The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-10-31
asleep in Peril.

Sin is an anodyne. The Word of God
teaches us that every sinners state is not
only one of guilt, but state of moral
in Gods sight-asleep. Natural sleep
locks up the physical senses under its
spell, and if the sleeper dreams, he actu-
ally regards his visions as solid realities.
So it is with the sinner he does not rec
ognize his 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
is blind to the terrors of the life to come,
and to the claims of God and the alluring
offers of heaven. You may set before a
sleeper the most magnificent picture of
Raphael, or the most terrific productions
of the pencil of Dore, and they are both
no more to him than dead blank wall.
So have l, and other ministers of Christ,
set before impenitent sinners, hundred
times, the joys of true religion and the
certain, inevitable doom of sin; yet we
produce no impression upon them, because
they are under an illusion. They feel no
danger because they feel no guilt. They
excuse their own sins, with plausible pre-
texts 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 vague hops
that God will "not be too hard on Them"
or will give them another chance in an
other world. Nearly every impenitent
man or woman is dreamer. elf" said
the eloquent Addison Alexander, "you
know what it is to be aroused by heavy
crash from pleasant dream, what will it
be when the long dream of life is dis
solved by the blast of the trumpet of God
1t is related by man who was on board
steamer that blew up that when the ex-
plosion occurred he was fast asleep. His
first sensation was a pleasant one, as
though he had been flying through the
air. He opened his eyes, and he was in
the sea May there not be something
like this in the sinner who dies with his
soul asleep, and imagines himself soaring
toward the skies, but awakens amid the
roar of lsshing tempest, upon the ocean
of Gods wrath !" This is tremendous
preaching; would to God that we heard
more of it from the pulpit of our day |
Never was it more needed; for multitudes
are rocked to slumber at the masthead by
the opiate of unbelief. Some doubt the
inspiration of Gods Word, and so are not
disturbed by its threatenings. Some
| doubt the existence of hell. Some are
iulling their consciences to sleep by lying
promises of future repentance. Some are
30 absorbed in the money-making or the
pleasure-seeking of this life that they
have shut their eyes to the idea of eter-
nifty. I care not, my impenitent friend,
what may be the cause of your slumb or,
or what may be the anodyne that Satan
has used to drug you. Sin is a mocker.
You are under its spell. You do not real
ize your terrible guilt in rejecting the
Savior, or your terrible danger in risking
a "wrath to come" You cannot sleep
much longer. Death will soon loose your
frail hold on shroud or spar, and hurl you
off, as from masthead, into the bottomless
deepl When you awake it will be toe
late, it will be an awakening to shame anG
remorse and everlasting contemplate
T. L. Cuyler.