New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-09-16
Dreams and Signs.

dreams anu Signs.
~ have stolen like. thief, and I
have murdered men, without qualm
OF cOnscience-in my dreams" said
Henry Ward Beecher, during his
pray er-meeting talk last night. "Yet
when have been awake | have car
r1ed my sense of honesty so far that [
even have gone back and corrected
the mistakes of tradesmen when they
have given me. too much change.
Some persons place great stress on a
dream. They takelts fanciful pictures
for signs. What is a dream? 1t is
simply when one part of the brain
wakes up and goes to work while the
other part continues sleeping. That
IS why dreams usually come so near
the morning. and it also explains the
contradictory character of the dream
as compared with the usual train of
thought and disposition of the dream
er. In reality dreams don't amount
to anything. They come neither from
God nor the devil. Their origin is in a
disordered stomach
"But, Mr.. Beecher, interposed one
of his flock, what do you think Of the
dreams spoken of in the bible?"
"What dreams?" asked Mr.. Beeeher.
"Joseph's dream concerning the IN
FAINT Christi
81 doubt the fact,'' promptly re-
piled the Plymouth pastor. ITO nv
mind such forms of prophecy are very
nebulous.'
"What do you think of John Bun
vans dream?" asked 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 had
been the cause of all religious despot-
ism. Some persons had a morbid
dread of having thirteen persons sit
down to a table together to eat, lest
one OF the persons should die. What
possible connection could there be pe-
tween the number thirteen and super
natural influences? 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 estimabIe ladies who
shrink from wearing opals because
an opal is an unlucky stone. Mr..
Beecher knew of lady who sold some
very fine opals for mere song be-
cause, as she explained, she had been
! ssnl9csay eyer since she was married.
She la:a her bad luck to the opals, al
though there were probably tens Of
thousands of unlucky married women
who never had any opais.
The moonstone was sign OF good
luck. A Boston man bought fine moon
stone and gave it to his daughter. 4
year afterward he called upon the jew
eler who sold him the stone and said
that lie wanted another one just like it.
81 gave that moonstone to my daugh-
ter, he said, land she got married.
Now l want a moonstone for my other
daughter, so that she will get mar
ried-" Mr.. Beecher said that one of
the signs that he observed when boy
was never to creep under the bars TO
get into an orchard, but always to
climb over them. He never saw a set
of bars now that he did not feel like
climbing over them.
Abiding to signs and dreams spok-
en- of in the bible, Mr.. Beecher said
he thought they would bear careful
winnowing. Much of the languages
of the holy book was fgurative, 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 serpent and as
harmless as dove This statement
should not be taken literally, said Mr..
Beecher, ''for we now know positive
ly that a serpent is not wise A SER
pent has no wisdom at all. ''-Nev
York Times.