Sermon Illustration

“I once attended” says the Rev. Leifchild “at the miserable deathbed of an individual who resided at a little distance from my own neighborhood. He had amassed considerable property, which he tenaciously retained, and seldom broke in upon by liberality. Though he made a profession of godliness, he lived principally to himself, and was not rich towards God. Age stole upon him apace; and he was then naturally compelled to think of relinquishing all he possessed, and of leaving it amongst his surviving relatives, who displayed great eagerness to lay their hands upon it. “After the service on Sabbath morning, one of his married daughters, who belonged to my congregation, entreated me to accompany her to her father’s sick chamber, and in the interval between the services of the day, to soothe him and prepare him for his last hour. Little suspecting the other object which she concealed under this general one, and which she hoped to find me instrumental in accomplishing, I consented. On our...

“Sir William Smyth, of Bedfordshire, who was my kinsman,” relates King, “when he was near seventy was wholly deprived of his sight. He was persuaded to be operated on by Taylor, the oculist, who, by agreement, was to have sixty guineas if he restored his patient to any degree of sight. Taylor succeeded in his operation, and Sir William was able to read and write without the use of spectacles during the rest of his life; but as soon as the operation was performed, and Sir William perceived the good effects of it, instead of being overjoyed, as any other person would have been, he began to lament the loss (as he called it) of his sixty guineas. His contrivance therefore now was how to cheat the oculist. He pretended he had only a glimmering, and could see nothing perfectly; for that reason the bandage on his eyes was continued a month longer than the usual time. By this means he obliged Taylor to compromise the bargain, and accept twenty guineas for payment; for a covetous man thinks no ...