9 Sermon Illustrations on Reconciliation

There were two brothers who had a quarrel and thereafter refused to speak to each other. The mother did all she could to reconcile them but to no avail. It greatly distressed her and robbed her of peace and happiness. One of the brothers saw how badly his mother felt. Hoping to please her, he brought her a fine gift. She refused it. "I don't want any gift," she said, "until you have become reconciled to your brother."

Edmund, surnamed Ironside, and Canute, the first Danish king, after long strife for the possession of England, made peace by agreeing to divide it between them, and confirmed it by putting on each other's apparel and arms, as if they had transferred their persons to each other, — Canute becoming Edmund; and Edmund, Canute. "Such an exchange," says Buck, "is there between Christ and the pardoned sinner. Christ puts upon the Church his own comeliness; decks her with his own jewels, as Isaac did Rebecca."

Themistoeles having offended King Philip, and not knowing how to regain his favor, took young Alexander, his son, in his arms, and so presented himself before the king; and, when he saw the young child smile upon him, his wrath was soon appeased towards him. The sinner should approach God with his Son Jesus Christ in his arms.

Certainly a soul, sensible what the loss of communion with God is, counts it hath not all its errand done when it hath naked peace given it. Should God say, "Soul, I am friends with thee, I have ordered thou shalt never go to hell, here is a discharge under my hand that thou shalt never be arrested for any debt more; but as for any fellowship with me, or fruition of me, thou canst expect none; I have done with thee, forever being acquainted more with thee,"—certainly the soul would take little joy in her peace. Were the fire out as to positive torments, yet a hell would be left in the dismal darkness which the soul would sit under for want of God's presence. A naughty heart seeks reconciliation without any longing after fellowship with God. Like the traitor, if the king will but pardon and save him from the gallows, he is ready to promise him never to trouble him at court: 'tis his own life, not the king's favor, he desires. Gurnall.

In an early period of the ministry of the Rev. John Wesley, he visited Epworth, in Lincolnshire, where his father had formerly been minister, but found the people greatly opposed to what they considered his new notions. He tells us, in his journal, that many persons were convinced of the importance of the truths he delivered from the tombstone of his father, some of whom were conveyed in a wagon to a neighboring justice of the peace, to answer for the heresy with which they were charged. Mr. Wesley rode over also: when the magistrate asked what these persons had done, there was a deep silence; for that was a point their conductors had forgotten. At length, one of them said, "Why, they pretend to be better than other people; and, besides, they pray from morning to night." He asked, "But have they done any thing besides?" "Yes, sir," said an old man, "An't please your worship, they have converted my wife. Till she went among them, she had such a tongue: and now she is as quiet as a lamb." "Carry them back, carry them back," replied the justice, "and let them convert all the scolds in the town."