Note (return) — Rev. ANDREW LEE, A.M.

This was often experienced by the prophets, when God revealed himself to them, and made known his will. Thus Daniel, when the angel Gabriel was sent to solve his doubts, and let him into futurity—"Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground." The holy prophet, filled with fear at the approach of the celestial messenger, could not have fallen asleep, like some careless attendant in the house of God. Yet such is the language used to express his situation at that time, and afterwards on a similar occasion. [9] The three disciples, who witnessed the transfiguration, experienced similar sensations—sensations which absorbed the soul, and shut out terrestrial objects, which the evangelist compares to sleep.