The Arcana Of The Infinite[1]

Flake upon flake, then slide succeeding slide,
The marvel and the wonder multiplied.

Garnered in one vast mind[2] the glacial store,
The glittering avalanche of heavenly lore,
Whose living streams shall slake the burning thirst
Of time unborn, of nations yet unnurst;
Torrent of truth, river of prophecy, 1990
Rolling through worlds to find fulfillment's sea.

He stands, as Moses on the mystic mount,
Where knowledge pours from wisdom's purest fount;
Stands 'neath the droppings of the crystal eaves,
Stands on the loftiest summit man achieves,
Where light eternal—was, is, and to be—
'Lumines the vistas of immensity,
The ultimates of human destiny.

He walks and talks with God, as friend with friend;
He reads the Book of Time from end to end, 2000
And in the Volume of Eternity
Peruses past and far futurity;
Ranges to realms of wider mystery—
Ne'er-ending hope, ne'er-ending history;
While from all depths that sink, all heights that soar,
Come voices, visions, of the Evermore.
Like unto like, above, beneath, the skies,
Deep calls to deep, and faith to faith replies.

He hears the solemn dispensations[3] chime,
From morn till eve, from birth to death, of time; 2010
He notes the markings of the horologe,
The set times of the great unerring Judge;
Then sees those dispensations as they run
Their 'lotted course, like hours 'twixt sun and sun.
Wave after wave rolls o'er the shining sand,
Wave after wave breaks higher up the strand,
With all of weal or woe the ages send.
As sundered ocean tides that shoreward tend,
Now past and future o'er the present pend,
Till on the narrow isthmus sea meets sea, 2020
And time no longer parts eternity.

He hears the soundings of the trumpets seven[4],
Whose angels, stooping from the heights of heaven,
Proclaim, in tones to rend the echoing spheres,
The secrets of the Seven Thousand Years;
The secret of a book with seven seals,
That all of mortal mystery reveals;
Man's course, God's chronicle, life's tale told true,
Nor tinged with favor's tint, with hatred's hue;
Earth's week of history, whose sabbath chime 2030
Summons to rest the weary soul of time.

The Holy Order[5] that for aye hath reigned,
For loyal faith and lofty deeds ordained;
The all-creating, all-controlling chain,
Whereby the Gods perpetuate their reign,
Whereby the higher, bending, lift the lower;
Wielding the sceptre of Almighty Power,
Ruling by right the nations, ill aware
Whence came the thrones that have been, thrones that
are; 2040
Which sets up one and puts another down,
Their fate proclaimed as fortune's smile or frown;
The power that reigns not save in righteousness,
Persuades in meekness, chastens but to bless;
The might of heaven, the pure and potent chain
Stainless, save mortal links their lustre stain,
And plunged through fire are purified again,
He sees extending through the storms of time,
Anchor and cable of a ship sublime.

Pilots of life on death's fierce tempest tossed, 2050
Love's legionaries, saviors of the lost;
A sacred army's solemn pride and boast,
The janissaries of the heavenly host;
The jeweled circlet of the Central Gem,
Jehovah's body-guard—the Gibborim.

The guileless followers of the guiltless Lamb,
Of Israel ere Earth knew Abraham[6];
Sealed in the forehead with the sacred Name,
Bearing the Ark of God, the Sword of Flame[7];
Behold them coming, coming, as they came 2060
Whene'er was kindled here the beacon blaze
By each Elias of the olden days!
Truth, error, shine and shadow[8], alternate,
As oft as mankind proves degenerate.

But ever, as the day-beam sinks and dies,
The stars reset their lanterns in the skies;
And unto Moses in the wilderness
Comes greater light, succeeded by the less[9].
Till truth the fulness of its ray restores,
And heaven o'er earth the holy unction pours, 2070
By ministers upon each hemisphere,[10]
Sent to proclaim what every soul must hear.

The promise past, fulfillment now is seen,
The Perfect Church[11], resplendent in the sheen
Of risen Righteousness, whose arm once more
Puts forth in power to rescue and restore.
Gray grows to crimson, crimson melts to gold,
And dawns the day by starry night foretold,
Whose lamps prophetic pale their silvery rays,
Lost in the golden light of Latter Days. 2080
A twofold Church, a dual Bride he sees;
Time's the full reflex of Eternity's.

Visioned the Dispensation of the End,
Where Zions meet, where dispensations blend,
And time's sad rivers cease their mighty moan
In sobbing requiem o'er his sunken throne,
Till death departs, and joy, from zone to zone,
Welcomes the rightful Heir unto his own.

Visioned the Council of the Ancient One[12],
Where stars make ready for the rising Sun; 2090
Where Adam yields the mortal world he won,
Unto the Sabbath Lord, till sabbath done,
And Sire receives the Kingdom from the Son.
Ere when, award of fulness is there none;
Though great ones gain the far celestial shore,
Shining and perfect as they shone before.

'Lumed by the Lamp that giveth endless view,
Discerns he spirits false and spirits true;
Unmasking Satan with the keys of light[13],
That blind may see and deaf may hear aright, 2100
A message marvelous to eyes and ears,
The rhythmic message of the songful spheres.

"Truth is eternal!"—Thus the solemn voice—
"'Twas not her birth made morning stars rejoice,
Nay, but her mission to a new-born sphere,
Whither, as oft, her shining bark would steer
With spirit crew, kin to the kingly race
Peopling the burning orbs of bourneless space.

"Truth is eternal, endless as its God,
Author and framer of the changeless code, 2110
Ever-returning, oft-repeating plan,
Redeeming from all worlds the race of man.
Life-saving line, far flung from heaven to earth,
To rescue souls—God's wealth, supremest worth—
Rescue the fallen and the penitent,
Who else must bide in hopeless banishment.
Unending were their mortal prisonment,
Did ne'er truth's sunlight gild the gloomy sod,
Gospel of mercy, gift of the gracious God,
Who gave up life to bridge the dark gulf o'er, 2120
And close its cruel jaws forevermore;
Love, striving with belief and unbelief,
Gleaning life's harvest to the latest sheaf.

"A God whose glory is intelligence,
A God whose knowledge gives omnipotence,
Who makes, maintains, redeems, and glorifies,
Bending to lift the lowliest to the skies,
By triple lever, by the mystic birth,
By Three in heaven, the typed of three on earth:
Water, that signifies obedience, 2130
Sure test of faith, true sign of penitence;
Spirit whereby the flesh is justified,
And blood, whereby the soul is sanctified;—
Lifting by these, but not by these alone,
By every word from Him upon the Throne,
Spirit 'mid spirits, most intelligent[14],
Wherefore their Sovereign Sire benevolent,
Giver of life and light whereby the rest
Press on and on till all things are possessed.

"Intelligence, eternal[15], uncreate, 2140
Though God-begotten in the spirit state,
Where all creations see maturity,
Ere launched as souls upon the mortal sea,
To prove their worth, make choice 'twixt wrong and right,
And walk by faith as erst they walked by sight;
As free to sound the gulf as soar the height.

"Man a divinity in embryo,
Who, ere he reign above, must serve below;
His spirit in earth element baptize,
For birth and death are baptism[16] to the wise. 2150
The space that parts the lower from the higher,
Spanned by development of son to Sire,
Of daughter unto Mother's high estate,
Where man and woman are inseparate.

"Time a probation; earth, through time, a school,
Where justice reigns, though oft the unjust rule.
Pain, trouble, toil, preceptors of the soul;
Death, birth, but portals to and from life's goal—
Life's fount, where all as infant spirits sprang,
And sons of God in countless chorus sang, 2160
Unheeding earthly sorrow[17]—parent pang
Of after joy, o'er which their triumph rang.

"The fall, whereby the worlds are put in pawn,
And held in durance till redemption dawn,
A plan divine that changeth part to whole,
Immortal spirit to immortal soul.

"Second estate[18] here interlinked with first,
For godliness where spirit life was nurst,
And Satan's rebel host, heaven's third, were sent
To unentabernacled banishment; 2170
Tempters, beguilers, triers of the true,
Who now reap greater gain, or sadly rue
The loss of all, surrendering to him
Who warreth endlessly 'gainst Elohim,
And, shorn of glory, would all light bedim;
Where many, wrecked, to awful depths go down,
While few return to wear the waiting crown,
Reigning where others serve.

"Each woe, each bliss,
In after worlds, the yield of life in this; 2180
Here garnered are the fruits from fields of yore,
And sown the harvest of the evermore.

"The called are not the chosen past mischance;
The sanctified to glorified advance,
And stewardship becomes inheritance.
Redemption free, for God hath paid the price;
All else man wins by toil and sacrifice.

"As sun, or moon, or varying star[19], appears
Each heir of glory in those endless spheres:
Sun-like the souls that live celestial laws, 2190
And moon-like they who at terrestrial pause—
Who honor not the Saviour in the flesh,
But after, in the spirit realm, refresh
Their fainting, fettered lives at mercy's fount,
And, far as merit buoys them, upward mount;
Saved, glorified, by faith and penitence,
Made valid, through vicarious ordinance[20],
For all who Him believe, who Him obey,
And own in other worlds His sovereign sway.
Nor lost forever souls unsaved today: 2200
Telestial they who taste the pangs of hell,
And pay guilt's debt ere they in glory dwell,
Twinkling as stars whose numbers none can tell.

"Souls that to high celestial realms have won,
Dwell with the gods, beholding Sire and Son;
While bounds are set that bar terrestrial heirs
(With whom the Gracious One his presence shares),
And dwellers in the far telestial spheres,
To whom the Holy Spirit ministers.
God's servants these, but to His glorious home— 2210
The loftiest heights of heaven—they cannot come.

"Justice and Mercy each shall have its own,
Nor one thrust other from the dual throne;
Each shoal and deep a final fullness see,
And like clasp like through all eternity.

"But who shall sound the bottomless despair
Of one condemned the second death to share?
If, re-ensnared in Satan's subtle mesh,
A soul redeemed its Saviour pierce afresh,
Spurning the Spirit, scorning proffered ruth, 2220
A traitor utterly to light and truth,
Then flames perdition's gulf, death's last abyss,
The lake of fire, all life's antithesis.
All power then powerless to change its plight;
For what avails the burnt-out lamp to light?
Justice can lay no blame on blameless shelves,
Nor mercy save when souls will damn themselves.

"Twofold is death, but life has threefold sway;
What ne'er created was, endures alway.
The organized disorganized may be, 2230
But not the life that lives undyingly.
Nothing bides nothing: that which is shall be;
Though form, not essence, change unceasingly.
Space, spirit, matter, all eternal are,
And death but on creation wages war.
Whate'er beginning had may have an end,
But life eternal doth itself defend.

"Man's inmost spark, his being's primal fire,
As birthless and as deathless as its Sire,—
No more the maker of that unmade germ 2240
Than man the framer of the spirit form,
Born and begotten in the first estate,
God's creature, whom God's power can uncreate.
Spirit to spirit, dust to dust returns,
But bright intelligence forever burns,
Though banished from the presence of the light,
Exiled and wandering in the outer night,
Remembering past, and mourning present blight,
The end whereof, a mystery to man,
Unsolved while bending 'neath the mortal ban, 2250
None but the doomed partaker e'er shall scan.

"Higher than heaven, deeper than hell, profound,
His course wherein no crookedness is found—
An onward, upward, never-ending round.

"Comes forth all life at resurrection's call,
When soul immortal sheds its mortal thrall;
The just first rising, who with Christ shall reign,
While sinners tarry till He sounds again,
Late issuing, in shame and self contempt,
When Lucifer, unbound, shall newly tempt, 2260
Still striving for a glory not his own,
Till by the Arm Almighty overthrown.

"Spirit and body, blending, make the soul,
As halves, uniting, form the perfect whole.
Spirit and element, commingled, one,
Inheriting the Glory of the Sun,
Symbol a greater union yet to be,
When heaven and earth shall wed eternally,
And restitution's edict seal and bind
Eternal matter to eternal mind, 2270
Like unto like, for night weds not with day,
And order's mandate e'en the gods obey.

"The sealing of the sexes, mate to mate,
Earnest of exaltation's lofty state,
Where evermore they reign as queens and kings,
And endless union endless increase brings;
While serve as angels the unwedded ones,
Abandoning their right to royal thrones.

"One are the human twain, as sheath and sword—
Woman and man, the lady and the lord; 2280
Each pair the Eve and Adam of some world,
Perchance unborn, or into space unhurled.

"From endless spirit, endless element,
The worlds that glow in glory's firmament.
Created all and governed all by law,
Perfect they shine, or show sin's fatal flaw;
Their Maker's will obey or disobey,
And felons found a felon's debt[21] must pay;
While wiser orbs, obedient at school,
Are robed in radiance, and have learned to rule— 2290
Are lords of light, resplendent and supreme,
E'en as great Kolob 'mid the kokaubeam.

"Earth a celestial law hath magnified[22],
And by that law shall she be sanctified,
And by the same shall she be glorified;
By fire refined, the gold from dross set free,
Shining forever as a crystal sea,
Celestial seer-stone[23], making manifest
All things below to souls upon her breast—
Chosen, omniscient, children of the Sun, 2300
Offspring of Adam, Michael, Ancient One,
Who comes anon his fiery throne to rear,
His council summoning from far and near.
Ten thousand times ten thousand bow the knee,
And "Father" hail him, "King," eternally.

"For so are governed all those worlds of fire,
That chorus in a universal choir
The glory of the Lord Omnipotent,
Whose power hath framed through infinite extent
The splendors of the flashing firmament; 2310
Sire of the universe, and King of Kings,
O'er countless realms; each dusty dot that springs
To blazing being, empire of a god,
Who equals Him, yet owns His sovereign rod,
The Central Scepter of Omnipotence,
The God of Gods, Supreme Magnificence,
Regnant o'er all that is or e'er shall be,
Throned on the summit of eternity.

"Souls there above who once below all things,
All things inherit, and are priests and kings, 2320
Pillars immovable, princes unto God,
No more outgoing from that high abode,
Where past and future present are alway,
And years a thousand even as a day".

Who here have lived, or would have lived, the law[24],
Exalted, numbered with the gods, he saw,
One with the wisdom of Omniscience,
And glorious with All Intelligence.
So thorough and so just the perfect plan,
Weighing the motive with the work of man! 2330

Nor this the tithe of what those tongues unfold,
Nor tithe of tithe of what can ne'er be told.
As unto Judah's one and Joseph's three[25],
Who tasted of translation's ecstacy;
Or him who, spared from Babel's doom, beheld
Messiah's unclothed spirit[26], faith-compelled;
Or him of Tarsus, tranced, the triple seer[27]
Of things unlawful to be uttered here;—
As unto souls like these was given to see
The marvel past, the mystery to be, 2340
So upon him, their peer of modern days,
The Source of all-revealing sends its rays.

Broken the fountains of the upper deep;
Opened the sepulchres where ages sleep;
The past, the future, now the present leaven;
With truth from earth blends righteousness from heaven,
Welding the parted links of being's chain,
Old making new, the dead live again.

O message marvelous to eyes and ears!
Voices and visions of the mystic spheres! 2350
Voices of noonday, visions of the night,
Whisperings of angels, and their presence bright!
Voice of the Architect of Life's vast Plan,
Speaking as God to God, as man to man!