The Lifted Ensign

THE IMPROVEMENT ERA 3SE Vol. 33-41 APRIL, 1930 No. 6 The Lifted Ensign A Call to Israel Dramatic Poem Characters Impersonated: ELI AS \ : EPHRAIM : : JUD AH ELI AS: A VOICE that crieth in the Wilderness : "Make plain and straight the Highway of our God!" One Hundred Years, on Time's swift pinions flown, Since raised the Ensign for the Gathering — One hundred years, and still the standard waves, Summoning the chosen from world-wandering, Calling the covenant people from afar, To greet the coming of their God and King. Children of Jacob, Isaac, Abra- ham, Sheep of the flock the Shepherd comes to fold! How have ye answered to his beck- oning call? What have ye done his pathway to prepare? Give answer, Ephraim, from thy mountain height, Where streams the signal seen and sung of yore — First-born of God in these, Earth's final days, By ORSON F. WHITNEY Of the Council of the Twelve "And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." — Isaiah 11:12. Speak thou, and let the winds thy Of mighty nations, whispering from the dust; Mine to unfurl the Ensign, and to sound story tell ! EPHRAIM: T HEAR thee, and with joy I A answer thee: 'Twas mine to welcome the return of Truth, Of old from Error's wide domain withdrawn; Mine to unshroud the buried mys- tery O'er sea and land the tidings won- derful ; Flooding the world with truth and righteousness, Thrusting the sickle in the golden grain, Reaping a ripened field, and garner- ing The earliest sheaves of Israel's harvest home. I've toiled and wept and bled to bring once more The fulness of Christ's Message unto men; To build redemptive Temples, that the dead, Obedient to law in spirit realms, Might with the living share in joys divine. More wouldst thou hear? — There's more I fain would tell. THE AUTHOR ELI AS: yELL on!— tell on! wearies not mine ear. EPHRAIM: Truth ♦Written for the Centennary Celebration of the Church of Jesus Christ of "F SPELLED ^Y tyranny from Utter-day Saints. April 6, 1930. Freedom s ground,

376 The Improvement Era for April, 1930 I tracked the lone untrodden wil- Blind am I to what Ephraim be- And tell me, when did Christian derness. . holds. charity Here, 'neath my virile touch, once Perchance the air is purer, view Mean justice for the wronged, barren wilds more large, down-trodden Jew? Now sing for joy and bloom de- On yonder height where stalwartly Mercy, forsooth! what mercy have lightsomely. he stands, they shown, I've planted Zion's outposts, firm Than in the misty vale where I Who slaughter 'neath the banner and strong, respire. of the Cross? Rock-fortressed by the everlasting Thinkst thou I err, his thought Too much we hear of love and hills, Where Faith expectantly doth bide the hour When Zion's self from Eden's soil shall rise, Thrilled by the glad acclaim: "The Bridegroom comes!" interpreting? But I am with him in the war for right, For justice and the freedom of the world. And to this cause give I a willing charity, From lips of hate, from hearts of cruelty, Boasting a leader whom they fol- low not, Prating of love, but never practis- ing. and loyalty. ELI AS: Nor all my ministries on Western shores, Nor all my sympathies with next of kin. Have I not stood on ancient Olivet, And offered prayer to heaven for Judah's weal? Have I not combed the universe For Israel's God, Jehovah, Lord and drawn of All, The choice of nations to this fa- Who gave the Gospel as He gave hand, And pledge my friendship, faith This Jesus, whom they laud, not emulate, Good man — e'en great perchance. But why a God? HHHOU sayest well — yet well mightst say far more vored land, the Law, Where homing tribes shall shout And died that endless death might to trembling hills, And lift hosannas to the listening skies That light the towers of New Je- rusalem? By these and kindred works my faith is shown. Thus have I answered to the Shep- herd's call. ELIAS: A ND answered well. And He ■ whose day now dawns Shall crown thy valor with a rec- ompense As boundless, endless as eternity. Now, Judah, tell thy tale! What deeds of thine Are strewn as flowers along Mes- siah's way? JUDAH: \jESSIAH? — Him I see not in the man Whom Christians name the Christ, their holy one. I see not in their God my fathers' God, Whose covenant abides with Abra- ham; Who spake to Moses in the fiery Mount, And gave the Law to govern Israel. vanquished be. What limit to His merit or His claim? JUDAH: Joseph and Mary's son, a common Jew, Who sat at feet of rabbis famed for lore, And learned from them, yet brought forth nothing new. Why should the knee of Israel bend to him? ELIAS: CAT He at no man's feet for ^ power to save And lift up fallen worlds. His wisdom came TDLEAD not with me my ancient ,-x, j .« i f , r,, ■ t From heights more distant than Older than aught by Christians *i_" the unseen stars, deemed divine; Pure as the snowy peaks of Le- banon, That pour reviving streams o'er thirsty plains. What nobler doctrine than the Decalogue? What higher law than Justice can'st thou name? ELIAS: Fresh as the morning dew upon the flower; Pure as the snow — so white on Lebanon Till tainted by the soil through which it flows — Truth by tradition's muddy stream unroiled. The sapient rabbis, famed for an- tique lore, Might well have learned from Him — but would not learn. The wisest of the scribes and phar- isees, Astounded, routed were, and put to shame By One who spake as no man since or ere. TS Justice more than Mercy — more than Love? No need to change thy faith, but build thereon. If thou the Perfect Law wouldst comprehend, Its loftiest, purest, heavenmost height attain, Add unto justice the pure love of Old was his doctrine — truth is ever God — old — Sweet Charity, of graces all the Old as its parent spring, Eternity, crown. Old upon earth, from Adam until now. JUDAH: Yet seemed it new to them; — and this the cause, JUSTICE — not Mercy — is the The chief and primal cause of that Jew's demand. great crime

The Improvement Era for April, 1930 377 Which on the cross He pardoned and forgave. Man — merest man will die a friend to save. Who but a God, to save both foe and friend? And very God was He, though human-born, Divinely-gotten Child of Deity. But why waste words upon those recreant Jews, Those pseudo Christians — false that mask as true? The salt can lose its savor — so with them — ■ Unworthy parts, bespeaking not the whole. Why dwell upon these human . happenings? — Unprofitable polemic wranglings! Lift thought and argument to higher planes. JUDAH: When Gods in glory launched a Whose sacred words flow down the centuries To find fulfillment in this ample universe? JUDAH: T2 UT Abraham — the solemn Covenant- Jehovah's sacred promise to His own: "In thee and thine all men, all na- tions blest" — Spoken these words upon the idle wind, That now they be as though they ne'er had been? ELI AS: ''TWAS Christ made covenant with Abraham, Jesus, Jehovah — for the twain are one; — Then gave Himself that covenant to fulfill; And mixt His people with earth's age, Where past and present, sire and son must join, Perfection reign, and all in Christ be one. Ephraim his part hath played, and thou no less, In God's great drama — "Marvel and Wonder" named. Wherefore, complete thy story, well begun. What hast thou done His pathway to prepare? JUDAH: JJIS pathway! — his, the peasant ■*• *• carpenter, Whose body, stolen from the tomb, long since Hath crumbled and returned to na- tive dust? alien tribes, That all— not Israel only— might Granting, for argument, he ts to be blest come, A MEN! say I. And now to me Nor kast an'd Ujgt of nations fail Why should I strew with palms his ■ ■ make plain — To me, who am so dull — this mystery: What need had Israel of this Na- zarene? to share In blessings showered through him upon the world, Sprinkled, as rain, with his believ- ing blood; Why came a Christ, great Moses peopling the arid wastes of unbc. havincr rompr V ( having come And why a Gospel when the Law was known? ELI AS: \7HAT need of Christ— the ™ Lord — since Moses came? Moses to Christ was but as part to whole, Preface to book, mere river to the sea, And all the dispensations of the past, When heaven hath gladdened earth with spirit showers, Are but as streams that to one Ocean flow. Why separate the Gospel from the Law — Greater and less — container and contained? Why part God from his prophet messengers, Sent from Above to voice and work his will, And preparation make for mightier things Than e'er were known among the sons of men; Completing what creation's morn began, With souls responsive to the clar- ion call Shaking the seas and isles and con- tinents, And gathering what was scattered ages gone. JUDAH: earthward way? Why for his coming should my soul prepare? ELI AS: "DECAUSE He is thy Father and ■■- thy Friend, Because He is the God of Israel — Buried yet risen Savior of man- kind, Author and Giver of -eternal life — What hast thou done that He on earth may reign? DUT Moses — what of him? -*-' Lived he for naught? Sayest thou his mighty mission was in vain? ELI AS: Silent? Then wouldst thou choose one speak for thee, Who ne'er unfriendly was to thee or thine, But sympathetic in thy sorrows all? For thou hast borne the brunt of martyrdom, XT AY; but to round his glorious Alike in Christian and in heathen ministry, lands, To link the lesser with the greater Enduring long and suffering pa- part, tiently, And make effectual all that went While lesser breeds have trampled before, thee and spurned. In this, the dispensation last of all, Driven — despoiled — tortured and Came he the Keys of Gathering to trodden down, restore; Drinking the bitter cup, Captivity, Lest Ephraim's rallying standard Yet still, through groaning, pain- wave in vain racked centuries O'er Joseph's land and Zion's, seen Honoring Jehovah's name, Je- afar hovah's law, By seers and prophets from thy Spreading the knowledge of the household sprung, living God

378 The Improvement Era for April, 1930 Amid the shrines of Baal and Ashtoreth. Why 'twas thy hand the instru- ment became Of purpose heaven-ordained ere earth began, Whereby, through sacrifice and death, came Life, To rescue and redeem a fallen world,- — No mortal knoweth. Only this men know: Christ did not cast thee off. He that forgave Is still thy Friend — as are true Christians all; For none love God who hate what God doth love. Forth in these modern days thine eager hand, To build anew the old Jerusalem, To raise once more her walls, oft leveled down; To gather in thy sons and daugh- ters fair, And sow a sterile land with fruit- fulness; Redeeming thus thine ancient her- itage, That Zion's King may sit on Da- vid's throne. Ah! Judah, couldst thou see what Ephraim sees — Thy monarch in that lowly Na- zarene, Long-symboled by the oft-slain paschal lamb, Prophetic of the Sacrifice Supreme. Would thou couldst see what an- cient seers discerned, What spirit-quickened eyes may now behold — Messiah in that Prophet first-of- all, The Moses of a mightier Exodus Than e'er was dreamt of in rab- binic lore; Deliverer of a captive universe, In bondage to the powers of death and hell! And thy Deliverer in a day to come, When hostile legions thunder at thy gates, When half thy city hath become a spoil, As written in the scroll of proph- ecy. Then shalt thou see and feel His wounded hands, Then shalt thou fall and worship at His feet; And all that fight 'gainst Jacob's, Judah's God, Shall be as dust and ashes whirl- wind-blown, .As flying chaff before the hurri- cane. Fresh from the fountains of Eter- nity. JUDAH : T\7 HY Ephraim? Why his proud ^ pre-eminence, Towering amid the tents of Israel? Why should his word or thine determine all? ELI AS: T3ECAUSE it is the word of -^ Israel's God, Whose servant I, as I would fain be thine; — The God of Moses and of Abra- ham, The God of patriarchs and proph- ets all, The God of Israel free and Israel chained; God of the humble and the pure- in-heart; God of the just, in every age and clime ; The Christ of Bethlehem and Cal- vary, The King of Kings, the crucified and crowned. Come, weary-laden, He will give thee rest, And thou shalt tread the rose- strewn path of peace. Not all thy eons thy wearied arms uphold, Not all are Hurs and Aarons in the strife. Summon thy worldings from the JUDAH' tinseled, show, Where folly reigns and ruin works \7HAT confirmation hath these No more doth envy of thee sour its will. W mightv claims? my soul, EPHRAIM: TJEED, Judah! heed Messiah's messenger, Hearken to me, thy brother and thy friend. Teach them to play a better, nobler How can I know if such great part, And walk with thee the greater "Great White Way." Rouse all that slumber beneath sor- did spells, Or unto gods of dust low homage pay; Bid them to bring their gold and jewels rare, Their heaped up stores of precious merchandise, Their wealth, like Pelion on Ossa piled, And beautify the Holy Place of Him Whose law shall yet from Zion's land go forth, Whose royal edict from Jerusalem. For Israel o'er Amalek must pre- vail, And repossess in full the Promised Land. my Nor doth thine anger vex me, as of yore. Forgiven as I forgive, clean, clear I stand, And I am sent Good Tidings to proclaim. No man-made creed — no dogma vague, unsound — The Ancient Faith, pure, simple, sweet, sublime, The Gospel in its plentitude of power, The Gospel in its fulness — this I bring. ELI AS: TUDAH! 'tis Ephraim calls — he J loves thee well, The message Ephraim brings thee And what thou lackest fain would is divine, — he supply, Old and yet new, the Everlasting His envy hath departed — brother, Truth, friend, Pure from the presence of our He haileth thee. Oh be thou friend fathers' God, to him! things be true? If I be blind, who will my sight unscale? ELI AS: XJE who makes blind to see and -^ deaf to hear! — Hearken to Him and whomsoe'er He sends. Bow to the sceptre of the Son of God, The gospel of the High and Holy One, And by that Gift which maketh manifest Thou'lt clearly see and of a surety know

The Improvement Era for April, 1930 379 might, destiny! Expand thy soul, enlarge thy Who void what Great Jehovah Why stand aloof? Why doubt and Be not outstript in such a glorious Thy motive pure and generous and hesitate? race. just. Jerusalem and Zion are as one. Judah, arise! Put on thine ancient gut who can change the course of See Japheth launch his ships to people them! The Gentile, all unknowingly doth serve The cause of Him who summons Israel To Joseph's land, to Judah's hills and vales. Behold them in their flight from Babel's doom, Borne on the shoulders of the Phil- istine! sympathy; Join hands with Ephraim, and bring to pass All that the prophets and the seers foretold ! JUDAH: hath decreed? 'Tis conscience guides me, and high Heaven alone Doth hold, of that mysterious lock, the key. Yet something tells me we shall meet again. T^HY speech I can believe most God grant it be as friends! And ■■ kindly meant, so, farewell. The Stone Was Rolled Away 'T'HE city dozed fitfully — uneas- ily. Even in sleep, oppression weighed heavily against the sensi- bilities of both high and low — wise and simple. The King of the Jews — he who had dared call himself son of God — had been put to death. That special menace to earthly power was ended. The tomb had been made fast — a watch set. But the strange darkness that had settled like a pall over the earth, at the moment of his death, added to the terrific earthquake that had rent the temple from top to bottom, had been most disquiet- ing. The hardiest, even, had been touched with strange nausea; the bravest had whispered, "What if — ," and let the thought go un- finished. Its ending was not pleas- ant to contemplate. The awful business was over — finished! Best to forget it — to put it out of one's thought! The second day passed slowly. People had begun to breathe more easily — to go about their business with lighter hearts. In the home of John the mother of Jesus wept. Sadly, Peter went to and fro — his heart heavy. He could not forget his repeated denial of his Lord. Sorrow sat drearily upon all the little band who had loved and believed in him who was thus crucified. AS night approached, the wind r- rustled through the trees. Not a bird sang. A dull, leaden hue By L. D. STEARNS almost obscured the sky. Earth seemed sodden with a slow mist that appeared to gather and drop, like tears, from Nature's eyes. So long the night — so slow! so very slow! At last a break — a tiny glow creeping above the hills, yet few saw it! Tired eyes were closed. The weary city slept. But in the shifting greyness— very early, while it was still not light, — Mary Mag- dalene and the other Mary arose, and carrying spices and ointment went to the sepulchre, that they might, if by chance some one could be found to roll away the stone, once more anoint the body of their Lord. Their eyes, heavy with grief and loss of sleep, did not note that the grey strangeness of yester- day had broken, or that the tiny thread of light, creeping slowly upward in the east, held a hint of dazzling brilliance. Pondering, they reached the tomb. "And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away!" CUDDENLY, magically, the *^ earth flamed into glory. Christ — had spoken! "Go to my breth- ren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God!" Finished? No! From every quarter of the earth today — from tree, and shrub, and bloom, — from brook, and star, and sun, — from cloud, and mist, and sod, the echo spreads and rolls, "My Father, and your Father; my God, and your God!" AGES may come and go- — theo- ** ries rise and fall; creeds may surge this way, and that; but sweetly, steadily, mightily, the echo rolls, — "My God, and your God!" Catching the rhythm of the swelling notes, humanity — sorrowful, sinful, disordered, but still beautiful humanity, with its divine capacity for love and holi- ness,— looks up, searching, seek- ing! Deep, deeper, and ever deep- er, a tiny flame strikes, here and there, into life. We are ignorant of much; we may not be able to formulate with exactness our conception of God's power; but when his voice rolls down the abyss of time, he who hears it knows that God has spo- ken. As warmth dissipates the chill from hitherto cold hearts, one knows, of a surety, that one no more is cold. Before one glows a vision, reaching straight to Para- dise! Faith swings up, and up! More, even, than faith. For as tides shall roll, and seasons change, and daylight follow night, the touch and sense of Divinity with- in the soul, its strength, its sweet- ness, will have a power all its own, as far removed from mere emotionalism as the east is removed from the west. He who has felt it, been warmed and sweetened by it, knows, in very truth, the re- ality and power of him who "roll- ed the stone away."