Sermon Illustration

An aged Christian minister said: “When I was a young man I knew everything; when I got to be thirty-five years of age, in my ministry I had only a hundred doctrines of religion;

Jens Haven, one of the first missionaries to the Eskimo Indians, of Labrador, while a careless youth, was awakened by a violent thunderstorm, the electricity of which struck him senseless to the ground. As soon as he recovered, he got upon his knees and cried to God for mercy and for conversion; and, from that day, was a new man, soon after devoting his life to mission work among the Moravians. It will be remembered that Luther passed through an almost identical experience.

“Who are they?” I asked. “Who are the people who rate the shows? Do they share my values? Do they love my children as much as I do?” My questions concerned the “V-chip,” which President Clinton mandated a few months ago as a requirement for all new television sets. The chip is supposed to filter TV programs, based on ratings assigned by a board similar to the movie rating board. About that same time, a reporter from the local NBC affiliate station interviewed me (an associate pastor) for a story she was preparing on the V-chip—thinking that I would be solidly in favor of it. After all, it is pro-family values, right? Yes, but whose values? I am the only one who can integrate the principles and values I hope for my children to live by with the disciplines that those principles require. The idea of taking a stand is at the heart of the V-chip problem. I really can’t think of a single reason why I would defer to someone else the responsibility to mold and monitor my children’s TV vi...

Some prayers Christ does not answer, we may say, because they ask Him to do our work for us. Tell me, is there a kinder thing that you can do for your pupil who comes up to you with his slate,

There is the connection between harmony in a home and the honoring of God. Now, we may hope that when things are right with an earthly home the inhabitants may be ready for the heavenly home; because, there is no more searching test of solid Christianity than the home. It is all very well to be pleasant in society where you only meet the surface of people. It is all very well to be thought charming by strangers, or even to appear religious at a prayer meeting, or to deliver an eloquent sermon, but this will not stand God’s test. “In the outside world,” says J. R. Miller, “we do not get close to men. We often only see their best points,” that is, we see the coating of sugar which hides the unwholesome cake. “We do not feel the friction of their meaner qualities. But at home all is laid bare. Lives touch there. The selfish motives which make us polite to outsiders have no place there, for we are sure of the hearts there.” We can be as rude as we like at home; the place is still ours, the...

There is the connection between harmony in a home and the honoring of God. Now, we may hope that when things are right with an earthly home the inhabitants may be ready for the heavenly home; because, there is no more searching test of solid Christianity than the home. It is all very well to be pleasant in society where you only meet the surface of people. It is all very well to be thought charming by strangers, or even to appear religious at a prayer meeting, or to deliver an eloquent sermon, but this will not stand God’s test. “In the outside world,” says J. R. Miller, “we do not get close to men. We often only see their best points,” that is, we see the coating of sugar which hides the unwholesome cake. “We do not feel the friction of their meaner qualities. But at home all is laid bare. Lives touch there. The selfish motives which make us polite to outsiders have no place there, for we are sure of the hearts there.” We can be as rude as we like at home; the place is still ours, the...

Dr. Lyman Abbott once said: “Blessed is the man whose home is a real refuge! who, being tossed to and fro on the waves of a tumultuous and combative sea throughout the day, leaves his office, his business perplexities behind him, and when he opens the door and enters the house, enters the landlocked harbor. But the home ought not to be a refuge for the husband and the father only, but we who are husbands and fathers ought to make it a refuge for the wives and mothers as well. They have their cares also, and when we come to our homes we ought to come bringing with us such a spirit as shall exorcise these cares and make home their refuge.”

When Peter speaks of Jesus having left us an “example” (1 Pet. 2:21), he chose for “example” the Greek word signifying “the headline of a copybook.” Jesus is for our imitation; he is our “copy.” And a test of discipleship is the progress we make in the reproduction of the copy he has set.

The Christian home is the most important institution in the world. That does not minimize the position of the church and state; they also have been ordained of God. But He places the home first—in time as well as in importance. It is the foundation upon which all other institutions are built; upon it the church and state will either stand or fall. What the homes are, the churches and schools are—and the government will be. Every place where there has been a neglect of home responsibility, there eventually has been a crumbling of the nation. —Wesley L. Gustafson

A story is told of a young man who stood at the bar of a court of justice to be sentenced for forgery. The judge had known him from a child, for his father had been a famous legal scholar and his work on the Law of Trusts was the most exhaustive work on the subject in existence. “Do you remember your father,” asked the judge sternly, “that father whom you have disgraced?” The prisoner answered: “I remember him perfectly. When I went to him for advice or companionship, he would look up from his book on the ‘Law of Trusts’ and say, ‘Run away, boy, I am busy.’ My father finished his book, and here I am.” The great lawyer had neglected his own trust with awful results.

The power of discipline was not long ago illustrated at the House of Refuge on Randall’s Island. But for it, 600 young boys would have been thrown into a panic and many lives lost.

The boy was expressing the opinion of many older than himself when he said to his mother: “I should like to be just such a Christian as father is, for no one can tell whether he is a Christian or not.”

In the home of a devout farmer there hung the well-known motto: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” The motto meant something in that house, for the farmer prayed daily that all might truly serve the Lord. The last clause fitted all the house except the oldest son, who persistently refused to accept Christ. One day the father and son were alone in the room where the motto hung. The father said, “My dear Henry, I cannot and will not be a liar any longer. You, who belong to my house, do not want to serve the Lord. Therefore I must add the words ‘except Henry’; it hurts me to do it, but I must be true.” The thought so impressed the boy that he gave himself to Christ.

Our task is not to condemn, or to judge another’s superficial unloveliness, but to look for underlying beauty. That is what we would have others do to us, and that is what we must do to others.

The natural man cannot discern the things of the spirit. We see this every day, not only as applied to imagination in its highest reaches, but in the ordinary interaction of men.

A boy was walking with his father along a lonely road at night, carrying a lantern. He told his father he was afraid, because the lantern showed such a little way ahead.

When John Huss, the Bohemian martyr, was brought out to be burned, they put on his head a triple crown of paper, with painted devils on it.

In the American Civil War, one of the officers of the Southern armies was taken a prisoner, and kept for quite awhile in a Federal prison. In his memoirs he recounts his prison experiences.

A woman and her little daughter were in a service in which the preacher spoke about how obedience toward God is revealed in the manner in which one attends to the small duties of everyday life.

God never goes to the lazy or idle when He needs men for His service— Moses was busy with his flocks at Horeb.

While the Americans were blockading Cuba, several captains endeavored to elude their vigilance by night, trusting that the darkness would conceal them as they passed between the American warships.

Charles Dickens once addressed a letter to his son Henry while he was at college, advising him to keep out of debt and confide all his perplexities to his father.

A famous military officer used to tell a story of an aged Quaker named Hartmann, whose son had enlisted in the army. There came the news of a dreadful battle, and this old father, in fear and trembling, started to the scene of conflict that he might learn something concerning his boy.

A little boy who was told by his mother that it was God who makes people good, replied, “Yes, I know it is God, but mothers help a lot.”

Theological beliefs—are yours active or dead? A  USA Today /CNN Gallup Poll was disclosed in December of 1994 with some interesting research on what Americans say they believe. Of those polled, 90% believe in heaven. Only 73% think there is an opposite of heaven, even though the word for that fiery place is probably part of their daily vocabulary. Believers in angels number 72%. But less than 65% are convinced that the devil cannot make you do anything. While there is an increase in the past decade, of those who believe in theological absolutes, more folks also believe in reincarnation and psychic contact with the dead. Today there is more openness about what people believe. Yet those beliefs will not necessarily secure for them a place in heaven. The Bible says, “ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder”  ( James 2:19   niv ) There must be some evidence that your beliefs have transformed your life to the point that...

God has made us with two eyes, both intended to be used so as to see one object. Binocular vision is the perfection of sight. There is a corresponding truth in the spiritual sphere. We have two faculties for the apprehension of spiritual truth— reason  and  faith;  the former intellectual, the latter largely intuitive, emotional. Reason asks, How? Wherefore? Faith accepts testimony, and rests upon the person who bears witness. Now reason and faith often seem in conflict, but are not. Reason prepares the way for faith, and then both act jointly. We are not called to exercise blind faith, but to be ready always to give answer to every man who asks a reason. There are three questions which belong to reason to answer: First, Is the Bible the Book of God? Second, What does it teach? Third, What relation has its teaching to my duty? When these are settled, faith accepts the Word as authoritative, and no longer stumbles at its mysteries, but rather expects that God...

The story is told that the aged pastor of a little Scotch church was asked to resign because there had been no conversions in the church for an entire year. “Aye,” said the old preacher, “its been a lean year, but there was one.” “One conversion?” asked an elder. “Who was that?” “Wee Bobbie,” replied the pastor. They had forgotten a laddie who had not only been saved but had given himself in full consecration to God. It was “wee Bobbie” who, in a missionary meeting when the plate was passed for an offering asked the usher to put the plate on the floor, and then stepped into it with his bare feet, saying, “I’ll give myself: I have nothing else to give.” This “wee Bobbie,” we are told, became the world renowned Robert Moffat, who, with David Livingstone, gave his life to the healing of the open sores of Africa—then known as the “Dark Continent.”

The Christian man knows that he is but a stranger and pilgrim; and he comforts himself, as he goes through the wilderness, thinking of the home towards which he is traveling. And he weaves tapestries, and paints pictures, and carves various creations. Living, as he does, by faith, and not merely by sight, his imagining, his picture-painting, his idealizing, his holy reverie, are filling the great empty heavens with all conceivable beauty. And what if it be evanescent? So is the wondrous frost-picture on the window; but is it not beautiful and worth having? So is the dummer dew upon the flower; but is it not renewed night by night? And faith is given to man to life him above the carnal, the dull, the sodden, and to enable him to conceive of things beyond that to which any earthly realization has yet ever attained.

The Christian man knows that he is but a stranger and pilgrim; and he comforts himself, as he goes through the wilderness, thinking of the home towards which he is traveling. And he weaves tapestries, and paints pictures, and carves various creations. Living, as he does, by faith, and not merely by sight, his imagining, his picture-painting, his idealizing, his holy reverie, are filling the great empty heavens with all conceivable beauty. And what if it be evanescent? So is the wondrous frost-picture on the window; but is it not beautiful and worth having? So is the dummer dew upon the flower; but is it not renewed night by night? And faith is given to man to life him above the carnal, the dull, the sodden, and to enable him to conceive of things beyond that to which any earthly realization has yet ever attained.

Two boys were playing in the snow one day, when one said to the other, “Let us see who can make the straightest path in the snow.” His companion readily accepted the proposition, and they started. One boy fixed his eyes on a tree, and walked along without taking his eyes off the object selected.

On a dangerous cliff stood a little company of rescuers planning how they might let someone down over the precipice to search for one who was lost and carry to him the rope with which he might be rescued.

So long as there is a radical difference between truth and falsehood, and so long as truth sustains relations to life, it will make a difference whether men believe true or false doctrine.

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman told of a time in his life when a great sorrow had come to him which occasioned his taking a trip into the far West.

When a young mother has her first babe, if it whimpers and cries she thinks that pains and diseases are about to seize it. But the grandmother, that has had the care of her own children and her children’s children, is not troubled when she hears a child cry.

Of olden times on the coast of Cornwall there were wreckers. These men tied a lantern on the head of an ass, and drove the animal along the heights that fringe the shore.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”  ( Acts 16:31 ). How simple the plan of salvation! Only believe! Faith in Christ begets hope, “which hope we have as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail.” This anchor never fails in the most tempestuous sea and the most stormy weather. Says a gentleman: “As we lay off Queenstown harbor, one blustering afternoon, I saw the anchor lowered. I could scarcely believe my eyes that such a small piece of iron could be expected to check the drift of the huge ship amid such a boiling sea, but the implicit confidence of the officers reassured me. They had tested it before. Small as it was, it held the ship amid the fury of the hurricane.” Faith in Jesus seems to be a little thing, but it has been tested and has never failed. Our boat is tossing on life’s troubled sea, but the chain that binds us to the Eternal is a chain of love, and it is easier, far easier, for h...

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”  ( Acts 16:31 ). How simple the plan of salvation! Only believe! Faith in Christ begets hope, “which hope we have as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail.” This anchor never fails in the most tempestuous sea and the most stormy weather. Says a gentleman: “As we lay off Queenstown harbor, one blustering afternoon, I saw the anchor lowered. I could scarcely believe my eyes that such a small piece of iron could be expected to check the drift of the huge ship amid such a boiling sea, but the implicit confidence of the officers reassured me. They had tested it before. Small as it was, it held the ship amid the fury of the hurricane.” Faith in Jesus seems to be a little thing, but it has been tested and has never failed. Our boat is tossing on life’s troubled sea, but the chain that binds us to the Eternal is a chain of love, and it is easier, far easier, for h...

A little girl was dying. Struggling for her last breath, she was heard to whisper, “Father, take me!” Her father, who sat dissolved in tears, lifted her gently into his lap. She smiled, thanked him, and said, “ No, not that. I spoke to my heavenly Father ,” and died. O for a childlike faith, “for except we repent, and become as a little child, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

A little girl was dying. Struggling for her last breath, she was heard to whisper, “Father, take me!” Her father, who sat dissolved in tears, lifted her gently into his lap. She smiled, thanked him, and said, “ No, not that. I spoke to my heavenly Father ,” and died. O for a childlike faith, “for except we repent, and become as a little child, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

It is not the quantity of thy faith that shall save thee. A drop of water is as true water as the whole ocean; so a little faith is as true faith as the greatest. A child eight days old is as really a man as one of sixty years; a spark of fire is as true fire as a great flame; a sickly man is as truly living as a well man. So it is not the measure of faith that saves thee— it is the blood that it grips that saves thee;  as the weak hand of a child, that leads the spoon to the mouth, will feed as well as the strongest arm of a man; for it is not the hand that feeds you, but the meat. So, if you can grip Christ ever so weakly, He will not let you perish.

It is not the quantity of thy faith that shall save thee. A drop of water is as true water as the whole ocean; so a little faith is as true faith as the greatest. A child eight days old is as really a man as one of sixty years; a spark of fire is as true fire as a great flame; a sickly man is as truly living as a well man. So it is not the measure of faith that saves thee— it is the blood that it grips that saves thee;  as the weak hand of a child, that leads the spoon to the mouth, will feed as well as the strongest arm of a man; for it is not the hand that feeds you, but the meat. So, if you can grip Christ ever so weakly, He will not let you perish.

In 1850 India was over a month’s journey from America via clipper ship. Now one can fly to India from the U.S. in a day. In the early 1800’s travel from New York to California involved months of riding on horseback through large tracts of unsettled wilderness. Now a man can cross the continent in a jet airliner within hours.

Dr. Cuyler tells of an excellent woman, at one time a member of his congregation, who was for a long time anxious for the conversion of her husband. She endeavored to make her own Christian life very attractive to him. On a certain Sabbath she shut herself up and spent much of the day in fervent prayer that God would touch her husband’s heart. She said nothing to her husband, but took the case straight to the throne of grace. The next day when she opened her Bible to conduct family worship, according to her custom, he came and took the book out of her hands, saying, “Wifey, it is about time that I did this,” and read the chapter himself. Before another week had passed away the man not only did the reading but the praying himself, and in less than a month was received into the church.

Dr. Cuyler tells of an excellent woman, at one time a member of his congregation, who was for a long time anxious for the conversion of her husband. She endeavored to make her own Christian life very attractive to him. On a certain Sabbath she shut herself up and spent much of the day in fervent prayer that God would touch her husband’s heart. She said nothing to her husband, but took the case straight to the throne of grace. The next day when she opened her Bible to conduct family worship, according to her custom, he came and took the book out of her hands, saying, “Wifey, it is about time that I did this,” and read the chapter himself. Before another week had passed away the man not only did the reading but the praying himself, and in less than a month was received into the church.

A friend tells of overhearing two little girls, playmates, who were counting over their pennies together. One said, “I have five cents.” The other said, “I have ten cents.” “No,” said the first little girl, “you have just five cents, the same that I have,” but the second child quickly replied, “My daddy said that when he came home tonight he would give me five cents, and so I have ten cents.” The child’s faith gave her proof of that which she did not as yet see, and she counted it as being already hers because it had been promised by her father. So are we to trust the promises of our Heavenly Father, and we, too, can count among our possessions the thing which he has promised to give us.

An amusing story is told of Ulysses S. Grant. One day during his Presidency he came into the room where his Cabinet was assembling, quietly laughing to himself. “I have just read,” said he, “one of the best anecdotes I have ever met. It was that John Adams, after he had been President, was one day taking a party out to dinner at his home in Quincy,

Some time ago a New York millionaire sat by his window, knowing that the hour of his death was drawing near, and, seeing a street-sweeper at work below, said; “I would give every penny of my fortune if I could change places with that man—if I could have my health back again.

“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” But the question may be asked, “What is faith?” Faith includes two things— belief in a person and trust in a promise . For example: in the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews the writer says, “For he that cometh to God must believe that  He is , and that  He is a rewarder  of them that diligently seek him.” This trust is natural to a man; that is, man is so constituted that he intuitively believes in God, and is naturally trustful and confiding; is in fact so constituted that he must trust.

The Emperor Napoleon was reviewing some troops in Paris; and in giving an order thoughtlessly dropped the bridle upon his horse’s neck, which instantly set off on a gallop. The emperor was forced to cling to the saddle. At this moment a common soldier sprang before the horse, seized the bridle and handed it to the emperor. “Much obliged to you, captain,” said the chief, by this one word making the soldier a captain. The man believed the emperor, and saluting him, asked, “Of what regiment, sire?” Napoleon charmed with his faith, replied, “Of my guards,” and galloped off.

A schoolmaster gave to three of his pupils a difficult problem. “You will find it very hard to solve,” he said, “but there is a way.” After repeated attempts, one of them gave up in despair. “There is no way!” he declared. The second pupil had not succeeded, yet he was smiling and unconcerned. “I know it can be explained, because I have seen it done.” The third worked on, long after the rest had given up. His head ached and his brain was in a whirl. Yet, as he went over it again and again, he said without faltering, “I know there is a way, because the master has said it.” Here is faith—that confidence that rests not upon what it has seen, but upon the promises of God.

There trudged along a Scottish highway years ago a little, old-fashioned mother. By her side was her boy. The boy was going out into the world. At last the mother stopped. She could go no farther. “Robert,” she said, “promise me something?” “What?” asked the boy. “Promise me something?” said the mother again.

Spurgeon tells a tale of a young man who made an open profession of the gospel. His father, greatly offended, gave him this advice: “James, you should first get yourself established in a good trade, and then think of the matter of religion.” “Father,” said the son, “Jesus Christ advises me differently; He says, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God’ ” ( Matt. 6:33 ).

God has put the matter of salvation in such a way that the whole world can lay hold of it. All men can  believe . A lame man perhaps, might not be able to visit the sick; but he can believe. A blind man by reason of his infirmity, cannot do many things; but he can believe. A deaf man can believe. A dying man can believe. God has made salvation so simple that young and old, wise and foolish, rich and poor, can all believe if they will. —D. L. Moody

God has put the matter of salvation in such a way that the whole world can lay hold of it. All men can  believe . A lame man perhaps, might not be able to visit the sick; but he can believe. A blind man by reason of his infirmity, cannot do many things; but he can believe. A deaf man can believe. A dying man can believe. God has made salvation so simple that young and old, wise and foolish, rich and poor, can all believe if they will. —D. L. Moody

Sir William Napier was one day taking a long walk, when he met a little girl about five years old, sobbing over a broken bowl. She had dropped and broken it in bringing it back from the field to which she had taken her father’s dinner in it, and she said she would be beaten on her return for having broken it; then, with a sudden gleam of hope, she innocently looked into his face and said: “But you can mend it, can’t you?” Sir William explained that he could not mend the bowl; but the trouble he could mend by the gift of a sixpence to buy another. However, on opening his purse, it was empty of silver, and he had to make amends by promising to meet his little friend in the same spot at the same hour next day, and to bring the sixpence with him, bidding her, meanwhile, tell her mother she had seen a gentleman who would bring her the money for the bowl next day. The child, entirely trusting him, went on her way comforted. On his return home he found an invitation awaiting him ...

Travelers tell us that there is, near the Jaffa gate at Jerusalem, a small terrace on the top of a hill, called the “Terrace of Indecision.” The ground is so level that the rain, falling upon it, seems at a loss which way to go. Part of it is carried over the west side, where it flows into the Valley of Roses, and gives life, fertility, beauty, and fragrance to the Sharon lilies and roses. The rest flows down the east side into the Valley of Tophet and onward to the Dead Sea. Every life has its terrace of indecision. On the decision of each one hangs his future of helpful life or of death.

An old legend tells of two men who entered the celestial portals. The white robes of the first one were stainless; and when asked by the warder where he had come from and how his garments were so clean, he told how he had just passed a poor, struggling traveler on earth, whose cart had become entangled in a swamp. The traveler had begged him to help him extricate it, and he explained with what difficulty and pain he had escaped the urgent call, and kept his garments spotless to meet his Lord.

A. J. Gordon while traveling on a train fell into debate with a fellow passenger on the subject of justification by faith. Said the man to Dr. Gordon: “I tell you, God deals with men, not with a little bit of theological scrip called faith; and when the Almighty admits one to Heaven he makes rigid inquiry about his character, and not about his faith.” Presently the conductor came along and examined the tickets. When he had passed, Dr. Gordon said, “Did you ever notice how the conductor always looks at the ticket, and takes no pains at all to inspect the passenger? A railway ticket, if genuine, shows that the person presenting it has complied with the company’s conditions and is entitled to transportation. Faith entitles a man to that saving grace that is alone able to produce a character well-pleasing to God. God cares about character; but ‘without faith it is impossible to please God’ ” (see  Heb. 11:6 ).

A. J. Gordon while traveling on a train fell into debate with a fellow passenger on the subject of justification by faith. Said the man to Dr. Gordon: “I tell you, God deals with men, not with a little bit of theological scrip called faith; and when the Almighty admits one to Heaven he makes rigid inquiry about his character, and not about his faith.” Presently the conductor came along and examined the tickets. When he had passed, Dr. Gordon said, “Did you ever notice how the conductor always looks at the ticket, and takes no pains at all to inspect the passenger? A railway ticket, if genuine, shows that the person presenting it has complied with the company’s conditions and is entitled to transportation. Faith entitles a man to that saving grace that is alone able to produce a character well-pleasing to God. God cares about character; but ‘without faith it is impossible to please God’ ” (see  Heb. 11:6 ).

This substitute of discriminating admiration for embracing faith and personal love, if pressed, will be one of the strongest elements in dividing those who profess to be followers of the blessed Redeemer. We cannot divide the foundation and maintain the superstructure: we cannot divide Christ and keep our faith. No mere admiration of Jesus will anchor the soul. “The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” ( Gal. 2:20 ). “Faith is the victory that overcometh the world” ( 1 John 5:4 ).

The son of a widow in difficult financial circumstances was on his last journey to Oxford. His mother had made a great, and a last effort, as she hoped it might be, to raise the money to enable her son to take his degree. The coach was within two stages of Oxford, when a little before it reached the inn where they stopped, the young scholar missed the money which his mother had given him. He had been a good and careful son, and such a sickness of heart as he felt at that moment some can guess.

Charles Spurgeon relates: “I can scarcely recall the details of a little incident in Russian history which might illustrate the emergency; but the fact, as far as my memory serves, was this. The Czar had died suddenly, and in the dead of night one of the counselors of the empire came to the Princess Elizabeth and said to her, ‘You must come at once and take possession of the crown.’ She hesitated, for there were difficulties in the way, and she did not desire the position.

John Wesley was walking one day with a troubled man who expressed his doubt of God’s goodness. “I don’t know what I shall do with all this worry and trouble,” he said. At that moment Wesley noticed a cow looking over a stone wall. “Do you know,” asked Wesley, “why that cow is looking over that wall?” “No,” replied his troubled companion. “I will tell you,” said Wesley—“because she cannot see through it. That is what you must do with your wall of trouble—look over it and above it.” Faith enables us to look over and above every trouble, to God, who is our help.

John Wesley was walking one day with a troubled man who expressed his doubt of God’s goodness. “I don’t know what I shall do with all this worry and trouble,” he said. At that moment Wesley noticed a cow looking over a stone wall. “Do you know,” asked Wesley, “why that cow is looking over that wall?” “No,” replied his troubled companion. “I will tell you,” said Wesley—“because she cannot see through it. That is what you must do with your wall of trouble—look over it and above it.” Faith enables us to look over and above every trouble, to God, who is our help.

How happy is the forward look of faith! It meets all doubt with confidence in the living Christ. It looks beyond all present disappointment to the completion of His work. It counts itself His fellow-workman in all efforts toward the bettering of the world.

To refrain from gossip when others about you delight in it. To stand up for the absent person who is being abused. To live honestly within your means and not dishonestly on the means of others. To be a real man, a true woman, by holding fast to your ideals when it causes you to be looked upon as strange and peculiar. To be talked about and remain silent when a word would justify you in the eyes of others, but which you cannot speak without injury to another. To refuse to do a thing which is wrong, though others do it. To live according to your own convictions. To dress according to your income and to deny yourself what you cannot afford to buy. The Fountain

When Moody and Sankey were conducting services in the mining region of England, coming out of the services one night, they noticed a man sitting just underneath the gallery. Although everybody else had left the church, he still remained. Mr. Moody sat down beside him, and found that he had been a constant attendant upon the services, and that he had determined this night that he would not leave the building until he had settled the question of his soul’s salvation. After prayer and the study of the Bible the matter was settled.

Another illustration on faith from the “prince of preachers,” C. H. Spurgeon: The stupendous falls of Niagara have been spoken of in every part of the world; but while they are marvelous to hear of, and wonderful as a spectacle, they have been very destructive to human life, when by accident any have been carried down the cataract. Some years ago two men, a bargeman and a collier, were in a boat, and found themselves unable to manage it, it being carried so swiftly down the current that they must both inevitably be taken down and dashed to pieces. Persons on the shore saw them, but were unable to do much for their rescue. At last, however, one man was saved by floating a rope to him, which he grasped. The same instant that the rope came into his hand a log floated by the other man. The thoughtless and confused bargeman instead of seizing the rope laid hold on the log. It was a fatal mistake; they were both in imminent peril, but the one was drawn to shore because he had a ...

Spurgeon relates: “I have read the story of a man who was converted to God by seeing the conduct of his wife in the hour of trouble. They had a lovely child, their only offspring. The father’s heart doted on her perpetually, and the mother’s soul was knit up in the heart of the little one. The baby lay sick upon her bed, and the parents watched her night and day. At last the infant died. The father had no God; he rent his hair, he rolled upon the floor in misery, wallowed upon the earth, cursing his being, and defying God in the utter casting down of his agony. There sat his wife, as fond of the child as ever he could be; and though tears would come, she gently said, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ ‘What,’ said he, starting to his feet, ‘you love that child! I thought that when that child died it would break your heart. Here am I, a strong man; I am mad: here are you, a weak woman, and yet you are strong and bold; tell me wh...

A strong faith in God: this was another of our founding fathers’ landmarks. They trusted God. Like Abraham they believed God. We are not bound to believe all that our fathers believed. There are many things we cannot accept, but when we recollect the firmness with which the old men clung to the broad doctrines of Scripture, of the strength they gained, of the rest, peace and joy of soul they obtained, these memories should check that mania for fashionable doubting which is so much abroad today, and lead us to keep this landmark firmly in its place. Faith in God is our safeguard in temptation; it saves us from despair; it gives prevalence to prayer; it brings deliverance; it is the secret of all heroic enterprises; it ennobles the whole life, and without it no church can succeed.

I have read that, when the first cable of the suspension-bridge that now spans the Niagara was about to be laid, a thin thread was attached to a kite and both sent, on a favoring wind, to the other side of the river. By means of that thread, a heavier string was pulled across, and by it a heavier one still, and then a rope, and then a tow, and then the cable, and the other parts of that mighty bridge that enables the people to pass in safety, from one side to the other, over the roaring cataract beneath. Let but those who doubt or disbelieve fasten the tiny thread of faith that still lingers in them to the spiritual side of life, and gradually it will become stronger and stronger until it will grow into a mighty bridge that will carry them safely, over the seething and hissing abyss of doubts and perplexities, unto the yonder peaceful shore.

A young fellow heard a preacher from the olden days, and was greatly moved, and the preacher said: “When you have a religious impression, the time to act upon it is right then. The time when you hear God’s call, in which you ought to respond is right then.” And the young fellow walked down the aisle and publicly made his surrender to Christ, saying: “It shall be right now that I take Christ as my Savior.”

The providence of God sent across my path some years ago a thief who had been in prison over twenty times. I could find no work for him here, because he was well known, and therefore I sent him across the ocean to America, but his character followed him, and he was returned to England. At length we obtained work for him out of Manchester; and he turned out to be a faithful employee. One day the manager of the business was removing his goods to a new house, and the mistress—who did not know what the man had been—called him, saying, “John, this basket contains all our silver; will you please be very careful about it, and carry it to the new house.” I said to the man, “And what did you do?” He said, “When I got outside, I looked into the basket and saw the silver shining. I lifted it up, and it felt very heavy.” “Well, what did you do then?” He replied, “I cried, because I was trusted.” Of course, he carried it safely.

I recollect in a time of great despondency deriving wonderful comfort from the testimony of an aged minister who was blind, and had been so for twenty years.

A poor widowed laundry woman lost her daughter and only child. A few days after the funeral, she called on the clergyman who had attended her in her illness, and, handing him a packet containing 20 pounds, asked that it might be conveyed to some missionary society. The clergyman, well knowing her circumstances, naturally hesitated; but with great modesty she urged him to take it, and said: “When my child was born, I thought, ‘She’ll live to get married some of these days,’ and I thought I would begin to put by a little sum to be a store for her then, and I began that day with sixpence. You know what happened last week. Well, I thought to myself, the heavenly Bridegroom has come, and He has called her home to be His bride; and I thought, as He has taken the bride, it is only right He should have the dowry.”

Some years ago an airtight vase was found in a mummy-pit in Egypt, by the English traveler Wilkinson, who sent it to the British museum. The librarian there, having unfortunately broken it, discovered in it a few grains of wheat and one or two peas, old, wrinkled and hard as stone. The peas were planted carefully under glass on the 4th of June, 1844, and at the end of thirty days these old seeds were seen to spring up into new life. They had been buried probably about three thousand years ago, perhaps in the time of Moses, and had slept all that long time, apparently dead, yet still living in the dust of the tomb.

A few years ago I was living in a suburban town about twelve miles west of St. Louis, Missouri. One night I ran to catch a train to take me there and just managed to swing up on the back platform of the last car as it was pulling out. Feeling lucky that I had just caught it, I settled down for a nap till I reached my station. After about twenty minutes I looked out of the window to see where I was, and found the train was running right by the station at which I wished to get off.

“I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also ”—( 2 Tim. 1:5 ). Lois and Eunice are not irrelevancies in the story of Timothy. What they were had much to do with what he was, or they would not have been named with this honor. As one missionary put it, “To make a sound Christian of a Hindu you have got to convert his grandmother.”

Confucius, when he learned that an enemy, named Hwan-to was attempting to kill him, said: “As heaven has produced such virtue in me, what can Hwan-to do?” Contrast with this: “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

A long time ago an old woman tripped and fell from the top of a stone stairway in Boston as she was coming out of the police station. They called the patrol and carried her to the hospital and the doctor examining her said to the nurse, “She will not live more than a day.” And when the nurse had won her confidence the old woman said, “I have traveled from California, stopping at every city of importance between San Francisco and Boston, visiting two places always—the police station and the hospital. My boy went away from me and did not tell me where he was going, so I have sold all my property and made this journey to seek him out. Some day,” she said, “he may come into this hospital, and if he does tell him that there were two who never gave him up.” When the night came and the doctor standing beside her said, “It is not but a question of a few minutes,” the nurse bent over her to say, “Tell me the names of the two and I will tell your son if I see him.” With trembling li...

During the period of rainy weather, a London city missionary became discouraged through inclemency of the weather and the hard-heartedness of the people. One evening he wandered through his district in a very despondent mood, and stepped into a hallway to rest and gain shelter from the rain. Through an open doorway he saw a seamstress at her work by candlelight. So busily was she working that he had trouble to follow the fast flying needle with his eye. She stopped a moment to rest, but then, casting a look at her candle, she murmured, “I must hasten, for my candle is burning low, and I have no other,” and busily applied herself to her work. The missionary says: “These words entered my heart as a warning from above. In a moment my despondence was gone, and I said, ‘I too, must hasten and work while it is day; the night comes apace when no man can work.’” Do YOU feel discouraged, brother or sister? Work on, your labor is not in vain in the Lord! You cannot know how long you...

A revival swept through the university at Princeton, New Jersey. Aaron Burr came to the president of the university and said: “Mr. president, I have made up my mind to consider the claims of Christ. Now, Mr. President, what would you do?” And the old president of the university gave him this advice: He said, “Burr, if I were you, I would wait until the excitement of the revival had subsided, and then I would think it out carefully.” Aaron Burr bowed his head a moment, and then he said, “Mr. President, that is exactly what I will do.” And, it is stated as a fact, that never again in his life did he express a desire to be a Christian, and they say he died without such an expression.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen  ( Heb. 11:1 ). It was rumored that underneath a certain piece of ground there was iron to be found, and two men were appointed to go and inspect the land and see whether there was really iron there. One man, a scientist and mineralogist, was very conscious of his own limitations; and knowing his own weaknesses, he took with him some scientific instruments. The other man, who was buoyant and self-confident, said, “I believe what I can see, and what I can’t see I won’t believe”; and so he walked over the field, and got over it in no time. He said, “Iron? nonsense! I see no iron; there is no iron here.” This man went to the syndicate and said, “There is no iron there: I walked all over the field and I could not see a trace of it.” The other man did not trust to his eye at all. He carried in his hand a little crystal box, and in that little crystal box there was a needle, and he kept watching ...

Hezekiah Butterworth, in writing about the Christian faith of Abraham Lincoln, tells this story: “One day Mr. Lincoln met an army nurse, a woman of true Christian character. ‘I have a question to ask you,’ he said, in effect. ‘What is a religious experience?’ It was the most important question that one can ask in the world. The woman answered: ‘It is to feel one’s need of divine help and cast one’s self on God in perfect trust and know his presence,’ or words to that effect. ‘Then I have it,’ he answered. ‘I have it, and I intend to make a public profession of it.’ About the same time, or later, he said to Harriet Beecher Stowe: ‘When I entered the White House I was not a Christian. Now I am a Christian.’ In this period of divine trust he made a vow to God to free the slaves by a proclamation. At a cabinet meeting he said: ‘The time has come to issue a proclamation of emancipation; the people are ready for it, and I promised God on my knees I would do it.’”

While holding meetings in Egypt among some soldiers I asked a big sergeant in a Highland regiment how he was brought to Christ. His answer was: “There is a private in our company who was converted in Malta before the regiment came on to Egypt. We gave that fellow an awful time. One night he came in from sentry duty, very tired and set, and before going to bed he got down to pray. I struck him on the side of his head with my boots, and he just went on with his prayers. Next morning I found my boots beautifully polished by the side of my bed. That was his reply to me. It just broke my heart, and I was saved that day.” —Rev. J. Stuart Holden

The duty of every man is to ask himself two questions: “What is my place?” and, “Am I in it?”. There are people who from lack of thought or because of unsettling circumstances, drift about uncertainly, anchoring nowhere, bearing no cargoes, and guarding nothing. It is pathetic to meet individuals of middle age who never yet have found their niche. But, once in a situation of opportunity, there comes the urgent demand, Am I measuring up to it? No one is negligible; and even one cog, if broken, will mar the running of the social machine. Nothing is unimportant in the economy of God. The Lord has a place for us, and, if we have the high aim of a holy enterprise, it will prove to be no narrow one. Let us get the right spirit, and we shall have all the “sphere” we want.

McIan of Glencoe meant to surrender, no doubt about it, when in 1691 William III gave the word that all royalists must take the oath or take the consequences. McIan meant to surrender, to go to the place where all the Highland chieftains were to go, and take the oath of allegiance, but he said, “I will be the last. I will go at just the last moment. The others have gone ahead, the others have been at Inverness weeks ago, to take the oath,” and he started a few days before the thirty-first of the previous month, really meaning to take the oath: but a snowstorm came on and detained him, causing him struggle and stumble through the snows.

There are a great many helps to courage in numbers and display. The music of marching feet, the brilliancy of uniform and flag, and, above all, the military band with its martial tunes which make the air vibrate with martial feeling. A woman in an American town hurried to the window not long ago at the sound of the band, to see the soldiers marching. “If I were a man,” she exclaimed, “I should be a soldier myself! I know I could shoot if they kept the band playing all the time.” How many who can fight the battle of life while the band plays faint by the wayside when they must go out in cold blood and sternly struggle with the hard duties of quiet days! But the noblest heroes among men and women are those who in silence and in quiet, in unreported battles do their duty for Christ’s sake and for the love of their fellow men. The newspapers may not herald their bravery, but God recognizes it, and they shall have something better than the medal of the Legion of Honor in God’s ...

Feeble are we? Yes, without God we are nothing. But by faith, every man may be what God requires him to be. This is the only Christian idea of duty. Measure obligation by inherent ability? No, my brethren, Christian obligation has a very different measure. It is measured by the power that God will give us, measured by the gifts and possible increments of faith. And what a reckoning it will be for many of us, when Christ summons us to answer before Him under the law, not for what we are, but for what we might have been.

If, at the tent door, the Arab offers to the thirsty passerby a cup of water, clear, cool, and sparkling in the cup, but in which he has cleverly concealed a painful and deadly poison, he would deserve and receive the anathema of all honest men. Much more terrible shall be the doom of him who, pretending friendship with the souls of men, and offering them in their need, instead of the pure water of life the deadly poison of false doctrine, shall bring down upon himself the righteous and unerring anathema of God.

When duly examined, the pretexts of indecision are absurd; unless we submit to the great appeal, nothing is left but speechlessness. What are the undecided ones waiting for? Some are stopped by a variety of presuppositions. Much mystery and many questions must be cleared up. There are difficulties with regard to the Bible: the great question of Noah’s ark, of Baalam’s ass, of the Gadarene swine. How shall we reconcile sin, suffering and death with the goodness of God? Are not the birth and death of Christ wrapped in mystery?

The losing of one’s life is an irreparable loss. Whatever we may seem to get in exchange, we really get nothing. For if we gain the whole world, we can keep it but for a little while, and it will have no power to deliver us from death or give us the blessing of eternal life. The world cannot give peace of conscience or comfort in sorrow. It cannot purchase heaven. All we can do with the world is to keep it until death comes. We cannot carry even the smallest portion of it with us into the other world. “How much did he leave?” asked a neighbor, referring to a millionaire who had just died. “Every cent,” was the reply. So it is easy to see that there is no profit, but rather a fearful and eternal loss in gaining even all the world at the price of one’s soul. —J. R. Miller

The Roman Cicero, who lived before Christ, was a very respected orator and politician. Without the insight of Christ’s revelation, he said something very important concerning life and death: “I am sure that my friends who died before me did not cease to live. In reality, only their present state can be called life. I believe this because I am duty bound to do so by my logic and because of my respect for the greatest philosopher of the past. I consider this world as a place which was never meant to be our abode forever. I never considered my departure from this world as being chased out of my permanent residence, but rather as a checking out from a temporary abode such as a hotel or an inn.”

Paul tells of Christians who “through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” ( Heb. 2:15 ). There are some men and women who haunt their lives and make them cheerless for fear they will not be able to meet the king of terrors when he comes. Dear friends, learn from your Savior that no duty reveals itself till we approach it. The duty of death, when you approach it, will light itself up, you may be sure, and seem very easy to your soul. Till then do not trouble yourself about it. To live, and not to die, is your work now. When your time comes, the Christ who conquered death will prove Himself its Lord, and pave the narrow river to a sea of glass for you to cross. The work of life is living, and not, as we are so often told, preparing to die, except by living well. —Phillips Brooks

In the winter and early spring there seems to be no life in the garden and field and forest. Everything looks dead—twice dead. But it is not so really. Under the surface, roots are full of ferment, seeds are swelling, and within the bark of the trees is as much movement as in a city’s noisy streets. Every fiber is tingling with vital force, and the sap is coursing along the minute channels, and all that is needed is the breath of the south wind, the warmth of the smiling sun, and the branches will burst into buds, and the earth will break out with laughing flowers. So in souls that seem dead, twice dead, the Spirit of God is often at work, and one earnest heaven-sent message calls out the buds of penitence and faith, and it is seen as a very garden of the Lord. Spiritual winter may hold a springtide of blessing and resurrection glory in its chill grasp, but He who commands both can easily transform the one into the other.

The only child of a poor woman, a little boy of three years old, one day fell into a fire by accident, during his mother’s absence from the cottage, and was so badly burned that he died after a few hours’ suffering. The clergyman of the parish did not hear of the accident until the child was gone; but as soon as he knew of it, he went down to see the mother, who was known to be dotingly fond of the child, in order that he might comfort and console her. To his great surprise, he found her very calm, and patient, and resigned. After a little conversation, she told him how that God had sent her wonderful comfort.

A preacher once said that we must recover from some of our blind prejudices concerning death, and must come to understand that it is not an enemy, but a messenger of God, and such a messenger can never be other than kindly. To Christ it must have been an infinite relief, and to us who follow in his footsteps it is the inn in which we sleep on the last night before we reach home. In the morning when we wake from slumber, we find ourselves on the brighter shore in the presence of the loved who have gone before. Such faith makes us peaceful, contented, and happy, glad to live as long as we may, and glad to go when the Father summons us.

The most beautiful sight this earth affords is a man or woman so filled with love that duty is only a name, and its performance the natural outflow and expression of the love which has become the central principle of their life.

The following picture of spiritual death is told by Henry Ward Beecher: “A man is taken out of the water into which he has fallen. It is feared that he is past recovery. He is brought in. He no longer hears, nor speaks, nor sees, nor breathes, nor moves, nor shows any evidence of feeling. And you say, “He is dead.” Why is he said to be dead? Because he lacks sensibility.

A sad thing happened in Henderson, Kentucky, when two little girls who were playing hide-and-seek with three other children went into the cellar to find a hiding place. Seeing a large, old-fashioned trunk in one corner, they raised the lid and jumped inside. The top fell and closed with a tight spring lock, and before they were found they had been smothered to death. Sad as it is, this heartbreaking incident is only a fitting type of the smothering to death of spiritual life by men and women all about us. The heart that does not worship God, but twines its affections about things of the world, will soon smother to death its noblest life.

“And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit”  ( Acts 7:59 ). In a Chinese town an angry mob was stoning a Chinese Christian to death. “Are you sorry,” asked the missionary, “that you must die like this?” “Oh, no,” he replied. “How glad! Only sorry that I have done so little for Jesus, my Lord.”

“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”  ( Matt. 11:28 ) The story is told of a little Welsh girl who lay dying of a dread disease. The doctor had told the mother she could not live throughout the night. Whereupon the mother sought to console the little girl with thoughts of heaven.

On the 10th of June, 1770, the town of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was utterly devastated by an earthquake. From one of the destroyed servant’s housing buildings the slaves had fled, except a black woman, the nurse of her master’s infant child. She would not desert her charge, though the walls were even then giving way. Rushing to the child’s bedside, she stretched forth her arms to protect the babe. The building rocked to its foundation; the roof fell in. Did it crush the hapless pair? The heavy fragments fell indeed upon the woman, but the infant escaped unharmed, for its noble protectoress extended her bended form across the body, and at the sacrifice of her own life, preserved her charge from destruction.

Ignorance is the chief sin of our time. Some say unbelief is. I think not. Some say the great need is faith. But when we have intelligence we shall have faith. We need knowledge of God. I do think that what people need most in this world today is a belief in God. It is a very rare man that truly and deeply believes in God. If you believe in God, you see Him in everything—in the birds and flowers, and brightness and beauty, as well as when the storms gather and sorrow sweeps over you. If a man believes there is a God, his belief controls him all through his being. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may glorify God” ( Matt. 5:16 ). In order to make other men think of God we must believe in Him, and must have such a strong obedience coming out of our belief that men will take knowledge of us that we believe in God and know Him. —Alexander McKenzie

“One should think,” said a friend to the celebrated Dr. Samuel Johnson, “that sickness and the view of death would make men more religious.” “Sir,” replied Johnson, “they do not know how to go about it. A man who has never had religion before no more grows religious when he is sick than a man who has never learned figures can count when he had need of calculation.”

For a long time a gentleman used to drop a penny into the hat of a poor beggar who sat by a church door in Madrid. For a week, however, the gentleman was confined to his house by illness. When he was able to return to business he put the usual coin into the hat of the beggar. “Pardon me, señor,” said the latter; “have you not a little account to settle with me?

On a train one summer a young girl was boiling over with indignation at a preacher who had been asking her some plain questions about her soul. “Why, he even asked me if I were sure I was really on the road to heaven,” she said. “He had no right to talk like that to me, and to make me feel perfectly dreadful.”

The shepherd whose ninety and nine sheep were safe did not wait for the one astray to return; he went forth and sought and found it, and when he did find it he did not maul or kick or pound it; he took it to his bosom, and comforted and rescued and healed it. —D. L. Moody

Mr. Wesley, one winter day, met a poor girl in one of the schools under his care. She seemed almost frozen. He asked her if she had no clothing but the thin garments she was wearing. She said she had not. His hand was in his pocket in an instant, but there was no money there. He went to his room, but the pictures on it seemed to upbraid him.

At Schults Lewis Children’s Home in northern Indiana, where the corn is so tall and plentiful, we always had a devotional before school began. We adults had many friends in our mission fields, and always included them in our prayers by asking, “Lord, please bless all the workers we know, especially those in the foreign fields.” Eight-year-old Robert kept asking us to let him say the prayer one morning. The time came and Robert did a masterful job until he came to that part, and he said, “Lord, please bless all our brothers and sisters that are working so hard out in all those corn fields.” —Lester Allen Bulletin Digest

A large steamer was voyaging homeward. In wild weather and growing darkness a black man fell overboard. Instantly the vessel was stopped, the engines reversed, the boats lowered, and the energy of every officer and man of the crew devoted to the man’s rescue. A native Indian prince was on board, and, seeing all this, broke out in surprise to the captain: “What! You delay the passage of His Majesty’s mails, lose hours of your run, and your boats and men, for that Negro fireman?” “Certainly,” replied the captain, “and I would risk the loss of my propeller and smokestack to pick up the poorest laborer in my company. But Jesus laid down His own life to save you and me.”

At a railway station in New Jersey a little girl stepped up to a shackled criminal, and looking tenderly into his face, said: “Oh, man, I am so sorry for you.” It made him very angry, and he tried to strike her. Her mother forbade her to go near him again. But as they all waited for the train the mother’s eyes were turned away, and once more the little tot stole up to the wretched man and tenderly whispered to him: “Poor man, Jesus Christ is so sorry for you.”

The Alpine strawberry is no larger than a pea, and yet is the sweetest of all the fruits of the field. And many of the most precious deeds of a true Christian are the small acts of his life, as the giving of a cup of cold water to a weary disciple, or the speaking of a word in due season. There is an old adage that says “the smaller the gift or the service, in certain circumstances, the greater the evidence of love.” To fetch the donkey for Jesus was a truer test of love than to drive furiously like Jehu (see  2 Kings. 9 ). To wash the feet of Jesus, like Mary, is an evidence of greater love than to spread a feast for Him like Simon the Pharisee. Mary with her alabaster box of ointment, the widow with her two mites, Peter forsaking his fishing tackle—these are truer acts of benevolence than the gifts of a Vanderbilt, DuPont, Getty, Hearst, Ted Turner, or Bill Gates. A little boy gave six cents for charity and wrote on the envelope: “Fasted a meal to give a meal.”

In a remote district of Wales a baby boy lay dangerously ill. The widowed mother walked five miles in the night through drenching rain to get a doctor. The doctor hesitated about making the unpleasant trip. Would it pay? he questioned. He would receive no money for his services, and, besides, if the child’s life were saved, he would no doubt become only a poor laborer. But love for humanity and professional duty conquered, and the little life was saved. Years after, when this same child—David Lloyd-George—became Prime Minister of England, the doctor said, “I never dreamed that in saving the life of that child on the farm hearth I was saving the life of the leader of England.” This is a good Children’s Day lesson. In working for the little ones we never know how much we are doing.

A lost person once met a Christian, and said, “I know you do not believe your religion.” “Why?” asked the Christian. “Because,” said the other, “for years you have passed me on my way to my house of business. You believe, do you not, there is a hell, into which men’s spirits are cast?” “Yes, I do,” said the Christian. “And you believe that unless I believe in Christ I must be sent there?” “Yes.” “You do not, I am sure, because if you did, you must be a most inhuman wretch to pass me, day by day, and never tell me about it or warn me of it.” —C. H. Spurgeon