ETHEREAL IMPULSES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2355, 13 April 1899, Page 61

ETHEREAL IMPULSES.

By a Bakkeh

Amongst the more superstitious of our race dreams are regarded as supernatural portents of coming good or evil ; a bad nightmare, caused in all probability by the too free consumption of indigestible food, being considered as the presage of somo calamity, while un ecstatic, pleasu:able dream is supposed to augur prosperity and success. But although m almost all cases dreams an solely the result of well-defined causes, and are mainly controlled by the gastric and other organs, yet there arc undoubtedly exceptions to this general rule, which most clearly indicate that dreams and presentiments are occasionally appointed as the medium by which warnings are corveyed, or guidance communicated. - •

A^ an instance of these exceptions, the * experience of a very near relative of the writer may be mentioned. A., good many years ago she dreamed' that eho was walking down, a country lane with iier husband, when they were attacked by highwaymen, and he was murdered by her side. Every feature of tho scene was forcibly impressed upon hei mind, even to the most minute detail, and for years afterwards, when in the country, she was always in dread lest she should come upon the sita of the visionary tragedy. In the course of years, when the dream had gradually faded away from her recollection, she went to reside near the Surrey Downs, and one day, while drivizig out with her husband, they came to the identical spot of which she had dreamed five und twenty years previously. In every minutest particular the scone was recalled to her mind ; the treos in the hedges she saw were tho same trees sha had seen a quarter of a century before, although at that time some of them could not probably have existed, tho hedges wore in the same condition — in fact, the whole was as if she had seen it the previous d:iy, although at the time o| the dream she had never been within many miles of the spot. Of course that residence was immediately quitted.

As another instance of an exception to the general rule, tha writer would venture to adduce a. personal experience of his own. He was staying at Glen Lyn, near Lynton (well known to tourists in North Devon for its beautiful grounds and waterfalls), and one morning de-> cided upon walking towards Ilfracpmbe, returning by tho coach, and informed his family of his plans. A powerful influence, hdwever, impeded his progress, and appeared to warn him not to proceed. ' He fought against it, looked upon it as a snperstitiour fancy, and endeavoured to disregard it, but* all to no purpose, and he felt reluctantly compelled to relinquish his walk, and went mitesK 1 for » day's sail. Upon landing in tho afternoon he was astonished at tho extra-exubcruut display of affection manifested by the members of his family (who had descried biaa with s>. Uloacone), who greeted him as if he had been n burnt "for years. He wa» then informed tfawt the coach by which he would have returned hr.d met v.-ith * terribk accident. 1* oui oi iLe 17 passengers

having been either killed or wounded, and that they had been to all the hotels to %vhich the -wounded and dead were carried, and to the hospital, searching for, as they feared, his corpse.

Now all this (and it is the experience of many) proves that there is a spirit world around us, and that ethereal beings, sent to minister to us, are ever hovering round us, ever by our side, prompting us to good, and averting calamities and disasters.

But there are also other spirits about us, malignant and unclean, ever trying to drag us down into the commission of sin, ever striving to lull us into a false security, to cause us to forget our Creatoi and Redeomer, and to sink us into the nethermost perdition.

And as we are constituted free agents, it is left solely in our own hands whether we will yield ourselves to the one or to the other, to the good or to the evil. Happily, greater is He that is for us than he that is against its ; and happily, too, those who deliberately decide that "as for them, they will serve the Loid." and thereby become " heirs of salvation "' through faith in Him who died for thorn, have the definite promise that those bright spirits, tbeii guardian angels, shall l»a sent to minister to them in this life, and to escort them at the last to His glorious presence.