I had a dream, a varied dream:
\nBefore my ravished sight
\nThe city of my Lord arose,
\nWith all its love and light.<\/p>\n
The music of a myriad harps
\nFlowed out with sweet accord;
\nAnd saints were casting down their crowns
\nIn homage to our Lord.<\/p>\n
My heart leaped up with untold joy;
\nLife’s toil and pain were o’er;
\nMy weary feet at last had found
\nThe bright and restful shore.<\/p>\n
Just as I reached the gates of light,
\nReady to enter in,
\nFrom earth arose a fearful cry
\nOf sorrow and of sin.<\/p>\n
I turned, and saw behind me surge
\nA wild and stormy sea;
\nAnd drowning men were reaching out
\nImploring hands to me.<\/p>\n
And ev’ry lip was blanched with dread
\nAnd moaning for relief;
\nThe music of the golden harps
\nGrew fainter for their grief.<\/p>\n
Let me return, I quickly said,
\nClose to the pearly gate;
\nMy work is with these wretched ones,
\nSo wrecked and desolate.<\/p>\n
An angel smiled and gently said:
\nThis is the gate of life,
\nWilt thou return to earth’s sad scenes,
\nIts weariness and strife,<\/p>\n
To comfort hearts that sigh and break,
\nTo dry the falling tear,
\nWilt thou forego the music sweet
\nEntrancing now thy ear?<\/p>\n
I must return, I firmly said,
\nThe strugglers in that sea
\nShall not reach out beseeching hands
\nIn vain for help to me.<\/p>\n
I turned to go; but as I turned
\nThe gloomy sea grew bright,
\nAnd from my heart there seemed to flow
\nTen thousand cords of light.<\/p>\n
And sin-wrecked men, with eager hands,
\nDid grasp each golden cord;
\nAnd with my heart I drew them on
\nTo see my gracious Lord.<\/p>\n
Again I stood beside the gate.
\nMy heart was glad and free;
\nFor with me stood a rescued throng
\nThe Lord had given me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":15,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-52","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/52\/revisions\/93"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/52\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/sketchesofsouthernlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}