From Feast upon the Word (http://feastupontheword.org). Copyright, Feast upon the Word.
Opening the Book of Mormon: 1 Nephi 20:1
Giving way to what flows into death,
waters, these from the realms of beyond,
trickle down (into which, holding breath,
One shall plunge, wearing charity’s bond).
Here a house to be heard has been reared
that in silence draws out of the stream
its great strength, and a home quite endeared
to the angels it is: here they dream.
Yet by hands—-those of men-—was it built,
not by will of the Father nor skill
of His sons; and for this, its sole guilt,
is its name “The Usurper,” “Man’s Will.”
And the angels, they come here to dream
and to see, as precursors to One
who shall die in this house by the stream,
yes, who born there shall be, a-—God’s-—son.
And this wrestle of birth—-of re-birth—-
in this house points to, marks the un-truth,
the unrighteousness real, the sad worth
of the shack, shows it only a booth.
But a booth that stays up, that remains
and precisely by strife: in that One
there shall issue a call that maintains
the poor house (stronger Rock, there is none).
O most humble abode, silent site
now by other name called, not on sand
but on Rock: “House Prevailing By Right.”
Cross you now. On towards Promised Land.
