27 Sermon Illustrations on False Teachers

“Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto … let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8

I remember reading a story of a woman who with her little babe was traveling by train through one of the northeastern states. It was a very wintry day. Outside a terrific storm was blowing, snow was falling, and sleet covered everything. The train made its way along slowly because of the ice on the tracks and the snowplow went ahead to clear the way. The woman seemed very nervous. She was to get off at a small station, where she would be met by some friends, and she said to the conductor, “You will be sure and let me know the right station, won’t you?”

“Certainly,” he said, “just remain here until I tell you the right station.”

She sat rather nervously, and again spoke to the conductor, “You won’t forget me?”

“No, just trust me. I will tell you when to get off.”

A commercial man sat across the aisle. He leaned over and said, “Pardon me, but I see you are rather nervous about getting off at your station. I know this road well. Your station is the first stop after such and such a city. These conductors are very forgetful, they have a great many things to attend to, and he may overlook your request, but I will see that you get off all right. I will help you with your baggage.”

“Oh, thank you,” she said. And she leaned back greatly relieved.

By and by the brakeman called the name of the city the commercial traveler had mentioned, and the latter said to the woman, “Yours is the next station. Better get ready and I will assist you to get off.”

The train moved on and shortly afterward came to a full stop. The woman hurried to the end of the car, the man who was helping her carrying her bag. When they reached the vestibule, there was no one there. “You see,” said the stranger, “these trainmen are very careless. The conductor has quite forgotten you.” But he opened the door, assisted the woman with her baby down the steps, and just as he boarded the train again it moved on.

A few minutes later the conductor came through the train and looking all about, said, “Why, that is strange! There was a woman here who wanted to get off at the next station. I wonder where she is.”

The commercial man spoke up and said, “Yes, you forgot her, but I saw that she got off all right.”

“Got off where?” the conductor asked.

“When the train stopped.”

“But that was not a station! That was an emergency stop! I was looking after that woman. Why, man, you have put her off in a wild country district in the midst of all this storm, where there will be nobody to meet her!”

There was only one thing to do, and, although it was a rather dangerous thing, they had to reverse the engine and go back a number of miles, and then went out to look for the woman. They searched and searched; finally, somebody stumbled upon her body. She was frozen on the ground, her little babe dead in her arms. She was the victim of wrong information.

If it is such a serious thing to give people wrong information in regard to temporal things, what about the man who misleads men and women in regard to the great question of the salvation of their immortal souls? If men believe a false gospel, if they put their trust in something that is contrary to the Word of God, their loss will be not for time only, but for eternity.

An American missionary states, that, during almost seven years that he resided in Malta, he was witness every Monday morning to an affecting and admonitory scene. A man passed through the streets, ringing a bell in one hand, and rattling a box in the other, crying at every corner, "What will you give for the souls? what will you give for the souls?" The women and children came out of the habitations of poverty, and cast their mites into the box. When it is full, it is carried to a neighboring convent to pay the priests for praying the souls of the dead out of purgatory.

Marcion the heretic, meeting with Polycarp, desired of him that he might know him. Polycarp answered, "As for thee, I know thee to be the first-born of the Devil." St. John, coming to a bath, found Cerinthus there, and hastened out, saying it was impossible such a place should stand where such a heretic remained.

— Spencer

Galileo, by his wonderful discoveries, set the people of Florence to gazing at the skies. It is said that a woman among them greatly admired the milky-way, and, taking advantage of the uncertainties of telescopic information, she declared it as her opinion that it was all done in honor of Rome (and the pope, of course), insisting, that, in breadth and length, it exactly covered the road to Rome. With her arms extended, she would exclaim, "Behold! see the Virgin's chariot! Regard that beautiful tracery of light, which extends itself even as a canopy over the holy road to Rome!" And yet no one hinted that this little episode in science occasioned any slur against the science of astronomy, or doubts regarding the discoveries of Galileo. Caughey.

In one of the heathen temples of Canton are seen plaster representatives of the transmigration of souls. A boy is changing into a dog; a man has horns growing from his forehead, his feet and hands are changing to hoofs, a tail is sprouting from his back; another is changing into an ass, &c. D. B. Atterbury.

A former Duke of Buckingham sent for a popish priest to converse with him, who accordingly came, elated with the honor. After the usual compliments on both sides, the duke called for a bottle of wine, and drawing the cork, and stroking it, asked the priest if he ever saw so fine a courser in his life. "I have not," added he, "a more beautiful horse in my stables." The priest astonished to hear him talk, such nonsense, began to think he was insane; and, fearing to incense him, said mildly, "My lord duke, this is only a cork."—"A cork, indeed! Pray, how do you prove it to be a cork?" said the duke. "By the evidence of my senses," replied the priest. "If I handle it, I feel it is a cork; if I taste it, I know it to be a cork; if I apply it to my nose, I smell it is a cork; if I look at it, I see it is a cork." Here the conversation dropped. After some time, however, the duke said he had lately been thinking much upon transubstantiation, but, having some doubts upon the subject, had sent for him to resolve them. "How do you prove," said the duke, "that the bread in the Lord's Supper is transformed into the body of Christ?"—"I prove it," replied the priest, "by the words of Christ himself: 'This is my body.'"—"Hold there!" said the duke: "I have you by your own argument. If I handle it, I feel it is bread; if I taste it, I know it to be bread; if I apply it to my nose, I smell it is bread; if I look at it, I see it is nothing but bread." The poor priest was confounded, and went off about his business. Bib. Treasury.

Said a Universalist to a Calvinist, "Do you believe in eternal punishment?" "Yes," said the Calvinist. "No," said the other, "you do not believe any such thing. Why," continued the Universalist, "do you believe that Mr. S. of — believes in it? No, he does not believe any such thing." Again the Universalist added, "Do you believe that Rev. Mr. — of — believes that I am going to hell? He and I have lived here these — years; he has met me hundreds of times in the streets, and has never said a word to me on the subject—he does not believe any such thing."

During the great drought of the summer of 1824, in Spain, prayers were offered up in all the churches for rain, and amongst others in that of the village of Las Cabezas de San Juan, in Andalusia, where the unfortunate Riego proclaimed the constitution. But it was in vain that the patron St. Nicholas was invoked and worshiped, not a drop of rain fell. However, on a Sunday, as the faithful were at their devotions in his church, they perceived a letter in the hands of the saint. Some of the most devout approached to take it; but though St. Nicholas was of no more yielding material than wood, yet he raised the hand that held the letter, which appeared an unequivocal sign that he was unwilling to deliver it. The Curè, being informed of the circumstances, came in full canonicals to the saint, and prayed him humbly to give him the letter, which the saint, by lowering his hand, acceded to; and the Curè took the missive and read it to the assembly, to their infinite edification. The letter was composed in the following terms:—

Aboles of the Blessed, May 1, 1-24.

"My BELOVED NICHOLAS,—I have heard your continual prayers to me, to send down rain upon your country: you have no doubt forgotten the crimes with which your rebel village is stained, and which are the cause of the drought which afflicts unfortunate Spain. It is in vain that you ask for water; at present it is impossible for me to oblige you. Except rain, ask any thing else you wish from

Your ever Affectionate,

THE ETERNAL FATHER!!"

### 305. Miracles.

In the Life of Mary Queen of Scots, by Henry Glassford Bell, Esq., we find the following account of a pretended miracle upon a blind boy. The author was certainly not induced to give this account from any partiality to the Scottish Reformers, of whom he speaks in no friendly terms. The miracle is in good keeping with many related in the Roman Breviary, and is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Paul the Apostle concerning "lying wonders," 2 Thess. ii. 9.

"There was a chapel in the neighborhood of Musselburgh, dedicated to the Lady of Loretto, which, from the character of superior sanctity it had acquired, had long been the favorite resort of religious devotees. In this chapel a body of the Catholic priests undertook to put their religion to test by performing a miracle. They fixed upon a young man who was well known as a common beggar in the streets of Edinburgh, and engaged to restore to him, in the presence of the assembled people, the perfect use of his eyesight. A day was named on which they calculated they might depend on this wonderful interposition of divine power in their behalf. From motives of curiosity, a great crowd was attracted at the appointed time to the chapel. The blind man made his appearance on the scaffold erected for the occasion. The priests approached the altar, and after praying very devoutly, and performing other religious ceremonies, he who had previously been stone blind, opened his eyes and declared he saw all things plainly. Having humbly and gratefully thanked his benefactors, the priests, he was permitted to mingle among the astonished people and receive their charity. Unfortunately, however, for the success of this deception, a gentleman from Fife, of the name of Colville, determined to penetrate, if possible, a little further into the mystery. He prevailed upon the subject of the recent experiment to accompany him to his lodgings in Edinburgh. As soon as they were alone, he locked the chamber door, and either by bribes or threats contrived to win from him the whole secret. It turned out that in his boyhood this tool in the hands of the designing had been employed as a herd by the nuns of the convent of Sciennes, then in the neighborhood of Edinburgh. It was remarked by the sisterhood that he had an extraordinary facility in 'flipping up the lid of his eyes, and casting up the white.' Some of the neighboring priests, hearing accidentally of this talent, imagined that it might be applied to good account. They accordingly took him from Sciennes to the monastery near Musselburgh, where they kept him till he had made himself an adept in this mode of counterfeiting blindness, and till his personal appearance was so much changed that the few who had been acquainted with him before, would not be able to recognize him. They then sent him to Edinburgh to beg publicly, and make himself familiarly known to the inhabitants as a common blind mendicant. So far every thing had gone smoothly, and the scene at the chapel of Loretto might have had effect on the minds of the vulgar, had Colville's activity not discovered the gross imposture. Colville, who belonged to the congregation, instantly took the most effectual means to make known the deceit. He insisted upon the blind man's appearing with him next day at the cross of Edinburgh, where the latter repeated all he had told Colville, and confessed the iniquity of his own conduct, as well as that of the priests. To shelter him from their revenge, Colville immediately afterward carried him off to Fife, and the story with all its details being speedily disseminated, exposed the Catholic clergy to more contempt than ever."

# 306. Transubstantiation.

A man who lives fifty miles below Quebec, (says the Canadian Missionary Record,) mentioned that he had a Testament, and that a neighbor had one too, about whom he related the following circumstance:

A protracted meeting having been held here, several priests came to see this man, who, hearing of their coming, took a house fly, and put it on a plate on the table, with a thread tied to it. When the priests entered, the man received them very politely, thanking them for their attention to his soul's interest. They had a long conversation, in the course of which, he referred to his want of faith in the power of the priest; but pointing to the fly, he said, "I have been told that you can work miracles; now, if you will cause that fly to dr. p down dead, while I am looking at it, I will then go to confess." The priests refused, saying that they would not work a miracle for the sake of one person. "But my soul is very precious," said the man, "and if you love me as you say, you should do all in your power to bring me back to the church." During the conversation, speaking of the Host, he asked the priest to take some of the consecrated water, and put it in a cupboard with a number of mice, and if at the end of two weeks, it remained uneaten, then he would believe that it was God; otherwise he would remain as he was, for he could not think that God would allow himself to be eaten by mice.

In the reign of the "bloody Mary," the popish bishop of London publicly preached the doctrine, that priests were superior to angels. "The dignity of priests," said that impious prelate, "by some means passeth the dignity of angels, because there is no power given to any of the angels to make the body of Christ, which the least priest may do on earth, and the highest angel in heaven cannot do: wherefore, priests are to be honored before all kings of the earth, princes, and nobles. For a priest is higher than a king, happier than an angel, and maker of his Creator"

The Rev. Blanco White relates, that, in Spain, besides masses, bulls, prayers, and penances, the pope has established eight or ten days in the year, on which every Spaniard, (for the grant is confined to Spain,) by kneeling at five different altars, and there praying for the extirpation of heresy, is entitled to send a species of habeas animam writ to any of his friends in purgatory; that is, to require their deliverance as a reward for what he has done.

Mr. Temple, a Missionary of Malta, relates of a native of that island, that, "not long after he came into our family he was visited by a disease which reduced him so low, that his physician, a Roman Catholic, told him it was proper to confess himself, receive the host, and thus prepare himself for death. He was at that time sick in his own family, for he has a wife and children. According to the advice of the doctor, he sent for a priest, and confessed himself, a thing which he had not done for a long time before.

"A few evenings ago when he came to prayers, I asked him what the priest said to him. As he now detests the whole system, he seemed quite willing to tell me all about it. He said he confessed to the priest as many of his sins as he could recollect, and then asked PAP his confessor what he must do as he felt that he must soon die.

"The priest told him that, should he be spared, he must, as soon as his health would permit, kiss the ground fifteen times a day, for eight days together, must hear one mass a day during the same period, and recite a certain part of the Rosary a great many times for eight days; this was the penance enjoined by the confessor. 'But,' said the poor man, 'what shall I do if I die and cannot perform this penance?' 'Oh,' replied the confessor, 'have patience and go to purgatory.'

"I have never detected this man in a falsehood, and I have no doubt he told me the truth concerning this affair."

In the year 1738, Mr. John Wesley traveled in Germany, and spent a night or two at Mentz. While there, he went into the great church, and spent an hour, and copied the following from a paper on the door.

"A full release for the poor souls in purgatory.

"His Papal Holiness, Clement XII hath this year, 1738, on the 7th of August, most graciously privileged the Cathedral Church of St. Christopher, in Mentz, so that every priest, as well secular as regular, who will read mass at an altar for the soul of a Christian departed on any holiday, or any day within the octave thereof, or on two extraordinary days, to be appointed by the ordinary, of any week in the year, may each time deliver a soul out of the fire of purgatory."