12 Sermon Illustrations on Provision

God is so rich, that he can put more of what is beautiful upon a single lily or tulip than the great King Solomon could put on all his clothing. The hoarse, homely peacock carries more that is beautiful upon his tail than the richest king could ever show. And even tho poor butterfly, which is to live but a few hours, has a more glorious dress than the proudest, richest man that ever lived. God can dress this poor worm up so, because he is rich. If, then, he can take such care of the lilies, the birds, and insects, and make them more beautiful than man can ever be, will he not take care of us, if we obey him? Suppose you had a rich father, so rich, that he had a hogshead full of gold, and a great barn full of silver: do you think, that, if you were to be a good child, he would ever refuse to take care of you? But God has more gold and silver laid up in the ground, which men have not yet dug up, than would make a mountain; it may be, thousands of mountains. Can he not take care of you? Suppose your father had more oxen and horses and cattle than you could count over in a day, or in a week: would he not be able to take care of his child, and give him every thing he needs? Yes. But God has "cattle upon ten thousand hills;" and "every beast of the forest" is his, and his are "all the fowls of the air." Can he not give you food from all these cattle, and clothe you and give you beds from the feathers of all these fowls? Yes: he is able to do it all. Suppose your father was so rich, that he had ten thousand men to work for him every day, al at work, and all paid to their mind, and all happy in working for him: would you have any fears that he could not take care of you and do you good? But God has more servants than these: he has all the good people on earth in his employment, and all the angels in heaven. He pays them all. And, if you need any thing, he can send one, or a million, of these his servants to you, to help you.

— Dr. J. Todd

"In the first year of my marriage," relates a pious German, "I had, one day, not a farthing in the house, when my wife came, and asked me for a thaler to pay the weaver, who was to bring her some cloth home in the evening. There was not a person in the village of whom we could borrow money; and my wife burst into tears. I tried to comfort her by telling her that our heavenly Father knew what we needed, and that perhaps the bad weather might prevent the weaver from coming that day. I commended the matter to the Lord; for I saw no means of human help. In the evening, my wife hastily entered the room, and said, "The weaver is here!" I was just taking down a book from the shelf above me, when, at the very moment, a piece of money rolled out of it, and fell rattling on the table. My wife and I stood motionless: we felt distinctly the presence of God, who so exactly knew what we needed, and bestowed it upon us at the very moment when we required it." The money had been put in the book some time before, been forgotten, and was thus providentially discovered in the time of need.

As when a child travels in his father's company all is paid for, but the father himself carries the purse; so the expenses of a Christian's warfare and journey to heaven are paid for and discharged for him by the Lord in every stage and condition. Gurnall.

God may use unlikely caterers (v. 6). If in God's way, may count on Him to supply every need. Faith puts God between us and circumstances that are against us. Living from hand to mouth all right if it is from God's hand to our mouth (v. 16). Our supplies multiplied, not in hoarding but in giving.

In the East, as elsewhere, since the Biblical days of John’s “locusts and honey,” locusts have been deemed more or less edible. In Palestine to this day they are considered a luxury. The Jews fry them in sesame oil, sesame being the grain of which mention is made in the story of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” a favorite tale in the _Arabian Nights_ entertainments.

In Arabia Petrea locusts are dried in the sun and then ground into a sort of flour for baking; and in Central Africa certain tribes employ locusts for making a thick brown soup.

In Madagascar they are baked in huge jars, fried in grease, and then mixed with rice, forming a dainty much affected by the dusky inhabitants of that big island.

The Algerians have a simpler method. They merely boil the locusts in water and salt them to the taste. The Arabians grind and bake the locusts as cakes, roast them in butter, or else crush them in a mixture of camel’s cheese and dates.

Locusts are also eaten, in times of famine, in southern Russia, generally by the poorest of the poor, among whom the insects are smoked like fish. In the preparation of locusts for food the legs and wings are invariably detached.

It is said that, while the flavor of locusts is strangely disagreeable in the raw state, this flavor is readily disguised and even becomes agreeable when the insect is cooked. Some of the locust soups are, we are told, scarcely to be distinguished from beef broth; and when the little insects are fried in their own oil and slightly salted they take on a pleasing nutty flavor. (Text.)--_Harper’s Weekly._

“There isn’t one man in ten thousand who has the remotest idea of the vast number of uses to which the once despised cotton-seed is now being put,” said Captain B. J. Holmes, of New Orleans.

“From the clean seed are obtained linters and meats and hulls, the hulls making the best and most fattening feed for cattle that has yet been found. From the linters are gathered material for mattresses, felt wads, papers, rope, and a grade of underwear, and likewise cellulose, out of which gun-cotton is made. The meats furnish oil and meal, the oil after refining being now in almost universal use in the kitchens of this and other countries. Before refinement to the edible stage, the oil is known under many names, such as salad-oil, stearine, winter-oil and white-oil, oleomargarine being the product of stearine. The white-oil is the chief ingredient in compound lards. The original oil, also known as soap stock, has fatty acids used in the manufacture of soaps, roofing-tar, paints and glycerine, and from this comes the explosive nitroglycerine. I might also add that the meal, aside from its use as cattle provender, is transformed into bread, cake, crackers and even candy. Last of all come the doctors, who are saying that this wonderful seed is a boon to the sick, since from its oils an emulsion is prepared that has been known to be of value in tuberculosis and other ailments.”--Baltimore _American_.