F W Boreham: Dreams and Discernment

The dream may convince the dreamer; but it is of no evidential value to anybody but the dreamer.

When Mr. [John] Wesley returned from his fruitless visit to America, the ship anchored in the evening. In the roadstead lay another vessel just about to sail for America. Mr. Wesley learned that Mr. [George] Whitefield was on board that vessel. He was very distressed; for he particularly desired to have Mr. Whitefield's company in England. Early next morning, he sent a messenger by a boat to the other ship. ‘Tell Mr. Whitefield,’ he said, ‘that I have had a dream during the night and that it has been made clear to me that he is not to go to America!’

George Whitefield received the message and paced the deck for a moment or two in deep thought. ‘Go back to Mr. Wesley,’ he said to the messenger, ‘and say that, if God had wished me to turn back, God would have given me the dream! Why should He send the dream to Mr. Wesley?’ And he calmly went on with his tour.

F W Boreham, A Late Lark Singing (London: The Epworth Press, 1945), 189.

Images: John Wesley and George Whitefield.