WHY PEOPLE SLEEP DURING PUBLIC WORSHIP ON THE SABBATH.
- THEY have served themselves and the world too faithfully during the week. Nature cannot bear every thing. It cannot usually bear more than six days’ labour in a week. And where people do seven days’ work in six days, Nature cries out for help. She becomes exhausted, and wants repose. Multitudes, in anticipation of the Sabbath, weary themselves out on Saturday by doing nearly two days’ work in one day. And no wonder they are drowsy on the Sabbath. 2. They do not take sufficient time for sleep on Saturday night. They reserve their lawsuits, their shopping, and their extra affairs for Saturday afternoon. Thus in addition to being unusually fatigued, they are up till eleven or twelve o’clock, or later, that evening. The natural consequence is they are sleepy on the Sabbath. 3. They think that they cannot help sleeping in church. They look upon their sleepy disposition as an infirmity. Thinking that they cannot help it, they do not try to help it. 4. They take too easy a posture. Some people take care to place themselves in a comfortable position to sleep in. They brace themselves in a corner of the pew, so that they need not fall, or make too low bows, while they are sleeping. Others use for a pillow their arm, or a book, or the top of the slip before them, or a post, or the shoulder of another. Thus they show that they expect to sleep. And they generally succeed. 5. They do not interest themselves in the religious exercises of the occasion. If they cared enough about the preaching to follow the train of remark, they would feel no disposition to sleep.
ITS IMPROPRIETY AND WICKEDNESS.
- Because it shows great irreverence. Those who go there, go professedly to worship, not to mock God. When men go to pay their respects to their superiors, do they get to sleep in their company? When Esther went into the presence of Ahasuerus to present an important petition, did she fall asleep? If she had fallen asleep, do you think the king would have said to her, “What is thy petition, and what is thy request? it shall be granted, to the half of my kingdom?” And when men come into the audience-chamber of the King of kings, professedly to present their petitions and show their respects, how does he look upon their falling asleep? And how contemptuous and disrespectful does it appear in the sight of God, to see guilty men, to whom His authorised ambassadors are delivering His message, getting to sleep under the sound of the ambassador’s voice. 2. It shows disrespect to the place of worship. Jacob exclaims, “How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” Who could sleep in such a place? House of God!—house set apart for His service. Not a dormitory—a house to sleep in; but a sacred place—a temple—a house in which to worship the true Jehovah—the ante-chamber of heaven. Yes, the gate of heaven, through which devout worshippers enter heaven, to breathe its life-giving atmosphere, and to feast upon its sacred delights. Here true Christians “come to mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” and here they meet “an innumerable company of angels, and the general assembly and church of the first-born, and God the Judge of all, and the spirits of just men made perfect, and Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.” And can any one treat such a place with so much disrespect as to sleep there? Oh, tell it not. 3. It shows great disrespect for the minister. Christ told His ministers, “He that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth Him that sent me. And how can men more clearly show that they despise the minister than by going to sleep under his preaching? 4. It shows disrespect for the audience. Would it not be so esteemed on other occasions? 5. It shows disregard for religion. Religion is the business which calls men to the Lord’s house. To sleep when this business is transacting, is evincing a great unconcern about it, or disregard of it. 6. It shows a very great disrespect for one’s self. If a man had much respect for himself, would he be caught in such an awkward predicament, in such a place, and on such an occasion, and in such company? 7. It sets a bad example. This is self-evident. 8. It is presenting the body a dead sacrifice to God. 9. It is offering a vain oblation. 10. It is offering the sacrifice of fools.
CONSEQUENCES OF SLEEPING IN CHURCH.
- Those who do it lose their time and labour in coming to church. Pity to do so much for nothing. If sleep is their object, they can get that without so much trouble. 2. They exert a bad influence on others. Sleeping in church is contagious. Where one sleeps, many learn how, and soon catch the disorder. Thus some pews, or corners of the church, might appropriately be called the sleepy pews, or the sleepy corner. 3. It forms or strengthens a bad habit. The oftener one permits himself to sleep in time of public worship, the more is he disposed to sleep. So that this habit, like every other bad one, strengthens by indulgence. 4. It disheartens the minister. After he has laboured hard during the week to prepare to give each of his hearers a portion in due season, to see them have so little appetite for the food which he has made ready as to fall asleep while he is dispensing it to them, is truly discouraging. He is ready to ask, What, can ye not watch one hour in a whole week? So short a time to be together to worship God, and prepare for heaven, and, that short time be slept away? 5. Sleepers disturb the devotions of others. This they do by their indecorous appearance, or by their loud breathing. 6. They give others a bad impression respecting their religious character. 7. They endanger their souls by insulting God, for he will not be mocked.
REMARK.
No sleeping in eternity, and all who are going there should be watchful here!—Christian Treasury.