DREAMS.
Mysterious power, whence hope ethereal springs!
Sweet heavenly relic of eternal things!
Inspiring oft deep thoughts of things divine:
The past, the present, and the future thine.
Thy reminiscences transport the soul
To memory's Paradise--its future goal.
"_For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it
not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep
falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed: then he
openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction_." Job
xxxiii. 14, 15, 16.
In all ages and dispensations God has revealed many important
instructions and warnings to men by means of dreams.
When the outward organs of thought and perception are released from
their activity, the nerves unstrung, and the whole of mortal humanity
lies hushed in quiet slumbers, in order to renew its strength and
vigour, it is then that the spiritual organs are at liberty, in a
certain degree, to assume their wonted functions, to recall some faint
outlines, some confused and half defined recollections, of that
heavenly world, and those endearing scenes of their former estate,
from which they have descended in order to obtain and mature a
tabernacle of flesh. Their kindred spirits, their guardian angels then
hover about them with the fondest affection, the most anxious
solicitude. Spirit communes with spirit, thought meets thought, soul
blends with soul, in all the raptures of mutual, pure, and eternal
love.
In this situation, the spiritual organs are susceptible of converse
with Deity, or of communion with angels, and the spirits of just men
made perfect.
In this situation, we frequently hold communication with our departed
father, mother, brother, sister, son or daughter; or with the former
husband or wife of our bosom, whose affection for us, being rooted and
grounded in the eternal elements, or issuing from under the sanctuary
of Love's eternal fountain, can never be lessened or diminished by
death, distance of space, or length of years.
We may, perhaps, have had a friend of the other sex, whose pulse beat
in unison with our own; whose every thought was big with the
aspirations, the hopes of a bright future in union with our own; whose
happiness in time or in eternity, would never be fully consummated
without that union. Such a one, snatched from time in the very bloom of
youth, lives in the other sphere, with the same bright hope, watching
our every footstep, in our meanderings through the rugged path of
life, with longing desires for our eternal happiness, and eager for
our safe arrival in the same sphere.
With what tenderness of love, with what solicitude of affection will
they watch over our slumbers, hang about our pillow, and seek, by
means of the spiritual fluid, to communicate with our spirits, to warn
us of dangers or temptation, to comfort and soothe our sorrow, or to
ward off the ills which might befall us, or perchance to give us some
kind token of remembrance or undying love!
It is the pure in heart, the lovers of truth and virtue, that will
appreciate these remarks, for they know, by at least a small degree of
experience, that these things are so.
Those who are habitually given to vice, immorality and abomination;
those who walk in the daily indulgence of unlawful lust; those who
neither believe in Jesus Christ, nor seek to pray to him, and keep his
commandments; those who do not cultivate the pure, refined and holy
joys of innocent and heavenly affection, but who would sacrifice every
finer feeling at the shrine of lawless pleasure and brutal
desires--those persons will not understand and appreciate these views,
because their good angels, their kindred spirits have long since
departed, and ceased to attend them, being grieved and disgusted with
their conduct.
The Spirit of the Lord has also been grieved, and has left them to
themselves, to struggle alone amid the dangers and sorrows of life; or
to be the associates of demons and impure spirits. Such persons dream
of adultery, gluttony, debauchery, and crimes of every kind. Such
persons have the foreshadowings of a doleful death, and of darkness,
and the buffetings of fiends and malicious spirits.
But, blessed are they who forfeit not their claims to the watchful
care and protection of, and communion with, the heavenly powers, and
pure and lovely spirits.
We can only advise the other classes of mankind, and entreat them, by
the joys of love, by all the desires of life, by all the dread of
death, darkness, and a dreary hereafter, yea, by the blood of Him who
died, by the victory of him who rose in triumph from the grave, by
their regard for those kindred spirits which would gladly love them in
worlds without end, to turn from their sinful course of life, to obey
the ordinances and commandments of Jesus Christ, that the Spirit of
God may return to them, and their good angels and spirits again return
to their sacred charge.
O what a comfort it is, in this dreary world, to be loved and cared
for by all-powerful, warm-hearted, and lovely friends!
_A Dream!_
What have not dreams accomplished?
Dreams and their interpretation brought the beloved son of Jacob from
his dungeon, made him prime minister of Egypt, and the saviour of a
nation, and of his father's house.
Dreams, and the interpretation of dreams, raised a Daniel from slavery
or degrading captivity in Babylon, to wear a royal chain of gold, and
to teach royalty how to rule, whilst himself presided over the
governors and presidents of more than a hundred provinces.
Dreams, and the interpretation of dreams, have opened the future,
pointed out the course of empire through all the troublous times of
successive ages, till Saints alone shall rule, and immortality alone
endure.
Oh, what a doleful situation was Saul the king of Israel placed in,
when the army of the Philistines stood in battle array against him,
and the Lord answered him not, either by dream, by Prophet, by vision,
or by Urim and Thummim!
He sought the unlawful gift of familiar spirits, or "Magnetism." He
there learned his doom, and rushed to battle with the desperation of
hopeless despair.
Himself, his sons, and the hosts of Israel, fell in battle in that
awful day; while David, to whom these gifts had been transferred by
the ordination and holy anointing of Samuel, arose by their use to the
throne of Israel.
A dream announced to Joseph that his virgin wife should have a son. A
dream forewarned him to flee into Egypt with the young child and his
mother. A dream announced to him in Egypt the death of Herod, and
warned him to return to his native land.
A dream warned the wise men from the east to return home another way,
and not return to Herod to betray the young child.
Dreams and visions warned Paul, and the Apostles, and the Saints of
his day, of various dangers, shipwrecks, persecutions and deaths, and
pointed out the means of escape.
Dreams and visions attended and guided them, more or less, in their
whole ministry and sojourn on the earth.