24 Sermon Illustrations on Divine Discipline

A minister's son was caught skipping school for three days. His father reprimanded him and prayed for him and though the boy wept and was truly contrite, he was still punished. "Son, one of the facts of life is that where there is sin, there is suffering," the father said. "You have been living a lie for three days, so for 72 hours I am banning you to the attic, with a bed and three meals a day, but you must stay up there and make amends," he charged. The boy did as he was told. When supper was served, the minister prayed with his wife, but he was restless and could not eat. When it was time to go to bed he knew he would have no rest. "Honey, I am going upstairs to sleep with our boy," he told his wife. He found his son wide awake and he hugged him and lay down beside him. Each night, the father took the place of punishment with his child. How like our own God, who despite our transgressions loves us enough to send His Son to be with us, and to die for us.

"Before corn be ripened it needeth all kinds of weather. The husbandman is glad of showers as well as sunshine; rainy weather is troublesome, but sometimes the season requireth it." Even so the various conditions of man's life are needful to ripen him for the life to come. Sorrows and joys, depressions and exhilarations, have all their part to play in the completion of Christian character. Were one grief of a believer's career omitted, it may be he would never be prepared for heaven: the slightest change might mar the ultimate result. God, who knows best how to ripen both corn and men, ordereth all things according to the counsel of his will, and it is our wisdom to believe in the infallible prudence which arranges all the details of a believing life. "All things work together for good."

"Trees long unpruned have the more cuts of the knife when the gardener begins with them." The ground is strewn with their offshoots, and they present a sorry figure: one might even think that the gardener was quite destroying them. So have we seen our Father, who is the Husbandman, cut and slash terribly with those who have been long prosperous, and have, therefore, borne little of the fruit of grace, and much of the wood of worldliness. See how their wealth diminishes, their health declines, their family sickens! Providence multiplies their trials till they feel that the hand of the Lord is gone out against them. Does the gardener hate the apple-tree when he prunes so remorselessly? Far from it: he knows it to be a choice tree, and, therefore, he would have fruit from it: he would not thus wear away his knife upon a crab. Abounding trials prove their own necessity and the Lord's sagacity. If it clearly appears that we have not been able to bear seasons of worldly ease, it is the stern order of heavenly love that we must lose the unprofitable luxuriance of our unregulated joys. Is it not well that it should be so? O Lord, I thank thee for all the wounds thou hast hitherto seen it wise to inflict upon me. If I, too, have enjoyed too much repose, and have spent my strength unprofitably in consequence thereof, I rejoice to think that I am in good hands. Deal with me even as thou wilt. I ask not for affliction, but I beg thee to make me fruitful unto thyself, let the means be what they may.

This is the manner of God's proceedings, — to send good after evil, as he made light after darkness; to turn justice into mercy, as he turned water into wine. For as the beasts must be killed before they could be sacrificed, so men must be killed before they can be sacrificed; that is, the knife of correction must prune and dress them, and lop off their rotten twigs, before they can bring forth fruit. These are the cords which bind the ram unto the altar, lest, when he is brought thither, he should run from thence again; this is the chariot which carrieth our thoughts to heaven, as it did Nebuchadnezzar's; this is the hammer which squareth the rough stones till they be plain and smooth, and fit for the temple. H. Smith.

GO2. CHASTISEMENT, Use of Mr. Cecil, under severe conflicts of mind, and in much heaviness, went to walk in the Botanical Gardens, where he observed a fine pounegranate-tree, cut almost through near the root. He asked the gardener the reason of this. He said, "Sir, this tree used to shoot so strong, that it bore nothing but leaves. I was obliged to cut it in this manner; and when it was almost cut through, then it began to bear plenty of fruit." Mr. Cecil went back to his room, comforted by the lesson.

GO3. CHASTITY, Legend of St. Margaret. Her story is singularly wild. She was the daughter of a priest of Antioch, named Theodosius; and in her infancy, being of feeble health, she was sent to a nurse in the country. This woman, who was secretly a Christian, brought up Margaret in the true faith. The holy maid, while employed in keeping the few sheep of her nurse, meditated on the mysteries of the gospel, and devoted herself to the service of Christ. One day, the governor of Antioch, whose name was Olybrius, in passing by the place, saw her, and was captivated by her beauty. He commanded that she should be carried to his palace, being resolved, if she were of free birth, to take her for his wife; but Margaret rejected his offers with scorn, and declared herself the servant of Jesus Christ. Her father and all her relations were struck with horror at this revelation. They fled, leaving her in the power of the governor, who endeavored to subdue her constancy by the keenest torments. They were so terrible, that the tyrant himself, unable to endure the sight, covered his face with his robe; but St. Margaret did not quail beneath them. Then she was dragged to a dungeon, where Satan, in the form of a terrible dragon, came upon her with his inflamed and hideous mouth wide open, and sought to terrify and confound her; but she held up the cross of the Redeemer, and he fled before it. Or, according to the more popular version, he swallowed her up alive, but immediately burst; and she emerged unhurt: another form of the familiar allegory, the power of sin overcome by the power of the cross. He returned in the form of a man to tempt her further; but she overcame him, and, placing her foot on his head forced him to confess his foul wickedness, and to answer to her questions. She was again brought before the tyrant, and, again refusing to abjure her faith, she was further tortured; but the sight of so much constancy in one so young and beautiful only increased the number of converts: so that in one day five thousand were baptized, and declared themselves ready to die with her. Therefore the governor took counsel how this might be prevented; and it was advised that she should be beheaded forthwith. And, as they led her forth to death, she thanked and glorified God that her travail was ended; and received joyfully the crown of martyrdom, being beheaded by the sword. Mrs. Jameson.

As when a man goes astray, and is lost in a forest, it would be a great comfort to him to be told of his error, and taught the right way; so the end of discipline is recovery, and should evoke gratitude.

Visiting a person who was in deep affliction and sorrow, Gotthold was told by the family that he was in the garden. Thither he followed, and found him employed in clearing a vine of its superfluous leaves. After a friendly salute, he inquired what he was doing. "I find," was the reply, "that, owing to the abundant rain, this vine is overgrown with wood and leaves, which prevents the sun from reaching and ripening the grapes. I am therefore pruning part of them away, that it may bring its fruit to maturity." Gotthold rejoined, "And do you find, that, in this operation, the vine resists and opposes you? If not, why are you displeased that a gracious God should do to you what your vine must not be displeased that you do to it?"

A child a short time since was taken ill with that dangerous disorder the croup. It was a child most ardently beloved, and, ordinarily, very obedient; but, in this state of uneasiness and pain, he refused to take the medicine which it was needful, without delay, to administer. The father, finding him resolute, immediately punished his sick and suffering son. Under these circumstances, and fearing that his son might soon die, it must have been a most severe trial to the father: but the consequence was, that the child was taught that sickness was no excuse for disobedience; and, while his sickness continued, he promptly took whatever medicine was prescribed, and was patient and submissive. Soon the child was well. Does any one say that this was cruel? It was one of the noblest acts of kindness which could have been performed. If the father had shrunk from duty here, it is by no means improbable that the life of the child would have been the forfeit. Abbott.

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things. Far up the mountain-side lies a block of granite, and says to itself, "How happy am I in my serenity, — above the winds, above the trees, almost above the flight of the birds! Here I rest, age after age, and nothing disturbs me." Yet what is it? It is only a bare block of granite jutting out of the cliff; and its happiness is the happiness of death. By and by comes the miner, and, with strong and repeated strokes, he drills a hole in its top; and the rock says, "What does this mean?" Then the black powder is poured in; and, with a blast that makes the mountain echo, the block is blown asunder, and goes crashing down into the valley. "Ah!" it exclaims as it falls, "why this rending?" Then come saws to cut and fashion it; and humbled now, and willing to be nothing, it is borne away from the mountain, and conveyed to the city. Now it is chiselled and polished, till at length, finished in beauty, by block and tackle it is raised, with mighty hoistings, high in air, to be the top-stone on some monument of the country's glory. So God Almighty casts a man down when he wants to chisel him; and the chiselling is always to make him something finer and better than he was before. Beecher.

It is only when a man will not enter into his Father's counsels; will not suffer the highest tastes to develop themselves, and the higher appetites to indulge their cravings with the bread of God; will grovel when God gives him wings to soar; will go on the belly, snake-like, when God lifts him and his front face to face with heaven; will clamor for flesh when the bread of God is in his very hand, — it is only then, when the evil becomes deadly, and deepens into spiritual sin of the darkest dye and most incurable malignity, that God stays his hand, and closes his witness, withdraws his guardian angel, and leaves the will to itself. J. B. Brown.

Our heavenly Father deals with us somewhat after the manner of an ancient painter with his pupil. The young artist produced a picture of much merit, which was greatly admired by all. His young heart then swelled with vanity. He laid aside his palette and pencil, and sat daily before his easel, admiring the offspring of his own genius. One morning, he found his beautiful creations expunged from the canvas. He wept bitterly. His master appeared, and said, "I have done this for your benefit: the picture was ruining you."—"How so?" demanded the pupil. "Because, in the admiration of your own talents, you were losing your love of the art itself. Take your pencil and try again." The youth dried his tears, seized his pencil, and produced a masterpiece, which, but for this severe trial, he would in all probability have never executed.

Why should you carry troubles and sorrows unhealed? There is no bodily wound for which some herb doth not grow, and heavenly plants are more medicinal. Bind up your hearts in them; and they shall not only give healing, but leave with you the perfume of the blessed gardens where they grow. Thus it may be that sorrows shall turn to riches; for heart-troubles in God's husbandry are not wounds, but the putting-in of the spade before the planting of seeds. Beecher.

BALL.—Vavasor Powell, an eminent minister of the seventeenth century, being appointed to preach on a certain day, in a meadow, near Troozaron, Cardigan-shire, a number of idle persons, enemies to religion, agreed to meet at the same time and place, to play at foot-ball, and thereby create a disturbance. Among them was a young man of respectable family in that neighborhood, lately returned home from school, who being nimble-footed and dextrous at the game, had obtained possession of the ball, intending to kick it in the face of the preacher. At this instant, another person ran towards him, and tripped up his heels. By the fall his leg was broken; and after lying on the ground in great agony, he expressed a wish to see the minister, to whom, on his arrival, he confessed his wicked intention, and acknowledged that the just judgment of God had befallen him.

Mr. Powell, having represented to him the evil and danger of sin, preached the power and grace of the Savior; and, at the request of the young man, accompanied him to his father's house. So great was the change produced in him by means of this affliction, that on his recovery he began to preach, and was for many years the most laborious and useful minister in those parts. His name was Morgan Howell.