Elias Part 8

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 Mana.s.seh's prophet pioneer[39], Predestined to unveil the hidden hemisphere.

His lot to reap and plant on this rare sh.o.r.e 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 mult.i.tude, 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 G.o.d; 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 gla.s.s: 1720 Plain to his gaze revealed, the unborn ages pa.s.s.

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 G.o.d'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 sh.o.r.e, 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 t.i.tan 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 h.e.l.l 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 sh.o.r.e 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 j.a.pheth'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. G.o.d shall plead With j.a.pheth, 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 j.a.pheth, 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 pa.s.s 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 G.o.d'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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 j.a.pheth, 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 sh.o.r.e.

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 a.s.sail, enslave, and put to flight.

Nor yet can fate forsake them: j.a.pheth'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 j.a.pheth's loins. Yet shall there come a King, And j.a.pheth'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.

Ma.s.s thou the might of Joseph, yet to join With Judah's might, Messiah's throne to rear; That on this sacred sh.o.r.e may rise and shine The City Pure-in-Heart--Kingdom of King divine.