The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-16

py tHe SlBndl llSHts anu lneir reideiNo positions that his train, while he was dreaming, had only moved 250 feet and the dream had occupied only four sec onds of time.
 A young man who was extremely i'll was watched by his devoted mother who sat at his bedside. The bedstead was of the old-fashioned tester kind. Some of the canopy drapery was held in place by a brass arrow, which unaccountably fell and struck the sleeping young man on the neck. His mother subsequently, said that he awoke immediately; but be- fore he actually awoke he dreamed, and this was his dream: He was living in France, in the time of the reign of terror, and along with throngs of others he was arrested and taken before Robespierre for examination and trial. He was tried and condemned to death. and was to be decapitated by the guillotine. All the prep arations were made for his execution; he was led to the guillotine, his head put be- heath the blade and the signal given to the exeoutioner to let the blade fall. The ghastly blade fell with crashing force and as 1t struck the neck of the young man he awoke with a fearful start thankful that it was not the blade of the guillotine, but the arrow that had fallen upon his neck. Now, there is always slight Instant of time required by the transmitting nerves to report a sensation to the brain. but that instant is incon- ceivably short; and yet it was long enough for the mind to construct a marvellous story of the French revolution, and to report 1t to the sensorium between the time that the arrow fell and the young mans knowledge that the arrow had fal- be awakened simultaneously wit hthe ar rows fall. In the fragment of a second the whole story was conceived
 This is but a faint illustration of the superiority of mind over matter and 1t is suggestive of what the soul may be able to accomplish when these cumbrous bodies shall have been left behind in the grave and when the spirit shall have leaped forth into the unconfined conditions of in- mortality and freedom from flesh and blood
 THE CONTRARIES OF DREAMS.
 Often in dreams there is a reaction from the thoughts of the waking state. Frequently that which is remotest from our minds In the day, we dream of at night. Not always is this the case. as shall show later on, but that it is often the experience of peo- pie, no one can doubt It is a well known fact that the dreams of ascetic monks and nuns are often of a most sensual nature. The dreams of the holy St. Anthony may be remembered here, and those of the lofty-souled Jonathan Edwards.
 This annoying phenomenon seems to be the result of the swinging of cer- tain faculties to an extreme from which they have been held back by the will in the waking time Lord Macau- lay called this fact. that has been so often observed, "The intellectual Neme- sis, the loosening of a mental strain or tension that flies to the other extreme" Many good people have been driven into sorrow and despair at this experiences; but they cannot help or prevent the operations of the mind when they are asleep, and so, are no responsible. For their thoughts while awake they arc accountable. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."
 There is often a pronounced differ ence between ones dreams and his ac- tual life. A celebrated writer tells us that while he was a prisoner, ex- pecting death at any day. his dreams were always of liberty; but when he was liberated his dreams were always of the prison and imprfsOnment
 There is passage of scripture In pertinent accord with this principle which I quote; "Even all that fight against her and her intuition, and that distress her, shall be as dream of a night vision. It shall be even as when hungry man dreameth. and, behold. he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul Is empty: or as when . thirty man dresnsth. aaA beheld h> arinka@h4