3. The Slothful Man's Arbour has been already described. It was a warm
arbour, and it promised much refreshing to the pilgrims. It also had in
it a soft couch on which the weary might lean. "Let us lie down here and
take just one nap; we shall be refreshed if we take a nap!" "Do you not
remember," said the other, "that one of the shepherds bid us beware of
the Enchanted Ground? And he meant by that that we should beware of
sleeping; wherefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and
be sober." Now, what is a nap? And what is it to take a nap in our
religion? The New Testament is full of warnings to those who read it and
go by it--most solemn and most fearful warnings--against _sleep_. Now,
have you any clear idea in your minds as to what this divinely denounced
sleep is? Sleep is good and necessary in our bodily life. We would not
live long if we did not sleep; we would soon go out of our mind; we would
soon lose our senses if we did not sleep. Insomnia is one of the worst
symptoms of our eager, restless, over-worked age. "He giveth His beloved
sleep"; and while they sleep their corn grows they know not how. But
sleep in the great exhortation-passages of the Holy Scriptures does not
mean rest and restoration; it means in all those passages insensibility,
stupidity, danger, and death. In our nightly sleep, and in the measure
of its soundness, we are utterly dead to the world around us. Men may
come into our house and rob us of our most precious possessions; they may
even come up to our bed and murder us; our whole house may be in a blaze
about us; we may only awaken to leap out of sleep into eternity. Now, we
are all in a sleep like that in our souls. There is above us, and around
us, and beneath us, and within us the eternal world, and we are all sound
asleep; we are all stone-dead in the midst of it. Devils and wicked men
are stealing our treasures for eternity, and we are sound asleep; hell is
already kindling our bed beneath us, but we smell not its flames, or we
only catch the first gasp of them before we make our everlasting bed
among them. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch
and be sober. What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise and call upon thy God!
When the guide shook Heedless and Too-bold off their settles in that
slothful arbour, the one of them said with his eyes still shut, "I will
pay you when I take my money," and the other said, "I will fight so long
as I can hold my sword in my hand." At that one of the children laughed.
"What is the meaning of that?" asked Christiana. The guide said: "They
talk in their sleep." So they did, and so do all men. For this whole
world is full of settles on which men sleep and talk in their sleep. The
newspapers to-morrow morning will all be full to overflowing of what men
have said and written to-day and yesterday in their sleep. The shops and
the banks and the exchanges will all be full of men making promises and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account