He who gives way to such passions is asleep, while he fancies himself broad awake. His life is a dream; and like a dreamer, he sees nothing really, only appearances, fancies, pictures of things in his own selfish brain. Therefore it is written: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee life.” You may say: Can I awaken myself? Perhaps not, unless someone calls you. And therefore Christ calls on you to awake. He says by my mouth: Awake, thou sleeper, and I will give thee light; awake, thou dreamer, who fanciest that the sinful works of darkness can give thee any real profit, any real pleasure; awake, thou sleep-walker, who art going about the world in a dream, groping thy way on from day to day and year to year, only kept from fall and ruin by God’s guiding and preserving mercy. Open thine eyes, and let in the great eternal loving light, wherein God beholds everything which He has made, and behold it is very good. Open thine eyes, for it is day. The light is here if thou wilt but use it. “I will guide thee,” saith the Lord, “and inform thee with mine eye, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go.” Only believe in the light. Believe that all knowledge comes from God. Expect and trust that He will give thee knowledge. Pray to Him boldly to give thee knowledge, because thou art sure that He wishes thee to have knowledge. He wishes thee to know thy duty. He wishes thee to see everything as He sees it. “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not, and he shall receive it.” And when thou hast prayed for knowledge, expect it to come; as it is written: When thou prayest for anything, believe that thou wilt receive it, and thou wilt receive it. If thou dost not believe that thou wilt have it, of course thou wilt not have it. And why? Because thou wilt pass by it without seeing it. It will be there ready for thee in thy daily walks; Wisdom will cry to thee at the head of every street; God will not deny Himself or break His promise: but thou wilt go past the place where wisdom is, and miss the lessons which God is strewing in thy path, because thou art not looking for them. Wisdom is here, my friends, and understanding is here, and the Spirit of God is here, if our eyes were but open to see them. Oh my friends, of all the sins of which we have to repent in this time of Lent, none ought to give us more solemn and bitter thoughts of shame than the way in which we overlook the teaching of God’s Spirit, and shut our eyes to His light, times without number, every day of our lives. My friends, if our hearts were what they ought to be, if we had humble, loving, trustful hearts, full of faith and hope in God’s promise to lead us into all truth, I believe that every joy and every sorrow which befell us, every book which we opened, every walk which we took upon the face of God’s earth, ay, every human face into which we looked, would teach us