Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/150

 In the Scriptures, the merely sensual and natural life—a life devoted to earthly pursuits, to the exclusion of everything of a spiritual and divine nature, is called sleep! and it is compared to sleep, because the state of the mind of man, being immersed in worldly things, and possessing no appetite for spiritual and celestial treasures, enjoys but a very imperfect and obscure view of truth. The Lord exhorts us to take heed and be watchful, because watchfulness being a state diametrically opposite to that of sleep, alludes to a spiritual life—a life of holiness and heavenly order, in which the mind enjoys a clear and lucid perception of truth, and in which continual progress towards heavenly goodness is made. The great necessity for watchfulness appears still further when we consider that we know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of Man may come; and if we understand this properly, we must acknowledge how necessary and important it is to watch.

The coming of the Lord, in its application to every individual man, takes place more powerfully with him at the time of bodily death; for bodily dissolution is either the beginning of real life, or it is the state in which spiritual death begins. Spiritual death is the extinction of every vital principle of heavenly goodness and truth in the soul, and it leaves the immortal destitute of those things which alone can constitute it happy in the future world. To prevent this spiritual death taking place, the Lord affectionately commands us to watch and pray; and it only remains for us to inquire within ourselves whether we do actually watch and pray, or not.