101 Sermon Illustrations on Discipline

No horse gets anyone anywhere until he's harnessed, no steam or gas drives anything until it is confined, no Niagara ever turns anything into light or power until it is tunneled, no life ever does great things it is until focused, dedicated, and disciplined. The Power of Discipline USA Today polled 238 players who participated in at least one of the NCAA Final Four Championship games from 1977 to 1986. The survey indicated that an amazing number of these athletes have been able to match their achievement on the basketball court with continued excellence in life. What is their secret? The pollsters concluded that those who make it in school "seem able to channel the athletic lessons of discipline and self-sacrifice into their academic lives."

The Koh-I-Noor diamond, when it came into the Queen of England's possession, was a misshapen lump. It was necessary to have its corners cut off and its sides reduced to symmetry. No unskillful hand was permitted to touch it. Men of science were summoned to consider its nature and capacities. They examined the form of its crystals and the consistency of its parts. They considered the direction of the grain and the side on which it would bear pressure. With their instructions, the jewel was placed in the hands of an experienced lapidary, and by long, patient, careful labor its sides were ground down to the desired proportions. The gem was hard and needed a heavy pressure. It was precious and needed every precaution that science and skill could suggest to get it cut and polished into shape without cracking it in the process. The effort was successful. The hard diamond was fashioned into forms of beauty and yet sustained no damage by the greatness of the pressure to which it was subjected. "Jewels, bright jewels," in the form of spiritual children were the heritage God gave to Paul, as a spiritual father. God may permit us to play the same role as spiritual parents to our children, or to the children of God in the Church. Let us recognize in either case that children are unshapely and need to be polished; they are hard and cannot be reduced to symmetry without firm handling; they are brittle, and so liable to be permanently damaged by the wrong kind of pressure; but they are stones of peculiar preciousness and, if they are successfully polished, they will shine as stars for ever and ever, giving off the glory they reflect from the Son of Righteousness.

"Green wood, which is wet and full of sap, cannot be kindled by a flash or a spark, but needeth much care and blowing ere it will burn." When we are dealing with young and thoughtless minds, we must remember this, and be patient and persevering. Such will not readily take fire when we apply our match; we had better go down on our knees while we are trying to light the fire of attention in them, and if we use the warm breath of our anxious love we shall all the sooner do the work. Lord, as I have seen my servant thus doing my work, help me as thy servant to copy her, and succeed in thy work.

It is said that certain native artists, when they would drill a hole in pearls, first fit them loosely in apertures bored in a piece of wood; then a little water is sprinkled around them, which gradually penetrates the fibres, and causes the wood to "swell," until each little pearl is held as firmly as in a vice. Indeed, no vice could hold such delicate little treasures without marring them, and diminishing their value. But by this simple process, the choicest ones are kept securely in their places without injury, until the artist's work is done; and then, as the water dries out, the fibres gently relax, and the pearl is free. So the teacher must hold his soul-pearl by faith and sympathy till they are polished for the Master's crown.

As that schoolmaster who still commandeth his scholars, saying, "Learn this, learn this," and yet never calleth them to account how the same is learned, may assure himself that his scholars will have but a slender regard to be perfect in that which he commandeth, because they think they shall never be examined how they have profited; even so falleth it out with the minister towards his parishioners, that, although he be very diligent to preach unto them the principles of the Christian religion, yet, if he be not careful to catechise and examine them particularly therein, there will come little or no profit by his labors.

— Cawdray

Many children grow up like plants under bell-glasses. They are surrounded only by artificial and prepared influences. They are house-bred, room-bred, nurse-bred, mother-bred,—every thing but self-bred. The object of training is to teach the child to take care of himself: but many parents use their children only as a kind of spool on which to reel off their own experience; and they are bound and corded until they perish by inanity, or break all bonds and cords, and rush to ruin by re-action.

Beecher. G11. CHILDREN, Power of. As Alexander the Great attained to have such a puissant army, whereby he conquered the world, by having children born and brought up in his camp, whereby they became so well acquainted and exercised with weapons from their swaddling-clothes, that they looked for no other wealth or country but to fight: even so, if thou wouldst have thy children either to do great matters, or to live honestly by their own virtuous endeavors, thou must acquaint them with painstaking in their youth, and so to bring them up in the nurture and malmonition of the Lord. Caudray.

G12. CHILDREN, Prepare to Die. A young prince, whose mind had learned in some degree to value religious truth, asked his tutor to give him suitable instruction, that he might be prepared for death. "Plenty of time for that when you are older," was the reply. "No!" said the prince, "I have been to the churchyard and measured the graves; and there are many shorter than I am."

G13. CHILDREN, Providing for. The Rev. Moses Browne had twelve children. On one remarking to him, "Sir, you have just as many children as Jacob," he replied, "Yes; and I have Jacob's God to provide for them."

G14. CHILDREN, Provision for. The beetle was placed among their sacred animals by the Egyptians, on account of its provident care of its young. This care began with the egg. The beetle rolled it in a substance that would serve the larvae as food as soon as hatched, and deposited it in the earth, below the reach of frost; where it passed the winter amid the abundance which the parents had provided. Images of these animals, carved in stone or iron, are often found wrapped up in the mummies of the Egyptians.

G15. CHILDREN, Respect for. It is said of that German schoolmaster John Trebonius, the instructor of Martin Luther, that he always appeared before his boys with uncovered head. "Who can tell," said he "what may yet rise up amid these youths? There may be among them those who shall be learned doctors, sage legislators, nay, princes of the empire." Even then there was among them that "solitary monk that shook the world."

G16. CHILDREN, Responsibility of. A little Massachusetts boy was one day playing with some knitting-needles, when he was about two years old. His mother passed through the room, and said to him, "You mustn't lose these needles. They are not your needles: they are mine." As she left the room, she heard the little boy saying to himself, "No: I mustn't lose these needles. They're not my needles. If I should lose them, I should be despised; and, when I grow up to be a man, people will look at me, and say, 'Where's those needles?'" Little Pilgrim.

G17. CHILDREN, Saving the. A few years ago, a steamer was coming from California. The cry of, "Fire, fire!" suddenly thrilled every heart. Every effort was made to stay the flames: but in vain. It soon became evident that the ship must be lost. The only thought now was self-preservation. The burning mass was headed for the shore, which was not far off. A passenger was seen buckling his belt of gold around his waist, ready to plunge into the waves. Just then, a pleading voice arrested him, "Please, sir, can you swim?" A child's blue eyes were piercing into his deepest soul as he looked down upon her. "Yes, child: I can swim."—"Well, sir, won't you please to save me?"—"I cannot do both," he thought: "I must save the child, and lose the gold. But a moment ago, I was anxious for this whole ship's company: now I am doubting whether I shall exchange a human life for paltry gold." Unbuckling the belt, he cast it from him, and said, "Yes, little girl: I will try to save you." Stooping down, he bade her clasp her arms around his neck. "Thus, child; not so tight as to choke me. There, hang on now, and I will try to make to the land." The child bowed herself on his broad shoulders, and clung to her deliverer. With a heart thrice strengthened, and an arm thrice nerved, he struck out for the shore. Wave after wave washed over them; but still the brave man held out, and the dear child held on, until a mighty mountain billow swept the sweet treasure from his embrace, and cast him senseless on the bleak rocks. Kind hands ministered to him. Recovering his consciousness, the form of the dear child met his earliest gaze, bending over him with more than angel ministrations, and blessing him with mute but eloquent benedictions. From a S. S. Speech.

It is easy to keep that armor bright which is daily used; but, hanging by the wall till it be rusty, it will take some time and pains to forbid it over again. If an instrument be daily played upon, it is easily kept in tune; but let it be a while neglected, and the strings and frets break, the bridge flies off, and no small labor is required to bring it into order again. And thus also it is in things spiritual, in the performance of holy duties; if we continue them with a settled constancy, they will be easy, familiar, and delightful to us: but, if once intermitted, it is a new work to begin again, and the former estate will not be attained but with much endeavor and great difficulty. Spencer.

In the time of Oliver Cromwell, the magistrates in the north of England punished drunkenness by making them carry what is called the "Drunkard's Cloak." This was a large barrel, with one head out, and a hole in the other, through which the offender was made to put his head, while his hands were drawn through two small holes, one on each side. With this, he was compelled to march along the public streets.

John Milton writes of himself, that he was at his studies, "in winter, often ere the sound of any bell awake men to labor or to devotion; in summer, as oft with the bird that first rouses, or not much tardier, to read good authors till attention be weary, or memory have its full fraught; then with useful and generous labors preserving the body's health and hardiness." Wesley repeatedly ascribes his own health and prolonged life to the practice of rising at four. When seventy-eight years old he writes, "By the blessing of God, I am just the same as when I ended my twenty-eighth year. This hath God wrought, chiefly by my constant exercise, rising early, and preaching morning and evening."

In my youth, I was very fond of sleep: it robbed me of a great deal of my time; but my poor Joseph (his servant) was of great service in enabling me to overcome it. I promised to give Joseph a crown every time that he would make me get up at six. Next morning, he did not fail to wake me and to torment me; but he only received abuse. The next day, he did the same, with no better success; and I was obliged to confess, at noon, that I had lost my time. I told him that he did not know how to manage his business: he ought to think of my promise, and not mind my threats. The day following, he employed force: I begged for indulgence, I bid him be gone, I stormed; but Joseph persisted. I was therefore obliged to comply; and he was rewarded every day for the abuse which he suffered at the moment when I awoke, by thanks, accompanied with a crown, which he received about an hour after. Yes: I am indebted to poor Joseph for ten or a dozen of the volumes of my works. Buffon.

Thelwall thought it very unfair to influence a child's mind by inculcating any opinions before it should come to years of discretion, so as to be able to choose for itself. In reply to this absurd notion, Coleridge says, "I showed him my garden, and told him it was my botanical garden."—"How so," said he: "it is covered with weeds."—"Oh!" I replied, "that is because it has not yet come to its age of discretion and choice. The weeds, you see, have taken the liberty to grow; and I thought it unfair in me to prejudice the soil towards roses and strawberries."

Were you to give the most solemn and impressive instruction possible to a company just as they were going into a theatre, it would do no good. The impressions would all be gone in an hour, and other and deeper impressions would take their place. The same feelings awakened in an audience who were in the habit of daily prayer would be likely to abide, and to bring forth the fruits of eternal life. Those children who are prodigies of learning and attainment in early life often prove to be very ordinary men; and the surprise is, that a tree so full of blossoms should produce so little fruit; while, in other cases, a child giving but faint promise of mind in early life, frequently becomes great and wise and good in mature years. This difference is not merely to be attributed to the slowness with which these minds were developed, but to the habits formed in early life. A child may acquire thought slowly, yet if he has formed the habit of acquiring each thought fully and distinctly, and of retaining it when acquired, he will eventually become a wise man. On the other hand, that boy so bright before you now, who commits to memory so readily, or who is so prompt in understanding, and so quick in answering your questions, may be forming habits which will more than destroy all that he now obtains. All great men have attributed their success more to the mental and moral habits acquired in early life, than to any thing else. Even the temper, the disposition, is formed by acquired habits; so that one who is naturally irritable may become a calm man. Dr. J. Todd.

As we see many times good ground grow mossy and barren for want of culture; so it is with good wits, which, being neglected, usually become more vicious than those of less hope and pregnancy. The foundations of an honorable and comfortable age are laid in the minority of children: if the plant be not kept straight at first, the tree will be crooked incurably at the last. It is as great a folly to lay up estates for children, and to take no care of themselves, who must enjoy them, as to be curious for a handsome shoe, and then to put it upon a gouty foot. Bp. Reynolds.

A bar of iron worth five dollars, worked into horseshoes, is worth ten dollars and fifty cents; made into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty-five dollars; made into penknife-blades, it is worth three thousand two hundred and eighty-five dollars; made into balance-springs of watches, it is worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to reach all that! but hammered and beaten and pounded and rolled and polished, how was its value increased! It might well have quivered and complained under the hard knocks it got; but were they not all necessary to draw out its fine qualities, and fit it for higher offices? So, children, all the drilling and training which you are subject to in youth, and which often seem so hard to you, serve to bring out your nobler and finer qualities, and fit you for more responsible posts and greater usefulness in the world.

Hinderance to. A loquacious young man came to Socrates to learn the art of oratory. Socrates asked him double price. "Why charge me double?" asked the youth. Socrates replied, "Because I must teach you two sciences, — the one, how to be silent; and the other, how to speak."

There is no doubt but a good example doth far more effectually instruct than good precepts; because it doth not only express the same virtues that the precepts enjoin, but also expresses them with much more grace and emphasis. For whereas precepts and discourses of virtue are only the dead pictures and artificial landscapes and descriptions of it, a virtuous example is virtue itself, informed and animated, alive and in motion, exerting and exhibiting itself in all its natural charms and graces. And, therefore, as we know a man much better when we see him alive, and in action, than when we only see his picture; so we understand virtue much better when we see it living, and acting in a good example, than when we only behold it described and pictured in various precepts and discourses. J. Scott.

FRUITFULNESS, Cause of Sorrows are the spurs which goad us to our sublimes endeavors: they freshen and purify the soul; they wake its powers into activity; they set in motion its deepest springs; they crystallize its slumbering desires into stern resolves, which, in turn, they shape into mighty deeds. It forotastes the blessedness of heaven; for the joy of that holy world will much consist in glorious life-deeds inscribed imperishably in the records of the book of life. Rev. J. Atkinson.

Lord North, the father of the celebrated Charles James Fox, was one who thought that all restrictions upon youth fetter the mind: he would not, therefore, permit his son to be contradicted or opposed. The boy one day entered his father's library at a time when he was preparing some despatches of earnest importance. After looking at them a few minutes, he said, "Father, I've a good mind to throw the ink over these papers." — "No," said the father, "you must not do it; for they are of great importance, and must be despatched early in the morning." — "But I will throw it," was the reply: "it will be such fun!" And so he did; and the foolish father, without reproof or censure, quietly proceeded to repair the mischief by rewriting the blotted papers, — a task which occupied him the whole night.

Once when Dr. Nathaniel Prentice was teaching a public school in Roxbury, he threatened to punish with six blows of a heavy ferule the first boy detected in whispering; and appointed detectives. Shortly after, one of them shouted, "Master John Zigler is whispering." John was called up, and asked if it was a fact. John, by the way, was a favorite both with his teacher and schoolmates. "Yes," answered John. "I was not aware what I was about. I was intent on working out a sum, and requested the boy who sat next to hand me an arithmetic that contained the rule which I wished to see." The doctor regretted his hasty threat, but told John that he could not suffer him to whisper, or escape the punishment; and continued, "I wish I could avoid it, but cannot without a forfeiture of my word. I will," he continued, "leave it to any three scholars you may choose to say whether or not I omit the punishment." John said he would agree to that, and immediately called out three boys. The doctor told them to return a verdict; which they soon did, after consultation, as follows: "The master's word must be kept inviolate. John must receive the threatened six blows of the ferule; but it must be inflicted on voluntary proxies; and we the arbitrators will share the punishment by receiving each of us two of the blows." John, who had listened to the verdict, stepped up to the doctor, and, with outstretched hand, exclaimed, "Master, here is my hand: they shan't be struck a blow! I will receive the punishment." The doctor, under pretence of wiping his face, shielded his eyes, and, telling the boys to go to their seats, said he would think of it to his dying day; but the punishment was never inflicted.

HALF-MEASURES, Danger of The Earl of Bath, inveighing in strong terms, in the House of Lords, against the administration of Fox and Pitt, was reminded that the latter was about to be dismissed, and that Fox only would remain in office. "This half-measure," said his lordship, "is the worst of all, and reminds me of the Gunpowder Plot. The lord-chamberlain was sent to examine the vaults underneath the Parliament House, and returned with the report, that he had found five and twenty barrels of gunpowder, but that he had removed ten of them, and hoped the remainder would do no harm."

— Percy

While Pisistratus, the Grecian general, was walking through his fields, several beggars implored his charity. "If you want beasts to plough your land," said he, "I will lend you some; if you want land, I will give you some; if you want seed to sow your land, I will give you some; but I will encourage none in idleness." This treatment freed his dominions of beggars.

The Lacademonians, in order to disgust their sons with this vice, took a number of slaves, made them drink, and took them to the public market-place, where they acted foolishly, and raved like madmen; some laughing, others fighting, ballooning, reeling to and fro, lying in the mud, grunting like pigs, &c. In this situation they exhibited them to their children, that, being disgusted with the effects of drunkenness, they might avoid every temptation to it.

LAZINESS, Example of The lobster, when left high and dry among the rocks, has not sense and energy enough to work his way back to the sea, but waits for the sea to come to him. If it does not come, he remains where he is, and dies, although the slightest exertion would enable him to reach the waves, which are perhaps tossing and tumbling within a yard of him. There is a tide in human affairs that casts men into "tight places," and leaves them there, like stranded lobsters. If they choose to lie where the breakers have flung them, expecting some grand billow to take them on its big shoulders, and carry them to smooth water, the chances are, that their hopes will never be realized. Beecher.

Prepare yourself for the world as the athletes used to do for their exercises; oil your mind and your manners to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility. Chesterfield.

At the Military Academy, the soldiers are taken separately to the drill-room; and there the martinet puts them through all the steps and passes and gestures which they are required to learn; and, when they have been trained and disciplined, they come to the parade-ground; and then, at the word of command, platoons march, and squadrons wheel, and the great army, as one man, moves to the voice of its leader. Now, God's formative influences in this world are his military academics, his drill-rooms, where for centuries the soldiers of the cross have been trained; but the day is coming when he shall put to his lips the trumpet of announcement, and when, with uplifted standard and triumphal music, he shall lead forth his vast army to go round and round the world with victory. Beecher.