It’s difficult to overestimate the importance of the second coming in the restoration. Early members of the Church thought it would come quickly, in just a few years. And they wrote and taught about that expectation. While it seems like the focus on the second coming has diminished over time, we still regularly preach and discuss our expectations.

But today we tend to temper our understanding of the second coming with thoughts about what life is like before the awaited event. We need to prepare for the second coming, yes, but we also need to try to create a Zion-like environment. I think that everything we should do before the second coming fills both of these functions, preparing for the second coming, and building Zion. I don’t think there’s any difference.

 

Jesus Christ calls me to reject Babylon and come to Zion.

Building Zion requires rejecting Babylon, despite its veneer of pleasures, which often turn out to be temporary, leaving us without the lasting happiness found in the gospel. This is what is described in the following poem, which draws a sharp contrast between Babylon and Zion.

I suspect that the poet, C. V. Vernon, is the early English LDS Church member Christiania Venables Vernon, born in 1830. A couple of poems under that name appear in the Millennial Star in the 1850s, before her marriage to John Fewson Smith in 1863, and the couple’s immigration to Utah less than a month later. In Utah Vernon Smith became prominent among the Utah suffragettes, becoming a leader of the Utah State Council of Women and serving on the board of the Utah Children’s Aid society. She passed away in 1920.

 

Babylon and Zion

by C. V. Vernon

How fleeting thy pleasures, O Babylon, prove,

How brief is their longest stay;

We may gaze on the subtle smile of Love,

But to see that it fadeth away.

 

On the glowing scenes that Friendship tints,

We may look, but they will not stay,

For the moment the heart reflects their tints,

They will dream-like glide away.

 

If a dazzling halo illume our path,

The lustre of truth from afar,

While we pause to admire, too pure for earth,

It will wane like an evening star.

 

And the blossoms we train’d with such tender care,

Have been blighted and died on the stem;

And the dearly earn’d jewel we fancied rare,

Has prov’d but a counterfeit gem.

 

Despairing and faint, with bleeding feet,

From the flints, but a moment we pass,

To rest on a bank, where, her work to complete,

Fate hideth a snake in the grass.

 

Then who’d make their home where Love is a shade,

And Friendship a golden dream,

Where treason stalks forth in white robes array’d,

And Truth is a meteor’s gleam.

 

While Zion hath smiles that will never fade,

Hath friendship as faithful as fair,

And rivers of truth water every glade,

Which fountains celestial prepare.

 

While the Faithful by angels attended may rest,

And smile upon Fate and her woes,

In a vine clad bower in the radiant West,

Where naught dares to disturb their repose.

1855

 

I can prepare now for the Savior’s Second Coming.

While some think that preparing for the second coming is preparing for disaster—saving up food, resources and weapons for a time of chaos—our scripture and poetry never suggests that this kind of preparation is necessary. Instead, the preparation foreseen is more a spiritual preparation—we should become better people and create an environment that would welcome the Savior.

The following 1834 poem, one of the earliest LDS poems on the second coming, is like that, focusing on the internal preparations we all must make. Whether it was written by W. W. Phelps or Parley P. Pratt isn’t clear, but the language of the poem makes me lean towards Phelps. Regardless, it demonstrates the approach of the church to the second coming before the exodus to Utah.

 

Prepare for His Coming

by either W. W. Phelps or Parley P. Pratt

Let all the saints their hearts prepare:

Behold, the day is near,

When Zion’s King shall hasten there,

And banish all their fear;

Fill all with peace and love,

And blessings from above,

His church with honors to adorn,

The church of the first born.

 

Behold, he comes on flying clouds,

And speeds his way to earth,

With acclamations sounding loud,

With songs of heav’nly birth.

The saints on earth will sing,

And hail their heav’nly King:

All the redeem’d of Adam’s race

In peace behold his face.

 

Before his face devouring flames

In awful grandeur rise;

The suff’ring saints he boldly claims.

And bears them to the skies:

While earth is purified

In peace they all abide,

And then descend to earth again,

Rejoicing in his reign.

 

A thousand years in peace to dwell;

The earth with joys abound,

Made free from all the pow’rs of hell,

No curse infect the ground.

From sin and pain releas’d

The saints abide in peace;

And all creation here below

Their King and Savior know.

1834

 

The Second Coming of Jesus Christ will be joyful for the righteous.

Another idea that undermines the idea that we should prepare for conflict at the second coming is the idea that for those who are righteous, the arrival of Christ will be joyful—so therefore the best preparation is to become more righteous, not worry about having enough food and defending yourself. Regardless, descriptions of the second coming also show that the joy of the righteous will be accompanied by fear and destruction for the wicked. Such is the case in the following poem by William G. Mills.

Prominent among the early British poets, the Irish-born Mills was baptized in 1841 and was an active member of the Church in England. He also wrote and published poetry, with at least a half dozen poems appearing in the Church’s Millennial Star. He immigrated to Utah with his wife in 1856, and took fellow poet Emily Hill as a second wife a year later, just after she had survived traveling with the Martin Handcart company. But after starting to serve a mission to England in 1860, he suddenly abandoned his family and the Church, ending up as the 1st mayor of Gilroy, California, and then living in various places around the Western US until his death in 1895. He is the author of the hymn, “Arise, O Glorious Zion” (Hymns #40).

 

Christ’s Second Coming and the Restoration

by William G. Mills

Behold yon azure sky asunder rending—

The expanded screen of heaven divide in twain,

Array’d in glory see our Lord descending,

Seated on clouds of light—on fiery flame;

The hosts of heaven his retinue attending,

Rejoicing that on earth they come to reign.

 

The Saints in robes of white ascend to meet him,

On wings of faith they soar with one accord;

In hallelujahs loud they join to greet him;

Descend to earth, then, with their coining Lord.

 

The seers of old who long have slept in Jesus—

The patriarchs and saints who died in faith—

He, by the quick’ning power of God, releases;

They rise triumphant from the arms of death.

 

In awful majesty, all eyes descry him,

Appearing as with vengeance on his brow—

Destroying those, who, by their works, deny him—

Who know not God, and spurn his gospel, too.

 

Princes, and dukes, and kings, in sad contrition,

And mighty men of earth, filled with dismay,

To rocks and mountains offer their petition;—

To hills, to hide them from his wrath, they pray.

 

The rolling sun, itself, has been astounded,

When, by his touch, in darkness it has stood;

And, by a look, the moon, abashed, confounded

Through his almighty power, has turn’d to blood.

 

Those lucid orbs that glitter in the heaven,

Thrown by convulsions from their native earth,

From their exterminated tracts are driven,

To join creation at her second birth.

 

Affrighted nature to its centre’s shaken—

Each mountain, poised in air, is downward hurl’d—

Each sunken vale from its retreat is taken,

To mingle as a new created world.

 

Islands and continents no longer tarry,

But, springing forth, their iron chains they burst—

The land, so long divided, now shall marry,

As when it rolled, by God’s command, at first.

 

Nature convulses; e’en the mighty ocean

Heaves high her bosom in the passing scene;

The rolling seas together in commotion,

Flow onward to the north, where once they’ve been.

 

As erst, when the earth was form’d, Jehovah bless’d it,

So now again ’twill blossom as the rose;

No more by useless weeds or thorns infested,

Nor poisonous plants, renewed nature grows.

 

The fowls that cut the air—the brute creation,

Shall cloy their blood-thirst appetites no more;

Nor will the thoughtless kid dread the wolf’s passion,

But all is mild and tranquil as before.

 

The timid lamb, and the ferocious lion,

Shall dwell together;—all are peace and joy;

For on God’s holy hill, the mount of Zion,

No pow’r that baneful is, or can destroy.

 

As o’er the hidden deep the wave’s extended,

So does the knowledge of the Lord abound;

For all do know (as Satan’s power is ended)

The Lord, the blissful universe around.

 

This is the glorious time the saints expected;

For this, with zeal, did their pure bosoms fire.

Ye faithful saints, by heaven’s king directed,

Let Jesus’ coming still your hearts inspire;

And we, by his almighty power protected,

Shall gain the Best the saints so long desire.

1844

 

“Governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man.”

Whether building Zion or preparing for the second coming, we need to cooperate with one another. The idea that we can somehow hide ourselves away from others and live independently of society is not only unrealistic, it is actually a frustration of the plans of God. Zion is a society, not just an individual or a single family. So building Zion requires figuring out how to live with others. And that cooperation is what we call government. In this poem, the righteous qualifications of leaders is emphasized — something that we should especially emphasize today.

The author of this poem, John Lyon, was perhaps the most influential and prolific of the mid-century LDS British poets. His first book of poetry, The Harp of Zion (1853), paid for his mission and was emblematic of the poetry written and published while the Church was in transition from Nauvoo to Utah. Lyon, born 1803,  was already publishing poetry before he joined the Church in 1844. Soon after publishing his book, Lyon was able to immigrate to Utah, where he became a prominent part of society and continued to write poetry. Long after his 1889 death, his son published a second volume of his poetry, Songs of a Pioneer (1923).

 

Presidency

by John Lyon

To rule with power requires no foreign aid

Of weapons, steel, nor ball: pure moral force

Is heaven’s directory to fallen man;

And he who yields obedience to its law

Will learn by social virtue to restrain,

Inspire, persuade, and win the forward mind.

Yet bold when daring spirits would aspire

To trample underfoot the dignity

Of heaven. Gentle, in child-like phrase, so plain,

And yet withal so powerful to convince,

That to resist command would be a sin

More heinous than the crime of fratricide!

To rule requires philosophy profound!

And purity of action to enforce;

As well the voice to teach the deaf, dull ear.

Novicial knowledge doth but ill comport,

Where mental power and aptitude to teach

Are all pre-requisites to ruling power.

As oft perchance a chord of finer tone

Might ill accord with uncouth vulgar sounds.

Choice words for chaster ears, well sorted, stir

To extacy the enlighten’d soul, and wafts

The ideality of man to heaven.

Thus Wisdom, mistress of the ruling art,

Steals o’er the passions with a magic charm,

And prostrates all forbearance to the truth.

Compassion points the sceptre’s god-like sway,

And, as a finis to her heavenly scheme

Of saintly prowess, loves! and thus subdues!

The less illuminated feel the charm;—

No more Illusion rears her doubtful crest,

Nor mole-hills mountains in perspective seem;

And Ignorance, who once rebelled, obeys!

And wonders how he erred.

A President

Is one inspired by an all-quick’ning power

To know the working of the human heart:

To draw from out the well of living thought

The philosophic worth of man: to point

The way of life to bliss ineffable!

And thus by ruling learns himself to rule.

1850