The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1901-12-06
VISIONS OFTHE NIGHT
DR.. Talmage Shows How God Has
Honored the Dream.
1t Has Decided the Fate of Nations
and Has Changed Course OF
Worlds HistOry-Warn-
ings from God.
copyright. 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N VI
Washin gton.


text is Joel ,, IS: Il 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 millen-
MUM the dream is lifted into great
conspicuity. You may say of dream
that it is nocturnal fantasia or that
it is the absurd combination OF wax
ing thoughts, and with slur of in
tOnation you may say: 1t Is only
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 world's his
tory. God appeared in a 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
heaven; in dream to Joseph, fore
telling his coming power under the
figure of all the sheaves of the
harvest bowling down to his sheaf;
to the chief butcher, foretelling his
ulSllIl W lllC ChlOI OoiNOA >
announcing his decapitation; to
Pharaoh, showing him first the seven
plenty years and then the seven
famjne-struck years, under the figure
of the seven lean cows, devOuring the
seven fat COWS; to Solomon, giving
him the choice between wisdom and
riches and honor; to a warrior, under
the figure of a barley cake shifting
down a tent, encouraging Gideon IN
his battle against the Midianites; to
Nebuchadnezzar, under the figure of
4 broken image and a hewn-down
tree, foretelling the overthrow of His
power; to Joseph of the New Testa-
| ment, announcing the birth of Christ
in his own household, and again bid
ding him fly from Herodic persecu-
| tions; to Pilates wife, warning him
not 10 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 and reveal Himself through
dreams? That is the question every
body asks. and that question l will
try to answer. You ask me if [ be-
lieve in dreams. My answer is, l do,
but all / have to 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, never
theless, to be satisfied.
With 20 guidebooks to tell YOU how
to get to New York or Pittsburg or
London or Glasgow or Manchester do
YOU want a 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 get to the celestial city. and
with this grand guidebOOk, this mag
nifcent directory, we ought to be sat
isfied. / have more faith in a decision
to which | come when / am wide
awake than when | am sound asleep
l 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 a new house. If in their
| dream they take the hand of a corpse,
they are going to die. If they dream
| of a garden, it means sepulcher.
If something turns out according to
| night vision, they say: We'll, 1 am
not surprised. 1 dreamed it" If it
turns out different from the night
vision, they say: well, dreams go
| by contraries." In their efforts to
put their dreams into rhythm they
put their waking thoughts into dis
cord. Now, the Bible is so full of
revelation that we ought to be salts
fed if we get no further revelation.
Sound sleep received great honor
when Adam slept so extra ordinarily
! that the surgical incision which gave
him Eve did not wake him, but there
is no such need for extraordinary
| siunlber now, and he who catches an
! Eve must needs be wide awake! No
need of such a dream as Jacob had,
with a ladder against the sky, when
| 10000 times it has been demonstrated
! that earth and heaven are in com
munication. No such dream needle
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 seasofa march in
regular procession and steamer and
rail train carry breadstuffs to every
| famine-struck nation. No need of a
| dream like that which encourag ed
| Gideon, for all through Christendom
| it is announced and acknowledged
and demonstrated that righteousness,
! sooner or later, will get the victory.
| If there should come a bout a crisis
in your life upon which the Bible does
not seem to be sufficiently specific,
go to God in prayer and you will get
| especial direction. | have more faith,
| 80 times out of 100, in directions given
you with the Bible in your lap and
| your thoughts uplifted in prayer to
| God than in all the informa ton you
will get unconscious on your pillow.
1 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 King, should
think their emperor gets his direc-
tions through dreams from God, and
| that Homer should think that all
! dreams came from JOve, and that in
| ancient times dreams were classified
| into a science. but why do you and
| put so much stress upon dreams when
| we have a supernal book of infinite
wisdom on all subjects? Why should