18 Sermon Illustrations on Love for God

Joseph M. Stowell shares this memory: "When my parents moved to southern Florida, they sorted through some of the family treasures and divided them among the children. My dad brought me a little box and said, 'Joe, I want you to have this.'When I opened the box and pulled back the cotton, there was an old pocket watch-one of those round ones that usually hangs from a fancy gold chain with a watch fob on it. "I have a few antique clocks, so I was somewhat aware of the value of old timepieces. That watch did not have a famous maker's name on it, or a brass or gold or sterling case; it did not have a fancy gold chain or watch fob. In fact, it really was a common old watch with a leather thong tied to it. As a watch, it was not something of great worth. "But my dad said, 'This was the first watch I ever owned. My dad gave me this watch.'I remembered that he and I used to fish the St. Joe River every summer, floating down the river and fly fishing in the evening. This was the watch he used to pull out every once in a while to see what time it was. "You know, if my dad had taken that watch to an antique store, they would have told him it was worth little, if anything. But all the money in the world could not buy that watch from me. That watch is precious to my father, and since it is precious to him, it is precious to me. "That is what people are like. That is why God in essence said, 'Love Me? Love people!'"

Affection is a great friend to memory, men remember what they care for: an old man will not forget where he laid his bag of gold. Delight and love are always renewing and reviving their object upon our thoughts. David often asserteth his delight in the law, and because of this delight it was always in his thoughts (Ps. cxix. 97), "O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day." By this, then, we may judge ourselves whether we have a true and lively love to God and his kingdom. If from day to day we have no thought of him or of his ways, we may be sure that our affection to him, if it be sincere, is assuredly by no means fervent.

A man hath little love to his espoused if he thinks of others more than of her. Where the thoughts fly, there doth the heart lie. Not that we can be always thinking of divine things, for we could not perform the duties of our calling if we gave no thought to them, and especially in certain pursuits of life the mind must for the time be concentrated upon the work in hand; but still our mind must be ready to fly to Jesus as soon as the pressure is removed. Love will break over all laws, and rules, and engrossments to have a word with its beloved, and so will the soul do when Jesus is truly its delight. It will fly to revel in his charms as the miser hastens to count his money. Come, my heart, take thyself to task! Is it not true that if thou wert warmer thy memory would be more retentive? Be penitent, then, because thou art convicted of coolness to thy Well-beloved. Thy frequent forgetfulness of him proves the slackness of thy love.

The time was now come when this faithful servant of the Lord, David Stoner, must die; and his death affords a sublime example of Christian virtue. It admirably corresponds with the tenor of his useful life. For the salvation of sinners he lived and labored. Solicitude for souls was the ceaseless spring of his zeal, activity, and wasting exertions. He felt the "ruling passion strong in death." He appeared to forget himself, though on the solemn verge of eternity; to forget his wife, though soon to become a disconsolate widow; to forget his two lovely boys, then passing into the sad destitution of an orphan state: but he remembered sinners. He had slumbered for some time: the silver cord seemed quite loosed, and Nature sinking in its last decay, when, to the astonishment of every one present, he looked up, and, summoning all his strength to one last effort, cried aloud, "Lord, save sinners! Save them by thousands, Lord! Subdue them, Lord! Conquer them, Lord!" He reiterated these petitions nearly twenty times, then sank down, reposed his head on the pillow, and expired without a struggle or a groan, a little before twelve o'clock, aged thirty-two years, six months, and seventeen days. Dr. Hannah.

If a great potentate did make subject unto thee his whole kingdom, and all his dominions, nobles, and strong powerful men, nay, all his subjects; and did command them to guard, defend, preserve, to clothe, cure, and feed thee, and to take care that thou shouldest want nothing at all,—wouldst thou not love him, and account him to be a loving, bountiful lord? How, then, oughtest thou to love the Lord thy God, who hath kept nothing back for himself, but appointed to thy service all that is in heaven, and from heaven, and all that is upon earth or anywhere? For he wants no creature for himself, and hath excepted nothing from thy service, neither in all the hosts of holy angels, nor in any of his creatures under the stars. If we will, they are ready to serve us; nay, hell itself must serve us, by bringing upon us fear and terror, that we may not sin. John Arndt.

The Rev. Mr. Fraser, a liberated colored missionary from Antigua, states the following fact:— The names of Mr. and Mrs. Thwaites are well known in the island of Antigua, as connected with all efforts of practical education. Mrs. Thwaites gave to a girl, who attended one of their Sunday schools, a Bible. Nancy, for that was her name, took home the Bible to the estate to which she belonged. Nancy was ill; no Bible was her constant companion. Nancy got well, and went in and out; but the Bible was always near to her. At length, the overseer asked her what she had got there. She showed it to him. He looked on with admiration, for it was well bound. "Where did you get this?" She told him. "Will you sell this book?" "No, sir; if you will give me my freedom for it, you shall not have it." Let no one think that Nancy did not know the value of freedom. No; it was not that she despised freedom; but it was a stretch of thought in the mind of a slave to find out the most valuable thing with which to compare the Bible; and the most valuable thing to the heart of that negro, was rejected for the Bible.

Long before the Bibles arrived at Tahiti, says Rev. Mr. Pritchard, many of the people placed in the hands of the missionaries their money to purchase them, that they might not be disappointed when they came to hand. At length a small packing-case, containing thirty Bibles, arrived with Mr. Nott's boxes and trunks from Sydney, New South Wales. Mr. Nott having been taken ill, after his luggage had been put on board, was obliged to remain in Sydney, but sent on, most of his things to Tahiti. It was by some means ascertained by the natives that there was a box of Tahitian Bibles at Papoete, in a store kept by an English merchant. They came repeatedly to me, begging that I would open the box and let them have the Bibles, for they would be doing no good lying there, but, in their hands, they might derive benefit from them. I told them Mr. Nott had sent a letter, stating that not a single box or trunk must be opened till he arrived.

Perceiving that there was no probability of getting them from me, they devised a plan by which they obtained them. Several of the chiefs and one or two members of the royal family went to the store where the Bibles were, and entered, as though they had come to purchase some of the articles there exposed for sale. A few of them stood round the store-keeper, talking to him, that he might not easily perceive what the others were doing, when, all at once, he heard a tremendous crash, and, to his great surprise, he found they had broken the case, and were scrambling for the Bibles. The man begged that they would not take them, stating that they were in his charge, and that he should be blamed if he allowed them to go. His entreaties were all in vain; they had now got them in their possession. They said to the store-keeper, "Don't you fear, we will at once write down the name of each person who has one, and we are willing to pay any price that may be demanded for them, but we will not give them up." We do not attempt to justify the steps taken to obtain the Bibles, but state the fact to show their earnest desire to possess them.

The Queen's secretary succeeded in getting one, and, passing by the missionary's door, he called in to acquaint him with what had taken place, and to show him his treasure. The dinner being on the table, the missionary said to him, "Put down your Bible, and dine with us." He replied, "Not to-day, I have better food here; I want to go and feed upon this spiritual food." In general a native does not need much pressing to induce him to partake; but on this occasion he declined the kind invitation, and hastened home to feed upon "the meat which endureth unto eternal life."

Lady Jane Gray was once asked by one of her friends, in a tone of surprise, how she could consent to forego the pleasures of the chase, which her parents were enjoying, and prefer sitting at home reading her Bible. She smilingly replied, "All amusements of that description are but a shadow of the pleasure which I enjoy in reading this book."

A martyr was asked, whether he did not love his wife and children, who stood weeping by him? "Love them!" said he, "yes, if all the world were gold, and at my disposal, I would give it all for the satisfaction of living with them, though it were in prison; yet, in comparison with Christ, I love them not."

When Thomas Paine resided in Bordentown, in the state of New Jersey, he was one day passing the residence of Dr. Staughton, when the latter was sitting at the door. Paine stopped, and after some remarks of a general character, observed, "Mr. Staughton, what a pity it is that a man has not some comprehensive and perfect rule for the government of his life." The doctor replied, "Mr. Paine, there is such a rule." "What is that?" Paine inquired. Dr. S. repeated the passage, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." Abashed and confounded, Paine replied, "Oh, that's in your Bible," and immediately walked away.