And there is a further resemblance: the sinner dreams, of happiness arising from worldly prosperity, from plenty and pleasure: and as the brain of a poor or disconsolate man, in a state of sleep, is often filled with ideas of such things, and he awakes and finds them sadly untrue; awakes from his pleasant dreaming to his state of drudgery and discomfort; so is the sinner often constrained to feel and confess, that his notions of happiness were no better than a dream; that they were unsubstantial and unreal, promising much and bringing little: still he is unconvinced; pursues his course of trifling, his disappointed dreamings, till at length he awakes in another world, and thoroughly perceives the wretchedness of his condition, which it is then too late, impossible to change. From this dreadful, fatal sleep of sin, the gospel is designed to rouse us: and I pray God, that our conscience may be effectually alarmed and awakened; that we may be alive and active in perceiving and following “the things that belong unto our peace!” The text says further, “Arise from the dead;” from the death of sin; from the state of misery and ruin, in which ye insensibly lie. Here is another significant figure: the impenitent sinner is not only plunged into a condition of helpless wretchedness, but he has no energy to recover from it, no quickening or effectual desire of better things; no more perception of spiritual interests, of heavenly objects, than a corpse has of the natural world. When once the breath has left the body, the busiest scenes of earth can affect it no longer; nothing can “charm the dull cold ear of death:” when the breath of a divine life is not in the soul, when the new-creating spirit of God is not received and cherished, the beauty of holiness and the all-important interests of a spiritual and eternal world produce no effect upon the forlorn understanding and the deserted heart: no representations of spiritual truth can move the heavy ear of a besotted and determined sinner; none, while he is resolved, so to remain: not even the voice of the Son of God, “charm He never so wisely.” Till the heart be moved to repentance, till, the faculties of the soul are recovered from the fascination of stupor and sin, no living impression can be made, even with all the force that truth can carry. How often do we find this to be the case! how often does the sinner acknowledge the justice, the certainty, the necessity of what is urged upon him, but without any alteration in his character; without any effectual or lasting alteration. His heart is unchanged: the slave of sin; dead in sin; not alive or open to the force of truth, to the doctrines of righteousness or salvation.