Our text is followed at the distance of one verse with what seemed to
be the words of the sluggard in answer to the attempt to awake him:
'Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands
to sleep.' They are a quotation from an earlier chapter (ch. vi.)
where 'His Laziness' is sent to 'consider the ways of the ant and be
wise.' They are a drowsy petition which does not dispute the wisdom of
the call to awake, but simply craves for a little more luxurious
laziness from which he has unwillingly been aroused. And is it not
true that we admit too late the force of the summons and yet shrink
from answering it? Do we not cheat ourselves and try to deceive God
with the promise that we will set about amendment soon? This indolent
sleeper asks only for a _little_: 'A little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.' Do we not all know
that mood of mind which confesses our slothfulness and promises to be
wide awake tomorrow but would fain bargain to be left undisturbed
today? The call 'Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead!'
rings from Christ's lips in the ears of every man, and he who answers,
'I will presently, but must sleep a little longer,' may seem to
himself to have complied with the call, but has really refused it. The
'little more' generally becomes _much_ more; and the answer
'presently' alas! too often becomes the answer 'never.' When a man is
roused so as to be half awake, the only safety for him is
_immediately_ to rise and clothe himself; the head that drowsily
droops back on the pillow after he has heard the morning's call, is
likely to lie there long. Now, not 'by-and-by' is the time to shake
off the bonds of sloth to cultivate our garden.