The sleepless.
We are not surprised to read that "on that night could not the king sleep." Not, indeed, that there was anything in Ahasuerus (Xerxes) to make us expect a restless night; he appears to us here, as elsewhere, as a painful illustration of human heartlessness. That many thousands of his subjects were about to be butchered in order that his coffers might be filled should have caused the monarch many a troubled day and many a sleepless night; but such was the character of the man that no one suggests the impending massacre as the explanation of the king's restlessness. He had reached that fearful spiritual condition in which human life was of no account to him so that his power might be continued and his pleasures multiplied or secured. It is a striking instance of Divine providence. He who "holds the king's heart in his hand," who can touch with the finger of his power the secret springs of our thought and feeling, now sent troubled thoughts to this Persian king. That Lord of heaven, Keeper of Israel who slumbers not nor sleeps (Psalms 121:4), now gave a wakeful night to this earthly monarch. He was interposing on behalf of his chosen people. God willed that the sovereign should not slumber in order that he might thus be led to have "the book of records of the chronicles brought and read before the king," and Mordecai's services be thus brought to his royal notice. Little did Ahasuerus, as he tossed his restless head on the pillow, imagine that a Divine hand was laid on his troubled brain. As little do we know when the finger of God is working on us, with us, for us, or mercifully against us. Thinking of the sleepless sons and daughters of men, we may have in view—
I. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE PITY. We do well to pity with heartfelt compassion those who tell us that they ': cannot sleep at night." Scarcely a sentence comes more plaintively from human lips. Well does one of our own poets write—
"Pity! oh, pity the wretches who weep,
For they must be wretched who cannot sleep
When God himself draws the curtain."
Whether it be pain, or trouble, or sorrow that causes the sleepless hours, we may pity sincerely and pray earnestly for these.
II. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE ADMIRE. Those who
It is the women who "watch" the best. There were, humanly speaking, at least three women who could have watched that "one hour" (Matthew 26:40), and would not have been found asleep by the agonising Master. Few of the children of men are more worthy of our admiring affection than those self-denying sisters who watch so patiently lest there should be need of the ministering hand or the comforting word.
III. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE ARE OBLIGED TO BLAME. There are those in every city who cannot sleep because they cannot forget. They shut their book at night; but have soon to sigh—
"Oh God! could I so close my mind
And clasp it with a clasp."
They pay in restless hours the dark penalty of vice or crime; they are pursued and punished by dread of the wrath of God or of the justice of man, or by the rebukings of their own conscience. For such there is no remedy or escape but confession, reparation, forgiveness, human and Divine. "Return on thy way" at once.
IV. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE MUCH WISH TO SERVE. Those who cannot sleep because of "great searchings of heart;" who are asking that old new question, "How shall mortal man be just with God?" who will give themselves no rest till the way of peace is found, till they have "peace with God through Jesus Christ." There are none anywhere so deserving and demanding, so certain to receive, the tender sympathy and delicate help of those who minister in the gospel of the Saviour.
V. THE SLEEPLESS WHOM WE HOPE TO JOIN. On the other side of the river of death is a land where that which has been will not be, where we shall change this "body of our humiliation," and shall be clothed upon with the "body of his glory." There will be no sleeplessness like that of which we have spoken; no weary tossing, no heart-ache, no distress, no agitation. But there will be sleeplessness of another kind, for there will be no more need of long periods of unconsciousness and inactivity there. There will be "no more fatigue, no more distress," no more exhaustion; and therefore "there will be no night there," and no sleep, but ceaseless, tireless, unexausting energy; there they serve him "day without night." These we hope one day to join. Let us live "in Christ;" then shall we "fall asleep in him," and then shall we awake in the morning of an everlasting day where the shadows never fall, a land full of light because full of the near presence and the glory of the Lord.—C.