A Prophets Poem

[Anonymous]

I apologize for the length and presentation of this, but it was so interesting to me, I chose to include it as I received it.

Quote:

AS GOD NOW IS, SO MAN MAY BE

Lorenzo Snow

Quoted and First Printed in LeRoi C. Snow, “Devotion to Divine Inspiration,” Improvement Era 22 (June 1919):660-661. Cf. Clyde J. Williams, comp., The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, pp. 8-9

1 John 3:2-3

Man’s Destiny*

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:5-6).

Dear Brother [Paul]:

Hast thou not been unwisely bold,

Man’s destiny to thus unfold?

To raise, promote such high desire,

Such vast ambition thus inspire?

Still, ’tis no phantom that we trace

Man’s ultimatum in life’s race;

This royal path has long been trod

By righteous men, each now a God:

As Abra’m, Isaac, Jacob, too,

First babes, then men—to gods they grew.

As man now is, our God once was;

As now God is, so man may be, —

Which doth unfold man’s destiny. For John declares: When Christ we see

Like unto him we’ll truly be.

And he who has this hope within,

Will purify himself from sin.

Who keep this object grand in view,

To folly, sin, will bid adieu,

Nor wallow in the mire anew;

Nor ever seek to carve his name

High on the shaft of worldly fame;

But here his ultimatum trace:

The head of all his spirit-race.

Ah, well, that taught by you, dear Paul,

Though much amazed, we see it all;

Our Father God, has ope’d our eyes,

We cannot view it otherwise.

The boy, like to his father grown,

Has but attained unto his own;

To grow to sire from state of son,

Is not ‘gainst Nature’s course to run.

A son of God, like God to be,

Would not be robbing Deity;

And he who has this hope within,

Will purify himself from sin.

You’re right, St. John, supremely right:

Whoe’er essays to climb this height,

Will cleanse himself of sin entire —

Or else ’twere needless to aspire. [1 John 3:2-3]

Lorenzo Snow

____________

* This poem was composed by President Snow in Brigham City, dated January 11, 1892. This is its first appearance in print. Elder LeRoi C. Snow has the original manuscript along with about fifty other original poems, from his father’s pen, which have never been published.–Editors.

[Anonymous]

mom3 wrote:

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:5-6).

I really like the poem. Unfortunately this verse was mistranslated. It never really fit when you looked at the context of the verses around it that seem to all about the humility of Jesus. Most modern translations say some variant of “equality with God was not something to be grasped/sought after.”

That doesn’t invalidate the doctrine – just that this verse may actually originally have said the opposite of what we took it for.

I noticed that it was conspiciously absent from the recent LDS.org essay on this same topic.

[Anonymous]

Roy – I agree with your observations. I can also see why it gets left out of lessons and essays, since we, as a present day church can’t figure out what to do, it would really muddy the waters if we added this.

A couple of things that I did love about the poem were the words, “Father God”. I wish we used those types of phrases more often. I love Heavenly Father, but Father God encompasses the best ideals I have of him in Deity form. I also loved some of the other phrases and words, it really drops me closer to how the early members sort of processed things. I feel a bit like I’m sitting in a grove watching Lorenzo put his personal inspiration down in words. I like to imagine he had no expectation of us building a confused theology off of a couple of lines in a personal poem he wrote. But then that’s romantic historian in me.

[Author]

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