The Fatal Sleep

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 17, 1906

A FATHER took his child out into the field one day, and it being a hot day, he lay down under a tree, and at last fell asleep. While he was sleeping, the little child wandered away. When he awoke, his first thought was, Where is my child? He looked all around, but could not see it. He shouted at the top of his voice, but all he heard was the echo. Running to a little hill, he looked around, and shouted again, but no response. Then going to a precipice at some distance, he looked down, and there upon the rocks and briars, he saw the mangled form of his loved child. While he was sleeping, the child wandered over the precipice.

What a picture of the church of God! How many fathers and mothers are sleeping now, while their children wander over the precipice right into the bottomless pit! Fathers and mothers, where are your children to-day?—Selected.