THE DREAMS OF THE BIBLE.
SCIENCE has not yet succeeded in analysing the stuff that dreams are made of, and the modern world, which chafes under the thought of the inexplicable, tries deliberately to disregard them. To the prophets and chroniclers of the Bible, on the other hand, dreams formed part of the evidence of things not seen. The Jewish thinker taxed his mental and spiritual powers to find out their significance, and though it occurred to him occasionally that their bearing upon practical life might be exaggerated, and the uncertainty of their inter- pretation prove a danger to the community, he could never free, himself from their spell. The supreme desire of the Jew was to find out God. He looked everywhere for some proof of His rule. In the course of history, in the small events of daily life, in his own conscience, and in the visions of the night he found traces of the Divine Presence. For him the heavens were not empty, neither were the waste spaces of the mind. "A watcher widen holy one" concerned himself cease- lessly with the affairs of men, and who could tell at what Moment or by what means He might reveal His will? Jehovah was about his path and about his. bed. " Whither shall I go from thy spirit ?" be exclaimed. Neither in heaven, nor in hell, nor in the uttermost parts of the earth could the devout Jew hide himself; even upon the wings of the morning he could not flee from the presence of God. How, then, could Jehovah be excluded from the immaterial world of dreams ? .
Some of the visions recorded in the Old Testament are fall of terror, of beauty, and of awe. We are not surprised that they seemed to the dreamers to have some spiritual significance. Others are mere word-pictures bearing no obvious meaning, and would be unworthy of record but for the interpretations put upon them by the prophets and moralists to whom they were told. Jacob's dream has inspired untold painters, but his waking comment, " Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not," says more to the modern mind than the angelic picture which called it forth. Among the Jews religious genius was so widespread that it was not confined, as it . has commonly been among the Gentiles, to the highest types of mind and character. Sudden realisations of beauty and divinity came to men, like Jacob, who were capable of idealism, but whose actions were frequently prompted by self-interest and cunning. The earth was full of the knowledge of God; even bad men were not in ignorance. Jacob's dreaming thoughts turned to heaven, but on the practical side he had a low mind. All the great men of the Old Testament, even the great mystics, had a practical aide to their minds. The great poets were also the great moralists and statesmen, sometimes even, as in the case of David, the great soldiers. Even when the prophets concern themselves with dreams they seldom lose sight altogether of this present world. When Daniel tells us that in his dream "the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea," he seems to carry his reader upon the wings of sleep outside the body and outside the limitations of the waking world altogether. We do not ask what he meant ; we are content to breathe for a moment the free atmosphere of the true poet. Yet Daniel could turn dreaming to very plain moral and political account when occasion offered. Nebuchad- nezzar was threatened with insanity, with that insanity, it would seem, which so often attacks those overburdened with wealth and power. His greatness preyed upon his mind and overbalanced his judgment "His spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him." He had a dream which left him in agitation, and the interpretation of which he could not divine. Oply the Jew Daniel among his wise men would undertake to tell him its significance. The King had dreamed, he said, of a great tree whose top reached to heaven, and whose branches shadowed the earth. There went forth a divine command that this tree should be cut down; yet it should not be utterly destroyed; the root should remain. This meant, Daniel declared, that the King would be mad for a season,—" till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." In view of this fearful destiny, Nebuchadnezzar asks advice, and Daniel speaks like a latter-day physician. He must lead a good life ; be must occupy himself with useful work ; he must forswear excite. ment ; he must not despair ; in the end he will be cured. "Break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by chewing mercy to the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquillity." Some day he will be once more fit to govern his people, " after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule."
It is not the fashion among modern commentators to make much of the Messianic prophecies to be found in Scripture, and no doubt they have been too often read in the light of future events. It is easy, however, to condemn the credulity of our grandparents too severely. Most of them were more familiar with the words of the Old Testament than we are. Perhaps that is why they were more struck by its marvels. How can one doubt that some among the Jews hoped for a Christ-like Messiali,—not for a man of war, but for a Prince of Peace, a wonderful Counsellor whose words would transcend the bonds of tribal limitation, who would do away with burnt-offerings and teach self-sacrifice, who would proclaim Jehovah King over the whole earth, yet bring
Him near to the heart of the humblest man ? There is at least one dream recorded in a now much neglected book of the Old Testament which it is difficult altogether to dissociate from ,the thought of Christ. The vision would seem to be illumined by the light of the Gospel. The prophet lay, he tells us, " in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. And, behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees." Then he heard a voice saying, " Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself .before thy God, thy words were heard." Awestruck by the sound of the voice, the prophet declares that there "remained
no strength" in him. "Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, And said, 0 man greatly beloved, fear not : peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when be had spoken unto me, I was strengthened." After' this a change comes over the spirit of the dream. Is it not in the very nature of dreams that it should be so ? We are plunged among wars and rumours of wars in an utter con fusion of memory and prophecy. In these days we finish the book with impatience, yet cannot forget the vision of "one like the appearance of a man."
In the New Testament a far less place is given to dreams than in the Old, and they are never mentioned by our Lord, except in a possible allusion to Jacob's dream. Joseph was warned in a dream to save the life of the infant Saviour ; by a dream Peter was convinced that God was no respecter of persons; Paul took courage from dreams ; but these incidents are mentioned simply, and without any comment which could lead us to understand how much importance was ordinarily given in the early Church to the thoughts which come unbidden in sleep.
It is a curious fact that in Deuteronomy—the book from which our Lord quotes so continually—the practice of putting absolute faith in dreams is deprecated, and diviners and necromancers are severely condemned. Jeremiah also warns his hearers against those who tell dreams. They cause the people to err, he says, "by their lies, and by their lightness." Christ was, no doubt, familiar with these words, and He may have thought the subject one which endangered the pre- dominance of that sound common-sense which He so evidently regarded as a tower of defence to the religious spirit. Any- how, His silence on the subject cannot be disregarded.
Poetry is, of course, susceptible of no literal interpretation_ Sometimes in Scripture the assurance of faith is spoken of as a " vision,"—a vision which comes and goes, which cannot be commanded but must ever be desired, in the absence of which "the people perish," and for which it behoves every man to wait in devout expectation. The prophet Habakkuk speaks of such a vision as this, and to the men of this generation his words still sound fresh. He is full of faith,yet he admits his knowledge to be small. He waits for a revelation which has not yet been vouchsafed. "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me." Then in a triumphant burst of hope he prophesies the revived faith of the world. " The vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it ; because it will surely come."
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