A Fatal Sleep

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Jun 27, 1912

ONE hot summer day a father took his little son for an outing in the country. Finding a pleasant spot beneath a shady tree, they lay down to rest, the man soon falling fast asleep. Meanwhile the little fellow wandered off for a boyish romp, leaving his father to undisturbed slumber. How long he slept he knew not, but on awakening his first thought was of his boy; as the child was nowhere in sight, he called, but received no reply. Worried and anxious, the man, surmising that the boy had become lost in the woods, began shouting and calling as he searched with frantic zeal for some trace of the lost child. In vain seemed all his efforts, until he espied ahead the yawning sides of a precipice. Going to the edge and peering over, he saw lying upon the thorns and rocks below, the bruised, lifeless form of his boy.

What a picture of the church of God! How many fathers and mothers are sleeping while their children are wandering near and falling over the chasm of destruction! Fathers and mothers, where are your children to-day?—Selected.