Yet stay! Ere storm could burst, was visioned there, Within the portal of the House of Prayer, A promise, a fulfillment, long foretold: Elias and Messias there behold! With angel keepers of the ancient keys Of gathering and of sealing mysteries. Haloed with fire, while burns the heavenly glow, Upon the Prophet they their powers bestow[5]. Speed then swift messengers his face before, 2750 To blaze his sacred name on every shore; Chosen and missioned from the sending skies, The slumbering nations to evangelize. Resounds 'gainst error's shield truth's ringing lance, Unlettered light 'gainst learned ignorance; Priestcraft dethroned, by Priesthood downward hurled, While ancient thunder shakes the modern world. Already, to redeem red Laman's bands[6], Have virile footprints prest those virgin lands, Where westering empire, in creative might, 2760 Rolls a new world upon the wondering sight; Where flower-starred prairies, in the far extent, Kiss with soft lips the bending firmament, And sea-like rivers, solitary, lone, Pour their proud waters toward the burning zone. Land of all lands the rarest[7], where shall rise,-- Mirrored magnificence of earth and skies, Each gate a pearl, each pinnacle a gem,-- The jasper walls of New Jerusalem; The golden glory of the hemispheres, 2770 Jehovah's throne through all the Thousand Years. The land where Adam fell, where Enoch rose, Where time began and history shall close. Thereto and thence, by brand and fagot driven, His fault to man, his fealty to heaven, With here and there, perchance, an idle word Vainglorious zeal or vengeful might afford, Flies Ephraim, scorched and scourged, from Japheth's wrath[8], Pushed on and on o'er steep and thorny path, 2780 Whipt, plundered, wounded, bleeding, to the goal, Where joy in fullness crowns the conquering soul. Then hath not war, that bringeth woe and pain, The right betimes, like gentle peace, to reign? What strife, what tempest, wreaks its wrath in vain? Prosperity and persecution blend, As sun and storm, faith's branch with fruit to bend. Twain are the shoulders[9] of the Philistine, That Israel onward bear, as breeze and brine The tempest-driven bark that safe o'er sea 2790 Carried calm Caesar[10] and his destiny. Progression fails with opposition's flight, And darkness is but handmaid unto light.