RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Dragon
Dress and Ornament, Hebrew
more easily reached than when the press of thoughts interrupts communication. In Biblical cases the suspicion of deception is excluded partly by the extraordinary divine force of the impression, partly by its appeal to the conscience; on the other hand, the dream is often represented as a vain and empty thing (Job. xx. 8; Ps. lxxiii. 20). Symbolic dreams are also known to the Bible, the meaning of which is not attainable to the worldly-wise, but only to those to whom God has granted the gift of interpretation. Such dreams came to a Joseph and a Daniel. While many examples confirm the use of the dream as a means of revelation, it is not for the people of God the only means, and it is, besides, used as a medium by which God comes into contact with other than his own people. There were other means of self-revelation of God, however, especially in the word of the prophets who often received their oracles while in possession of full consciousness. A species of revelation standing midway between these two was the dreamvision (Job iv. 13-21). To this class belong the experiences of Solomon (I Kings hi. 5) and Daniel (Dan. vii. 1). The prophets generally do not speak of dreams as the source of their inspiration, and the Arabs distinguish between prophetic insight and the dream. Zechariah's vision (Zech. i. 8 sqq.) was not a dream (cf. iv. 1). Jeremiah speaks of the misuse of dreams and disparages them (Jer. xxiii. 25 sqq.) on the ground that they are often the product of the wish of the heart. Deut. xiii. 2 sqq. gives a criterion for the testing of prophetic dreams. The later Jews paid much attention to these phenomena, and the Essenes seem to have done the same (Josephus, Ant., XVII. xiii. 3). See Divination. (C. von Orelli.)
Bibliography: A. Knobel, ProphetismUs der Hebraer, i. 174 sqq., Breslau, 1837; F. Delitzsch, Biblische Psychologic, pp. 233 sqq., Leipsic, 1861, Eng. transl., Edinburgh, 1867; W. B. Carpenter, Mental Physiology, London, 1876; F. E. Konig, Offenbarungsbegriff des A. T., ii. 9 sqq., 63 sqq., Leipsie, 1882; G. F. Oehler, Theologie des A. T., pp. 216 sqq., 743 sqq., Stuttgart, 1882, Eng. transl., New York, 1883; C. von Orelli, Alttestamentliche Weissagungen, pp. 17-18, Vienna, 1882, Eng. transl., Old Testament Prophecy, Edinburgh, 1885; E. Clodd, Myths and Dreams, London, 1885; H. Schultz, Alttestamentliche Theologie, Gottingen, 1888, Eng. transl., London, 1892; J. W. Reynolds, Natural Hist, of Immortality, pp. 124-139, ib. 1891; DB, i. 622-623; EB, i. 1118-19.
DRELINCOURT, dre"lari"cur', CHARLES: French Reformed pastor; b. at S6dan July 10, 1595; d. in Paris Nov. 3, 1669. He was educated at S6dan and Saumur, and was pastor of the Reformed Church of Charenton, near Paris, from 1620 to his death. He was a prolific writer, and two of his works achieved extraordinary success: Consolations de I' time ftdele contre les frayeurs de la mort, reprinted, in more than forty editions, as late as Nimes, 1819, Eng. transl., The Christian's Defence against the Fears of Death (4th ed., London, 1701; 27th ed., Liverpool, 1810; the sale of the translation is said to have been promoted by Defoe's True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal the Next Day after her Death to one Mrs. Bargrave at Canterbury the 8th of September, 1705, London, 1706, in which the dead lady recommended Drelincourt's book. Defoe's work is included in many editions
of the translation). Drelincourt's other important work was Visites charitables ou consolations chreiiennes pour toutes les personnel affligees (5 vols., Charenton, 1669, and often, translated into six languages). In English the work appeared in five small volumes, each devoted to a visit upon a particular class of afflicted persons (London, 1785).
Bibliography; A Memoir is affixed to the ninth and subsequent editions of The Christian's Defence, London, 1719. Consult E. and E. Haag, La France protestante, ed. H. L. Bordier, Paris, 1877-86 (contains imperfect list of hia writings); Lichtenberger, ESR, iv. 81-84.