Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1885-12-10
Dreams and Signs.

81 have stolen like thief, and I
have murdered men without qualm
Of conscience-in my Dreams" said
Henry Ward Beecher, during his
prayer-meeting talk last night. "'Yet
when have been awake l have car
ried my sense of honesty so far that
have even gone back and corrected the
mistakes of tradesmen when they have
given me too much change. Some per-
sons place great stress on n dream.
They take its fanciful pictures for signs.
What is dream9 1t is simply when
one part of the brain wakes up and
goes to work while the other part con-
tinues sleeping. That is why dreams
usually come so near the morning, and
it also explains the contradictory char
acter of the dream as compared with
the usual train of thought and DISPOSE
ton OF the dreamer. In reality dreams
don't amount to anything. They come
neither from God nor the devil. Their
origin is in disordered stomach"
''But, Mr.. Beecher," interposed one
of his flock, 'what do you think of the
dreams spoken of in the bible?h
what dreamsp" asked Mr.. Beechcr.
'Joseph's dream concerning the in
FAINT Christ"
Il doubt the TACT" promptly replied
the Plymouth pastor. ITO my mind
such forms of prophecy are very nebu-
lous."
What do you think of John Bun
yan's dreamp" asked a timid man.
IL think he dreamed it while wide
awake" answered Mr.. Beecher.
The Plymouth pastor was talking
about the power of superstition and the
Importance that many persons place
upon signs. Superstition, he said, was
very important element in human life.
Combined with a certain degree of
moral sense superstition has been the
cause of all religious despotism. Some
persons have a morbid dread of having
thirteen persons sit down to table to
eat, lest one of these persons should
die. What possible connection could
there be between the number thirteen
and supernatural influencep 1t was
true that one OF the thirteen might eat
or drink something that did not agree
with him and die, but such occurrences
were frequent at dinners where there
were not thirteen diners. 1t was an
old tradition that if you spilled salt
you would be sure to have quarrel.
just as though quarreling had to be
salted. There are many cstimable
ladies who shrink from wearing opals
because an opal is an unlucky stone.
Mr. Beecher knew of lady who sold
some fine opals for mere song be-
cause, as she explained, she had been
unlucky ever since she was married.
She laid her bad luck to the opals, al
though there were probably tens of
thousands of unlucky married women
who never had any opals.
The moonstone was u sign of good
luck. A Boston man bought fine
moonstone and gave it to his daughter.
A year afterward he called upon the
jeweler who sold him the stone and
said that he wanted another one just
like it. 81 gave that moonstone to my
daughter, he said, "and she got
married. Now want 3 moonstone for
my other daughter, so that she will get
married." Mr.. Beecher said that one
of the signs. that he observed when a
boy was never to creep under the bars
to get into an orchard, but always to
climb over them. He never saw set
of bars now that he did not feel like
climbing over them.
I Alludings to signs and dreams
spoken OF in the bible, Mr.. Beecher
said he thought that they would bear
careful winnowing. Much of the lam
guage Of the holy book was tigurative
and should be considered in the light
of the prevailing customs and notions
of the people of biblical times. For in
stance, Christ is quoted in the bible as
saying, ''as wise as a serpent and as
harmless as a dove" This statement
should not be taken literally, said Mr..
Beecher, ''for we now know positively
that serpent is not wise. A serpent
has no wisdom at all "-Nea0 York
Times.