996. The Alarm

A Sermon Delivered By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. 7/29/2011*7/29/2011

I myself will awaken early. (Psalms 57:8)

1. The proper subject to expound using such a text as this would be the propriety and excellence of early rising, especially when we are desirous of praising or serving God. The dew of dawn should be consecrated to devotion. The text is a very remarkable expression, and might appropriately be made the early riser’s motto. It is, in the original, a highly poetic phrase, and Milton and others have borrowed or imitated it. “I will awaken the morning.” So early would the psalmist arise for the praise of God, that he would call up the day, and bid the sun arise from the chambers of the east, and proceed upon its journey. “I will awaken the morning.” Early rising has the example of Old Testament saints to recommend it, and many modern saints having conscientiously practised it, have been vocal in its praise. It is an economy of time, and an assistance to health, and so it doubly lengthens life. Late rising is too often the sign of indolence, and the cause of disorder throughout the whole day. Be assured that the best hours are the first. Our city habits are to be deplored, because by late hours of retirement at night we find early rising difficult if not impossible. If we are able to escape the shackles of custom, and secure for devotion and contemplation the hour when the dew is on the grass, we may consider ourselves thrice happy. If we cannot do all we wish in this matter, at least let us do all we can.

2. That is not, however, the topic upon which I now desire to speak to you. I come at this time, not so much to plead for the early as for the awakening. The hour we may speak of at another time — the fact is our subject now. It is bad to awaken late, but what shall be said of those who never awaken at all? Better late than never: but with many it is to be feared it will be never. I wish to take down the trumpet and give a blast, or ring the alarm bell until all the faculties of the sluggard’s manhood are made to bestir themselves, and he cries with newly born determination, “I myself will awaken.”

3. “Will awaken.” This is a world in which most men nowadays are alive to their temporal interests. If in these pressing times any man goes to his business in a sleepy, listless fashion, he very soon finds himself on an ebb tide, and all his affairs aground. The wide awake man seizes opportunities or makes them, and so those who are widest awake usually come to the forefront. Years ago affairs moved like the broad wheeled wagon, very sleepily, with sober pause and leisurely progression, and then the son of the snail had a chance; but now when we almost fly, if a man would succeed in business he must be all alive, and all awake. If it is so in temporals, it is equally so in spirituals, for the world, the flesh, and the devil are all awake to compete with us; and there is no resolution that I would more earnestly recommend to each one of the people of God than this one: “I will awaken; I will awaken at once; I will awaken early, and I will pray to God that I may be kept awake, so that my Christian existence may not be dreamy, but that I may be to the fullest degree useful in my Master’s service.” If this were the resolve of each, what a change would come over the Christian church! I long to see the diligence of the shop exceeded by the prayer closet, and the zeal of the market excelled by the church. Each Christian is alive: but is he also awake? He has eyes, but are they open? He has lofty possibilities of blessing his fellow men, but does he exercise them? My heart’s desire is that none of us may feel the dreamy influence of this age, which is comparable to the enchanted ground; but that each of us may be watchful, wakeful, vigorous, intense, and fervent. Trusting that the Holy Spirit may bless our meditations to our spiritual quickening, we shall briefly turn our thoughts to the consideration of two or three things.

4. I. Our text is connected with the duty of praise, and therefore our first point shall be — IT IS MOST NECESSARY THAT OUR MINDS SHOULD BE IN A STATE OF WAKEFULNESS WHEN WE ARE PRAISING GOD. Therefore, since we ought to be always praising him, our mind ought always to be wakeful. It is a shame to pray with the mind half asleep: it is an equal shame to attempt to praise God until all the powers of the mind are thoroughly aroused. In this David is a most fit example, for he sings, “My heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. Wake up, my glory; awaken, psaltery and harp: I myself will awaken early.”

5. We should be fully awake when engaged in private thanksgiving; the song of our solitude should be full of living joy. I am afraid there is very little private singing nowadays. We often hear a discourse concerning private prayer, but very seldom of private praise: and yet ought there not to be as much private praise as private prayer? I fear from the seldomness of its being mentioned, that private thanksgiving has grown to be a sleepy affair. Then concerning public worship, how earnest it ought to be! Yet how seldom is it hearty and real! How often do we hear half awake singing! Sometimes a sort of musical box, consisting of pipes, keys, and bellows, is set to do all the adoration. The heathens of Tibet turn the wind to account religiously, by making it turn their windmills and pray for them; and our brethren in England, by an ingenious adjustment of pipes, make the same motive power perform their praise. Where this machinery is not adopted, still the Lord is robbed of his praise by other methods. Sometimes half a dozen skilled voices of people who would be equally as much at home at the opera or the theatre as in the house of God, are formed into a choir to perform the psalmody; and it is supposed that God accepts their formal notes as the praise of the entire assembly. How far different is the genuine song of gracious men who lift up their voices to the Lord because their hearts adore him! Oh, I love to hear every voice pouring out its note, especially if I can only hope that with every voice there is going forth a fervent heart. This warm hearted, joyful singing — why, it makes the congregation on earth to be like the assembly of the skies; and causes the meeting place of the saints to be a faint type of the gathering of the angels and glorified spirits before the throne of God. To drone or to whisper in such a delightful exercise is criminal. If we should ever exhibit the angels’ wakefulness, it should be when we are emulating their employment.

6. Our praise ought to be performed with a fully awakened mind: first, that we may remember what we are praising God for. We should have a vivid sense of the mercies we have received, or we cannot bless God properly for them. You who have not yet received spiritual blessings, should not be forgetful of his temporal mercies: it is surely sufficient cause for lively thanksgiving that you are not upon a bed of sickness; that you are not in the lunatic asylum; that you are not in the workhouse; that you are not on the borders of the grave; that you are not in hell; that you still have food and clothing, and that you are where the gospel is graciously presented to you. Should not all this be thought of? Should not this be fuel for the flame of gratitude? As for us who have tasted spiritual blessings, if our minds were awake, we should think of eternal love and its goings forth from eternity; of redeeming love, and the streams that flow from the fount of Calvary; of God’s immutable love, and his patience with our bad manners in the wilderness; of covenant mercy, of mercies yet to come, of heaven, and the future bliss. Such memories should summon our whole man to praise the Lord. If the innumerable benefits which we receive were thought of and mediated upon, the contemplation would put a force, a volume, a body into our song, and make it far more the flaming ethereal thing which it ought to be.

7. We need our souls awakened, next, so that we may remember to whom our praise is offered. We bow the knee of homage before no lowly king. To praise God is to stand in the immediate presence of the blessed and only Potentate. Do not even seraphs veil their faces in that august presence? With what lowliness ought we to bow! With what earnestness of spirit should we praise! “Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Courtiers are not expected to nod with drowsiness in the presence of their king; and as they came to present thanksgiving, it would seem strange if they were to yawn as men half asleep. Surely, it would be hypocritical congratulation and insulting behaviour if they should be detected in a sleepy condition! If we come together to praise God, let us really do it. If we cannot praise him, let us know and mourn that we cannot do it, and let us be sure that the spirit is willing, even if the flesh is weak. Let all sleepiness be put away in the presence of the ever wakeful Jehovah, before whose eyes all things are naked and open. He never slumbers nor sleeps, so as to interrupt his flow of his mercy to us: do not let our slumbering spirits cause an omission of our grateful song.

8. We need that we should be awake in praise, so that our whole hearts may be thoroughly warm in the exercise. Under Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, the acceptableness of our praise depends very much upon its warmth. Just as cold prayers virtually ask God to deny them, so cold praises ask God to reject them. Cold praises are a kind of semi-blasphemy: they do, as it were, say, “You are not worthy to be ardently praised. Oh God, we bring you these poor thanksgivings: they are good enough for you.” Surely if we treated our heavenly Father as we should, every sacred passion would glow in our hearts like a furnace: our whole heart would catch fire, and just as Elijah went up to heaven with horses of fire and chariots of fire, so, too, our soul, as we thought upon the goodness and the graciousness of God, would ascend to heaven in vehement joy of adoration. Our praises would not be like the incense in the censer; sweet but cold; but coals of fire would be put in with the incense, and then, like a holy cloud of smoke, our gratitude would ascend to heaven. Notice with what exhilaration the psalmist rendered praise to God, and imitate him in it. See him dancing before the ark, and hear him cry aloud, “Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises to our King, sing praises.”

9. Brethren, we have need to wake up our souls in praise, or else we shall at times fail altogether in our duty. Only the wakeful are praiseful. Sleeping birds do not sing. The very best praises God receives from earth are from his troubled saints; but then they are awake; the strokes of the rod have aroused them. When the three holy children sang in the fire, their song was sweet indeed; yet if they had not been thoroughly in earnest, they would have poured out no holy hymn. When martyrs have magnified God standing on the burning fagot, they have given God better praise than even the angels can. It was the old fable, that the nightingale was made to sing by the thorn that pricked her breast: and many a child of God has poured out his sweetest music when the thorn of affliction has pierced his heart. Wake up your souls — you who are desponding, you who are depressed, you who have a dead child at home, you who are expecting soon to go the grave with those you love, you who have been losing your property, you who are pinched with poverty — wake up your souls to still praise God, for unless you are fully awake you will forget to extol him. Remember what Job did. When he sat on the dunghill, scraping himself with a bit of a broken pot, he still praised God, and said, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” It was grand of you, oh patriarch of Uz, to be able thus to extol your Lord: then your soul was fully awake. Beloved friends, may our innermost souls be so energetic with the power of grace that we may spontaneously and earnestly bless the Lord at all times and under all circumstances.

10. Do you believe, my brethren, that among all the throng of those who see Jehovah face to face, there is one dull, cold, careless worshipper? Look through the seraphim and cherubim: they are all flaming ones, burning with intense desire and fervent adoration. Look through the hosts of angels: they are all his ministers who do his pleasure, and bless him while they do it. Search through all those sanctified and glorified bands of spirits, and you shall not find one with a half closed eye wearily praising his Maker. Heaven consists in joyful praise. Look at the very birds on earth — how they shame us! Dear little creatures, if you watch them when they are singing, you will sometimes wonder how so much sound can come out of such diminutive bodies. How they throw their whole selves into the music, and seem to melt themselves away in song! How the wing vibrates, the throat pulsates, and every part of their body rejoices to assist the strain! This is the way in which we ought to praise God. If birds that are sold at three for two farthings still render God such praise, how much more heartily ought we to sing before him? Let it be a resolution with us at this hour that we will praise God more; that we will sing to him more at home, about our business, and in all proper places; and that whenever we do sing we will do it heartily, waking up our tongue and all the powers of our mind and body to bless and praise the name of God.

11. II. Now, secondly, we shall notice that WAKEFULNESS IS A GREAT NEED IN THE ENTIRE SPIRITUAL LIFE.

12. I believe it to be one of the great needs of the church now. I question whether most of us are awake spiritually. I question whether I am. I wish to be awakened far more to a sensitivity to the power of the world to come, and a tenderness in regard to spiritual truth. Slumber is so natural for us. “Well,” one says, “but we talk about the things of God.” Yes, but people talk when they are asleep, and a good deal of Christian conversation is very much like the talk of sleepers. There is no force in it — the life in it that there would be in conversation if we were really awakened to feel the power of eternal verities. “Yet,” one says, “I hope we act consistently.” I trust you do, but there are many people who walk in their sleep, and, alas! I know some Christian professors who appear to be trying very hazardous feats of sleep walking just now. Some somnambulists have been able to walk on places where, had they been awake, they never would have been able to endure the dizzy height; and I see some Christians, if indeed they are Christians, running awful risks which I think they would never dare to do unless they had fallen into the deep sleep of carnal security. Speak of a man slumbering at the masthead, it is nothing compared to a professor of religion at ease while covetousness is his master, or worldly company his delight. If professors were awake, they would see their danger, and avoid sinful amusements and ungodly associations, as men flee from fierce tigers or deadly cobras. “Well, but we are doing much good and useful work,” one says: “teaching in Sunday Schools, distributing religious tracts, or labouring in some other form of service; we are spending our time in commendable engagements.” I am glad to hear it; but people can do a great deal in their sleep. We have heard many strange examples of how habit at last has enabled people to pursue their callings, to answer signals, and keep up all the appearance of industry, and yet they have been asleep all the time. Oh, it is a very shocking thing that so many of our churches in England are in a deep sleep! I know most about dissenting churches and there are many where the minister preaches in his sleep, where the people sing in their sleep, where prayer is offered in sleep, and even the communion is famous amid a profound spiritual slumber. Have you never been at a prayer meeting where half, if not all, both of those who prayed vocally and those who listened, were in a lethargy as rigid as death? Speak of sleeping women who have been in a swoon by the month together, the wonder may be an uncommon one in the natural world, but in the spiritual world it is as common as daisies in the meadows. Adam slept soundly when the taking away of his rib did not awaken him, but what shall we say of those who are not startled although they are losing all the strength and glory of their souls? Alas! for some congregations, it is long since they had a revival, they have lost the very idea of vigorous piety and vital energy. All the week round they are all asleep, and if a real, earnest, living, stirring sermon were preached among them, it would be almost as if the King of Prussia’s Krupp guns (a) had dropped a live shell into their midst. I wish a spiritual live shell could fall into some congregations, and burst among them, killing their conventionality, and wounding their self-satisfaction with a deadly wound. Men may attend to outward worship with unimpeachable decorum and correctness, and yet there may be no wakefulness in it, and consequently no acceptableness with God Most High.

13. Come, brothers and sisters, we must wake up, even if we have been asleep ourselves, and we must do so because we are in an enemy’s country; it will not do to sleep here. This side of heaven we are in every place and at all hours surrounded by foes. What did the Master say? “What I say to you I say to all, Watch!” Be like sentries at your post, for otherwise the enemy will soon betray you. Will you not grieve the Holy Spirit if you are lethargic? Will you not dishonour your Master if you fall asleep? Remember, also, that the devil seeks your destruction, and can never do you so much mischief awake as he can if he finds you sleeping. Let the growling of the old lion arouse you. If nothing else will bestir you, remember the fiery arrows of the wicked one. Saul would not have slept so quietly if he had known that Abishai was holding the spear over him, and longing to pin him to the earth: yet this is the condition of professors who are given to slumber. Samson would have scarcely slept on Delilah’s lap if he had foreseen that his hair would be cut, and his eyes put out by the Philistines. Up, then, you drowsy professors, for the Philistines are upon you!

14. Moreover, brethren, slumber impoverishes us. The sluggard, and the thistle and thorn, always go together, and rags and poverty follow close behind. You may miss great spiritual profit by your sleep. You cannot expect sleepy Christians to grow in grace. They will miss many instructive things in God’s word, many precious promises meant only for the wakeful. They will lose high enjoyments and spiritual banquetings, for the King’s entertainments are not for those who fold their arms, and toss upon the bed of indolence. Wealth lies in the field of the wakeful, but the lover of ease shall have poverty come upon him as an armed man. I blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in God’s holy mountain, for it is high time to awaken out of sleep.

15. Wake up, my brother, for you are losing opportunities for usefulness. While you sleep men are dying. See how the cemeteries are becoming crowded, how the area of them has to be enlarged. Day by day you see wending through the streets the funeral procession: men gone beyond the reach of your instructions and your warnings are carried to their long homes. Wake up then, wake up, for death is busy everywhere. Meanwhile, those who do not die before you may be removed beyond the sphere of your usefulness; they go where at least you cannot reach them, where perhaps no one ever will, and their blood may lie upon your head, and that for ever. Wake up, for perhaps while you are asleep another heart that is now accessible to the gospel may become finally hardened. Conscience will soon become seared, and then there is nothing for zeal and earnestness to work upon. It will be too late for you to put the seal upon the wax when once it is cool. Quick, sir; while the wax is soft put the seal down! How many opportunities for good we all miss! But those who are asleep lose all their opportunities, and they will be surely required of them when the Master comes.

16. Wake up! I beseech you, because in your sleep you will lose the power, the joy of your spiritual life. Communion with God will become more and more scarce with you as you become more sleepy. Wake up, lest you backslide, lest you fall little by little; lest after all you become an apostate, and prove yourself not to be a child of God. Wake up, for your power with others will certainly depart from you as your wakefulness departs. A sleepy preacher never wins the souls of men. A dull, formal servant of God is of little or no use in the church of God. I think I said years ago, “Give me half a dozen thorough red-hot Christians, and I will do more, by God’s grace, with them, than with half a dozen hundred of ordinary professors.” I am sure it is so. Crowds of professors are beyond all cure. I would as soon hunt with dead dogs, as try to work with them. They cannot be trained into heroes: they are dolts both by nature and by practice; much slothfulness has drained out their soul’s life. The most you can hope for them is that they will remain decently Christianised, so as not altogether to disgrace us. But, oh for thoroughly wide awake men, men who feel the life of God in their souls, and are, therefore, more than ordinarily earnest. Band together half a dozen such, and the Holy Spirit being with them, they will make all London feel their presence before long. Oh may God wake us all up, for our spiritual life absolutely requires it.

17. III. Thirdly, I am going to mention CERTAIN WAYS OF KEEPING YOURSELVES AWAKE.

18. “How can I be kept awake?” one says. Answer, first, make it a matter of prayer with the Lord to awaken you. No one can give you spiritual power and watchfulness except the Spirit of God. “All my fresh springs are in you.” Where life first comes from, there more life must be obtained. Christ has come so that we may have life, and that we may have it more abundantly. He who first called us from the dead must also arouse us from among the slumbering. He who brought us from the grave of our depravity must bring us from the couch of our indolence. Pray about the matter; make it a point with God: ask him to arouse you. On your knees is the posture in which to conquer sloth.

19. Next, means are to be used. We are not to leave the matter with God, and think there is nothing to be done by ourselves. Act towards yourselves about your spiritual wakefulness as you would with natural wakefulness. Set your inventive faculties to work and devise means for chasing away the sleep dragon. What would you do if you were required to be awakened early? Perhaps you would set an alarm; a good thing, no doubt. Take care you set a spiritual alarm. Every Christian ought to keep one, and it should be so well set as to keep exact time, and so powerful as to arouse the most slumbering. A tender conscience, quick as the apple of the eye, is a precious preservative against sinful sleep; but it must never be tampered with, or its usefulness will soon end. When once the hour has come, off goes the alarm, the man springs up all at once, and says, “It is time to rise”; so should my conscience be so well regulated, that when a temptation is near, or a sinner is near me whom I ought to warn, my soul should at once take the alarm, and say, “Here is work to do — a sin to be conquered, or a soul to be instructed: now, therefore, perform the doing of it with all your might! I hear the alarm, and I must bestir myself!” May we always maintain and retain such a special wakefulness that we may be at our post of duty or in our place of conflict with a punctuality which no one can criticise. Oh for the alarm of a tender conscience!

20. Many of our friends who have to be up early in the morning ask the policeman to call them at the appointed hour. I may not compare the Christian minister with a policeman in some respects; but yet he is one of God’s officers, and it is part of his business to stir up drowsy professors. It is well to attend an earnest gospel ministry, where the minister’s voice, under God’s blessing, will be likely to wake you up. Faithful preachers are among God’s best gifts. Cherish them, and be obedient to their admonitions. I have known people to become offended when a minister is “too personal”; but wise men always prize a ministry in proportion as it is personally applicable to themselves. He who never tells me about my faults, nor makes me feel uneasy, is not likely to be the means of any good for my soul. What is the use of a dog that never barks? Why have a doctor, and grow angry with him if he points out the source of your disease? Did God send us, as his messengers, to pander to your taste or flatter your vanity? We do not seek your approval if it is not founded on what is right. I have often felt pleased when I have heard people confess, after their conversion, “I came to the Tabernacle, and at first I could not endure the preaching. I hated the preacher, and was enraged by his doctrine, but I could not help coming again.” Just so. Conscience makes men respect the gospel, even when their depravity makes them loathe it. They are held firm by the cords which they gladly would cast from them. May it often be so, oh my unregenerate believers, that while my plain dealing arouses your anger, it may nevertheless have a power over you; and may every man and woman here, whether saved or unsaved, feel that the preaching is the truth of God to his or her soul; and, whether liked or not liked, may it become the permanent means of arousing from sleep, and ultimately bringing to Christ everyone of you to whom these words shall come. Be sure and attend an arousing ministry, and pray God to make the ministry which you now listen to more and more an arousing ministry to your own soul. Pray for the preacher, for he is in the same danger as yourselves, for he too is encompassed with infirmity. The minister soon goes to sleep unless God awakens him; and what is more sad than to see the professed messenger of God become a traitor both to his Master and to men’s souls by a lack of zealous affection? It is bad for the sheep if the shepherd himself is asleep. Woe to the camp where the sentry is given to slumber! May God deliver our country from being overrun with preachers whose souls are insensitive concerning their grand work, and who love the bread of their office better than the glory of God or the good of their hearers.

21. I have known some people adopt a plan for waking up in the morning which I can recommend spiritually at any rate. They have drawn up the blinds in the direction of the morning sun, so that the sun might shine on their face and wake them up. I know of no better way of waking up your soul than letting the light, and the life, and the love of God shine full into your face. When the Sun of Righteousness arises he brings healing beneath his wings, and he brings awakening too. A man cannot think much of Christ, and love Christ much, and walk much in Christ’s fellowship, and still be asleep. The two who went to Emmaus in Emmanuel’s company, were their hearts cold? No, do not think so. “Did not our hearts burn within us?” Yes, and your hearts will burn too, and your whole spiritual system will flame and glow if you walk in the company of Jesus. I can recommend constant fellowship with God as one of the best remedies for spiritual sloth, the surest provocation for holy zeal.

22. Many times people are awakened in the morning by the noise of the street on which they live. “I cannot sleep after such an hour,” one says, “for I hear the tramp of those who are going into the city and the noise of the street traffic.” At a certain time you hear the hammer of the blacksmith, the scream of an engine, or the heaving of machinery, and after that sleep is gone. The activities of the world ought to awaken Christians. Are worldlings so active? How active ought we to be? Do they labour and spend their sweat for earthly wages? How much more ought I to put forth my entire strength to serve so good a Master, whose reward of grace is everlasting bliss? The world is all astir today: let the church be all awake too.

23. We ought to be stimulated to supreme efforts by the activity of our fellow Christians. I find it does me much service to read the biographies of eminent servants of Christ, such as martyrs, missionaries, and reformers. I rise from reading their memorials feeling ashamed to be of so dwarfish a stature compared with these spiritual giants. What a humbling effect such a reflection ought to have on the do-nothings who swarm in the churches! but alas! these are not soon moved to judge themselves. With this one word we leave them: think of what some are doing, and be ashamed that you are doing so little in proportion to what they accomplish.

24. There are many ways of waking, but here is one, with which I will close my observations on this point. Hear the trumpet of the second coming. “Behold, the bridegroom comes; go out to meet him,” was the cry that awakened the virgins when they all slumbered and slept: may it have the similar arousing power at this moment. We do not know when Christ will come, nor is it for us to utter prophecies about it: the times and seasons are hidden from us. “Of that day and that hour no man knows.” Whether it will be before the Millennium or after the Millennium, let those judge who can. I have no opinion about it. I think, as you carefully read the Scriptures, you will feel more and more convinced that only this is clearly and certainly revealed — that the Lord will personally come in such an hour as we do not look for him. Let that awaken us, let it keep us always watchful, with loins girt and lamps trimmed, proving our faithful love for our blessed Master.

25. These are, it is clear, very many ways by which Christians may be awakened. May God grant they are effective to each and all. I think it was Sydney Smith who was once preaching a sermon about sleeping in church, and when he had finished, he said, “Now, what good have I done? All those who sleep have been asleep through my sermon, and only those who are wakeful have heard me, and they did not need my rebukes and advice.” I often feel that this is very much the preacher’s case. Earnest people, when the congregation is exhorted to earnestness, take it home to themselves; but those people who do nothing and are most indolent, are the very ones who say, “I do not see the need of it; I do not want to be disturbed.” Of course not! It is not only the sign of the sluggard to sleep, but it is another characteristic of him who is angry with those who would compel him to rise. “A little more sleep,” he says, “a little more slumber”; he turns his heavy head upon the pillow once again, and wishes no blessings upon those who knock at his door so heavily. You sleepy professors are likely to do the same, but I will not refrain from knocking until you refrain from dozing. I pray God that there may be very few in this church of the incorrigible order, whose life is one long dream, a dream of self-aggrandizement, insignificance, and littleness. May you and I, and all of us, be thoroughly earnest in the service of our Master, and if we cannot arouse others by our precept, at least let us not fail to try the force of our example.

26. IV. I must close with a word upon the fourth point, which is this — THE GREAT AND URGENT NEED THAT THE UNCONVERTED SINNER SHOULD WAKE UP.

27. So far I have spoken to the converted man: now let me address myself to the ungodly, and may the voice which shall call the dead to judgment now awaken him. You, you unconverted man, are asleep; a deep and horrible sleep holds you firmly. If it were not so, you would perceive your danger, and you would be alarmed. You have broken God’s law; the fact is certain and solemn, though you treat it lightly. Punishment must follow every breach of that law, for God will not be mocked, nor permit his government to be treated with contempt. For every transgression there is an appointed punishment. The retribution which is your lawful due will not long be withheld: it is on its road towards you. The feet of justice are shod with wool: you do not hear its coming, but it is as sure as it is silent. Its steps are swift, and its is stroke overwhelming. Wake up, oh man, and listen to this text: “God is angry with the wicked every day. If he does not turn, he will whet his sword; he has bent his bow, and made it ready.” No peril of plague, battle, shipwreck, or poison, can equal the hazard of an unpardoned soul. Beware, you who forget God, for his terrors are past conception, and his wrath burns as an oven.

28. If you were awakened, oh sin stricken transgressor, you would also perceive that there is a remedy for your disease, a rescue from your present danger. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them”; and, “Whoever believes in Jesus Christ has everlasting life.” Forgiveness of sin is guaranteed to everyone who rests in the work of Jesus, and all other necessary blessings are secured for him. If you were awake, you would not remain an unconverted sinner another hour, but you would turn to God with full purpose of heart. If God would awaken you, you would tremble at the jaws of hell which are open to receive you; you would turn to Christ, and say, “Jesus, save me! Save me now!” You are asleep, sinner — you are asleep, or you would not take matters so lightly. I am afraid for you, and bowed down with amazement and dread. The mercy is that you may be awakened: you are not yet among the slain who go down into the pit. Oh that that almighty grace would awaken you at this present moment, before your doom is sealed and your damnation executed! Here I offer my fervent prayers for you, believing that he to whom I pray is able to bring to holy sensitivity the most stolid of mankind.

29. God has strange ways of awakening his elect ones from their deadly slumbers. He will awaken them and he will shake heaven and earth sooner than let any one of them perish in unfeeling security. He will strike them down as he did Paul, or send an earthquake to shake them, as he did to the jailer at Philippi; in his own way and time he will make them come to themselves and then to Christ. Remember the story of Augustine. To the grief of his dear mother, Monica, he had been leading a wicked life; but God’s time had come, and as Augustine walked in the garden he heard a little child say, “Take! Read! Take! Read!” This induced him to take the Bible and read it. He no sooner read, than a passage came before his eyes which awakened him, and he sought a Saviour, and found him. Perhaps it will be a death in your house that will awaken you — sad means, but often most effectual. A mother’s deathbed has been a soul saving sermon to many a family. Some sleepers need a thunderclap to arouse them. Pray, you dear people of God who are awake, that the sinner may be awakened, for there is this awful danger — that he may sleep himself into hell. Spiritual sleep deepens, the slumberer becomes still more heavy, the stupor more dense, until the conscience grows seared, and the soul is unimpressionable; the flesh is turned into stone, the heart is harder than steel. It may be that some of those who hear these words of warning may never wake up to think about their souls until in hell they lift up their eyes. What an awful lifting up of the eyes that will be! Oh you who are now peaceful and secure, what a change awaits you! Hurled from vainglorious security to blank despair in a moment! You took it all so easily: you said, “Let me alone; do not worry me; there is time enough. The preacher ought not to frighten us with these bugbears; we have a great deal else to do besides listening to horrible stories of hell and damnation”; and so you wrapped it up, and so you smoothed it over, but who shall describe its end? Have you never heard of the Indian in his boat upon one of the great rivers of America? Somehow his moorings had broken, and his canoe was in the power of the current. He was asleep, while his canoe was being borne rapidly along by the stream. He was sound asleep, and yet had good reason to have been awake, for there was a tremendous cataract not far ahead. People on shore saw the canoe — saw that there was a man in it asleep; but their vigilance was of no use to the sleeper: it was required that he himself should be aware of his peril. The canoe quickened its pace, for the waters of the river grew more rapid as they approached the cataract; people on shore began to cry out, and raise alarm on all sides, and at last the Indian was aroused. He sprung up, and began to use his paddle, but his strength was altogether insufficient for the struggle with the gigantic force of the waters around him. He was seen to spring upright in the boat and disappear — himself and the boat — in the falls. He had perished, for he woke up too late! Some people on their deathbeds just wake up in time to see their danger, but not to escape from it: they are carried right over the cataract of judgment and wrath. They are gone, for ever gone, where mercy is succeeded by justice, and hope forbidden to enter. Let much prayer go up from believing hearts that God would awaken sinners now, and begin with those who come to the place of worship, and remain at ease in Zion. Ask for the arm of God to be revealed while the heavenly message is delivered; for this is our message: “Wake up you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.” There is a man before me now asleep in his sins, whom God means to make a minister of Christ: he does not know the divine purpose, but there are lines of love in it for him. Arise, oh slumberer, for Jesus calls you! Wake up, you Saul of Tarsus, you are a chosen vessel for the Lord! Turn from your sin: seek your Saviour. There is one here who has been a great sinner; but the Lord intends to wash him in the cleansing fount, and clothe him in the righteousness of Christ. Come, you guilty one, wake up! for mercy waits for you. There is a poor weeping woman here who has gone far into sin; but Jesus says, “Neither do I condemn you: go, and sin no more.” Sister, wake up! Come and receive the mercy which Jesus Christ is ready to bestow upon you! May God give you waking grace, and saving grace.

30. May you and I, beloved brethren in Christ, awaken to the most earnest and intense form of life in Christ and life for Christ. At once let us bestir ourselves: we may think it is early, but it will be none too early; may we awaken now, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

[Portion of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Psalms 108 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11]

(a) Krupp Gun: In the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, the unexpected victory of Prussia over France demonstrated the superiority of breech-loaded steel cannon over muzzle-loaded brass. Krupp artillery was a significant factor at the battles of Wissembourg and Gravelotte, and was used during the siege of Paris. Krupp’s anti-balloon guns were the first anti-aircraft guns. Prussia fortified the major North German ports with batteries that could hit French ships from a distance of 4,000 yards, inhibiting invasion. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krupp"