Bonar on the Spiritual State of Mankind

Horatius Bonar, in 1845, wrote the introduction to John Gillies, Historical Collections relating to Remarkable Periods of the Success of the Gospel. What he had to say about the spiritual state of the world in his day is enlightening: "The world is still sleeping its 'sleep of death.' It has been a slumber of many generations; -- sometimes deeper, sometimes lighter, -- yet still a slumber like that of the tomb, as if destined to continue till the last trumpet sound; and then there shall be no more sleep. Yet God has not left it to sleep on unwarned. He has spoken in a voice that might reach the dullest ears and quicken the coldest heart. Ten thousand times has He thus spoken and still He speaks. But the world refuses to hear. Its myriads slumber on, as if this sleep of death were the very blessedness of its being. Yet in one sense the world's sleep has never been universal. Never has there been an age when it could be said there is not one awake. The multitude has always slept, but there has always been a little flock awake. Even in the world's deepest midnight there have been always children of the light and of the day. In the midst of a slumbering world some have been in every age awake. God's voice had reached them, and His mighty power had raised them, and they walked the earth, awake among sleepers, the living among the dead."