Sermon Illustration

Someone cursed Benjamin Franklin, charging that the Constitution of the United States was a farce. “Where is all the success that it guarantees us?” he sneered. Franklin, smiling, answered, “My friend, the Constitution guarantees only the right to the pursuit of happiness.” Psalm 34:14 tells us to not only seek peace but pursue it.

A man went inside a telephone booth and dialed the number of a friend. When the connection was made, the friend kept saying, “I can’t hear you; speak louder; I can’t hear you.” All he cold hear was the roar of traffic in the background. “Shut the door so I can hear,” he said to the caller. In order to hear God’s voice speaking to you, you’ve got to shut the door to the outside world so that its enticements won’t distract you. Doing this could change your whole life. Then when you go back into the crowd, you’ll not only be able to listen to what the world has to say, but you’ll have something to say to the world that you’ve personally heard from God.

Speaking of conscience, E. L. Allen said, “Honestly, what use do we make of our God-given reason? I know what use I make of it. I use it chiefly to provide reasons for what I want to do without admitting it is for pursuing some personal ambition. A man may have his conscience so well disciplined and trained that, instead of blazing a trail before him, it is like a pet dog which just trots obediently at his heels and never so much as barks! ‘If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!’ ”

Not every coin that bears the exact stamp is a genuine coin. Very often, the counterfeit, the base and worthless coin, bears the right stamp also. It isn’t the impression that matters so much as the nature of the metal. Many an action that bears the impression of a good conscience is condemned before God as perilous, injurious, and destructive in its issues. The coin must be tested on the touchstone to discover if it rings true. Conscience must be tested on the touchstone of Christian principle and the Spirit of the Master. It is not enough to say, “It seems right to me.” We must ask how does this action, this line of conduct, ring on the touchstone of Christian principle? Not what we think but what Christ thinks, what the Master thinks, matters most.

It is essential that we should exercise conscience, but let us not forget that in this matter, as in all others, privilege is linked with responsibility. Of course, we may attribute unworthy motives to authoritarian churches that proclaim the right to dictate to the individual what is right and what is wrong. We may say, as many have said, that they adopt this standpoint for their own ends to acquire power and control. But that is not a satisfactory explanation, and it is an unworthy charge. Their action is generally based on the danger of individual judgment and the peril of the individual conscience, because this privilege that we all claim does have it perils. It is so perilous, indeed, that while we pay lip service to its sanctity and sacredness, we are compelled to curtail its freedom. There is no community that can or dare base its life upon the freedom of each individual’s conscience. It would result in chaos. Jesus Christ allows us a certain freedom. Freedom is the basis of joy...

“My boy,” said a father to his son, “treat everybody with politeness, even those who are rude to you; remember, you show courtesy to others, not because they are gentlemen, but because you are one.”

The student in the lower grades who is always idly dreaming of the time when he will be a senior, and thus neglects his present studies, will never be prepared to take his place with any distinction in his senior year. If we scholars in the larger school of life are so fascinated by revelations of the unseen world that we lose interest in the present one, we will never be prepared for its highest enjoyment.

Cricketers talk a great deal about visual imperfection, for sooner or later the bowler finds the blind spot, the batsman misjudges the ball, and his sport comes to an end. The devil plays for the blind spot, and if there is such a defect in our spiritual vision, sooner or later it gets us into trouble. The blind spot in the natural eye is a necessary, unavoidable, physiological defect of which the brightest and most skillful athlete cannot rid himself. However, morally and religiously no part of our nature need be dark, and we may successfully defend ourselves in every assault. If for any subtle, selfish reason we harbor some bias of the mind, some prejudice that warps the judgment, some neglect of charity, some inertia that obstructs conviction, some deviation of aim, some deflection in action, we lay ourselves open to grievous losses and sorrows. “But if we walk in the light, as he [God] is in the light, we have fellowship one with another” (1 John 1:7). If we don’t have fellowship w...

Some time ago we noticed that a tree planted at the sunny end of a house had large and beautiful blossoms. It was a feast to the eyes; but what an amazing difference in some of the branches trained round the corner of the house where they got much less sun. The blossoms were starved and drooping, and there was little promise of fruit. They had the same root and stem in common, but while one part of the tree was in the full glorious light, the other branches were in the shade. Our character is affected in the same way by insufficient enlightenment. The dark places produce unfruitful branches: strange weaknesses, distortions, immaturities, indirection, failures in practical life and conduct. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Gal. 5:22, 23). If we are to bear all manner of precious fruit, each in its rightful season, we must trustfully and joyfully lay open our whole soul to the full expanse of God’s light shi...

As in the natural body, so in the mystical body of Christ, the Church, a large measure of liberty is granted to each member. But this liberty may not pass the bounds by which another member would be injured or suffer loss. My liberty to stretch out my arms depends on how close I am to the other fellow. As Paul says in Galatians 5:13, “For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”

In a great cathedral in Europe, there is a window made by an apprentice out of the bits of stained glass that were thrown away as worthless refuse when the other windows were made; this is the most beautiful window of all. You can build a noble character for yourself, in spite of all the hurts and injuries done consciously or unconsciously by others, with the fragments of the broken hopes, joys and the lost opportunities that lie strewn about your feet. No matter how badly others have hurt and marred you, they cannot prevent you from building a beautiful character for yourself; conversely, others by their best work cannot cause you to build a beautiful character. The fine character of your father or mother is not yours; you’ve got to build your own.

A man went inside a telephone booth and dialed the number of a friend. When the connection was made, the friend kept saying, “I can’t hear you; speak louder; I can’t hear you.” All he cold hear was the roar of traffic in the background. “Shut the door so I can hear,” he said to the caller. In order to hear God’s voice speaking to you, you’ve got to shut the door to the outside world so that its enticements won’t distract you. Doing this could change your whole life. Then when you go back into the crowd, you’ll not only be able to listen to what the world has to say, but you’ll have something to say to the world that you’ve personally heard from God.

Someone cursed Benjamin Franklin, charging that the Constitution of the United States was a farce. “Where is all the success that it guarantees us?” he sneered. Franklin, smiling, answered, “My friend, the Constitution guarantees only the right to the pursuit of happiness.” Psalm 34:14 tells us to not only seek peace but pursue it.

Speaking of conscience, E. L. Allen said, “Honestly, what use do we make of our God-given reason? I know what use I make of it. I use it chiefly to provide reasons for what I want to do without admitting it is for pursuing some personal ambition. A man may have his conscience so well disciplined and trained that, instead of blazing a trail before him, it is like a pet dog which just trots obediently at his heels and never so much as barks! ‘If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!’ ”

Lady Huntingdon once spoke to a workman who was repairing a garden wall, and pressed him to thoughtfulness on the state of his soul. Some years afterwards, she was speaking to another man of the same subject, and said, “Thomas, I fear you never pray, nor look to God for salvation.” “Your ladyship is mistaken,” answered the man; “I heard what passed between you and James at such a time, and the word you designed for him took effect on me.” “How did you hear it?” “I heard it on the other side of the garden through a hole in the wall, and shall never forget the impression I received.”

It is remembered as one of the liberal axioms of George III, that “no British subject is by necessity excluded from the Peerage.” Consistently with this sentiment, he once checked a man of high rank, who lamented that a very good speaker in the Court of Aldermen was of a lowly trade, by saying with his characteristic quickness, “What signifies a man’s trade? A man of any honest trade may make himself respectable if he will.”

While the Rev. R. Watson was preaching one Sabbath morning at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, he observed a man rise from his seat to look at the clock in front of the gallery, as though he wished to give the preacher a hint to bring his sermon to a conclusion. Mr. Watson observed, in a very significant manner: “A remarkable change has taken place among the people of this country, in regard to the public services of religion. Our forefathers put their clocks on the outside of their places of worship, that they might not be too late in their attendance. We have transferred them to the inside of the house of God, lest we should stay too long in His service. A sad and ominous change!”

A boy was dressing to go out for the evening. He called to his mother who was in the adjoining room. “Mom, is this shirt dirty?” Without so much as looking she replied, “Yes, it’s dirty. Get a clean one.” When he had dressed he entered his mother’s room and inquired how she knew the shirt was dirty when she had not even looked at it. “If it had been clean,” she replied, “you would have known it and would not have asked me. Remember son, if it’s doubtful, it’s dirty.” In this little incident there is a sermon. It applies to all of us who flirt with temptation and seek approval of others for the things we desire to do. In many cases in our Christian living, if it looks doubtful, you better leave it alone.

There are two perils connected with wealth: one is the abuse of it when it is possessed; the other is the seeking of it as the portion of one’s soul. Our Lord outlines the contrast between treasures on earth and treasures in heaven, and urges the remembrance of this, as a rule of life, in His servants. What multitudes need this teaching! But, as the Searcher of hearts, He suggests another reason for laying up treasure in heaven. Where the treasure is the heart will also be. Oh, if we could only get mammon-worshipers to examine themselves! Reader, where is your treasure?

A young lady, a member of the church who felt very responsive in regard to her Christian life, found herself frequently in the society of a young man who was not a Christian. One evening she went with him to a service where great religious interest was being manifested. On the way home he remarked: “After all, I don’t know but that you and I are as well off as these church people.” “But I am one of the church people myself,” she stammered. The young man made a polite attempt at an apology, but the arrow had hit the mark. A private Christian life is an essential thing, but the one who has no public life is not likely to have a private one that is worth taking account of.