Sleep walking towards disaster Sleep kills. Thousands of people a year. That’s according to numerous studies into road traffic accidents. And spiritual sleepiness is a serious thing too. In case we still haven’t got it, the Puritan Richard Sibbes wants us to know how serious a thing a sleepy soul is: “Would a waking man run into a pit? Or upon a sword’s point? A man that is asleep may…
Read MoreWake up! (part 2)
Still in the Richard Sibbes sleep clinic… Sibbes notices five disturbing similarities between the nature and effects of physical sleep and the nature and effects of spiritual sleep: “Men disposed to be asleep desire to be alone. Those likewise that are disposed to take a spiritual nap, will avoid company, especially of such as would awake them.” (Sibbes). Be concerned for those who avoid Christian fellowship or avoid anything deeper…
Read MoreWake up! (part 1)
Wake up! (Rev. 3:2) The Puritans were masters of diagnosing spiritual states (e.g. see William Perkins, The Art of Prophesying, part 7). And one of the spiritual states they considered the most dangerous was sleepiness. Why we sleep Richard Sibbes, one of the English Puritans, in his third sermon on the Song of Songs, lists the similarities between the causes of physical sleep and the causes of spiritual sleep: Chemicals which…
Read More