Ere chimes for him the earth-departing hour, Summoning a weary soul to restful toil In risen worlds, where life puts on all power, Lehi his house convenes,--their hearts the while 1680 Aglow beneath the burning words that pile A pyramid of prophecy whose spire Empierces heaven,--and lest they soil The prospect pure, and tempt Jehovah's ire, Warns them 'gainst ways of pride and paths of dark desire. He speaks of Joseph's, Judah's, destiny; Of blighting and of blessings yet to pour; Proclaims deliverance his own shall see, When cometh one the wandering to restore; Forenames a chosen seer[41] (revealed of yore, 1690 When the boy dreamer's star o'er Egypt rose), Bringing from dust a blest land's buried lore[42]. Seals then his benison, and eyelids close To wake on worlds divine, whither, past all, he goes. The favored son[43] of that prophetic sire-- Favored because most faithful and most just-- Hath soared to sacred mysteries still higher, And tongued to envious ears the heavenly trust. And serpent self, that demon of the dust, Hath coiled and clung around rebellious souls, 1700 Ne'er friendly though fraternal, whose distrust And jealousy breed bitterness that rolls Rivers of wormwood 'twixt two races and their goals. Now peoples twain the Promised Land divide: Northland and Southland see their tribes increase, From Arctic floe to far Antarctic tide; From where the Eastern waves their thunders cease, To where the Western waters are at peace. White and delightsome, they that worship God; They that deny Him, dark, degenerate, these, 1710 Doomed the stern wild to penetrate and plod-- Transgression's scourge and school, the Chastener's heavy rod[44]. The throneless ruler of the regnant race-- King, but no tyrant--prophet, priest, and seer, Meets upon sacred summits, face to face (As when to Moses drew Jehovah near), The Infinite and Spirit Minister[45], Meets Him as man meets man, and by His grace The power is given, with seeric eye to peer, Time's vista viewing through prophetic glass: 1720 Plain to his gaze revealed, the unborn ages pass. War, slaughter, conquest; heroes, sages, famed; Kingdoms, republics, empires, rise and fall; Till pride unknown, and tyranny unnamed, Where righteous rule brings blessedness to all. Then self again, the universal thrall. The faithful, dead or dwindled to a few, Crime begets crimes the heavens to appall. Now arrows of God's anger pierce them through, And horrors piled on horrors make misery's retinue. 1730