100 Sermon Illustrations on Character of a Believer

The leader of a gang of banditti in Corsica was taken, and committed to the care of a soldier, from whom he contrived to escape. The soldier was condemned to death. At the place of execution, a man, coming up to the commanding officer, said, "Sir, I am a stranger to you; but you shall soon know who I am. I have heard that one of your soldiers is to die for having suffered a prisoner to escape. He was not at all to blame. Besides, the prisoner shall be restored to you. Behold him here! I am the man. I cannot bear that an innocent man should be punished for me; and have come to die myself: lead me to execution."—"No!" exclaimed the French officer, who felt the sublimity of the action as he ought; "thou shalt not die; and the soldier shall be set at liberty. Endeavor to reap the fruits of thy generosity. Thou deservest to be henceforth an honest man." Percy.

Behold the decided man! He may be a most evil man; he may be grasping, avaricious, covetous, unprincipled: still, look how the difficulties of life know the strong man, and give up the contest with him. A universal homage is paid to the decided man as soon as he appears among men. He walks by the light of his own judgment: he has made up his mind; and, having done so, henceforth action, action, is before him. He cannot bear to sit amidst unrealized speculations: to him speculation is only valuable that it may be resolved into living and doing. There is no indifference, no delay. The spirit is in arms: all is in earnest. Thus Pompey, when hazarding his life on a tempestuous sea in order to be at Rome on an important occasion, said, "It is necessary for me to go: it is not necessary for me to live." Thus Caesar, when he crossed the Rubicon, burned the ships upon the shore which brought his soldiers to land, that there might be no return. E. P. Hood.

MEEKNESS, Example of When Sir Matthew Hale dismissed a jury because he was convinced that it had been illegally chosen to favor the Protector, the latter was highly displeased with him; and, when Sir Matthew returned from the circuit, Cromwell told him in anger that he was not fit to be a judge; to which all the answer that he made was, that it was very true. Christian Treasury.

There's your iron man; firm, determined, harder than the granite, unless you get him heated. Right or wrong, you may hammer at him as long as you please: It is of no use, if he only keep cool. Yet stern, frigid, unattractive, as he may appear, he is your generally and most permanently useful man. The world might as well expect to get on without the use of iron as without this hardy, industrious, weighty class of men. Only engage their tenacity and hardness on the right side, and they are the best men in the world. Read.

There are many people in this world who are like perfumed vases from which the perfume has fled, all the surrounding objects attracting it; and so their life is not in themselves, but in their things.

— Beecher

Some men are rough, uncouth, growling, grumbling, like the bear; others are lion-like, or tiger-like, or wolfish, or fox-like: some are timid as the deer, or gentle as the lamb, or possessed of the strength, beauty, and alertness of the leopard; others are morose and surly like the mastiff, or arrogant and overbearing like the bull-dog, or snarling and snapping like the cur, forever barking, but never having the courage to bite. Read.

Reputation, Love, and Death once started forth to travel the world over in different ways. At parting, each told where he might be found. Death said they would hear of him in battles, hospitals, and where famine or disease raged. Love said they might look for him among the children of the poor, at marriages and feasts, and among the virtuous. Reputation said reluctantly, that, if he once left a man, he need not be looked for there again. A good name lost is seldom regained.

The Germans have a story about a little girl named Jeannette, who once went out to see a grand review. She found a capital place from which to see the soldiers pass, when she noticed a poor old woman in the crowd, trying very hard to get where she could see. Jeannette said to herself, "I should like to see the soldiers march; but it isn't kind in me to stay in this nice seat, and let that old woman stay where she can't see any thing. I ought to honor old age, and I will." So she called the old woman, and, placing her in the nice seat, fell back among the crowd. There she had to tiptoe, and peep, and dodge about, to catch a glimpse of the splendid scene, which she might have seen fully and easily if she had kept her place. Some of the people said she was a silly girl, and laughed at her. Jeannette was rewarded in her heart for her kindness to old age. A few minutes later, a man, covered with lace, elbowed his way through the crowd, and said to her, "Little girl, will you come to her lady-ship?" She could not imagine who her lady-ship was, but she followed the man to a scaffold within the crowd. A lady met her at the top of the stairs, and said, "My dear child, I saw you yield your seat to the old woman. You acted nobly. Now sit down here by me. You can see every thing here." Thus Jean-nette was rewarded a second time for honoring old age.

To the acquisition of the rare quality of politeness, so much of the enlightened understanding is necessary, that I cannot but consider every book in every science, which tends to make us wiser, and, of course, better men, as a treatise on a more enlarged system of politeness; not excluding the "Experiments of Archimedes" or the "Elements of Euclid." Monro.

It was once a problem in mechanics to find a pendulum which should be equally long in all weathers; which should make the same number of vibrations in the summer's heat and in the winter's cold. They have now found it out. By a process of compensation, they make the rod lengthen one way as much as it contracts the other; so that the centre of motion is always the same. The pendulum swings the same number of beats in a day of January as in a day of June; and the index travels over the dialplate with the same uniformity, whether the heat try to lengthen, or the cold to shorten, the regulating power. Now, the moving power in some men's minds is easily susceptible of surrounding influences. It is not principle, but feeling, which forms their pendulum-rod; and, according as this very variable material is affected, their index creeps or gallops, they are swift or slow in the work given them to do. But principle is like the compensation-rod, which neither lengthens in the languid heat, nor shortens in the brisker cold, but does the same work day by day, whether the ice-winds whistle or the simon glow; and of all principles a high-principled affection to the Saviour is the strongest and most secure. Dr. J. Hamilton.

Fine sensibilities are like woodhines, delightful luxuries of beauty to twine round a solid, upright stem of understanding, but very poor things, if, unsustained by strength, they are left to creep along the ground. J. Foster.

SUSPICION, Evils & If thou begin to suspect evil of another, the next thing is to conclude it, and the next to report it. This suspicion is a strange shadow, that every action of another will cast upon our minds, especially if we be beforehand a little disaffected towards them. Thus, very dreams increased suspicion against Joseph in his brethren. And if once a man be out of esteem with us, let him then do what he will, be it never so virtuous and commendable, suspicion will still be the interpreter; and, where suspicion is the interpreter of men's actions, slander and detraction will be the gloss and comment upon them. Indeed, suspicion is always too hasty in concluding; and many times our jealousies and distrusts, upon very small occasion, prompt us to conclude that what we have thus surmised is certainly come to pass: and so we take shadows for enemies, and report that confidently for truth, which yet we never saw acted but only in our own fancies.

— Bp. Hopkins

Perhaps it will not be an extravagant estimate to suppose that all are engaged in conversation, on an average, five hours a day. In a public address, an ordinary speaker proceeds at the rate of about fifteen octavo pages an hour. It is safe for us to adopt that rate in estimating conversation. We have, then, on an average, five hours' conversation a day, proceeding at the rate of fifteen pages an hour. This makes a volume of five hundred and twenty-five pages a week. In threescore years and ten, the conversational aggregate would amount to a library containing the very respectable number of three thousand six hundred and forty columns octavo.

— Dr. J. T. Crane

Abd-el-Kader obtained permission from his mother to go to Bagdad, and devote himself to the service of God. "At parting, she wept; then, taking out eighty dinars, she told me, that, as I had a brother, half of that was all my inheritance. She made me promise, when she gave it to me, that I would never tell a lie, and afterwards bade me farewell, exclaiming, 'Go, my son: I consign thee to God. We shall not meet again till the day of judgment.' I went on well till I came near to Hamadom, when our kâfilah was plundered by sixty horsemen. One fellow asked me what I had got. 'Forty dinars,' said I, 'are sewed under my garments.' He laughed, thinking, no doubt, I was joking with him. 'What have you got?' said another. I gave him the same answer. When they were dividing the spoil, I was called by the chief: 'What property have you got, my little fellow?' said he. 'I have told two of your people already.' I replied. 'I have forty dinars sewed up carefully in my clothes.' He ordered them to be ripped open, and found my money. 'And how came you,' said he with surprise, 'to declare so openly what has been so carefully hidden?' — 'Because,' I replied, 'I will not be false to my mother, to whom I have promised that I will not tell a lie.' — 'Child,' said the robber, 'hast then such a sense of thy duty to thy mother at thy years, and I am insensible, at my age, of the duty I owe to my God? Give me thy hand, innocent boy, that I may swear repentance upon it.' He did so. His followers were all alike struck with the scene. 'You have been our leader in our guilt,' said they to their chief: 'be the same in the path of virtue!' And they instantly, at his order, made restitution of the spoil, and vowed repentance on my hand.'

Do not be troubled because you have not great virtues. God made a million spears of grass where he made one tree. The earth is fringed and carpeted, not with forests, but with grasses. Only have enough of little virtues and common fidelities, and you need not mourn because you are neither a hero nor a saint. Beecher.

In a town on the Penobscot River lived two worthy men, neighbors and friends; but they could never agree on political questions. In dispute one day, one of the disputants lost temper, and called the other "liar," "fool," "knave," and so on. This was his weakness. He easily lost self-control, then was very abusive, and then repented. On the occasion referred to, he was so chagrined at the exhibition he had made of passion, that he soon called upon his neighbor, penitent, and purposing an apology. We give, in substance, the apology: "I am ashamed of myself for being so abusive in my talk to you. To think I should call a neighbor and friend 'liar,' 'fool,' and 'knave.' I am sorry; and I have come to apologize. Forgive me. I know not why it is, that, in my talk with you, I lose my temper; but the fact is, you always talk so much like a — jackass I can't help it."

A ship that has been driven by wave and tempest far up on the beach, where no tide can ever come to lift her off, but that lies there, high and dry, seams gaping, sails rotting, spars falling, hated of earth, and driven out from the water, is not half so pitiable an object as a great man who by policy, policy, policy, has been carried out of the deep channels of honor, and lies all awreck upon the shore of good men's opinions. Bercher.

A gentleman had two children: the one a daughter, who was considered plain in her person; the other a son, who was reckoned handsome. One day, as they were playing together, they saw their faces in a looking-glass. The boy was charmed with his beauty, and spoke of it to his sister, who considered his remarks as so many reflections on her want of it. She told her father of the affair, complaining of her brother's rudeness to her. The father, instead of appearing angry, took them both on his knees, and with much affection gave them the following advice:—"I would have you both look in the glass every day; you, my son, that you may be reminded never to dishonor the beauty of your face by the deformity of your actions; and you, my daughter, that you may take care to hide the defect of beauty in your person by the superior lustre of your virtuous and amiable conduct."

A gentleman was once extolling at an extravagant rate the virtue of honesty: what a dignity it imparted to our nature; how it recommended us to the Supreme Being; and confirmed all by a celebrated line from Pope,

"An honest man's the noblest work of God."

"Sir," replied his friend, "however excellent the virtue of honesty may be, I fear there are few men in the world that really possess it." "You surprise me," said the stranger. "Ignorant as I am of your character, sir, I fancy it would be no difficult matter to prove even you a dishonest man." "I defy you." "Will you give me leave, then, to ask you a question or two, and promise not to be offended?" "Ask your questions, and welcome." "Have you never met with an opportunity of getting gain by unfair means?" The gentleman paused. "I don't ask. Have you taken advantage of such an opportunity? but, Have you ever met with such an opportunity? I, for my part, have; and I believe every body else has." "Very probably I may." "How did you feel your mind affected on such an occasion? Had you no secret desire, not the least inclination, to seize the advantage which offered? Tell me without any evasion, and consistently with the character you admire." "I must acknowledge, I have were now, as he thought, out of all danger. In about half an hour after this expression of joy, the poor little fellow fell overboard into the water, and was drowned before any assistance could reach him. Thus many die; they forget God, flatter themselves with security, and then sudden destruction cometh. Our lives are newly loaned to us by God every moment; let us constantly recognize the fact, and so live that living or dying we may be the Lord's.

# PRAVITY.

not always been absolutely free from every irregular inclination; but —" "Hold, sir, none of your salvos, you have confessed enough. If you had the desire, though you never proceeded to the act, you were dishonest in heart. This is what the Scriptures call concupiscence. It defiles the soul. It is a breach of that law which requireth truth in the inward parts; and, unless you are pardoned through the blood of Christ, will be a just ground of your condemnation, when God shall judge the secrets of men."

Jerome writes of a brave woman, who being upon the rack, bade her persecutors do their worst, for she was resolved to die rather than lie.

At a dinner party at Bath, the Rev. Mr. Jay, by whom the anecdote was communicated, was lamenting the ingratitude which Mrs. Hannah More had recently met with from a person he had recommended to her beneficence, upon which he received a look from her which silenced him; and after dinner, drawing him into a corner of the room, she said, "You know we must never speak of such things as these before people, for they are always too backward to do good, and they are sure to dwell on such facts to justify their illiberality." She finely added, "It is well for us sometimes to meet with such instances of ingratitude, to show us our motives; for if they have been right, we shall not repent of our doing, though we lament the depravity of a fellow-creature. In these instances also, as in a glass, we may see little emblems of ourselves; for what, after all, is the ingratitude of any one towards us, compared with our ingratitude towards our Infinite Benefactor?"

## QUALITIES, FEEBLE.

his argument proved to be the stronger. Now if Paul were a more eloquent teacher than Plato, many would probably object that it was not by grace, but by excellency of speech that he prevailed. Thus the Christian's assertion was in favor of the cause of the Greek, and what the Greek said was in the Christian's favor. For if Paul was uneducated and overcame Plato the victory was brilliant. The former, unlearned as he was, persuaded the disciples of the latter and brought them over to his views, whence it is evident that the Gospel is not the result of human wisdom but of the grace of God."

When the Rev. Richard Cecil was but a little boy, his father had occasion to go to the India House, and took his son with him. While he was transacting business, the little fellow was dismissed, and told to wait for his father at one of the doors. His father on finishing his business went out at another door, and entirely forgot his son. In the evening, his mother, missing the child, inquired where he was; on which his father, suddenly recollecting that he had directed him to wait at a certain door, said, find any irreligion in Miss Edgeworth's writings. I was off my guard; their moral character disarmed me. I read nine volumes of them at once; but I could not preach with any comfort for six weeks after reading them. I never felt so little ardor in my profession, or so little interest in religion. She was once called to account for the character of her works, and asked her reasons for representing a mere ideal morality, without attributing any influence to religion. She said, that if she had written for the lower classes, she should have recommended religion; but that she had written for a class for whom it was less necessary. How absurd! She seemed to think that the virtues of the higher orders of society, stand in no need of religion, and that it was only designed as a curb and a muzzle for the brute.

"If any one speaks ill of thee," said Epictetus, "consider whether he has truth on his side; and, if so, reform thyself, that his censures may not affect thee." When Aneximander was told that the very boys laughed at his singing, "Ay," says he "then I must learn to sing better." Plato being told that he had many enemies who spoke ill of him. "It is no matter," said he; "I will live so that none shall believe them." Hearing at another time that an intimate friend of his had spoken detractingly of him, "I am sure he would not do it," said he, "if he had not some reason for it." This is the surest as well as the noblest way of drawing the sting out of a reproach, and the true method of preparing a man for that great and only re- "Assuredly, if it were possible."

"Do you regret the conduct of which you accuse yourself?"

"Certainly."

"Do you sincerely desire repentance?"

"I would give the world if it were mine to be able to do so."

"Then it is not possible that you have been guilty to an unpardonable extent; for these are characteristics of a state of mind faithless, but far from being desperate. And they come within the design of the Gospel invitations."

There was something simple and touching in this mode of ministering to a mind diseased. And it produced an effect which, probably, no other process would have accomplished. Mr. L—did not long survive this interview. But his living and dying were those of a favored Christian. Alas, that many persons laboring under a like delusion respecting the sin against the Holy Ghost, should not be enlightened by similar instruction! Doubtless not a few who never committed this sin, have lived for years, and then died under the horrible conviction, that they had thus sinned away the day of grace.

# LANDER.

lief against the pains of calumny—a good conscience.

The famous Boerhaave was one not easily moved by detraction. He used to say, "The sparks of calumny will be presently extinct of themselves unless you blow them." It was a good remark of another, that "the malice of ill tongues cast upon a good man is only like a mouthful of smoke blown upon a diamond, which, though it clouds its beauty for the present, yet it is easily rubbed off, and the gem restored, with little trouble to its owner."

Macchiavel himself denounces war as "a profession by which men cannot live honorably; an employment by which the soldier, if he would reap any profit, is obliged to be false, and rapacious, and cruel. Nor can any man, who makes war his profession, be otherwise than vicious. Have you not a proverb, that war makes villains, and peace brings them to the gallows?"