Wake up! Wake up!

This sermon was originally preached on November 15th in the year 1857 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The text for this warning comes from the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 6.

So then, let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.

Sin has done some very sad things. This world of ours was once a glorious temple. Every pillar of it reflected the goodness of God, and every part of it was a symbol of good. But sin has spoiled and marred all the metaphors and figures that might be drawn from earth. It has so disturbed the divine arrangement of nature that those things which were unique pictures of virtue Goodness and divine abundance of blessing have now become the figures and representatives of sin.

It is strange to say, but it is strangely true, that the very best gifts of God have, by sin, the sin of man, become the worst pictures of man's guilt. Look at the flood breaking out from its fountains. It rushes across the fields. It covers them for a while, and then it subsides and leaves on the plain a fertile deposit into which the farmer will plant his seed and reap an abundant harvest. One would have called the flooding of water a fine picture of the abundance of providence, the magnificence of God's goodness to the human race. But we find that sin has appropriated that figure to itself. The beginning of sin is like the initial flooding of waters. See the fire. God has kindly bestowed on us that element to cheer us in the midst of winter's frost. Fresh from the snow and from the cold, we rush to our fireplace. And there by our hearth, we warm our hands and are pleased. Fire is a rich picture of the divine influences of the spirit. a holy emblem of the zeal of the Christian. But sadly, sin has touched this. And the tongue is now also called a fire. And we are told that it is itself set on fire by hell. And it is often evident when it utters profanities and slanders. And Jude lifts up his hand and cries out when he looks on the evil caused by sin. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. And then there is sleep, one of the sweetest of God's gifts, wonderful sleep, tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep. God has selected sleep as the very picture of the death of his blessed saints, saying in scripture, those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. David calls it the special gift of grace, saying, God grants sleep to those he loves. But unfortunately, sin could not even leave this alone. Sin even superseded this heavenly emblem. And though God himself had used the word to express the excellence of the state of the blessed, yet sin must even profane this. Sleep is used in our text as a picture of a sinful condition. So then, let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. First, the sleep of the text is an evil to be avoided. In the second place, the words, so then, are employed to show us that there are certain reasons for avoiding this sleep. And thirdly, since the Apostle speaks of this sleep with sorrow, it is to teach us that there are some, whom he calls others, over whom it is our business to grieve because they sleep and are not alert and are not self-controlled. We begin then in the first place by endeavoring to point out the evil which the Apostle intends to describe under the term sleep, the evil which the Apostle intends to describe under the term sleep. The Apostle speaks of others who are asleep. If you turn to the original manuscripts you will find that the word translated others has a more emphatic meaning. It might be rendered the refuse, the useless, the worthless. Let us not be like the refuse who are asleep. Let us not be like the useless who are asleep. Let us not be like the worthless who are asleep. The common herd, the shameful spirits, those who never think beyond earthly troubles. Let us not be like others. The vile, immoral multitude who are not alive to the high and heavenly calling of a Christian. Let us not be like the refuse of mankind. And you will find also that the word sleep in the original has even a more emphatic sense. It signifies a deep sleep, a profound slumber. And the apostles suggest that the refuse, the useless, the worthless of mankind are now in a profound slumber. We will now try if we can explain what is meant by it. The apostle meant that the refuse of mankind are in a state of deplorable ignorance. They are in a state of deplorable ignorance. The ones that sleep know nothing. Oh, there may be laughter in the house, but the slugger does not share in its laughter. There may be death in the house, but no tear wets the cheek of the sleeper. Great events may have transpired in the world's history, but he knows nothing of them. An earthquake may have tumbled a city from its greatness, or war may have devastated a nation, or the flag of triumph may be waving in the gale, and the heroes of his country may be saluting us with victory, but he knows nothing. The sleeper knows nothing at all. Look how the refuse of mankind are also like this. They know a lot about some things, but of spiritual things they know nothing. Of the divine person of the adorable Redeemer, they have no idea. Of the sweet enjoyments of a life of holiness, they cannot even make a guess. They cannot comprehend the enthusiasm and the inward raptures of the Christian. Talk to them of divine doctrines, and they are to them a riddle. Tell them of uplifting experiences, and to them it all seems to be enthusiastic fantasies. They know nothing of the joys that are to come, and sadly for them, they are also oblivious of the evils which will happen to them if they continue in their sin. The mass of mankind are ignorant. They do not know it. They do not have the knowledge of God. They have no fear of Jehovah, but blindfolded by the ignorance of this world, they march on through the paths of lust to that sure and dreadful end, the everlasting ruin of their souls. Brethren, if we are saints, let us not be ignorant as others are. Let us search the scriptures For in them we have eternal life. For they testify of Jesus. Let us be diligent. Do not let the word depart out of our hearts. Let us meditate on the word both day and night, that we may be like the tree planted by the rivers of water. Let us not be like others who are asleep. Again, sleep pictures a state of insensibility, a state of insensibility. There may be a lot of knowledge in the sleeper, hidden, stored away in his mind, which could be developed if he only could be awakened. But he has no sensibility. He knows nothing. The thief has broken into the house. The gold and silver are both in the robber's hands. The child is being murdered by the cruelty of him that has broken in. But the father sleeps, though all the gold and silver that he has and his most precious child are in the hands of the destroyer. He is unconscious. How can he feel when sleep has utterly sealed his senses? Look. In the street there is grieving. A fire has just burned down the house of the poor. And homeless beggars are in the street. They are crying at his window and asking him for help. But he sleeps. And what does he know? Though the night is cold and though the poor are shivering in the freezing wind, he has no consciousness. He feels nothing for them. There, take the title deed of his estate and burn the document. There, burn up all that he has in the field. Kill his horse and destroy his cattle. Let the fire of God descend and burn up his sheep. Let the enemy fall on all that he has and devour it. He sleeps as soundly as if he were guarded by the angel of the Lord. Such are the refuse of mankind. How sad it is, though, that we should have to include in that word refuse the great majority of mankind. How very few there are that feel spiritually. They feel acutely enough any injury to their body or to their estate. But unfortunately, for their spiritual concerns, they have no sensation whatever. They are standing on the brink of hell, but they do not tremble. The anger of God is burning against them, but they do not fear. The sword of Jehovah is drawn, but they are not seized with terror. They continue in their dancing. They drink the bowl of intoxicating pleasure. They party and they riot. They still sing the lustful song. Yes, and they do more than this. In their vain dreams they defy the Most High God. But oh, if they were only awakened to the consciousness of their state, the marrow of their bones would melt and their heart would dissolve like wax. They are asleep, indifferent and unconscious. Do what you want to them. Let all their hopes be swept away, everything that might cheer them up when they come to die, yet they do not feel it. For how can a sleeper feel anything? So then, my friends, let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. Again, the sleeper cannot defend himself He cannot defend himself. Look at the prince. He is a strong man. Yes, and a strong man who is armed. He has entered into the tent. He is wearied. He has drunken the milk that the woman gave him. He has eaten her cheese in a bowl that was fit for nobles. He laid himself down on the floor and he slept. And now she draws near. She has with her a hammer and a tent peg. Warrior, you could break her into atoms with one blow of your mighty arm. But right now, in your sleep, you cannot defend yourself. The peg is at his ear. The woman's hand is on the hammer. And the peg has pierced his skull. For when he slept, he was defenseless. The flag of Caesara had waved victoriously over mighty foes, but now it is stained by a woman. Tell it, tell it, tell it. The man who when he was awake made nations tremble dies by the hand of a feeble woman when he sleeps. Such are the refuse of mankind, they are asleep They have no power to resist temptation. Their moral strength has departed, for God has departed from them. There is the temptation to lust. They are men of sound principle in business matters, and nothing could make them swerve from honesty, but their sexual desires destroy them. They are taken like a bird in the snare. They are caught in a trap. They are utterly subdued. Or perhaps it is in another way that they are conquered. These are men that would not do an unchaste act or even think an immoral thought. They scorn the idea. But they have another weak point. They are entrapped by the bottle. They are taken and they are destroyed by drunkenness. Or if they can resist these things and are inclined neither to immorality nor to drunkenness, yet perhaps greed enters into them. By the name of prudence it slides into their hearts, and they are led to grab after treasure and to heap up gold, even though that gold was wrung out of the veins of the poor and sucked out of the blood of the orphan. They seem to be unable to resist their passion. How many times have I been told by men, I cannot help it, sir, whatever I do, I resolve, I re-resolve, but I do the same. I am defenseless. I cannot resist the temptation. Oh, of course you can't. Not while you are asleep. Oh, Spirit of the living God, wake up the sleeper. Let sinful sloth and presumption both be startled. For if not, someone would come their way in finding them asleep. One would hang them on the gallows of disgrace forever.

Now I come to give another meaning to the word sleep. I know there have been some of my congregation who have been tolerant why I have described the first three things, because they have thought that they were exempt in those matters. But sleep also signifies inactivity.

Sleep also signifies inactivity. the farmer cannot plow his field in his sleep. Neither can he plant grain into the furrows, nor watch the clouds, nor reap his harvest. The sailor cannot hoist his sail, nor direct his ship across the ocean while he sleeps. It is not possible that at the stock exchange or at a place of business that men could transact their affairs with their eyes closed tightly in slumber. It would be a remarkable thing to see a nation of sleepers, for they would be a nation of idle men. They would all starve. They would produce no wealth from the soil. They would have no clothing and no food.

But how many we have in the world that are inactive through sleep. Yes, I say inactive. I mean by that that they are active enough in one direction, but they are inactive in the right direction. Oh, how many men and women there are that are totally inactive in anything that is for God's glory or for the welfare of their fellow creatures. For themselves they can rise up early and stay up late and work very hard. For their children, which is an alias for themselves, they can toil until their fingers ache. They can weary themselves until their eyes are red in their sockets, till the brain whirls and they can do no more. But for God, they can do nothing.

Some say they have no time. Others frankly confess they have no will. They would not spend one hour of their time for God's church. But for this world's pleasure, they can work an entire month. For the poor, they cannot spend one moment of their time in attention. They must have time to spare for themselves and for their own amusement. But for holy works, for deeds of charity, and for religious activities, they declare they have no spare time. But the fact is they have no will.

Look how many professing Christians there are that are asleep in the same way. They are inactive. Sinners are dying in the street by the hundreds. Men are sinking into the flames of eternal wrath, but they fold their arms. They pity the poor perishing sinner, but they do nothing. They do nothing to show that their pity is real. They go to their places of worship. They occupy their well-cushioned, comfortable pew. They want the minister to feed them every Sunday, but there is never a child taught in Sunday school by them. They never share God's word at the poor man's house. There is never anything done which might be the means of saving souls.

We call them good men. Some of them we even elect to the office of deacons, and no doubt they are good. So are we all, all good if they are good. But these men are good in some sense, good for nothing. For they just sit and eat the bread, but they do not plow the field. They drink the wine, but they will not raise the vine that produces it. They think that they are to live only for themselves, forgetting that none of us lives to himself alone, and none of us dies to himself alone.

Oh, what a vast amount of sleeping we have in all our churches! For truly, if our churches were once awakened, so far as material is concerned, There is enough converted men and women, and there is enough talent within them, and enough money with them, and enough time with them, God granting the abundance of His Holy Spirit, which He would be sure to do if they were all zealous. There is enough of everything to preach the gospel in every corner of the earth. The Church does not lack the instruments or the organization We have everything except the will. We have everything we need for the conversion of the world, except just a heart for the work. And the spirit of God poured out into our midst.

Oh, brethren, let us not be like others who are asleep. You will find the others in the church and in the world, the refuse of both are sound asleep.

Now it is necessary for me to say that the Apostle furnishes us with part of an explanation. For the second part of our text, let us be alert and self-controlled, which implies that the reverse of these things is to be asleep.

Let us be alert. There are many that are never alert, never watchful. They are never alert and watchful against sin. They are never alert and watchful against the temptations of the enemy. They are not alert and watchful against the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does. They are not alert for opportunities to do good. They are not alert for opportunities to instruct the uninformed, to help the weak, to comfort the afflicted, to aid those that are in need, They are not alert for opportunities of glorifying Jesus or for times of communion. They are not alert for the promises. They are not alert for answers to their prayers. They are not alert and watchful for the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the refugees of the world. They are not alert because they are asleep, but let us be alert so we will prove that we are not asleep.

Again, let us be self-controlled. Let us be self-controlled. Albert Barnes says, this mainly refers to self-discipline or restraint in eating and drinking. Calvin says, not so. This refers primarily to the spirit of moderation in the things of the world. Both are right. It refers to both. There are many that are not self-controlled and therefore they sleep. For drunkenness leads to sleep. They are not self-controlled. They are drunkards. They are gluttons. They are not self-controlled. They cannot be content to do only a little business. They want to do a great deal. They are not self-controlled. They cannot carry on a trade that is sure, they must speculate. They are not self-controlled. If they lose their property, their spirit is cast down within them and they are like men that are drunk. If on the other hand they get rich, they are not self-controlled. So they set their affections on the things of the world and become intoxicated with pride because of their riches. They become proud of their wealth and need to have the heavens lifted up higher for fear that their heads should rub against the stars.

Oh, there are many, many people that are not self-controlled. Oh, I especially urge this teaching on you at this time, my dear friends. We have hard times coming and the times are hard enough now. Let us be self-controlled. The fearful panic in America has mainly risen from disobedience to this command, be self-controlled. And if America had obeyed this commandment and had been self-controlled, the panic might have been mitigated, if not totally avoided.

Now, in a little while, you who have any money saved up will be rushing to the bank to have it drawn out because you fear that the bank may collapse. You will not be self-controlled enough to have a little trust in your fellow men and help them through their difficulty. And so be a blessing to our nation. Be careful, my brethren. If hard times should come, if the stock market crashes and banks fail, be careful to be self-controlled. There is nothing that will help us get over this panic so much as every one of us trying to keep our spirits up. Just rising in the morning and saying, times are very hard and today I may lose everything, but fretting will not help it. So just let me set a bold heart against the difficult situation and go to my business. The wheels of trade may stop. I bless God that my treasure is in heaven. I cannot be bankrupt. I have set my affections on the things of God. I cannot lose those things. Up there is my jewel, up there is my heart. Why, if all men could do that, it would tend to create public confidence. But the cause of the great ruin of many men is the greediness of all men and the fear of some. If we could all go through the world with confidence and with boldness and with courage, there is nothing in the world that could avert or shock us so much. Come, I suppose the shock must come, and there are many men now present who are very respectable, who may expect to be beggars before long. Your business is to put your trust in Jesus, so that you may be able to say, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help in our trouble. Therefore, we will not fear. By doing that, you will be creating more possibilities for the avoidance of your own destruction than by any other means which the wisdom of man can dictate to you. Let us not be unrestrained in business as others are, but let us be awake. Let us not be like others who are asleep, not to be carried away by the sleepwalking of the world, which is simply activity and greed in our sleep. But let us be alert and self-controlled. O Holy Spirit, help us to be alert and self-controlled. Thus I have occupied a great deal of time in explaining the first point. What was the sleep that the Apostle meant? And now you will notice that the word, so then, implies that there are certain reasons for this. I will give you these reasons, and if I should cast them somewhat into a dramatic form, you must not wonder, for they will be more easily remembered. So then, says the apostle, let us not be like others who are asleep.

We will first look at the chapter itself for our reasons.

The first reason precedes the text. The apostle tells us that we are all sons of the light and sons of the day. So then, let us not be like others who are asleep.

I do not marvel when, as I walk through the streets after nightfall, I see every shop closed and every window blind drawn down. and I see the light in the upper room signifying the retirement to rest, I don't wonder that a half hour later my own footstep startles me, and I find no one else in the streets. Should I ascend the staircase and look into the sleeper's peaceful face, I would not wonder, for it is night, the proper time for sleep.

But if some morning, at 11 or 12 o'clock, I should walk down the streets and find myself alone and notice every shop door closed and every house completely shut up and hear no noise whatsoever. I would say, it is strange. It is very strange. It is amazing. Where are the people? It is daytime and yet they are all asleep. I would be inclined to knock on the first door I could find. and give a double knock and rush to the next door and ring the bell and do this all the way down the street or go to the police station and wake up whoever I found there and beg them to make a noise in the street or go to the fire station and ask the firemen to rattle down the road and try to wake these people up. For I would say to myself, There is some deadly disease here. The angel of death must have flown through these streets during the night and killed all these people, or else they would have been sure to have been awake. Sleep in the daytime is utterly out of place.

Well now, says the apostle Paul, you people of God, it is the daytime with you. The sun of righteousness has risen on you. with healing in his wings. The light of God's spirit is in your conscience. You have been brought out of darkness into marvelous light. For you to be asleep, for a church to slumber, is like a city sleeping in the daylight, like a whole town slumbering when the sun is shining. It is untimely and unseemly.

And now, if you look at the text again, you will find there another argument. Since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate. So then, it seems, it is wartime. And therefore again, it is inappropriate to slumber. It is wartime. It is inappropriate to slumber.

There is a fortress far away in India. A troop of those abominable sepoys have surrounded it. Bloodthirsty hellhounds. Once they gain admission, they will slice the mother and her children and cut the strong man to pieces. They are at the gates. Their cannons are loaded. Their bayonets thirst for blood, and their swords are hungry to kill. Go through the fortress, and the people are all asleep. There is the guard on the tower, dozing on his bayonet. There is the captain in his tent, with his pen in his hand and his papers before him, asleep on the table. There are soldiers lying down in their tents, ready for the war, but all slumbering. There is not a man to be seen keeping watch. There is not a sentry there. All are asleep. Why, my friends, you would say, what is going on here? What can it be? Has some great wizard been waving his wand and put a spell on them all? Or are they all mad? Have they lost their minds? Surely to be asleep in wartime is indeed outrageous. Take down that trumpet, get close to the captain's ear and blow a blast and see if it does not awake him in a moment. Just take away that bayonet from the soldier that is asleep on the walls and give him a sharp prick with it and see if he does not awake. But surely, surely nobody can have patience with people asleep when the enemy surrounds the walls and are thundering at the gates.

Now Christians, this is your situation. Your life is a life of warfare. The world, the flesh, and the devil, that hellish trinity, and your poor flesh is a wretched foxhole which you are entrenched. Are you asleep? Asleep when Satan has fireballs of lust hurl into the windows of your eyes? When he has arrows of temptation to shoot into your heart? when he has snares with which to trap your feet, asleep when he has undermined your very existence, and when he is about to apply the mat with which to destroy you, unless sovereign grace prevents him. Oh, do not sleep, soldier of the cross. To sleep in wartime is utterly inconsistent. Great Spirit of God forbid that we should slumber.

But now, leaving the chapter itself, I will give you one or two other reasons that will, I trust, cause Christian people to wake up out of their sleep.

Bring out your dead. Bring out your dead. Bring out your dead. Then comes the ringing of a bell. What is this? Here is a door marked with a great white cross. Lord, have mercy on us. All the houses down that street seem to be marked with that white death cross. What is this? See the grass growing in the streets? Our cities and towns are deserted. No one is found walking on the lonely pavement. There is not a sound to be heard, but those horse hoofs, like the hoofs of death's pale horse on the stones. the ringing of that bell that proclaims the death of many, and the rumbling of the wheels of that cart, and the dreadful cry, bring out your dead, bring out your dead, bring out your dead.

Do you see that house? A physician lives there. He is a man who has great skill, and God has given him wisdom. But a little while ago, while in his study, God was pleased to guide his mind and he discovered the secret cure to the plague. He had contracted the plague himself and was about to die, but he lifted the blessed vial to his lips and he drank it and cured himself. Do you believe what I am about to tell you? Can you imagine it? That man has the prescription that will heal all these people. He has it in his pocket. He has the medicine which, if once distributed in those streets, would make the sick rejoice and stop the ringing of the bell of death.

But he is asleep. He is asleep. He is asleep. Oh, you heavens, why don't you fall and crush the wretch? Oh, earth, How can you bear this demon upon your bosom? Why not quickly swallow him up? He has the medicine. He is too lazy to go and prescribe the remedy. He has the cure and is too idle to go out and administer it to the sick and the dying.

No, my friends, such an inhuman wretch could not exist, but I can see him here today. There you are. You know the world is sick with the plague of sin and you yourself have been cured by the remedy which has been provided. You are asleep, inactive, loitering. You do not go out to tell others. What a dear savior you have found. There's the precious gospel. You do not go and put it to the lips of a sinner. There is the all-precious blood of Christ. You never go to tell the dying what they must do to be saved. The world is perishing with something worse than a plague, and you are idle. And you, you are a minister of the gospel, and you have taken that holy office on yourself, and you are content to preach twice on a Sunday and once on a weekday. You never desire to attract the multitudes to hear you preach. You'd rather keep your empty pews and study at your leisure than you would ever, at the risk of appearing overzealous, draw the multitude and preach the word to them.

You, you are a writer. You have great power in writing. You devote all of your talents to light literature or to the production of other things which may furnish amusement, but which cannot benefit the soul. You know the truth, but you do not speak it.

Mothers, you are converted women. You have children, and you forget to instruct them in the way to heaven.

You, young Christian man, you have nothing to do on Sunday. And there is Sunday school. You don't go and tell those children the sovereign remedy that God has provided for the cure of sick souls.

The death bell is ringing even now. Hell is crying out, howling with hunger for the souls of men. Bring out the sinner. Bring out the sinner. Bring out the sinner. Let him die and be damned. And there you are. professing to be a Christian, and doing nothing which might make you the instrument of saving souls, never putting out your hands to be the means in the hand of the Lord, of plucking sinners as firebrands from the burning.

Oh, may the blessing of God rest on you, to turn you from such an evil way that you may not sleep as others do, but may be alert and self-controlled,

The world's eminent danger demands that we should be active and not be slumbering. Listen. Listen how the mast creaks. See the sails there, torn to ribbons? Breakers are ahead. She will be on the rock soon. Where is the captain? Where is the petty officer? Where are the sailors? Ahoy there! Where are you? Here's a storm coming. Where are you? You're down in the cabin, and there is the captain in a soft, sweet slumber. There is the man at the wheel, as sound asleep as he can ever be, and there are all the sailors in their hammocks. What? And the breakers are ahead? What? The lives of 200 passengers are in danger? And here are these brutes asleep? Kick them out. What is the good of letting such men as these be sailors, especially at such a time as this? Why out with you? If you had gone to sleep in fine weather, we might have forgiven you. Wake up, Captain. What are you doing asleep? Are you crazy? But listen, the ship has struck. She will be sunk in a moment. Now you will work, will you? Now you will work when it is of no use, and when the shrieks of the drowning women will ring you into hell for your most accursed negligence in not having taken care of them.

Well, my friends, that is very much like a great many of us today. This proud ship of our country is reeling in a storm of sin. The very mast of this great nation is creaking under the hurricane of vice that sweeps across the noble vessel. Every timber is strained, and God, please help the good ship, for no one else can save her. And who are her captain and her sailors but ministers of God, the professors of Christianity. These are they to whom God gives grace to steer the ship.

You are the salt of the earth. You preserve and keep it alive, O children of God. Are you asleep in the storm? Are you slumbering now? If there were no dens of vice, if there were no prostitutes, if there were no houses of profanity, if there were no murders and no crimes, Oh, you that are the salt of the earth, you might sleep. But today the sin of our city cries in the ears of God. This large city is covered with crime and God is angry at her. And are we asleep, doing nothing? Then God forgive us. Be sure of this, that of all the sins he ever forgives, this is the greatest. the sin of slumbering when a world is being damned, the sin of being idle when Satan is busy devouring the souls of men and women. Brethren, let us not be like others who are asleep in such times as these, for if we do, a curse must fall on us, one that will be horrible to bear. There is a poor prisoner in a cell, His hair is all matted over his eyes. A few weeks ago, the judge commanded that he should be taken and hung by the neck until dead. The poor wretch has his heart broken within him while he thinks of the trap door, of the gallows, and of the drop, and of what will happen after death. Oh, who can tell how his heart is torn and troubled? while he thinks of leaving this earth and not knowing where he is going. There is a man there, sound asleep on his bed. He has been asleep there for two days, and under his pillow he has this prisoner's free pardon. I would horsewhip that scoundrel, horsewhip him soundly, for making that poor man have two days of extra misery. Why, if I had had that man's pardon, I would have been there. I would have rode on the wings of lightning to get to him. And I would have thought the fastest train that ever would run would have been too slow. If I had so sweet a message to carry and such a poor heavy heart to carry it to. But that man, that brute is sound asleep with a free pardon under his pillow. while that poor wretch's heart is breaking with dismay. Ah, don't be too hard with him, for he is here today. It is you. For sitting right next to you this morning is a poor repentant sinner. God has pardoned him and intends that you should tell him the good news. He sat next to you last Sunday and he wept all through the sermon. for he felt his guilt. If you had spoken to him then, who can tell? He might have had comfort, but there he is now. You don't tell him the good news. Do you leave that for me to do? Ah, my friends, you cannot serve God by proxy. What the minister does is nothing to you. You have your own personal duty to do. and God has given you a precious promise. It is now on your heart. Will you not turn around to your neighbor and tell him that promise? Oh, there is many an aching heart that aches because of your idleness in telling the good news of God's salvation. Yes, says one of our members who always comes to this place on a Sunday and looks out for young men and young women whom he has seen in tears the Sunday before and who brings many into the church. Yes, I could tell you a story. He looks a young man in the face and says, haven't I seen you here a great many times before? Yes. I think you take a deep interest in the service, don't you? Yes, I do. What makes you ask that question? Because I looked at your face last Sunday and I thought there was something at work within you. Oh, sir, he says, nobody has spoken to me ever since I have been here till now. And I want to say a word to you. When I was at home with my mother, I used to think I had some idea of religion, but then I left and started working with an ungodly group of youths and have done everything I ought not to have done. And now, sir, I begin to weep. I begin to repent. I wish to God that I knew how I could be saved. I hear the word preached, sir, but I want something spoken personally to me by somebody.

And he turns around. He takes him by the hand and says, my dear young brother, I am so glad I spoke to you. It makes my poor old heart rejoice to think that the Lord is doing something here. Now, do not be cast down, for you know this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

The young man puts his handkerchief to his eyes, and after a minute he says, I wish you would let me call and see you, sir. Oh, you may, he says. He talks with him. He leads him onward. And at last, by God's grace, the happy youth comes forward and declares what God has done for his soul and owes his salvation as much to the humble instrumentality of the man that helped him as he could to the preaching of the minister.

Beloved brethren, the bridegroom comes. Wake up, wake up. The earth must soon be dissolved and the heavens must melt. Wake up, wake up. O Holy Spirit, arouse each one of us and keep us awake.

And now I have no time left for the last point, and therefore I will not detain you. Allow me to say in warning, there is an evil here lamented. There are some that are asleep and the apostle mourns it. My fellow sinner, you that are still unconverted, Let me say six or seven sentences to you and then we will depart.

Unconverted man, unconverted woman, you are asleep today as they that sleep on top of the mast in a time of storm. You are asleep as he that sleeps when the floodwaters rage and when his house is destroyed and is carried down the stream far out to the sea. You are asleep as he who is in the upper bedroom when his house is burning and his bedroom door is being singed by the fire. He does not know the devastation that surrounds him. You are asleep, asleep as he that lies on the edge of the cliff with death and destruction beneath him. One single movement in his sleep will send him over, but he does not know it. You are asleep today.

And the place where you are sleeping has so frail a support that when it first begins to break, you will fall into hell. And if you do not wake up till then, what a waking it will be.

In hell where he was in torment, he looked up and he cried for a drop of water, but it was denied him. Whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and is baptized will be saved. But whoever does not believe will be condemned. This is the gospel. Believe in Jesus and you will be filled with inexpressible and glorious joy. Amen.