"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.