Article June 12, 1926 Issue

Dreams

RUTH C. FORTSON

"ENTIRELY separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine," says our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, on page 14 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook of Christian Science. Loyal Christian Scientists are continually striving to gain a fuller understanding of this revelation of Truth through the study of their textbook, in order that they may awaken more completely from the material dream, and thus comprehend more of the "Life divine." But this false sense of existence, of physical life, seems so real to human consciousness that mortals, until awakened by Christian Science, unquestioningly accept it as a fact of being, not knowing that they are thereby being cheated out of a glorious heritage, the heritage of the children of God.

In our textbook (p. 188) we find this statement: "Mortal existence is a dream of pain and pleasure in matter, a dream of sin, sickness, and death; and it is like the dream we have in sleep, in which every one recognizes his condition to be wholly a state of mind." And on page 250 is this pertinent query: "Now I ask, Is there any more reality in the waking dream of mortal existence than in the sleeping dream?"

For a long time this was "an hard saying" to one student of Christian Science; but other equally startling statements in the textbook having been proved correct, she was willing to wait for the unfoldment of this one also. It came about in this way. Living in a state far distant from her home, she was often full of human longing for the old ties and familiar scenes. Retiring at night with this longing in her heart, she would dream of being back with her loved ones, only to awaken in the morning to the realization that it had only been a dream. These dreams came so frequently, and the disappointment on awakening was so keen, that she began to realize before waking that she was dreaming and would soon awaken to the same disappointment. Once, upon the recurrence of this dream, when she thought herself back in the old home, the argument that it was only a dream presented itself to her thought. But she seemed to answer, "No, it is certainly real this time, for here is the house, the lawn, and even the old hackberry trees growing along the sidewalk." To convince herself more fully that it was real, she went up to one of the hackberry trees and pounded on it several times with her fist. It seemed so solid and substantial that she felt convinced she was not dreaming this time, but was actually back in the place where she longed to be. But, alas, she awakened to find herself as far from home and loved ones as before the dream, notwithstanding the dream-evidence afforded by the seeming solidity of the hackberry tree!

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