Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1901-12-12
SUBJECT OF DREAMS
M. A NAGF'S WEEKLY lISCOURSF|

IN All Ages Dreams Have Been the
Vehicle of Gods Warnings to His
People.
WASHINGTON, D. Gin this discourse
DIR. Talmage discusses q much talked Of
subject, and one in which all are inter-
ested. The text is Joel ii, %: Il will pour
put 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 conspicuity.
You may say of a dream that it is a noe.
turnal fantasia, or that it is the absurd
combination of waking thoughts, and with
. siur of information you may say, ut is
only a dream" but God has honored the
dream by making it the avenue through
which again and again He has marched
nations, and changed the course of the
worlds history. God appeared in a dream
60 Abime,ech, warning him against an un-
lawful marriage; in a dream to Jacob, an
anouncing by the ladder set against the
sky full of angels, the communication be-
tween earth and heaven; in a dream to
Joseph, foretelling his coming power under
Blowing down to his sheaf; to the chief
butler, foretelling his disimprisonment; to
the chief baker, announcing his decaplta-
ton; to Pharaoh, showing him first the
seven famine 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 Nehuchadnez-
gar, under the figure Of a broken image
and a hewp down tree, foretelling the over
throw of his power; to Joseph, OF the
Christ in his own household, and again
bidding him fly from Herodic prosecutions;
to Pilates wife, warning him not to be-
come complicated with the judicial over
throw of Christ.
We all admit that God in ancient times
aud under Bible. dispensation addressed
the people through dreams. The question
reveal Himself through dreams? That is
the question everybody asks. ard that
question I will try to answer. You ask me
If I believe in dreams. Ny answer IS, l
do, but all I have to say will be under i've
heads.
Remark the First-The Scriptures are
go full of revelation from God that if we
get no communication from Him in dreams
We ought, nevertheless, to be satisfied:
with twenty guidebooks to tell YOU how
to get to New York Or Pittsburg or Lon
don OF Glasgow or Manchester do you
want a night vision to tell you how to
make the Journey. We have in this
Journey of this life and how to get to the
celestial city, and with this grand guide
book, this magnificent directory, we
ought to be satisfied. I have more faith
in a decision to which I come when | am
wide awake than when I am sound asleep.
] have noticed that those who give a great
their brains added. They are very anx
ious 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 sep
ulcher. If something turns ont according
not surprised; I dreamed it, If !" turns
out different from the night vision, they
say, "Well. dreams 60 by contraries." In
their efforts to put their dreams into
rhyth~: they pvt 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.
Adam Sept so extra ordinarily that the
surgical iDcision which gave him Eve did
not wake him, but there is no such need
for extraordinary s,umber 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 ten thousand times it has Deen deru-
onstrated that earth and heaven are in
communication. No such dream needed as
that which was given to Abimelech. warn
ing him against an unlawful marriage.
when we have the records of the county
clerks Office. No need of such a dream as
swas given to Pharoah about the seven
A,o,r1 f-1 &C., ~or, A.
march in regular procession and steamer
and rail train carry breadstufs to every
famine struck nation. No need of a dream
like that which encouraged Gideon, for all
Through Christendom it is announced and
acknowledged and demonstrated that
Righteousness sooner OF 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 especial direc-
ton. I have more faith ninety-nine
times out Of a hundred in directions given
you with the Bible in your lap and your
thoughts uplifted in prayer to God than in
Al! the information you will get uncon-
sclous 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
JAlng, should think their emperor gets his
directions through dreams from God. aud
chat 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 l put so much stress upon
dreams when we have a supernal book OF
infinite wisdom on all subjects? WHY
should we harry ourselves with dreams:
Why. should Eddystone and Barregat
lighthouses question a summer FREELY?
Remark the Second-All dreams have an
important meaning. They prove that the
soul is comparatively Independent 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 O.
death, and then the soul spreads it's wins
and never sleeps. It leaps the Atlantic
Ocean and mingles in scenes 5000 mile:
away. It travels great reaches Of time
flashes back eighty years. and the octpge
marian is a boy again in his fathers house
Ii the soul before it has entirely broken it,
chain of flesh can do all this, how far car
it leap, what circles can it cut when it il
fully liberated? Every dream. whethe,
agreeable or harassing, whether sunshin.
or tempestuous, means so much that. ris
ing from your couch. you ought to knee
down and say: 90 God. am I immortal
Whence? Whittier? Two natures. M,
eoul Gagged now-what when the door O
the cage is opened? If my soul can av s.
far in the few hours in which my body !
asleep in the night, how far can it fl.
when my body s'eeps the long sleep of tn
grave! Oh, this power to dream, hoy
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