The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-02-06
SEEING VISIONS.
The Dreams OF the Future Pos.
scssed by Young men 81
THE TOPIC OF THE DISCOURSE
Delivered Mt tho First Presbyterian
Church Sunday Morning by Rev,
DIR. ID. a. Cunningham = Visions Of
Wealth, Intellectual Emincncc,
Domestic Happiness and Usefulness.
Christ Gives Lofty Conceptions.

Onrist SlVcS Lofty conceptions.
Yesterday morning. at the First Pres
byterian church. the pastor. Rev. D. a.
Cunningham. D. D., delivered Il very
thoughtful discourse from his theme.
Young Men Seeing Visions" the text
being chosen from Joel, 2-2S. The dis
course treated of visions OF wealth. In
teiiectuai emiuence, domestic happiness,
usefulness and future life, as we'll as
those that are hrist-bcgotten. But
natural visions become less celestial
day by day. while the Christ-begotten
become more and more celestial.
Dr.. Cunnlngham's sermon complete
was as follows:
1t Is mistake to suppose that the
advent OF Christianity in the world
stimulated only one or two faculties
OF our nature. 1t stimulated all.
Christianity would not have been near
ly so. great a thing II it had not had an
imaginative sde-if 1t had not quick
ened mems capacity of idealizlng and
dreaming. and set their imagination OIL
fire. When Peter. in his Pentetcost
sermon. quoted this text, he was de-
claring what the results OF the great
events which had occurred in Judea
would eventually be.
The tremendous idea OF n Christ cru
Gifted and risen, and assembled to the
presence Of God. thus driven home to
men by the power of the Holy Spirit,
would cause strange visions to float
hnf Nr fhntt. ~ 4 IL ,N,,y
legion OF conceptions would be opened
up to them. Ranges of thought. COM
pared with which the sweep of the old
prophetic seer was narrow and dim.
would become the brthright of the
children Of the new dispensation. At
first, there would be exultatioin and
rapture. The new-visionary power
would come with an impetuous rush
o over mems souls, with impassioned. or
incoherent speech. But the power
wouldtnever altogether ebb: 1t belonged
in permanence TO the new DISPENSE
ton. because the facts about Christ,
In their tremendous strangeness, and
the working of the Spirit in Its Divine
freshness, remained. -.
There are two periods In human life
to which dreams and visions belong
dreams and visions, at least, OF any
persistence and Depth They belong
TO Young men and old men. The child
has mere passing fancies, idle day
dreams. brown Studies. The imagin-
alton OF the young man becomes strong
his visions project themselves and
persist. During the strain and pres
sure of middle life the Imagination
loses its power, the routine OF existence
duls the visionary faculty. But in the
leisure and quiet of old age 1t asserts
itself again. 1t would be more correct
10 say that the old mans power OF
dreaming dreams depends good deal
on the way the young man has used
his power OF seeing visions. II he has
injured or wasted It. it may not re-
turn with any vigor: but II he has
not misused 1t tends to reappear.
Young men naturally see visions, and
old men dream dreams. This visionary
power Is not TO be neglected. nor to
be thought lightly Of. 1t is beneHcent
power.
1t is not opposed to practical efficiency
In the least. 1t feeds practical eftl-
cheney. All the great enterprises we
have were once visions in the brain OF
some man or men. Columbus had a
vision. and America was discovered.
tits the mighty dreame"s who become
the great doors, In our Presbyterian
history. the men OF the First and Sec
oIlu IIelOlulilIol III StblltUu lUuulbcQ
In what the sceptics OF their genera
ton and ours would denounce as de
rout Imagination But these were
really the grandest and most efficient
men in Scottish history. In the listless,
heavy eye of Chalmers there often
seemed no power OF voition. He was
broodlng over his visions: yet for all
this broodinG-nay. largely by the
vision of 1.-THE moved men, and swayed
his time as no contemporary Scotchman
did. It is the enthusiasm bcgotten in
the region of visions that ultimately
moves the world.
Christ himself, We Know, was set
down in His day as visionary and an
enthusiast, yet 1t is His hand-unbe-
levers and enemies themselves being
witneSses-that has shifted the axis of
the earth In these later centuries. and
lifted the whole of human life and his
tory Of civilization and thought into an
other groove. The imagination is weav-
ing its pictures with more or less
brightness and consistency before Il
young mans eyes. He Is seeing his
visions. in some cases all day long. il
he is of reflective and interpretive
turn Of mind. Sometimes he sees them
at intervals In the pause of the days
occupation, or when he Is lying awake
In the morning: Orswhen he came In
from the activities ofethc day, to enjoy
the quiet of his fires!de late in the eve
ming. 1t is about these visions OF ours,
the worse and better visions whlchc We
see. that wish to speak OF at this
time.
First. let us look at the visions
which do not come at all from Christ,
or at least do not come directly from
Him. and then at the Christ-inspired
visions, and so contrast them. OF
course II is impossible TO give more than
few specimens OF each.
/. There are visions that sense brings
us. very bright and seductive at times.
They are often dangcrous. but we do
not know that they are so, because We
love the strong coloring in which they
are put before tta. The force Of youth
full life tends to the outward and the
sensible. and the sensible sometimes
deepens and lowers Into the sensual
4 man has to choose often between
sense and spirit: between the graft
flcation of the lower and higher nature
And young man has TO make this
choice more frequently than one In ma
ture years. and TO make the right choice
costs him n greater effort. The thrills
of lower qualification are more Intense:
the voices that call In that direction
are swectcr. There are pictures that
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