The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-04-07
DREAMS.
Remarkable Sermon By Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage.
The Significance of Dreams as Evidences
of ImmOrtalIty-GOd Does Sometimes
Appear In Dreams In This Day
Some Instances.

the subject being a psychological anC
religious study of the phenomena of the
mind during sleep, and the Significance
of dreams as evidence of immortality
The text chosen was Genesis xviii
IL. -: 'He took of the stones of thai
place and put them for his pillows, and
lay down in that place to sleep, and he
dreamed" The preacher said:
Asleep on a pillow-case filled with
hens feathers it is not strange one
should have pleasant dreams. But
here is pillow of rock, and Jacob with
his head on it, and 10! a dream OF
angels, two professions, those coming
down the stairs met by those going UP
the stairs. 1t is the first dream of Bible
record. You may say of dream that
it is nocturnal fantasia, or that it is the
absurd combination of waking thoughts
and with a slur of information you may
say: 1t is only dream;" but God has
honored the dream by making it the
avenue through which again and again
he has marched upon the human soul,
decided the fate of nations, and changed
the course of the worlds history. God
appeared in a dream to Abimelech,
warning him against an unlawful mar
rage; in a dream to Joseph, foretelling
his coming power under the figure of
all the sheaves of the harvest bowling
down to his sheaf: to the chief butler,
foretelling his disimprisonment; to the
chief baker, announcing his decapita-
tion; to Pharaoh, showing first the sew
en- plenty years, and then the seven
famine-strucl1 years, under the figure
OF the seven fat cows devouring the
seven lean cows; to Solomon, Civ
ing him the choice between wisdom
and riches and honor; to the war
rior, under the figure of a barley
cake shifting down tent, encouraging
Gideon in his battle against the Amale-
kites; to Nebuchadnezzar, under the
figure of broken image and bewn-
down tree, foretelling his overthrow of
power; to Joseph of the New Testa-
ment announcing the birth OF Christ in
his own households; to Mary, bidding
her fly from Herodic prosecutions: to
Pilates wife, warning him not to be-
come complicated with the judicial
overthrow of Christ.
We all admit that God in ancient
times and under Bible dispensation ad-
dressed the people through dreams.
The question now is, does God appear
in our day and reveal himself through
dreams? This is the question every
body asks, and that question this morn
ing shall try to answer. You ask me
if ! believe in dreams. My answer is,
L do believe in dreams, but all 1 have
TO say will be under five heads.
Remark the first: The Scriptures are
so full of revelation from God, that if
we got no communication from him in
dreams, we ought, nevertheless, to be
satisfied.
With twenty guide-books to tell you
how to get to Boston, or Pittsburgh, or
London, or Glasgow, or Manchester, do
you want a night vision to tell you how
to make the journey? We have in this
Scripture full direction in regard to the
journey of this life, and how to get to
the Celestial city, and with this grand
guide book, this magnificent directory,
we ought to be satisfied l have more
faith in a decision to which | come
when / am wide-awake than
VIXEN ! am sound asleep. l have
noticed that those who give a great
deal of their time to studying dreams
get their brain added. They are very
anxious to remember what they
dreamed about the first night they
slept in a new house. If in their dream
they take the hand of corpse, they
are going to die If they dream of
garden, it means sepulcher. If some
thing turns out according to a night
vision, they say: well, | am not sur
prised. l dreamed it" If it turns out
different from the night vision, they
say: well, dreams go by contraries"
In their efforts to put their dreams into
rhythm, they put their waking thoughts
into discord. Now, the Bible is so full
of revelation that we ought to be salts
fed if we get no further revelation.
If there should come about a crisis in
your life upon which the Bible does not
seem to be sufficiently specific, go to
God in prayer and you will get especial
direction. l have more faith, ninety
nine times out of hundred, in direc-
tions given you with the Bible in your
lap and your thoughts uplifted in
prayer to God, than in all the informa-
ton you will get unconscious on your
pillow. l can very easily understand
why the Babylonians and the Egypt
ians, with no Bible, should put so much
stress on dreams; and the Chinese, in
their holy book, Chow King, should
think their emperor gets his directions
~. 10
Homer should think that all dreams
came from Jove, and that in ancient
times dreams were classified into
science; but why do you and l put so
much stress upon dreams when we have
a supernal book of infinite wisdom on
all subjects? Why should we harry
ourselves with dreams? Why should
Eddystone and Barnegat light houses
question a summer FREELY?
Remark Che second: All dreams have
an important meaning.
They prove that the soul is COM
paratively independent of the body.
The eyes are closed, the senses are dull,
the entire body goes into lethargy
which in all languages is used as type
of death, and then the soul spreads its
wing and never sleeps 1t leaps the
Atlantic ocean and mingles in scenes
5000 miles away. 1t travels great
reaches of time, flashes back eighty
years, and octogenarian is boy again
In his fathers house. If the soul, be-
fore it has entirely broken its chain of
flesh, can do all this, how far can it
leap, what circles can it cut when it is
fully liberated Every dream, whether
agreeable or harassing, whether sun
shiny or tempestuous, means so much
that rising from your couch you ought
to kneel down and say: 20 GodI am |