ght with a great snake. When he awoke, he
felt that surely the Lord was trying to show him something. He interpreted
the dream to mean that somebody in the congregation was represented by
that snake. The next day he told his dream in the meeting and said that he
thought he knew who the snake was. He began acting upon his supposition.
The result was that at least two of the congregation backslid over it, and
the whole church was thrown into confusion.

A dream is a dream, and possibly not more than one in ten thousand come
from God. There are times, however, when we may learn good lessons from
our dream thoughts as well as from our waking thoughts. One such dream I
once had, and the lesson I derived from it has been good for my soul. I
dreamed that I stood beside a gigantic wild rosebush. In my hand I held
one of the beautiful fragrant flowers. I looked at it and drank in its
rich perfume, but I saw a great number of flowers, and I desired more than
the one, so I held it in my left hand and began to reach up for others.
They were very high, so I pressed against the outer limbs and stretched to
my utmost, but they were too high; I could not get them. I stepped back
from the bush. As I did so, my gaze fell upon the rose in my hand just in
time to see its petals fall to the ground. In stretching for those beyond
my reach, I had ruined the one that was already mine. I gazed upon the
empty stem in my hand and at the bruised petals upon the ground with a
feeling of regret.

The scene changed. I sat at a desk with pencil and paper, and in my dream
wrote these words: "If you have but one rose, enjoy it to the full. Do not
let its perfume be wasted upon the empty air, and its beauty go unnoticed,
while you spend your time in vain longing for the unattainable." When I
awoke I wrote down the words that I had written in my dream, and through
the years they have preached to me many a sermon.

How natural it is for us to forget what we have while we look at others
whom we think to be more fortunate! We look at the blessings that others
enjoy and forget to be thankful for our own. We look at others'
possessions, and because they are greater than ours, we fail to appreciate
what we have. Our position in life may be very humble, but however humble,
our life is full of blessings if we but have eyes to see them.

When I had this dream, my health was gone, and I lay alone in my bed
throughout the long hours of the day while my wife was aw