Acts 12:5-8

Peter is sound asleep, flat on his back, chained to a soldier on either side, the stilly hours of dulcet slumber treading slowly on, anticipating the day of his bloody martyrdom. He must have had perfect rest in Jesus, or he could not have slept. The soldier on either side of him, and the other fourteen standing guard around, are all wide awake. The saints convened in the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, all wide awake, spending the whole night in prayer for Peter's release. The angel of the Lord lights down in the dark dungeon, illuminates the prison, knocks off the chains that bind him to the soldiers, speaks to him audibly: “Gird thyself and put on thy sandals; throw thy cloak around thee and follow me.” Meanwhile the soldiers, chained to Peter on either side and wide awake, neither see the light nor hear the clangor of the chains, nor feel Peter move; while the other fourteen, standing guard all around, neither see the light, hear a chain, nor feel the contact of Peter and the angel, as they squeeze between them, pressing their way out; but all, true to their trust, stand guard through the night, without a surmise that their prisoner, on whose safe-keeping their life depends, has already made his escape. So, I trow, when my Lord comes at midnight to steal away His Bride, though the trumpet shall from the heavenly pinnacle call so loudly that every roar, the archangel shout, and the Prince of Glory saint, living and dead, will hear and respond, yet a wicked world and fallen church will sleep so soundly as not to be awakened by the trumpet blast nor the resurrection earthquake. The morning dawns; a mother is missing from the home, and the alarm is raised, and a member of the family runs out on the streets, meets another exclaiming, “Oh, the daughter is missing from our home! her apparel all on hand.” And another runs out on the street and shouts, “The old colored cook is missing from our home I and she has the key to the dining-room and kitchen, and we broke open the door and couldn't find her.” And another exclaims, “Old Uncle Tom, who kept the barn and the horses and carriages, is missing, and we can not find him.” By this time the whole city is in commotion, clamorous about the absent ones. Such is the commotion that church-bells are rung and all the people crowd in. A number of the sainted occupants of the amen corners are missing; some of the preachers can not be found, and some of the members are missing out of all the churches; the excitement is intense, and the suspicion settles down like a nightmare on all the people: “The Lord has come at midnight and taken away His Bride, and we have missed the grandest opportunity of our existence.” Preachers are blamed for not giving them due warning. They apologize and beg pardon.