Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1901-12-07


81 \ this discourse DIR. Talmage dis
cusses 8 much talked of subject, and
= one in which all are interested. The
text is Joel H., %, II will pour out my
spirit upon all flesh! your old men shall
dream dreams, your Young men shall see
visions
In this photograph Of the millennium
the dream is lifted into great conspiculty.
You may say of a dream that 1t is noe
turnal fantasia or that it is the absurd
combination OF waking thoughts, and
with q slur of intonatiou YOU may say
at is only a dream" but God has hon
Isored the dream by making il 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 history. God APP
peared in q dream to Abimelech, warning
him against an unlawful marriage; in a
dream to Jacob, announcing by the ladder
set against the sky full of angels the
communication between earth and heav-
| en-; in dream to Joseph. foretelling his
coming power under the figure of all the
sheaves of the harvest bowling d0wn TO
his sheaf; to the chief butler, foreteiling
his disimprisonment to the chief baker
announcing his decapitation; to Pharaoh,
showing him first the seven plenty years
and then the seven famine struck years.
under the figure of the seven lean COWS
devouring the seven fat cows; to Solo
| mon, giving him the choice between WIS
dom and riches and honor; TO warrior,
under the figure Of a barley cake shifting
down tent, encouraging Gideon Ill his
battle against the Midianites; TO Neb-
uehadnezzar, under the figure of broken
image and a hewn down tree, foreteiling
the overthrow of his power; to Joseph of
the New Testament, announcing the birth
of Christ in his own household, and again
| bidding him fly from Herodic persecu-
| lions; TO Pilates wife warning him not
to become complicated with the judicial
overthrow of Christ.
We all admit that God in ancient times
aud under Bible dispensation addressed
the people through dreams. The ques
ton now is. does God appear in our day
and reveal himself through dreams? That
! Is the question everybody asks, and that
| question | will try to answer. You ask
me if believe in dreams My answer is.
| do, but all have 10 say will be under
| five heads.
Remark the First.--The Scriptures are
| so full of revelations from God that if
we get no communication from him in
| dreams we ought, nevertheless, TO be sat
isfed.
With twenty guidebooks to tell you how
to get to New York or Pittsburg or Lon
don or Glasgow or Manchester do you
want a night vision to tell you how 10
make the journey? We have in this
Scripture full direction in regard To the
journey Of this life and how to get to
the CELESTIAL city, and with this grand
guidebook, this magnificent directory, we
ought to be satisfied. | have more faith
in a decision to which | come when | am
wide awake than when | am sound
asleep. | have noticed that those who
give a great deal of their time to studying
dreams get their brains added. They are
very anxious to remember what they
dreamed about the first night they slept
in new house. If in their dream they
take the hand Of a corpse, they are going
to die. If they dream Of garden, it
means sepulcher. II something turns
out according TO a night vision, they say
well, / am not surprised. | dreamed
it." If it turns out different from the
night vision, they say. well. dreams go
by contrarics." In their efforts to put
their dreams into rhythm they put their
waking thoughts into discord. Now, the
Bible is so full Of revelation that we
ought to be satisfied If we get no further
revelation.
Adams Sound Sleep.
Sound sleep received great honor when
Adam slept so extraordinarily that the
surgical incisiOn which gave him Eve did
not wake him, but there is no such need
for extraordinary slumber now, and he
who catches an Eve must needs be wide
awake No need Of such dream as ia
cob had, with a ladder against the sky,
when ten thousand times ii has been dem
onstrated that earth and heaven are in
communication. No such dream needed
as that which was given to Abmelech
warning him against an unlawful mar
riage, when we have the records Of the
county clerks office. No need Of such Il
dream as was given to Pharaoh about the
seven years OF famine, for now the sea-
sons march in regular proc, ssion and
steamer and rail train carry brcadstufFs
TO every famine struck nation. No need
of a dream like that which encouraged
Gideon, for ali through Christeudom it is
announced and acknowledged and demon
strated that righteousness, soone- or lat
er, will get the victory.
If there should come about n crisis in
your life upon which the Bible does not
seem to be sufficiently specific, 60 to God
in prayer aud you VIII get especial direc-
ton. / have more faith. ninety
times out Of hundred, in directions Civ
en- 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
Babylonians and the Egyptians. with no
Bible, should put so much stress on
dreams, and the Chinese in their holy
book, Chow Kign, should think their
emperor gets his directions through
dreams from God, and that Homer should
think that all dreams come from Joye,
and that in ancient things dreams were
classified into q science, but why DO you