The Dream as Interpreting the Man
He preceding spiritual autobiography is based upon a dream. This is not the first time that a dream has proved a potent factor in a human life. Those who are familiar with the history of Catherine of Siena know how repeated and striking were her visions by day and by night; and readers of the life of Richard Baxter will recall his marked experience, and that vivid vision of lost opportunities which so quickened his after activity. Christmas Evans, also, that prince of Welsh preachers, while yet only a young convert and on the very night succeeding the loss of one eye from the assault of ruffianly violence, had a remarkable dream. He thought that the awful day of judgment had come, and seeing the world wrapped in its winding sheet of flame, he cried out, with mingled terror and confidence, “Lord Jesus, save me!” Then he beheld the Master turn toward him, and heard him say: “It was thy intention to preach the gospel; but it is now too late, for the day of judgment is already come.” That vision of the darkness remained in the day so vivid a reality that the reflections which it awakened served to fan into a consuming flame of ardor and fervor his passion for souls. And he always believed that this and other dreams were God’s messengers sent to communicate to him some of the mightiest impulses that swayed his life.
While, therefore, Dr. Gordon was not the first man, or preacher of the gospel, whose life, character, and conduct have been singularly molded by a dream, he was careful to claim even for this remarkable and unique experience, no supernatural origin.
“The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream;
“And he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.
’ ‘What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord.”
In strict conformity to this divine injunction, this dream is told, as such, without affirming for it, or even implying in it, any authority. Nor is any philosophy here suggested as to those strange vagaries of the spirit in the semi-conscious state of sleep, which seem to belong to the borderland between insanity and inspiration, and which, after all these centuries, remain still an unsolved mystery. Yet, in this instance as in many others, the fact remains obvious that God has used a dream to put into life a new meaning, and impart to holy activity a n.ew momentum.
There is one important law of dreams which should, however, be recognized: they do sustain an important relation to the habitual inner life. Whether by way of correspondence or of contrast, they serve as a sort of reflection of the mental moods and spiritual habits. Such a dream as is here recorded is therefore an index and interpreter of the man, and will bear careful study as a revelation of his inner self.
Dreams, moreover, have this unique peculiarity, that they translate the historical into the poetical, the actual into the allegorical; that is, they weave sensuous impressions or abstract ideas into concrete and often personal forms. The imagination, being no more restrained and corrected by the more practical senses, is left to itself to wander as it wall and build fantastic forms unchecked by the sober realistic reason. Hence such a dream as is here crystalized into a narrative, when divested of its purely imaginative and allegorical dress, becomes a valuable exponent of the author’s inmost habits of thought and feeling. As such we shall now consider it, believing these mental habits to supply the most helpful sort of practical and biographical commentary upon the striking narrative which was the last product of Dr. Gordon’s gifted pen, and which forms the last legacy of this holy man and prince among preachers to the church of his generation.
The dream centers about the personal coming of Christ to his own church, his reception there, the character of the worship he confronted, the fideUty of the gospel message he heard, the spiritual attitude of the hearers whom he met, and his general approval or disapproval of the whole atmosphere of the place of prayer; and especially the measure of his recognition of the invisible presence and presidence of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ. Who that knew Adoniram Judson Gordon needs to be told that such a dream is not a mere incoherent and senseless vagary of the mind, for it invests with poetic and allegorical form the ruling ideas and ideals of his whole later life, which may be classified somewhat as follows:
1. Loyalty to the person of Christ as Son of God and his own Saviour.
2. The blessed hope of his personal coming, as an imminent event.
3. The high vocation of the preacher as Christ’s herald, witness, and ambassador.
4. The purity of worship as the exaltation of God alone in his sanctuary.
5. The supreme authority of the inspired and infallible word of God.
6. The conformity of entire church life to a biblical pattern.
7. The invisible presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the church as his temple and seat of administration.
To present these conceptions in their order, somewhat as they lay in Dr. Gordon’s mind, and with impartial faithfulness, will be the simple purpose and purport of what follows; and it is our hope that, in so doing, thei e may be presented a commentary on this dream; and, what is even more valuable, an outline portrait, at least, of the man who is to be recognized as among the richest gifts bestowed by the Father of us all upon the church of this illustrious century; and whose character and influence, all who best knew him desire to perpetuate and reproduce in the history now making for the august future.