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Show "DREAMS. It is carious to note the variety c f opinons extent . about any given . subject, even so simple a matter as . dreams. It has been considered as , not t"0 trifling a theme for the pen of s line of the most profound writers of both ancient and modem times. Careful research discloses the foiling fact: 'V . . .. (. Sir James Mackintosh, the British Brit-ish Statesman and . Historian, at one time described dreams to be , "the resuscitation or re-embodiment of thoughts which have formerly, in some shape or other, occupied the ,, mind. They are old ideas revived, 'either in an entire state, or hetero- , geneotisly mingled together. I doubt if it be possible," he continues, "for a person to have in a dream any idea whose elements did not, in some form, strike him at a previous : period. , If these . break loose from ! their connecting chains, and become jumbled together incoherently, as is often the case, they give rise to ab- . surb combinations; but the elements still subsist, and only manifest them- ;, selves in a new and connected : shape." .-. I'ertullian, an early father of the l atin Church, describes dreaming as the refreshment of the soul. He re- : jects the doctrine of Epicurus in which dreams are disparaged as idle and: fortuitous, maintaining that t!vey are agreeable to the course and . order of nature, Vain, frivolous, impure and turbuleut dreams he at- i tributes to demons, while those that are pure and pleasant proceed from . Cod or his angel?. ' i . Lactantitts (the Christian Cicero) a Latin fa'her born in Africa ex- ,. presses his conviction of divine agency of dreams. ; St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, states that he was divinely instructed in a dream to mix a little water with the wine for the Holy Euchar-. Euchar-. ist the sacrement of the Lord's ' Supper. St. 'Bernard, a noted French ecclesiastic, was a firm believer ,ir, dreams, which he treats, of at great length in his remarkable sermon ser-mon "On Sleep." ' It is asserted that St. Thomas Aquinas affirms faith in dreams, but maintained that only those which 1 ar: suggested by angels may be in-4vestigated in-4vestigated and interpreted, those in-.fpired in-.fpired by demons and evil spirits ' Veirg left alone. t . A recent author expresses a atrone and fixed faith in the divine itupiraT BBJjjsrul adduces many) - . . , -tojfceTtvr mstantf from sacred artel ' "-Traprbfane VtsWy !rProve that the will of Omnipotence is often execut-'ed execut-'ed through the medium of visions. The wouderful examples related by Scriptural writers are liberally drawn , upon. The case of King Abimelech, warned agianst taking Abraham's wife (whom he had untruly called -hi sister), is cited as an early instance, in-stance, as are the warnings and directions di-rections given by God to Jacob and Laban; also, the dreams and visions of Daniel, and of Joseph, both' with , regard to the Blessed Virgin and the r malice of Herod; the warning dreams rtl the three Eastern Kings, and that of. Pilate's wife, all of which are familiar to Bible readers. Dreams, according to the Key to 7 heoligy,s when the outward organs of thought and perception are re-' re-' ltased from their activity, the nerves "unstrung and the whole mortal huan-anity huan-anity lies hushed in quiet slumbers, in order to renew its strenght and vigor, it is then that spiritual organs are at liberty in a certain degree, to assume their wanted functions, some , faint cutlines,' 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 nature a tabernacle of flesh. Their kindred spirits, their gaurdian angels theaJver almost them with ike-fondest affectum, the :iostr.aSxious solicitude. Spirit JCMToiiunes with spirit, thought meets t , , ..thought, soul blends with sou, in all j raptures of .mutual, pure and! eternal . 3 love. ' '" c.. , |