The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1901-12-11
TALMAGE's SERMON
Dreams in Which God Appeared, to
Warn, Convert and Save Men.

Ia this discourse Dr.. Tslmage dis
cusses a much talked Of subj 'ct, and
enc in which all are interested. The
text is Joel ii. %, Il will pour out my
spirit upon all flesh; your old men shall
dream dreams, your young men shall
ses visions'
In this photcgrsrh Ct the millennium
the dream is lifted into great ccnspi.
Guilty. You may say Of a dceam that
it is nocturnal fantasia OF that is is the
absurd combination of waking thong Its,
and with slur Of irtoratioc you may
say. 1T is only d:esm.." bat God
hiss hoaosed the dresn b7 making it
the avenue through which sgain aad
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
Ahimelecb, warning him against sn
unlawful marriage; in dream to
JACOB; announcing by the ladder set
against the sky full Of angles the COM
munications between esrSh aud heaven;
in dream to joseph, foretellirg bic
coming power under the figure Of sll
the shesves Of the hsrvest boal1g down
to his sheaf; TO the chief butter, fore.
telling his dioimprisonnent; to tie
chief baker. announcing his decapits,
talon: to Pharaoh, shoEing him first
the seven plenty years and then the
seven famine struck years, under the
figure Of the seven lean COWS de7ouring
the ee7er fat COWS; to Solomon. giving
him the ohoics between wisdom and
riches and honor; to Wsrrior, under
the figure Of a barley cake shifting down
tent, encouraging Gideon in his bat
tie against The Midianites; to Nsbuch-
adnezz IF, under the figure of broken
image and heWn down tree, foretell
ing the overthrow Of his power; to
Joseph Of the New Testament, an
nounoing the birth of Christ IN his own
household and sgain bidding him f.
from Herodic prosecutions; to Pilates
wife, Wsrning him not to become con.
pllcated With the judicial overthrow Of
Christ.
We all sduis that G,d in ancient
times and under Bible dispensstion ad.
dressed the people through dreams.
The question now is, doss God appear
in our day and reveal himself through
dreams? That is toe question every
body asks, and that question | will try
10 answer. You ask me- IL believe in
dreams. Ny answer ID. l do.
Ths Scriptures are 20 full of re7els.
tions from God that if ne get no COM
lnunication from him in dreams We
ought, nevertheless, to be satisfied,
With twenty guidebosks to tell you
how to get to New York or PittsburZ
or London or Glasgow or Manchester
DO you want night vision to tell you
how to make the journey? We have
in this Scripture full direction in re-
gard to the journey OF this life and
how to getto the c,le tial city, ard With
this grand guidebook, this magnificent
directory, ne ought to be satisfied. I
have more faith in decision to which
| come when ! am wide awake than
when I am sound asleep. | have motto
I'd that those who give great deal Of
their time to studying dreams get their
brains added. They are very anxious
to remember what they dreamed about
the ires night they slept in a new
house. II in their dream they take the
hand Of a corpss, they are going to die.
If they dream Of garden, it means
sepu!chor. II something turns out ac-
cording to night vision, they say:
well. l am not surprised. Idreau.
ed it." Ii it turns out different from
the night vision, thsy say. We'll,
dreams, 60 By contraries.' In their
Efforts 70 to put their dreams into rhy-
thm they put their waking thoughts in
to disoord. Now, the Bible is so full
Of revelation that We ought to be salts
fed il We get no further revelation.
Sound sleep received crest honor
Rhen Adam slept 30 extraordinarily
that the surgical incisioa which gave
him Eve did not wake him, but there
is no su,h need for extraordinary slum-
ber now, and ne who catches an Eve
must needs be vide awake! No need
Of such 8 dream as Jacob had, With
ladder against the sky, when ten thous
and times it has baea demonstrated
thst earth and heaven are in communi-
cstion.> No such dream needed as that
which vas given to Abime.ech, warn
ing him against an u1lsWIu! marriage,
WREN we hsve the records Of the couLt5
clerks cf.e No need of such q dream
IS was given to Phsiaoh about the
seven yesrs Of famine, fer nov the sea-
sons march in regular procession AID
steamer and rail train carry hIesdstuffs
TO every famine struok nation No
need If dream like that which en-
couraged Gideon, for all through
Christendom It is announced and &C.
knoWledged and demonstrated that
righteousness, sooner or later, will get
the victory.
If there should come about a crisis
in your life UPON which the Bible does
not seem to be sufficiently specific, 60
to God in prayer and you will get aspe
csal direction. I have more fsirh,
ninety-nine times out Of a hundrsd, in
directions given you with the Bible in
your lsp snd your thoughts uplifted in
prayer to God than in all the inforna
ton ycu Will get unconscious on your
pillow.
lean very essil9 understand why the
BsbYlonisns and the Egyptians, With
no B:ole, should put 20 much stress on
dreams, ard the Chinese in their holy
book, Chow King, should think their
emperor gets his directions through
dreams from God, and tkst Homer
should think that all dreams came from
Jo7e, snd that IN ancient times dreams
Were classified into scienea, but Why
do you and l pus &c much stress upon
dreams when we have supsTnal book