ARE YOU SLEEPING? by S. M. Spicer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 4, 1878

ARE YOU SLEEPING?

By S. M. Spicer

The following incident, related by Moody, has an impressive lesson for every parent:

“A father took his little child one Sabbath out into the fields and, it being a hot day, lay down under a beautiful shady tree, while the child ran about, gathering wild flowers and little blades of grass. At last the father fell asleep, and while he was sleeping the child wandered away. When he awoke, his first thought was, ‘Where is my child?’ He looked around, but could not see him. He shouted with all his strength, but heard only the echo of his own voice. He ran to a little hill, looked around, and shouted again. No response. He then went to a precipice at some distance, and looked down. There, upon the rocks and briars, lay the mangled form of his loved child. He rushed to the spot, took up the lifeless corpse, and clasping it to his bosom, accused himself of being the murderer of his child. While he was sleeping the child had wandered over the precipice.”

“Are you sleeping?” might well be asked of many a parent whose children are wandering over the wide plains of this sin-beset world. What heart would not be rent with anguish to look over the fearful precipice of ruin and behold the mangled form of a loved child? What father and mother would not tremble, did they know their child was walking upon a pathway bordering on such a dangerous precipice? Yet perhaps their eyes are closed in deep sleep, while the child, unwarned, is fast nearing the yawning chasm. When last they saw their innocent, happy one, it was sporting gaily, gathering the sweet flowers of pleasure, unacquainted with thorn or poisonous sting. How little do the parents realize the many dangers surrounding their child! How careless and negligent are they of the all-important responsibilities resting upon them!

Parents who design to be faithful often fail in duty because they are actually ignorant of the dangers which beset the young and inexperienced. But no parent should plead ignorance while he stands as guardian of the present and eternal interests of a human soul. He should not only know where his child is, but also know that no evil influence, no hidden enemy, lurks around his pathway. Where is my child? what are his surroundings? whither is he tending? will be the ever-recurring questions of the faithful, vigilant parent. But, alas! many a loving parent forgets the child as soon as it is out of sight—and many care not where their children are if they are only out of the way. The child sallies out from home at will, perhaps to pass the listless hours in the street, mingling with the motley crowd, seeking with them diversion, and following recklessly on to the various dens of vice and crime. What wonder if the unstained heart thus left to the power of the enemy should soon show the foul taint of corrupt association, be led step by step to the gambling room or the rum-shop, and, ere the sleeping parent awakes, even rush down the fearful precipice of shame and ruin!

Scarcely anything is so unfortunate for a child as to be left much of his time without proper employment, especially if he is permitted to spend the idle hours in the

promiscuous street throng. Anxious, toiling parent, with no time to look after your thoughtless, wayward child, do you know that he may be even now approaching the fearful, fatal chasm? Idle, dissipated father, are you blindly leading your own child directly down the awful steeps?

“Are you sleeping?” Vain, thoughtless mother, following the gay rounds of fashionable life, and leaving your little ones to the care, or rather company, of indifferent servants, the question is addressed to you. Do you ever dream what will be the character and destiny of those precious souls so sacredly committed to your trust? In the intoxication of worldly pleasure, can you thus forget the dear ties of nature,—parental affection and solicitude? No true mother can ignore the duty to watch most carefully over the physical and moral development of her tender offspring. No true mother can forsake her holy charge at home for the vain amusements of the popular social world; nor can she permit the destroyer to enter the home circle in the form of vicious company or the domestic wine-glass. Fearfully asleep must be that parent who can install the demon of intemperance in his own household, inviting his own and his neighbor’s children to the wine-flushed table of feasting. Could that father and mother awake, they would see the child, even with his first glass, already upon the dizzy verge of the precipice; a step or two more, and he may fall beyond the reach of help.

Are there Christian parents sleeping while their children, spell-bound with the fascinations of earth, have never heard of a better world, have never been taught to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness? How fearful will be the awakening at last to inquire, “Where is my child?” What bitter anguish to the parent’s heart, if he hear from his lost one the wailing lamentation, “Oh that some one had warned me of my danger!” Oh that all sleeping parents would awake to a true sense of their responsibilities, and arouse to vigilance and anxious concern for the present and eternal welfare of their children!

S. M. SPICER.