Monday, August 9, 2021

Eliza R. Snow's Poem Commemorating John Smith

  

To the Patriarch, father John Smith

 

Great glory awaits thee, thou father in Israel

To reward all thy toils * thy labor of love:

The angels that guard thee—that watch o’er thy pathway

Are proud to report thee in councils above.

The pathway that leads to the mansions of glory

Where freedom & justice eternal reign:

The Lord God of Jacob has chose for thy footsteps,

To bring thee to dwell in His presence again.

 

Thou art greatly belov’d by the saints that surround thee

They have tasted thy blessings & greatly rejoice.—

The pow’r of the Priesthood is felt thro’ thy presence—

The weak become strong at the sound of thy voice.

Thou art greatly belov’d in the councils of heaven

Where once thou wast seated, & where still thy name

Is spoken with honor & held in remembrance

Till thou shalt return to their sittings again.

 

I have oft felt the pow’r of thy blessings upon me—

And my heart feels to bless thee, thou servant of God

And say thou’lt be hid in the chambers of Israel

While the great indignation is raging abroad;

For He that appointeth the times, & the seasons

Allotted thy calling & work on the earth;

And here in His sight will thy life be held precious

Till thou hast fulfil’d the design of thy birth.

 

When thou shalt have finish’d thy toils & thy trials,

Thou’lt rest for awhile for thy present reward—

Thou wilt join with the spirits of just men made perfect

And enter with triumph the joy of thy Lord:

And then in the morn and of the first resurrection

Thou’lt come forth to reign with the Savior on earth

Made holy & pure thro’ the regeneration,

The Gods will rejoice in thy glorious birth. (entry for October 22, 2846, in Eliza R. Snow, Trial Diary, February 1846-May 1847, in Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, ed., The Personal Writings of Eliza Roxcy Snow [Life Writings of Frontier Women Volume 5; Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2000], 145)