9 Sermon Illustrations on Presence of God

The world is a great theatre, and the spectators are God and angels. I confess we little think of it; there is a foolish levity in our minds. As to us, the world is like a hill of ants; you stand by, and they run up and down, and do not think of your being there; so the Lord stands by and observes all our motions, and we run up and down like busy ants, and do not think of God's presence among us. We live in a great hurry and clatter of business, and have but few thoughts of God. The Psalmist gives a description of carnal men in these words (Ps. lxxxvi. 14), "They have not set thee before them!" Lord, let me not be a mere ant on the world's hill; but as thou hast given me an understanding, help me to use it upon thyself, that so I may rise to the true level of an intelligent and immortal being.

How can I disregard my God, my Father, my all? How can I be taken up with these trifles whilst thou art so near me, asking my love, and proving thy right to it by daily loading me with benefits? What a mere insect I am! Why am I thus? Why should I live like an emmet when thou hast made me a little lower than an angel? I shall never rise to what I ought to be unless thou reveal thyself in me and to me by thy good Spirit. Deliver me from that foolish levity of which thy servant speaks, which makes me fill my mind with contemptible vanities, and let me seriously remember thee, and the day when I shall stand before thy judgment-seat.

If you were cast out of your country a thousand miles off, you are not out of God's precinct: his arm is there to cherish the good, as well as to drag out the wicked. It is the same God, the same presence. in every country, as well as the same sun, moon, and stars; and were not God everywhere, yet he would not be meaner than his creature, the sun in the firmament, which visits every part of the habitable world in twenty-four hours. Charnock.

A company of poor Christians were banished into some remote parts; and one standing by, seeing them pass along, said, "That it was a very sad condition those poor people were in, to be thus hurried from the society of men, and to be made companions with the beasts of the field."—"True," said another. "It were a sad condition indeed, if they were carried to a place where they should not find their God; but let them be of good cheer; God goes along with them, and will exhibit the comforts of his presence wheresoever they go. He is an infinite God and filleth all places." Spencer.

A mother one morning gave her two little ones books and toys to amuse them, while she went to attend to some work in an upper room. A half hour passed quietly; and then a timid voice at the foot of the stairs called out, "Mamma, are you there?"—"Yes, darling."—"All right, then;" and the child went back to its play. By and by the question was repeated, "Mamma, are you there?"—"Yes."—"All right, then;" and the little ones, reassured of their mother's presence, again returned to their toys. Thus we, God's little ones, in doubt and loneliness, look up and ask, "My Father, art thou there?" and when there comes, in answer, the assurance of his presence, our hearts are quieted.

I have read, says Brooks, of a company of poor Christians who were banished into some remote part; and one standing by seeing them pass along, said, that it was a very sad condition those poor people were in, to be thus hurried from the society of men and made companions with the beasts of the field. True, said another, it were a sad condition indeed if they were carried to a place where they should not find their God; but let them be of good cheer God goes along with them, and will exhibit the comforts of his presence whithersoever they go. God's presence with his people is a spring that never fails.

# F THE GOSPEL.

the use of dishonest weights and measures was exposed. With this discourse she was much affected. The next day when the minister, according to his custom, went among his hearers, and called upon the woman, he took occasion to ask her what she remembered of his sermon. The poor woman complained much of her bad memory, and said she had forgotten almost all that he delivered. "But one thing," said she, "I remembered; I remembered to burn my bushel." A doer of the word cannot be a forgetful hearer.