II.  In this respect they differ from Peter, for “he was sleeping between two soldiers.”  Besides this, there were men stationed at the door to keep watch all night.  But the Lord is prepared for every emergency.  What storm can sink a ship when Omnipotence is at the helm?  If you or I, brethren, were to see a brother confined and guarded as Peter was, I greatly fear we would utterly despair of ever seeing him rescued; especially so if public sentiment were rife with malice and rage against him.  I fear we would say, It is no use to pray for that man.  Nothing short of a miracle can save that man; and miracles are not wrought by prayer nowadays.  But the loving hearts gathered together in secret places in Jerusalem thought not so.  They “made unceasing prayer for him.”

Now let us note the order in which the Lord proceeded to answer these prayers.  He came to Peter and smote him.  Whether the stroke was light or heavy is a thing of little consequence.  It succeeded in awaking the man.  This was its object.  I think the Lord gave Peter only a slight tap on the side, because he was not hard to wake up that night.  But there are some, and I have known such, whom the Lord had to smite very hard to stir them from their sleep.  They open their eyes in amazement and wonder why they have been so smitten.  Unfortunately for some of this class, they open their eyes, but they see not; they hear, but they heed not.  I think I have known a few such; and I fear the Lord said of them what he said of Ephraim:  “He is joined to his idols, let him alone.”

III.  There is a third class, and they compose a great multitude, who have, so to speak, grown up in the devil’s prison house, and have grown so used to his ways that they are willing to stay there.  These may be said to be bound with two chains.  Their love of the world is one chain, and their love of self is the other.  I may be addressing some now who are thus bound.  Let us see.  Jesus says:  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And a second is like to it which is this:  Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Does every one who is now under the sound of my voice do this?  Are you sure, my friend, that you love God more than the world, and that you love your neighbor as yourself?  What proof have you to give of this?  Jesus again says:  “If ye love me, keep my commandments.  He that loveth me will keep my words.”  There can be nothing more perfectly in harmony with human nature in all its phases than these declarations of our Lord.  Where is the subject that is unwilling to render obedience to the prince or king that he loves?  Where is the loving child that refuses to obey its parents?  I tell you that obedience is the test and proof of love.  Do you obey our Lord Jesus Christ?  Do you say “No”?  Then, my dear friend, let me say to you, in all candor and love, you do not love him.  You may imagine that you do, but your imagination on this point is a delusion.  But perhaps you are ashamed to confess him.  Hear again what the Lord says:  “He that is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his glory.”