absorbed  them  while  they  lived  on  earth,  to  what
the  busy  mortals  left  behind  them  for  a  little.  But  these
busy  mortals  are  just  as  insensible  with  reference  to  spiritual
realities,  as  these  mouldering  dead  are  to  the  things  of  time.
Multitudes  of  those  who  are  going  about  above  the  surface
of  the  earth,  in  all  the  activity  of  natural  life,  are  no  better
than  walking  corpses  as  regards  the  spiritual  and  eternal
world.  The  realities  of  eternity  have  no  hold  of  them.  Its
terrors  do  not  disturb  them.  Its  glories  do  not  attract
them.  Under  all  that  is  proclaimed  to  them,  from  the
word  of  God,  respecting  heaven  and  hell,  they  continue
motionless  and  dead.  Some  even  have  got  the  length  of
scorning  the  whole  scripture  testimony  on  this  subject  as
if  it  were  a  fable.  But  this  apathy  or  enmity  will  not  stay
the  unceasing  and  resistless  course  of  things  toward  its
speedy  termination  in  the  perfected  immortal  life  of  the
redeemed,  as  well  as  in  the  final  ruin  of  all  who  despise
or  neglect  the  great  salvation.
4.  Such  as  have  been  hitherto  indifferent  or  hostile  to
these  teachings  of  Christ,  ought  now  to  awake  from  their
sleep,  to  rise  from  the  dead,  and  to  come  to  Him  for  light.
Worldly  riches  quickly  take  to  them  wings,  and  fly  away.
The  pleasures  of  sin  are  but  for  a  season,  and  leave  the
soul  polluted  and  perishing  in  its  own  corruption.  And  a
name  upon  the  earth  is  a  name  written  in  the  sand.  For
such  fleeting  shadows,  let  them  not  still  forfeit  the  better,
the  enduring  substance.  They  must  choose  between  this
world  and  the  next.  They  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon.
