65 Sermon Illustrations on Trust in God

About the year 1797, Mr. M. was travelling from a town on the eastern border of Vermont, to another town on the western side of the same state. Passing over the mountainous part of the country, between the Connecticut and Onion rivers, he perceived the heavens to be gathering blackness; the sound of distant thunder was heard, and a heavy shower of rain was seen to be fast approaching. The traveller was then in a forest; no place of shelter appeared, and he hastened on until he arrived at a small cottage on the extreme border of the woods. The rain just then began to rush down with great violence. He sprang from his horse, pulled off his saddle, and without ceremony went into the house. Surprised to see no family, but a female with an infant child, he began to apologize for his sudden appearance; and hoped she would not be alarmed, but permit him to tarry till the rain had abated. She replied, that she was glad he had happened to come in, for she was always much terrified by thunder. "But why, madam," asked he, "should you be afraid of thunder? It is the voice of God, and will do no harm to those who love him and commit themselves to his care."

After conversing with her for a while on this topic, he inquired if she had any neighbors who were religious. She told him she had neighbors about two miles off, but whether they were religious or not she did not know; only she had heard that some man was in the habit of coming there to preach once a fortnight. Her husband went once, but she had never been to their meetings. In regard to every thing of a religious kind, she appeared to be profoundly ignorant.

The rain had now passed over, and the face of nature smiled. The pious traveller, about to depart, expressed to the woman his thanks for her hospitality and his earnest desire for the salvation of her soul. He earnestly besought her to read her Bible daily, and to give good heed to it, as to "a light shining in a dark place." She, with tears in her eyes, confessed that she had no Bible. They had never been able to buy one. "Could you read one, if you had it?" "Yes, sir, and would be glad to do so." "Poor woman," said he, "I do heartily pity you; farewell."

He was preparing to pursue his journey. But he reflected: "This woman is in very great need of a Bible. Oh that I had one to give her! But I have not. As for money to buy one, I have none to spare: I have no more than will be absolutely necessary for my expenses home. I must go; but if I leave this woman without the means to procure the word of God, she may perish for lack of knowledge. What shall I do?" He recollected the Scriptures, "He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the Lord." "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." His heart responded, "I will trust the Lord." He took a dollar from his purse, went back, and desired the woman to take it, and as soon as possible procure for herself a Bible. She promised to do so, saying, that she knew where one could be obtained.

He again took his leave, and set off. As there were then but few taverns on the road, he asked for a lodging at a private house, near which he found himself when night overtook him. He had yet a few pieces of change in his pocket; but as a journey of two more days was before him, he purposed to make his supper on a cold morsel which he had with him. But when the family came round their table to take their evening repast, the master of the house very urgently invited the stranger to join with them—not only so, but to crave God's blessing on their meal. He now began to feel himself among friends, and at liberty to speak freely on Divine things. The family appeared gratified in listening to his discourse till a late hour: it was a season of refreshing to their thirsty souls. In the morning, the traveller was urged to tarry till breakfast, but declined, the distance he had to travel requiring him to set off early. His host would take no compensation, and he departed, giving him many thanks. He travelled on till late in the morning, when, finding no public house, he stopped again at a private one for refreshment. While waiting, he lost no time to recommend Christ and him crucified to the family. When ready to depart, he offered to pay the mistress of the house, who had waited upon him very kindly, for his repast, and the oats for his horse; but she would receive nothing. Thus he went on, asking for refreshment as often as he needed it, and recommending religion wherever he called; and always offering, as another traveller would do, to pay his expenses; but no one would accept his money, although it was not known that his stock was so low, for he told them not, and his appearance was respectable: at home he was a man of wealth. "What," thought he, "does this mean? I was never treated in this manner on a journey before." The dollar given to the destitute woman recurred to his mind; and conscience replied, "I have been well paid. It is, indeed, safe lending to the Lord." On the second day after he left the cottage in the wilderness he arrived safely at home; and still had money for the poor, having been at no cost whatever. About a year and a half after this, a stranger called at the house of Mr. M. for some refreshment. In the course of conversation, he observed that he lived on the other side of the mountain, near Connecticut river. Mr. M. inquired whether the people in that vicinity paid much attention to religion. The traveller replied, "Not much; but in a town twenty or thirty miles beyond the river, with which I am acquainted, there has been a powerful revival. The commencement of it was very extraordinary. The first person that was awakened and brought to repentance, was a poor woman, who lived in a very retired place. She told her friends and neighbors that a stranger was driven into her house by a thunderstorm, and talked to her so seriously, that she began, while listening to his discourse, to feel concerned about her soul. The gentleman was much affected when he found that she had no Bible; and, after he had left the house to go on his journey, returned again, and gave her a dollar to buy one; and charged her to get it soon, and read it diligently. She did so; and it had been the means, as she believed, of bringing her from darkness into light; from a state of stupidity and sin, to delight in the truth and ways of God. The name of this pious man, or the place of his residence, she knew not. But she believed it was the Lord that sent him. At this relation, and the great change which was obvious in the woman, her neighbors wondered much. They were induced to meditate on the goodness, wisdom, and power of God, displayed in this singular event of his providence. They were led to think of the importance of attending more to the Bible themselves; and were finally awakened to a deep concern for the salvation of their souls. As many as thirty or forty are already hopefully converted, and rejoicing in God their Savior." Mr. M.; who had listened to this relation with a heart swelling more and more with wonder, gratitude, and joy, could refrain no longer; but, with hands and eyes upraised to heaven, exclaimed, "My God, thou hast paid me again!" #

Mrs. Elizabeth Hervey, the wife of a Missionary in Bombay, died an early but happy death. "I did hope," said she, "that I should be permitted to do something towards elevating the degraded and miserable females of India; but since God decides otherwise, His will be done! In this great conflict, some must fall as soon as they enter the field. Tell my friends that I never have for a moment regretted that I came hither. No! had I foreseen this hour, and all that I have endured since I left America, I should have decided just as I did, if the path of duty had been as plain as it appeared to be."

A friend said to her, he hoped the Saviour would be with her, as she walked through the dark valley of the shadow of death. "If this," said she, "is the dark valley, it has not a dark spot in it; all is light—light!" She had, during most of her sickness, bright views of the perfections of God. "His awful holiness," she said, "appeared the most lovely of all His attributes." At one time, she said she wanted words to express her views of the majesty and glory of Christ. "It seems," said she, "that if all other glory were annihilated, and nothing left but His bare self, it would be enough; it would be a universe of glory!"

Raymond, a celebrated European traveler, bears the following testimony:

Speaking of the Spanish smugglers, he says: "These smugglers are as adroit as they are determined, are familiarized at all times with peril, and much in the very face of death. Their first movement is a never-failing shot, and certainly would be an object of dread to most passengers; for where are they to be dreaded more, than in deserts, where crime has nothing to witness it, and the feeble no assistance? As for myself, alone and unarmed, I have met them without anxiety, and have accompanied them without fear. We have little to apprehend from men whom we inspire with no distrust or envy, and every thing to expect in those from whom we claim only what is due from man to man. The laws of nature still exist for those who have long shaken off the laws of civil government. At war with society, they are sometimes at peace with their fellows. The assassin has been my guide in the defiles of the boundaries of Italy; the smuggler of the Pyrenees has received me with a welcome in his secret paths. Armed, I should have been the enemy of both; unarmed, they have alike respected me. In such expectation, I have long since laid aside all menacing apparatus whatever.

The case of William Penn, is perhaps the fullest and fairest illustration of pacific principles in their bearing on the intercourse of nations. His colony, though an appendage to England, was to the Indians an independent State. They knew no power above or beyond that of Penn himself; and they treated his colony as another tribe or nation. Their king had himself expressly abandoned these Quakers entirely to their own resources. "What!" said Charles II to Penn, on the eve of his departure, "venture yourself among the savages of North America! Why man, what security have you, that you will not be in their war-kettle within two hours after setting your foot on their shores?" "The best security in the world," replied the man of peace. "I doubt that, friend William; I have no idea of any security against those cannibals, but a regiment of good soldiers with their muskets and bayonets; and I tell you beforehand that, with all my good will to you and your family, to whom I am under obligations, I will not send a single soldier with you." "I want none of thy soldiers; I depend on something better." "Better! on what?" "On the Indians themselves, on their moral sense, and the promised protection of God."

Such was the course of William Penn; and what was the result? In the midst of the most warlike tribes on this continent, the Quakers lived in safety, while all the other colonies, acting on the war-policy of armed defence, were involved almost incessantly in bloody conflicts with the Indians. Shall we ascribe this to the personal tact of William Penn? Shrewd he doubtless was; but the success of his policy was owing mainly, if not entirely, to its pacific character. Penn was only an embodiment of his principles, and the efficacy of these is strikingly exhibited in the fact that Pennsylvania, during all the seventy years of her peace policy, remained without harm from the Indians, but suffered as soon as she changed that policy, the same calamities with the other colonies.

The Rev. Samuel Welles, a Christian minister of the seventeenth century, constantly trusted the good providence of God, and was once told by a doctor of divinity that he lived better on Providence than the doctor himself with all his income. Though this good man had ten or eleven children, he declared that he had no anxiety about their support, for God would surely provide. On this principle he acted in leaving a situation which brought him 200l. a year for one that yielded only 100l. per annum, that his 353. 354 usefulness might be increased; and afterwards for the same reason refused a living of 300l.

I was in command of a vessel, says Capt. S., of V—, Mass., engaged in the Hide trade, between N— and a port in Brazil. In performing one of those voyages, several occurrences took place strictly providential, and illustrative of the benefits to be derived from a conscientious regard to the Sabbath.

The custom of the Brazilian port, was to load vessels on the Sabbath. This labor was performed by gangs of negroes, under the direction of stevedores. These stevedores were few in number; and, in times of great hurry of business, in order to an equitable division of their services, the vessels were accustomed to take their turns in the order in which they were reported as ready to receive cargo. If, when the time came round for a particular vessel to load, she was not ready, her name was transferred to the bottom of the list. It was my lot to experience some of the effects of this custom.

My turn came to load. The work commenced and continued till Saturday night, when I ordered the hatches closed, and forbid any work being done on board till Monday morning. The stevedore and his gang, muttering curses, left the vessel, threatening to do no more work on board.

Monday came. I made application to the commission merchant, and was informed that I had lost my turn in loading, and must wait until it came round again, and that the stevedore and his gang had gone on board another vessel.

To aggravate my disappointment, I found that a hostile feeling had sprung up against me, and was participated in by all around. The merchant was studiously polite and respectful as before, but no longer familiar. Masters of vessels avoided my society. Evil disposed persons busied themselves in doing me secret injuries, cutting my rigging in the night time, and in other ways showing their malice. Our devotional exercises, morning and evening, were interrupted, and our efforts to do good derided and mocked.

Thus things went on, until our turn came round again; when, there being no other vessel ready to load, we were left to do our work in our own way. The loss of time, occasioned by the refusal to load on the Sabbath, amounted to several weeks; but after all was it in fact a loss? The result will show.

It was now Saturday night again, the lading of the ship was completed, and we were ready for sea.

The Sabbath dawned, and with it came a fresh and fair wind. Shall we improve it, and violate the day, and that too after so many sacrifices to promote its sanctification? It was not to be thought of, and hoisting the Bethel flag as an invitation for our shipmates to come on board, we spent the day in devotional exercises. It was a happy Sabbath to all on board.

Monday morning early we were under sail for the lower harbor, several miles distant. On our way, we passed two brigs aground with lighters along side discharging their hides in order to lighten them and get them off. They left the upper harbor on the Sabbath, and here they were, and like to be until the next fair wind had blown itself out. On reaching the lower harbor we found to our surprise, lying at anchor, upwards of forty sail of shipping waiting for a wind. Among them were all the vessels that had cleared for the last month or more, including every vessel that had obtained an advantage over us in respect to loading.

We had now to obtain a pilot and get to sea when the wind came fair and before it had spent itself. These were by no means matters easy to be accomplished. Pilots were few, and vessels many, and here, too, the principle of rotation was rigidly enforced. The winds, meanwhile, when fair, were short-lived and feeble, and the bar at the entrance of the harbor, too dangerous to pass without a pilot.

But He who had sustained us through previous trials for his name's sake, did not forsake us now. A pilot who had been on a long visit to the interior, returned to the sea-board and resumed his duties on the very day we reached the outer harbor, and presenting himself on board, offered to pilot us to sea.

Tuesday morning found us, with a fair wind, a pilot on board, and under way at day-light. We were the second vessel over the bar, and among the first to arrive in the United States.

The getting out of cargo, its exposure and sale, were matters of no little interest. We then found that "in keeping the commandments of God there is great reward." Our cargo, owing to the delay in getting it on board, received unusual attention at our hands, and was in perfect shipping order when stowed away, and came out in the same good condition.

The cargoes of the other vessels came out very differently, with a loss in some cases of 20, 30, and even 50 per cent. This loss was occasioned in part by hurrying the hides on board in the first instance without their being thoroughly dried, in order to greater dispatch, and in part to the unusual detention of the vessels at the port of lading. From these two causes combined, and the activity of the weevils that took possession of the hides, and riddled them through and through, several of those voyages turned out splendid failures.

KEEPING FISH-ERMEN.—A gentleman, says Dr. Edwards, who resides in a fishing town, and who has made extensive inquiries, remarks, "Those who fish on the Sabbath do not, ordinarily, take any more, during the season, than those who keep the Sabbath. They do not make more money, or prosper better for this world.

One man followed fishing eight years. The first four he fished on the Sabbath. The next four he strictly kept the Sabbath, and is satisfied that it was for his advantage in a temporal point of view. Another man, who was accustomed for some years to fish on the Sabbath, afterwards discontinued it, and found that his profits were greater than before. Another man testifies that, in the year 1827, he and his men took more fish by far than any who were associated with them, though he kept the Sabbath and they did not. It was invariably his practice to rest from Saturday till Monday. Though it was an unfavorable season for the fisheries, he was greatly prospered in every way, and to such an extent that many regarded his success as almost miraculous.

Examples like the above might be multiplied to almost any extent. So far as I can learn by diligent inquiry, all who have left off fishing on the Sabbath, without an exception, think the change has been for their temporal advantage.

"I have had six children," said Mr. Elliot, "and I bless God for his free grace they are all with Christ, or in Christ; and my mind is now at rest concerning them. My desire was, that they should have served Christ on earth; but if God will choose to have them rather serve him in heaven, I have nothing to object to it. His will be done."