Orr's Dream

The Sabbath it being ended and I besought repose,

My guardian angel shielded me from all insulting foes,

When gentle sleep my eyelids closed in silence on my bed,

A flying roll appeared to me, and thus in it I read:

'When Israel by the Almighty led from Egypt's plains away,

Enrich'd by their oppression's spoil in bondage where they lay;

The Imperial Judah's tent was close by the Almighty God,

And in that Royal Mansion he placed a mystic rod.

That rod he said would testify to ages yet unborn

That they who would God's Law despise should off the earth be shorn;

Of all the wonders it had done there yet remained one,

To clear a pass through Jordan's Streams to let his army on.

Through Israel's camp his orders sent, they straight obey'd his call,

He ranged his army as they went that none of them should fall;

Old Levi's sons they bore the ark as vanguards on the way;

All marshall'd them on Jordan's banks as well as the Red Sea.

He cut the sea to let them pass, restrain'd the swelling flood,

While piled on heaps on either side the solid waters stood;

A wondrous pillar led them on, compound of shade and light,

A sheltering cloud it proved by day, a leading fire by night.

Though some on this side Jordan's banks have gained their promised land,

Yet two-and-a-half must go before that all might understand,

That until all were safely passed, as very soon they would;

This was to show that there was naught could split their brotherhood.