Monday, November 11, 2013

Further thoughts on" Ender's Game"...







...“Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.” (Herbert Hoover, addressing the 1944 Republican National Convention)

"‘In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him." (Orson Scott Card, voice of Ender Wiggin: Enders Game)

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play." — A computer named WOPR in the film WarGames

Thursday, August 8, 2013

On Doubt as a sign of Faith

 
 
 
I doubt;
Therefore I believe.

Dubito;
Propterea credo.

Steven L. Bassett
{a word play on René Descartes}

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

To Behold my Mother




Things I have never seen my mom do.

run a dishwasher
do a load of laundry

console her mother
embrace her father

consume alcohol
smoke a cigarette

save money
be free of debt

nurse her child,
abandon the same

approach death four times,
to deliver a child
lose a fifth before birth.

leave a friend,
 stranded

work a day,
without pain

rest her soul through the night
at peace with her past mistakes

break a promise,
tell a lie

read the bible,
bear a testimony,
talk of christ,
rejoice of christ,
teach of christ,

fail to support a son,
on a  mission

take the sacrament
at home
in her final years

Steven Lynn Bassett
        

On differing perceptions of death

By my grandfather's bed, my mother is reading,
Psalm 62, God is our refuge,
My grandfather stirs, could it be,
He is waking, one final time,
He has something to say,

If you only knew what lies awaiting
If you could only see what I can see
If you could only hear the music playing
The angels singing sweet victory
Oh, if you only knew, if you only knew,
How much he loves you

By my grandfather's bed, my mother is broken,
Psalm 17, O God I call on you,
She doesn't want to hear
Any words about leaving
My grandfather says
"Fear not, this is my time,
And into his presence I'll fly"

If you only knew what lies awainting
If you could only see what I can see
If you could only hear the music playing
The angels singing sweet victory
Oh, if you only knew, if you only knew,
How much he loves you
(Randy Travis , If You Only Knew)

On the Direction of Another One's Vice



A thousand ways, is there no black or white?
Ask your own heart, and nothing is so plain;

'Tis to mistake them, costs the time and pain.
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien*,
As, to be hated,
    needs but to be seen;

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure,
    then pity,
        then embrace.

But where th’ extreme of vice, was ne’er agreed:

 





Ask where’s the north?
    at York, ’tis on the Tweed;
    In Scotland, at the Orcades;
and there,

    At Greenland, Zembla,
        or the Lord knows where.









 



 
No creature owns it in the first degree,
But thinks his neighbour farther gone than he;
Even those who dwell beneath its very zone,
Or never feel the rage, or never own;
What happier nations shrink at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right.





Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

*Definition of MIEN

1: air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality
: demeanor <of aristocratic mien>

Thursday, August 1, 2013

On Doubt as a call to Faith


I know I am grateful for a propensity to doubt,
because it gives me the capacity to freely believe. ...

The call to faith is a summons to engage the heart,
to attune it to resonate in sympathy with principles
and values and ideals that we devoutly hope are true
and which we have reasonable ....
                                        ...but not certain grounds for believing to be true. 

There must be grounds for doubt ...
                                         ...as well as belief,
 in order to render the choice more truly a choice, ...
                                              ...and therefore the more deliberate,
and laden with personal vulnerability and investment.










An overwhelming preponderance of evidence on either side 
would make our choice as meaningless 
as would a loaded gun pointed at our heads.





 (Terryl Givens; Letter to a doubter)

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

shepherd or sheep herder



When I follow Christ's, ...
                                            ... I follow his teachings,

  • I receive additional inspiration.
  • I hold myself accountable to follow the new teaching. 
  • I may not compel my brothers and sisters to follow these teachings.
  • I have friends and family who have chosen different lifestyles. 
  • I  desire to be a shepherd and lead them to him . 
  • I have tried in the past to drive them as a sheep herder. 
  • These attempts were less then successful.

 Shepherding is a long and slow and difficult process.  




Jesus suffered in Gethsemane ...
          ....died on a cross at Calvary
                         ...because he would not compel people  ...
...to accept him as their King and Redeemer.


“A mother does not give her child a blue bow 
because she is so ugly without it. 

A lover does not give a girl a necklace
 to hide her neck. 

If men loved Pimlico
 as mothers love children,
 arbitrarily, 
because it is theirs, 

Pimlico in a year or two might be fairer than Florence. 

Some readers will say that this is a mere fantasy. 
I answer that this is the actual history of mankind. 

This, as a fact, is how cities did grow great. 

Go back to the darkest roots of civilization 
and you will find them knotted round some 
sacred stone or encircling some sacred well. 

People first paid honour to a spot 
and afterwards gained glory for it. 

Men did not love Rome because she was great. 
She was great because they had loved her.”

 (G.K. Chesteron,Orthodoxy)


Do we love our fellow men ..
.... or just seek to compel them to be just, right and good. 

To love someone does not require me to change my personal code of ethics.

Christ like love mandates that I treat my fellow brothers and sisters ...
 ....as I would hope to be treated

This reciprocation may or may not happen.

 “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 19:34)



Sunday, July 7, 2013

The Gospel; the good news of Jesus


The good news of Jesus was just the news of the thoughts and ways of the Father in the midst of his family.

He told them that the way men thought for themselves and their children was not the way God thought for himself and his children ; ....
                                            ...that the kingdom of heaven was founded,
and must at length show itself founded on very different principles
 from those of the kingdoms and families of the world,  ....
... meaning


by the world
that part of  the Father's family which will not be ordered by him, 
will not even try to obey him. 




The world's man, 

its great, its successful, 
its honourable man, 
is he who may have and do what he pleases, 
whose strength lies in money and the praise of men ; 

the greatest in the kingdom of heaven


 is the man who is humblest and serves his fellows the most. 


Multitudes of men,


 in no degree notable as ambitious or proud,  ...


... hold the ambitious, 
the proud man in honour, 
and, for all deliverance, 
hope after some shadow of his prosperity.



How many even of those who look for the world to come, 

seek to the powers of this world for deliverance from its evils,
as if God were the God of the world to come only! 

The oppressed of the Lord's time looked for a Messiah to set their nation free, 
and make it rich and strong; 


the oppressed of our time believe in money, knowledge, and the will of a people

which needs but power  ...


... to be in its turn the oppressor. The first words of the Lord on this occasion were:—


 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'

(George Macdonald, Hope of the Gospel p. 82)

Saturday, July 6, 2013

On faith and doubt




I am convinced that there must be grounds for doubt as well as belief, 
in order to render the choice more truly a choice,
 and therefore the more deliberate, 
and laden with personal vulnerability and investment.  

The option to believe must appear on one's personal horizon 
like the fruit of paradise, 
perched precariously between sets of demands held in dynamic tension.  

One is, it would seem, 
always provided with sufficient materials out of which to fashion
 a life of credible conviction or dismissive denial.  

We are acted upon, 
in other words, 
by appeals to our personal values, 
our yearnings, 
our fears,
 our appetites and our ego.  

What we choose to embrace, 
to be responsive to, 
is the purest reflection of who we are and what we love.  

That is why faith,
 the choice to believe,
 is in the final analysis an action 
that is positively laden with moral significance.  

The call to faith is a summons to engage the heart, 
to attune it to resonate in sympathy with principles
 and values and ideals that we devoutly hope are true, 
and have reasonable but not certain grounds for believing to be true.

Terryl Givens, "Lightning out of Heaven: Joseph Smith and the Forging of Community," forum address, Brigham Young University, 29 November, 2005

Friday, June 21, 2013

On Choosing Mormonism

'Why am I Mormon?

  • I am Mormon because I willingly – and with my eyes, mind, and heart fully open – choose to be Mormon. 
  • I am Mormon because I doubt. 
  • I am Mormon because I hope. 
  • I am Mormon because I believe. 
  • I am Mormon because I know. 
  • I am Mormon because I choose to wrestle with God in my “dark night of the soul”.
  • I am Mormon because I choose to wrestle with the LDS church. 
  • I choose to be Mormon because it is within Mormonism that I have found God. 


“It is not as a child that I believe and confess Jesus Christ. 
My hosanna is born of a furnace of doubt” (Fyodor Dostoevsky).'


(Michael Barker in Featured, Mormonism, Why I Am Mormon - Personal Essays)

Every Riven Thing


God goes, belonging to every riven thing he's made
sing his being simply by being
the thing it is:
stone and tree and sky,
man who sees and sings and wonders why





God goes. Belonging, to every riven thing he's made,
means a storm of peace.
Think of the atoms inside the stone.
Think of the man who sits alone
trying to will himself into the stillness where




God goes belonging. To every riven thing he's made
there is given one shade
shaped exactly to the thing itself:
under the tree a darker tree;
under the man the only man to see






God goes belonging to every riven thing. He's made
the things that bring him near,
made the mind that makes him go.
A part of what man knows,
apart from what man knows,

God goes belonging to every riven thing he's made.





christian wimans

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2010/11/poet-christian-wimans-every-riven-thing.html

rive  (rv)
v. rived, riv·en (rvn) also rived, riv·ing, rives
v.tr.
1. To rend or tear apart.
2. To break into pieces, as by a blow; cleave or split asunder.
3. To break or distress (the spirit, for example).
v.intr.
To be or become split.
[Middle English riven, from Old Norse rfa.]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/riven

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

On being compelled to Love


Love is an act,
I am compelled to renew daily, 
a bittersweet choice, 
like pork seeds and chinese mustard sauce, 
   a combination of flavors,
                                   that in the end satisfies me ....
                                                       .......though more often then not, 
  very painful.


My second poem

These Poems, She Said





 These poems, these poems,
these poems, she said, are poems
with no love in them. These are the poems of a man 
who would leave his wife and child because 
they made noise in his study. These are the poems 
of a man who would murder his mother to claim 
the inheritance. These are the poems of a man 
like Plato, she said, meaning something I did not 
comprehend but which nevertheless
offended me. These are the poems of a man
who would rather sleep with himself than with women, 
she said. These are the poems of a man
with eyes like a drawknife, with hands like a pickpocket’s 
hands, woven of water and logic
and hunger, with no strand of love in them. These 
poems are as heartless as birdsong, as unmeant  
as elm leaves, which if they love love only 
the wide blue sky and the air and the idea
of elm leaves. Self-love is an ending, she said, 
and not a beginning. Love means love
of the thing sung, not of the song or the singing. 
These poems, she said....
                                       You are, he said,
beautiful.
                That is not love, she said rightly.

Robert Bringhurst, “These Poems, She Said” from The Beauty of the Weapons: Selected Poems 1972-1982. Copyright © 1982 by Robert Bringhurst. Used by permission of Copper Canyon Press

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178483

On a Weeping god,



At the very end of the bible, John the Revelator is given a vision much like Enoch’s; in fact, he sees Enoch’s holy city, the new Jerusalem in the latter days “coming down from God out of heaven . . .And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. 

. . .And God shall wipe away all tears from their eye” (Rev. 21:3–4). This is the great hope and consolation for all believers. For Mormons, it has the added poignancy that as he wipes away those tears, 





God himself will be weeping for the residue of his children who are not there.

(Eugene England , The Weeping God of Mormonism, Originally published: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 35, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 63–80.)

On judging our leaders



“Though I admitted in my feelings and knew all the time that Joseph was a human being and subject to err, still it was none of my business to look after his faults.. . .
It was not my prerogative to call him in question with regard to any act of his life.
He was God’s servant, and not mine.”  

(Brigham Young, sermon delivered in Bowery, Great Salt Lake City Utah Territory March 29, 1857)

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Job Description



Job Description;

self programming  Field Gate Array,  Googlebot, 
with Dynamic Host Memory
and intuitive IO interfaces,   

WARNING "resets every 24 hours"

If you understand this you are smarter then i am

The Vision - A Poetic Response




A Vision  

A poetic version of D&C 76 as written by Joseph Smith
in answer to a poetic response to The Vision from W. W. Phelps.

1.   I will go, I will go, to the home of the Saints,
           Where the virtue's the value, and life the reward;
      But before I return to my former estate
           I must fulfil the mission I had from the Lord.

2.   Wherefore, hear, O ye heavens, and give ear O ye earth;
           And rejoice ye inhabitants truly again;
      For the Lord he is God, and his life never ends,
           And besides him there ne'er was a Saviour of men.

3.   His ways are a wonder; his wisdom is great;
           The extent of his doings, there's none can unveil;
      His purposes fail not; from age unto age
           He still is the same, and his years never fail.

4.   His throne is the heavens, his life time is all
           Of eternity now, and eternity then;
      His union is power, and none stays his hand,
           The Alpha, Omega, for ever: Amen.

5.   For thus saith the Lord, in the spirit of truth,
           I am merciful, gracious, and good unto those
      That fear me, and live for the life that's to come;
           My delight is to honor the saints with repose;

6.   That serve me in righteousness true to the end;
           Eternal's their glory, and great their reward;
      I'll surely reveal all my myst'ries to them,–
           The great hidden myst'ries in my kingdom stor'd–

7.   From the council in Kolob, to time on the earth,
           And for ages to come unto them I will show
      My pleasure & will, what my kingdom will do:
           Eternity's wonders they truly shall know.

8.   Great things of the future I'll show unto them
           Yea, things of the vast generations to rise;
      For their wisdom and glory shall be very great,
           And their pure understanding extend to the skies:

9.   And before them the wisdom of wise men shall cease,
           And the nice understanding of prudent ones fail!
      For the light of my spirit shall light mine elect,
           And the truth is so mighty 'twill ever prevail.

10. And the secrets and plans of my will I'll reveal;
           The sanctified pleasures when earth is renew'd,
      What the eye hath not seen, nor the ear hath yet heard;
           Nor the heart of the natural man ever hath view'd.

11. I, Joseph, the prophet, in spirit beheld,
           And the eyes of the inner man truly did see
      Eternity sketch'd in a vision from God,
           Of what was, and now is, and yet is to be.

12. Those things which the Father ordained of old,
           Before the world was, or a system had run,–
      Through Jesus the Maker and Savior of all;
           The only begotten, (Messiah) his son.

13. Of whom I bear record, as all prophets have,
           And the record I bear is the fulness,–yea even
      The truth of the gospel of Jesus–the Christ,
           With whom I convers'd, in the vision of heav'n.

14. For while in the act of translating his word,
           Which the Lord in his grace had appointed to me,
      I came to the gospel recorded by John,
           Chapter fifth and the twenty ninth verse, which you'll see.

           Which was given as follows:

              "Speaking of the resurrection of the dead,–
              concerning those who shall hear the voice of the son of man–

              "And shall come forth:
              – they who have done good
                 in the resurrection of the just,
              and they who have done evil
                 in the resurrection of the unjust."

15. I marvel'd at these resurrections, indeed!
           For it came unto me by the spirit direct:–
      And while I did meditate what it all meant,
           The Lord touch'd the eyes of my own intellect:–

16. Hosanna forever! they open'd anon,
           And the glory of God shone around where I was;
      And there was the Son, at the Father's right hand,
           In a fulness of glory, and holy applause.

17. I beheld round the throne, holy angels and hosts,
           And sanctified beings from worlds that have been,
      In holiness worshipping God and the Lamb
           Forever and ever, amen and amen!

18. And now after all of the proofs made of him,
           By witnesses truly, by whom he was known,
      This is mine, last of all, that he lives; yea he lives!
           And sits at the right hand of God, on his throne.

19. And I heard a great voice, bearing record from heav'n,
           He's the Saviour, and only begotten of God–
      By him, of him, and through him, the worlds were all made,
           Even all that career in the heavens so broad.

20. Whose inhabitants, too, from the first to the last,
           Are sav'd by the very same Saviour of ours;
      And, of course, are begotten God's daughters and sons,
           By the very same truths, and the very same pow'rs.

21. And I saw and bear record of warfare in heav'n;
           For an angel of light, in authority great,
      Rebell'd against Jesus, and sought for his pow'r,
           But was thrust down to woe from his Glorified state.

22. And the heavens all wept, and the tears drop'd like dew,
           That Lucifer, son of the morning had fell!
      Yea, is fallen! is fall'n, and become, Oh, alas!
           The son of Perdition; the devil of hell!

23. And while I was yet in the spirit of truth,
           The commandment was: write ye the vision all out;
      For Satan, old serpent, the devil's for war,–
           And yet will encompass the saints round about.

24. And I saw, too, the suff'ring and mis'ry of those,
           (Overcome by the devil, in warfare and fight,)
      In hell-fire, and vengeance, the doom of the damn'd;
           For the Lord said, the vision is further: so write.

25. For thus saith the Lord, now concerning all those
           Who know of my power and partake of the same;
      And suffer themselves, that they be overcome
           By the power of Satan; despising my name:–

26. Defying my power, and denying the truth;–
           They are they–of the world, or of men, most forlorn,
      The Sons of Perdition, of whom, ah! I say,
           'Twere better for them had they never been born!

27. They're vessels of wrath, and dishonor to God,
           Doom'd to suffer his wrath, in the regions of woe,
      Through the terrific night of eternity's round,
           With the devil and all of his angels below:

28. Of whom it is said, no forgiveness is giv'n,
           In this world, alas! nor the world that's to come;
      For they have denied the spirit of God,
           After having receiv'd it: and mis'ry's their doom.

29. And denying the only begotten of God,–
           And crucify him to themselves, as they do,
      And openly put him to shame in their flesh,
           By gospel they cannot repentance renew.

30. They are they, who must go to the great lake of fire,
           Which burneth with brimstone, yet never consumes,
      And dwell with the devil, and angels of his,
           While eternity goes and eternity comes.

31. They are they, who must groan through the great second death,
           And are not redeemed in the time of the Lord;
      While all the rest are, through the triumph of Christ,
           Made partakers of grace, by the power of his word.

32. The myst'ry of Godliness truly is great;–
          The past, and the present, and what is to be;
      And this is the gospel–glad tidings to all,
           Which the voice from the heavens bore record to me:

33. That he came to the world in the middle of time,
          To lay down his life for his friends and his foes,
      And bear away sin as a mission of love;
           And sanctify earth for a blessed repose.

34. 'Tis decreed, that he'll save all the work of his hands,
           And sanctify them by his own precious blood;
      And purify earth for the Sabbath of rest,
           By the agent of fire, as it was by the flood.

35. The Savior will save all his Father did give.
           Even all that he gave in the regions abroad,
      Save the Sons of Perdition: They're lost; ever lost,
           And can never return to the presence of God.

36. They are they, who must reign with the devil in hell,
           In eternity now, and eternity then,
      Where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quench'd;–
           And the punishment still, is eternal. Amen.

37. And which is the torment apostates receive,
           But the end, or the place where the torment began,
      Save to them who are made to partake of the same,
           Was never, nor will be, revealed unto man.

38. Yet God shows by vision a glimpse of their fate,
           And straightway he closes the scene that was shown:
      So the width, or the depth, or the misery thereof,
           Save to those that partake, is forever unknown.

39. And while I was pondering, the vision was closed;
           And the voice said to me, write the vision: for Lo!
      'Tis the end of the scene of the sufferings of those,
           Who remain filthy still in their anguish and woe.

40. And again I bear record of heavenly things,
           Where virtue's the value, above all that's priz'd–
      Of the truth of the gospel concerning the just,
           That rise in the first resurrection of Christ.

41. Who receiv'd and believ'd, and repented likewise,
           And then were baptis'd, as a man always was,
      Who ask'd and receiv'd a remission of sin,
           And honored the kingdom by keeping its laws.

42. Being buried in water, as Jesus had been,
           And keeping the whole of his holy commands,
      They received the gift of the spirit of truth
           By the ordinance truly of laying on hands.

43. For these overcome, by their faith and their works,
           Being tried in their life-time, as purified gold,
      And seal'd by the spirit of promise, to life,
           By men called of God, as was Aaron of old.

44. They are they, of the church of the first born of God–
           And unto whose hands he committeth all things;
      For they hold the keys of the kingdom of heav'n,
           And reign with the Savior, as priests, and as kings.

45. They're priests of the order of Melchisedek,
           Like Jesus, (from whom is this highest reward;)
      Receiving a fulness of glory and light; As written:
           They're Gods; even sons of the Lord.

46. So all things are theirs; yea, of life, of death;
           Yea, whether things now, or to come, all are theirs,
      And they are the Savior's, and he is the Lord's,
           Having overcome all, as eternity's heirs.

47. 'Tis wisdom that man never glory in man,
           But give God the glory for all that he hath;
      For the righteous will walk in the presence of God,
           While the wicked are trod under foot in his wrath.

48. Yea, the righteous shall dwell in the presence of God,
           And of Jesus, forever, from earth's second birth–
      For when he comes down in the splendor of heav'n,
           All these he'll bring with him, to reign on the earth.

49. These are they that arise in their bodies of flesh,
           When the trump of the first resurrection shall sound;
      These are they that come up to Mount Zion, in life,
           Where the blessings and gifts of the spirit abound.

50. These are they that have come to the heavenly place;
           To the numberless courses of angels above:
      To the city of God; e'en the holiest of all,
           And the home of the blessed, the fountain of love:

51. To the church of old Enoch, and of the first born:
           And gen'ral assembly of ancient renown'd,
      Whose names are all kept in the archives of heav'n,
           As chosen and faithful, and fit to be crown'd.

52. These are they that are perfect through Jesus' own blood,
           Whose bodies celestial are mention'd by Paul,
      Where the sun is the typical glory thereof,
           And God, and his Christ, are the true judge of all.

53. Again I beheld the terrestrial world,
           In the order and glory of Jesus, go on;
      'Twas not as the church of the first born of God
           But shone in its place, as the moon to the sun.

54. Behold, these are they that have died without law;
           The heathen of ages that never had hope,
      And those of the region and shadow of death,
           The spirits in prison, that light has brought up.

55. To spirits in prison the Savior once preach'd,
           And taught them the gospel, with powers afresh;
      And then were the living baptiz'd for their dead,
           That they might be judg'd as if men in the flesh.

56. These are they that are hon'rable men of the earth;
           Who were blinded and dup'd by the cunning of men:
      They receiv'd not the truth of the Savior at first;
           But did, when they heard it in prison, again.

57. Not valiant for truth, they obtain'd not the crown,
           But are of that glory that's typ'd by the moon:
      They are they, that come into the presence of Christ,
           But not to the fulness of God, on his throne.

58. Again I beheld the telestial, as third,
           The lesser, or starry world, next in its place,
      For the leaven must leaven three measures of meal,
           And very knee bow that is subject to grace.

59. These are they that receiv'd not the gospel of Christ,
           Or evidence, either, that he ever was;
      As the stars are all diff'rent in glory and light,
           So differs the glory of these by the laws.

60. These are they that deny not the spirit of God,
           But are thrust down to hell, with the devil, for sins,
      As hypocrites, liars, whoremongers, and thieves,
           And stay 'till the last resurrection begins.

61. 'Till the Lamb shall have finish'd the work he begun;
           Shall have trodden the wine press, in fury alone,
      And overcome all by the pow'r of his might:
           He conquers to conquer, and save all his own.

62. These are they that receive not a fulness of light,
           From Christ, in eternity's world, where they are,
      The terrestrial sends them the Comforter, though;
           And minist'ring angels, to happify there.

63. And so the telestial is minister'd to,
           By ministers from the terrestrial one,
      As terrestrial is, from the celestial throne;
           And the great, greater, greatest, seem's stars, moon, and sun.

64. And thus I beheld, in the vision of heav'n,
           The telestial glory, dominion and bliss,
      Surpassing the great understanding of men,–
           Unknown, save reveal'd, in a world vain as this.

65. And lo, I beheld the terrestrial, too,
           Which excels the telestial in glory and light,
      In splendor, and knowledge, and wisdom, and joy,
           In blessings, and graces, dominion and might.

66. I beheld the celestial, in glory sublime;
           Which is the most excellent kingdom that is,–
      Where God, e'en the Father, in harmony reigns;
           Almighty, supreme, and eternal, in bliss.

67. Where the church of the first born in union reside,
           And they see as they're seen, and they know as they're known;
      Being equal in power, dominion and might,
           With a fulness of glory and grace, round his throne.

68. The glory celestial is one like the sun;
           The glory terrestrial is one like the moon;
      The glory telestial is one like the stars,
           And all harmonize like the parts of a tune.

69. As the stars are all different in lustre and size,
           So the telestial region, is mingled in bliss;
      From least unto greatest, and greatest to least,
           The reward is exactly as promis'd in this.

70. These are they that came out for Apollos and Paul;
           For Cephas and Jesus, in all kinds of hope;
      For Enoch and Moses, and Peter, and John;
           For Luther and Calvin, and even the Pope.

71. For they never received the gospel of Christ,
           Nor the prophetic spirit that came from the Lord;
      Nor the covenant neither, which Jacob once had;
           They went their own way, and they have their reward.

72. By the order of God, last of all, these are they,
           That will not be gathered with saints here below,
      To be caught up to Jesus, and meet in the cloud:–
           In darkness they worshipp'd; to darkness they go.

73. These are they that are sinful, the wicked at large,
           That glutted their passion by meanness or worth;
      All liars, adulterers, sorc'rers, and proud;
           And suffer, as promis'd, God's wrath on the earth.

74. These are they that must suffer the vengeance of hell,
           'Till Christ shall have trodden all enemies down,
      And perfected his work, in the fulness of times:
           And is crown'd on his throne with his glorious crown.

75. The vast multitude of the telestial world–
           As the stars of the skies, or the sands of the sea;–
      The voice of Jehovah echo'd far and wide,
           Ev'ry tongue shall confess, and they all bow the knee.

76. Ev'ry man shall be judg'd by the works of his life,
           And receive a reward in the mansions prepar'd;
      For his judgments are just, and his works never end,
           As his prophets and servants have always declar'd.

77. But the great things of God, which he show'd unto me,
           Unlawful to utter, I dare not declare;
      They surpass all the wisdom and greatness of men,
           And only are seen, as has Paul, where they are.

78. I will go, I will go, while the secret of life,
           Is blooming in heaven, and blasting in hell;
      Is leaving on earth, and a budding in space:–
           I will go, I will go, with you, brother, farewell.

JOSEPH SMITH.               
Nauvoo, February 1843.