HERE is our little russet-colored friend fast asleep: it is hard indeed to awake him. The children will throw him up, and catch him in their hands, but on, on he sleeps unconcernedly. They will straighten him out of his ball shape, but he heeds them not; on he sleeps. Really, it seems as if almost anything can be done to our pretty little dormouse without awaking him, so cozily is he curled up in his warm fur.
Ah! it is winter! It is the cold that has enwrapped him in this deep sleep. Lay him out before the fire, and see how soon he will thaw into a bright, cheery existence.
Why do we speak of our little dormouse? Well, christian friend, it is because, may be, that amongst our readers there is a believer curled up, as it were, in his own fur, and fast asleep. What is to be done? Such need awaking, for is it not written, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead”? (Eph. 5:14), and a christian asleep is, to all outward appearance, a dead sinner. He is bidden first to awake, and then to leave the company in which he is found.
But what is to be done? Try violent measures? No, such will avail little. Here is the awakening secret—lay him out before the fire, get him into the warmth, and then instead of being selfishly taken up with his own things, he will become diligent in love to others.
What is it to be thus rolled up? It is simply being absorbed by our own interests, selfishness, and self-occupation. Fill the heart with Christ, and His love will constrain His followers to do as He did.