Psalms 76:5

"There have been troubled all the unwise in heart" (ver. 5)....How have they been troubled? When the Gospel is preached. And what is life eternal? And who is He that hath risen from the dead? The Athenians wondered, when the Apostle Paul spake of the resurrection of the dead, and thought that he spake but fables. But because he said that there was another life which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it gone up into the heart of man, therefore the unwise in heart were troubled. But what hath befallen them? "They have slept their sleep, and all men of riches have found nothing in their hands." They have loved things present, and have gone to sleep in the midst of things present: and so these very present things have become to them delightful: just as he that seeth in a dream himself to have found treasure, is so long rich as he waketh not. The dream hath made him rich, waking hath made him poor. Sleep perchance hath held him slumbering on the earth, and lying on the hard ground, poor and perchance a beggar; in sleep he hath seen himself to lie on an ivory or golden bed, and on feathers heaped up; so long as he is sleeping, he is sleeping well, waking he hath found himself on the hard ground, whereon sleep had taken him. Such men also are these too: they have come into this life, and through temporal desires, they have as it were slumbered here; and them riches, and vain pomps that fly away, have taken, and they have passed away: they have not understood how much of good might be done therewith. […]

This life is a dream; these riches flow as if in a dream. Hear the Psalm, O richest poor man: They have slept their sleep, and none of the men of wealth have found anything in their hands. Sometimes even a beggar lying on the ground, trembling with cold, occupied with sleep, dreams of treasures, and rejoices and is proud in his dreams, and does not deign to recognize his ragged father, and as long as he sleeps, he is rich. When he sleeps, he finds false joy; when he awakes, he finds true sorrow. Therefore, the rich man dying is like the poor man waking, who saw treasures in his dreams. For he was wrapped in purple and fine linen, a certain rich man, neither named nor to be named, a despiser of the poor lying before his door; he was wrapped in purple and fine linen, as the Gospel testimony is, and feasted sumptuously every day. He died, he was buried; he woke up, and found himself in flames. Therefore, he slept his sleep, and this man of wealth found nothing in his hands, because he did nothing good with his hands.

I will remind you again about Illuminations, and that often, and will reckon them up from holy Scripture. For I myself shall be happier for remembering them (for what is sweeter than light to those who have tasted light?). I will dazzle you with my words: "There is sprung up a light for the righteous, and its partner joyful gladness." And, "The light of the righteous is everlasting";8 and "You are shining wondrously from the everlasting mountains" is said to God, I think of the angelic powers that aid our attempts to do good. You have heard David's words: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" Now he asks that the Light and the Truth may be sent forth for him, now giving thanks that he has a share in it, in that the Light of God is marked on him; that is, that the signs of the illumination given are impressed on him and recognized.

"You marvelously illuminate from the eternal mountains." He comes to the second part, where he explains in sequence the various miracles of the Lord. And to keep people from investigating where that illumination comes from, he added, "from the eternal mountains," that is, from preachers, …

They slept their sleep, and found nothing. Truly this life is a sleep, and riches too: for when we seem to hold them, at once we lose them. Just as that which is written in the prophet: "As one who is thirsty sleeps, if he finds water he drinks; afterward, when he has awakened, the thirst itself remains," so also are riches in this world: while we hold them, we lose them.