18 Sermon Illustrations on Eternal Consequences

I was in an infirmary not long since, and a mother brought a little child in. She said, "Doctor, my little child's eyes have not been opened for several days, and I would just like you to do something for them." The doctor got some ointment and put it first on one and then on the other, and just pulled them open. "Your child is blind," said the doctor; "perfectly blind; it will never see again." At first the mother couldn't take it in, but after a little she cast an appealing look upon that physician, and in a voice full of emotion, said, "Doctor, you don't mean to say that my child will never see again?" "Yes," replied the doctor, "your child has lost its sight, and will never see again." And that mother just gave a scream, and drew that child to her bosom. "O my darling child," sobbed the woman, "are you never to see the mother that gave you birth? never to see the world again?" I could not keep back the tears when I saw the terrible agony of that woman when she realized the misfortune that had come upon her child. That was a terrible calamity, to grope in total darkness through this world; never to look upon the bright sky, the green fields; never to see the faces of loved ones; but what was it in comparison to the loss of a soul? I would rather have my eyes plucked out of my head and go down to my grave in total blindness than lose my soul.

There is a fable of a covetous man, who chanced to find his way one moonlight night into a fairy's palace. There he saw bars, apparently of solid gold, strewed on every side; and he was permitted to take away as many as he could carry. In the morning, when the sun rose on his imaginary treasure, borne home with so much toil, behold! there was only a bundle of sticks; and invisible beings filled the air around him with scornful laughter. Such shall be the confusion of many a man that died in this world worth his thousands, and woke up in the next world not only "miserable and poor and blind and naked," but in presence of a heap of fuel stored up against the great day of burning.

Two young men were walking along one evening, towards a prayer-meeting, when they were accosted by several acquaintances. who were on their way to a place of usual resort. They entreated them to join them; but they refused. Finally, one of them consented, and turned aside, only once more, for an evening of worldly pleasure, and let his friend go to the prayer-meeting alone. One found peace with God: but his companion became hardened; and in three months, while his associate on that eventful night was honoring his Master by his faithful and consistent life, he was the inmate of a prison, awaiting the penalty of the law. Our life is full of these turning-points of fortune and of ill, of peace and of woe, of life eternal, or of despair and death. The track we travel has a switch at almost every step. Dr. Haren.

A house took fire. The mother was busiest of all saving her trinkets. The fire spread rapidly. The mother, trying to enter the house a second time, was stopped. She shrieked in anguish; for her babe lay in its cradle in the burning building. At what a cost had she saved her trifles! Should she not have rescued the child first? Is not this true of our children's souls now in danger of eternal fire?

A recent discovery at Pompeii has brought to light the fact of a priest fleeing from the temple when the warning came of the city's approaching doom. But the treasures of the temple, — why should he leave them? He is supposed to have returned to obtain them. Again he sets out, but had not proceeded far before the destruction came, and he was lost. Had it not been for the treasures, his life might have been spared. Bib. Treasury.

A minister of the gospel determined on one occasion to preach on the text, "Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation." Whilst in his study, thinking, he fell asleep, and dreamed that he was carried into hell, and set down in the midst of a conclave of lost spirits. They were assembled to devise means whereby they might get at the souls of men. One rose, and said, "I will go to the earth, and tell men that the Bible is all a fable, that it is not divinely appointed of God." No, that would not do. Another said, "Let me go: I will tell men that there is no God, no Saviour, no heaven, no hell;" and at the last words a fiendish smile lighted upon all their countenances. "No, that will not do: we cannot make men believe that." Suddenly one arose, and with a wise mien, like the serpent of old, suggested, "No: I will journey to the world of men, and tell them that there is a God, that there is a Saviour, that there is a heaven, — yes, and a hell too, — but I'll tell them there is no hurry; TO-MORROW will do, it will be 'even as to-day.'" And they sent him. Biblical Treasury.

The vanity of the purchase and the value of the loss is such, that no man, conscious of his immortality in the next state, but must acknowledge that he is an infinite loser and prodigious fool that gains the world by the loss of his soul. It is said of the ancient Germans, that, in their commerce with the Romans, receiving silver for their amber, that has no virtue but to draw straws to it, they were amazed at the price. And certainly the great Tempter cannot but wonder at the foolish exchange that men make in giving their immortal souls to him for perishing vanities; and, having this scornful advantage, will much more upbraid them hereafter than ever be allured them here. Hence it was a good saying of one to a great lord upon his showing him his stately house and pleasant gardens, "Sir, you had need make sure of heaven, or else, when you die, you will be a very great loser." Yes; "and what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" W. Bates.

Tell our gay triflers there is no such thing as a trifle upon earth. Can any thing be a trifle which has an effect eternal? Edward Young.

The good make a better bargain, and the bad a worse, than is usually supposed; for the rewards of the one, and the punishments of the other, not unfrequently begin on this side of the grave; for vice has more martyrs than virtue; and it often happens that men suffer more to be lost than to be saved. Colton.