Elias: An Epic of the Ages

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.

20—1283. **A Messenger From God.** 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 God 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 * * * Cumorah.** 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, Cumorah.

—CANTO SIX

1—Title: **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, assumed 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 hell, 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 God's children obtained their bodies, rather than as an act of moral turpitude. There are two general classes 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.

8—1470. **Love's Work.** Adam's fall prepared the way for Christ's redemptive mission. Had there been no fall, man would have remained a spirit, without a body, and consequently imperfect. Christ redeemed the soul—spirit and body—and put it in the way to perfection.

9—1471. **Zion of Primeval Days.** The City of Enoch. (Moses 7:18-64; History of the Church, Vol. 4, pp. 209, 210; D. and C. 84:99-102.)

10—1479. **Final Change.** The change wrought upon the people of Enoch by translation not being equivalent to resurrection, they will have to undergo a further change, to prepare them for celestial glory. But they will not taste of death. A similar lot is that of John the Beloved (John 21:20-23; D. and C. 7); also of the Three Nephites (III Nephi 28) and of certain ones mentioned by Paul (I Cor. 15:50-54).

11—1480. **New Jerusalem.** The divinely chosen site for the Holy City is Independence, Jackson County, Missouri.

12—1484. **Japheth * * * Shem.** The reference is to Noah's blessing upon Shem and Japheth (Gen. 9:26-27). From Shem came Abraham, the ancestor of the House of Israel; and from Japheth the Gentiles, the founders of the most enlightened nations of modern times, including the United States of America. Ham, through Canaan, was the progenitor of the negro race, long held in slavery in this and other Gentile countries. The Ethiopian has also served the Semite, as Noah predicted. How Japheth has "dwelt in the tents of Shem," is partly shown by the history of Palestine, long dominated by the Gentiles, particularly the Turks, who still possess it. Japheth's remarkable blessing has also been realized in the history of our own country, America, which the Gentiles now inhabit, and where, according to the Book of Mormon, they are to assist in gathering Israel and building the New Jerusalem, (III Nephi 20 and 21). It is their privilege to share, if they will, in all the blessings promised to the chosen people. (Abraham 2:9-11.) "The tents of Shem" may be interpreted to mean the homes of the people of God, lineally descended from Shem, through Abraham.

13—1485. **An Ark of Peace.** "It shall be the only people that shall not be at war one with another." (D. and C. 45:69).

14—1486. **The Ensign.** The Church of Christ in Latter Days.

15—1487. **Joseph Signals Jacob.** Joseph, in Ephraim, begins the work of Israel's gathering.

16—1489. **Ancient of Days.** Adam as the Ancient of Days will return to the place where he blessed his posterity. (D. and C. 116; History of the Church, Vol. 3, p. 388). See notes 4 and 6.

17—1507. **Hesperia.** The West—America.

18—1512. **That Servant.** The servant mentioned by the Saviour to the Nephites. (III Nephi 21:10, 11).

19—1515. **God's Legion.** "Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made." (Moses 7:64).

20—1517. **Land of Joseph.** America, as the Latter-day Saints have been taught to believe, was given to Joseph of old as an inheritance. (Gen. 49:22, 26; Deut. 33:13-17).

21—1519. **Gog and Magog.** Gog is the name of a person; Magog, of a country or people. According to Ezekiel (38 and 39) Gog, "the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal," was to come with his people from the North to invade the land of Israel and there suffer defeat. Gog and Magog are generally understood as symbolical expressions for the heathen nations of Asia, more particularly the Scythians. In this poem the allusion is to those nations that war against Zion.

22—1538. **Where, Joseph?** Joseph Smith is meant. To him, after a general introduction, Moroni relates the story of the Jaredites, as told in that part of the Book of Mormon entitled "The Book of Ether."

23—1540. **Wide Severing.** In the days of Peleg the earth was "divided" (Gen. 10:25). Whether this means the dividing "to the nations" of "their inheritance" (Deut. 32.8), or a tearing asunder of the land into continents and islands, is not stated. The latter view, the one here suggested, may help to explain why the site of the Garden of Eden is now in North America.

24—1543. **Sons of Shinar.** The Jaredites, who came from the Tower of Babel, the place of which was "a plain in the Land of Shinar." (Gen. 11:2). Shinar was Chaldea.

25—1547. **Primal Tongue.** The language of the Jaredites—the pure Adamic tongue—was not confounded.

26—1554. **A Book Sublime.** A book written by the Jaredite leader, and yet to come forth. That leader was Mahonri Moriancumr, though this name does not occur in the Book of Mormon. "The Brother of Jared" is the only appellation bestowed upon him there. Joseph Smith supplied the missing name.

27—1557. **Baptismal Billows.** The Jaredites, in barges, passed through the depths of the ocean, to reach their Land of Promise (Ether 6:6). Their voyage was therefore a baptism, more literal than the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea, and referred to by Paul as a baptism. (1 Cor. 10:2.)

28—1561. **Shelem's Height.** The Mount Shelem, so called "because of its exceeding height." (Ether 3:1).

29—1566. **Wing-Like Continents.** North and South America.

30—1573. **Mahonri's Realm.** North America, possessed by the Jaredites down to about 600 B. C., when the nation was destroyed by internecine strife.

31—1580. **Freedom's Greater Cause.** The Cause of Christ.

32—1591. **Past Zions Rose.** "Thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity." (Moses 7:31.)

33—1595. **Fortressed by God's Mightiness.** I Nephi 13:19; Ether 2:12; D. and C. 45:70.

34—1601. **"Give Us a King."** The Jaredites demanded a king—a demand reluctantly acceded to by their leaders, who foresaw, as did Samuel the Prophet, in a similar situation, the evils that would result. (Ether 6:22-28; I Samuel 8:4-22).

35—1645. **Solitary Twain.** The Prophet Ether and King Coriantumr, the last of the Jaredites.

36—1653. **Another Nation.** The Nephites.

37—1657. **After Tale.** These words—part of a brief comment by the author—introduce a summary of the Nephite narrative.

38—1665. **A Leper.** Jerusalem in her degenerate state.

39—1666. **Prophet Pioneer.** Lehi, a descendant of Joseph, through Manasseh, with a colony from Jerusalem, succeeds the all but extinct Jaredites upon the Land of Promise, where they extend the glory of their great ancestor.

40—1669. **Joseph's Bough.** "Joseph is a fruitful bough." (Gen. 49:22).

41—1690. **Chosen Seer.** Lehi predicts the coming of "a choice seer" who is to be a lineal descendant of Joseph. The name of that seer is also to be Joseph, and it is to be the name of his father—a prophecy fulfilled in Joseph Smith, Jr. (II Nephi 3.)

42—1692. **Buried Lore.** The Book of Mormon.

43—1695. **Favored Son.** Nephi, who succeeded his father Lehi, and against whom his brothers Laman and Lemuel rebelled, thus dividing the nation into Nephites and Lamanites.

44—1712. **Heavy Rod.** The Lord used the savage Lamanites to scourge the enlightened yet ofttimes disobedient Nephites.

45—1717. **Infinite and Spirit Minister.** The Spirit of the Lord, declared by Nephi to be in the form of man, and with whom he conversed as one man converses with another. (I Nephi 11:11).

46—1731. **Prophet Prince Foresaw.** Nephi's vision of the future, in which he beheld events upon both hemispheres—Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, and his subsequent appearings to the more righteous of the Nephites, preceded by awful judgments upon the wicked (III Nephi 8-11).

47—1757. **Final Doom.** The conflagrations that destroyed Nephite cities were prophetic of the end of the world, which is to be by fire.

48—1771. **Infant Innocence.** The children of the Nephites, blessed by the Saviour. (III Nephi 17:11-24).

49—1785. **Other Sheep.** Jesus said to his Jewish disciples, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold." (John 10:16). They supposed that he meant the Gentiles, instead of which, as the Book of Mormon tells, he had reference to the Nephites and to other branches of the House of Israel. (III Nephi 15:17-24; 16:1; 17:4.)

50—1803. **Japheth's Destiny.** The Saviour portrays the future of America and the diverse fates of the obedient and disobedient Gentiles (III Nephi 16 and 21).

51—1811. **A Lion to the Chase.** III Nephi, 20:16; 21:12.

52—1820. **Sun's Red Glow.** The wrath of the Lamanites, turning upon their white oppressors.

53—1822. **Eternal Rays.** Divinely revealed laws by which Zion will be redeemed (D. and C. 105:4, 5).

54—1826. **Servant Marred.** "He shall be marred because of them." (III Nephi 21:10.)

55—1834. **He Sanctifieth Three.** The Three Nephites (III Nephi 28).

56—1847. **Forebeam of Day Divine.** The happy condition of the Nephites, for two centuries after the coming of Christ, was a foretaste of the Millennium.

57—1854. **So Shall It Be.** Terrible calamities are to precede the Reign of Peace, as they preceded the events that typified it. (Matthew 24).

58—1869. **Avalanche * * * Sun's Face.** Nephites and Lamanites.

59—1872. **Bloody Chase.** The Lamanites driving the Nephites to their doom at the Hill Cumorah.

60—1883. **Oriental Sight.** The Western Hemisphere discovered by the Eastern.

61—1885. **Faith * * * Patience.** The Brother of Jared was noted for his exceeding faith (Ether 3:9). Columbus triumphed by patient endurance.

62—1894. **Zion's Land.** Joseph Smith declared the whole of America to be the Land of Zion.

63—1899. **Oppressed Become Oppressors.** Even the liberty-loving settlers of New England, who had fled from tyranny in the Old World to find freedom in the New, enslaved the red man and drove him from his ancient possessions.

64—1904. **The Motherland.** Great Britain, mother of the New England colonies.

65—1909. **Man of Matchless Worth.** Washington.

66—1922. **Joseph's Namesake Seer.** Joseph Smith, Jr., (II Nephi 3).

67—1931. **The Iron Rod.** The Word of God (1 Nephi 11:25).

68—1945. **Spirit Gardens.** The Heavenly fields. (D. and C. 88:51-61).

—CANTO SEVEN

1—Title: **The Arcana of the Infinite.** "Arcana," the Latin plural of "Arcanum," signifies hidden, secret. This title is intended to be an equivalent for "The Mysteries of the Kingdom"—the esoteric features or advanced principles of the Gospel. Herein are summarized those sublime doctrines that came directly to the modern Revelator during and subsequent to the translating of the ancient plates. A vision of the dispensations is involved—the reading of the Book of Time and the Volume of Eternity.

2—1986. **One Vast Mind.** Joseph Smith, Prophet, Seer, and Revelator.

3—2009. **The Solemn Dispensations.** In theology the term "dispensation"—from "dispense," to deal out or distribute—signifies the method or scheme by which God has at different times developed his purposes and revealed himself to man. It also denotes a period marked by some particular development of the Lord's work, such as the Mosaic Dispensation, lasting from Moses to Christ; or the Meridian Dispensation, ending in the apostacy that made necessary another restoration of the Gospel and the Priesthood. While revelation is silent upon the subject, it is probable that there are seven Gospel dispensations—seven distinct periods during which the Plan of Progression, revealed from Heaven to Earth, has been among the children of men. The belief as to seven is partly based upon the scriptural or symbolical character of that number, and upon the Prophet Joseph's teachings relative to the seven periods, each of a thousand years, answering to the seven seals of the mystical Book seen by John in his vision on Patmos (Rev. 5, 6; D. and C. 77).

4—2022. **The Trumpets Seven.** The Angels of the Dispensations. (D. and C. 88:92-116).

5—2032. **The Holy Order.** The Eternal Priesthood—divine authority—and those who wield it, in Heaven and on Earth. (History of the Church, Vol. III, p. 385; Vol. IV, p. 207; D. and C. 20, 68, 84, 107, 112, 121, 124; Alma 13:1-10.)

6—2057. **Ere Earth Knew Abraham.** The pre-existence of the House of Israel is intimated by Moses (Deut. 32:7, 8). The 144,000 mentioned by John (Rev. 14:1) and by Joseph (D. and C. 77:11) were "of all the tribes of the children of Israel."

7—2059. **Ark of God * * * Sword of Flame.** Emblems, respectively, of the Priesthood and the Gospel.

8—2063. **Shine and Shadow.** Dispensations of heavenly light, alternating with periods of spiritual darkness.

9—2068. **Succeeded By The Less.** Moses, with the Melchisedek Priesthood and the fulness of the Gospel, was taken back to Heaven, leaving Israel to be governed by the Aaronic Priesthood and the Law. (D. and C. 84:19-28.)

10—2071. **Ministers Upon Each Hemisphere.** Jewish and Nephite apostles.

11—2074. **The Perfect Church.** The Church of Christ on Earth, perfected after the pattern of the Church in Heaven. (D. and C. 76:67; 107:93. See also "Gospel Themes," p. 81.)

12—2089. **The Ancient One.** "Daniel, in his seventh chapter, speaks of the Ancient of Days; he means the oldest man, our father Adam, Michael; he will call his children together and hold a council with them to prepare them for the coming of the Son of Man."—Joseph Smith (History of the Church, Vol. 3, p. 386; D. and C. 116).

13—2099. **Keys of Light.** "Three grand keys by which good or bad angels or spirits may be known." (D. and C. 129).

14—2136. **Most Intelligent.** "God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself."—Joseph Smith ("Times and Seasons," August 15. 1844).

15—2140. **Intelligence Eternal.** "Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be" (D. and C. 93:29, 36). "The first principles of man are self existent with God." ("Times and Seasons," August 15, 1844).

16—2150. **Birth and Death Are Baptism.** See "Gospel Themes," pp. 66, 67.

17—2161. **Earthly Sorrow.** The trials of mortal life, foreseen from spirit heights by the children of God, who nevertheless rejoiced at the prospect of glory beyond.

18—2167. **Second Estate.** Man's first estate is the spirit life; his second estate, the mortal life. In the former he walks by sight, in the latter by faith.

19—2188. **Sun or Moon or Varying Star.** The heavenly bodies typify celestial, terrestrial, and telestial glories. (D. and C. 76:96-98.)

20—2197. **Vicarious Ordinance.** Temple work, done by the living in behalf of the dead. (D. and C. 127 and 128.)

21—2288. **Felon's Debt.** "This earth was organized or formed out of other planets which were broken up and remodeled and made into the one on which we live."—Joseph Smith (Compendium, p. 287).

22—2293. **Law Hath Magnified.** "The earth abideth the law of a celestial kingdom." (D. and C. 88:25).

23—2298. **Celestial Seer Stone.** Earth in its sanctified, immortal, and eternal state will be like a sea of glass and fire (Rev. 4:6), a great Urim and Thummim to its glorified inhabitants (D. and C. 130:6-11).

24—2325. **Would Have Lived The Law.** Men's desires as well as deeds will form a basis for eternal judgment (History of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 380).

25—2333. **Judah's One and Joseph's Three.** John the Revelator and the Three Nephites.

26—2336. **Unclothed Spirit.** The Spirit seen by the Brother of Jared, and afterwards embodied as Jesus of Nazareth.

27—2337. **The Triple Seer.** The Apostle Paul, "caught up to the third heaven" (II Cor. 12:2).

—CANTO EIGHT

1—Title: **The Lifted Ensign.** The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized April 6, 1830.

2—2357. **Shepherds Twain.** Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, the first and second Elders of the Church.