108 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



coma of apoplexy, must not be confounded 

 with true sleep. 



From the very abundance and frequency of 

 God's mercies, we are in danger of forgetting 

 our obligations to thankfulness on account of 

 them. Amidst the commonest but richest of 

 these mercies, healthy and refreshing sleep may 

 fairly be numbered, and to have enjoyed it for 

 a series of years unbroken by disease and pain 

 may well call forth our sentiments of gratitude 

 to the Author and Giver of all good gifts. 

 Sleep is, too, one of those natural arrangements 

 which seems like many* others to be fraught with 

 rich spiritual analogies. It has been appro- 

 priately termed the image of death, and by its 

 nightly recurrence is well calculated to habituate 

 the pious mind to contemplate the arrival of 

 that period when the eye shall close on the 

 things of time for ever. Happy, indeed, are 

 they who each night, as they close their eyes in 

 slumber, can through a living faith in the all- 

 sufficient atonement of Christ exclaim, " Father, 

 into thy hands I commend my spirit — thou 

 hast redeemed me ;" and cheerfully refer it to 

 an almighty Disposer, whether they awake in 

 this world or another. 



