134 Sermon Illustrations on Life

Man is like a book: his birth is the titlepage; his baptism, the epistle dedicatory; his groans and crying, the epistle to the reader; his infancy and childhood, the argument or contents of the whole ensuing treatises; his life and actions are the subject; his sins and errors, the faults escaped; his repentance, the correction. As for the volumes, some are in folio, some in quarto, some in octavo, some much smaller; some are fairer bound, some plainer; some have piety and godliness for their subjects; others (and they too many) are mere romances, pamphlets of wantonness and folly: but in the last page of every one there stands a word, which is Finis; and this is the last word in every book. Such is the life of man: some longer, some shorter; some stronger, some weaker; some fairer, some coarser; some holy, some profane. But death comes in, like finis, at the last, and closes up all; for that is the end of all. Spencer.

A rough jewel lay in the sand among many common stones. A boy picked up some of these to use them for playthings, and took them home together with the jewel; but he did not know this. The boy's father, looking on when he was playing, perceived the rough jewel, and said to his son, "Give me that stone." The boy did so, and smiled; for he thought, "What is my father going to do with this stone?" The father took the stone, and polished it skilfully into regular planes and angles; and, behold! a diamond glittered brilliantly. "See!" said the father, "here is the stone you gave me." The boy wondered at the splendor and brilliancy of the stone, and exclaimed, "My father, how could you accomplish this?" The father said, "I knew the hidden virtue and the value of the stone; therefore I freed it from its coating of dross: now it sparkles with its natural radiance." When the boy had increased in years, the father gave him the precious stone as an emblem of the worth and dignity of life.

— Krummacher

Life bears us on like a stream of a mighty river. Our boat at first glides down the narrow channel, through the playful murmuring of the little brook and the winding of its grassy borders. The trees shed their blossoms over young heads: the flowers on the brink seem to offer themselves to the young hands. We are happy in hope, and we grasp eagerly at the beauties around us; but the stream hurries on, and still our hands are empty. Our course in youth and manhood is along a wilder and deeper flood, amid objects more striking and magnificent. We are animated at the moving pictures, and enjoyments and industry passing us; we are excited at some short-lived disappointment. The stream bears us on; and our joys and griefs are alike left behind us. We may be shipwrecked; but we cannot be delayed. Whether rough or smooth, the river hastens to its home, till the roar of the ocean is in our ears, and the tossing of the waves is beneath our feet, and the land lessens from our eyes, and the floods are lifted up around us; and we take our leave of earth and its inhabitants, until, of our future voyage, there is no witness save the Infinite and Eternal.

A cannon is but a short tube; but its direction at the moment of its discharge governs the whole flight of the ball. A clay mould is a fragile thing; but the molten metal poured into it may retain the shape so given ages after the mould has crumbled into dust. The plate prepared by a photographer may be exposed to the light only a few seconds; but the impression then caught may be retained for many years. Flowers are frail, and soon drop into the ground; but they leave behind a ripening seed that may perpetuate the species forever. Such is the influence of the present upon the future life.

A River. Pliny compares life to a river. The river, small and clear in its origin, gushes forth from rocks, falls into deep glens, and wantons and meanders through a wild and picture-que country; nourishing only the uncultivated tree or flower by its dew or spray. In this, in its state of infancy and youth, it may be compared to the human mind, in which fancy, and strength of imagination, are predominant: it is more beautiful than useful. When the different rills or torrents join, and descend into the plain, it becomes slow and stately in its motions, and able to bear upon its bosom the stately barge. In this mature state, it is deep, strong, and useful. As it flows on towards the sea, it loses its force and its motion, and at last, as it were, becomes lost and mingled with the mighty abyss of waters. Sir H. Davy.

In a sabbath gathering of Quakers, some years ago, an aged and venerable-looking man arose, and with prophet-like authority said, "Many say it is a solemn thing to die; but bethink you all, and bethink you well, it is a solemn thing to live." That witness was true. S. Coley.

The leaves of some trees, when they fall, leave no trace whatever behind: the scar left by their removal heals immediately; and on the smooth naked bark of the bough, in winter, there is no mark to indicate that it was once covered with foliage. There are other trees, however, on which the scars are permanent. The leaf drops off; but it leaves a seal-like impression behind on the stem: and no succeeding growth can obliterate it. Through summer's luxuriance and winter's desolation, the memory of the vanished leaf remains indelibly fixed on the tree, engraved, as if with a pen of iron upon the bough which it once adorned. The tree may increase in size until it forms a grove by itself; but the signet-mark left by the leaf, which fell from it when it was a mere sapling, still cleaves to it in the grandeur of old age. Many of the characteristic marks on the stems of palm-trees and tree-ferns are due to the permanence of these scars, when their leaves are decayed and dropped off. And is not the lesson of analogy here very clear and impressive? How many there are who fade, and drop off the tree of humanity, and leave no trace of their existence behind! while others, when they fade, and drop off the tree of life, leave behind them an impression which time will only make deeper, — an empty space, whose perpetual vacancy reminds the survivors of an irreparable loss. Rev. Hugh Macmillan.

We talk of human life as a journey; but how variously is that journey performed! There are those who come forth girt and shod and mantled to walk on velvet lawns and smooth terraces, where every gale is arrested and every beam is tempered. There are others who walk on the alpine paths of life, against driving misery, and through stormy sorrows, over sharp afflictions; walk with bare feet and naked breast, jaded, mangled, and chilled. Sydney Smith.

The voyage of life should be right across the ocean, whose waters never shrink, and where the keel never rubs the bottom. But men are afraid to venture, and hang upon the coast, and explore lagoons, or swing at anchor in wind-sheltered bays. Some men put their keel into riches, some into sensuous pleasure, some into friendship; and all these are shallow for any thing that draws as deep as the human soul does. God's work in each age, indicated by the great movements of his providence, is the only thing deep enough for the heart. We ought to begin life as at the source of a river, growing deeper every league to the sea: whereas, in fact, thousands are like men who enter the mouths of rivers, and sail upwards, finding less and less water every day; and in old age they lie shrunk and gaping upon the dry gravel. Beecher.

A gentleman of high standing, a lawyer, a politician, a man of talents, and, as the world estimates, a man who was successful in all his undertakings, was suddenly arrested by disease, and brought to the close of life. He was asked by a friend how he felt as he looked back upon his past life. “With all its success, I now see and feel that my life has been a failure. I have not gained one of the great ends for which life was given, and now it is too late to gain them.”

Life is too short for any vain regretting; Let dead delight bury its dead, I say, And let us go upon our way forgetting The joys and sorrows of each yesterday. Between the swift sun’s rising and its setting We have no time for useless tears or fretting. Life is too short.

Life is too short for any bitter feeling; Time is the best avenger, if we wait. The years speed by, and on their wings bear healing-- We have no room for anything like hate. This solemn truth the low mounds seem revealing That thick and fast about our feet are stealing. Life is too short.

Life is too short for aught but high endeavor-- Too short for spite, but long enough for love. And love lives on forever and forever, It links the worlds that circle on above; ’Tis God’s first law, the universe’s lever, In His vast realm the radiant souls sigh never. Life is too short. (Text.)

A lady occupied a whole year in searching for and fitting the following lines from English and American poets. The whole reads almost as if written at one time and by one author:

Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour?

--_Young_

Life’s a short summer--man is but a flower;

--_Dr. Johnson_

By turns we catch the fatal breath and die

--_Pope_

The cradle and the tomb, alas! so nigh!

--_Prior_

To be is better far than not to be,

--_Sewell_

Tho all man’s life may seem a tragedy;

--_Spencer_

But light cares speak when mighty griefs are dumb--

--_Daniel_

The bottom is but shallow whence they come.

--_Raleigh_

Your fate is but the common fate of all,

--_Longfellow_

Unmingled joys here to no man befall;

--_Southwell_

Nature to each allots his proper sphere.

--_Congreve_

Fortune makes folly her peculiar care.

--_Churchill_

Custom does often reason overrule

--_Rochester_

And throw a cruel sunshine on a fool;

--_Armstrong_

Live well--how long or short permit to heaven,

--_Milton_

They who forgive most shall be most forgiven.

--_Bailey_

Sin may be clasped so close we can not see its face;

--_French_

Vile intercourse where virtue has no place.

--_Somerville_

Then keep each passion down, however dear,

--_Thompson_

Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear:

--_Byron_

Her sensual snares let faithless pleasures lay,

--_Smollett_

With craft and skill to ruin and betray.

--_Crabbe_

Soar not too high to fall, but stoop to rise;

--_Massinger_

We masters grow of all that we despise.

--_Crowley_

Oh, then, renounce that impious self-esteem.

--_Beattie_

Riches have wings, and grandeur is a dream.

--_Cowper_

Think not ambition wise because ’tis brave--

--_Davenant_

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

--_Gray_

What is ambition? ’Tis a glorious cheat.

--_Willis_

Only destructive to the brave and great.

--_Addison_

What’s all the gaudy glitter of a crown?

--_Dryden_

The way to bliss lies not on beds of down.

--_Quarles_

How long we live, not years but actions tell.

--_Watkins_

That man lives twice, who lives the first life well.

--_Herrick_

Make, then, while yet ye may, your God your friend.

--_Mason_

Whom Christians worship, yet not comprehend.

--_Hill_

The trust that’s given guard, and to yourself be just.

--_Dana_

For live howe’er we may, yet die we must.

--_Shakespeare_

--_Good Housekeeping._

I have seen at midnight the gleaming headlight of a giant locomotive, rushing onward through the darkness, heedless of danger and uncertainty, and I have thought the spectacle grand. I have seen the light come over the eastern hills in glory, driving the lazy darkness, like mist before a sea-born gale, till leaf and tree and blade of grass sparkled as myriad diamonds in the morning rays, and I have thought that it was grand. I have seen the lightning leap at midnight athwart the storm-swept sky, shivering over chaotic clouds, ’mid howling winds, till cloud and darkness and the shadow-haunted earth flashed into midday splendor, and I have known that it was grand. But the grandest thing, next to the radiance that flows from the Almighty’s throne, is the light of a noble and beautiful life, shining in benediction upon the destines of men, and finding its home in the bosom of the everlasting God.

— JOHN TEMPLE GRAVES

Into this world we come like ships, Launched from the docks and stocks and slips, For fortune fair or fatal. --THOMAS HOOD.

O Neptune! You may save me if you will; you may sink me if you will; but whatever happens I shall keep my rudder true.

--SENECA’S “Pilot.”

Lowly faithful, banish fear, Right onward sail unharmed; The port, well worth the voyage, is near, And every wave is charmed. --R. W. EMERSON.

Thou hast embarked; thou hast made the voyage; thou art come to shore; now land! (Text.)

— MARCUS AURELIUS

The enchanters of China promised the emperors of that country to find an elixir of long life that should efface the irreparable inroad of years. The astrologers and necromancers of the Middle Ages flattered themselves to have discovered the fountain of youth, in which a person had merely to bathe in order to recover his youth. All such dreams were long ago dispelled by the progress of science. Yet, in the heart of most men, there is such a desire to prolong their stay upon the earth that the art of living for a long time has not ceased to impassion a large number of persons who would be willing to endure all the evils of an indefinitely prolonged old age. We have several times had proof of this mania, which Dean Swift has so wittily stigmatized in his second voyage of Gulliver by showing in what a state of abjection the mortals of Laputa lived--those unfortunates who were condemned to survive their own selves through the loss of memory of what they had been. One of the perpetual secretaries of the Academy of Sciences has written a volume to prove that man should consider himself young up to eighty years of age. A noble Venetian named Cornaro spent twenty years in a scale-pan in order to ascertain what alimentary regimen was best adapted to him. We have known old men who, having learned that Mr. Chevreul had never drank anything but water, took the resolution to abstain wholly from wine, hoping in this way to exceed a hundred years. Fortunately, a rag-gatherer, who had reached the same age as the celebrated academician, spared them this sacrifice, by informing his confrére in longevity that he had never drank anything but wine.--_La Science Illustrée._

Ponce de Leon searched Florida for the spring of the elixir of life; thousands of alchemists have attempted to concoct it; innumerable patent medicines in every drugstore testify to the universal effort to prolong earthly existence; a miser will fling away his last piece of gold to save his life; lawyers will battle to the last device of law to save a client from execution if only to prolong his existence in a prison; and tho Bacon says “there is no passion so mean as that it can not mate and master the fear of death,” he was speaking only of sudden and occasional passions. The rule is that passion to live outmasters all other passions.

What a word then is this of Jesus when He says, “I came that they might have life.”

“In the city of New York alone there are 150,000 people living to-day who would be dead if the mortality of fifty years ago still prevailed,” says a writer in _The Booklover’s Magazine_. “Popular opinion has scarcely yet come to realize what medical science has been doing in late years. People sicken and die, think the laity, and the efforts of the physician are just as futile as before the recent discoveries about which so much is said. This idea is, however, erroneous. I will venture to say there is scarcely an adult living to-day who has not experienced or will not experience an actual prolongation of life due to discoveries of the last fifty years.”

And this is life--to-day we here abide, Perchance to-morrow we must step aside, We master not our own; no vain regret Can change the path for us which God has set.

Then let our footsteps be toward the light, With loving words and deeds make each day bright. Let charity progress to wider plan, Lend gracious ear to creed of every man.

— S. D. GARDNER

Death is an enemy, not a friend. But Jesus conquers it. Make the most of life. Luther: "In the midst of death we are surrounded by life." (Episcopal prayer book has it the other way around.)

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Bertrand Russell's description of inner longing:

"The center of me is always and eternally a terrible pain - a curious, wild pain - a searching for something beyond what the world contains, something transfigured and infinite, the beatific vision - God. I do not find it, I do not think it is to be found, but the love of it is my life; it's like passionate love for a ghost. At time it fills me with rage, at times with wild despair; it is the source of gentleness and cruelty and work; it fills every passion I have. It is the actual spring of life in me."

Carrie Coons, 86, was in a vegetative coma. Relatives wanted her unplugged because she had expressed a desire to die. But she began to speak and would not commit herself to having the feeding tubes removed. Her answer - it would be a difficult decision.

Tony Campolo: A rich person in California was buried propped up in her sports car with sunglasses on and a scarf around her neck. The crane operator who was lowering the car into its concrete vault was heard to exclaim, "Man, that's living!"

All our children were in bed; the late television news was over, and I was putting the finishing touches to a presentation for medical students scheduled to be given the next day. As I reviewed some slides which might be used, there appeared on the screen a picture of an abortion victim, aged two and one-half months’ gestation; her body had been dismembered by a curette, the long handled knife used in a D&C abortion procedure.

Suddenly I heard, rather than saw, another person near me. At the sound of a sharp intake of breath, I turned to find that my youngest son, then a sleepy, rumpled three-year-old, had unexpectedly and silently entered the room. His small voice was filled with great sadness as he asked, “Who broke the baby?”

How could this small, innocent child see what so many adults cannot see?

(Garton’s reason for deciding to become a prolife activist)

The unpredictableness of life (and abortion) shown by story of Beethoven:

The young woman lost her father early in life. She married only to have her husband pass away soon after. She remarried, then her mother died within the year. She was never seen to laugh. She was continually pregnant and gave birth to seven children. Four of them died as infants or toddlers. They were born so frequently that when one died, the next one took the same name. The surviving children all bore the scars of smallpox. After the birth of her seventh child, she herself died from tuberculosis.

Before she died the lingering death of tuberculosis, her husband became an alcoholic. He drank up all their money and at one point she had to sell her clothes to buy food. He lost his job, and drank even more. He was cruel and abusive to his children, and the little ones were often seen crying by neighbors. When the oldest became an adolescent, it became his job to bail the father out of the local drunk-tank.

This son had almost no formal education and never learned even simple arithmetic. At an early age he contracted a social disease. (syphilis) At age 32 he was completely deaf. Chronic depression and paranoia robbed him of most of his friends. He never married and had no children. After months of suffering and pain, he died from pneumonia and congestive heart failure.

If his mother had wanted to terminate this pregnancy to spare him all this, would she have been justified?

(Congratulations, you just killed Ludwig von Beethoven!)

_________________________________________________

Another version from Chick Publications:

http://www.chick.com/bc/1999/abortion.asp Issue Date: January/February 1999

Would You Consider Abortion in These Four Situations?

1. There is a preacher and wife who are very, very poor. They already have 14 kids. Now she finds out she is pregnant with her 15th. They are living in tremendous poverty. Considering their poverty and the excessive world population, would you consider recommending abortion?

2. The father is sick with sniffles, the mother has TB. They have 4 children. The first is blind, the second is dead. The third is deaf and the fourth has TB. The mother finds she is pregnant again. Given the extreme situation, would you recommend abortion?

3. A white man raped a 13-year-old black girl and she got pregnant. If you were her parents, would you consider recommending abortion?

4. A teenage girl is pregnant. She is not married. Her fiancee is not the father of the baby, and he is very upset. Would you recommend an abortion?

If you have answered "yes" to any of these situations:

In the first case you would have killed John Wesley, one of the great evangelists of the 18th century.

In the second case, you would have killed Beethoven.

In the third case you would have killed Ethel Waters, the great black gospel singer.

In the fourth case you would have recommended the murder of Jesus Christ.

With U.S. abortion deaths topping 30 million, only God knows what we have sacrificed in lost human talent and creativity.

_____________________________

Version by Roddy Chestnut:

A professor at the UCLA Medical School asked his students this question: "Here is the family history: The father has syphilis. The mother has TB. They already have had four children. The first is blind. The second has died. The third is deaf. The fourth has TB. The mother is pregnant. The parents are willing to have an abortion if you decide they should. What do you think?" Most of the students decided on abortion. "Congratulations," said the professor. "You have just murdered Beethoven!" Nothing is so final as murder, even when it is done very early in life.

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While the discovery of a meteorite that scientists say could indicate that there once was life on Mars could have important implications for theology, don't expect any talk of a Christian mission to the galaxy at least for a while.

The scientific evidence is sketchy and the theological questions are fuzzy, but religious thinkers are pondering the implications that there could be life on other planets.

"The wonders of the universe are more fantastic than we thought," former Harvard Divinity School dean Krister Stendahl told Knight-Tribune News Service. "This challenges our understanding of God in a positive way" and suggests that God "has other timetables in other parts of the universe," he said.

Scientists say the meteorite is 4.5 billion years old and was likely knocked into space by an asteroid collision on Mars 16 million years ago, crashing onto Antarctica a relatively recent 13,000 years ago. The 4-pound rock was found in 1984 and named Allan Hills 84001.

Using instruments that didn't exist five years ago, scientists said they discovered molecular material consistent with life and what may be actual fossils of microscopic organisms. Skeptics were quick to point out that the markings could have been caused by inorganic chemical reactions.

The NASA scientists admitted the evidence is highly speculative and as yet there is no "smoking gun" to indicate that life once existed on Mars. They invited other scientists worldwide to challenge their research.

Still, the news tantalized even skeptics, who said it could turn out to be the most important scientific find of the 20th century.

"If the results are verified, it is a turning point in human history," scientist Carl Sagan told USA Today.

And while he is still skeptical, Stanley Miller of the University of California at San Diego told the New York Times, the implications of the discovery could be astounding.

"If it turns out that there really was life on Mars, then we have to believe that if reasonably good conditions exist on any planet, life probably forms rather easily," he said. "The galaxy may indeed be full of habited places."

President Clinton pledged that the American space program will "put its full intellectual power and technological prowess" into searching for more evidence of life on Mars and directed Vice President Al Gore to convene a "bipartisan space summit" in November to pursue questions raised by the meteorite.

The find could have implications not only for science, but also for philosophy and religion, others said.

A New York Times editorial reasoned that the discovery could raise new doubts for Christians. "Creationists who find it difficult to accept the evolution of life on Earth might face even greater difficulties in coping with life evolving elsewhere," the paper editorialized.

But Bill Williams, president of Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, said faith and science can coexist.

"Faith and science are complementary forces and, when engaged in dialogue, create a deeper faith and a more complete understanding of the universe," said Williams, who teaches a Bible study on "Christ in Contemporary Society" at North Phoenix Baptist Church.

The possibility of other life forms in the universe is "certainly within my understanding of the Christian world view," Williams said.

Fundamentalist Baptist leader Jerry Falwell said he does not believe in life on other planets. "They can spend a trillion dollars looking for it but they'll never find it," Falwell said. "The Bible makes clear that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and Man" and his work on Earth was entirely for the descendants of Adam and Eve, Falwell told USA Today.

However, Bert Dominy, a theology professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said the Bible describes only God's relationship to humanity and does not address the issue of extra-terrestrial life. "It's a non-issue, biblically," Dominy said.

Dominy said he is personally not excited about theological implications of the Mars finding. "A lot of this is speculative," he said. "We don't know enough and they don't know enough to really talk intelligently yet. I just kind of take this stuff in stride until you have more to go on."

One theologian who declined to be interviewed on the record noted that one reason some Christians find such discoveries troubling is their world view is shaped more by science than by their experience with Jesus Christ.

Christians need not feel threatened by scientific discoveries unless they have based their views on the origin of life or salvation on science, he said, "because science can change and will change."

Bob Murphy, a NASA scientist and Baptist layman from Maryland, said he did not find the report "particularly alarming or astonishing, either from a theological or scientific point of view."

"It's interesting, but my perception, like many others, is that life probably is widespread," explained Murphy, a project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and member of Woodbrook Baptist Church in Baltimore.

"The laws of physics work the same throughout the universe. God created them, and I don't expect he would change them arbitrarily for one planet."

"I think the real exciting news will be when we find higher forms of life," he said.

Bob Newman, a seminary professor who holds a doctorate in astrophysics, said he is "kind of open to the question" of life on other planets.

The Bible states that life is created by God, and "presumably then it's wherever God chose to put it," said Newman, a New Testament professor at Biblical Theological Seminary, an independent evangelical school in Hatfield, Pa.

"The Bible doesn't really say anything about life in the universe other than us," Newman said, but that silence does not necessarily mean that extraterrestrial life cannot exist.

"The Bible does tell us that God has created other life than humans and animals" such as angels and demons, he said.

Those are life forms "much different than ours" and probably the result of "some sort of earlier creation" not described in Scripture, he added. "There's no evidence of their creation in Genesis 1 or 2 but we're told they're created in Nehemiah 9."

Whether any beings on other planets would need salvation or missionaries is also an open question.

In his 1976 recording "UFO," contemporary Christian singer Larry Norman reasoned of Christ: "If there's life on other planets, and I'm sure that he must know, and he's been there once already and has died to save their soul."

But Newman said it is unclear that extraterrestrials would even need redemption. "If you found beings on other planets and had no evidence they were descended from Adam, you'd first have to find out if they're fallen," Newman said.

Both Murphy and Newman cited "Out of the Silent Planet" from the late Christian apologist C.S. Lewis' science fiction trilogy as a leading source of thinking about the possibility and implications of life in space.

Murphy recalled a Bible study he attended years ago where scientists discussed questions like whether the missionary mandate to proclaim the Christian message to all creatures would include extraterrestrials.

One view was that if other civilizations were discovered, Christians would have the duty to evangelize them. Another, advocated by Lewis, was that there could be other creatures in the universe, but because man is so fallen and corrupt, they are isolated from Earth for their own protection.

"If there are other creatures, it's the same God," Murphy said. "I would expect they would be in need of salvation, but I don't want to restrict God's ability to do something different."

"I would also presume if they are in need of salvation, God has other ways of doing that and not waiting for us to get there," Murphy said.

Newman said speculation about the eternal destiny of such creatures ultimately must fall back on the goodness of God. "If God chose to create beings elsewhere, he'll figure out how to redeem them," he said.

A Baptist theologian and pastor in Texas suggested that salvation obtained for humanity by Jesus Christ on Earth could also be effective in other places.

The apostle Paul wrote in Romans of the creation itself longing for redemption and in Colossians that all things "hold together" in Christ, noted George Mason, pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas.

"It seems to me that the implications of Jesus' earthly human existence are not only for humankind," said Mason, who holds a doctorate in systematic theology.

"The fact that Jesus has ascended to the Father and is no longer confined to the limitations of space/time in a human body makes him through the Spirit able to be present throughout the universe in his lordship," Mason said.

"What the implications are for other life forms beyond our knowledge in the universe, we could only speculate," Mason said. "But if we are to think cosmically about the relationship of God to creation, we should work that out from our understanding of the universal lordship of Christ."

Executive Editor: Greg Warner

Associate Editor: Bob Allen

Phone: (904) 262- 6626

Fax: (904) 262-7745

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