The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1893-01-07

Of other Efficient ministers of Jesus
Christ, all led to a religious life, and
then into the Christian ministry, by
dream. Surely the dreams B. 9.
were no more certainly sent of the
great God than these dreams A. D.
Mercy alone cometh from a
mercifuI God. Dreams are telescopes
whereby we discern more NEARLY the
good, the love, the justice, the mercy
Inherent in the bondless, spotless
heart of Christ. Dreams are God
sends still. To thoseonce in atfluence,
now in poverty, no one knows the
happiness which is theirs when they
dream of their former comforts, to
those in old age-thc love tree of the
forest Of life-no one knows their
happiness when they dream of
friends of their happier years.
1t was my privilege for nearly five
years every few weeks to minister to
the inmates Of penitentiary. Many
of these assured me that about their
only happiness was when in dreams
they once more were with friends at
home and looked on themselves as still
in innocency, with father and mother,
sisters and brothers, or wife and
children, they were loved of God and
respected of men.
| When l was a boy of nineteen
summers I was summoned from
college to the death-bed of my
father. Life has sometimes gone but
roughly with me since then; most of
the time the world has treated me
better than l deserved. But of all
my happy hours none are happier
than when it pleases God to send me
the dream wherein our family circle
is again complete, and | can again
look into the loving face of him who
for years 1 called by the endearing
name of "Father." Only in the
dream can l meet him face to face
until God realizes to me the dream
he has sent me in his word that
once more, forever more we shall
meet in Heaven. Martin Luther,
Teutullian, John Huss all believed
in dreams. Norman Macleod says;
Dreams have taught me, more than
my working moments. the capacity of
the soul to imagine and endure
agany." Jonathan Edwards, great of
mind, and pure of heart, looked upon
dreams as the thermometer of the
state of the soul, and watched,
studied, carefully his own. Augustine
tells US of skeptlcal Carthageinian
physician who was converted to a
belief in the Immortality of the soul
by an argument which he heard in a
dream.
Talmage thinks every dream
teaches us forcibly that we are
immortal. He says: every dream,
sunshiny or tempestuous, means so
much that rising from your couch
you ought to kneel down and say:
so God! am l immortal? Whence?
Whittier? Two natures. My soul
Gagged noW-what when the door of
the cage is opened? If my soul can
fly in the few hours in which my
body is asleep in the night, how far
can it fly when my body sleeps the
long sleep of the grave?"
Men say religion is born of dreams
Men. tells us that the doctrines of
grace are only dream. Men inform
us that religion is but dream
False. false! false! Listen to me
now as to the message of an angel
Just from heaven: life of morality,
hoping heaven, without Christ, is
nothing but dream. Look upon it
as such, treat it as such. Deceive
yourselves no longer.
Heaven hoped through Christ is a
blessed reality. An unconyerted
young lady once had a dream. She
dreamed she died, went to heaven,
and on the golden streets beheld
host OF spirits dancing to the
sweetest of music. She stood joyless,
motionless. speechless, until the
King Eternal said to her "Why do
you not partake in the joy?" Then
she spoke: 81 cannot join the dance,
for I do not know the measure; /
cannot join in the song for I know
not the tune. '"Then," answered the
King, in tones of thunder, "what
dOest thou here" That banished her
forever from heaven. That was no
dream, but the sober truth. Unless
we learn to know Christ here, we can
not hope to learn him hereafter
Heavens language learned now or
never. II you are still unprepared to
meet your God; if Bible, prayer
sermon, song fail to convict and
convert you, then pray God send
you dream that shall bring you to
yourself and send you to Him.
In 1916, Senator PeraZzi of the