p. 8 | MRS. TUCKER'S DREAM by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 14, 1892

MRS. TUCKER'S DREAM.

By Editor

THERE are but few who doubt that Mrs. Booth, the "mother of the Salvation Army," was a good woman; but that does not prevent her memory being used to mislead people. Frequently we have heard very unbecoming remarks about her present connection with the Army as its representative in heaven. In the Easter number of All the World, a monthly published by the Army, Mrs. Booth-Tucker, daughter of Mrs. Booth, portrays in a vivid manner the reappearance of her mother one night while at sea. "Her eyes rested upon me; her hand touched mine. She was the same—my mother. She spoke to me—wonderful words they were. She talked of my brothers and sisters, and of the general, and talked of the Army. And for a moment she bent over me as of old, and kissed me." These are some extracts from the statements she makes. We could attribute it to a dream, and there would be nothing strange about it; but Mrs. Tucker says: "Whether in my dreams or otherwise, I am sure God sent her to me that night. She sat beside me on the narrow bunk of my small sea cabin."

She has no doubt her mother was there. But this shows how little the word of God

counts with some people when it is confronted by traditional error. The Bible says: "For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a [an earthly] reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9: 5, 6. Now, are we to believe that Mrs. Tucker's impressions are reliable, and that her mother was there?—Not unless we throw away this and other equally plain passages of Scripture.

The Salvation Army is not in league with Spiritualism, surely; and yet this is the essence of Spiritualism. It only asks that we shall accept the revelations that come to its devotees in that very manner. Not only is the Army permeated with these ideas about the dead, but other branches of the church freely hand these things around for solemn truth. They could not please the enemy better. Saul and the witch of Endor bringing up what purported to be Samuel is the only instance of pretended communication from the dead recorded in the Bible; but we all recognize this to be ancient sorcery, or modern Spiritualism, the work of evil spirits. Why should Christian people dabble with such things, and encourage the great work which in these last days forms Satan's masterpiece of deception?

Mrs. Tucker does well to venerate the memory of her mother, who rests from her labors. Our weary spirits in dreams often seek solace in the tender associations of the past. God may give us those dreams to comfort and encourage us; but we should not attribute to them a reality which is so plainly contrary to the Bible, and so evidently in harmony with serious error. False sentiments may warp the judgment and affect the persuasion of the mind; but we should remember that it does not change the truth of God. People deck the cross with roses in their pictures, but the cross of Calvary had no roses about it. So we may in our imaginations clothe the monster death with the garb of light, and deck his brow with the crown of immortality; but death is the same cruel, relentless enemy, implacable, cold, and dreadful.—Bible Echo.