The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-08-01
Sleeping at the MASTHEAD.


That is bold and striking smile in
the book of Proverbs which describes in
sensibilitv to danger in the following
phrase " Thou shalt he az one who lieth
down in the midst of the seas one that
sleepeth on the top Of mast" Both the
Hebrew verbs describe an attempt to fall
asleep on the part of reckless individual
who has climbed to the masthead. While
his dizzv perch is swinging to and fro in
the wind he is irving tn sleep there His
hands relax their hold, "a the stupor of
his fatal cup steals over him, the shrouds
slip from his looseninp grasp. and the
lurch ct the vessel soon filings him off into
the boiling sea. It is no easy thing for a
sober and wide-awake sailor to hold on to
masthead in gale; but to fall asleep
there is certain suicide.
The especial nature of the insensibility
alluded to in this vivid verse is that caus.
ed by the intoxicating cup. "Look not
on the wine" lis the literal reading of the
passage) "wben it seems beautifully red,
when it sparkleth in the cup, when it
goeth down smoothly. In the end it will
bite like serpent and sting like viper.
Thine eyes shall see strange women thy
heart shalt utter perverse things. And
thou shalt be AZ one who lieth down in
the midst of the sea. as one who falleth
asleep at the masthead" Mr.. Cough
never drew picture of the fatal infatua-
ton of the tippler that equals this photo
graphic portrait drawn by the wise man.
The most dangerous feature in every in
toxicating drink is it's deceifIlness. Wine
is mocker; it acts like sorceress.
While other people recognize what ter
rible danger the drinker is exposing him
self to, he is under the spell of strange
delusion. "I never take more than is
good for me-" {" I know when to stop -
"Don't you trouble yourself about me. I
am not fool these, and similar in
sane utterances are constantly heard from
young men who are already enslaved by
their bottle. No man ever yet set out de-
liberstelv to become a drunkard. The
appetite awakened and fostered by alco-
hol has this peculiar quality, that it con-
stantly demands an increase of the dram.
A gentleman told me that during the
cholera summer (of 1S49) he began to
take wine as preventive. Before he was
aware, his one wine-glass had increased to
two, and he found himself craving the
stimulant incontinently. He became
frightened, aud stopped off at once-pre-
ferring the risk of the cholera to the Ger.
tainty of becoming a confirmed tippler.
drugging themselves with the deadly de.
lusion of the wine or the beer or the
Bourbon and thousands more who
are being hurled from masthead into the
yawning waves of perdition.
But this inspired picture of the sleeper
at the masthead does not only apply to
the slave of the intoxicating glass. II
describes the perilious insensibility Of
nearly every impenitent soul. Sin is an
anodyne. The Word of God teaches us
that every sinners state is not only one
of guilt, but a state of moral slumber
Every unconverted man is-in Gods
sight-asleep. Natural sleep locks ur
the physical senses under its spell, and il
the sleeper dreams, he actually regards
his visions as solid realities. So is il
with the sinner; he does not recognize hi;
fearful guilt he no more sees himself in
the mirror of Gods Word than a man
who is fast asleep can see himself in the
looking.glass held before him. He il
blind to the terrors of the wrath to come
and to the claims of God and the allur
ing offers of heaven. You may set be
fore sleeper the most magnificent pic
lures of a Raphael, or the most terrific
productions of the pencil of Dore, anG
they are both no more to him than deaC
blank wall. So have 1, and other minis
ters of Christ, set before impenitent sin
ners, hundred times, the joys of true re
ligion and the certain, inevitable doom Of
sin ; yet we produce no impression upor
them, because they are under an illusion
They feel no danger because they feel nc
guilt. They excuse their own sins with
plausible pretexts and self.extenuations
If they do admit their sinfulness, they
cling to their sins; some with promise
of repentance by.and-by, and some under
a vague hope that God will "not be toe
hard on them,' or will give them another
chance in another world. Nearly every
impenitent man or woman is dreamer
They delude themselves with the ide,
that they are in no danger-and yet al
the while they are, like the sleepers at tht
masthead, liable to be hurled off into thu
abyss of eternal ruin
"If," said the eloquent Addison Alex
ander, "you know what it is to be aroused
by heavy crash from a pleasant dream
what will it be when the long dream o
life is dissolved by the blast of the grea
trumpet of God 4? 1t is related by maj
who was on board a steamer that blew up
that when the explosion occurred he wa
fast asleep. His first sensation was
pleasant one, as though he had been flynn
through the air. He opened his eyes, ant
he was in the sea May there not b
something like this in the sensation of tn
sinner who dies with his soul asleep, ant
imagines himself soaring toward the skies
but awakens amid the roar of a lashin
tempest upon the ocean of Gods wrath p
This is tremendous preaching woul'
to God that we heard more of it from tn
pulpit of our day Never was it NOR
needed; for multitudes are rocked b
slumber at the masthead by the opiate o
) unbelief. Some doubt the inspiration o
Gods Word, and so are not disturbed b,
its threatenings. Some doubt the exist
ence of hell. Some are lulling thei
consciences to sleep by lying promises o
future repentance. Some are 80 absorbe,
in the money-making or the pleasure
seeking of this life that they have shu
their eyes to the idea of eternity. | car
: not, my impenitent friend, what may b
the cause of your slumber, or what ma