67 Sermon Illustrations on Christ

It was at first used in art, to represent the spotless sacrifice of Christ, also as a general emblem of innocence, meekness, and modesty.

It is the observation of Sir Walter Raleigh, that, if all the pictures and patterns of a merciless prince were lost in this world, they might all again be painted to the life out of the story of King Henry VIII. But, on the other side, the Jews had such a high esteem of Esdras, that if mercy, love, and knowledge had put out their candle, at his brain they might light it again. Behold yet a greater than Esdras!—Christ Jesus himself. If all our love were extinguished, at his love we might easily rekindle it. Not a word that he spoke, not a work that he did, not a passion that he suffered, but was an argument, a character of his love. He brought love, he bought love, he exercised love, he bequeathed love, he died in love, he is all love.

— Spencer

As, when a king is angry with a subject, the king's son marries the daughter of the subject, and brings him into favor with the king again: so, when God the Father was angry with us, Christ married himself to our nature, and now mediates for us with his Father, and brings us to be friends again; and now God looks upon us with a favorable aspect. As Joab pleaded for Absalom, and brought him to King David, and David kissed him; so doth Jesus Christ ingratiate us into the love and favor of God. Therefore he may well be called a peacemaker, having taken our flesh upon him, and so made peace between us and his angry Father.

— T. Watson

What wonderful provision God has made for us, spreading out the Bible into types of nature! What if every part of your house should begin to repeat the truths which have been committed to its symbolism!—the lowest stone would say, in silence of night, "Other foundation can no man lay." The corner-stone would catch the word, "Christ is the corner-stone." The door would add, "I am the door." The taper burning by your bedside would stream up a moment to tell you "Christ is the light of the world." If you gaze upon your children, they reflect from their sweetly sleeping faces the words of Christ, "Except ye become like little children." If, waking, you look towards your parents' couch, from that sacred place God calls himself your father and your mother. Disturbed by the crying of your children, who are affrighted in a dream, you rise to soothe them, and hear God saying, "So will I wipe away all tears from your eyes in heaven." Returning to your bed, you look from the window. Every star hails you, but, chiefest, "the bright and morning Star." By and by, flaming from the east, the flood of morning bathes your dwelling, and calls you forth to the cares of the day; and then you remember that God is the Sun, and that heaven is bright with his presence. Drawn by hunger, you approach the table. The loaf whispers, as you break it, "Broken for you;" and the wheat of the loaf sighs, "Bruised and ground for you." The water that quenches your thirst says, "I am the water of life." If you wash your hands, you can but remember the teachings of spiritual purity. If you wash your feet, that hath been done sacredly by Christ as a memorial. The very roof of your dwelling hath its utterance, and bids you look for the day when God's house shall receive its top-stone. Go forth to your labor, and what thing can you see that hath not its message? The ground is full of sympathy. The flowers have been printed with teachings. The trees, that only seem to shake their leaves in sport, are framing divine sentences. The birds tell of heaven, with their love-warblings in the green twilight. The sparrow is a preacher of truth. The hen clucks, and broods her chickens, unconscious, that, to the end of the world, she is part and parcel of a revelation of God to man. The sheep that bleat from the pastures, the hungry wolves that blink in the forest, the serpent that glides noiselessly in the grass, the raven that flies heavily across the field, the lily over which his shadow passes, the plough, the sickle, the wain, the barn, the flail, the threshing-floor,—all of them are consecrated priests, unrobbed teachers, revelators that see no vision themselves, but that bring to us thoughts of truth, contentment, hope, and love. All are ministers of God. The whole earth doth praise him, and show forth his glory. Beecher.

Dr. Priestly, a Unitarian, said to Dr. Miller, a Trinitarian, "I do not wonder that you Calvinists entertain and express a strongly unfavorable opinion of us Unitarians. The truth is, there neither can nor ought to be any compromise between us. If you are right, we are not Christians at all; and, if we are right, you are gross idolaters."

On the door of the mosque in Damascus, which was once a Christian church, but for twelve centuries has ranked among the holiest of the Mahometan sanctuaries are inscribed these words: "Thy kingdom, O Christ! is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations." Though the name of Christ has been regularly blasphemed, and the disciples of Christ regularly cursed, for twelve hundred years within it, the inscription has, nevertheless, remained unimpaired by time, and undisturbed by man. It was unknown during the long reign of Mahometan intolerance and oppression; but when religious liberty was partially restored, and the missionaries were enabled to establish a Christian church in that city, it was again brought to light, encouraging them in their work of faith, and labor of love. Bate.

Two gentlemen were once disputing on the divinity of Christ. One of them who argued against it, said, "If it were true it certainly would have been expressed in more clear and unequivocal terms." "Well," said the other, "admitting that you believed it, were you authorized to teach it, and allowed to use your own language, how would you express the doctrine to make it indubitable?" "I would say," replied he, "that Jesus Christ is the true God." "You are very happy," rejoined the other, "in the choice of your words; for you have happened to hit upon the very words of inspiration. St. John, speaking of the Son, says, 'This is the true God and eternal life.'"

While Mr. Kirkland was a missionary to the Oneidas, being unwell, he was unable to preach on the afternoon of a certain Sabbath, and told Peter, one of the head men of the Oneidas, that he must address the congregation. Peter modestly and reluctantly consented. After a few words of introduction, he began a discourse on the character of the Savior. "What, my brethren," said he, "are the views which you form of the character of Jesus? You will answer, perhaps, that he was a man of singular benevolence. You will tell me, that he proved this to be his character, by the nature of the miracles which he wrought. All these, you will say, were kind in the extreme. He created bread, to feed thousands who were ready to perish. He raised to life the son of a poor woman, who was a widow, and to whom his labors were necessary for her support in old age. Are these, then, your only views of the Savior? I will tell you, they are lame. When Jesus came into the world, he threw his blanket around him, but the God was within."

At a missionary meeting on the island of Rarotonga, one of the Hervey group, in the Pacific Ocean, an old man, a candidate for church fellowship, said, "I have lived during the reign of four kings: in the first we were continually at war, and a fearful season it was, watching and hiding with fear were all our engagements. During the reign of the second we were overtaken with a severe famine, and all expected to perish; then we ate rats and grass, and this wood and that wood. During the third we were conquered, and became the peck and prey of the two other settlements of the island; then if a man went to fish he rarely ever returned, or if a woman went any distance to fetch food, she was rarely ever seen again. But during the reign of this third king we were visited by another king, a great king, a good king, a powerful king, a king of love, Jesus the Lord from heaven. He has gained the victory, he has conquered our hearts; therefore we now have peace and plenty in this world, and hope soon to dwell with him in heaven."

# 278. Spiritual Benefits.—Remarkable Conversions and Revivals.