The message then for the day is, “Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” It is impossible for any man of common observation to be blind to the fact that the great mass of men are still slumbering before God. Quick and energetic in their business, keen in their speculations, alive and alert as to the money market, they are profoundly insensible to the coming. They are content to leave the great point unsettled. They are hurrying before the judgment seat, and have not yet bowed before the cross. They are shortly to stand before the judge, and for aught they know, the whole weight of God’s curse still hangs over their unforgiven sin. There is no fellowship with a Saviour, no walking with God, no cleansing of guilt in the Lamb’s most precious blood, no eager wrestling with God that they may have a full assurance of their name written in the book of life. A free, full, complete, salvation is now offered to them; justification and restoration are promised graciously through the name of Jesus. They are warned of their danger, and invited to the Lord for safety. Yet they sleep, they slumber on; and if perchance they for a while raise their head to listen, it is either to scoff at the message, or to sink back into a slumber more fatal, more profound. Oh! that the Holy Ghost may condescend in mercy to awake those slumberers to activity and life! Oh! that the Spirit of the living God may himself break the spell of that fatal apathy! Oh! that in our beloved church we may see the fulfilment of the Apostle’s prayer:—“The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ!” LECTURE II. THE VISIBLE CHURCH. THERE is nothing more beautiful than holy union. It is beautiful in a family, beautiful in a parish, beautiful in a nation, and above all beautiful in a church. That such a union ought to exist amongst the people of God on earth none can deny; that it is the joy of heaven, and is about to fill the coming kingdom with overflowing peace, is the happy conviction of every student of the Scriptures. Nor can we be surprised that men of vivid imagination and ardent minds should be powerfully attracted by the idea of a visible oneness in the church of Christ. There is something so truly grand and heavenly in the thought of a holy succession of devoted men, combining apostolical authority with an apostolical spirit, and handing down from age to age, untainted and undiminished, a complete system of apostolical truth, that it is only natural for men to look with reverence on such a picture.