Elias Part 17

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 G.o.d 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 cla.s.s 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.** "G.o.d created man in his own image." (Gen. 1:27.)

41--997. **Incomprehensible.** So modern Christians contend respecting Deity. It is true only in part. G.o.d'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--t.i.tle: **The Messenger of Morn.** The fore part of this Canto, down to and including the line, "Out, out of her, my people, saith your G.o.d," 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. **j.a.pheth, Thy Planet Pales.** j.a.pheth 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 pa.s.sed before Christ came, while nearly two have gone by since.

According to this reckoning we are now in the Sat.u.r.day 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 ident.i.ty and declare all that G.o.d 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 G.o.ds to whom the word of G.o.d 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 t.i.tans. He is depicted with the globe on his back.

18--1247. **Exalted Man.** "G.o.d himself is an exalted man."--Joseph Smith, ("Times and Seasons," August 15, 1844).

"As man now is, G.o.d once was; As G.o.d 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.

20--1283. **A Messenger From G.o.d.** The Angel Moroni.

21--1302. **Page to Page.** The Book of Mormon, or Stick of Joseph, joins with the Hebrew Bible, or Stick of Judah, as foretold by Ezekiel (37:16-20).

22--1310. **Ready For The Fall.** Prophecy ripe for fulfillment.

23--1311. **Elias Comes.** Moroni, restoring the Gospel, predicts the coming of a greater, to restore all things.

24--1324. **Fullest Freedom.** The Kingdom of G.o.d will protect all men in the enjoyment of their rights. The citizens and lawmakers of that Kingdom will not be all of one religious faith. So taught Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

25--1331. **Primal Language.** The Adamic tongue or Pure Language, brought back in the restoration of all things.

26--1407. **Ramah * * * c.u.morah.** Book of Mormon names. That book is an abridged history of two great races, the Jaredites and the Nephites, who inhabited America prior to its discovery by Europeans.

Their occupancy of the land was successive, the Jaredites coming from the Tower of Babel, B. C. 2218; and the founders of the Nephite nation from Judea, B. C. 600. The Jaredites perished about the time that the Nephites came. The latter were destroyed, A. D. 384, by the Lamanites, a degenerate and savage faction of their own people, whose remnants were found by Columbus and named Indians. The golden plates containing the Nephite-Jaredite record were taken by Joseph Smith from the Jaredite hill Ramah, called by the Nephites, c.u.morah.

CANTO SIX

1--t.i.tle: **From Out The Dust.** A paraphrase of Isaiah 29:4. The prediction is held to have been fulfilled in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. This entire Canto is based upon the general content of that volume. It embodies the prehistoric story of America, a.s.sumed to have been related by the angel custodian to the translator of the buried Book of Gold.

2--1415. **Must Righteous Be.** See Ether 2:8-12.

3--1434. **Former State.** The Book of Mormon is the only adequate explanation of the origin of the American Indians.

4--1457. **Ancient Altar.** Adam's altar, in Adam-ondi-Ahman, otherwise Spring Hill, Daviess County, Missouri, (D. and C. 116; History of the Church, Vol. 3, p. 388).

5--1461. **Dual Grave.** Burial in earth and h.e.l.l, or death temporal and spiritual.

6--1466. **Where Adam Dwelt.** According to Joseph Smith, Jackson County, Missouri, is the ancient site of the Garden of Eden. Our First Parents, after their expulsion from Eden, dwelt in the Valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman. See Note 4.

7--1468. **Still Chaste.** The fall of Adam and Eve, while technically a sin because of a broken law, should be stressed as the means whereby G.o.d's children obtained their bodies, rather than as an act of moral turpitude. There are two general cla.s.ses of crimes--malum per se and malum prohibitum. Malum per se is a Latin phrase signifying "an evil in itself," while malum prohibitum means "that which is wrong because forbidden by law." The transgression of our First Parents was malum prohibitum, and the consequent descent from an immortal to a mortal condition was the Fall.