See.** Saul of Tarsus, afterwards Paul the Apostle, persecuted the Church of Christ before his conversion (Acts 9:1-19). Thus was typified the spiritual blindness of Israel, which caused the Gospel to be carried to the Gentiles. Paul, the principal agent for their illumination, declares: "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." (Rom. 11:25.)
24—832. **Martyred, Immolate.** Israel's dispersion, like Adam's fall and Christ's crucifixion, was part of a mighty plan for the promotion of the human race. Adam fell that mortal man might be. Christ died to burst the bands of death and make the fall effectual unto the higher ends ordained. The children of Israel were scattered over the world, in order that the Gospel might make its way more readily among all peoples. The history of Israel is the history of a martyred nation, suffering for the welfare of other nations, whatever may be said of the transgressions of the chosen people, which occasioned and justified the calamities that came upon them.
25—841. **From 'Neath the Yoke.** The future redemption of the Negro race.
26—843. **See and Hear His Risen Lord.** The House of Israel is privileged to receive the personal ministrations of the Saviour, while the Gentiles are ministered to by the Holy Ghost. (III Nephi 15:23.)
27—847. **In the Mire.** Beginning of the Christian departure from the true Faith.
28—850. **The Heaven-Lit Torch.** The Light of the Gospel, enjoyed by the primitive Christians, though compelled to hide from their Roman persecutors and worship God on mountain tops and in the catacombs.
29—852. **Incense * * * Diana's Shrine.** Diana was a deity worshiped by the Romans. "Incense"—metaphorically the vain philosophies, traditions and customs, adopted by the false Church that came up in the place of the true Church and paganized itself in order to be popular with the world.
30—855. **Shearing Compromise.** The result, spiritually, of the enthronement of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire, A. D. 324.
31—861. **East from West.** The pseudo Church, as well as the Empire of the Caesars, divided itself into East and West, with Constantinople and Rome as the capital cities.
32—874. **She Was Wont.** "She" stands for the true Church of Christ.
33—880. **Crimson Courtesan.** The Scarlet Woman described by John the Revelator (Rev. 17).
34—900. **Till the Judgment Sits.** A reference to Daniel 7:21-27.
35—902. **Glory Lift the Gloom.** Messiah's second coming.
36—903. **The Moonlike One.** The Holy Spirit, ruling the Night of Ages, after the Light of the World has departed.
37—908. **Impelling to All Action.** The impelling power of the Spirit of God is interestingly set forth in I Nephi 13:10-19. See also Lowell's poems "Columbus" and "A Glance Behind the Curtain."
38—951. **Wayward Son of Deity.** Napoleon and other conquerors type the class of characters here described.
39—973. **Some Said Jeremias.** When the Saviour inquired, "Whom do men say that I am?" Peter answered "Some say Thou art Elias, and some say Jeremias." Elias and Jeremias are Greek forms of the Hebrew names Elijah and Jeremiah. Joseph Smith, however, drew a distinction between the spirit of Elias and the spirit of Elijah. (Compendium, pp. 281-283.)
40—983. **Mirror and Model of Humanity.** "God created man in his own image." (Gen. 1:27.)
41—997. **Incomprehensible.** So modern Christians contend respecting Deity. It is true only in part. God's unrevealed infinite fulness is of course incomprehensible to the finite mind. But what He has revealed concerning Himself is not incomprehensible. Else why did He reveal it?
42—1008. **Each as a Star.** The Jewish or Mosaic Dispensation shed light that prepared the world for a greater—the Christian Dispensation; which, in its turn, made ready for one greater still—the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. This is the significance of "Elias." (Compendium, p. 281.)
43—1020. **A Weapon for the Right.** Such writers as Voltaire, Paine, and Ingersoll, subserve the cause of Christ by shattering false traditions, erroneously supposed by many to be true teachings of the Saviour and his Apostles.
—
CANTO FIVE
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 the modern Prophet. The curtain now rises upon the last act of the redemptive drama—the final restoration of the Gospel; Joseph the Seer, as the Elias of the scene, heralding the tidings of the approaching millennial reign.
2—1052. **Whence Ye Were Hewn.** An allusion to Isaiah 51:1-3.
3—1060. **Wastes of Unbelief.** Gentile or heathen lands, refreshed by the sprinkled blood of Israel—the blood that believes—and by spiritual visitations that accompany or follow such dispersions.
4—1061. **Japheth, Thy Planet Pales.** Japheth stands for the Gentiles, whose "fulness" now "comes in."
5—1077. **Mother of Centuries.** Time, as distinguished from Eternity (though technically eternity includes time), comprises seven thousand years, or seventy centuries, covered by seven Gospel dispensations. The Quorum of the Seventy, with the presiding First Council, is a probable typing in this connection.
6—1079. **Teach Them to Be One.** "It is necessary, in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulness of times, * * * that a whole and complete and perfect union and welding together of dispensations and keys and powers and glories should take place and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time."—Joseph Smith, (D. and C. 128:18.)
7—1084. **Shiloh Reigns.** Shiloh is another Hebrew name for Messiah, whose reign of a thousand years will equal in duration one revolution of the planet Kolob. (Abraham 3:4.)
8—1085. **Hast Labored.** The seven thousand years of Earth's "temporal existence" correspond to the seven seals of the Apocalyptic Book (Rev. 5 and 6) and are as seven great days, four of which had passed before Christ came, while nearly two have gone by since. According to this reckoning we are now in the Saturday evening of human history. The Millennium will be the seventh day—the World's Sabbath. (D. and C. 77:12; Abraham 3, 4, and 5).
9—1089. **Ancient Tidings.** The Everlasting Gospel, first revealed to Adam, who presides over all the dispensations. (History of the Church, Vol. 4, pp. 207-209).
10—1103. **What I Know.** Joseph Smith is said to have expressed the wish that he might reveal his identity and declare all that God had made known to him.
11—1117. **Gibborim.** Mighty ones. King David's six hundred guards were called "The Gibborim," for their heroic bravery. (Geike, "Hours With the Bible," Vol. III, pp. 254, 276, 325, 339).
12—1118. **Worthy The Word.** The explanation of this phrase is in that saying of the Saviour's: "Is it not written that they are gods to whom the word of God comes?"—meaning, of course, a superior race of men.
13—1136. **Fifth of Seven.** The Fifth Angel is he who "committeth the everlasting gospel." (D. and C., 88:103).
14—1165. **From Wintry Sleep.** At this point begins the personal history of the Prophet, who is also the subject of previous allusions. ("Writings of Joseph Smith"—Pearl of Great Price).
15—1214. **Dual Presence.** Joseph's vision of the Father and the Son.
16—1217. **Unknown Mount.** A mountain referred to in the Book of Moses. (1:1).
17—1235. **An Atlas.** Atlas was one of the Titans. He is depicted with the globe on his back.
18—1247. **Exalted Man.** "God himself is an exalted man."—Joseph Smith, ("Times and Seasons," August 15, 1844).
"As man now is, God once was;
As God now is, man may be."—
Lorenzo Snow, Biography, p. 46.
19—1261. **Wisdom of the Wise.** The stanza in which this phrase occurs is based upon Isaiah 29:13, 14.