Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-12-02

should think that all dreams came from
Jove. and hat in ancient times dreams
were classified into a science. but why
d. you and | put so much stress upon
dreams when we have a supernal book
of infinite wisdom on all subjectsF
Why should we harry ourselves with
dreams? Why should Eddystone and
Barnegat lighthouses question a sum
mer FREELY?
Proof of Immortality.
Remark the Second.-All dreams have
an important meaning. They prove
that the soul is comparatively indie
pendent of the body. The eyes are
closed. the senses are dull. the entire
body goes into a lethargy which in all
languages is used as a 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 the oc-
togenarian is n boy again in his fa-
theirs house, If the soul before it has
entirely broken its chain of flesh "a
do all this. how far can 1t leap, what
circles can it cut when it Is fully lib
Grated. Every dream, whether agree
able or harassing. whether sunShiny or
tempestuOus. means so much that, riS-
ing from your couch. you ought to
kneel down and say: 20 God, am l i'm
mortal? Whence? Whittier? Two ma
lures. My soul Gagged now-what when
the door of the cage is opened? If 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 grave?' oh, this
power to dream. how startling, how
overwhelming, Immortal, immortal!
Remark the Third.-The vast majority
Of dreams are merely the result of dis
turbed physical condition and are not a
supernatural message. Job had car
buncles and he was scared in the
night. He says Thou scarest me
with dreams and terrifiest me with
Visions" Solomon had IN overweight
brain. overweight with public bust
ness, and he suffered from cratic
slumber. and he writes in Ecclesiastes.
a dream cometh through the multi
tude of business" DR.. Gregory, in eX-
perimenting with dreams, found that
a bottle of hot water put to his feet
while in siumber made him think he
was going up the hot ides of Mount
Etna. Another morbid physician, eX-
perimenting with dreams, his feet IN
covered through sleep. thought he was
riding in an Alpine diligence. But a
great many dreams are merely mar
cotic disturbance. Anything hat you
see while under the influence of choral
or brandy or hasheesh or laudanum
is not a revelation from God.
The learned De Quincy did not
ascribe to divine communication what
he saw in sleep, opium saturated,
dreams which he afterward described
in the following words: Il was wor-
SHIPPED, | was sacrificed, l fed from
the wrath of Brahma. through all the
forests of Asia. Vishnl hated me.
Sceva laid in wait for me. | came
suddenly upon Isis and Osiris. l had
done a deed, they said, that made the
crocodiles tremble. | was buried for
a thousand years in stone collins, with
mummies and sphinXes in narrow
chambers at the heart of eternal pyra-
mids. l was kissed with the can
cerous kiss Of crocodiles and lay con-
founded with unutterable Shiny things
GLhOhS "AOoNhJ obo NAOI1N "UN
Dyspeptic Christianity.
Do not mistake narcotic disturbance
for divine revelation. But l have to
tell you that the majority of the dreams
are merely the penalty of outraged di-
gestive organs, and you have no right
to mistake the nightmare for heavenly
revelation. Late suppers are a war
ranty deed for bad dreams. Highly
spiced salads at II o'clock at night, in
stead of opening the dOOr ~heavenward,
open the door internal and diabolical.
You outrage natural law, and you in
suit the God who made those laws. 1t
takes from three to V hours to di-
geSt food, and you have no right to
keep your digestive organs in struggle
when the rest OF your body is in SOM
nolence. The general rule is eat moth
ing after 6 o'clock at night, retire at 10,
sleep on your right side, keep the win
dow open five inches for ventilation.
and other worlds will not disturb you
much. By physical maltreatment you
take the ladder that Jacob saw in his
dream. and you lower it to the neither
world. allowing the ascent of the de-
moniacal. Dreams are midnight dys-
pepsia. An unregulated desire for
something to eat ruined the race in
paradise. and an u~nregulated desire
for something to eat keeps it ruined.
The world during 5000 years has tried
in vain to digest that first apple. The
world will not be evangelical until we
get rid of a dyspeptic Christianity.
Healthy people do not want the cadav-
erous and sleepy thing that some peo-
pie call religion. They want a religion
that lives regularly by day and sleeps
soundly by night. If through trouble
or coming on of old age or exhaustion
of Christian service you cannot sleep