The deepest sleep

If this sleeper is not outwardly vicious, his sleep is usually the deepest of all. He may be of the Laodicean spirit, neither cold nor hot, but a quiet, rational, inoffensive, good-natured professor of the religion of his fathers, one who only professes that religion. Or he may be zealous and orthodox, and, after the most straitest sect of our religion, live a Pharisee. That is, according to the scriptural account, one who justifies himself, one who labors to establish his own righteousness as the ground of his acceptance with God.

This is the man who, having a form of godliness, denies the power of it. Yes, and he probably reviles that power, wherever it is found, as mere extravagance and delusion. Meanwhile the wretched self-deceiver thanks God that he is not as other men are: adulterers, unjust, extortioners. No, he does no wrong to any man. He fasts twice in the week, uses all the means of grace, and is constant at church and at the sacrament. Yes, and he gives tithes of all that he has, and does all the good that he can.

As to the righteousness of the law, he is blameless. He lacks nothing of godliness but the power. He lacks nothing of religion but the spirit. He lacks nothing of Christianity but the truth and the life.