LESSON XII.

SLEEP AND DREAMS.

WHEN I sleep, my fancy is led about by dreams. I am disturbed by vain hopes and fears; but I awake and they are all gone. I am affrighted and run away when there is no danger, and I am delighted with that which is nothing but a shadow. I think I am flying through the air, while I am motionless in my bed. I think I have found great treasures; but I awake, and am as poor as ever. Of that which is real I have no knowledge, while my mind is thus filled with shadows: but perhaps I dream that I am sailing on the water, while the chamber in which I sleep hath taken fire; and I know it not till the flames reach my body, and awake me: then I start up, but it is too late to escape.

Now let me ask my heart this question: Am not I, who am thus deceived in my sleep, in danger of being deceived when I am awake? If my fancy is filled with such things, as will have no substance when I awake in the morning of the resurrection, then will my whole life be no better than a dream: and of that which is real I shall have no knowledge

8

or

or sense.

When I am told of God, or of heaven, or of the wrath to come, these things will not affect me, because I am in a sort of sleep, and my heart is filled with things of no substance. The rich man in the parable, was lulled to sleep by his fine clothing and his sumptuous living, and he never awaked till he died. Then he lift up his eyes, and found himself in a place of torment!

What are the pleasures of youth, the honours of manhood, or the wealth of age? Will they last? And can we carry them with us beyond the grave? No! they will all forsake us, and be left behind us as the shadow of a dream. Yet these are the things the world seeketh after, and their fancy is so employed that they can think of nothing else. Man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain; he heapeth up riches, and cannot tell who shall gather them. When he is awake, he is employed just as men are when they are asleep; his time is taken up, and his mind is disquieted, like the mind of a man in a dream, with things which prove to be nothing at last. His life hath nothing real in it, and so it is but the shadow of life, a vain shadow.

But if I serve God, and read his word, and say my prayers, and do good to the poor; D 3

then

then I act like a man who is awake: for these and other like things, are all real and lasting as God himself is; and the fruit of them will remain with me for ever. When I awake in another world, I shall still be the servant of God, as I am now: his word and his wisdom will delight me as they do now, and much more, because I shall understand them better; and what I have given to the poor upon earth, I shall find again as a treasure in heaven.

Lord, let me not sleep, as others do, in sin; but let me walk with thee, as a child of the day, and be awake unto righteousness; that when I shall awake from death, I may find myself in thy presence, and live in thy hea venly kingdom, where is neither darkness nor vanity, neither dreams nor shadows; but all is truth, and all is light, for ever and ever,

THE QUESTIONS.

Q. What strange things happen to us when we are asleep?

A. Our mind is deceived with dreams and visions, which we believe to be true.

Q. And what happens to us when we are awake?

A. We

A. We deceive ourselves with many visions, and think to no more purpose than men do who are asleep.

Q. When the mind is in this state, what doth it perceive of things real; such as God, heaven, hell, and the resurrection of the dead, and such like?

A. No more than a man asleep perceives of the fire which is about to burn him in his bed.

Q. When did Dives lift up his eyes?

A. Not till he was in torments.

Q. What rule have you to distinguish between shadows and substances?

A. All things that vanish with this present life are false; all things that endure beyond it are true, and will never deceive us.

THE TEXTS.

Psal. xxxix. 6. Man walketh in a vain shadow. 1 Thess. v. 6. Let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

Eph. v. 14. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Luke vii. 14. Young man, I

arise.

D 4

say unto thee

Psal.

Psal. lxxvi. 5. The proud are robbed; they have slept their sleep; and all the men whose hands were mighty have found nothing.

Psal. xvii. 16. When I awake up after thy likeness, I shall be satisfied with it.

LESSON XIII.

་

THE GREAT FAMILY.

GOD is my father, the church is my mother; all Christian people are my brethren in Jesus Christ, who is the true Son of God. We all make one family under the same head, and the same Saviour; and the angels of heaven are comprehended within this family as well as the saints upon earth. It is called the church; and I was born unto God, and made a member of it by baptism; as surely as I

was made a member of this world by my birth from my natural parents. I do not belong to the church by any right of nature, but only by the grace and calling of God.

If God is my father I may depend upon his goodness and affection to me: but I must pray to him, as I make my wants known to my earthly parents. I must also expect that God will chastise and correct me for my faults;