Testimonies for the Church, Volume 2 - Ellen G. White

found them sleeping. Their eyes were heavy. By
these sleeping disciples is represented a sleeping
church, when the day of God's visitation is nigh. It
is a time of clouds and thick darkness, when to be
found asleep is most perilous.
Jesus has left us this warning: "Watch ye
therefore: for ye know not when the Master of the
house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the
cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming
suddenly He find you sleeping." The church of
God is required to fulfill her night watch, however
perilous, whether long or short. Sorrow is no
excuse for her to be less watchful. Tribulation
should not lead to carelessness, but to double
vigilance. Christ has directed the church by His
own example to the Source of their strength in
times of need, distress, and peril. The attitude of
watching is to designate the church as God's people
indeed. By this sign the waiting ones are
distinguished from the world and show that they
are pilgrims and strangers upon the earth.
Again the Saviour turned sadly from His
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