113 Sermon Illustrations on Divine Providence

The London Bible Society, which is the parent of our own noble institution, was the result of a conversation between a poor little Welsh child and his minister. A few words from Pres. Dwight secured to American science the honored name of Silliman. It was the remonstrance of an idle classmate which was the means of arousing Paley to a proper exercise of his high powers. "It is a sin for you to be idle," he said. "You have talent, you can do something in the world: I cannot." The power of evil seeds to multiply fast seems far greater than the power of the good. A single seed of the Canada thistle, hid away among the straws of a packing-box, or clinging to the surface of a railway train, will, if dropped in a friendly soil, be sufficient to devastate whole acres. Mrs. McConaughy.

Cromwell was actually on board a ship in the Thames (one of a company set upon emigrating from the country which afterwards he ruled), when, lo! before she could get off, down came an "order in council" forbidding them to sail. Had the monarch been prescient, how gladly would he have let them go! Cromwell turned back to his fens, to become thereafter the victor of Marston-Moor and Naseby and Worcester fights, and to give that sharp Whitehall lesson to Royalists, which a wit of the last age said has made kings ever since awake with a crick in their necks on Charles the Martyr's day. Take another case: money freely offered by an actor cheered, aided, and held back Bonaparte from suicide. Had the generosity of Talma been wanting to that nameless, unpatronized, needy adventurer, who can tell what the history of the nineteenth century would have been? We only know, that, following that loan, came thrones emptied, kingdoms redistributed, millions slain, Wellington a duke, and the third Napoleon an emperor. S. Coley.

The root fixes the plant in the soil; and trees strike their roots deeper and wider in exposed or stormy places than in sheltered situations. Virgil believed, or professed to have believed, in the notion, that the roots of the oak penetrate as deeply into the ground as its branches ascend "high towards heaven;" and, although this deep penetration of the roots is but a poetic fiction, the Mautuan bard was justified in observing that a tree with such roots as the oak might well defy the winds and winter's rage. Gorrie.

Mr. Colstone, an eminent merchant of Bristol, who lived a century ago, was remarkable for his liberality to the poor, and equally distinguished for his success in commerce. The providence of God seemed to smile, in a peculiar manner, on the concerns of one who made so good a use of his affluence. It has been said, that he never insured, nor ever lost a ship. Once, indeed, a vessel belonging to him on her voyage home, struck on a rock, and immediately sprang a leak, by which so much water was admitted as to threaten speedy destruction. Means were instantly adopted to save the vessel, but all seemed ineffectual, as the water rose rapidly. In a short time, however, the leak stopped without any apparent cause, and the vessel reached Bristol in safety. On examining her bottom, a fish, said to be a dolphin, was found fast wedged in the fracture made by the rock when she struck; which had prevented any water from entering during the remainder of the voyage. As a memorial of this singular event, the figure of a dolphin is carved on the staves which are carried in procession, on public occasions, by the children who are educated at the charity schools founded by Mr. Colstone.

It is related in Mr. Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, that Col. Byrd of that state was sent at a certain time to the Cherokee nation to transact some business with them. "It happened," says this writer, "that some of our disorderly people had just killed one or two of that nation. It was therefore purposed in the council of the Cherokees, that Col. Byrd should be put to death in revenge for the loss of their countrymen. Among them was a chief called Silouee, who, on some former occasion, had contracted an acquaintance and friendship with Col. Byrd. He came to him every night in his tent, and told him not to be afraid, they should not kill him. After many days' deliberation, however, the determination was, contrary to Silouee's expectation, that Byrd should be put to death, and some warriors were dispatched as executioners. Silouee attended them, and when they

# GAMB

180. Sustained by Fraud.

A young lawyer, in conversation with Bishop Chase, related the following fact respecting General Hamilton which had occurred but a short time before. The young lawyer had 210-212

IMPULSES—INFIDELITY.

twice, and delivering a most interesting lecture, of two hours' length, on India.

About two years of his time in India has been spent in Calcutta, in translating and printing the Bible in the Hindostan language, for the British and Foreign Bible Society. While engaged on this translation, he applied himself from four in the morning till eight in the evening, notwithstanding the intense and sultry heat of Calcutta. And strange as it may seem to some, he assigns this very fact of his intense application, as a leading cause of his uninterrupted health and vigor: "The man who would live in India, he says, 'must have plenty of work; if not, he will yield to the enervating influence of the climate, and lounge away his days upon the sofa, and consequently be tossing all night on his sleepless couch, for want of the requisite fatigue. Then comes dejection of spirits, and utter prostration of the whole man.'"

# ILSES.

want of firewood, by the side of a neighbor's hedge, he wished some of it to burn, and the impulse came clothed in Scripture language, "In all this Job sinned not." Believing this suggestion to be the teaching of the Spirit, he began to make free with his neighbor's wood. Presently he discovered his mistake by trying his impulse with the eighth commandment, "Thou shalt not steal," and so got rid of an error which might have led him out of the church into a jail.

# LITY.

been an infidel, but his mind was now changed, and this narration was given in answer to Bishop Chase's inquiry how the change was brought about. "In pursuit of his professional duties General Hamilton passes from New York to Albany, to attend the highest courts, and Poughkeepsie is his stopping-place for rest and social chat. We young lawyers delight to meet him at Hendrickson's tavern, and there breathe together the atmosphere of wit and satire. Not long since, he passed by: we gathered round him, and he greeted us with his usual cordiality. But there was something altered in his wit—it was solemn, yet more affectionate. At length, to break the spell, I ventured, as erst, a story, the edge of which was ridicule against Christians and their creed. As I finished the anecdote, instead of the loud laugh, and responsive tale, the General gravely asked me, if I knew what I had been talking of? Confusion is the best name I can give my feelings and behavior before the great man at such a question from his lips. Seeing my embarrassment, he said he did not design to give me pain, but by his question, to call my attention to his own case.

"Not many months ago," said he, "I was, as you are, doubtful of the truths of Christianity; but some circumstances turned my thoughts to the investigation of the subject, and I now think differently. I had been in company with some friends of a similar sentiment in New York. I had indulged in remarks much to the disadvantage of Christians, and disparagement of their religion. I had gone further than ever before I had done in this way. Coming home, I stood, late at night, on the door steps, waiting for my servant. In this moment of stillness, my thoughts returned to what had just passed at my friend's and on what I had said there. And what if the Christian religion be true, after all? The thought certainly was natural, and it produced in my bosom the most alarming feelings. I was conscious that I had never examined it—not even with that attention which a small retaining fee requires in civil cases. In this I hold myself bound to make up my mind according to the laws of evidence; and shall nothing be done of this sort, in a question that involves the fate of man's immortal being? Where every thing is at stake, shall I bargain all without inquiry?—Wilfully blinding my own eyes, shall I laugh at that, which, if true, will laugh me to scorn in the day of judgment? These questions did not allow me to sleep quietly. In the morning I sent to my friends, the clergy, for such books as treated on the evidence of Christianity—I read them, and the result is, I believe the religion of Christians to be the truth—that Jesus Christ is the Son of God—that he made an atonement for our sins by his death, and that he rose for our justification.

"This is the substance of General Hamilton's declaration to me at Hendrickson's, and you may judge how I feel since. As I have followed the General in many other respects, so would I imitate him here."

A youth, sixteen years of age, the son of a respectable Christian minister, was bathing some years ago in the river Mersey. The tide was returning, and having ventured too far into the water for the purpose of swimming, he was carried down the current to the distance of three or four miles. All hope of reaching the shore vanished; and, at the moment he was about to give up the struggle, he was providentially perceived by the crew of a vessel bound from Liverpool to Dublin. When brought on board, every means was kindly used to restore nature: the youth recovered, and was carried to the port of the Irish capital. In the meantime, a person to whom he was known, and who had seen him go into the water, returning, and finding his clothes on the shore, but seeing nothing of his person, concluded he was drowned, and carried the afflictive intelligence to his parents. A reward was offered for the body, and suitable mourning was ordered.

On the arrival of the vessel at Dublin, the youth was humanely furnished, by the crew, with such articles of clothing as they could spare; and the captain gave him a piece of silver, and put him on shore. The singularity of his dress restrained him from making known his situation to those who, from respect to his father, would gladly have rendered him assistance. He therefore inquired for a vessel bound to Liverpool, and having providentially met with one, was received on board, and reached the place of his destination on the very day of the following week that he was supposed to have been lost. No sooner did he get on shore than he hastened to his father's house. Nothing could have been more unexpected to the sorrowing parents than the appearance of their son. The mourning which they had ordered was, that evening, to be brought home, and worn on the following day. The children, at the sight of their brother, shrieked with fear: the surprise was too great for the delicate frame of his affectionate mother; before she could embrace her son, she fainted away; and the father, more collected and composed, wept tears of joy.

Maximilian, the emperor of Germany, conversing one day in his coach with Johannes Crato, who was his principal physician, and a learned Protestant, was lamenting the divisions of Christians, and asked Crato which party, in his opinion, approached the nearest to apostolic simplicity. Crato replied, that he thought that honor belonged to the brethren called Picards, (these were also called Waldenses and Albigenses.) The emperor said, "I think so, too." This being reported to them, afforded them much encouragement, and induced them to dedicate to him a book of their devotions; for, during the preceding year, God had marvelously preserved him from the guilt of their blood. Joachim, a Novo Domo, chancellor of Bohemia, went to Vienna, and would give the emperor no rest until he procured for him a mandate for the revival of a former persecuting ordinance against them. Having obtained his commission, as he was leaving Vienna, and passing a bridge over the Danube, the bridge gave way and fell; when Joachim and all his retinue were plunged into that great river; and all were drowned except six horsemen and one young nobleman, who perceiving his lord in the water, caught hold of his gold chain, and held him up till some fishermen came to their assistance; but they found Joachim dead, and his box containing the persecuting mandate had sunk beyond recovery. The young nobleman was so affected by the hand of God in this affair, that he joined the brethren in their religion, and the persecution dropped.

The Rev. Hansard Knollys suffered much persecution for his conscientious attachment to the truth. In the early part of his ministry, he emigrated from England to America, the common asylum at that time, for all who wished to enjoy liberty of conscience. There he sojourned four years, but returned in 1641, at the earnest request of an aged father. On his arrival in England he was reduced to great straits, but experienced the goodness of Providence in a peculiar manner. The following particulars are extracted from his own account. "I was still poor and sojourned in a lodging till I had but sixpence left, and knew not how to provide for my wife and child. Having prayed to God and encouraged my wife to trust in him, and to remember former experiences, and especially that word of promise, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,' I paid for my lodging and went out, not knowing whither God's good hand would lead me to receive something towards my present subsistence. About seven or eight doors from my lodgings, a woman met me in the street, and told me she came to seek me, and her husband had sent her to tell me that there was a lodging provided and prepared in his house by some Christian friends for me and my wife. I told her my present condition and went along with her to the house. There she gave me twenty shillings which Dr. Bastock, a late sufferer, had given her for me, and some linen for my wife, which I received, and told her husband I would fetch my wife and child and lodge there. I returned with great joy, and my wife was greatly affected with this seasonable and suitable supply. After we had returned praises to God, we went to our new lodgings, where we found all things necessary provided for us, and all charges paid for fifteen weeks. When the time was expired, he undertook a school, and by the blessing of God was successful in bringing up a large family creditably, and though several times imprisoned for religion, continued the laborious and esteemed pastor of a poor church, for fifty years, till he went to his reward, Sept. 19th, 1691, aged ninety-two years.

"Nothing was more remarkable," says the biographer of Mr. Newton, "than his constant habit of regarding the hand of God in every event, however trivial it might appear to others. In walking to his church, he would say, 'The way of man is not in himself, nor can he conceive what belongs to a single step. When I go to St. Mary Woolnoth, it seems the same whether I turn down Lothbury, or go through the Old Jewry; but the going through one street, and not another, may produce an effect of lasting consequence. A man cut down my hammock in sport, but had he cut it down half an hour later, I had not been here, as the exchange of crew was then making. A man made a smoke on the sea-shore, at the time a ship passed, which was thereby brought to, and afterwards brought me to England.'"

Mr. Philip Henry, one of the non-conformist ministers, when silenced from preaching, by the act of uniformity, took comfort himself, and administered comfort to others, from the passage, "Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab." "God's people," he observed, "may be an outcast people, cast out of men's love, their synagogues, their country; but God will own his people when men cast them out; they are outcasts, but they are his, and some way or other he will provide a dwelling for them." Shortly before his death, the same pious man observed, that, though many of the ejected ministers were brought very low, had many children, were greatly harassed by persecution, and their friends generally poor and unable to support them; yet, in all his acquaintance, he never knew, nor could remember to have heard of, any non-conformist minister in prison for debt.

In a large and populous village, in one of the hundreds, or wapentakes of Yorkshire, England, lived a poor, but honest and pious man, whose name was Jonathan. He was an afflicted man, and much paralyzed by disease. He had a wife, and two or three children, whose chief dependence in life was upon his small earnings. Jonathan was patient, industrious, and persevering in his efforts to provide for himself and for his household, all of whom were content with homely fare. At the time the writer of this account knew him, he might be from forty to fifty years of age. Amongst other occurrences of his life, he says, I distinctly recollect the following, which he related to me:—

During the time of harvest, while employed in gathering the fruits of the earth, he accidentally slipped from the top of a barley-mow, and sprained one or both of his ankles; in consequence of which he was confined to his room and bed for some weeks. It is unnecessary to state, that in the meantime, his family must have felt the loss of his weekly labor and income. His wife, on one occasion, went up stairs into his room weeping. "What is the matter?" said Jonathan, "what is distressing thee?" "Why, the children are crying for something to eat, and I have nothing to give them," was the affecting reply. "Hast thou faith in God?" asked Jonathan. "Dost thou believe in his providence, and in his word? Has he not said, 'Bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure?' Isa. xxxiii. 16. Kneel down," he continued, "at the bedside, and pray to God. Tell him how thy children are circumstanced; that they have no bread; that thou hast nothing wherewith to buy them any; and I will also pray. Who can tell what God may do? He heareth prayer."

Jonathan and his wife prayed earnestly together; they pleaded the promises of God, and waited the result. Soon after, a person came to the door with a loaf of bread. She came from a house in the immediate neighborhood of Jonathan, the occupier of which was one of several branches of a family who were proprietors of very extensive iron works, carried on in the village where Jonathan lived. No sooner did the good woman receive the loaf of bread, than she ran to Jonathan to tell him how God had answered their prayer. "Now," said Jonathan, "before any thing else be done, kneel down at the bedside, and return thanks to God for having heard our prayer." She did so: they praised his name together: and then ate their food with gladness and with singleness of heart. Not many hours elapsed before another kind interposition of Providence presented itself. A second visitor brought them a joint of meat. When this was told Jonathan, he replied to his wife, "Aye! see! God is even better than his word! He promised bread, and he sends flesh in addition. Kneel down, and thank him again."

In attempting to cross a river in America, Dr. Coke missed the ford, and got into deep water; he and his horse were carried down the stream, and were in considerable danger; he caught hold of a bough, and with some difficulty got upon dry land; his horse was carried down the stream. After drying his clothes in the sun, he set out on foot, and at length met a man, who directed him to the nearest village, telling him to inquire for a Mrs. ——, from whom, he had no doubt, he would receive the kindest treatment. Dr. Coke found the good lady's house, and received all the kindness and attention she could show him; messengers were sent after his horse, which was recovered, and brought back. The next morning he took leave of his kind hostess, and proceeded on his journey. After a lapse of five years, Dr. Coke happened to be in America again. As he was on his way to one of the provincial conferences, in company with about thirty other persons, a young man requested the favor of being allowed to converse with him; he assented with Christian politeness. The young man asked him if he recollected being in such a part of America about five years ago; he replied in the affirmative. "And do you recollect, sir, in attempting to cross the river, being nearly drowned?" "I remember it quite well." "And do you recollect going to the house of a widow lady, in such a village?" "I remember it well," said the doctor; "and never shall I forget the kindness which she showed me." "And do you remember, when you departed, leaving a tract at that lady's house?" "I do not recollect that," said he; "but it is very possible I might do so." "Yes, sir," said the young man, "you did leave there a tract, which that lady read, and the Lord blessed the reading of it to the conversion of her soul; it was also the means of the conversion of several of her children and neighbors; and there is now, in that village, a little flourishing society." The tears of Dr. Coke showed something of the feelings of his heart. The young man resumed, "I have not, sir, quite told you all. I am one of that lady's children, and owe my conversion to God, to the gracious influence with which he accompanied the reading of that tract to my mind, and I am now, Dr. Coke, on my way to conference, to be proposed as a preacher."

In the days of severe persecution in England, a judge said to an old saint: “I will banish you to America.” “Very well,” said she. “You cannot send me out of my Father’s country.”

There is one passage of Scripture which has always been a great comfort to me. In the eighth chapter of Romans Paul says: “All things work together for good to them that love God.” Some years ago a child of mine had scarlet fever. I went to the druggist to get the medicine which the doctor had ordered, and told him to be sure and be very careful in making up the prescription. The druggist took down one bottle after another, in any one of which there might be what would be rank poison for my child; but he stirred them together and mixed them up, and made just the medicine which my child needed. And so God gives us a little adversity here, a little prosperity there, and all works for our good.

The boundless stores of Providence are engaged for the support of the believer. Christ is our Joseph, who has granaries full of wheat; but He does not treat us as Joseph did the Egyptians, for He opens the door of His storehouse and bids us call all the good therein our own. He has entailed upon His estate of Providence a perpetual charge of a daily portion for us, and He has promised that one day we shall clearly perceive that the estate itself has been well-farmed on our behalf and has been always ours. The axle of the wheels of the chariot of Providence is Infinite Love, and Gracious Wisdom is the perpetual charioteer.

Each branch of a vine is bound to a certain point of its wall or its conservatory. It is not growing just where and how it would spontaneously and naturally choose, but is affixt there contrary to its natural bent, in order that it may catch the sunbeams at that point and cover that spot with beautiful foliage and luscious fruit.

Sorrow is like the nail that compels the branch to grow in that direction; inevitable circumstance is like the rough strip of fiber which bends the branch, and pain is like the restraint which is suffered by the branch which would have liked to wander at its own will. We are not to murmur or repine at our lot in life, but are to remember that God has appointed it and placed us there. (Text.)

Mark Twain tells a story of how a bootblack saved a king. The king was sick; his trouble defied the skill of all his doctors, and it seemed as if he must die. The little bootblack knew a peculiar but a sure remedy for the disease; but how to get the king to take a prescription from a bootblack was a problem. He might have gone to the palace doors and pleaded till he was hoarse without any one listening. So he told his remedy to the ash-boy, who was older than himself, and the ash-boy told it to the butcher, and the butcher told it to his wife, and she told it to some one else, and so on it went, a little higher each time, until it reached the king’s doctors. The king would have nothing more to do with them, so they told it to the favorite page, and since the king was very fond of the page he tried the remedy just to please him. The king was cured by the bootblack’s remedy.--JAMES M. STIFLER, “The Fighting Saint.”

I met old, lean St. Francis in a dream Wading knee-deep through the ashes of his town, The souls that he was helping up to heaven Were burnt or wrung out of the writhing flesh. Said I, “When near a thousand are engulfed In sudden indiscriminate destruction, And half a million homeless are, I know, This rotten world most blackly is accurst.”

“When heroes are as countless as the flames; When sympathy,” said he, “has opened wide A hundred million generous human hearts, I know this world is infinitely blest.”

--RODMAN GILDER, _The Outlook_.

Charles Biedinger, an inventor, was found dead in his room in a cheap lodging-house. He had been in extreme want, and had learned that the Superior Court at Cincinnati had decided a patent-right claim in his favor, awarding him $93,000 and interest upon it for several years. His invention, a machine for making paper wrappers, was patented while he was in a sanatorium by his financial backer, who refused an accounting when the inventor was discharged from the sanatorium. The suit followed, with the verdict of a fortune which came too late. Biedinger was so reduced in circumstances that he was recently employed as a dish-washer in a restaurant. (Text.)

See WASTE, THE PROBLEM OF.

ECONOMY, DIVINE

The autographs of musicians who in life could not write a check for a crust of bread have in death been sold for fabulous sums. Not long ago at a sale in Berlin two of Beethoven’s letters sold for $187 and $200 each. A letter of Chopin brought $250, a visiting-card of Haydn $20 and a letter $427, two letters of Schubert $777, four letters of Wagner $322, a scrap of writing of Mozart sold for $276, while a Gluck manuscript changed hands at $1,000. Some of these men in life hardly received enough for their services to keep their musical souls connected with their emaciated bodies; but they wasted themselves in pouring out their immortal melodies, and this generation is putting down its gold for mere scraps of paper that had felt the touch of their dead hands! Of course, their service and music are not lost; but look! God does not even allow the screeds of paper, which were once crumpled by their perished fingers, to be lost, either! While their music is filling the world with its sweetness God is even picking up the tattered, torn, broken fragments blown by cruel winds up and down the desert of their lives, that nothing be lost!

— F. F. SHANNON

Texas and other Southern States suffered for years losses of millions in the cattle industry from a type of splenic fever, commonly called Texas fever. Finally, this fever began to be carried into the North by Southern cattle shipped there, with the result that rigid quarantines were established against the South, which practically put the Southern cattle men out of business for a large part of each year, and caused still further enormous losses. Furthermore, this fever prevented the importation into the far Southern States of fine breeds of cattle with which to breed up the poor-grade herds. In Texas practically every fine bull or cow imported from the North contracted this fever, and seventy-five per cent of them died.

The experts of the Department of Agriculture, working with the professors of the University of Missouri and of the Agricultural College of Texas, discovered that this fever was transmitted solely through the cattle-tick, which carried the germs from sick cattle and implanted them in well cattle when sucking their blood. An economical method of ridding cattle of ticks before shipping, by a process of dipping, removed all danger to Northern cattle from Southern shipments, and the costly quarantine handicap was removed or greatly mitigated.

In the past three years a practical and economical method of entirely exterminating these ticks has been worked out and tested by our scientists, and the ticks have already been exterminated over nearly 64,000 square miles, an area larger than the State of Georgia, and it is only a matter of a few years and wider diffusion of education when the cattle-tick will be entirely exterminated. When we consider that the losses of all kinds from cattle-ticks in the South and Southwest were estimated at $40,000,000 per year, we can see what these scientific discoveries mean for us.--New York _Evening Post_.

Again and again is it demonstrated how God makes the wrath of man to praise him.

When he was seeking to do evil only, in the pursuit of his cruel and tyrannical policy, Sultan Abdul Hamid was all the time unconsciously promoting some of the great designs of divine Providence. He did good in ways altogether unintended, never for a moment foreseeing how his own policy in the end would recoil upon himself. For he banished hundreds of the most enlightened and patriotic of his subjects to various provinces, little thinking how their influence would work against himself. The head of the revolutionary party, Ahmed Riza, for twenty years quietly and steadily during his exile worked in the cause of liberty. And this heroic man toiled on in face of the depressing obstacles furnished by what seemed to be an utterly unresponsive country. When he was living in dire poverty in France he refused to accept £2,000 a month from the Sultan, and at one crisis he just as firmly and indignantly rejected an offered bribe of a million pounds simply to shut his mouth. (Text.)

On the heights above the vega of Granada there rises the great palace of the Alhambra. In the lower stories there are the menial offices of domestic use. Above them are the living rooms, the guest chambers, the halls of the Moorish kings; and far above them all rises the great red tower into which the Moslem kings could ascend to look upward to the stars and downward on the valley, green with trees and beautiful with cities.

So God has made our lives. The lower stories serving the needs of our material life, the higher ones of intellect and affection, where we live in the joys of thought and friendship; but high above them all rises the great watch-tower of the soul in which the noise and toils of earth are lost in the great stillness of the heights, and earth’s mysteries and sorrows are interpreted by the higher providence of God.

— F. F. SHANNON

It is not on the fertility of the soil, it is not on the mildness of the atmosphere, that the prosperity of nations chiefly depends. Slavery and superstition can make Campania a land of beggars, and can change the plain of Enna into a desert. Nor is it beyond the power of human intelligence and energy, developed by civil and spiritual freedom, to turn sterile rocks and pestilential marshes into cities and gardens.

— MACAULAY