Great Salt Lake November 1865
My dear James and John [Eardley],
Your expected communication is to hand with the portrait of circumstances. I am pained indeed temporally. The cause I know—and the intent of your blockage I understand. If it was legitimate to remove the obstacles by force, it would be done; but the ancient treaty has to be observed, and we have to push against principalities and authorities that are placed to guard the usurper's dominions. But our guardians and Friends, the Angels of God, are watching also, and if they, the opposers unseen, thro eagerness or excitement, overstep that treaty, then we, the ministers of God, in mortality, are helped to advance, thus by their blunders and our worthiness and faithfullness, together with those we find and bring from out the quorum of Heaven shall the Kingdom and greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven be given to the Saints of the Most High and they shall possess it for ever and ever. See Daniel. The antagonism is not with us alone; but here is the theatre of struggle—the First Heaven and its Hosts arrayed; the evil powers arrayed also, mortality engages for rewards. Theirs I care not to know; ours I do know are celestial crowns and honors eternally incorruptible. Now as my spirit's home draws near to my mental discernment, our language and the powers of description therof are lost. O, Lord, in mercy remove the grandeur of the scene that I may converse with my brethren on points they may understand; for this is unutterable! We who do know the Fulness know elaborately God and his certain existence, and can define his abode and identity. Possessing this knowledge, we have forgotten the silly theology of the learned; consequently, should read over the best and most powerful languaged authors, whether they are styled infidel, orthodoxy heterodoxy or any other doxy, to understand their profound follies; for gazed at the by spirit of truth, there is little difference in any of their doxies, and their follies we have to attack, showing their origin—Byron, Voltaire, Bishop, Burnet, Wesley, Clar, Orson Pratt, out Mother Goose, demolishing, as we go, these structures of imbecility as workmen of the Lord, the glittering spears of Israel's God. While we do this, strive to strike the pathway of their well arranged poetry, that our musical worship may be advanced with the same exaltation, as every other principle that I teach. Let me try.
The Mormons came down like a wolf on the fold
On a morning in June that was glittering like gold.
As the sun darted forth from his place in the east,
The hosts of fanatics, o'ercome by the Beast
Were gathered in ranks with axes and knives.
And “death to the faithful” their watchword that flies
Through squadrons of rags, raw leather and hair,
As the promise rung out of the spoil and the fair!
While the mountains were echoing their loud cannon's roar
The Daughters of Israel lay stretched in their gore!
Unconscious the babe with a smile on its face
Was torn from the breast by a bombshell's embrace,
The parts of its body were scattered afar,
And trampled in dust to be gathered no more!
And there lay its parent, distorted and pale!
The blood on her brow and the ring on her nail!
Her beautiful form, as it lay in the dust,
Yet tempted their leader with passions of lust!
The elements shaken, unbinding the rain,
That horde of man-eaters stretched their limbs on the plain
From Gethsemane's garden and Weber's low vale,
The same Host of Angels presented the wail!
The trial is equal, the petitions alike,
Round the throne of Jehovah the Armies unite;
Twelve legions are ready “Send us out to the foe”
“Thy Son was forsaken like thy servant is now!
“The females immortal are weeping to see
On Adam's lone planet, a far Gallilee,
“Not the nail, but revolver is chosen again
To insult and impede and wrong to maintain
Give the word, O dear Father, our Parent, our God!
That Seth may be loosed to act free with his rod!
On the path of the lightning thy message we'll take
And the shepherds of Baal in their prison-house wake
Thus spake the celestials, as thro them a thrill
of righteous excitement; but awaiting his will!
But the morning broke out, and the cannon again
Sent showers of iron, like the pelting of rain,
On the house of the Prophet. The splinters and spars
Retreated in haste on their way toward the stars.
The shrieks of the children and cries of the maid
Whose chin was torn off by the fierce cannonade!
The flesh and the bone on the willows were flung!
O'er the blood of this beauty the savages sung!
Then a son of the Fulness, (whose numbers were few)
With muscles convulsed, as the rifle he drew
Right firm to his shoulder and getting the line,
Sent a messenger forth, dividing the spine!
And tossing with anguish and writhing in pain
Sung his anthem and danced back in Lucifer's train!
“One atonement is made” whispered sisters at prayers,
“The infidel garments must have slept unawares;”
“His agreement with Death and his covenant with Hell,
“Are coverings too short,--let Isaiah foretell!”
This young sister sighed, then resuming again
“Our Father in Heaven see thy house is in pain!”
“Deliver us now from this murderous crew,”
Here I end; not that the exercise tires; but that you may share the honor of placing in verse the terrible scene of immortal Weber. Finish the tragedy yourselves, and if your production is more preferable than min, it shall be appended. I will try to finish; but not now. “Who dwellest in the First Heaven” means the first from us. We have nothing to do with others until we are escorted to our homes from Jehovah's residence. “Are there other Quorums?” Yes, their limits and magnitude have to be given in a pure language, expanding the understanding and quickening the conceptions; for those we possess are designedly contracted—all sufficient for our use in mortality and to deal with things thereof; yet inadequate to range thro the vast Eternities, with power to draw or ascend into the bright area of celestial knowledge, and, even now, revelation form the upper glory loses its force by having to be reduced into that as can meet our order. Eternal Law demands this in mercy, that we may not unbar the chambers of the Lord, making us of ornaments there to our own destruction. But in the Temples, we will be instructed in celestial wisdom, and as the faithful advance, they shall learn, with me, the importance of walking as on tiptoe, handing out the treasures entrusted to their ministrations; for they are destined to rub on every side against the introductions of false, degrading institutions that have lived and interwoven a mass of confusion and suffering throughout the whole human element, shutting out even a glimmering knowledge of the unbounded love and interest that obtain universally in the Heavens towards the race, especially those who are training to associate in their councils eternally. One has said “Ear hath not herd, nor eye seen, nor the spirit conceived the glorious inheritances awaiting those who love our God, willing to engage in his righteous purposes.” Daniel had an indistinct, yet truthful sight of our day and in ecstasies has declared it. Walk up, ye Saints of the Most High, to the certain realizations, in your own person, of your high and holy positions before the universe. The omittal on the Diagram should not exist. Rectify it. You were offered me for helps in government and in developing every principle of virtue, holiness and truth, as sentinels and counsels to the servant of the Lord in the times of your preparation. Your efforts in song meet my approbation and reveal your faith. Increase that a melodious way appear alive, exhilarating with doctrine, praise, principle, hope, fidelity an love to Jesus our King immortal, that the worshipper and listener may be refreshed and encouraged. Through the channel many are helped to a knowledge that the lethargy of their spirits cannot attain otherwise. Be not over anxious to see me. It is
[letter abruptly ends]