ferent and
careless. I want to oppose that idea with all my strength, for it is
Satan's lie. When a man sins he becomes guilty, but the good character
that has been built up, the pure feelings and desires, the right habits of
thought and action, the Christian point of view to which he has
attained--these are all a wealth that he still possesses. They are
something of exceeding value, which in a large measure still remain in his
possession. They are, however, in serious danger. If he persists in sin,
he will lose them all; but if he recovers himself in time, he will save
them.

I offer no excuse for sin; it is terrible, and how quickly its deadly
infection spreads through all the being! Fear it as you would fear a
plague. If you have sinned, make your way back to God at once before that
sin shall "increase to more ungodliness." If you are a backslider, do not
think that it does not matter what you do; for it does matter greatly. Do
not add sin to sin, increasing your guilt; but let the fear of God be upon
your heart. If you are overcome, do not let yourself be routed. Do not
throw away your weapons in a panic, but turn again and face the foe and
fight him until the victory comes, until you regain what you have lost,
until you stand "more than conqueror through him that loved us."

TALK TWENTY-FIVE. MY DREAM MESSAGE

Solomon says that dreams come "through the multitude of business." Our
night thoughts are like our day thoughts, except that our faculties being
partly asleep, our dreams usually lack the coherence and the
reasonableness of our waking thoughts. God does occasionally, at rare
intervals, operate upon men's minds to cause them to dream something; but
even the prophets with whom he thus communicated more than with ordinary
men received such messages only now and then, and their other dreams had
no significance.

Many people are always trying to find some hidden meaning in their dreams.
If they have some peculiar dream, they try to interpret it or to get
somebody else to do so. Now, God is reasonable. He knows that we can
better comprehend when we are awake than when we are asleep; so he usually
communicates with us during our waking hours. We sometimes have very
striking dreams, but this does not signify that the Lord originated them.
I have known people to act very unwisely as the result of following
dreams. One night a preacher, who was holding a series of meetings,
dreamed of having a terrible fi