Elias Part 21

25--2882. **Long Lost Captives.** The Ten Tribes, carried away by the a.s.syrians, B. C. 721, and who are to return from "the north countries" (D. and C. 133:26-35).

26--2891. **Rallying the Loyal.** The Latter-day Saints have been taught to look forward to a time when they, lifting up an ensign to lovers of law, order, and liberty, and reinforced by them, will save this Nation, while anarchy is aiming at its life.

27--2903. **Inglorious Battleground.** The field of c.u.morah.

28--2905. **Where Erst He Fled.** The House of Joseph, in modern times, begins its march of destiny at the Hill c.u.morah, where the Nephites (also of Joseph) met their tragic fate. There is a tradition to the effect that every Temple reared by the Latter-day Saints marks a stage in the flight of the doomed Nephites, pursued by the victorious Lamanites, to the final slaughter at that historic hill.

29--2919. **Ruined Lie.** The allusion is to cities and temples built and abandoned by the Saints in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. (D. and C. 101, 103, and 105.)

30--2924. **Union * * * Enoch Saw.** The United Order--all things consecrated to G.o.d. (D. and C. 105:4, 5.)

31--2930. **Her Trembling Foes.** "Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible." (D. and C. 45:70.)

32--2951. **Pain Shall Bring Thee Power.** Sacrificial trials, that purify and elevate, redound to the advantage of posterity. The parents suffer that the children may be blest. All n.o.ble and powerful races have "come up through great tribulation."

33--2969. **City of Joseph.** A name given to Nauvoo after the Prophet's martyrdom.

CANTO TEN

1--t.i.tle: **The Parted Veil.** Joseph's vision and prophecy of the future. He is represented as foretelling to his people their great destiny.

2--2994. **Honor of a State.** Joseph the Prophet and Hyrum the Patriarch were murdered while under the pledged protection of the Governor of Illinois. The mob that fired its fatal volleys into the bosoms of the martyrs, and went unwhipped of justice, struck down the honor of a sovereign commonwealth of the American Union.

3--2998. **The Blazing Dome.** The Nauvoo Temple, burned by the mob forces, after they had captured the city and expelled the remnant of the persecuted community left behind at the beginning of the exodus in February, 1846.

4--3003. **New Born Babes.** Nine infants, it is said, were born in the camps of the fugitive Saints, on Sugar Creek, Iowa, the first night out from Nauvoo.

5--3011. **Born in a Day. "Little One"--"A Thousand."**--Applications of ancient prophecy. (Isaiah 60:22 and 66:8).

6--3016. **Cities Twain.** Zion and Jerusalem, the future capitals of the Saviour's Kingdom; the former the seat of representative government, the latter of monarchical power. "Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2.)

7--3024. **Fain Would Dwell.** The extension of slavery to the West was the dream of the South before the Civil War. This was one reason why the Southern States favored the war with Mexico.

8--3026. **Aztec's Altar.** The region settled by the "Mormon"

people, between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, belonged to Mexico, the Land of the Aztecs.

9--3030. **Golden Empire!** California, as a Mexican province, included the present States of Utah and Nevada. Some of the earliest settlers of Salt Lake Valley had previously helped to colonize California, and were among those who discovered gold there, January, 1848.

10--3032. **Eden on the Desert Brine.** The redeemed Wilderness surrounding the Great Salt Lake, and formerly known as "The Great American Desert."

11--3044. **Land of the Honey Bee.** The State of Utah.

12--3045. **Pilgrim Sire.** The author's father, Horace Kimball Whitney, was one of the Pioneers who entered Salt Lake Valley, July 24, 1847.

13--3054. **Hear Me, My People!** At this point begins the Prophet's farewell address. The preceding stanzas of this Canto are a generalization of what follows in detail.

14--3073. **Nebo's Height.** Joseph, compared to Moses, is predicting his own death and the coming of his successor, the President of the Twelve, upon whom the Prophet placed the right of succession.

15--3082. **Stalwart Upon the Mountains.** At Montrose, Iowa, August 6, 1842, Joseph Smith predicted that the Saints would be driven westward, and would "become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains."

16--3090. **War Shall Wound.** On Christmas Day, 1832, the Prophet foretold the war between the North and South. (D. and C. 87.) According to tradition, he also declared that those nations that first received the Gospel in this dispensation, would be preserved when "the consumption decreed" "made a full end of all nations."

17--4034. **First Born Fold.** Ephraim, fulfilling his mission in the region of the Rocky Mountains.

18--4041. **Brave Sons of Battling Sires.** Descendants of the patriots of the American Revolution.

19--4053. **And by that Power.** "The redemption of Zion must needs come by power." (D. and C. 103:15.)

20--4066. **Zion's Land.** Zion in a restricted sense--Jackson County.

21--4080. **The Common Good.** Christ's Commonwealth, foreshadowed by the American Union.

22--4089. **The Sceptered Harlot.** The Woman described in the Apocalypse as sitting "upon many waters"--a "great city" reigning "over the kings of the earth." (Rev. 17.)

23--5002. **A Seventh Realm.** Joseph, paraphrasing Paul, said concerning himself: "I know a man who was caught up to the seventh heaven."

24--5033. **I Am.** The Name Divine. (Ex. 3:14.)

25--5047. **Light and Liberty.** "At the first organization in Heaven we were all present and saw the Saviour chosen and appointed, and the plan of salvation made, and we sanctioned it."--Joseph Smith (Compendium, p. 288).

26--5055. **Freedom's Code.** The Gospel of Christ, "the perfect law of liberty," typed by the American Const.i.tution, guaranteeing freedom and equal rights.

27--5070. **Not Esau's Hand.** Culture as well as strength must play its part in the building up of G.o.d's Kingdom. Zion, at first primitive and crude, shall become "the perfection of beauty," "the joy of the whole earth." Her original builders may be likened to the ma.s.sive, immovable foundations of a structure whose polished walls and glittering spires are represented by their children, educated under improved conditions, and yet to stand in the forefront of the world's civilization.

28--5072. **The Kingdom to Complete.** "The spirit and power of Elijah is to come after, holding the keys of power, building the temple to the capstone, placing the seals of the Melchisedek Priesthood upon the House of Israel, and making all things ready; then Messiah comes to his Temple."--Joseph Smith (Compendium, p. 283; D. and C. 27).

EPILOGUE

1--t.i.tle: **The Angel Ascendant.** The Angel ascending from the East (Rev. 7:2; D. and C. 77:9). This is Elias, an address to and a response from whom forms the body of the epilogue, or final division of the poem.

2--6017. **Rose Again.** Elias the All-restorer is represented as reopening for Adam the closed communication between Earth and Heaven.

3--6018. **The City Sanctified.** The City of Enoch.

4--6025. **Alien Fire.** The Gospel, restored through Noah, standing at the head of a dispensation, was carried by his descendants, after the Flood, to various parts of the earth, where fragments of it remain, mixed with the traditions of men. Ceremonies similar to, or suggestive of Gospel ordinances, and found among primitive peoples, are thus accounted for.

5--6027. **The Root of Shiloh.** Abraham, ancestor to Jesus of Nazareth.

6--6029. **Believing Blood.** "How, by the dispersion of the children of Abraham, was the promise to the patriarch fulfilled, that in him and in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed? * * *

By this dispersion the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--the blood of faith, the blood that believes--with choice spirits answering to that blood, and selected for that purpose, were sent into those nations where the Gospel was afterwards preached, spirits capable of recognizing the truth, and brave enough to embrace it." (Gospel Themes, p. 156.)

7--6033. **Egypt's Chain.** The spirit of Elias was upon Moses when he led Israel out of bondage.

8--6036. **Long Captivity.** The a.s.syrian Captivity, which carried away the ten tribes.