The Bible in the Light of Nature, of Man, and of God (Volume 1); Also in Its Essential Relations to the Religions of the World. to the Call of Abraham

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891. Excerpt: ... may have something to do with them as means, it cannot be the real agent. The language or imagery in dreams are often natural objects and ways of action, relations and connections, representative of what is thereby made known concerning the objects or events predicted. Physical means are made use of to represent what is to be prominently physical in the event; social means are added to the physical to represent what is to occur in the social; in matters prominently intellectual, public, and national, the highest means of representations in nature are made use of. All that is according to the normal and healthful course of nature is indicative of good; all that is otherwise is so of evil. The low, mean, and dangerous among brute animals are symbolic of the same among men. Physical difficulties and dangers represent the same in social life. Relations are interchangeably used, the official very commonly for the social and the social for the official; so also as to trades and occupations. Distinct sounds, words, sentences, even lines of poetry in language or languages known to the person (seldom in an unknown one), are frequently made use of. The sentences and lines of poetry may be such as were known to the person before, or may be quite new. In short, all natural objects are in some respects representative of each other, and they are so employed in dreams np to reason. In the sphere of reason the lower representations are continued and made use of with the addition of rational groups of conceptions, social relations and conditions, and forms of speech, and so forth. Prophetic dreams hold equally true with inspiration; they are infallible, though they are in the use of means of knowledge mostly conducted by representations. Of the beatific vision little can ...