Excerpts from
A Dream of Judgment
From Part One
1. I stood before the judgment throne
And Jesus fixed His gaze on me.
"Account of life you now must give,
For by their deeds--the way they live--
Determine men their destiny
And their eternal home."
2. These words of Jesus 'boldened me
To set forth proofs of faithfulness
In terms of issues of my day:
How I had stood--what I did say
In opposition to the way
That others sought to serve and bless
And draw men to His righteousness.
"I stood for truth and purity,
For they were wrong, you see."
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6. Then Jesus, with foreboding mien,
Looked deep into my inmost soul.
Said He, "You surely do not mean
That it has been your chosen goal
To stand opposed to saving men;
The gospel preached to dying men;
The hungry fed; the naked clothed.
Say not such works as these you've loathed."
7. "N-no L-lord," said I, with stamm'ring tongue.
"Please do not think my efforts long
Have been opposed to works You name.
I always ADVOCATE the same.
It's just the methods that they use,
Because Thy silence they abuse."
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16. I, trembling, said, "No time I had
To go and help make others glad.
Lord, someone had to stand and teach
Against the evil works of each
And ev'ry Christian who would do
Thy works by means not taught by You;
For silence surely doth forbid!
In silence Thy commands are hid."
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18. "Oh! Hellish cause, that makes men think
The dipper's more concern than drink;
That leaves men dying in their thirst
While what is least is put as first.
What matters if by plastic cup,
Or dipper, bucket, glass, teacup?
When men are thirsty men demand
To drink by any means at hand.
____________________
22. "But silence naught but silence is,
Thus, signifying nothing more
Than that wherein I did not speak
I have no will to set before
The sons of men. They who presume
Laws, then, to make, and men command,
Or yet forbid what men would do,
Have taken law in their own hand.
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27. "Tis YOU My silence do abuse
When you forbid the means men use
To carry out what I demand
Although I've given no command
Within My word about the way
They carry out what I did say.
By your command you say them nay,
And to My word YOU add, NOT THEY!
By human precepts you have banned
Good works; and you My servants brand
As heretics, and them accuse;
Thus judging, you My saints abuse.
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30. "Oh foolish child!'" said Christ to me.
"Do you not understand nor see
That what was done by church or man
Serves not as pattern for My plan?
For what they did, e'en though approved
By apostolic presence there,
Was written that men might be moved
To emulate not how or where
Those deeds were done; but rather that
They might observe to do just what
Their Lord has said. 'Tis the command,
Not the example, doth men bind.
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44. "Do you not judge yourselves to be
Purveyers of apostasy
Because YOU ‘go beyond' My word
With buildings fine to serve the Lord?
And where in scripture do you find
The laws of usage that you bind,
Restricting things that men may do
In edifices built by you?
From Part Two
58. "Does it not inconsistent seem
That you My covenant would deem
To be a set of rules to bind?
My covenant you have defined
As 'touch not, taste not, handle not,'
Though I've condemned all such as fraught
With doctrines and commands of men.
Would I impose such yoke again?"
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61. "I make no arbitrary laws
To bind on consciences of men,
But only such as love demands;
A covenant not based on laws,
But on My sacrifice for men,
Will but necessitate commands
That work the good of humankind--
Like those which nature's law doth bind.
Laws I command because they're right
Within themselves, and aid man's plight;
But ordinances made to see
If men obedient will be
Serve not to aid, but to compress
Man's debt of sin and inward stress.
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63. "My covenant does not erase
Those moral laws imperative,
But gives forgiveness to such men,
And lets My Spirit dwell within
To strengthen them so they can live
By law's demands through grace.
The Spirit does the Christian move
With pow'r of God from heaven sent
To strengthen all of those who find,
Through the renewing of their mind,
Ability both to consent
And do My LAW OF LOVE.
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72. "So My New Covenant of grace
Is founded not upon commands.
The Old was law by Moses giv'n,
While grace by Me came down from heav'n.
The Old is found in law's demands;
The New, in My redeeming grace.
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87. Said He, "Judge you what I should say.
What think you, on this judgment day,
Based on the things revealed you here,
What the pronouncement you should hear?
Should it be, `BLESSED ONE, COME IN--
Joys of the Lord to enter in'?
Or should you hear, `DEPART! BE GONE!
To reap your fate, all lost and lone'?"
