28 Sermon Illustrations on Faith in God's Promises

I remember a mother coming to me and saying, "It is easy enough for you to speak in that way; if you had the burden that I've got, you couldn't cast it on the Lord." "Why, is your burden so great that Christ can't carry it?" I asked. "No; it isn't too great for Him to carry; but I can't put it on Him." "That is your fault," I replied; and I find a great many people with burdens who, rather than just come to Him with them, strap them tighter on their backs and go away struggling under their load. I asked her the nature of her trouble, and she told me. "I have an only boy who is a wanderer on the face of the earth. I don't know where he is. If I only knew where he was I would go around the world to find him. You don't know how I love that boy. This sorrow is killing me." "Why can't you take him to Christ? You can reach Him at the throne, even though he be at the uttermost part of the world. Go tell God all about your trouble, and he will take away his sin, and not only that, but if you never see him on earth, God can give you faith that you will see your boy in heaven." And then I told her of a mother who lived down in the southern part of Indiana. Some years ago her boy came up to this city. He was a moralist. My friends, a man has to have more than morality to lean upon in this great city. He hadn't been here long before he was led astray. A neighbor happened to come up here and found him one night in the streets drunk.

When that neighbor went home, at first he thought he wouldn't say anything about it to the boy's father, but afterward he thought it was his duty to tell him. So in a crowd in the street of their little town he just took the father aside, and told him what he had seen in Chicago. It was a terrible blow. When the children had been put to bed that night he said to his wife, "Wife, I have bad news. I have heard from Chicago today." The mother dropped her work in an instant and said: "Tell me what it is." "Well, our son has been seen on the streets of Chicago, drunk." Neither of them slept that night, but they took their burden to Christ, and about daylight the mother said: "I don't know how, I don't know when or where, but God has given me faith to believe that our son will be saved and will never come to a drunkard's grave."

One week after, that boy left Chicago. He couldn't tell why--an unseen power seemed to lead him to his mother's home, and the first thing he said on coming over the threshold was, "Mother, I have come home to ask you to pray for me;" and soon after he came back to Chicago a bright and shining light. If you have a burden like this, fathers, mothers, bring it to Him and cast it on Him, and He, the Great Physician, will heal your broken hearts.

In France lived a poor blind girl, who obtained the Gospel of Mark in raised letters, and learned to read it by the ends of her fingers. By hard work, these became callous; and her sense of touch diminished, till she could not distinguish the characters. One day, she cut the skin from the ends of her fingers to increase their sensibility, only to destroy it. She felt that she must now give up her beloved book, and, weeping, pressed it to her lips, saying, "Farewell, farewell, sweet word of my heavenly Father, food for my soul! I must part with thee!" But to her surprise her lips, more delicate than her fingers, discerned the form of the letters. She read, "Gospel according to Mark." Her soul, overflowing with gratitude, pours out thanks before the throne of her Father in heaven. All night she perused with her lips the holy book, and her heart overflowed with joy at the new acquisition.

The earnest spirit of business (and men must be earnest, or they will do nothing),—the earnest spirit of business must be met and controlled, must be suffused and sanctified, by a still more earnest spirit of religion. A hollow and heartless piety can never guide such a business spirit as Hale possessed, and such as, in these days especially, all successful must possess. Strength must be combined with strength; earnestness must control earnestness; zeal must pierce into, and exalt and purify zeal; faith in eternal things, in the soul, in God, in Christ, in the Spirit, in heaven, must be clear, eagle-eyed, seeing at a distance, looking through clouds and storm; love to God must be a blazing fire like that on Elijah's altar, which flicked up the water, dust, and stones that filled the trenches. Say not such mighty faith, such fervent love, are impossible in this world of bustle, toil, and care; for Hale has demonstrated that the thing was practicable; and so has William Wilberforce; and so has Mr. Hardcastle the merchant; and so has Thomas Fowell Buxton the brewer; and so has Joseph John Gurney the banker, and many more. Amidst the beats of secular employments, they cooled their burning brows by opening windows that looked into eternity, and let in breezes that came blowing from the land where angels dwell. And, when their souls' chariot-wheels were ready to catch fire by the friction of their secular activity, faith in other things, and love to other things, was like cold water dropping down to prevent the flames. The world did not carry them away; did not overpower and conquer and burn them up: they remained, after all, masters of the world and of themselves, through the constant faith they had, that they were the servants of God and of Christ. J. Stoughton.

When we think of the labor required to rear the few that are in our households, — the weariness, the anxiety, the burden of life, — how wonderful seems God's work! for he carries heaven and earth, and all realms, in his bosom. Many think that God takes no thought for any thing less than a star or a mountain, and is unmindful of the little things of life; but, when I go abroad, the first thing which I see is the grass beneath my feet, and, nestling in that, flowers smaller yet, and, lower still, the mosses with their inconspicuous blooms, which beneath the microscope glow with beauty. And if God so cares for "the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven," shall he not much more care for the minutest things of your life, "O ye of little faith"?

— Beecher

A man utterly despairing of his soul's salvation thought he might as well be in hell at once, and went to a river, with a design to throw himself in; but, as he was about to do it, he seemed to hear a voice saying to him, "Who can tell?" as if the words had been audibly delivered. His thoughts were arrested, and thus began to work on the passage mentioned. "Who can tell what God can do? Who can tell what purposes God will serve in my recovery?" By such thoughts as these, it pleased God to enable him, through all his doubts and fears, to throw himself by faith on Jesus Christ, as able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him to experience the riches of grace.

A captive was brought before an Asiatic prince: the cimeter was already raised over his head, when, oppressed by intolerable thirst, he asked for water. A cup was handed him: he held it as if apprehensive lest the cimeter would fall while he was in the act of drinking. "Take courage!" said the prince: "your life will be spared till you drink this water." He instantly dashed the cup of water to the ground. The good faith of the barbarian saved him. The word had passed, it was enough; and the captive went on his way rejoicing.

A Frenchman was crossing the Great Sahara, in company with an Arab guide. He noticed, with a sneer, that, at certain times, his guide, whatever obstacles might arise, put them all aside, and, kneeling on the burning sand, called on his God. Day after day passed, and the Arab never failed; till at last, one evening, the philosopher, when he arose from his knees, asked him with a contemptuous smile, "How do you know there is a God?" The guide fixed his burning eyes upon the scoffer for a moment in wonder, and then said solemnly, "How do I know there is a God? How did I know that a man and a camel passed my but last night in darkness? Was it not by the print of his hoof in the sand? Even so." And he pointed to the sun, whose last rays were fading over the lonely desert, — "that footprint is not of man."

Napoleon was passing along the ancient horrible road along the Echelles de Savoie, with his engineer, when he stopped, and, pointing to the mountain, said, "Is it not possible to cut a tunnel through the centrails of yonder rock, and to form a more safe and commodious route beneath it?"—"It is possible, certainly, sire," replied his scientific companion. "Then let it be done immediately," replied the emperor.

RELIGION, Advantage of Mahmoud, the conqueror of India, found at Somnat a great idol, and cried to his followers, "God is one: destroy this false idol!" The Brahmins fell before him, pleading, "Spare our god Somnat, and we will give thee gold, pearls, and jewels of rarest lustre." The ruthless conqueror clove the idol with a blow of his battle-axe, when out rolled pearls, jewels, and gold, a hundred-fold more than the promised ransom. Such reward does religion give to those who renounce the specious bribes of the world for the cross of Christ.

The following facts were related by the Rev. Dr. Singer, the secretary of the Hibernian Bible Society, at the anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1830:—

Some time since, in a midland county in Ireland, a discussion took place, arising from the operations of the Reformation Society, between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant clergyman. Many farmers and peasants from the neighborhood attended that discussion; and, being under the influence of infidelity, they did so merely for the purpose of ridiculing and censuring the arguments which were brought forward by the two clergymen. Many of the farmers and peasants who attended were themselves deeply read, or, at least, were well acquainted with the writings of infidels; whose works, strange to tell, have been circulated, in print and manuscript, through the country! They ridiculed the circumstance; it amused them; and they said, "we will have a discussion of our own." "You shall be the Roman Catholic," said one, "and I will be the Protestant; and our friends here shall be judges who displays the most ability and ingenuity." They carried their blasphemous object almost into effect: the time was appointed, and they seriously set about preparing for the contest. It was agreed that they should do what they had never done before—read the Scriptures, in order to prepare for the attack. And the result was, that those who did so became convinced of the truth and excellence of the Bible.

At an annual meeting of the Cambridge Bible Society, the Rev. Professor Scholefield related the following anecdote of Mr. Hone, the well known author of the Every Day Book.—Mr. Hone, in the days of his infidelity, was travelling in Wales on foot, and being rather tired and thirsty, he stopped at the door of a cottage where there was a little girl seated reading, and whom he asked, if she would give him a little water. "O yes, sir," she said, "if you will come in, mother will give you some milk and water;" upon which he went in and partook of that beverage, the little girl again resuming her seat and her book. After a short stay in the cottage, he came out and accosted the child at the door, "Well, my little girl, are you getting your task?" "O no, sir," she replied, "I am reading the Bible." "But," said Mr. Hone, "you are getting your task out of the Bible."—"O no, sir, it is no task to me to read the Bible—it is a pleasure." This circumstance had such an effect upon Mr. Hone, that he determined to read the Bible too, and he was now (said Professor Scholefield) one of the foremost in upholding and defending the great truths contained in that holy book.

# 61. Conversion of Papists.

Philip Melancthon, being at the conferences at Spire, in 1529, made a little journey to Bretten, to see his mother. This good woman asked especially as his wife suffered much from sickness.

His wages were but 6s. 3d. weekly, out of which he was sometimes obliged to pay a boy for assistance; but when times of peculiar necessity occurred, God always raised him up a friend. Dr. (afterwards Sir James) Stonehouse repeatedly assisted him; and sometimes his good neighbors, in humbler life, united to supply his wants. In one of his letters in his old age, he thus writes, with much Christian simplicity:—"As for my part I am but very poorly in body, having very sore legs, and cannot perform the business of my flock without help. As to the things of this world, I have but little share; having my little cot to pray and praise God in, and a bed to rest on: so I have just as much of this world as I desire. But my garment is worn out, and some of my Christian friends think they must put their mites together and buy me one, or else I shall not be able to endure the cold in the winter: so I can say, Good is the Lord! He is still fulfilling his promise, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.'"

# ROVERSY.

him what she must believe amidst so many disputes, and repeated to him her prayers, which contained nothing superstitious. "Go on, mother," said he, "to believe and pray as you have done, and never trouble yourself about religious controversies."

The Rev. Mr. Fletcher, the pious vicar of Madely, Eng., relates that going into the pulpit one Sabbath morning, he could recollect no part of his sermon, not even the text. Feeling exceedingly perplexed in his mind, and not willing to dismiss the people without saying any thing, he thought that he would endeavor to make a few remarks upon the morning's lesson, which was respecting the three worthies who were cast into the furnace of fire. Finding uncommon and unexpected enlargement of spirit in so doing, he announced to the congregation at the close, that if there was any person present to whom those remarks more particularly applied, he desired that they would call upon him, in the course of the week. On Wednesday a woman called, and informed him that she had been under serious impressions for some time; but that her husband, who was a butcher, constantly opposed her, and forbid her attending any of the religious meetings, even at the parish church, on Sunday; that on the last Sabbath morning he told her that if she should presume to go to church, he would build up a great fire in the oven, and throw her into it, as soon as she came home. But she resolved to go, and says she, "Sir, while you were speaking of the three young men who were thrown into the fiery furnace, because they would not sin against God, I thought it was just my case, and it pleased the Lord then and there to set my soul at liberty. I went home with a light heart, trusting that the Lord would be with me. When I came near the house, I saw the flames issuing from the oven, and knowing what a man my husband was, I expected to be immediately thrown into it. But what was my amazement upon opening the door, instead of being thrown into the oven, to find my husband upon his knees crying for mercy." Says Mr. Fletcher, "I then knew why I had forgotten my sermon, and was led to speak upon something else."

A young man, who had graduated at one of the first colleges in America, and was celebrated for his literary attainments, particularly his knowledge of mathematics, settled in a village where a faithful minister of the gospel was stationed. It was not long before the clergyman met with him in one of his evening walks, and after some conversation, as they were about to part, addressed him as follows: "I have heard you are celebrated for your mathematical skill; I have a problem which I wish you to solve." "What is it?" eagerly inquired the young man. The clergyman answered, with a solemn tone of voice, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" The youth returned home, and endeavored to shake off the impression fastened on him by the problem proposed to him, but in vain. In the giddy round of pleasure, in his business, and in his studies, the question still forcibly returned to him. "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" It finally resulted in his conversion, and he became an able advocate and preacher of that gospel which he once rejected.