Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-12-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
LAST SUNDAYS DISCOURSE ON
SIGNIFICANCE OF DREAMS.
Text: Joet H, 2s-Revelations of tho
Scriptures All Sumcient = Wakin g
Thoughts Have Their Echo in Sleeping
Thoughts-SOme Notable Conversions.

course Dr. Talmage discusses a much
talked of subject, and one in which all
are interested. The text is Joel H., %,
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. We all admit that God in
ancient times and under Bible dispen-
sation addressed the people through
dreams. The question now is, does
God appear in our day and reveal him
self through dreams? You ask me if 1
believe in dreams. My answer is, 1
do, but all 1 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, nevertheless, to be
satisfied
With twenty guldebookS to tell you
low 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 regard
to the journey of this life and how to
get to the celestial city, and with this
gra I'D guidebook, this magnificent di-
rectory, we ought to be satisfied. 1
have more faith in decision to which
l come when 1 am wide awake than
when 1 am sound asleep. 1 have no
ticed 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 a sepulcher. If some
thing turns out according to a night
vision they say: We'll, l am not sur
prised. l dreamed it, If it turns out
different from the night vision. they
say, We'll, dreams go by contraries." :"
In their efforts to put their drains into
rhythm they put their waking thoughts
into discord. 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 extraordinarily
that the surgical 1ncision which gave
him Eve did not wake him, but there
is no such need for extraordinary
slumber now. No need of a dream like
that which encouraged 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 about 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 es-
pecial direction. l have more faith,
ninety-nine times out of hundred, 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.
Remark the Second.-AH dreams
have an important meaning They
prove that the soul is comparatively
Independent of the body. Every dream.
whether agreeable or harassing, wheth-
er sunshiny or tempestuous, means SO
much that, rising from your couch,
| you ought to kneel down and say: 20
| God am 1 immortal? Whence?
WHITTIER? Two natures. 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 grave2" Oh. this power to dream,
how startling. how overwhelming! Inn
mortal, immortal,
Remark the Third.-The vast major
| ity of dreams are merely the result of
disturbed physical condition and are
not a supernatural message. Anything
| that you see while under the influence
Of choral or brandy or hasheesh or
| laudanum is not revelation from
God
The learned De Quincy did not
ascribe to divine communication what
| he saw in sleep, opium saturated. Do
not mistake narcotic disturbance for
divine revelation But 1 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 war
ranty deed for bad dreams The world
will not be evangelical until we get
rid of dyspeptic Christianity.
Healthy people 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
tweu. then you may expect from God