| 192 Poetry.
For the Times and Seasons.
Response to My "Epitaph," by Miss Eliza R. Snow.
By Omer.
"I feel the low responses roll, Thy talents ne'er will be restor'd!
Like the far echo of the night, That loss to us will leave a blank;
And whisper, softly through my soul, The flood from which thy genius drank,
"I would not be forgotten quite." Will ever move unruffled on,
In brightness sparkling 'neath the sun
* * * * And, Oh, when other vainly think
To near the limpid water's brink,
Forgotten!-No; thy pen for thee And quaff its wave, with skill, like thee,
Hath carv'd a name destined to be 'Twill stop its course-'twill backward flee,-
A monument, in future years; Or if they dip in it the Quill,
And tho' no stone thy signet bears, 'Twill shrink its tide into a rill.
Or tells thy name, 'twill matter not- Thy friends need but to speak thy name
Thy fame fill never be forgot. To tell the stranger of thy fame;
More lasting than a sculptur'd tomb And at the sound will leap to life,
Of "cold grey [gray] stone," or swelling dome, Mid worldly din, with business rife-
Will be the name thy pen hath won Like spectres [scepters] from a fun'ral pile,
For thee, to bloom when thou art gone, Or pilgrims from a long exile-
Thy poundrous [ponderous] pile of learned lore Thy sentiments of purity,
On us its flood of beauties pour; Found in thy matchless poetry.
It lifts the darken'd drapery Those friends with whom thou daily art
Of years, with musty panoply, Thy deeds are written on each heart,
From off your minds; and brightly, then, Within whose faithful, silent urn,
All gladness springs to life again. Deep gratitude, for thee, shall burn
The woes and sorrows of the saints- When thou art gone, far from our shore,
Begirt around with men's constraints- To be distress'd, on earth, no more.
Are often chronicled by thee, Unnumber'd voices now unite:-
With promptness and fidelity. Thou shalt not be "forgotten quite!"
Oh, then thy loss will be deplor'd-
The Three Witnesses.
The glorious plan which God has given, Buried beneath the liquid grave,
To bring a ruined world to heaven, To know the Spirit's power to save,
Was framed in Christ by the new birth, And feel the virtue of his blood,
Was seal'd in heaven, was seal'd on earth. Are witnesses ordained of God.
As in the heavens they all agree, In heaven they all agree in one,
The record's given there by Three, The Father, Spirit, and the Son.
On earth three witnesses are given, On earth these witnesses agree,
To lead the sons of earth to heaven. The water, blood, and Spirit, three.
Jehovah, God the Father, 'sone; One great connecting link is given
Another, God's eternal Son; Between the sons of earth and heaven
The Spirit does with them agree- The Spirit seals us here on earth,
The witnesses in heaven are three. In heaven records our second birth.
Nor are we, in the second birth, If we, on earth, possess those three,
Left without witnesses one earth, Mysterious saving unity,
To grope, as in eternal night, The Book of Life will record bear,
About the way to endless light. Our names are surely written there. T.
The Times and Seasons, is edited by John Taylor.
Printed and published about the first and fifteenth of every month, on the corner of Water and Bain Streets, Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois.
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