MANCE MI VERSE «* « >» v 'W. V ' • * * .2_ * • JR.BEN bTAUBER Copyright N?_ COPYRIGHT DKPOSIT. ROMANCE OF THE UNIVERSE BY B. T. STAUBER, A. M., D. T. Member of the Kansas Academy of Science BROADWAY PUBLISHING CO. 835 Broadway, New York BRANCH OFFICES: CHICAGO. WASHINGTON. BALTIMORE, ATLANTA, NORFOLK, FLORENCE, ALA. Copyright, 191 1, By B. T. Stauber. ©GI.A283486 To the Son of Amram, Prophet, Lawyer, Priest, whose words inspired my Song. To the men, whose feet, beautiful, climb the mountains, who see the vision, who bring glad tidings. To men of thought, who let think. To Two, who are as sunshine on my path. INTRODUCTION The Romance of the Universe presents a the- ory of world-making never before advanced in the history of Cosmologies. The theory is a workable hypothesis, and the author has anticipated, by his lectures and sketches, for more than a score of years the theory of the capture of the planets of our Solar system by the Sun. In part first the writer has given a most sublime and rational account of the glacial epoch. Nothing heretofore written has been accepted by the scien- tific world, but herein is given a solution that car- ries with it not only the imagination but our ra- tional conviction of its truth. Every other hypothesis has proven unsatisfac- tory, principally because the mathematical argu- ments heretofore have been based upon the laws of gravitation alone. Herschell surmised that there were other forces incomparably greater than gravi- tation, but admitted that he was ignorant of their nature. The forces of light, electrical attraction and repulsion are incalculably great. The early advocates of the Nebular Hypothesis never took these forces into consideration. Had they been in possession of these facts, the Nebular Hypothesis ii introDuction would never have been advanced. The positive and negative poles of the spheres, their attracting and repelling forces, are so well known to modern scien- tists that in the interpretation of stellar laws their forces are considered. The magnetism of the poles of the Earth and the Sun, the movement of the Earth in its orbit north and then south of the Sun, the difference when in aphetion and perihelion, the inclination of the Earth's axis to the plane of its orbit, the or- derly procession of the equinoxes, and the certainty of the glacial epoch, altogether indicate the capture of the planets by the Sun, and prove the falsity of the Nebular Hypothesis. The author does not at- tempt to mathematically demonstrate his hypothesis, but simply states the principles upon which his theory rests. To this cosmogony the author de- votes four parts of The Romance of the Uni- verse to the intelligences inhabiting it, and the methods of moral government instituted by the Creator of the Universe. The theological questions are as unique as the cosmological ; the popularly accepted principles of the Christian religions are not discussed, but certain difficult and mysterious doctrines, upon which are grounded many vague and dangerous superstitions, are here discussed in lucid and true poetic style. The five parts consti- tute a grand epic, beginning with the origin of the Universe and the final destiny of the intelligences inhabiting it. CONTENTS PART I. Song of Alcyone 2,7 The evening preceded light. The uncreated night co-extensive with uncreated space. The first morning. Its continuous light. The light of the first day still shines. The vaporization of primal crystallized gases. The drift of vaporized gases to the North Pole of the primal mass. The North Pole of the great mass the navel of suns and their planets. The greater density of plants place them beneath the suns. The planets the densest and latest to be evolved. The sun's South Pole attracts the north poles of the planets, and finally captures the whole republic of planets. The southern hemisphere of the earth, previously to its capture, enshrouded in darkness. The entire southern hemisphere one immense glacier. The glacier melted after its capture by the sun, which produced the glacial epoch. 3 Contents PART II. Song of Raphael 45 Ground of the creation of angels. Their first mission. Their vast and lofty estates. Their rebellion. Its origin. Their fall. Why irredeemable. Their opposition to mankind. The temptation of Eve. PART III. Song of Gabriel 71 Man's freedom. The awful nature of the temptation of Adam. Why the penalty of death was commuted. The glory of their forms before they sinned. The first begotten outside of Eden. Christ a hybrid supreme. Possibilities of future man. (Contents.) PART IV. Song of Michael . . . . 87 The temptation of Christ. Divine permission granted Satan. 4 Contents Satan's boast of victory over Christ. Satan's threat to men of later generations. Majesty of Satan's person. The fearful grandeur of his temptations. Lustful suggestions of demons. The bread and temple temptations. The offer of the entire world to Christ. The victory of Christ over Satan. The ancient prophecies transformed by Christ into His gospel. Proves God's universal love by miracles wrought on the poor and helpless. His self-willed death. Christ's mission into Hades. His dead body lying in state viewed by all of the good and bad in Hades. His preaching to the dead of all ages confirming the prophets of old. Infants moved by Him to full maturity. Christ's resurrection witnessed by both good and bad in Hades. The Savior re-enters earth. The Savior recalls His scattered disciples. Organizes His church. Begins His millennial reign. America, the stone cut out of the mountain. Falls upon the feet of image seen at Babylon. Resurrection of the dead. Resurrection ends sex, birth, etc. Transforms all into likeness of Christ. The Saints all glorified in the Resurrection, be- fore judgment takes place. Contents PART V. Song of Ariel ...... 117 The Holy City. Its shape a cube. The abode of God. Prepared for man as made. His destiny as redeemed. The city, the axis of the universe. Eternal, antedating matter. Its elevation. Its light. Its beauty. Its vast population. Its immense proportions. No night, no death. No clan, no quest. Its triple paralleled streets. Six broad viaducts suspended from twelve gates of solid pearl. The beautiful river flowing through the city. The goal of faith. The bride's invitation come. 6 i prelu&e There is a popular notion that around the North Pole there is a region whose climate of extreme and unendurable cold has never changed since the earth was made, and that the sun and earth have always maintained the same relations, distances and positions which they now sustain to each other. Once in the earth's history the climate of the arctic regions was as warm, or warmer, than the tropics are at the present time; vegetation once grew luxuriantly and flourished as far north as any explorer has penetrated. The Sequoia Gigantea, the great red tree of the Pacific Coast, grew in the Arctic regions, and there attained a growth of magnificent proportions. Beech trees grew in immense forests, wide plains were covered with Walnut trees, vast areas were shaded with Maples, and lofty Poplars of prodi- gious growth were everywhere. All of the floral types revealed in the oldest fos- sils originally grew in the neighborhood of the North Pole, and from thence spread first over the northern hemisphere and afterward crossed the equator, going southward over the continents of the southern hemisphere, but not until long after the glacial epoch did vegetation and animal life pro- ceed southward below the equator. PreluDe The glacial epoch came as an awful catastrophe, suddenly destroying animal life in the arctic regions by freezing herds of animals instantaneously, up- rooting vast forests, taking trees, roots and branches, leaves and fruits, transporting them like continents of driftwood far from their native soil, and burying them beneath heavy layers of gravel and till. A succession of immense forests were buried one above another with great stratified deposits be- tween, these buried forests ultimately became con- verted into beds of coal. It is worthy of note, says the celebrated geologist, Sir James Croll, of Scotland, that the stratified beds between the coal seams are of Marine and not of La- custrine origin. He also says, that at the beginning of the Glacial epoch, the face of the country was in all probability covered for ages with the most luxuriant vegetation, but scarcely a vestige of that vegetation remains. Indeed, the very soil on which it grew is not to be found. All that now remains is the wreck of desolation produced by the ice sheets that covered the country during the cold periods of that epoch, consisting of transported blocks of stones, polished and grooved rocks and a confused mass of boulder clay; here we have in this epoch nothing tangible presenting itself but the destruc- tive effects of the ice which swept over the land. Dr. Croll says, the facts of geology are fast es- tablishing the conclusion that when the country was covered with ice, the land stood in relation to the sea at a lower level than at present, and that the 8 PreluDe continental periods, or times, when the land stood in relation to the sea at a higher level than now were when the country was free of snow and ice and a mild and equable climate prevailed. This, he says, is the conclusion toward which we are being led by the more recent revelations of surface geol- ogy, and also by certain facts connected with the Geographical distribution of plants and animals. It is remarkable that in the great plains of Si- beria no traces of glacial action appear to have been observed. The Mammalian remains, which tell of a milder climate than now obtains in those high latitudes, are still undisturbed at the surface. Even in North America the drift is not found every- where. There is a remarkable region embracing a large area in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. Nor are any traces of the drift found in Northern Cali- fornia. Many other evidences are furnished by geological research that the ice sheets moved northward, and left their deposits in the arctic regions, leaving the evidence that the ice of the glacial epoch did not originate within the Arctic circle. A series of stratified rocks lie underneath the sur- face of the earth from ten to twenty miles in thick- ness, and upon its surface lies what is called "the drift," which consists of a thin surface soil, under which is an irregular deposit of sand, clay and gravel, mostly unstratified. Many theories have been advanced in explana- tion of the cause of these deposits. Evidently, great deluges have swept over the tops of lofty 9 pteluHe mountains in all parts of every continent and is- land; rocks of immense proportions have been car- ried for thousands of miles from their native forma- tion, great sheets of clay were deposited all over the Earth. These sheets of clay are destitute of marine fos- sils, and have been ground from granite rocks by some mighty pressure under water, and were car- ried in solution by oceans of water all over the earth, afterward they settled into their present strata. No other force could have done this work but vast continents of ice, that, like immense icebergs, or glaciers, with their bases resting on the granite underneath, and their tops elevated like peaks of lofty mountains, ground out from the granite the clay, or till, that covers the surface of the earth. The attempt to explain from whence all this ice came, how it originated, and how it moved from the South northward and subsequently southward, has baffled the attempts of all men who have tried to solve the mystery of the Glacial Epoch; not a single hypothesis has met with general approval among scientists. In order to explain the cause of the earth's glaciation some learned scientists have supposed that the Solar System while passing through space has traversed regions of varying temperatures, but no scientist of the present time inclines to such an hypothesis. Other learned men have suggested that the cause is to be found in the earth itself; this has been re- 10 PreluDe jected principally because it would necessitate a reduction of the temperature of the earth to bring about a glacial epoch, and this would require an elevation of 6>ooo feet in the case of England, and not much less for the Alps, but any such elevation is most improbable in either region, and many geol- ogists maintain that England during the glacial epoch stood at a lower level than at the present. This is not the only difficulty, a heavy snow fall, or large glaciers, means considerable precipitation; though the cold is so great both in Eastern Siberia and near Hudson's Bay that the ground is perma- nently frozen in the latitude of Eastern England, yet there are neither ice sheets nor even glaciers, because the climate is comparatively dry; hence no hypothesis in explanation of the glacial epoch is admissible if it involves any serious alterations in the distribution of land and sea. It is very doubtful whether geographical changes afford any explanation, and if we were to adopt it we are at once confronted with a new and serious difficulty; that is a much warmer climate prevailed during the earlier and greater part of the Tertiary era. The temperature of Central Europe in Miocene times was higher than at present, probably about 1 6 degrees, and was even warmer during the Eocene period. The Flora and Fauna of the London clay and the Brackensham beds indicate a climate more like Northern Africa than that of Southern England. Dr. Dawson says, "This delightful climate was 11 PreltiOe not confined to the present temperate and tropical regions, it extended to the very shores of the Arctic Sea, in North Greenland at latitude 70 degrees north ; at an altitude of more than a thousand feet, were found the remains of Beeches, Oaks, Pines, Poplars, Walnuts, Magnolias, Limes and Vines, and remains of similar plants were found in Spitzber- gen, 78 degrees and 56 minutes north. Obviously there was in the Northern Hemisphere a vast surface of land under a mild and equable cli- mate, and clothed with a rich and varied vegeta- tion ; had we lived, Dr. Dawson says, in the Miocene period we might have sat under our own vine and fig tree equally in Spitzbergen and Greenland, and in those more southern climes to which this privi- lege is now restricted." Civilized man dwelt in the fair and glorious Northern Hemisphere that knew no frost, nor ice, nor snow, nor cold, as far north as the foot of the explorer has trodden, and probably to the Pole it- self, dwelt there for thousands of years, and wit- nessed the sudden and awful catastrophe which the memory of man in myth, legend, tradition and reve- lation has preserved to our day. Another explanation has been suggested by other scientists, that the true cause is to be found in the earth's relation and position with the sun. Dr. Croll says that the proximity of a hot body near the earth w r ould disarrange the mechanical arrange- ment of the universe; and would demand for the Glacial Epoch proximity to an equally cold body, but interglacial periods disprove both. He quotes 12 PreluDe from the Quarterly Journal of The Geological So- ciety that if the sun were a variable star, a general diminution of heat could never produce a glacial period. It has been shown by Prof. Airy, Sir Wm. Thompson and others that the earth's equatorial protuberance is such that no geological change on its surface, such as the uprising of large mountain masses on some part of the earth's surface, could ever alter the position of the axis of rotation to an extent which could at all sensibly affect climate. It has been demonstrated that it requires great strength to change the axis of even a bicycle wheel when rotating like a gyroscope at a very great ve- locity, so that any change in the parallelism of the earth's axis is also inadmissible and we are com- pelled to seek for an explanation of the glacial period outside of the earth's surface. The general law of gravitation as discovered and taught by Sir Isaac Newton is connected with many difficulties in the explanation of the mechanical order of the celestial universe: The law of gravi- tation alone would bring all matter to a final rest and into one solid mass. Some other law draws the earth from its perihelion to aphelion, a distance of about three millions of miles from the sun. A great number of comets rush through the Solar System, passing through the orbits of the planets, driving headforemost toward the sun and then sweep out again into boundless space. Sir John Herschell says, "If we have to deal here with matter such as we conceive it, that is possessing 13 PreluUe inertia at all, it must be under the dominion of forces incomparably more energetic than gravita- tion, and quite of a different nature." He further says, "There is, beyond question, some profound secret and mystery of nature concerned in this phe- nomenon." The sun with its North and South poles is the central magnet of all planets and comets compos- ing the Solar System, and all of the spheres that move around the sun are in like manner magnetic at their poles, and by their attraction and repulsion are forced into elliptical orbits by passing the aclinic line at the plane of the sun's equator, while their differing inclinations accord with their varying den- sities and distances from the sun. In his "Ice work past and present," Dr. Bonney shows that there is no snow field, nor glacier on earth at the present time, that affords a key to the glacial epoch. The change in the temperature of the earth necessary to produce the glacial period must have resulted from the sun and earth at one time having been in some different position from that which they now sustain to each other; the present time of the earth's rotation, the obliquity of its orbit, together with its mean distance from the sun could not have produced the immense con- tinental ice sheets that at one time covered or floated over nearly every part of the surface of the earth. Neither revelation nor science teaches that the earth and sun came into existence as distinct spheres at the same time. That they belonged to one great original mass is both a matter of faith and a deduc- 14 pteluDe tion of reason. That the sun first assumed a spher- ical form because less dense than the earth is not difficult of belief. That the primal mass of the celestial universe was once in a gaseous state before being separated into stars, planets, constellations and systems is altogether probable. And also that after their separation into stars and planets they were at first at vastly greater distances from each other than at the present time. If they were as highly electrical and as magnetic then as they are now, following the known laws of electrical magnetism, they could not have ap- proached each other if the planes of their equators had been the same, because their north poles would have repelled each other. In order that the sun and earth could have approached each other, the poles of one of the two spheres must have been re- versed north and south of the planes of their equa- tors ; because the north pole of a magnet attracts the south pole of a magnet and the south pole attracts the north pole. If their equators had been on the same plane and their poles opposed, north to north and south to south, the two spheres would then have moved away from each other, and by their magnetic repulsion would have continued to move apart to infinite dis- tances as long as their equators remained upon the same plane. The more directly one sphere had been above or beneath the other the greater would have been the attraction of their poles. If the south pole of the earth had been directly above the north pole of the 15 sun, then the whole southern hemisphere of the earth would have received both light and heat from the sun, and at the same time the northern hemi- sphere would have been enveloped in darkness, while the climate of the Arctic regions would have reached down to the equator. If our globe had been south of the sun in space, which the greater density of the earth would lead us to suppose, then the northern hemisphere would have received both the light and heat of the sun, and the North Polar regions would have been the warmest place on the earth, the latitudes of the Zones would have been inverted; the Torrid Zone would have been in the Arctic Circle and the Tem- perate Zone would have reached nearly to the equator, while the whole southern hemisphere would have been enveloped in an endless night and colder than the Arctic regions have ever been. The density of the earth being so much greater than the density of the sun, we may reasonably conclude that the plane of its original orbit was far down in space, and that its North Pole was under the South Pole of the sun. This position of the two bodies would account for the luminosity and warmth of the northern hemisphere, and the lux- uriant vegetation that once covered the Arctic re- gions. We may suppose that for ages the sun had been drawing the plane of the orbit of the earth slowly upward toward itself, and at the same time grad- ually contracting the immense orbit in which it moved, and producing on the northern hemisphere 16 ptelu&e one continuous season; its orbital time being the sum total of the precession of the equinoxes. No such an effect as a day or night, or a change of season could have been produced until the plane of the earth's orbit had risen so high as to produce a shadow on the northern hemisphere on the side of the earth opposite the sun. Nor could any season of Spring, Autumn or Winter have occurred until the plane of the earth's equator had passed, above the equator of the sun, until that had happened the northern hemisphere would have glowed with light and heat, and vege- tation would have covered the northern hemisphere to the pole ; man's age would have equaled a thou- sand of our years in a climate as mild as we may imagine to have existed a few degrees north of the equator. The southern hemisphere would have been in- volved in original and native darkness, a little north and south of the equator there would have been one broad zone of perpetual twilight, making one everlasting morning and evening combined. There would have been one continuous sheet of ice from the equator to the South Pole; the icy equatorial margin of the southern hemisphere would have been constantly thawing and melting and would have formed a continuous river around the circumference of the earth at the equator; this end- less river moving with an ever flowing tide around the earth, would have belted it at the equator with a wide sea of waters, ever increasing, and increas- ing the more as the orbit of the earth contracted and 17 PreluOe its plane conformed more and more to the plane of the equator of the sun. The mighty tide of annular waters would swell and break over the north hemispheric continent in rivers extending northward, at first like great in- land bays, then with relentless eddying tides, cut- ting channels and forming rivers that forced their ways into the north polar regions, then sinking and disappearing into subterranean beds, or returning on high currents of wind in vaporous mists and clouds to be wafted southward in perpetual storms of snow that spread all over the southern hemi- sphere, forming a hemispheric glacier whose move- ment was always northward, pushing from the South Pole northward to the equator, and protrud- ing into the equatorial river, breaking from its lofty mountainous heights at the equator into immense icebergs, hurling them into the endless tide and sweeping with wondrous velocity around the earth, or stranding upon the northern continental shore, melting and tempering to coldness the zone of equa- torial twilight. The shades of death would have rested upon the southern shores of the endless river; all below would have been perpetual snow and ice that colder and deeper grew; here lay the Hades of the an- cients; land devoid of life, for the solid ice rested on the granite rocks beneath ; here was the abode of the dead, around which Oceanus with endless tide defied the adventurous spirit of man; from this river an ever-rising mist arose and was wafted on low currents of wind and borne northward and 18 PreluDe watered with dew the face of the earth, or with currents of wind moving in from all directions, car- rying the fast congealing fogs and mists in per- petual storms of snow, to fall all over the southern hemisphere throughout the long night of death and silence that hung over the lower half of the globe. As the orbit of the earth contracted and ap- proached nearer and nearer the sun, the plane of its orbit rose higher and higher, until the light and heat of the sun reached the southern hemisphere of the planet, then the vast hemispheric ice-field began to melt, and on its surface, bounded only by the earth's equator, its waters began to flow and surge, forming huge basins and seas that grew into oceans, washing their beds deeper and deeper, and at last making their way down through the great ice depths to the underlying granite and then working underneath the ice continent northward, forming innumerable subglacial rivers which, forcing their ways underneath the huge ice sheet to- the great equatorial waters, ground the surface of the granite beneath into till, or washing out from their granite beds subglacial moraines, carrying the till to the wide sea at the equator, whose ever westward rolling tide flowed into the rivers running north- ward, carrying with it in solution the till washed out from beneath the ice continent. As the sun and earth approached nearer and nearer, days and years shortened, and the heat in- creasing melted faster and faster the hemispheric ice, until the waters above and beneath lifted and broke it into continental ice fields, caused by the 19 attraction of the moon and the centrifugal force of the earth's rotation, broke over the lofty ice coast at the equator, rushing- northward deluged the north hemispheric continent, pushed and mauled its way to the Arctic regions, superposing plains or ruffling them into mountains, burying uprooted forests upon forests, carrying on their gigantic icy ploughshares immense piles of granite torn from their deep, ancient sea beds, or lifting with their icy bases the imbedded rocks upon which they had rested for ages. There can be no other basis upon which to con- struct an hypothesis that will solve the mystery of the glacial epoch than that of some relation formerly existing between the sun and the earth. The rays of the sun doubtless produced the heat known once to have existed within the Arctic regions and upon the northern hemisphere. Any change in the parallelism of the earth's axis at any point on the plane of its orbit, in connection with the planet's relation to the sun, would have resulted in disaster to the globe, or would have failed to produce the heat in the northern hemi- sphere, especially in the Arctic regions, that we know to a certainty once existed there. But if we assume that the plane of the earth's entire orbit was at one time beneath the South Pole of the sun, the earth would have maintained the present parallelism of its axis with itself, at every point on its orbit, as it does at the present time, only a difference of the angle of its orbital inclina- tion, which we must assume to have gradually in- 20 prelufte clined from the horizontal to its present inclina- tion of 23 degrees and 27 minutes. When the earth's axis was perpendicular to its orbit, it would have received the direct rays of the sun upon its northern hemisphere, with its intensest heat at the pole, which would have gradually dim- inished down to the equator, while at the same time the twilight at the equator would have increased in darkness until the whole southern hemisphere would have been involved in deepest night and the heat would have gradually diminished from the cool at- mosphere at the equator, becoming gradually cooler in each descending latitude until an absolute zero would have prevailed over nearly all of the south- ern hemisphere, which would have been perma- nently frozen down to the granite beneath. The moisture arising from a north hemispheric continent, and especially from the waters at the equator, would have produced a ceaseless storm of snow over the entire southern hemisphere. At the present time the annual snow fall is thirty feet deep within the antarctic circle, increasing gradually from its ice coast to the South Pole. The diameter of the antarctic ice sheet or continent is generally believed to extend on an average from the South Pole down to about 70 degrees. "In round numbers/' Dr. G. Frederick Wright says, "we may make the diameter of this continent 2,800 miles; the distance from the edge of this ice cap to its center, the South Pole, will therefore be 1,400 miles. The whole of this continent, like Greenland, is undoubtedly covered with one con- 21 tinuous sheet of ice, gradually thickening inward from its edge to its center; a slope of one degree continued 1,400 miles will give 24 miles as the thick- ness of the ice at the South Pole, and there is no reason to believe that the thickness of the antarctic ice is less than that which covered the temperate regions during the glacial epoch." Sir James Ross says, during his exploration of the antarctic regions the current carrying moisture moves in from all directions toward the pole, con- sequently the area becomes less and less as the pole is reached, and this must increase to a correspond- ing extent the quantity of snow falling upon a given area. Captain Wilkes, of the American Exploring Ex- pedition, estimated the annual antarctic snow fall at 30 feet per annum. The assumption that the whole southern hemisphere was one continuous ice sheet under the conditions already mentioned does not seem to be too bold. The mechanical harmony of the universe is left undisturbed. It violates no principle of modern science, nor contradicts any fact of revelation; the glacial epoch is a marvelous fact, too great to be passed over lightly either from a scientific or religious point of view. That the "fountains of the great deep" were once broken up, both revelation and science affirm ; that man was preglacial none can doubt; that the earth was formed long before it received its present seasons from the sun is a fact of which revelation in its very first utterance clearly speaks, and with which science is in perfect accord. That the aus- 22 picious moment of the glacial epoch was foreknown, and of which man was duly warned is a fact in profound harmony with the moral government of God. 23 JFotegleam Could we but fix the point in space where matter first appeared, And from that central point an endless radius pro- ject afar, And from that center sweep an orbit's plane to far- thest space, The bound'ry of the universe would seem a trifling thing compared. How vast is space! Its emptiness how true, and how profound! How insignificant was matter in its primal state Ere God with mathematical exactness gave it form ! What values motion, light and life imparted to the mass! And when the frigid crystal mass, warmed by om- nipotence Was shaped into a sphere of liquid gases dense within, With outward press, of outer stratum vaporous and bright, Rotating swift, with lines of force vibrating from each pole, And forming polar spheres of light with less ro- tating speed, 25 jforegleant Thus myriads of suns were mothered from her northern face. When matter was imbued with thought and force divine, With differing of size, of density, of speed and light, Formed constellations shining now with first cre- ated light. How insignificant appears the dark, profound and lifeless space! With what precision move the swiftest spheres, What harmony of place ! Whose orbits never touch, where suns in order move, Where planets never wander from their paths con- fused. But all display the order of a single mind omni- potent and good ; Fit thought for minds of highest cast and souls of mold divine. 26 Romance of the Universe. PART I. SONG OF ALCYONE. Once Morpheus crossed my path, in dreams, where space and night Enclose creation's bounds; I asked him what is space ? How deep, how wide, its height; how far extends the night, And where the star lights end? To me he thus replied : "Once boundless space I pierced through upward realms of night, Beyond and twice as far as through creation's bounds ; Returning went below where blackness stopped my flight, Intensest cold and night, and found no bottom there. Returning eastward soared, three-score of brilliant suns 27 Romance of tfje Omiiem Had paled 'ere I returned, then westward soared afar, While thirty times their rounds the polar stars had gone; The whole creation seemed an isle 'gainst which the waves Of coldest, blackest night on every side o'erlapped. The farthest bounds I reached in east, or west or up Or down to lowest depths, creation's mass of stars Which I had left, to me, in distance seemed at first A single brilliant sun; immense beyond compare; Then as I rode through night, through shoreless, distant space, It seemed a twinkling star ; I went until its light Was lost ; then seen, now lost ; then fear that I was lost Caused me to poise on wing, and wait to catch a ray; A single trembling beam came to me through the night; I turned and homeward sped ; again amidst the stars I noted from their change the time and distance gone. Each stroke I winged a full light year in all my flights And found no verge to space, but farther, deeper night. Like lakes without a wave, like seas without a tide, So space without a world, and night without a star, 28 Eomance of tht Unitomt Asleep, blind, dumb, in voids embraced, in silence lay. Nor hum of moving worlds, nor song of shining stars, Nor voice of angel, man or God to break the still That rules o'er boundless space and everlasting night. Invoke no muse but thought; The thought Divine, on man bestowed; Prophetic thought the future vast explores, The present comprehends, stands there, Or backward turns; finds out the past, And ponders o'er creation's work." Turn back prophetic thought. Behold The night that lay eternal on The breast of space, and from its depths To loftiest heights, pervades the void With uncreated, native night. Without a star or ray of light; When naught existed; form nor life; Nor matter; all was empty space; All dark and thick as Egypt's curse. No sun nor planet yet was made To measure time; the evening that Was long before created morn. How long the age of darkness was 29 Romance of tfte Untiamz Before created matter came. Unreas'ning space can never tell; Unreas'ning darkness is too dumb ; None but the lofty mind of God Can tell the ages that had passed Before the purposed works Divine Took shape in suns, or stars, that glow And measure time on spheres that run In orbits vast, or axes turn. Eternal night, beginning date of time; Is there not yet in space some mighty realm Where light has never yet in glory shone ; Some starless, sunless, lifeless outer bound Where night has always, light has never been? Where wandering stars with lights eclipsed are lost, Where planets in their endless orbits move Without a lumined spot from self or sun, Or lights from distant stars, whose rays return Reflected from the banks of blackened clouds That shore around creation's work ; Like Noah's dove return from weary quest To find the bounding line or brink of space? Beyond the margin of creation's work, Beyond the glorious lights of suns and stars, In outer darkness, old and wornout suns As black as sack cloth, systemless and cold, With shattered stars and lifeless worlds abound; 30 Romance of tfte anttocrse These all move in the unresisting void Of endless night, in outer darkness move; As lightning's flash the darkness deeper makes, These once resplendent orbs, now doomed to night, Shall never shine again, but wander on Still farther from the mighty spheres of light To blacker shades, where law disordered reigns, In night; eternal night, that fled and hid Creation's mystery, nor tells the place, Nor time, when matter first took force and form, Or when the first light rays in splendor shone. How grand the concept of a God Who planned the ways that matter came; In silent ages of His thought Conceived the shapes of rolling spheres, And weighed the mass of circling stars; Mapped constellations yet unformed; Set bounds too vast for human minds Throughout the uncreated space, That antedated cosmic life. Superior mind existed first; And ever since its forms control; The plastic mould, or lightning's flash Obeys the mind, on sea, on land ; In battle's roar, in commerce growth; Who doubts that mind existed first Denies a God omnipotent. 31 Romance o( t&e Onitierse Was mind of matter born? Or was Invention first? First purposed plan In constellations of the stars, Then historicity of man. Man thinks, invents, he plows the soil ; The seas, the air, wide furrows all; Discovers continents, then plants A nation, and defies the drouth, The famine, foes ashore, asea; Unfurls a flag that wins against The ancient tyrants of the race. No work of art, or marble made Like God or man, or angel like, Can think; 'Tis not in clay to think. The urn, the vase, are formed with thought; 'Twas thought that tempered first the clay That whirled around on pedalled disk, The skillful hand within, without, Gave elegance of shape with thought. So matter shaped by thought Divine Took form in Suns and Worlds and Men. If space or darkness could but speak These silent witnesses might tell Both when and how creation came ; Each blind and dumb immersed the worlds First made; then Space astonished stood; And radiant, shined with stars; While darkness fled, and ever flies 32 Romance of tfie SJnitierse In terror from created light, Flies swift to reach the doubtful verge Of space, or hides behind the Earth And kindred planets as they turn To eastward suns, ashamed of night. The evening first, and cold the space Where matter first in gaseous form Congealed, or liquid seas of gas Rose, swift and high above the mass That lay in frozen beds below; Low down in space, in boundless depths The denser masses lay congealed. Upon the surface high in space The liquid ocean roared when moved; When moved by power divine the light, From liquid Hydrogen aglow, A rosy chromosphere shone forth; Like solar spectrum, all its lines The first created light possessed. The mighty mass extending wide Through space on all its surface glowed; The solid frozen mass ablaze In liquid form, and round, a sphere; All matter in one massive orb, That cloudless glowed, and warm, and grew More limpid, vaporous and bright; One mighty axis with its poles Magnetic like the stars and worlds. 33 Romance of tfte GXnitoM This mighty sphere within itself Contained all suns, all systems, too. The morn had come and night had fled, The long eternal night had passed; And long the morning, that first dawned On matter shone; resplendent far, Far out in space ; forever shines ; In distant space, in ether waves. First morn of mornings; light of lights; Day one; eve first, and then the morn. Day first that liquified the mass That formed the first of all the stars; The star that all the stars contained; From which the hosts of heaven were made. O ponderous mass; in darkness born; Then robed in light, inherent light ; Called forth from frigid gases like The moving zones, that on the sun Move slow; and slower, slower still. Hail morn of light, divinely good, The first created good of God; The good from which all goodness grows; Imparted to invented light; Drives vice from cities dark with crime ; Our safeguard in the dreaded night; The light house beacon from the shore Gleams seaward far to lead to port ; Great good that drives the stars through space; 34 i&omattce of tU dnftierge That warms the planets north, then south, And gives the seasons to our earth; Gives fruits and climes and changing joys. One primal mass all matter lay- Pro foundly deep in space and cold, And frozen adamantine hard; While on its surface glowed the light, An epoch called in time first day, The tides of gas flowed o'er its face And lurid vapors shot afar Like flames of solar photosphere; Our solar system glows with light Akin to that which first was made. The liquid gases on the sun Now run in currents swift and slow; Above, the liquid hydrogen; Below, the turbid carbon flows, And forms the rosy chromosphere, That glows, and sends the ether rays That pierce to Neptune, or are lost In depths of space, or may perchance Oft glisten on an angel's wing. The hydrogen and gases all To the unchanging laws conform, If found on earth, on sun, the same As when created light first shone. The sun is cold as hydrogen; As cold as carbon's liquid stream ; 35 Komance of tfte Unixmu All these are cold in liquid form; And these were all in darkness hid Before the vap'rous light appeared, Until 'twas said, "Let there be Light!" Light rays the primal mass first moved And formed a sphere ; Its axis made ; The mighty globe through ages moved; Rotating first, its orbit ran ; Not measured by the stars we see. Behold the primal mass from which The host of countless stars were made. The polar, triple star, the first was made A type of God; a trinity. The central star, immense, commands Two outer common centered stars, Which swing around each other's self And then around the polar star ; Forever toward the east they run With plane and orbit each the same. In that first day, first morn of light, In which the primal mass first moved Rotated fast, in orbit slow; Whose time a thousand, thousand years; The day when gases liquid ran O'er its vast surface vaporized; Dense cold within, the surface glowed With incandescent flames that leaped 36 Romance of tfje (3m r tiet0e Far out in space like tongues of fire ; The lines of force the surface ran From pole to pole, from North to South, And drove the lighter vapors north, Around the upper pole they come; From equatorial lines they crowd And form another sphere above; The primal axis spinning slow, They twist apart, the star first born Moves in an orbit of its own; Inclining to the denser mass ; Rotating slower, as it moves Upon its downward spiral path To reach the depths of space below. With slower axis, swifter speed The mass pursues its orbit round, While lines of force drive vapors north, Another sphere, just like the first; Twists ofif an axis of its own; Pursues an orbit more inclined. Again and yet again, new spheres Form on the northern pole ; and move In orbits new ; the mass below Inclines their planes, from points along The spiral path they downward take; With lesser orbits greater speed ; The denser mass rotating slow, And slower, as the spheres are formed. 37 Romance of tfjc Ottfoettfe And swifter in their orbits move; And lesser distance, days and years. They downward, denser, swifter move; Until expanded into stars; Each mass divides and spreads o'er space, In constellated stars that shine, Where darkness reigned o'er boundless voids, Whose lights swell out, and try in vain To reach the darkness that once veiled, And held in night, the mighty mass From which the shining worlds were made. The denser planets in their turn Break off from Axes like the suns, Neptune and Uranus at once Unite their Axes ere they part, And bend, and break, and retrogade; Then in their orbits slowly run; Are balanced by the denser mass. Which spins off Saturn and the Moons. From either polar hemisphere The rings of Saturn rose or fell, Around the line aclinic poise; Centrifugal move round their orb, Erewhile that planet's poles are flat, Erewhile equators' plane expands. Three spheres, one axis all rotate; In times unlike, their axes stretch, The upper sphere is Jupiter; 38 Romance of tH &nww The denser mass descends, divides, The Asteroids and Mars are formed. The mass now subdivides again, Three spheres one axis turn, then part; The Earth, and Venus, Mercury With triple axis eastward turn. In variant times rotate, revolve; The Moons that retrogade or rise, Or fall, above and then below The planes on which they make their nodes, Are like the storms, whose centers whirl, Reversed when north, when south on Earth; 'Tis more than gravitation's power To make directions for the winds; Magnetic fields and lines of force The satellites drew north, or south, Then in their orbits move to right, Or left, around their primal spheres. Inverted cone-shaped spiral path These spheres pursued from upper space, Then formed a group of radiant worlds; Without the sun, or other lights; Self-luminous from their northern poles Each glowed to its equator's plane. Moored by the polar star they swung Suspended o'er stupendous depths Of virgin space, in cycles swung. 39 Romance of tfte Onitoetae The rays of light forever drive Aurora's clouds to Arctic Fields; Thus once the earth, without the sun, Glowed o'er her northern hemisphere With radiant light and tropic heat; Her southern hemisphere was ice; There everlasting night had reigned, No sun had pierced Antarctic cold; 'Twas Hades; land devoid of life; The ancient's hell, the dead's abode; A hemisphere of mount'nous ice; Whose margin round an endless stream That surged and flowed, which Charon crossed. So stood the world, long lived the race; Man's age a thousand of our years, The northern hemisphere was like An endless summer, winterless, Without a sun, without a night, A constant day, unsetting stars, A moon more luminous, whose plane Was to the earth's equator north; No season but Aurora's clime And Stars that never rose or set ; Until the sun drew from her course The earth; reduced her orbit vast, Reduced her day, reduced her year And changed the climate north to south, No solar power her axis moved ; 40 Bomance of tfte UtiitotM True to the polar star it stands While yet a captive to the sun. The solar rays the south pole reach, With summers of immeasured times, And melt the southern hemisphere; From south to north vast fields of ice Surge o'er Atlantis' fields and change The northern hemisphere and clime. Eurasia felt their icy grasp, And isles that lay in every zone, America both north and south ; And Africa from south to north Was plowed by power omnipotent; The ice work spread o'er all the earth, From Arctic to Antarctic poles; From highest mountain peak to vale That lay between the lowest crags; These all were grazed or glacier held; Moraines, and lakes, and river beds, And strata, of new continents, Still bear the marks of ice that naught But one whole hemisphere could hold. Low hung the orbit of the earth Beneath the sun's magnetic round; He drew her orbit round himself; Diminished it; and drew the earth From space below, and slowly warmed Her southern hemisphere, and broke 41 Romance of ttie CHntoetffe The icy crust that lay in folds From earth's equator south to pole. Earth's north was chilled; the Sun then made The seasons, days, the years and zones. First, seasons of a thousand years ; Since, years and months and days as now ; Then, forests in a summer grew Ere winter's frost had touched their leaves; The flora grew in summers long To form the strata of our coal ; A winter of six thousand years ; A spring as long of thaw and rain ; That deluged long with ice and snow, And mud, and drift, and gravel beds The frozen flora lying deep, That formed the coal that glows with heat In hearths, and spins the dynamos Of light and power; our latest help On land, on sea, in peace, in war. Through many thousand years the sun Drew captive from its ancient round, Marked by precession's changing nodes, Or by the round of polar stars, And lifted from the deep, our world; Her orbit old elliptic changed; Now north, now south of Sun her poles Attract, repel ; aclinic line Still marks her motion swift or slow; 42 Komance of tfjc Unitoem The mighty magnet lifts earth up, Then hurls her eastward, downward, near Her native depth in starless space. In northern summer sun's south pole Magnetic draws Earth's northern pole, Then swift ascending passes far Beyond the sun, whose northern pole Draws back the earth, whose orbit speed Increases ere the winter ends. Like captive moons of Jupiter, Or comets Jove had long enslaved, The sun had captured all his host, Which once revolved in orbits vast Beyond a comet's widest bound. Resplendent at their northern poles They moved afar in maiden space; At last they wandered 'neath the sun, Whose rays right angled to their course, Dispersed from all their northern lights And lifted up the group of spheres; Whose orbits to their axes bend. A denser mass than all the stars ; Of all the host the farthest down; Descending farthest, deeper still Were captured, rescued by the sun And from the "Black Coal Sack" escaped And to the triple star ascend; The pole of all Magnetic poles; 43 Romance of tbt Untomt The whole celestial sphere around Its axis moves, and round the earth's, In blazing constellations move, Reclimb the spiral path they came, Expand to orbits once they ran, Around the polar axis close, Dismantled suns congeal and blend, With awful pressure weld in one; Once more, one mass creation makes, One mass contains all suns all worlds ; A sun composed of all the stars And all the worlds or planets made, With fearful lights that flash and fade, That fade away and darker grow, And clothed in sack-cloth groans and dies; Space rends her robes of glorious lights And darkness wraps her shroud around Dissolving worlds ; return to naught ; Return to void and native night. 44 PART II. SONG OF RAPHAEU. After matter formed in darkness, After motion was imparted, After light illumined space, Night on westward sides of planets, Or to distant space had vanished, All creation being finished, Angels later to inhabit, Were created to complete it. God to prove to all the Angels Pre-existent power and person, Sends creation with its peoples, On a mission, wide space searching, To discover if there could be Other Gods, or worlds existent. Then the constellations sweeping Space in all directions, upward, 45 Romance of t&e Onitoerge Down beneath the distant star lights, Eastward, in a spiral movement, Searching with its massive sun lights, Walls of darkness, floors of midnight; Sun to sun their signals flying God is one ! There's none beside Him. Advancing Angels lead, And flank the moving mass Of comets, worlds and stars, And ride on full orbed suns, That comet-like in space Move swift to search the night; In vain they seek for worlds, Or other Gods than One. From evening first, and morn, Creation's host of stars, In cycles, moves through space, Whose darkness opens, swells, Like some great ship that sails And vanishes at sea, And leaves behind a wake Of mingled lights and shades, That beat on fading shores, Or like the setting sun, Receding splendors glow Through gloomy boundless space, In dazzling tints and shades, 46 Romance of tie Glntoetge While Azure streamers paint The reapproaching shades of night; Or like the spray, the bow Throws up in silv'ry mist, While phosphorescent flames Retreating shades illume. Thus its advancing lights Seem like eternal dawn, Or closer, like the morn, Then like the rising sun. The constellations vast Swell through the opening space With glorious shades and lights Which in the wake again Fade in oblivious night. The splendor of the stars That leads creation's march In grand parade through space, As searchlights, shines in vain To find some dreamy shore, Or to discover worlds Made by some other God. There is no other God; Nor matter formed, or in Its unformed gaseous state. Creation is but one, And one creative God. The telescope has searched 47 Romance of tl)t anfoerse Where Angel hosts have been, Perhaps where none have winged In flight, or rode on stars ; Has searched and only found One great celestial sphere, That ceaseless rolls through void, And boundless, virgin space. Perfect God was, being allwise; Yet unfolding matter, order, Beings, higher laws for Angels; Moral beings who obedient, Placed in first estate in Heaven, Ranked from God to lowest subject; Made in countless millions instant; None were born, but like the raindrops Shower-like fell from God's own presence. Made immediate, full endowered, Powers all perfect, minds full vigored, Wise by instinct, good by nature; All assigned estates, dominions, Principalities and kingdoms, Heavenly places keeping, caring; Duties higher than man's present, None with birth, nor growth maturing, None with sex nor birth relation, None with powers endued increasing, Nor with age nor care declining ; All with forms majestic, perfect 48 Romance of tfte Mnitotm Reasoning, God-like from first moment, They appeared in countless numbers; All in rank, created orders; No probation, nor promotion, Each his place and station given, Fixed eternal from creation, Independent, none competing. Unlike man, who, ever striving, Like a swimmer strikes to live ; Bread nor rest, nor care, nor dying, Time, nor night, nor toil, nor slumber ; Each eternal rank and duty, From their first existent moment Went to service, God's will seeing. From each sphere their hosts were swarming, Countless stars, whose populations, Each in moral brilliance shining, Showing forth their natures God-like ; Stars his power eternal showing; They the grandure of his nature. Happy with divine approval, And with conscience always prompting, Like the hosts of Sinai serving, From the laws on granite graven, Not through love, by law obedient; To obedient source of comfort; Law and conscience each approving; Law offended knows no mercy ; Law and mercy ever strangers, 49 Romance of tht &nft)et*e Only meet through intercessors ; Law in Israel sin condemning, Breaking of the first commandment Broke the tables, brought down judgment Law to men may prompt repentance; Turn transgressors to Redeemer. In law there is no love, in love no law; Each thing of birth within itself hath love, Inherent law hath each created thing. The thing once born hath chance to generate ; Regenerating man is wise, is just; No angel had a birth, nor born again ; Remaking angels, wisdom, justice lacks; To re-create identity is lost. The mighty Angel host that swarms the skies, With conscience, memory, and judgment clear, With approbativeness, were all endowed; But love was never to the angels given; All lack the God-gift image found in man. In individual sameness all were made; Not one was born, nor felt the flame of love. Where generation is, there only love exists ; Of offspring love is born, in God, in man. God loves because His son and He are one; And through the Son begets a host of sons; Partakers of his nature and his throne. Love equals all as heirs, in honor, joy. In image God-like man begets and loves. 50 Eomatue of tbt Omiietse Where love is not, is weak, expiring, dies, Redemption is not there. The power is gone. Fear or love, not angel nature ; Man a later, lower creature, Made more God-like, these possessing; Angel-like with conscience serving, But with love the basic motive; Angel's service based on conscience, Conscience only, and offending Finds no motive for obeying. Law and conscience alienated Stand divorced while both exist; Hence their sin found no atonement, No Redeemer and no love power That could pardon and reclaim. What strange motive led the angels From their first estate to fall? Not ambition; they were highest, All possessing, first estates theirs Naught to wish, nor want, nor fear. God was One and in revealing Him, the Son, the uncreated; Uncreated but begotten, This they doubting, made rebellion. When the hosts were called for worship He who ranked them, first rebelling, 51 Romance of tht Oniiiew Kneel he would not, nor permitting Legions whom he had commanded, "Worship not the Son begotten." Angels, man-like, unbelieving, This the first and greatest God truth That the Father had revealed; Even angels with their reason Like mankind could disbelieve, Disbelieving, disobeying ; Fell that instant from their glory. Long before prophetic angels, Antetypes of men prophetic, Had announced to all the angels, That their worship must be given To the Only Son begotten Of the Father, His own equal, Brightness of the Father's glory, He the living God's own image. Seated on the throne eternal, Waiting to receive the homage Of the hosts by Him created, And approve and praise their service. Lucifer, First Lord of Angels, Ruler of the sun most eastward, Morning star whose splendor brightest Led creation in its movement. 52 =j Bomance of tfte Onitoetae He the chief est prince of angels, Of the heavenly hosts commander, In defiance would not worship, The begotten only Godson. Unbelief inspired his legions Principalities made vacant, By the angels then at worship, Rebels seizing in their absence Their estates and honors taking; Having left their own possessions These preferred to show defiance; Emphasized in pride their protest. Like the Hebrews, who on Dura, Would not bow, but twice refusing; They with lofty faith and courage; These Almighty God defying. Then like Korah and his servants Rebel hosts with stars possessing Sank to depths below creation ; Instant darkness all encompassed And descending down to hell. Wandering stars whose populations Doomed to wander until judgment, In the mists of darkness wander Until men, depraved, and risen Vindicate the ways of justice Governing both men and angels ; 53 Romance of tbt Omtoetse Shall together meet in judgment For transgression or obedience; Each receiving righteous judgment, Men and angels meet in judgment, Fellow sinners, but not equals; One 'gainst light in holy places, In rebellion God defying; Treason highest contemplating; Vast dominions seizing; warring; Loyal angels captive taking; Driven to the gate of God's court Hosts unused to war ; retreating ; Falling back to peaceful places ; Raging angels camped around them; Fire from God dispersed and drove them To their own courts which were darkened ; Orbits changed to outer darkness; Doomed to outer space and midnight; Doomed to downward space to wander Until man is called to judgment. Under sentence their complaint is, "God hath made them with volition," "That was weakness in the Godhead," "Making angels free in choosing" "Good or evil ; making conscience" "Basic motive in performing" "Every service, highest, lowest," "Every angel lowest, highest," 54 Romance of tfce UniMmz "Free in serving, or in sinning." "God's unwisdom; not ordaining" "Angels' first estate in heaven;" "And predestinating ever" "Their created God-like natures." "God in folly, granting all things, "Naught denying, ever giving;" "New estates creating for them," "Constellations ever making" "For their wonder, joy and pleasure." "Too indulgent in his goodness," "Never showing anger, fury," "Holy tranquil, ever loving;" "Too familiar with His nature." "Too exalted in position," "Too much greatness thrust upon them," "God unseen and never knowing" "What the measure of His power." Their presumption seeming sinless, Until wrath and indignation Thundered, shaking Heaven's pillars, Drops its dome to Hell's foundation; Overcaps, imprisons rebels, In the pit of darkness swallowed, Downward, deeper, farther in the Thick and miry night eternal; Ever murm'ring while descending "Warned we were not, God's injustice" 55 Romance erf tbt Ontoem "Doomed and damned us while in anger." "Had he made us less in glory/' "More denied us, more restrained us;" "Ruled with statute laws in rigor," "Conscienceless without volition," "Made to serve, not rule in Heaven;" "Chanceless then of Hell or judgment." "If he had the future foreseen" "Where the wisdom in our making?" "Where his goodness in creating?" "What injustice in volition," "Moral freedom based on conscience," "Being given finite creatures?" "God endowed and independent," "Without conscience, obligation," "Either Godward, or to Angels," "Then endowing with volition," "That were justice after wisdom." "Or had God foreseen transgression," "He should then with force prevent it." "That were wisdom after justice." "Cursed be glory, with volition," "Cursed be greatness, with such freedom," "Cursed be God with all His goodness" "That begot presumption's sin." Thus blaspheming angels murmured At the judgment that befell them. 56 Romance of tHe Onfuewe God to vindicate His goodness, Wisdom, justice of His ways, Man creates, in God-like image; Lower than the lowest angel, Not pure spirit like the angels, But part clay, of sense with matter, Soul to earth, to heaven kindred. Crowned with love as well as conscience Warned by law of love, and death fear; Moved with faith, and hope and honors; Motives matchless, only God known, Not to angels, but man seeing Seeks for glory, honors future ; That which angels lost, surpassing; And in gaining justifying Judgment passed upon the angels. High enthronement justifying Low creation, and temptation, Fiery trials. Hell's collusion, Warranting his exaltation, Destined man to higher places, Sonship, heirship, kingly powers. When complaint was made by angels fallen At the justice, wisdom, goodness, power Manifested in creating angel greatness, God made man a moral likeness of His weakness; Dropped his habitation next to Hell's dominions, And permitted legions of the evil spirits 57 Romance of tfce Unitottst Man to try, supported with the angel graces. Satan Job had tempted, and was foiled by power Once possessed by Satan in his innocency. Back of angel conscience was the Holy Spirit, Crown of conscience, God-like, or in angel; Man, the weakest moral creature God created Was supported by the power that angels Were endowed with in the instant of creation. Appetites and senses of the body made him With his intellect and moral sense combining, Deepest study for the angels, bad or holy. Holy angels, ministers of goodness, downward Came to man, engaging in the holy conflict, Angels stood about the gates of Eden guarding; Evil spirits incarnated lower creatures, Unsuspected entered Eden, ate to fullness From the tree forbidden ; thriving and uninjured Fed from day to day. 'Twas neither death nor poison ; Bees, the nectar from its blossoms daily sipping, Birds of song, and beauteous plumage, morn and evening In its shadows sang and ate delicious russets, Creeping things and insects, fowls and beasts four- footed, With enjoyment feasted, fattened on its virtues; Not to them was it forbidden; human conscience Making, prompting gratitude from prohibition; 58 Eomatue of tht dm'toem The denial of but one thing voiced God's goodness. Bounty of the air, and bounty of the water, Bounty of the mountains, valleys, fields, trees, fruits, herbs; Herds of sheep and horses, cattle for possessions; Heir to earth and sea, the skies and stars in future ; All dominion his, possessor, and the God heir; Made the destined monarch of the worlds forth- coming ; Head of earth's creation and of kings immortal; The predestined future judges of the angels; Now the lowest, but predestined to be Greatest in the future; joint heir with the highest; On probation! In the garden Eden caring; Smiles obedience at the tree forbidden, grateful For his vast possessions; hopeful in the future For translation to the promised higher Eden. In the earthly Eden dwelling, Lying in the north terrestrial, From the pole to the equator Glowed Aurora's daylight. Trees of Eden ever blooming, Fragrant, fruitful, lofty, towering; The Sequoia in the Arctic Interlocked its boughs and branches, Making arches frilled with climbers; Blossoming with flowers tropic, Herbs and grasses, living verdure 59 Romance of tiie Ontoem Like a carpet spread o'er Eden; Neither mire nor dust, nor desert ; Fountains gushing for the creatures, Drinking, roaming free and gentle. Four great rivers flowing northward From Oceanus arising, From the equatorial river, Mystic river of the ancients, Flowed four rivers toward the Arctic ; Flowed the Ganges and the Indus, The Euphrates and Missouri, Flowing to the goldland northern, Eden Havilah, the golden ; Flowed Missouri to Alaska, Branching eastward through the Klondike, Through Atlantis, now the Behring, Northward far across the Polar Meeting branches of the Ganges, Indus And Euphrates; rills inverted, sinking And evaporating into mist that Spread o'er Eden in the dewy evening Under currents from the Arctic, southward, Fed from north and mystic westbound river, From whose surface fogs and mists arising Ever climbed the circling ice coast southward; Constant cold and heated currents blowing, Rushing down the craggy mountain northward, Wafting billows to the south shores of Atlantis; 60 Romance of tfje Omtoetse Blowing southward toward the polar regions; Ceaseless snowing, ice deeps greater growing, With its weight forever pressing Styxward, Where its rapid waters eat the ice coast, There its whirling eddies form great gulf streams, Making bays and seas from inland ice fields, Ever changing Hades' dangerous ice coasts, So that none but Charon dared to cross it, Only Charon with his silent mortals. Norse, Columbus, nor courageous Peary- Would have dared to cross that ice-gorged river, Where the darkness, like that night in Egypt, Grew profounder and more solemn southward; Fearful silence, broken by the ice press, Thund'ring and reverberating ice cracks, Made the Hades, made the noisy Pluto. > South from the westward river ran a stream, The Lethe of the lower world, that flowed And ebbed with mighty tides, a channel washed Far inland toward the southern pole, where dwelt The Shades, who drank its waters cold to stop Remorse, regret, repine, the past forgot; Obliterated from the mind past life. This mighty river vast as Amazon, With lofty coasts of ice on either side, As steep and high as Himalaya's mounts; And when the endless river's tide swept in, Rose to the top like tides in Fundy's bay, 61 Romance of tfje Ontterse And at its overflow the thirsty Shades Hot, panting, bathed and drank and drowned re- morse ; And when it ebbed they fell back from its shores Afraid of noisy waterfalls and frosty fogs That rising, froze and fell in storms of snow. Here Libitania took from Charon's boat The breathless mortals of the upper world Dispatched them to Elysian fields, or sent Them on to Tartarus for punishment. Around the southern pole electric flames, A dim Aurora shone, there liquid streams Of hydrogen an inner sea had formed; Like Dante's Hell in circles northward spread Earth's gases cold and hard as adamant. An outer zone of solid Hydrogen Encircled by a belt of nitrogen, And next a zone half froze, half liquid air Another zone of liquid oxygen. Tremendous pressure, cold and endless night; All gases froze to liquid streams or hard; With myth or science what a Hell for men? Exceeding lakes of burning brimstone far, The flames of burning worlds were weak compared. There is a dense, a thick, unchanging night That shores around the universe Of God, whose zero ends the rays of light. Far down beneath creation's moving lights, Immeasured depths of space unbottomed lie, 62 Romance of the dJnitiem Colder than science dares to dream, exists, A darkness scanned and known to God alone, A region fit for Hell, whose cold destroys The dust that constant falls from stars and worlds, A hell that burns to naught created things. Such is the night, that, like a sackcloth robe, Wraps round entire the starry universe. Part of this boundless, spacial, endless night Enclosed Earth's icy southern hemisphere, And later shifted to its westward side. One sea contained the waters of the globe, Oceanus an endless river ran, Drawn swiftly round the earth by Cynthia's power, With overflowing tide and endless ebb That drove before and drew behind the ice That glacier-like protruded, broke and swam Into the rushing current of the Styx, Midway between the poles the river spread, Atlantis north wide spanned from sea to pole, And from its other shore south to the pole Immeasured depths of ice with granite bed Beneath, above, impenetrable night. Thus Hades bound by mountain chains of ice, With bays and gulfs, with floating isles of ice, That broke from off their coasts with ceaseless noise And crashed, and broke, and floated with the tide. The southern hemisphere involved in night, With plains of solid ice on granite based; 63 Romance of tH fltnitomt A sea congealed, or continent of ice, Fixed by eternal darkness and its frost; Its ice-bound coast the whole equator spanned; The ancient Hades, land of death, bound by Oceanus whose endless westward tide With waves like giants in a race, or flight, With outstretched arms extending wide and high Moved in flowing tides the earth around; No westward coast to check its tidal power. The icy southern shore abrupt and high, And steeper than Antarctic coasts, With lofty mountains, growing faster far Than Greenland's snow, or Alpine mountain's ice, Whose heights were lost in storms of snow That rose from mists where torrents fell From heights exceeding far, Niagara, Whose cataracts from melting mountains flow, Whose icy bases lay on granite rocks, Moraines inverted, ploughed and ground their beds To clay and like sub-glacial rivers ran, In streams of granite pulverized to till. The equatorial, icy, lofty coast Protruding, pushing, glacier-like to north, Broke off with thunderous noise in icebergs huge That ground to naught against old Hades coast, Or floating westward melting with the tide That drew the cooling waters northward far Along Atlantis' shore, where Eden's zone Was cut in four by rivers flowing north, 64 Homatue of tfte Onttoet0e The deluge later changed their currents south And changed their fountains and their sources north. From the lofty, icy mountains, Bound'ry line at earth's equator, High above Sahara's desert, Where the heated sandstorm rages, Icy basins, seas of water, Melted cataracts and rivers, Ceaseless, flowing, fills the circling, Ancient equatorial river. Into four heads parting, running Northward, branching eastward, westward, Waters Eden, irrigating And like Abana and Pharpar, Sinking, disappearing, vanish. Overhead all constellations, Earth below hangs like a plummet From the polar star suspended; Moon in orbit round the Arctic, Fills the heavens full of glory. Thousands times its present distance Glowed the nearing Sun, whose splendor Scarce perceived at first, but later Brought its rays direct, and melting Depths of ice that lay in darkness On the southern hemisphere for 65 Romance of tfte £Jnftiet$e Ages, making valleys, oceans, Basins, seas and mighty rivers; Cutting through the ice grown mountains That surrounded the equator, Fountain source of Eden's rivers. Sunbeams melted down the barriers That in time let out the deluge. Broken hemispheric ice depths Resting on the granite bottom, Where no mollusk, nor deep sea life, In its frozen beds existed. Emptied of their melted waters, From their broken basins, plunging, Plough in deepness, lift the granite; Grinding into clay ,and raising Boulders on their icy ploughshares, Grazing oldest strata surface, Clay and forests pushing northward, Till and gravel overspreading, Ruffling continents to mountains, Superposing plains and prairies, Lands submerging, oceans empty, Stranded ice sheets, melting into Rivers, washing out the lake beds, Washing from the lofty highlands, Building continents from northward. Thus was Paradise surrounded With earth's dangers greater growing. 66 Romance of tfje Onftietge Held in check by power almighty, And omniscience all foreseeing. Man in innocency living With the hosts of hell invading Eden, to seduce, to tempt him; Long he lived in pure enjoyment, Waking, holding God in converse Sleeping, daily thought repeating; Dreams of angels and translation. Latent man powers to awaken, God prepared for him the woman; One to think, approve, conversing; God gifts sharing and enjoying; Loving, living long in Eden. Oft unconscious Satan foiling; And until a serpent petted, Parrot-like man's speech attempted; Satan incarnated; prattling; Like the child talk to a mother; Godlike good and evil knowing; Eve beguiling "That his knowledge" "Came from eating fruit forbidden/' "And denying God's commandment;" "And that Adam for vain reasons" Abstinence of her commanded." "God's great wisdom could not, would not" "Keep from her such Godlike knowledge ;" "Adam only in presumption" 67 Homance of titt tlmtietse "Making laws to keep her humble." Charming with his prattling speeches, Eating from the tree forbidden, Not to beasts, nor fowls, nor insects, But to man, to prove his conscience. Make obedient, grateful, loving. Eve too thankful to be tempted, Grateful views the garden Eden. Patient working and persistence With success crowns good or evil, Angels, devils, men with patience Make success of many failures; So the serpent grew more charming, Grew more subtle in his wisdom, Blossoms of the tree forbidden Tremble with the song bird's warbling; Bending low the fruitful branches, Eyes, with passion burning, Spellbound Eve, and charmed with beauty, Doubting Adam, not believing God had said "Thou shalt not eat it," Ate the fruit forbidden quickly, Instantly her conscience acted, Conscious now of good and evil Knew the Serpent had beguiled her. Only he received commandment, And to her it was repeated. 68 Romance of tfje Onitietse Doubting man's truth we doubt God's truth; Faith to faith is ever given, Sin to sin always transmitted. Satan tempting, woman sinning, Gives to Adam fruit forbidden; Not deceived, but eating, sinning, Wills to share her condemnation. Like a prophet he for love's sake Chose like Paul to be accursed ; Or like Moses with his people Chose extinction in the desert. Shared her sin with love inspiring; Strange that love should lead to sinning; Stranger still sin's power subduing. Sin brought sorrow, toil and labor, Earth was cursed with thorns and briars; Death and sickness, greater evils, Murders, lust crimes, evil only Filled the Earth. Prophetic warnings Of the deluge coming, swiftly, Spreading, allwheres, vales, o'er mountains; Death, fowls, beasts, and men destroying. Ark and prophets, preaching, warnings. All unheeded came the waters, Oceans from their lofty basins Breaking through their craggy ice coasts, 69 Romance of t!je Omtoetge Mighty fountains from the great deep, Rushing up the four great rivers, Washing channels deeper, wider, Coursing northward toward the Arctic, Continental ice pursuing; Overflowing and submerging Lands once peopled, once luxuriant. Spreads o'er earth in fearful judgment. Every island tells the story, Every vale and every mountain, Silent witnesses attesting From the world myth, or the prophet, Or from science comes the story Of one recent deluge telling, In the age of man transpiring. From the stars our sun descending Raised the earth from deepest darkness Warmed earth's hemisphere once frozen, Drove away its night of darkness And its northern lights absorbing Made its seasons, made the deluge. 70 PART III. SONG OF GABRIEL. Whenceforth is man, a thing of chance, or made? And wherefore man, his sin and cursed estate? Why doomed to death, and after death to hell? Predestinated purpose hath no sin; The creature then were free from guilt or curse. And wherefore death, and fear, and sinless man? Were man created free, then sin, then death; For man created free, is free of fate. The first of human kind could not be bred. No birth, nor youth, heredity nor taint; Godlike was free ; not under fate, nor chance. All law must be ordained with penalty; No law of nature broken blesses man; First law with penalty must be obeyed ; The last with penalty "Thou shalt not" break. Who cease to swim must drown; who falls must break. 71 Romance of ti)e Onitier0e The wounded bird holds to the trembling limb; The cony runs instinctive to the rocks ; The thing new born turns to its nourishment; The sailor leaves the harbor for the sea ; He sails his course with, or against, the wind; With anchor hope aboard the vessel's bow ; The storm ne'er comes ; that proves the will is free. Allwhere the human conscience makes for law; Obeys and hopes, or in transgression fears; As old as man is conscience, and unchanged By time, or place, relation or by worth. Degraded, weak? The fault somewhere is man's. A perfect man with conscience must be free ; A perfect law with conscience must agree. The Tempter, too, is free to sin, or not. In freedom of the will there is no wrong; The will is free to swing or stand in poise; No will, no man ; but God and dust of stars ; But man exists with will, in thought is free; With strong desires that may be fanned to flame, Or self suppressed lie latent at the will. The ego dominates the thought, desire; True to his God he may be good, Godlike ; Good often is, and dies a martyr's death ; Who tries, succeeds ; the best is good by will ; All theories must stand or fall by proof; No monkey sprang from man of modern birth; Man is, and must be, proof of what man was. 72 Romance of t&e (Unitoetse Degenerating man may rise again ; There is a power inspired that lifts man up; That power once quenched, lets down to moral death, Or lifts again to life, though dead in sin. The power that works within has worked of old ; And worked in Adam as a nature law; In us it works by grace; the gift of Christ; The same that strives with us, by Adam quenched; He reasoned into sin, as we oft reason out; With mighty motive, manly love for Eve; Whose sin and loss he shares; to share her love. God gave the law to Adam when first made ; Before Eve knew the joys of Paradise; The Tempter made her doubt the law divine; And made her think the law a lover's prank; No voice divine gave her the law at first; She only from the first man's lips had heard; The Tempter won through doubting man, then God. She sinned ; but, oh, how slight compared to him Who heard the mandate, heard the voice of God. Why wonder at his sin? when such a curse Fell to the lot of Eve? Loved next to God. His sin sprang forth from such a love as that Which broke the heart of Adam when Eve fell. He sinned through love of Eve ; she was beguiled. Not appetite, revolt, but sad and grieved; 73 Romance of tfte Onitiewe He mourned o'er life and Eden without Eve. He knew the death that sin would bring to Eve; Annihilation of her form and soul, Eternal loss of Eve, her matchless love ; Alone; nor did he wish another mate; Her love, so conjugal, to end in death. Death he would seek himself, nor wished to live; He walked keen-eyed into the doom of death ; He loved her, so, through love and pity sinned ; And died a lover's death ; his choice was death. Well God is love, and loves a lover true ; Yet loves not sin, but saved him from his doom. Seductive, lying part that Satan played ; Their penitence, and love, seduced, betrayed; Much mitigated sin, and pending death. Annihilation was the doom; the death. Not of the soul, the intellect or will; But body doomed eternal to the dust; Had that been executed on the pair, The race had perished from the earth ; Their souls immortal must forever live Apart from matter, from creation part ; For all the senses with the body die ; By these alone the soul in contact comes In touch with God's created wisdom, power. All else is empty space and frigid night. This was the penalty of death, "cast out." 74 Bomance of ihz Unitoxst Their disembodied souls to each were lost, To wander in the outer stellar space ; The boundless space and night beyond the stars, Where night eternal reigns, nor sound, nor sense. The soui mute; deaf; dumb; in dancness damned; The glory of creation lost in death ; The death of sense, eye, ear, touch, taste, and smell; First penalty affixed to wilful sin. There is a second death that never dies ; That follows man's probation later on ; With terror greater than the first warned death, Fixed quick and sure by resurrection power; Where soul and body reunited; doomed To outer space and night insensate live In realms of night beyond the rays of stars; A hell that science proves ; and is inspired ; First death, through hope commuted to the pair; But to rebellious man a greater doom. Lo, now in Eden, see first type of Christ; A fire on altar glows, a lamb is slain; First offering made inside of Eden's gate. First miracle on earth, the lambskin changed And worn; God clothes the guilty pair with robes In proof of pardon, love and reconciled. 75 Romance of tfte dttftjerge The glory that had once adorned their forms, Self luminous, like full seraphic fires, Instant had left them when they both had sinned. Like angel forms they glowed; from first they shone Like Gabriel ; until their sin revealed To each their naked forms, their glory first Was like the Son of God when on the mount Transfigured, and His body, radiant shone, In dazzling radiance, beaming as the Sun. Now naked, shamed, repentant, clothed again ; Their glory when departed left them nude, The Holy Spirit once their nature dower Had shone in splendor bright around their forms, By sin their native right the Spirit lost Invisible returns; by grace a gift, No more a right ; obedient now by faith. The gift bestowed by Christ ; their seed, their hope, Who is to come and bruise the Tempter's head. From Eden led and never to return, But toil and sweat, and pain, disease, then death; Behold a mystery of providence, A child is born of Eve, unlike his sire ; Conceived and born outside of Paradise. Had there been birth in Eden ere man sinned, The penalty had ne'er been meted as it was ; 76 Hommtce of tht CKttftoet0e The holy born, a race of sinless men Had mixed with sinners from the parent stock. What then? Here reason stands perplexed, con- fused ; 'Twas wisdom to permit the Tempter's work, Before a human soul was born on earth. Had Adam never sinned, nor Eve, nor Cain ; If then in future some like them transgressed, And if redemption only had one price, What then of virgin birth and sacrifice? What if such men had mixed with holy seed, Corrupted offspring had entailed sin's taint? Without a Savior, destitute of grace; The penalty that was at first pronounced Must fall inevitably sure on such. What power of God, or man, could stem sin's tide? Hence wisdom gave the Tempter opportunity; Divine permit to do at first his worst, That God at last might do for man the best ; And he who first had sinned, was saved the first That all might have through Christ the saving grace ; Here wisdom still preserves the will of man, With grace bestowed on each by measure full; With each man's need, all men were equalized; 77 Eomance of tie GXnitotM He that knew much, much grace received through life; And he that little knew, less grace required ; And each in justice judged and meted right, According to his works, if good, if bad. Man's civil government and social laws Of old have hinged on liberty of will; Eternal God is no less fair than man ; To be less just than man would be unfair. The first transgressors were restored by grace ; The promised seed Eve thought was her first born ; She learned that he was born unlike the first of men; Born in the likeness of his fallen sire; Imperious, wilful, proud, with anger fierce; He spills his brother's blood upon the ground. The sin; the curse of Adam ran through all; By his one sin were many sinners made. If at the threshold of man's misery With sword and balance, keen-eyed Justice stood, So justice, swift, sent mercy to redeem; Hence Mercy came and brooded o'er the race; Came hope of Christ and resurrected life. Death must be met by Death and overcome ; But not through man alone; nor of his will; A ransom must be paid for Eden's sin, Or else atonement had been made at first. 78 Komatue of tfte Onftjetse God waits to prove the helplessness of man ; That man cannot redeem himself by works, That neither might, nor law, nor forced restraint, Nor learning, art, nor wisdom of mankind Can curb, or change, or cure the carnal mind. Nor can atonement come from God to God; The race must pay the penalty of sin ; Hence wisdom must contrive a plan for both; Where Justice stands by law, while God forgives. But who? From whence? And how to raise the debt? Who has the worth of character and right ? Who mediates with God ? Who takes man's place ? Who reconciles the wayward race to God? A wisdom deeper than creation's plan, And purposed long before the universe. The universe was made for man's estate; Divine intent to set him over all ; No Angel made to rule ; their lot to serve ; To serve the heirs enjoined by Christ, God's Son. Not yet ; not yet, but he who is enthroned Is man ; was born a man ; and under law ; Was born to die; through death to save the race; Conceived and born unlike the rest of men, Had he been born as other men, what chance Of virtue in his life? None such as Christ; A sin born Christ in whom to trust? Absurd. 79 Romance of the Ctnitiersc The sinless nature proves his birth divine. The virgin birth makes room for reason; faith; His human sympathy we often need; Why doubt the virgin birth of Christ our Lord? The bloom of non-related flowers will mix; And form the rarest tints and fragrance, too; Thus hybrid fruits, insects and animals; So Christ, conceived of God and Virgin born, Two natures with one will; one consciousness; A hybrid; God and man; unique, supreme. He leaves his throne through love of man ; By birth, as man, has right to mediate; Born to man's lot of guilt, of shame, of death; While justice holds a holy man in death; The race is freed; the penalty is paid. By His own will He rises from the dead; No further ransom Justice could demand. He claims the whole of Adam's race and holds; Thus pardon is his right; and his alone; None else can mediate 'twixt God and man ; No other name of human kind has worth. To all the world he could, He would forgive; Who die in Adam must in Christ arise; The just through faith, and those in unbelief; His resurrection is the key of hope ; Throws open wide the tomb; offsets the curse; For to this end the Son of Man was born. 80 Romance of tfte ainitoerge Why doubt the virgin birth of Christ? Why doubt that God was manifest in flesh? Were He but man we dare not trust His arm ; And were He God alone, our hearts would fear; Both natures joined in one command our faith; We need the Christ, the Son of God — of man. Is man a miniature of God? Who doubts? Man follows in the wake of God ; His plans ; In matter, mould, design, in government. In science, searches nature's secret powers, And analyzes water, air, earth, stars, And finds the elemental gases all Throughout the stellar universe the same; The distance of the stars; their times, and size; Unreasoned earth reasons for earth's orbit laws; The unseen rays that pierce the voids of space; The force magnetic that pervades the same ; These indicate the mind of God and man The same in kind; not in degree; alike. The same are joined by reasoning of truth; Christ's dual nature was forever fixed By Virgin birth ; conceived that way, before The birth took place; unlike a prophet's dower; Unlike the gifts to holy men of power; By birth his dual nature cannot change ; Nor separate aback to God ; aback to man. His birth makes sure that he is God and man. First-Born ! The standard of a host of Sons Predestined, that to glory yet shall come. 81 Romance of tfte ajnitiet0e The Son of God in birth our nature took ; Possessed before that birth all power divine. Creator; heir of all, upholding all; And image, brightness, Son of the Most High. Forsook His throne, forsook the rule and power; To join His nature and His power to man; And since His birth lives only for His race, The glory which He had before the world, His pre-existent glory shares with man. He gave His life for man; now all bestows. The wondrous story of His love, so great Provokes our unbelief; beyond our thought. The possibilities of future man Are shown in Christ's exalted state ; And we are destined in that state to share ; New order in the universe of God. Partakers of His nature, now on earth, Predestined later to conform In resurrection glory to the Son. Man's thirst for power, with consecrated mind Fits him for universal place and rule. With crowns on crowns, some men have ruled on earth ; Have ruled revolting, desp'rate tribes of men. One man contending empires moved to peace. Why not the hosts of heaven ruled by men Obedient, patient, pure and true to God; 82 Romance of tht GlniMw Approved through trial; sin and Satan proof; Who better fit for thrones of peace and power? Wide spreads the universe, the stars were made For other purposes than giving light ; A little lower than the Angels made ; Yet Godlike, made for higher rule at last ; The human race shall run a new career. Vast hosts, who people unseen spheres, shall make Their future more secure by Kings and Priests Earth born, redeemed, endowed, exalted high, Prepared by Christ, the Universal Lord. The will of God, before the world began, Eternal purposed what we see in Christ, Who, in the ages yet to come, shall show Exceeding riches of His grace through men Redeemed, who know, to hosts who never knew The mystery of love, divine, so great. God glorifies His Son, in Him all power, All fullness dwells within His human form. The power of Christ is used forevermore To glorify His Church, His Bride, His Love. To prove to modern men the ancient faith, Prophetic men foretold His birth, His death; The patriarchs their bleeding off' rings made; And Moses institutes by law the types Foreshadowing the Cross of Calvary; 83 Romance of tbt Onfoewe Isaiah full portrays the man of griefs; Brought to the slaughter as a lamb and dumb; Through travail of His soul He justifies, And resurrected intercedes for men. Amidst the Gentiles comes with might to save ; In garments red and vesture dipped in blood. The pre-existent Son, Himself, inspired The prophets to foretell to men unborn The grace that greets all men while in their birth. From Eden flowed a stream of mercy wide, God's blessing rested on the unborn race; A Golden Age of good was long enjoyed; The earth was tilled and teemed with plenteous fruits ; One race, one law, one nation ruled the world. But later men of might, of will, of pride, Dissension sowed; then strife, divisions spread; Dread internecine war waged wild and long. In spite of grace man multiplied his sins, 'Til God intolerant destroyed the race, And deluged all the earth with glacial floods; Repeopled earth with righteous Noah's stock. He warned the world with his prophetic ark. In vain the Spirit strives to right the world, In vain the prophet pleads and warns his race, The threatened deluge comes ; the waters rush 84 Komattce of fbt Onftjerse From South to North, leap o'er their mountain coasts, While continental glaciers plough with might The soil that rounds the northern hemisphere ; While earthquakes bury forests, hills and plains; Thus flood and ice pursue their arctic course; The face of nature changed; the flora buried deep; All animated life extinct, save seed; That in the ark preserved for discipline. Men multiply again and till the earth; While Noah's tribes build cities on the plain; The race divided, scattered, roamed afar, Dispersed to various climes, with varied speech, By famine, war, by pestilence and drouth, By mighty men of rule, by tyrant kings, By rigid laws, by tribute and by toil, By lust, by ignorance, filth and disease, Brought on themselves by passion, pride and war, The world declines with ruin everywhere; The stone age marks mankind's lowest decay To want and savage state degenerates ; The weaker tribes to distant isles retreat, To Polar and to Torrid Zones are spread. Thus Egypt, Babylon, with Greece and Rome Repeat decadence of the ancient race. The weak, disarmed, enslaved, invention dies; Rude huts, and tents, and caves for shelter take 85 Romance of the dnilierge The place of Temples, Palaces and Homes; No fence nor field, the flocks and herds run wild, The old stone age ensues, and barbarous tribes Spread o'er the world and moral ruin rules; Thus ends the reign of law where grace had failed. 86 PART IV. SONG OF MICHAEL. The Son of Man so long foretold now comes The man of Virgin birth, as pure as God ; Matured; begins redemption's gracious work; Into man's lot He falls; the Tempter meets; To draw the latent human powers and touch The chords of sympathy 'twixt God and man; But not to test His own with Satan's power. Where winds the Jordan through the wilderness, The Holy Spirit leads His human soul Through depths of Satan's subtleness and power, In darkest wilds where Satan stands and waits, There Michael, Prince of Israel's house and realm Meets the invader and reproves man's foe ; The Prince of Darkness shows divine permit. Aback of Satan group the hosts of Hell ; August and proud, he boasts of former worth, 87 Bomame of ti»e Otiftoerge "When he, before his fall, was Michael's peer; • How he defied the pre-existent Son; Had made rebellion in the courts above ; Had drawn away the third of Heaven's hosts. Had made the realm of Space and Earth his own ; Invaded Eden and corrupted man; The primal plan of God o'erturned; had cursed; Corrupted all mankind, turned God 'gainst man; That in his wrath the human race had drowned; That he made drunk the Prophet of the Ark ; Cursed Canaan's lustful race with slavery; Enslaved the rest of men with drunkenness; And lust and pride, revolt and war, and crime; Division made and scattered into tribes With warring kings and chiefs, the sons of men; Took Israel and his tribes and made them build The temples where his kings and priests controlled Egyptian dynasties that ruled the world; Had hardened Pharaoh's heart with God's consent And but for Moses and the cloud, and sea Had held to-day the Hebrew at his task; And but for you who wrested Moses' corpse From me, I had enshrined his mount and tomb And by my oracles defied the Christ ; As I defied His prophets and o'erthrew His people in their promised heritage; And led them captives through my kings and priests ; 88 Romance of tfie Onfuet0e Although condemned, I am not damned ; I hope ; I am paroled until the Judgment Day ; This is my bail, to overthrow, defeat, Corrupt, destroy the Church of Christ on earth ; Prevent, restrain the grace of God in man; Prevent his high career and future state ; To prove that evil must obtain and hold; Unless prevented by predestinated power ; On this I justify my fall from good, And prove my condemnation wrong, unjust. For this I have divine permit obtained To tempt, inspire, control and ravish man Of every virtue, ev'ry grace and good; And to this end I am permitted here To meet the Christ, the Virgin's Son and Lord, Who pure and wise as Adam when first made. Unlike in this, He is forewarned, forearmed With Holy Spirit full empowered He comes; By psychic power and reason now I must prevail; Not chance seductive art as when at first In Eden, won through Eve's mild unbelief; Henceforth with full exerted power I come; My time is short, nor will I beat the air; With serpent sting, and venom dire as death, I'll make his fleshly fears cry out, aloud, In agony and bloody sweat amazed ; iCry out for power omnipotent; or faint, And yield Earth's empire to my endless rule; 89 Romance of tfie CHnitoewe Five centuries of silence since there spoke A prophet in this land; I silenced all; And His Forerunner I have doomed to death, And whom he heralds I shall crucify. Look at my victories won in the past. And greater in the future I shall win; In vain did Moses lead them through the sea; In vain his laws, his altars and his priests; In vain he fed them manna from the clouds ; In vain were led through Jordan's river dry; In vain they razed the walls of Jericho. Ah! where are David's songs of victory? Ah! where the glory of his greater son? The glory of his Temple passed away ; The joyous tribes no more frequent its courts; Content to wail beside its broken walls ; Dispersed in shame and scattered o'er the earth; Thus have I triumphed in the ages past ; Small hope for Christ ; I now shall try the Son ; I come the final struggle to begin; Here in this wilderness I now shall win ; If won, the final Judgment Day avert; I yearn to meet the Christ and end the doubt. Or should I fail to conquer Him as Lord, With war and revolution and debate; Make nations tribute to their own defence; 90 Romance of tfje Onitiewe Immure their progress with their lust for war, The nation's churches dead through form and rule; The hearts of men shall fail through fear and dread Of ruin that I bring on church and state; And love for Christ shall wax as cold as death; And men shall covet wealth ; who loves and takes Renounceth God, and grace and providence; Through human lust, I'll win in spite of grace. Lo, at the end of time sin shall abound ; The Son of Man shall seek for faith on earth. The Judgment set aside and I have won. If I can crush the coming Church of Christ, My judgment ends with its complete defeat; If I shall fail and Christ shall reign o'er earth, His vict'ry won, ends my parole, IVe lost, And with the lost of Adam's race am damned To outer space and black eternal night; There matter without God, design or law, Distorted, wrecked, volcanic, fumed in smoke Evolves in fitful flames from bad to worse; Wrecks of my first estate, and man's abode. But why should I despair? Win yet I must. The gates of Hell I'll open on the Christ; His Church my legions shall assail in force; And what He bears I'll make His members feel ; With dungeon, sword, and flame His martyrs plague. Degenerate, corrupt, divide, disperse, And make man's last estate worse than his first. 91 Romance of tf>e Utxiuw Empires on earth I'll rule with lordly priests ; And in God's name great miracles perform; With pagan forms, and rites and life; I'll take the words of Christ and prophecy And set their meaning to my own intent; The wily men of science and of lore Inspire with evolutionistic fate; I'll culture learning with their thought; With education's growth and wealth's increase I'll fill the world with anarchistic strife; Thus Satan spoke in pride and covert wrath; While Michael, Gabriel, Ariel, silent stood Obedient, not replying to his boast, Stood waiting for the coming of the Christ. Apollyon, Beelzebub, were there With Satan, they his princes chief and strong; A misty cloud enclosed their mighty forms ; There Satan stood majestic as when made; Twelve cubits high; of glorious mold and face. Nor sign of age, nor care, faint sign of grief; And wounded pride, despite his fall, godlike, As suave and wise as Gabriel, as fair; Like Michael, brave, and quick to strike, or war ; Like Ariel's voice, soft, soothing, strong and firm; His glance inviting, courteous of mien. Aback of him, like seraphs, glowed his hosts ; High towering to the vaulted skies like clouds ; 92 Romance of tfje Onitoerse While to the right Beelzebub commands His legions to rehearse their chieftain's speech, And prowess of the past as Christ appears ; Forthwith they countermarch, an endless throng. Apollyon with demons of the human race, A host of prophets false, and kings and priests Repeat the speech with long and loud encore; With cheers and praise for Satan and his chiefs; And blasphemy against the silent Christ. The hosts of hell in ancient splendor pass In grand review to awe the heart of Christ. Day after day, for forty days repeat The speech of Satan in the wilderness. And like Rabshake, boast their power supreme ; Like Pluto's regions, thunders roar erewhile; And lightnings flash like Sinai's rays; The earth like swelling waves, cleaves wide and quakes ; While tempests howl and moan their dismal chords. Then demons of all lusts and minds attack And wound the heart of Christ with blasphemies; Suggest vile thoughts, and lusts, and doubts, and fears, All that the human mind e'er thought, or wished; With these his soul afflict with smarting griefs ; Each demon with new phase of human lust, 93 Romance of tfee Onitoerse Until his heart and flesh felt keenly all That man had ever felt of sin, save guilt; Yet without sin, in all points tempted worse. Around the Christ the devils, demons crowd; With pall of darkness Satan comes himself; His princes come, and pierce his soul with darts; Hell's fiery legions charge en masse in flames, To sear perchance the matchless soul of Christ; The splendid lights that glowed on Satan's hosts Went out, and night that could be felt came on; All Hell with fiercest cries gave vent; Christ in His flesh poured out strong cries and tears Was heard in that He feared; Hell's hosts with- drew. The son of man ahungered forty days Is asked to change the stones to bread and eat, If He the Son of God, Creator is; Or from the Temple heights, to vale below, Self cast in safety, chance some Angel's help. Once more the Tempter brings the world entire, The living and the dead together meet; The human race, like Samuel, from the grave Comes forth, in generated order comes; From Hades rise the good, the weak, the bad; The great and small, of every clime and age; They fear for judgment, but not yet ; they come At Satan's call; but with divine consent; 94 iRomattce of tfje Bnitomt An offering of the world to Christ presents, Atonement to prevent, prevent His death; Agrees to leave the earth, gives world to Christ If He will own him Lord of Adam's race. The Tempter foiled, retreats; while angel hosts Appear and crowd to Heaven's loftiest dome ; Elisha's armies of the skies, these like, Were hid behind the Christ invisible, Now worship Him their Lord; Lord over all. To Him they minister, adore and praise. The captain of salvation hath been brought In perfect touch with men through these assaults; Hath felt within Himself the Tempter's power; That ruined, held in ruin all mankind. He grappled with the monster head of sin, And bruised the Serpent underneath our feet; In sympathy bestows His power on men. The Tempter met, repelled and overcome His works shall be exposed, attacked, destroyed; Man's ignorance of God must be dispelled, And Satan's captives taken and set free; And sin, the curse, and death, and Hell o'ercome, The Son of God the truth to men imparts In precept, parable and prophecy; Reveals to men God's universal love Though lost in sin, in guilt, in bonds, in death; 95 iftomance of t&e dniuerse Compassion for the sick, the blind, the dumb, The lame, the palsied, leprous, and the dead; The hungry in the wild through love are fed ; The fearful in the storm at sea are calmed; The woman in the throng He waits to bless; And he who mourns and waits is blessed with hope ; The maniac among the tombs restored, And multitude of sick from distant parts, All hurt and wounded sore by Satan's art, Are healed to prove God's universal love. The Spirit through the ancient prophets speaks ; The Word of God, the prophecy of old, Transformed becomes the Gospel of the Christ; His teaching and His works fulfill that word; Foretells His mission, dying for the sins of men. He willed His death before Gethesemane, And there obediently He willed again; His death no priestly conquest over Christ; Because His death alone could ransom man. None else could die for sin; hence His consent; Was born with Adam's blood, his substitute; And numbered with transgressors through His birth; As well the Virgin's condemnation shared; Like Esther, judgment had included all, And He alone could die for all His kind. What Adam could not, that He would; He rose, And in His resurrection heads the race. 96 Romance of tfje Onitoet0e Unjust to doom a holy man to death? Unfair for sin, the innocent to die? But just and fair to die and rise again; To die to save, redeem and raise the race; To have exclusive right to pardon sin; To have exclusive rule; to judge all men; To satisfy exacting justice to the full, And own the race; to give eternal life To all that would lay hold on Him by faith; To end, Himself, through death the reign of death; And by one off'ring perfect man through grace, And end the power of Satan by His death. He enters Hades; claims the dead; their Lord; The disembodied hosts surround his tomb; Behold His shrouded flesh upon the rock; All view His corpse; the ancients all behold His body lying in the sepulchre. The first of men beholds the woman's seed. The Serpent's head is crushed; His heel is bruised; The patriarchs behold His sepulchre, And view the Lord of ancient faith entombed. The prophets see their words at last fulfilled ; The saints of old see their Redeemer dead, With lively hope they wonder at His pose. The good and bad of Hades crowd for place; With love, or fear, look on His mangled form; They wonder at His wounded hands and feet, 97 l&omance of tfte Onitierse His pierced side, His brow all pricked with thorns; His lacerated back and famished frame, With hardened stains of dust and sweat and blood. Here all the dead behold atonement sealed; The ancient faith is realized by ancient saints ; The men of antiquated unbeliefs, Who heard the pristine prophecies, still doubt ; The hardened Pharaoh sees no ground for faith, And scorns to think the death of Christ unique; "Somewhere in Hades shall be found his soul, Which shall remain and share the common fate; Forever disembodied shall remain ;" His conscience, seared in life, remains the same From death until the call of judgment sounds. Remorse nor pain in Hades is not felt ; The lost, in dreams, in mem'ries, revel long; The body dead and separate from soul; The soul is lost to sense, to matter dead; The mind in levity, devoid of care; Thinks on, or dreams as in the days of flesh, Until the dawn of day of endless doom. Their resurrection sorrows shall begin When re-embodied at the word of Christ; Then soul and body shall again unite To hear the awful blast, the trumpet call To judgment; long warned and long delayed; When like the lion undisturbed in sleep 98 JRomance of tfje einftoerge Now roused with quickened powers, the conscience wakes, With pangs of guilt, remorse, lament and shame. Spirits in prison see the Christ in death; Fixed in their unbelief, at death remain the same As men in flesh who saw Him crucified. Now Satan and his hosts with hellish joy Believe their victory complete, assured; Three days His body lies in state, entombed; Viewed by the hosts in intermediate state. Imprisoned spirits, long before in sin, Behold the Christ, once scorned when Noah preached. Now Christ in Spirit form and power, declares Throughout the realm of Hades to the dead The great atonement made for all mankind; "That all must soon appear before His throne, And there receive His judgment as their Lord; According to the things done in the flesh ; According to the things once done on Earth; And in their resurrected bodies come Forth from their graves, rejoin the men of earth; The filthy shall immortal rise, unchanged In character, or mind, or form, or age, Appear as when they lived in sin on earth; No right to betterment nor claim to good; Without reward or honors, but condemned 99 Botftance of tfje OniiJtrse By judgment to forego all good and place. Cast out where good and place do not exist." Until the death of Christ a spacious gulf Had separated all the good from bad; But while His body lay within the tomb All souls since Abel's death, together meet To view the Son of God's great sacrifice. And voiced from Christ's Eternal Spirit hear The great salvation once proclaimed to man When first he fell, and afterwards was told To men of every age, foretold to us; No speech nor language where it was not heard ; Who heard oft closed their ears with hardened hearts ; Again in disembodied state they hear, But not for faith, but to confirm the word To men in Enoch's, Noah's and Elijah's age; To faithful souls who never knew Christ's name; All souls who dimly saw, like Abraham, The great Redeemer promised to the world ; Like Job, who knew his power, but not his name ; Like Gideon, some wielded sword for right; Though faint pursued the foes of righteousness; Lo, many soldiers, ancient, modern, fought, For God and Home, and Friends, and native land, For freedom, human rights, for conscience sake ; Lo, many died in reformation's work, With vague conception of the Christian Faith; 100 Komance of tfje Omberge Mere babes in Christ, but fought like men of God, Like Phinehas, they stood on Moses' side, And fought for what was written on the Stone ; And on the heart, and conscience by the Lord. Not all were saints who fought for truth and right, But many souls with penitence and faith Died on the gory field with trust in God. The Thief was saved in death through penitence ; He dimly saw the glory of the Lord; Like Balaam saw it distant ; saw it nigh. How many sank beneath the deluge waves Repentant? Like the thief were saved by grace? How many on the drift were saved through prayer, Not saved from death, but saved from sin, through Christ? Alas, what infants perished in that flood? What infants perished without motherhood, Before and since, infanticide and worse ; Whose souls, unborn and born, received of God Were placed in Hades with the justified; Four-fifths of all the human family, The spirits of the just glad welcomed all. So infants of all ages, born, preborn, Moved in the intermediate place like swarms ; All undeveloped 'til the voice of Christ Moved all their powers to full maturity; All these, then instant leaped to mental power; 101 Romance of tfje CUnitjersfe Like Adam, full matured and full endowed, Now comprehend redemption's plan at once; And all who through a glass had darkly seen The mirrored glory of the Lord, the Christ, Now through the Spirit, were transformed by Him. His gospel echoed back the ancient faith; The spirits of the just now filled with joy, With rapture heard the story of the cross. Like Pentecost, the Christ baptized them all. When all the disembodied dead had heard, When all had viewed the body of the Lord, To Hell's dismay the Christ revived, arose, And laid His napkin where His head had lain. Within the tomb, transfigured as at first, Made Hades glow with splendor from His form; The spirits of the just beat high with hope. The Lord of quick and dead re-enters Earth; Recalls His scattered flock, inspires their trust; Then reascends and sits upon His throne. The spirits of the dead, the just of earth, Are called by Christ from Hades to His side. The great Millennial begins on earth ; Elijah, Moses, Daniel, prophets, all The righteous dead from Hades reign with Christ; The blessed dead, their works, their lives, their words Now form or follow Gospel word and life; They live and reign with Christ on earth; 102 Romance of t&e Omtoetse First resurrection of the soul takes place, When blessed with pardon of their sins through Christ ; When purified by being born again. The second resurrection comes when ends The reign of Christ; then comes the second death. First death, the dead in trespasses and sins ; To such He is the Life, the Truth, the Way; He is the resurrection and the Life. The Savior now begins His reign and work, His pentecostal power uplifts the race; The Gospel preachers go to all the world, Sail with the winds o'er seas to distant climes ; The rod of iron rules all the Gentile World, The Gospel Grace and Moses' law combined Spread o'er the earth with liberty and law; New dates the world from manger of the shed; His star leads westward 'til a continent Lights up the world with Liberty and Truth ; The stone cut out from Heaven's height falls down And smites the image seen at Babylon ; America strikes hard upon its feet And grinds the tyrant form to dust. Back from the wilderness the lion turns ; An empire slips from Europe's greed and grip; Wars, revolutions, reformations change Affairs of State and Church while freedom dawns; Dust from the Monarch's image fills the air 103 Romance of tfje Onftime By stormy winds is borne afar and wide, And westward spreads along Columbia's coast, And reaches to Pacific slopes and isles. The stone rolls round the earth with vig'rous growth ; Breaks down oppressive forms of government; Reacts on Europe, Asia, and their isles. The Son of Man sets up a kingdom, sure To stand, supreme, until He comes again. Against this Kingdom, Hell combines in vain. The Gospel Grace transforms the world to Christ; And proves the boast of Satan's conquest false, The Son of Man through grace has won the world; And lust is curbed by law and cured by grace; And Christ, the promised seed, now rules mankind ; And all the nations of the world are blessed, And blessed the more as men believe and serve. He reigns; His enemies subdues; He comes And death, the last, to resurrection yields. The trumpet sounds, long, loud and deep the blast; It bursts the graves ; the sea gives up her dead ; Forth come the good, the bad, the small, the great; The saints arise, the living see their change; The dead behold the living saints transformed. The resurrection ends the human sex; The power to generate no more exists; With death, conception ends, no birth in Heaven; 104 Romance of tfte 2Inft>et0e Nor husband, wife, nor child, nor parent there; Nor family, nor group relationship, Nor infancy, nor youth in immature; The bulb exists, but changes to the flower; The mortal ends in immortality; A change shall come in life, as well as form; No toil, nor rest as known in earthly life; Nor care, nor food, nor clothing, shelter, quest, But life eternal without fear of death. The natural shall turn to spirit powers; The body shall not cease to be, but change ; The belly and its meats together die ; Nor in the resurrection live again ; Corruption's source shall end in death; All sown in weakness instant rise in power; The infant mind developed full enfolds With body of the resurrection type; For all shall see Him as He is, and change Like to Himself, according to His power; None are excepted; halt, and blind and dumb, The infant, lunatic, in age infirmed, Without disease, impediment, deformed; All who are Christ's are raised in honor, power, In glory like His own shall all appear; He glorifies His Grace when time shall end By preparation made before the world; Removes the world, the new creation made By His own hand is witnessed by His Church ; 105 Romance of tbt Oni'tierse The Judgment Day has come ; the saints ascend ; High rise the good to meet their coming Lord. The lost are resurrected, but unchanged; The unbelieving tribes transfixed in space ; Earth loosed from orbit spins, and rocks and quakes, While flames destroy her works ; a melting mass The planet sinks asmoke to lowest depths. The Great White Throne in dazzling brilliancy Wide as the orbit of the stars extends. The Judgment Day has come ; the day begins A day millennial; time is no more; The Judgment Day of God, appointed day Whose dawn, whose length, no day, nor year com- putes ; The history of man shall be revealed, His thoughts, his works, his words, his influence ; The history of angels good and bad; The day reveals the wondrous works of God ; His ways, His acts, His judgments and His plans. The Gospel now unfolds its scope and power; The brighter Sun of Righteousness now shines; Excludes the darkened stellar universe; The Son of Man in majesty divine; The King Eternal sits enthroned in power; Calls to His throne the resurrected race; The good he had before saved through His grace, Adjudged and justified on earth by faith ; In shadows on the left, the men of Sin; 106 Romance of tbt ttmtoetse Aback in darkness stand the hosts of Hell; In fear and trembling listen while they hear The praise and honor given to the saints ; The throng whose number, men nor angels know, Are given to the Father by the Son ; The trophies of His loving death and reign; The chorus angels sang at Bethlehem Of peace to men on earth when Christ was born, Bursts from the throne while angels chant and sing To God be glory for man' s high estate ; To Him that washed, redeemed us through His blood Be honor, power and blessing evermore. The righteous Judge in glorious robes of white and gold Commands the saintly records to be read; The Patriarchs and elders, men of Faith, Whose good report was known to few on Earth, Is heard through Heaven, the hosts of Hell now hear, Nations in order are revealed, their kings Their might, their cities, laws, their chiefs, their priests, Each man of faith, by these affected, hears The merit of his works and worth to men. The good from all the nations sifted, stand Upon the right, receiving their award ; 107 Romance of tf>e ©nitiewe Already resurrected, crowned, illumed, And blessed with life eternal now received Rewards additional for sacrifice, Obedient service, thought, or will or act. True to His word a cup of water given Obedient to love, in mercy poured On weary feet, or fevered brow, or lips ; On festered wound, or swollen limbs; The sick, the prisoned, hungry, naked, poor; Here now reward the donors once unpaid ; Here men, who, like the dying thief repent, Too late for works are saved without reward. Happy the men like Paul, who laid their stores Above; now reap the fruit of Sacrifice. Their faith was found to praise and honors high; Who as the gold were tried in fire and proved, Are called to higher trusts ; whose talents gained A double portion from their Lord returned. Throughout each nation individual faith Is written on the records with its works. The maid that stood at Naaman's outer door ; The widow, poor, whose poorer gift made worth by faith, All these were found recorded in the Book. The precious ointment poured on Jesus' head; The tears that fell upon His blessed feet; Oh, wondrous records of the heart; that prove 108 Komance of tbt Oniiiettfe The poor are rich enough to get the best The King of Glory can bestow on man. Away with sordid wealth! 'tis worthless there; The covetous renounceth God's reward. Ye blessed poor, where artless kindness dwells, Rewards in heaven are yours by dower and right. The poor in spirit, and the meek, the pure, Who mourned, who hungered, thirsted after God ; The persecuted, slandered for His Name, All these receive a blessing from the throne. From underneath the martyr's cries have ceased ; And these appear in spotless, lustrous white; Are honored most and seated nptt the throne. Upon the left, the son of Amram stands; Upon the right, who counts himself the least; These leaders of the consecrated hosts Behold the tribes they pointed to the cross. The ancient prophets, gospel preacher, seers, Are now approved and honored by the Judge. Their sufferings and heroic deeds of worth The Records tell to all before the throne; Their earthly service, deeds of sacrifice; Self-exiled for the distant mission field; The gospel pioneer, in drouth, in cold, In summer heat, in arid plains, on sea, In wilderness, in wilds, with savage tribes, 109 Romance of tfte 2lniuer$e In reformation's work, in godly strife Where worked corruption's plan to kill, destroy- When faithful shepherds gave their strength, their lives To save the flock entrusted to their care, As star from star in glory differs much, So all the resurrected saints receive Each his reward, according to his work, To date and fixed eternal from the throne Here every man who served received full joy; The happy throng applauds the great awards Rejoicing with the victors in their crowns. The angel hosts are called before the Throne And honorable mention now is made Of earthly service for the saints now crowned. The angels disobedient next are called, Their leader, Satan, stands before the Judge, Abashed before the Son of God, he bows, Since first he fell proud and erect he stood, And now his legions see his fallen crest, And with him bow in guilt, despair and dread. The records of the angels' first estate Before that life, or man were formed on earth, Revealed that Satan's pride and unbelief In the eternal Godhead of the Son Inspired rebellion in his angel host And drew one-third the stars out of their course ; 110 i Romance of tfje Onftiem Invaded hosts and precincts not his own ; Drove from their worship, subjects of the Son; Made bold attempt to overthrow His throne; And in defeat lost glory and estate. Prophetic angels had foretold that man A later race of higher mold, Godlike; Whom angels, when created, were to serve ; Their unbelief, and sin, and pride, and fall Begot a hatred of the coming man. And sinking through the stars to lowest depths, Invaded Earth and Paradise for rest; And wait the ages for the destined man, When all their evil works were fully shown Among the angel hosts, among mankind; Back from the throne the hosts of Hell retire ; While unregenerate men with fear approach And wail with anguish as they meet the King, In vain like Esau they repent and kneel To Him they once rejected and despised And scorned, blasphemed, opposed and pierced. With unclean lips and self-condemned confess Before the saints and Christ their lusts and sins. Here are the proud and arrogant, self-willed, Presumptuous; despising government; in state, In church, who evil spoke of dignities, Destroyed the earth; and scourged their fellow men; Kings of the earth, and great, and mighty men ; 111 iaomance of tfte Onitiem Men bond, men free, and captains chief ; Call for the mountains and the rocks to veil The Face Divine that penetrates their thoughts. All Heaven in silence listens to the Son, Who now reveals His truth and righteousness To all the hosts of Earth, of Heaven, of Hell, Unfolds all mysteries of law and grace, Which ran throughout the whole creative scheme, The mind of God made known to all in full, In which all angel natures shared alike, And all were free to stand, as free as man; Not free to rise as man ; some fell from heights From which none ever rise again who fall; To which man rose from lowest depths of sin ; Sustained by power that all had once possessed. None e'er were tempted, tried nor made to serve Without support or strength, to .brave or do ; No mind nor heart was made to be immoved, But grow, expand to Godlike powers and state, Creation's wealth was made for thought, for use; To him that hath, for him exhaustless store, To him that lags and worketh not, is loss, So is the universal law, in matter, mind; In matter dead and fixed, nor growth, nor change, Without the all pervading mind of God. And mind were fixed by fate except that God, Were immanent in man, his mind and heart, To help direct his lofty destiny; 112 Bomance of tbt ®mtiet0e The hosts of angels, devils, men, were judged According to their works found in the books, The Book of Life contained the names of men Redeemed and born again, the date and place. The record of their penitential prayers, Their faith, their works were all engrossed with care The Book unsealed is open evermore. In massive columns in their orders pass The Holy Angel Host before the Throne ; Archangels swift their legions lead And veil their faces as they pass the Throne ; Then circling to the rear form terraced ranks, Arch forward o'er the throne and dome the sky ; Loud Halleluias rise from front to rear, While echoes back and forth exultant praise; Again the hosts redeemed and purged by Christ According to awards, in order come; The last are first, more difficult their faith, And more abundant works their lives had crowned ; Yet here and there, of every age and clime, Assorted groups of heroes bold and strong; The saints enrobed in white with harps and palms Raise high their crowns and shout with loudest praise, And march in triumph to their Savior's side ; Like the transfigured Christ their bodies glow ; 113 Romance of tbt ffJmtoetse In splendor greater than were seen before, In Heaven among the brightest angel hosts The glory of the eternal God indwelt, Shone o'er the angel hosts, their lights eclipsed. Nor sun, nor moon, nor any other light Were needed where their presence went or came, Their Lord, their God gave them indwelling light. Their radiance shone upon the hosts of Hell Who, blind like Saul, were led far to the left. When Satan and his Princes followed swift The hosts that once had swarmed the courts of Earth, Their principalities and thrones and powers, Came next in rapid march and chained to night ; Tumultuous like an army in retreat In swift succession followed on in fear; In ghastly dread, in anguish, cries and tears Came on the nations that forgot their God, The proud with wails of grief, with anguish pierced ; The rich in deep despair, with bitter cries, The haughty, royal folk awestruck, cast down ; The bloody men of might aghast with fear Like routed soldiers in retreat pursued; Passed on the rear of devils to the left To outer darkness all together doomed ; On earth in sin's collusion they were one; 114 Romance of tbt (tinfoerse They of free choice, despite reproof and grace, Rejected warnings, honors, love advanced, Nor fear of death, nor doom, nor Hell, nor God. Now righteousness surprised them with its joys. Amazed by justice with its great rewards, Their maker scorned, whose words, whose works despised ; Now turns them out beyond Creation's Coasts To outer, never-ending depths of space, Beyond where end the farthest rays of light, Where science dumb, confounded by this fact Of boundless, bottomless abyss of night, The Hell of science and a Hell revealed, Overwhelming thought to mind untaught, matured; When past the throne, the hosts of Hell looked back They saw the Holy City coming down, And hovering o'er the throne, receive the King; High lifted were the everlasting gates, The King of Glory entered on His Throne; The angel hosts move round its outer walls; The Gates of Pearl now open wide and stay; While through them from the east, west, north and south The kings of earth with glory enter in. The Judgment throne dissolved, the devils halt, A counsel with his princes Satan calls; Commands to form in battle order swift; 115 Romance ot tfje Oniijctse And in his rear the nations of the world; In one last charge advance upon the host Of angels round the Holy City walls; In mad despair and hellish rage, they charge, Are met with vengeful fire that falls from God, And with its rushing force the hosts of sin Borne down to depths from which there's no return. The Holy City soars to upward space; The Gulf e'er widens 'twixt the saved and lost; The ancient stars dismantled cease to shine; A new creation takes the place of old ; New Earth, new Heavens where righteousness Abides, nor sin, nor curse, nor pain, nor woe ; There man in freedom estimates the right At worth; its price; its Godlike essence, too; No sense of lust; of appetite, nor quest; And heir to all ; and over all with Christ He cannot, will not from his glory fall. 116 PART V. THE HOLY CITY. Built on the crest of the whole universe A City lieth square; a perfect cube; Like matter in its forms when most condensed. When water is congealed, it forms in frost, In ice, or snow in various crystal shapes, Which take their angles from the cubic lines. The elemental gases when congealed Form multifarious crystals of their own; With mathematical exactness all Of nature's vastness has been weighed and shaped. The all designing, comprehensive mind Pervades the simplest forms, the complex whole; And in His Book was written all that is, Which in continuance was fashioned, ere The forms of matter made a point in space; Or light illumined the chaos cf the night That consorts space throughout infinitude. 117 Romance of ifce UniKtw In mathematics, high or simpler forms, The science most exact and most profound, Is found the genius of creation's plan. The measure of an atom is a cube; In theory or fact assumes that shape. The City, first of all creation, planned Before the stars took shape, or axes turned; The wisdom of the great eternal mind Conceived its length, its breadth, its height and shape, A perfect cube; unlike the planets, stars; Immoved; the center of creation's mass. Around in orbits great, and greater, move The constellated mass of shining stars; The stellar systems, comets, planets, moons; Amidst them all the Holy City stands. Abode of God; His place; established Throne. His throne exists for hosts intelligent ; For worship; service; all concenter here. His Throne implies a law, mind, will, supreme; No mind, no will, no law, nor force, nor cause; His power the universe upholds and moves; In matter God must have first place and rule ; Hence Holy City first conceived and planned; The crown and destined end of works divine. 118 Romance of tbt Onitietse Prepared for man in holiness as made; Or when regenerated by the Son; The City of the Holy Sons of God, Who, later, lower than the angels made, Were destined higher in creation's scale; The Church was preconceived and purposed first; The City made for man, ere man w 7 as made ; Predestined heirs to City, Mansions, Streets; Redemption, too, was preconceived and planned; No chance, nor after thought of Deity; Foundations named for men yet to be born. The Architect of Heaven planned and built The City first of all created things. The axis of the universe entire; The source and center of all lights and power; Of light more beautiful than Cynthia's sheen; Stronger than Arcturus or other suns ; The City had no need of any lamp; Original of all celestial lights; No night was there, nor ever shall be night ; No eve, nor morn, twilight, nor shade, nor cloud ; For God is light, in Him no darkness is. From out the City shone creation's light That shaped chaotic matter into spheres; Called from the womb of pre-existent night The stars, opaque and void, and made them shine 119 Bomatue of tht Oniiietsie And light with splendor planets of their own; And animate with verdure, fruits and life; And fill the spacious universe, beneath The City, with the glory of its light; Exalted high above the universe The City stands, the hope of all mankind; The promised City to the pure, the good; Prepared by Christ, the universal Lord; The City of His Bride, the spotless Church. The blood washed throng, redeemed from sin and death, From sorrow, sighing, tears, the City owns. This was the first divine intent toward man; If man had never sinned, his destiny; And man redeemed, that destiny fulfills; Eternal purpose toward humanity; God's image reproduced in many sons; Toward which the whole creation moves and groans ; Awaits the resurrection of the Saints; Awaits the throng expectant of their Lord; Their resurrection splendor shall exceed The light of suns, or glowing angel forms; The immanence of God is seen, is felt; Each human form is radiant with God Enthroned within, whose glory shines without 120 Eomance of tbt Unitozw And forms the dazzling robe of righteousness of saints ; In which the Church of Christ shall be arrayed; The Holy City where no sin has been, Where sin can never come, nor curse, nor death; All earthly ties and quests are of the past; A family unique, the Sons of God, Through faith and grace were saved, elected, sealed ; The Spirit of His Son unites in one The lost; the ruined; saved of Adam's race; Humanity enthroned in love o'er all; O'er all the angel host; supremely blest; They future minister as in the past; But the redeemed go in and out and rule As Sons and Kings and Priests of God most high. Vast populations dwell within its walls; High inconceivably its mansions tower; The dwarfed attempts of men cannot compare; Nor all the cities of the earth e'er known Contained so vast a number in their gates ; The cities of the dead; the mummied hosts; The Catacombs ; the graveyards of the sea ; Whose disembodied souls in Hades wait The call to resurrection and to Christ; Whose lives, whose conscience purified by faith Ensure abundant entrance through the gates ; 121 Romance of tht Uniuw These emigrants celestial shall return, And in the resurrection glorified, With all the living, high ascend and dwell Within its massive walls, which glow with light, And send the splendor of its rays through stones Transparent, and of wondrous magnitude; Their length and breadth and height no man could tell; An Angel's reed alone could show their size; The tints and hues of rarest earthly gems Diffused the Holy City's beauteous light, That shone through all the walls and gates of pearl; Its Jasper walls on twelve foundations rest ; Which were inscribed with names of holy men. The First, of Jasper, shone like coals of fire ; The Second, Sapphire, glowed like flames of blue; Chalcedony, the Third, was pearly white; The Fourth Foundation was an Emerald green ; The Fifth, Sardonyx, mingled white with green; The Sixth, Sardius, was a reddish brown; The Seventh, Chrysolite, a tinted green; The Eighth was Beryl of a pinkish hue; The Ninth, a Topaz, with a hue of blue; The Tenth, a Chrysoprasus, apple green; Eleventh was a Jacinth, crimson red; The Twelfth, an Amethyst of purple blue. The City's light through these foundations glowed, 122 Romance of tfje Onitierge And through its ruddy walls a precious light Shone out through space and fell upon the Earth And Heavens which were since created new. The names of the Apostles could be seen And read afar, where, angels cease their flights; O'er all the universe redeeming love Is thrown upon creation as a screen. The Holy City has the record of all time ; It antedates the making of the stars; Existed when the earth, a shapeless mass, Was void of vegetation and of life; When all of matter motionless and cold, Without a ray of light, or latent heat, Without a germ of life, a solid gas, Nor did the gases flow until the light Burst through the City walls, and warmed the dark And frozen crest of matter as it lay Upon the lap of space and nursed by nigh That swaddled matter with its mantle black, Its folds of cold congealed the mass new born, And when the Spirit moved, the voice of God Sent forth the light to melt the frigid mass; The gaseous waters flowed upon its face And separated from its pole in spheres, And floated into space in orbits vast; And timed by magnetism of the mass, 'Round which were held by gravitation's force. 123 Romance of tbt Onitoewe The Holy City with its ponderous size, Its beauteous rays of light, of life and force; The crest and crown of all created things; The Polar Star of the vast universe Holds all the stars and worlds in place and time, Until at last it shall descend to earth To meet with Christ the resurrected Church, And to receive the living hosts who wait; Then all the stars with all their worlds shall loose Their bearings, suns and systems shall unite, Systems of stars that form creation's dome Shall break and fall, and crash, and fuse in flames, Instant the Holy City shall descend They fall and roll together as a scroll; And conflagration fills the universe; All suns and worlds ablaze with fire and smoke; The day of wrath is come, and sin and Hell avenged ; The Judgment set and sealed with worlds de- stroyed ; The Holy City, First and Last remains; The jewelled crown of Christ, Creator, Lord. New Heavens and New Earth display themselves Before the Church now glorified; the Bride of Christ Beholds the new creation of her Lord. 124 Bomance of tfte Ontoem For angels new abodes, for men new earth ; All things are new, the former things are passed away, And never shall be brought to mind again. Henceforth the God incarnate reigns for men; Exerts eternal all His powers to bless And glorify His Church, and all bestows Upon the subjects of redeeming love. Creations mighty plan His love worked out; His love eternal in redemption ran ; The great inheritance he had prepared For Christ, His Son, with men is shared through love. With patience had endured and suffered long The course of Satan, sinners whom he lured; For this the mercy of the Lord with saints, His intercessions for infirmities and sins; Through all his love at last has made complete The purpose which from first He had conceived In bringing many Sons into His Court; For fellowship; communion with His thought; On whom to worthily bestow His love, And Heir his nature, works, joint with His Son. For this the City had been made so great ; For this creation groaned in painful birth; To bring forth Sons of worth, to reign with Christ In righteousness o'er hosts whose government 125 Bomance of tiie Omtoerse In future should display the powers of God Unseen as yet; beyond this world's desire. Diviner aptitudes will grace our powers; With bodies more conformed to spirit sense; With loss of lust, and quest, and rivalry; With powers of righteousness, new born and strong ; The unseen God made visible and loved; Each object seen enhances love to Him; And friendship there exceeds the love of lust; The joy once felt remains, full and sustained; Environed by perpetual good and God. Within the City enters nothing vile; No need of food, no offal to offend; No scavenger, nor filth, nor dust, nor wear; The mansions built entire of purest gold; The streets transparent gold, in trinity, Recross from East to West, from North to South, Then terminate in gates of solid pearl; Through these the City's light, in trinity, Is f ocussed from each side on distant space And symbolized on all the stars and worlds The glory of the Holy Triune God. Within the City clad in purest white, In raiment that shall neither soil nor wear, Eternal shall exist the race of man Redeemed, empowered, enthroned, and glorified. 126 Romance of tie WLniMttn No night is there, no slumberer to rouse, No care, nor want, nor sigh, nor fear of death. Sweet memories, with flush of victories; Requaint with friends of old and more of new; The ages future give full time to know Each one of all the City's numerous host ; And every angel, of most ancient state, Shall fix indelibly on memory; Known evermore as we are known; what joy In recognizing each a lover true? Within the mansions social joys abound; No clan, nor caste, nor hermit, egoist; But personalities as strong as Paul, Or Peter, John, or Enoch, Moses, Ruth ; The saints are all distinguished by their traits Once manifest through faith while on the earth; These kings of earth into the City bring Their honors gained in serving Christ and men. Within these mansions treasures have been stored Which neither rust, nor mould, nor moth corrupt. Each wall, embossed, portrays some providence That led, sustained or helped each faithful soul; In bold relief, or background, is displayed The ministry of angels as they guard The pilgrims forward to the City gates; From infancy to youth, to manhood, age, 127 Homance of tfte Onitoewe Show all things worked together for their good; Lest they forget amidst the wonders new; Reflection these command; enhance their joys; No prophet could predict the City's growth, The number has been fixed ; elect ; and sealed ; No chance for less, no room for more when filled. No birth, no sex, no sin, no ill, no death. No preacher, priest, the Gospel is fulfilled. Time reeled its end; nonending joys exist; No prophecy ; the thing foretold is now. Rotating days are past; the sun has set; Immortal youth shall never age with years; Life's boundless spiral orbit ne'er shall close; The House not made with hands Eternal stands. Gold has been man's desire of old, is yet; The Holy City built entire of gold, From City streets to elevated towers, Like golden crystals scintillates a light Most precious, both within, without its walls; A home has been man's great desire since first He passed through Eden's Gate to want and toil; From Babel's Tower to regions of the pole, Has sought some spot where, free from care and fear, From storms of cold and heat, from drouths and floods, Some safe elysian bower to find soul rest. 128 Romance of tU 2Jnti)er0e The Holy City is a house of mansions rare, Prepared by Christ for weary souls in want Of rest, of shelter, peace, of fervent love; The trend of man has been to city life; There center forms for government and law, For learning, knowledge, science, pleasure, art. The Holy City destined for the race Has been the brightest hope of all mankind; Its government of universal love Inspired the hope of equal liberties To men on earth who sought that boon at once. The golden rule from Heaven returns with man. Here knowledge is diffused; all know as known; The knowledge gained on earth has passed away ; Where all is new, new knowledge is inspired, Not knowledge learned, acquired; a gift from God. A river flows, of water crystal pure, Out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb; Down underneath to the foundation stones; Thence circling round its walls, on either side A street, its waters shall unceasing flow Back to the Throne and forth forevermore. The emblem of the Holy Spirit's grace, Its cleansing and refreshing energy; The ever blooming trees that grace its banks; 129 Romance of the tlmtoetse That yield their fragrant fruits through every month ; The never withering, vernal, beauteous leaves; These ever constant symbols of the grace That gave the Gospel once to men on earth ; Before the Gospel closed its gracious day. Above the topmost trees the golden streets, Wide part in equidistant parallels, Recross from wall to wall, like viaducts, Wide, triple, glassy seas of gold suspend Their avenues, of glorious height and width, From solid gates of pearl on every side; Above the streets the mansions rise and tower And over all the Jasper Sea, the Throne, Encircled by the Bow of Emerald; The mighty God enthroned in human form ; No Temple rises here, God dwells with man, Reveals Himself to men; they see His face; And every heart is filled with love supreme; While endless joys well up within each soul ; The luster of each eye, undimmed by tears, Expresses more than song or tongue can tell ; Here is achieved man's highest state of bliss; The Holy City is the goal of faith; The unbelieving fail through lust and pride; The fearful; lack of courage, righteousness; 130 Romance of tfte 2Jnitier0e All liars through desire, or fear, or praise With the impure, unchaste, with dogs shut out. The Holy City grants preemptive rights To men of faith ; the call to faith is made From Calvary; and from the City walls, The Bride says "Come, accept the gift of God." The living and the sainted host say "Come." Whoever thirsts may come and freely drink The water flowing from the Throne of God. The End. 131 MAR 18 tSf 1 One copy del. to Cat. Div. mMi 18 M