CHAPTER XIX.
ELIZA R. SNOW'S INVOCATION—THE ETERNAL FATHER AND MOTHER—ORIGIN OF THE SUBLIME THOUGHT POPULARLY ATTRIBUTED TO THEODORE PARKER—BASIC IDEA OF THE MORMON THEOLOGY.
Joseph endowed the church with the genesis of a grand theology, and Brigham has reared the colossal fabric of a new civilization; but woman herself must sing of her celestial origin, and her relationship to the majesty of creation.
Inspired by the mystic memories of the past, Eliza R. Snow has made popular in the worship of the saints a knowledge of the grand family, in our primeval spirit-home. The following gem, which opens the first volume of her poems, will give at once a rare view of the spiritual type of the high priestess of the Mormon Church, and of the divine drama of Mormonism itself. It is entitled, "Invocation; or, the Eternal Father and Mother
O! my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and holy place;
When shall I regain thy presence,
And again behold thy face?In thy glorious habitation,
Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood,
Was I nurtured by thy side?For a wise and glorious purpose,
Thou hast placed me here on earth;
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth.Yet oft-times a secret something,
Whisper'd, "You're a stranger here;"
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.I had learned to call thee Father,
Through thy spirit from on high;
But until the key of knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.In the heavens are parents single?
No; the thought makes reason stare;
Truth is reason; truth eternal,
Tells me I've a Mother there.When I leave this frail existence—
When I lay this mortal by,
Father, Mother, may I meet you
In your royal court on high?Then at length, when I've completed
All you sent me forth to do,
With your mutual approbation,
Let me come and dwell with you.
A divine drama set to song. And as it is but a choral dramatization, in the simple hymn form, of the celestial themes revealed through Joseph Smith, it will strikingly illustrate the vast system of Mormon theology, which links the heavens and the earths.
It is well remembered what an ecstacy filled the minds of the transcendental Christians of America, when the voice of Theodore Parker, bursting into the fervor of a new revelation, addressed, in prayer, our Father and Mother in heaven!
An archangel proclamation that!
Henceforth shall the mother half of creation be worshipped with that of the God-Father; and in that worship woman, by the very association of ideas, shall be exalted in the coming civilization.
Wonderful revelation, Brother Theodore; worthy thy glorious intellect! Quite as wonderful that it was not universal long before thy day!