Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-04-07
REV. DR.. TAlMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DTyINE's SUN.
DAY SERMON.
SUBJEoT: biblical AND MODERN
NARRATION OF DREAMS"

TEXT: "He took OF The stones of that
| place and put them for his pilioUs aud lay
doiCn IN that place to sleep, and he dream.
ed."-Genesis xviii, IL.
Asleep on pillowcase filed with hens
| feathers It is not strange one should have
| pleasant Dreams but here is a pillow cf
rock, and Jacob with bis head on it, and loi
di cam 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 1t is
nocturnal fantasia, or that 1t is the absurd
| combination of waking thoughts, and with
slur OF lntonation you may say, ut is only
a 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 his
tory.
God appeared in dream to Abimelech,
warning him against an unlawful marriage;
in a dream to Joseph, foretelling His com.
Ing 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, an.
nouncing his decapitation; to Pharaoh.
showing him first the seven plenty years
and then the seven famine struck years, un-
der the figure of the seven fat cows devour-
1 tuo oSNeH lcdu COWb, 10 EOOlOtuOu, RlNluR
him the choice between wisdom and riches
and honor; TO the warrior, under the figure
| Of barley cake shifting down a tent en-.
couraging Gideon in his battle against the
Amelekites; to Nebuchadnezzar, under the
| figure OF a broken image and a hewn down
tree, foretellinG his overthrow of power; to
Joseph Of the New Testament announcing
the birth Of Christ in his own households; to
Mary, bidding her fly from Herodic perse-
| 10 Iata ,xyfFn nfnnr him
IN become complicated with the judicial
overthrow OF Christ.
| We all admit that God in ancient times
and under Bible dispensation addressed the
people through dreams. The question now
! Is Does God appear in our day aud reveal
Himself through dreamsP That is the ques-
tion everybody asks, and that question this
morning shall try to answer. You ask me
IL believe in dreams. Ny answer is | do
believe in dreams, but all have to say will
be under five heads.
Remark the Flrst-The Scriptures are so
full OF revelation from God that if we get
no communication from Him in dreams we
ought nevertheless to be satisfied.
With 20 guidebooks to tell you how to get
to Boston or Pittsburg or London or Glas-
| gov or Manchester, do you want night
vision 10 tell you how to make the Journey
We have in this Scripture full direction In
| tcHuiu w tuu Joui hc1 VI bhiS hhS hON "
get to the celestial city, and with this grand
guIdebook, this magnificent directory, we
ought to be satisfied. have more faith In
O decision to which come when | am wide
awake than when | am sound asleep. l have
noticed that those who gave a great deal of
their time to studying dreams get their
brains added. They are very anxious to
remember what they dreamed about the
I first night they slept In new house.
in thair Iraa flnu fat-. tha hatH nf
corpse, they are going 70 die. If they dream
of u garden, 1t means sepulcher. II some
thing turns out according to night vision,
| they say We'll, am not surprised. /
| dreamed it," II it turns out different from
the night vision, they say, well, dreams
| 90 by contraries." In their efforts to put
their dreams INTO rhy thm they put their
waking thoughts into discord. Now tho
| Bible is so full OF revelation that we ought
| to be satisfied If we get no further reveia.
| tion.
Sound sleep received great honor when
| Adam slept so extraordinarily that the sur
| gical incision which gave him Eve did not
wake him, but there is no such need for ex-
| traordinary slumber now, and he who
catches an Eve must needs be wide awake
! Noneed OF such dream as Jacob hal with
ladder against the sky, when 10000 times
| It had been demonstrated that earth and
dream needed as that which was given to
Abimelech, warning him against an unlawful
| marriage, when we have the records of the
county clerks office. No need Of such a
| dream as was given to Pharaoh about the
seven years Of famine, for now the seasons
march in regular procession. and steamer
and rail train carry breedstutfs TO every
famine struck Nation. No need OF dream
| like that which encouraged Gideon, for all
| fbrn,,oh yhrio 20 n
acknowledged and demonstrated that right
sousness sooner or later will get the victory.
II there should come about q crisis Id
your life upon which the Bible does not
seem to be sufficiently specific, 60 to God In
prayer and you will get especial direction.
| have more faith 90 times out OF 100 In di.
rections gwen you with the Bible In your
lap and your thoughts uplifted in prayer to
God than in all the information you will
| get unconscious on your pillow.
| can very easily understand why the
Babylonisns and the Egyptians, 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 through dreams from God, and
that Homer should think that all dreams
came from Jove, and that in ancient tunes
dreams were classified into a science. But
why do you and put 50 much stress upon
| uTedllS Wueu we nave u oupoTuhi UDOh VI III
finite wisdom on all subjectss Why should
we harry ourselves with dreamsp Why
should Eddystone and Barnegat lighthouses
question summer trehy.
Remark the Second-All dreams have an
| important meaning.
they prove that the soul is comparatively
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 chen the soul
| spreads its wing and never seeps. It leaps
the Atlantic Ocean and mingles in scenes
5000 miles away. 1t travels great reaches Of
time, flashes back eighty years, and the
octogenarian is boy again In his fathers
house II the soul before 1t has entirely
broken its chains of flesh can do all this, how
far can IL leap, what circles can 1t cut. when
1t is fully liberated.
Every dream, whether agreeable or har.
assng, whether suushiny or tempestuous,
means so much that rising from your couch
you ought to kneel down and say: 30 God,
am immortali Whencei Whitherf Two
natures. My soul Gagged now-what when
the door Of the cage is openedf IL my soul
can fly so far 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 graver Oh, this power TO dream, how
startling, how overwhelming IL prepared
for the after death flight what an enchant-
menti II not prepared for the after death
flight, what a crushing agony Immortall
Immortal
Remark the Thlrd--The vast majority
of dreams are merely the result OF disturbed
physical condition and are not supernatural
message.
Job had carbuncles, and he was scared in
the night He says, "Thou scarest me with
dreams and terrifsst me with visions" Solo.
mon had an overwrought brain, over
wrought with public business, and he suf-
fered from erratic sumber, and he writes in
Ecclesiastes, "a dream cometh through the
multitude OF business" DR.. Gregory, in ex-
perimenting with dreams, found that bottle
| OF hot water put to his feet while In slumber
made him think that he was going up the
hot side Of Mount Etna.