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Sleeping in church?
-Spurgeon, "Awake! Awake!"
Behold, how many professing Christians there are that are
asleep in this sense! They are inactive.
Sinners are dying in the street by 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 to show that their pity is real. They go to their
places of worship; they occupy their well-cushioned easy
pew; they wish the minister to feed hem every Sabbath;
but there is never a child taught in the Sunday-school by
them; there is never a tract istributed at the poor man's
house; there is never a deed 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 good men they are.
But they are good-- 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 unto themselves, forgetting
that "no man lives unto himself, and no man dies unto
himself." Oh, what a vast amount of sleeping we have in all
our churches and chapels; for truly if our churches were
once awake, so far as 'materials' are concerned, there are
enough converted men and women, and there is enough
talent with 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 to preach the gospel in every
corner of the earth. The church does not need to stop for
lack of instruments, or for lack of agencies; we have
everything now except the will; we have all that we may
expect to give 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 sleep as do others."
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