O, that they could be brought, O for the grace of God’s Holy Spirit to bring them, to listen to the warning words of that merciful Saviour, to whom, if they now continue to despise Him, they will one day lift up their hands in vain: these are His words, “if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.” {12} If, after all the gracious offers of pardon and life, which thy Redeemer has made thee, by His own mouth, and the mouth of His messengers, thou still choosest unforgiveness and death, going on in the heedlessness of thy impenitent heart, and wantoning in sin, how dreadful is thy condition! how infinitely more dreadful, than if the voice of mercy had never sounded in thine ears. Be convinced: let the love of thy Saviour work upon thee; let the love of thine own immortal soul move thee to fly unto Him, the great, the only, the everlasting Redeemer. Leave thy way of misery and ruin, and turn to Him for comfort and deliverance. Turn, while thou hast the power; the night is fast coming. Thou knowest not how many more sabbaths, how many more invitations and warnings, will be vouchsafed: many thou hast had already; enough of them thou hast already slighted. Come, ye that are strong, for the strong are often laid low; come, ye that are young, for the young are not always spared; come, ye aged, for your hour of trial _must_ be nearly run out. Come all, while ye may, to the Lamb of God, for acceptance and for blessing: there is no safety, and no hope in any other: and no hope in Him, when the door is once shut; “we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” {13} The text says, “Awake thou that sleepest;” it means, awake from the sleep of sin; and very fitly is the state of the sinner compared to a state of sleep: he is quite insensible of his true, his awful condition; he fears not, perceives not, the doom that is awaiting him. Satan has bound up his senses; the eyes of his understanding are closed, and his knowledge of good and evil is utterly prevented. He is to the spiritual world, what the sleeping man is to the natural, unconscious of what is going forward to his advantage or his injury. Speak to him of mercy, he hears not: “sing him one of the songs of Sion,” it is all in vain: speak to him of divine wrath, of eternal punishment; to what purpose, while his ear is closed? The whispers of conscience, the counsel of friends, “the tongues of men or of angels,” are alike unprofitable, while a deep sleep is cast upon the soul.