Kitabı oku: «Elias: An Epic of the Ages», sayfa 3

CANTO FIVE
The Messenger of Morn[1]

 
"Wake, slumbering world! Vain dreamer, dream no more!
The shadows lift, and o'er night's dusky beach
Ripple the white waves of morn. Awake! Arise!
 
 
"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 flock,
His ancient flock, and plants their pilgrim feet
On Joseph's mountain top and Judah's plains;
Recalls the children of the covenant
From long dispersion o'er the Gentile world,
Mingling their spirits with the mystic sea,
Which sent them forth as freshening showers to save
The parched and withered wastes of unbelief[3]. 1060
Japheth! thy planet pales[4], it sinks, it sets;
Henceforth 't is Jacob's star must rise and reign.
 
 
"Daughter of Zion! be thou comforted,
And wash from thy wan cheek all trace of tears.
Gone are the days of dole and widowhood,
The days of barrenness that brought thee scorn;
Thy wilderness now weds, thy desert blooms.
 
 
"Rejoice, Jerusalem! thou art redeemed;
Again thy temple and thy towers arise;
Heard is the harp of David in thy halls; 1070
Greater than Solomon's thy wisdom shines.
 
 
"From spirit heights, where thou art beautiful,
Lamp of the nations, send thy light afar!
Take on thy new name—One and Pure in Heart!
For thou shalt see thy God, His presence thine.
 
 
"Time, mighty daughter of Eternity!
Mother of centuries[5]—seventy, seven-crowned!
Assemble now thy children at thy side,
And 'ere thou diest teach them to be one[6].
Link to its link rebind the broken chain 1080
Of dispensations, glories, keys, and powers,
From Adam's fall unto Messiah's reign;
A thousand years of rest, a day with God,
While Shiloh reigns[7] and Kolob once revolves.
 
 
"Six days thou, Earth, hast labored[8], and the seventh,
Thy sabbath, comes apace! Night's sceptre wanes,
And in the East the silvery Messenger
Gives silent token of the golden Dawn.
 
 
"Once more the ancient tidings[9] among men!
Once more the sign and seal of heavenly power! 1090
Renewal of an endless covenant,
Elias, restitution, unity!
 
 
"His burden! Hear it, nations! Hear it, isles!
Ere falls an hour, night's darkest hour of doom.
The trial ends, the judgment now begins.
Out, out of her, my people, saith your God!"
 
 
—-
 
 
Who towers aloft, as mountain girt with hills,
Amid the strength of Ephraim's stalwart sons,
To trumpet thus the closing acts of time?
Speak, oracle, what sayest thou of thyself? 1100
Who art thou, man of might and majesty?
 
 
"Would God I might but tell thee who I am!
Would God I might but tell thee what I know[10]!"
 
 
Then was he of the Mighty—one with those
Descended from the Empire of the Sun,
Adown the glowing stairway of the stars?
Regnant and ruling ere they left the realms
Of life supernal, left their sovereign thrones,
To wander oft as outcasts of mankind,
Unknown, unhonored, e'en like One who came 1110
Unto His own, by them spat on and spurned?
Avails it aught, their name or nation here?
Their state and standing there, the vital tale.
 
 
Peers of that Empire, nobles of the skies,
The sceptered satraps of the King of Kings,
The royal retinue of Him who reigns
First-born of many brethren—Gibborim[11],
Great ones worthy the Word[12] that was to come;
Foreknown, elect, predestined, preordained,
Sons of the Gods, and saviours of mankind, 1120
Building the highway for Messiah's feet,
And wheresoe'er He fareth following.
 
 
I saw in vision such a one descend,
And garb him in a guise of common clay;
His glory veiling from the gaze of all,
Who wist not that a great one walked with men;
Nor knew it then the soul incarnate there,
Betwixt the temporal and spirit spheres
So dense forgetfulness doth intervene;
Yet learned his truth betime by angel tongues, 1130
By voice of God, by heavenly whisperings.
 
 
But who remains his mystery to solve,
His letter to unlock with spirit key?
The veil to lift by death and silence thrown
O'er all the splendors of that life sublime?
 
 
Sound, Angel, sound! thou fifth of seven[13], ordained
To usher in the world-millennials,
To storm the dungeon doors of history,
And liberate the thoughts and deeds of men!
Sound, trump of God! Voice of a thousand years, 1140
Call of the Christ—His clear familiar tone,
Heard in the ages and the aeons past,
Told to the times and worlds that went before;
Call of the Spirit, answered by the blood,
Voice of the Shepherd, by the sheep well known.
 
 
A living prophet unto dying time,
Heralding the Dispensation of the End,
When Christ once more His vineyard comes to prune,
When potent weak confound the puny strong,
Threshing the nations by the Spirit's power, 1150
Rending the kingdoms with a word of flame;
That here the Father's work may crown the Son's,
And earth be joined a holy bride to heaven,
A queen 'mid queens, crowned, throned, and glorified.
 
 
Wherefore came down this angel of the dawn,
In strength divine, a stirring role to play
In time's tense tragedy, whose acts are seven.
His part to fell the false, replant the true,
To clear away the wreckage of the past,
The ashes of its dead and dying creeds, 1160
And kindle newly on earth's ancient shrine
The Light that points to Life unerringly;
Crowning what has been with what now must be;
A mighty still bespeaking mightier.
 
 
—-
 
 
Earth rose from wintry sleep[14], baptized and cleansed,
And on her tranquil brow, that seemed to feel
The holy and confirming hand of Heaven,
The warm light in a wealth of comfort streamed;
Nature's great floor green-carpeting anew
For some glad change, some joyful happening, 1170
Told in the countless caroling of birds,
Gilding the foliage, glorying the flowers,
Mirroring mingled hues of earth and sky.
 
 
Glad happening, in sooth, for ne'er before,
Since burst the heavens when Judah's star-lit hills
Heard angel choristers peal joy's refrain
Above the mangered Babe of Bethlehem,
Had earth such scene beheld, as now within
The bosom of a sylvan solitude,
Hard by the borders of a humble home, 1180
Upon that fair and fateful morn was played.
 
 
Players, immortal twain and mortal one,
Standing but fourteen steps upon life's stair,
An unlearned boy, thinker of thoughts profound,
Boy and yet man, dreamer of lofty dreams.
 
 
Not solemn, save betimes, when hovered near
Some wingéd inspiration from far worlds,
Some great idea's all-subduing spell—
His heart grew humbler then, his look more grave;
Not melancholy—mirthful, loving life, 1190
And brimming o'er with health and wholesome glee.
A stalwart spirit in a sturdy frame,
Maturing unto future mightiness.
 
 
Bowing to God, yet bending to no creed,
Adoring not a loveless deity,
That saved or damned regardless of desert,
Ne'er reckoning the good or evil done;
Loving and worshipping the God of love,
The gracious God of reason and of right,
Long-suffering and just and merciful, 1200
Meting to every work fit recompense,
Yet giving more, far more, than merit's claim;
Bowing to Him, but not to man-made gods,
And shunning shameful strife where peace should dwell,
He holds aloof from those degenerate sects,
Bewildering Babel of conflicting creeds,
And pondering the apostolic line,
"Let any lacking wisdom, wisdom ask,
And God will freely give, upbraiding none,"
He puts the promise to the utter test. 1210
 
 
What pen can paint the marvel that befell?
What tongue the wondrous miracle portray?
Than theirs, the Vision's own, what voice proclaim
Whose dual presence[15] dimmed the noonday beam,
Communing with him there, as friend with friend,
And giving to that prayer reply of peace?
 
 
Tell how, as Moses on the unknown mount[16],
From whom in rage fled baffled Lucifer,
Who fain had guised him as the Son of God,
To win the worship of that prophet pure— 1220
Tell how with gloom he strove ere glory dawned,
And black despair met bright deliverance.
Tell how in heart of that sweet solitude,
Within the silent grove, sequestered shade,
While spirit hosts unseen spectators stood,
Watching the simple scene's sublimity,
Eternity high converse held with time;
Time, parent of the hovering centuries,
Mother of dispensations, travailing,
And bringing forth her last and mightiest child; 1230
Heaven's awful Sire, through Him both Sire and Son,
There blazoning the beginning of the end.
 
 
Wane the swift years; the boy a youth now grown;
And on his brow, woe-carved, a world of care.
Bending, an Atlas,[17] 'neath the titan's load,
Daily he climbs the hill of sacrifice,
Viewing from far the mount of martyrdom.
 
 
Nor marvel at his lot; hath he not told—
A crime man ne'er forgave in fellowman—
Told the wise world that God hath spoke again? 1240
 
 
"'Twas from below!" Thus bigotry in rage.
"Nay, from above," the meek though firm reply.
"No vision is there now—the time is past."
"But I have seen," affirms truth's constancy.
"God is a mystery, unknowable."
"God is a man—I saw Him, talked with Him."
"Man?" "Ay, of holiness—Exalted Man[18]."
 
 
A strife of words, of warring tongues, now waged,
And weapons vied with words the truth to slay;
Nor truth alone, but her brave oracle, 1250
A boy, by men, by neighborhoods, oppressed.
 
 
Still through his soul the solemn warning rang,
Still from his mouth the startling message flamed:
"No church the Christ's. None, therefore, can I join.
All sects and creeds have wandered from the way.
Priestcraft in lieu of Priesthood sits enthroned.
Dead forms deny the power of godliness.
Men worship with their lips, their hearts afar.
None serve acceptably in sight of heaven.
Wherefore a work of wonder shall be wrought, 1260
And perish all the wisdom of the wise[19]."
 
 
The wrangling sects forgave—well nigh forgot
Their former feuds and fears and jealousies;
And, joining hands, as Pilate Herod joined,
One guilty day when God stood man-condemned,
In friendly reconcilement's cordial clasp,
They doomed to death and hell "this heresy."
None sought, from "Satan's wile," a soul's reclaim,
But all were bent his humble name to blast;
And pious, would-be murder led the van 1270
Of common hatred and hostility.
 
 
But Truth, thou mother of the living thought,
The deathless word, the everduring deed!
What puny hand thy giant arm can stay?
When crushed or backward held, thine hour beyond?
Can bigot frown or tyrant fetter quell
Thy high revolt, O Light Omnipotent!
When God would speak with man, who tells Him nay?
Can hell prevent when heaven on earth would smile?
 
 
Pillowed in prayerful thought the wakeful seer. 1280
Without, broods darkness o'er a dreaming world;
Within, an angel's face turns night to day:
"A messenger from God[20] to thee I come;
Thy sins are pardoned through thy penitence;
Henceforward heard in every creed and clime
The good and evil tongues that trump thy fame.
Behold!"
 
 
    Amazement now fresh wonder views;
And while enwrapt, as wave-like visions roll
Their spirit splendors on that gifted gaze, 1290
In words akin to these the tale tells on:
 
 
"A slumbering secret hides in yonder hill,
Graven on gold, in characters unknown—
Unknown to thee, but known to me and mine,
The language of my people, ages gone.
Beside the sacred volume, buried there
At His behest who gave my sire command,
The seer-stones, Urim, Thummim, named of old,
Whereby thou shalt dispel the mystery
That hangs above this heaven-favored land, 1300
And Joseph, speaking from the dust, shall join
With Judah, page to page[21], God's grace to tell.
 
 
"But be aware, lest Mammon's charm allure,
And tempt from truer wealth that shines within.
More than the lamp the light—be this thy quest:
Seek thou the gold that gilds eternity.
 
 
"The winter of the Gentile reign is o'er,
And Israel's springtime putteth forth its leaves.
Fruit planted in the gardens of the past
Hath ripened and is ready for the fall[22]. 1310
 
 
"Elias comes[23], Messiah's Messenger,
God's host to summon, and His house to save—
First by persuasion's pleading; that contemned,
By voice of wrath and stroke of violence.
He speaks—the mountains kneel, the valleys rise;
Rolls to the north the land-dividing wave;
Equality—nay, justice, holds the helm,
Each hath his own, the lost lamb finds the fold.
Elias comes—'tis restitution's reign,
And order hurls disorder from the throne. 1320
 
 
"War sheathes his fangs, aloft on fearless wing
Peace broods above a restful universe;
A common faith and interest unite,
But conscience still her fullest freedom[24] sees.
Wider than Church extends the Kingdom's bound:
The law from Zion, and the royal word,
The Monarch's edict, from Jerusalem;
A centralized diffusion's balanced sway,
God's might, man's right, in equilibrium.
 
 
"Babel no more—stilled all her strifeful tongues; 1330
The primal language[25] o'er the world prevails;
And all is found again as at the first,
While ransomed hosts, rejoicing, shout and sing:
The Lord His ancient people hath redeemed;
The Lord hath gathered all things into one;
And earth becomes a heaven, for she is clothed
In garments as the glory of His light
Who reigneth in the midst, Life's Majesty.
 
 
"But ere it break, that bright millennial day,
There falls a nightlier hour than night hath known, 1340
When sun shall frown, moon blush, when dizzy stars,
Drunken with fumes of man's iniquity,
Shall hurl them headlong from their sparkling thrones,
And grovel darkly in the deep abyss;
While heaven shall tremble as if palsy-struck,
Earth as an aspen shaken in the wind.
Men's hearts shall fail, and where be safety found?
For tribulations till that hour unknown,
Save in the feeble typings of the past,
Terrors of famine, fire, and pestilence, 1350
Terrors of whirling wind and whelming wave,
Allied to horrors strange as manifold,
Shall stalk abroad to humble humankind,
To lift the lowly and abase the proud,
To straight the crooked and make smooth the crude,
Jehovah's awful pathway to prepare—
Jehovah, He who cometh to his own,
And by His own at last is recognized.
 
 
"No more a lowly Lamb, to slaughter led;
A Lion in his risen majesty— 1360
Lion and Lamb, for gentleness and might,
Mercy and justice, there go hand in hand.
 
 
"But first, the sickle in the ripened grain,
Reaping where faith is found, while hope endures,
Drawing the Gentile unto Israel's God,
And gathering the strewn of Abraham.
 
 
"Wells truth from earth, pours righteousness from heaven,
Till wisdom's waters inundate the world.
Bestirred the wave by angel trumpets blown,
Wafting the chosen seed to safety's strand, 1370
Winning the West ere yet the East be spoiled.
 
 
"Elijah comes—Elijah, he whose rays
Bespeak the Lord of Glory, from whose light
All splendors, paling, hide their tapers dim.
He comes the world to reap, the vineyard prune,
The wheat to garner, and the tares to burn;
He comes, his face a furnace, melting pride,
Consuming wickedness and cleansing worth.
He comes the hearts of sons and sires to turn,
To plant anew the promises of old, 1380
Binding the present to the parent past,
Part unto whole, time to eternity.
He comes the priestly fulness to unfold,
The capstone of life's temple here to lay.
He comes lest man be taken unaware,
And laggard earth be smitten with a curse.
 
 
"Hark to that prophet—outstretched Arm of God,
Who comes the ancient order to restore;
And list to him who leads, as Moses led,
The gathered house and host of Abraham!" 1390
 
 
Thrice through the night the radiant messenger
In burning words breathed forth the marvel told;
Till memory's page, as traced with pen of fire,
Glowed with each utterance ineffable.
 
 
And on the morrow stood the sacred twain—
Mortal, immortal, present linked with past—
Above the spot where slumbering truth reposed;
Not to be wakened yet till autumns four
Had rained their dews upon its resting-place.
 
 
Meanwhile the unschooled prophet, angel-taught, 1400
In prayer and patience disciplined his soul;
And visiting yearly that revealing mount,
Learned from its lips a story of the past,
Affirmed in full when risen truth revealed
The pent-up secret of the centuries.
 
 
Words of the angel, Ramah's sentinel,
Custodian of Cumorah's[26] archive old:
 

CANTO SIX
From Out The Dust[1]

 
  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, in solemn council swore
  No tyrant should this chosen land defile;
  And nations here, that for a season bore
  The palm of power, must righteous be[2] the while,
Or ruin's avalanche ruin on ruin pile.
 
 
  Though not till brimmed with guilt their cup of crime,
  Ripened the harvest of iniquity.
  To races, nations, men, there is a time
  To come and go, as wisdom shall decree,– 1420
  Wisdom supreme, Tongue of Eternity.
  But strikes the hour as men and nations will.
  Unfettered in their choice of destiny,
  They, by their deeds, the fateful measure fill;
Electing to be clean, or unclean lingering still.
 
 
  Race upon race has perished in its pride;
  And nations lustrous as the lights of heaven
  Have sinned and sunk in reckless suicide,
  Upon this ground, since that dread word was given.
  Realms battle-rent, and regions tempest-riven; 1430
  The wrath-swept land for ages desolate;
  A wretched remnant blasted, curst, and driven
  Before the furies of revengeful fate;
Till wonder asks in vain, What of their former state[3]?
 
 
  Wouldst know the cause, the upas-tree that bore
  The blight of desolation? 'Tis a theme
  To melt earth's heart, and move all heaven to pour
  With sorrow's heaving flood; as when supreme
  O'er fallen Lucifer, the generous stream
  Of grief half quenched the joy of victory. 1440
  Mark how the annals of the ages teem
  With repetition. Time, eternity,
The same have taught; but few, alas! the moral see.
 
 
  There is a sin called self, which binds the world
  In fetters fell, than all save truth more strong;
  A sin most serpentine, round all men curled,
  And in its fatal fold earth writhes full long;
  Crime's great first cause, the primal root of wrong,
  Parent of pride, and tree of tyranny.
  To lay the axe doth unto thee belong. 1450
  Strike, that the world may know of liberty,
And Zion's land indeed a land of Zion be!
 
 
  A choice land, blest above all other lands,
  Since earth, reborn, rose sinless from the flood;
  Beloved by Him whose holy feet and hands
  Were pierced to pour the all-redeeming blood.
  Here stands the ancient Altar[4], and here stood
  The Ark, till borne triumphant o'er the wave—
  The hungry wave that made all flesh its food,
  All save a few, whom godly living gave 1460
To see life's single way and shun death's dual grave[5].
 
 
  The Old World, not the New, by man misnamed;
  Cradle and grave of mouldering nations vast;
  Whose stalwart spirit stature, seen, had shamed
  The mightiest of known empires, present, past.
  The land where Adam dwelt[6], where Eden cast
  From flaming gate the heaven-appointed pair,
  Who fell that man might be; a fall still chaste[7],
  Albeit they sinned, descending death's dread stair,
To fling life's ladder down, Love's work[8] and way prepare. 1470
 
 
  Here rose the Zion of primeval days[9],
  Type of a greater Zion yet to rise;
  Here Enoch's walls and towers reflung the rays,
  Rolled back the flooding splendors of the skies,
  Whose portal wide gave welcome. Upward flies
  The sainted city, self denied, dethroned:
  In all things one, their power e'en death defies:
  In dust they ne'er shall slumber; cleansed, condoned,
They wait the final change[10], through Him who hath atoned.
 
 
  Here cometh up the New Jerusalem[11]; 1480
  Here cometh down that risen realm of old,
  Jehovah's seat, earth's jeweled diadem,
  Joy of the world, by prophet tongues extolled.
  Japheth, here joined with Shem[12], finds Israel's fold,
  An ark of peace[13] amid a world of war.
  The ensign[14] on the mountains here behold!
  'Tis Joseph signals Jacob[15] from afar,
And points him to the goal where God and glory are.
 
 
  Ancient of Days[16] here sits, as at the first,
  When time and earth and Adam's race were young; 1490
  When, bowed with age, a great soul's sunset burst
  In blessings on his seed. Prophetic tongue,
  Thy patriarchal tone through time hath rung!
  Michael, the prince, the monarch of our race,
  Sire of a world from dust and spirit sprung;
  Here sits he, throned in fire; before his face
Ten thousand times ten thousand throng the judgment place.
 
 
  Wherefore this land must unpolluted be;
  Or, if defiled, by blood again made clean
  From grime of sin, from grind of tyranny; 1500
  Free from the ills that other lands have seen,
  Free from the blots that now dim freedom's sheen.
  No nation by vain boasting shall abide;
  Bid thine beware, lest here the sanguine scene
  Reacted be, and ruin, spawn of pride,
Spring from the soil where nations great as thine have died.
 
 
  Hesperia[17], be just—the right maintain,
  And foe without, nor foe within, prevails!
  Here nations slay themselves, if they be slain,—
  Brother 'gainst brother, sire 'gainst son, till fails 1510
  The fount of widow's tears and orphan's wails.
  Hear thou that servant[18] whom the Father sends—
  Hear him and heed, ere Japheth's planet pales,
  That peace and freedom may remain thy friends,
While hither, from all lands, all worlds, God's legion[19] wends.
 
 
  A gathering from all glories thou shalt see,
  Blest land of Joseph[20], honored, lifted high!
  Thy brother lands come bending unto thee,
  And Gog and Magog[21] menace but to die.
  While they that serve the Lord with single eye 1520
  Shall see Him in the midst; the goal then won,
  When time no longer flecks eternity,
  Nor need is there of star, or moon, or sun,
Since He, light's self, is risen, and heaven and earth are one.
 
 
  Thus far the angel, Ramah's sentinel,
  His vigil keeping on that lonely hill;
  And thus the spelled yet speechful auditor,
  Around the hearthside of that humble home.
  There sire and matron, trusted kith and kin,
  Give faithful credence to the story strange, 1530
  Pondering the tidings wise and wonderful.
 
 
  Thence oft above that mount of mystery,
  Of buried lore the solemn sepulchre,
  Meet modern seer and ancient oracle.
  And while humility at wisdom's feet
  Expectant waits, where truth from earth shall spring,
  Comes, as from riven tomb, this wondrous tale:
 
 
  Where Joseph[22], where wast thou, that time when torn
  Was earth asunder; ocean's cleaving sword
  The wedded lands wide severing[23]? Where, when borne 1540
  Deep through the watery world, as there devoured
  By wind and wave that harmless o'er them roared,
  The pilgrim sons of Shinar[24]—favored band,
  From that far clime where Babel's folly towered
  And language foundered on confusion's strand—
Won here a precious heritage, a promised land?
 
 
  Preserver of the pure and primal tongue[25],
  Most faithful found 'mid living sons of men,
  Their leader looked on God; then wrestling wrung
  By spirit might, and paged with fiery pen, 1550
  The full of what would be, of what had been;
  Sealing the secret till an hour should chime
  When faith as mighty unto mortal ken
  Would bring the marvel of a book sublime[26],
Bridging with lightful lore the shadowy gulf of time.
 
 
  But pilgrim prows now part the unknown wave;
  Above, around, baptismal billows[27] roll.
  Divinity, their guide, protection gave,
  Else had engulfing seas entombed the whole.
  Though tight each launch, where lines of lustre stole 1560
  From molten stones, late struck from Shelem's height[28],
  And lit by touch divine. Unto the goal
  Of that grim voyage, banishing the night,
Those crystal miracles gave forth their friendly light.
 
 
  Till loomed to wistful eyes this waiting land,
  Spreading with wing-like continents[29] afar,
  As if to welcome worlds. The Chaldean band
  The Northland chose, lured by a favoring star,
  For South, as North, of human soul was bare.
  But liberty loves most a northern zone, 1570
  Where nature's ramparts e'en 'gainst nature's war
  Put forth protection. Liberty alone
Mahonri's realm[30] might rule—no king, no crown, no throne.
 
 
  Still, mighty spirit, thou art manifest!
  What creed or clan shall win Columbia's crown?
  Though freedom weep, by anarchy opprest,
  Hesperia's face reflect Europa's frown,
  Sceptered religion ne'er shall tread men down.
  Belief and unbelief here find one plane,
  That freedom's greater cause[31] be not o'erthrown, 1580
  But spring and spread till every tongue maintain
The kingdom of the King whose throne all worlds sustain.
 
 
  Here dawns that universal liberty—
  Theme of the prophet tongue, the poet pen—
  When, winged with power and crowned with purity,
  Earth shall be heaven, and gods shall dwell with men;
  Fraternity divine, that e'er hath been,
  And e'er shall be, the blissful lot of those
  Who, conquering self, bind Satan, fetter sin,
  And soar beyond the reach of mortal woes, 1590
Rising to sainted heights, as all past Zions rose[32].
 
 
  Till then no king upon this crownless land,
  Reserved to freedom and to righteousness.
  'Gainst her none prosper, lifting hostile hand.
  Blest haven, fortressed by God's mightiness[33]!
  Kingcraft and priestcraft plant their sure distress.
  The past hath spoken—heed the warning tone:
  Of pride beware, and baser sordidness—
  Self's groveling tyranny, with heart of stone,
Whereby, in ages gone, this land did grieve and groan. 1600
 
 
  "Give us a king[34]!" their cry, when power had come,
  When wealth was massed, and men were multiplied;
  "A king! A king!"—vibrant the echoing dome
  From northern lake to gulf and ocean tide;
  For Satan in their hearts had planted pride.
  Grieved was the nation's wise and watchful sire;
  Grieved was the faithful kinsman at his side;
  From eyes of both shot gleams of righteous ire,
As voiced ambitious will its ominous desire.
 
 
  They sighed: "This leadeth to captivity— 1610
  Perchance destruction, ending dark and dire.
  Yet must we yield to human liberty
  Its own, e'en though a brand from freedom's fire
  Kindle for freedom's self the fatal pyre."
  So saying, they anointed one their king
  Who craved the crown, by patriot son and sire
  Put by in pure denial, lest it bring
First care, then crime, and waken woes then slumbering.
 
 
  For though a king see duty's pathway plain,
  And walk therein, as he who now arose; 1620
  What monarch from misrule can all refrain,
  When privilege lifts power o'er friends and foes?
  Bare is the reign untarnished to the close,
  And rarer still the blameless dynasty.
  Ofttimes as princes the unkingliest pose,
  Because, forsooth, they come of some tall tree,
Whose root and trunk were sound, while branches blasted be.
 
 
  True kingliness—what else proves man a king?
  A slave, though throned and sceptered, bides a slave;
  Nor pride, nor pelf, nor all that power may bring, 1630
  Can make the serf a sovereign, or yet save
  The dust of either from the common grave.
  Royal the soul must be, or comes to end
  All royalty. Spirit, then blood, God gave;
  And each at last its separate way doth wend
Home to the parent source, to meet no more, nor blend.
 
 
  Scarce gone the goodly ruler when his realm
  Saw fierce rebellion rear its horrent head.
  Usurping treason seized the civic helm,
  Wrong trampled right, and justice, judgment, fled. 1640
  Ages looked on while battling kingdoms bled.
  Lifted the warning voice—its pleading vain:
  A blood-drowned continent, a sea of dead,
  And, of a mighty people, fallen, self-slain,
A prophet and a king, a solitary twain[35].
 
 
  That prophet saw the coming of the Lord
  Unto the Old, the New, Jerusalem;
  Saw Israel returning at His word
  From wheresoe'er His will had scattered them;
  The realm's wide ruin saw, and strove to stem. 1650
  That king, sole scion of a perished race,
  Casting his blood-stained sword and diadem,
  Lived but to see another nation[36] place
Firm foot upon the soil, then vanished from its face.
 
 
—-
 
 
  Wondrous, indeed, that ancient word and wise;
  But wiser and more wondrous still the tale—
  The after tale[37] of silent centuries,
  Tongued by the guardian of the tome of gold:
 
 
  Again, athwart the wilderness of waves
  Surging old East and older West between, 1660
  Where the lone sea a flowery southland laves,
  And Zarahemla reigns as ocean queen,
  Braving the swell, a storm-tossed bark is seen.
  From doomed Jerusalem, to Jacob dear,
  Albeit a leper[38], groping, blind, unclean,
  Goes forth Manasseh's prophet pioneer[39],
Predestined to unveil the hidden hemisphere.
 
 
  His lot to reap and plant on this rare shore
  The promise of his fathers: Joseph's bough[40],
  From Jacob's well, the billowy wall runs o'er; 1670
  Abides in strength the archer-stricken bow,
  Unto the utmost bound prevailing now,
  Of Hesper's heaven-upholding hills. Bend, sheaves
  Of Israel, as branches bend with snow,
  Unto his sheaf grown mightiest! Here, as leaves
For multitude, the son the great sire's glory weaves.
 
 
  Ere chimes for him the earth-departing hour,
  Summoning a weary soul to restful toil
  In risen worlds, where life puts on all power,
  Lehi his house convenes,—their hearts the while 1680
  Aglow beneath the burning words that pile
  A pyramid of prophecy whose spire
  Empierces heaven,—and lest they soil
  The prospect pure, and tempt Jehovah's ire,
Warns them 'gainst ways of pride and paths of dark desire.
 
 
  He speaks of Joseph's, Judah's, destiny;
  Of blighting and of blessings yet to pour;
  Proclaims deliverance his own shall see,
  When cometh one the wandering to restore;
  Forenames a chosen seer[41] (revealed of yore, 1690
  When the boy dreamer's star o'er Egypt rose),
  Bringing from dust a blest land's buried lore[42].
  Seals then his benison, and eyelids close
To wake on worlds divine, whither, past all, he goes.
 
 
  The favored son[43] of that prophetic sire—
  Favored because most faithful and most just—
  Hath soared to sacred mysteries still higher,
  And tongued to envious ears the heavenly trust.
  And serpent self, that demon of the dust,
  Hath coiled and clung around rebellious souls, 1700
  Ne'er friendly though fraternal, whose distrust
  And jealousy breed bitterness that rolls
Rivers of wormwood 'twixt two races and their goals.
 
 
  Now peoples twain the Promised Land divide:
  Northland and Southland see their tribes increase,
  From Arctic floe to far Antarctic tide;
  From where the Eastern waves their thunders cease,
  To where the Western waters are at peace.
  White and delightsome, they that worship God;
  They that deny Him, dark, degenerate, these, 1710
  Doomed the stern wild to penetrate and plod—
Transgression's scourge and school, the Chastener's heavy rod[44].
 
 
  The throneless ruler of the regnant race—
  King, but no tyrant—prophet, priest, and seer,
  Meets upon sacred summits, face to face
  (As when to Moses drew Jehovah near),
  The Infinite and Spirit Minister[45],
  Meets Him as man meets man, and by His grace
  The power is given, with seeric eye to peer,
  Time's vista viewing through prophetic glass: 1720
Plain to his gaze revealed, the unborn ages pass.
 
 
  War, slaughter, conquest; heroes, sages, famed;
  Kingdoms, republics, empires, rise and fall;
  Till pride unknown, and tyranny unnamed,
  Where righteous rule brings blessedness to all.
  Then self again, the universal thrall.
  The faithful, dead or dwindled to a few,
  Crime begets crimes the heavens to appall.
  Now arrows of God's anger pierce them through,
And horrors piled on horrors make misery's retinue. 1730
 
 
  All this and more the prophet-prince foresaw[46];
  Messiah's self—Jehovah—Him beheld,—
  The Perfect One, in whom was found no flaw,
  Though slander as an ocean round Him swelled.
  Life's deathless tree—deathless, though demon-felled;
  The crash resounding to this far-off shore,
  Whose winnowed remnant welcomed Him, revealed
  In risen glory, when had ceased the roar
Of wrecking tempests, flung His radiant face before.
 
 
  At Whose rebuke the haughty mountains bowed. 1740
  Shorn by the whirlwind, sunk, or swept away,
  No more their frown the lowly valleys cowed,
  Rising like billows 'mid the wrathful fray,
  And dashing 'gainst the skies their dusty spray.
  Rocks, boulders, hills, no titan strength could lift,
  Hurtle as pebbles in the storm-fiend's play.
  Earth opes her jaws, and through the yawning rift
Cities, peoples, vanish; of hope, of life bereft.
 
 
  Three hours of tempest, and three days of night;
  Thick darkness, thunder-burst, and lightning flash; 1750
  Millions engulfed, millions in prostrate plight,
  Groveling as slaves that feel or fear the lash,
  Mingling their groans and cries with grind and crash
  Of crags the cyclone's catapult impels,
  Whose shrieking flails the fields and forests thrash!
  Wild o'er the land roused ocean's anger swells,
And flame's relentless tongue the final doom[47] foretells.
 
 
  Three hours of stormful strife—then all is still,
  Save for a voice the universe might hear,
  Proclaiming what hath hapt as heaven's high will, 1760
  Dispensing pardon and dispelling fear.
  Anon a mightier marvel doth appear;
  Uprolls the misty curtain of the sky—
  The midday sun no more their minister,
  Greater hath risen! and glories multiply,
As angels in their gaze earthward and heavenward fly.
 
 
  He greets them as a shepherd greets his flock;
  Shows them His wounded side, His hands, His feet;
  Then builds His church upon the stricken Rock,
  Where flow life's healing waters, limpid, sweet, 1770
  As infant innocence[48], that joys to meet
  Its great Original. With holy hand
  He ministers, bids death and hell retreat,
  And singles twelve from out the sainted band,
To sow with words of life the trembling, tear-worn land.
 
 
  He bids them prize the truth from heaven outpoured—
  What late His tongue hath told, and all that seers
  Of earlier days, who owned Him as their Lord,
  Have sounded in a world's unwilling ears;
  That truth with truth may blend in after years, 1780
  As rivers many to one ocean flow;
  That when Messiah in his might appears,
  Men all may see Him as he is, and know
The Majesty of Heaven, 'mid nations bending low.
 
 
  He greets them as His "other sheep"[49]—a fold
  Unknown to Judah, but to Jesus known;
  And tells of others still, whose fate untold
  Hath been the skeptic's scoff and stumbling stone.
  All Israel must hear, and one alone
  The shepherd be, to guide and govern all. 1790
  Where'er, from torrid belt to icy zone,
  They wander, they must heed the warning call,
And flee to Zion's shore ere crumbling Babel fall.
 
 
  He numbers them with Joseph, known of old,
  Whose flock the wolves shall tear in time to come;
  Because a wasteful heir his portion sold,
  A prodigal forsook the parent dome,
  To riot in the wilderness and roam,
  Feeding on husks: yet, turning at the last,
  Redeemed from darkness, to the Father's home; 1800
  And there, the hour of retribution past,
Forgiven, at His dear feet their weary souls they cast.
 
 
  Anon He pictures Japheth's destiny[50]:
  The Gentile prospering in the Promised Land,
  The guardian of the ark of liberty,
  So long as he for human right shall stand,
  Nor trample on Jehovah's high command.
  But woe to them of flinty heart and face
  Who from Him turn, to smite with ruthless hand
  The withered remnant of a star-ruled race! 1810
For Laman yet shall spring, a lion to the chase[51].
 
 
  Vexing the vexer with a vengeance sore,
  Who, false to highest hope of human need,
  Shall tyrant turn, and play the part no more
  Of nursing parent unto Joseph's seed,
  For whom a nation founded was and freed,
  That from its hand to his fierce house might flow
  The promise of his fathers. God shall plead
  With Japheth, till his pride shall melt like snow,
Swept from the mountain side, chased by the sun's red glow[52]. 1820
 
 
  His word now builds the New Jerusalem—
  (Earth-born, though basking in eternal rays)[53],
  Which Japheth, blent with Jacob, joined with Shem,
  Shall rear on Joseph's land in modern days.
  The Father's work of wonder He portrays:—
  A servant, marred[54], though hurt not, and yet healed,
  Whom wisdom hearkens to, whom faith obeys;
  Arm of the Lord, long lying unrevealed,
Uplifted and made bare, His flock to fold and shield.
 
 
  Sounds then a parting note, a plaint of woe, 1830
  'Gainst coming ages of iniquity,
  Ere purifying floods o'er earth shall flow,
  And man from sin and self delivered be.
  Then, of the twelve, he sanctifieth three[55],
  With power o'er death, and gives them to remain
  Till comes He in His glory, Lo! they see
  The opening heavens receive Him once again;
And marvels else behold, that mortal tongues must chain.
 
 
  Three generations pass in righteousness;
  A fourth begins, and still from strand to strand 1840
  Peace rules, love reigns, and wealth and wisdom bless
  The banded nations, walking hand in hand;
  Christ's word supreme above a willing land,
  Where rich and poor, common their goods, their gold,
  Seeking God's glory, free and equal stand,
  Loving each one his neighbor, as of old;
Forebeam of day divine[56], when night's dull mists have rolled.
 
 
  That restful day shall dawn; but e'en as storm,
  Darkness and devastation, judgments dire,
  Changed with convulsive throe the land's first form, 1850
  Made mountains plains, plains mountains, purged with fire
  And flood this soil—as saw my nation's sire,
  Ere light and peace looked down from realms above;—
  So shall it be[57], and more, when heaven's hot ire,
  Besoming a world's iniquity, shall move,
In burning, melting might, the gold, the dross, to prove.
 
 
  Two centuries of love the land caress;
  Buried the ancient feud, and banished vice;
  When pride, to breed anew the old distress,
  Crawls like a serpent to this paradise: 1860
  Again the tempter's wiles the weak entice;
  Again the fall, the sorrow and the shame;
  Again, while angels weep, do fiends rejoice;
  For now divided hearts, with hate aflame,
Belie with wicked deeds their righteous faith and fame.
 
 
  Farewell to peace and power forever past!
  Deepest in crime the once delightsome race,
  Which melts as would the avalanche if cast
  Into the furnace of the red sun's face[58].
  Men vie in deeds that devils would debase; 1870
  Southland 'gainst Northland strives with might insane;
  Backward, still backward, bends the bloody chase[59];
  Crimson the land with carnage; main to main
Surges a sea of slaughter—millions are the slain!
 
 
  The white dissolves; the swart, the red, remains.
  Night clothes the continents, and 'thwart the gloom
  No ray descends on shadowed peaks or plains,
  From history's sun. Darkness, a living doom,
  Mantles mind, soul, making the land one tomb.
  Then bursts the dawn—breaks forth the East in light, 1880
  Where Japheth, cramped and straitened, cries for room.
  Rent mystery's veil, naked, in savage plight,
Now occidental realms greet oriental sight[60]!
 
 
  First found by him whose faith was mightiest,
  And now by one whose patience[61] most excels.
  Ere storm-pushed prow hath pierced the wordless West,
  A kingly soul, unthroned, uncrowned, compels
  The homage of a queen. His mind dispels
  The gathered gloom of ages; mutineers
  And malcontents his presence calms and quells. 1890
  Past threatening reefs of bigotry he steers,
And builds a bridge of life that binds the hemispheres.
 
 
  The Gentile comes, as destiny decrees,
  To Zion's land[62], for freedom held in store,
  And Israel's triumph. Friends of freedom, these,
  Like to the pilgrim bands that long before
  A refuge found upon this sheltering shore.
  But followers of right oft wrong the right;
  Oppressed become oppressors[63] in an hour;
  And now, as day that pushes back the night, 1900
The strong the weak assail, enslave, and put to flight.
 
 
  Nor yet can fate forsake them: Japheth's hand
  'Gainst Jacob's wrath-doomed remnant still prevails.
  Tyrants oppress him from the motherland[64];
  The Lord of Hosts a champion arms and mails,
  To quell whose might no human power avails;
  Nor grander cause or chieftain e'er came forth.
  Him as its sire the new-born nation hails,
  And e'en would crown the man of matchless worth[65],
Did heaven vouchsafe such king to shame the kings 1910
      of earth.
 
 
  But thou hast heard: No king upon this land
  From Japheth's loins. Yet shall there come a King,
  And Japheth's host with Jacob's equal stand,
  While bending nations to that Monarch bring
  Their gold, their glory—friendship's offering.
  What though invasion, anarchy, shall strive
  To strangle right, to poison freedom's spring?
  Naught that conspires 'gainst Zion's weal can thrive.
Jehovah—He shall reign, and righteous rule survive. 1920
 
 
  Forerunner thou, and thy forerunners these,
  Prophet of Ephraim, Joseph's namesake seer[66]!
  More than those ancient bridgers of the seas,
  Unveiler of the long hid hemisphere,
  Whose mystery lies booked and buried here.
  Mass thou the might of Joseph, yet to join
  With Judah's might, Messiah's throne to rear;
  That on this sacred shore may rise and shine
The City Pure-in-Heart—Kingdom of King divine.
 
 
  Woe to the tongue that 'gainst thee shall contend! 1930
  Break weapons all that smite this iron rod[67],
  Beginning of the burden of the end—
  The promised fulness of the word of God;
  The voice of ages whispering from the sod.
  That voice withstood, remaineth shut and sealed
  The mightier things in mystery's abode,
  Volume on volume slumbering unrevealed,
While wake these lesser truths till now from man concealed.
 
 
  Speak thou to Laman's remnant, and reveal
  The great things done, the greater yet to do, 1940
  That bring deliverance unto Israel.
  To white, to red, to men of every hue,
  To all redeemed His mighty merit through,
  Teach thou the way—tell how by Grace sublime
  The spirit gardens[68] of the endless blue
  Are visited, each vineyard in its time,
While glad sabbatic bells ring out their grateful chime.
 
 
  Earth's hour is nigh—her blest millennial hour,
  And dawn there shall a higher, holier day,
  Prepared for by these principles of power, 1950
  Divinest laws that loftiest worlds obey,
  Where gods and angels honor them alway.
  There greatest by humility are known,
  There order reigns, and right doth all realms sway;
  Like claiming like, and cleaving to its own,
Sovereign and subject sharing the glory of the Throne.
 
 
  But earth's proud will must bend to will of heaven,
  Or twain can ne'er be one, that one for all;—
  By angel love the demon lust be driven,
  And man set free from self's ignoble thrall. 1960
  Let not the mighty task thy mind appall.
  What God hath done shall He not do again?
  A day of power shall batter down the wall;
  The willing heart shall rend the hampering chain;
And o'er this ransomed world, first Son, then Sire, shall reign.
 
 
  Proclaim the Dispensation of the End,
  Era pre-destined, pre-ordained of yore,
  When all of Christ's, on earth, in heaven, shall blend,
  And build the Empire of the Evermore.
  Ascendeth One who all things shall restore— 1970
  The dead to life, the dew-drop to its source.
  Spirit must reign, the carnal rule no more;
  And this lest earth, winging the sunward course,
Unmeet for such a change, melt 'neath consuming curse.
 
 
  Smite thou that sin of self, which binds the world
  In fetters fell, than all save truth more strong;
  That sin most serpentine, round all men curled,
  Within whose fatal fold earth writhes full long.
  To loose the coil doth unto thee belong.
  To free the soul from sordid tyranny, 1980
  Be sacrifice the burden of thy song.
  Ay, sacrifice shall set the prisoner free,
And men this truth shall learn, that light is liberty.