20 Sermon Illustrations on Character of Christ

The enterprising manager of a Paris theater once called upon Meissonier and asked him to paint a drop-scene for a certain theater and name his own terms. “You have seen my pictures, then?” asked Meissonier. “Oh, yes,” exclaimed the manager; “but it is your name--your name I want; it will draw crowds to my theater.” “And how large is it you wish this curtain to be?” inquired the artist. “Ah, well, we will say fifteen meters by eighteen.” Meissonier took up a pencil and proceeded to make a calculation. At last he looked up and said with imperturbable gravity, “I have calculated and find that my pictures are valued at 80,000 francs per meter. Your curtain, therefore, will cost you just 21,600,000 francs. But that is not all. It takes me twelve months to paint twenty centimeters of canvas. It will, therefore, take me just one hundred and ninety years to finish your curtain. You should have come to me earlier, monsieur; I am too old for the undertaking now. Good-morning.”--_Art Amateur._

In the year 1877 two young men stood up with the rest of their class at Bowdoin University to receive diplomas. One was called Bob, the other was called Charlie. They were Maine boys, both of them, and of about the same age. Within the last few weeks those two boys, now grown into grizzled men in the early fifties, have been conspicuous in the news of the day.

One of them, Bob, went in for fame, and after devoting the best years of his life to wrestling with arctic storms, throwing dice with death, enduring the very limits of privation and hardship, more than once glad to chew tanned leather or bite into rancid blubber, he emerged the other day with a story of discovery which thrilled the whole world, and will send his name, Robert E. Peary, sounding down the ages to the end of time.

The other boy, Charlie, went in for fortune. He had already developed the knack of the money-maker, and he did not tie up his talent in a napkin. He sold candy. He sold ice. He sold lumber. He acquired banks and trust companies and juggled stocks and bonds until he amassed a fortune of twenty millions. Then something happened. On the day after New-year’s day of this year (1910), his money gone, his reputation destroyed, his liberty lost, he took the 10:43 train on the Southern Limited, escorted by a United States marshal and two deputies, on the way to the Federal prison at Atlanta, Ga., to which he had been sentenced for a term of fifteen years. Every legal device to save him had been tried, and had failed, and Charles Wyman Morse has now become convict Number 2814--that is all.--_Current Literature._

Coleridge lays down three canons of criticism in literature, which hold equally in conduct and endeavor:

First, What has the author attempted to do? Second, Is it worth doing? And, third, Has he done it well?

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The cultivated man is not in every case the best reporter. One of the best I ever knew was a man who could not spell four words correctly to save his life, and his verb did not always agree with the subject in person and number; but he always got the fact so exactly, and he saw the picturesque, the interesting, and important aspect of it so vividly, that it was worth another man’s while, who possest the knowledge of grammar and spelling, to go over the report and write it out. Now, that was a man who had genius; he had talent the most indubitable, and he got handsomely paid in spite of his lack of grammar.

— CHARLES A. DANA

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At Bannockburn Lord Randolph Murray was being sorely prest by a large body of cavalry. Sir James Douglas got leave from Bruce to go to his aid, but just as he came up he found the English in disorder, and many horses galloping away with empty saddles. “Halt!” he cried to his men; “These brave men have already repulsed the enemy; let us not diminish their glory by seeking to share it.”

— WILLIAM MOODIE

The natural effect of a lack of tact is seen in the man described below, who used the means to offend the very person who was to decide his fate.

Under no circumstances can a missionary, worthy of the name, be ever induced to say anything that would wound the susceptibilities or grieve the heart of one of his heathen or Mohammedan auditors. That is not necessary. They tell the story of a judge in Aleppo. He had but one eye. A person was condemned to prison, as he thought, unjustly. He rose before the judge and said: “Oh, one-eyed judge, I am imprisoned here on a false accusation; and I tell you, oh, one-eyed judge, that this man who has testified against me has received a bribe; and oh, one-eyed judge, if I do not get justice, I will report this case to the pasha; and if the pasha do not do justice, oh, one-eyed judge, I will report it to the sultan himself.” The judge rose from his seat in a rage and said: “Take the man back to prison. I won’t hear him plead before me and call me forever a one-eyed judge.”--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

See COURAGE; LIVING THE GOSPEL; PRECEPT AND PRACTISE.

EXAMPLE, ATTENTION TO

It is related of William E. Gladstone that at one time, when he was a mere boy, he was invited to dine at the home of a distinguished nobleman in England, who was also an official of high rank.

His father, fearing that the child might in some way make himself appear ridiculous in the eyes of the prominent gentry who were to assemble at the same dining-table, gave him the parting injunction, “Watch your host and do just as he does.”

Many men would get on in life more smoothly and attain success more rapidly and surely if they were attentive to the examples of their superiors. (Text.)

The first time I ever stood in the pulpit to preach was in the meeting-house of the ancient Connecticut town where I was brought up. That was a great day for our folks and all my old neighbors, you may depend. After benediction, when I passed out into the vestibule, I was the recipient there of many congratulatory expressions. Among my friends in the crowd was an aged deacon, a man in whom survived, to a rather remarkable degree, the original New England Puritan type, who had known me from the cradle, and to whom the elevation I had reached was as gratifying as it could possibly be to anybody. But when he saw the smile of favor focused on me there, and me, I dare say, appearing to bask somewhat in it, the dear old man took alarm. He was apprehensive of the consequences to that youngster. And so, taking me by the hand and wrestling down his natural feelings--he was ready to cry for joy--he said: “Well, Joseph, I hope you’ll live to preach a great deal better than that!”

— JOSEPH H. TWITCHELL

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True exaltation is always accompanied by corresponding humility. Truly great souls never rise in conscious self-aggrandizement. They sink in self-esteem and are bowed low under a sense of responsibility in proportion to the splendor of their achievements.

In the Alps the eagle soars up higher and higher till its figure is a mere speck in the zenith. Among the mountains is a lake in whose bosom is a perfect reflection of the dome of the heavens. The traveler in these regions, standing by the lake, sees everything above mirrored in the lake. The flight of the eagle higher than the mountain-tops, as reflected in the lake, seems to be a descent lower and lower. The higher the flight the deeper the bird seems to be diving downward. (Text.)

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Colonel Nicholas Smith, in “Grant the Man of Mystery,” says:

Grant is often called “The Silent Man.” While he wrote with fluency and with great rapidity, it was difficult for him to express himself extemporaneously until after his Presidential career, and many interesting stories are told of his attempts to talk. A large body of ministers once called upon him and made a long address, to which he was compelled to reply. After a sentence or two, Mr. Fish noticed that his voice faltered, and fearing that he might be at a loss what to say, the secretary, standing next to him, caused a diversion by beginning to cough violently. The President afterward said to Mr. Fish, “How fortunate it was for me that you had that cough, as I had felt my knees begin to shake. I do not think that I could have spoken another word.”