Weekly Chillicothe crisis., 1885-07-23
Dreams and Signs.

al have stolen like u thief. and |
have murdered men without qualm
of conscience in my Dreams" said
Henry Ward Beccher, during his
praycr-mcetng talk last night. "Yct
when have been awake have car
ried my sense OF honesty 50 far that
even have gone back and corrected
the mistakes Of tradcsmcn when they
have given me too much change.
Some persons place great stress ON u
dream. They takGIts 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
rr. In reality dreams don amount
to anything. They come neither from
God nor the devil. Their origin is in Il
disordercd stomach.
"But, Mr.. Bcccher,' nterposed one
of his flock, "what do YOU think of the
dreams spoken of in the biblc?n
"What dreamsW asked Mr.. Bcccher.
"Joscph's dream concerning the IN
fant Christ"
81 doubt the fact promptly re-
piled the Plymouth pastor. ITO my
mind such forms of prophecy are very
ncbulouS,'
"What do you think of John Bun.
yan's ircam?' asked n timid man.
81 think he dreamed it while wide
awake " answered Mr. Bccchcr.
The Plymouth pastor was talking
about the power of superstition and
the Importance that many persons
place upon signs. Superstition, he
said, was Il very important element in
human life. Combined with a certain
degree of moral sense superstition had
been the cause OF all religious dcspot-
ism. Some persons had morbid
dread Of having thirteen persons sit
down tOa table together to eat, lest
one of the persons should die. What
possible connection could there be Oe.
tween the number thirteen and super
natural influence? 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 we're
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 saltcd.
There are many cstimabIc ladies who
shrink from wearing OpalS because
an opal is an unlucky stone. Mr..
Beechcr knew OF II lady who sold some
very line opalS for a 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 mOOnStOnc was sign of good
luck. A Boston man bought n fine noon
stone and gave it to his daughter. A
year alterward he called upon the jew.
clcr who sold him the stone and said
that he wanted another one Just like it.
II gave that mOOn,tone to my daugh-
ter" he said, land she got married.
Now ] want moonStOne for my other
daughter, so that she will get mar
ricdn Mr.. Bccchcr 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,
Abiding to signs and dreams spok-
en- of in the bible, Mr. Bcechcr said
he thought they would bear careful
winnowing. Much of the languages
of the holy book was tigurativc, 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 asa serpent and as
harmless as u dove" This statement
should not be taken literally, said Mr.
Bcecher, "for we now know positive
ly that serpent is not wise. A SER
pent has no wisdom at all. "-NelO
York Times.