ed a Biblical authority of the first class, remarks: "It may be so? In a certain sense, miracles have ceased; prophecy has closed; why may not significant dreams also have ceased? They may, but have they?" He does not answer the last question; and perhaps it were the part of prudence to imitate his example. It is plain, of course, that prophetic dreams in the higher Scriptural sense have ceased. The closing of prophecy involves their cessation. Since God has revealed through Christ everything which it is essential for man to know, He no longer confirms His covenant by dreams, as He did of old time; and it would now be the height of folly to judge of the favor of God by the character of our dreams. Still, the phenomena of dreaming, even at the present time, are so remarkable, that we can hardly resist the conclusion that there are still occasional instances of prophetic dreams in the second sense which we have indicated-dreams by which mysteries are revealed or future events foreshadowed. To sneer at things of this kind, is much more easy than to attempt to understand them. It cannot be denied, however, that there are many instances on record when the minds of dreamers appeared to be preternaturally active. Possibly every one of us might supply some examples from personal knowledge. We have heard of a minister who in his youth frequently preached sermons while asleep, and it was suggested that he was more eloquent in his bed than in his pulpit. I have read of a clergyman who had a habit of getting up at the dead of night, and writing excellent sermons in his sleep, and when he awoke in the morning he was delightfully surprised to find a sermon ready to his hand. No doubt, if he could have transmitted his faculty to others he would have had no lack of pupils. It is recorded of Coleridge that he composed in his sleep the beautiful poem beginning, "In Hanada did Kubla Khan A lofty pleasure-house decree—” On awaking he wrote down a considerable portion of the poem, but, being disturbed, forgot the remainder, and was never able to recall it. Such instances which are comparatively numerous, are, however, not strictly prophetic. They merely show that sometimes the mind of the sleeper becomes preternaturally active-clairvoyant, if you choose from which there would seem to be but a single step to what is known as "second sight" or the power of beholding things to come. Of a similar character are instances of extraordinary memory in dreams-such as that of the Bank Cashier who according to Dr. Abercrombie, discovered in a dream the cause of an error in his accounts, after having puzzled his brains about the matter for nearly a year. Besides these, there are however many instances on record, in which dreams would seem to have foreshadowed future events. Some of these occurred on such trifling occasions that we are almost forced to the conclusion, that there is in the mind of man a faculty somewhat akin to memory but reaching in an opposite direction, which usually lies dormant, but sometimes becomes active, especially in dreams, by means of which future events, often of the most trivial character, are prefigured or portrayed. Thus, for instance, a clergyman of our acquaintance insists that he once foresaw in a dream a great freshet on the river Susquehanna, and told his family all about it, even down to the most minute particular, a whole day before its occurrence. A similar instance is related and vouched for by Robert Dale Owen; and with all his strange notions, we do not believe that Mr. Owen would knowingly relate a falsehood. He had a friend engaged in a retail store on 2d St. in this city, who on one occasion dreamed that the next day he would sell $150 worth of drap de'te, or summer cloth to a single customer. Next morning he related his dream in the store. "Nonsense!" was the reply; the thing is impossible. You know we do not sell so large a lot of drap de'te to one customer in ten years." Mr., the gentleman who had related the dream assented to the truth of this, but became very nervous as the time approached, and his agitation increased when some time before mid-day the salesman who usually sold the kind of goods referred to in the dream, was called off, and Mr., had to supply his place. Almost exactly at 12 a customer entered, and asked for drap de'te. It turned out that the article was required for clothing in a public institution, and the amount purchased amounted to $148 or $152; Mr.- does not now recollect which." In both these cases the object of the dreams was so trivial as utterly to exclude the idea of supernatural influence. They would seem to indicate no more than that there is a hidden law of nature by which under certain circumstances "coming events cast their shadows before." If, however, we accept the statements of many great men, who have recorded their own experiences, there have been occasional instances of dreams that seemed to be prophetic in a higher form. There are accounts as old as the days of Cicero, and others as new as the present generation, in which the clue to the discovery of a fearful crime was furnished in a dream. So also there are numer ous instances in which Christians are said to have in a similar manner been warned of approaching danger. He But as it is better from a Christian point of view to relieve others than to be yourself relieved, we will adduce but one more prophetic dream-which comes to us on no less an authority than that of Rev. Dr. Bushnell, of the North Congregational Church of Hartford, who relates it in his book entitled "Nature and the Supernatural," and so far as I know no one has ever called the facts in question. He says: "Captain Yount, of California, in a midwinter's night had a dream, in which he saw what appeared to be a company of emigrants, arrested by the snows of the mountains, and perishing rapidly by cold and hunger. He noted the very cast of the scenery marked by a huge perpendicular front of white rock cliff: he saw the men cutting off what appeared to be tree-tops rising out of the deep gulfs of snow; he distinguished the very features of the persons, and the look of their particular distress. woke particularly impressed with the apparent reality of the dream. At length he fell asleep, and dreamed exactly the same dream again. In the morning he could not expel it from his mind. Falling in with an old hunter comrade he told him the story; and was only the more impressed by his recognizing without hesitation the scenery of the dream. This comrade came over the Sierra by the Carson Valley Pass, and declared that a spot in the Pass answered exactly to his description. By this the unsophisticated Patriarch was decided. He immediately collected a company of men with mules and blankets, and all necessary provisions. The neighbors were laughing, meantime at his credulity. "No matter," said he, "I am able to do this and I will, for I verily believe that the fact is according to my dream." The men were sent into the mountains, one hundred and fifty miles distant, directly to the Carson Valley Pass. And there they found the company in exactly the condition of the dream, and brought in the remnant alive." Dr. Bushnell continues: "A gentleman present when the Captain told me, said, 'You need not doubt this for we Californians all know the facts, and the names of the families brought in, who look upon our venerable friend as a kind of saviour.' Their names he gave and the places where they reside, and I afterwards found, that the California people were every where ready to second his testimony." Facts, it is said, are stubborn things-and if the instances we have related are facts-of which every person must judge for himself, they go far to show that dreams are not always vain; and that it is not impossible that the Lord still sometimes employs them for the purpose of guiding His people. But it is necessary to remark, that if it has always been conceded even by their most strenuous advocates, that prophetic dreams are among the rarest of occurrences-so rare, indeed, that most of us know nothing of them from personal experience. No one can explain their causes or the laws of their occurrence, and if they should happen to a Christian he would accept them as he would any other wonderful dispensation of Divine Providence. As for oneiromancy or the foretelling of the future by means of dreams, it bears no more resemblance to prophetic dreams than incantations for the purpose of attempting to raise the dead bear to the visits of angels. Like every other form of divination, it is not only foolish but sinful-inasmuch as it destroys our confidence in God's Providence, and makes an idol of our own imagination. Hence both in the Laws of Moses and in the Prophets we are warned not to put our trust in those who divine by dreaming, and Solomon exclaims: "In the multitude of dreams there are also divers vanities. But fear thou God!" Dreams constantly remind us of the final separation of the soul from the body. Night after night the soul appears to take flight from the body, and while we rest in our beds we imagine ourselves thousands of miles away. Poor Byron thought of this, and shrank back from the idea of an eternal dream of horror; but the Christian is glad to be reminded that he is " a day's march nearer home." Still another thought in conclusion: "A French writer has said, If you would dream gloriously, you must act gloriously when you are awake, and to bring angels down to converse with you when you are asleep, you must labor in virtue during the day. So if you would die gloriously, you must live gloriously, for only he who falls asleep in the Lord can cheerfully say: "Good Night!" MY PHOTOGRAPH. My mother dressed me neat and clean, And tied a ribbon on my neck, The artist placed me on a stool, And said, "Stand still and steady, And when I take the cover off, What is the proper mission of woman? This is a question which confronts us on all sides. To be a good daughter, sister, wife, mother? Yes, but what of the daughter, once the parents are dead; or if one or both are bad, and abandoned, as the case may be? Simply to be a good sister confines her sphere to very narrow limits. What of her whom God never allows to become a wife and a mother? Of her who is childless or a widow? Home is her sphere? But many a one has no home; will never get one. Must the whole sex be confined to home duties, domestic service, and the needle? The queen of the home circle, woman certainly is. But that is a throne which not every woman can reach. Many a queen walks sadly and uncrowned through life, vaiuly seeking an empire for her hands and her affectionate heart. Is Law, Medicine, Theology a proper sphere for her? I know lawyers' wives who have mastered the principles of law better, and have a clearer perception of justice than their husbands. I know physicians |