28 Sermon Illustrations on Religious Hypocrisy

Francis I., King of France, used to declare, "that, if he thought the blood in his arm tainted with Lutheran heresy, he would have it cut off, and that he would not spare even his own children if they entertained sentiments contrary to the Catholic Church."

As any exuberance or wen in the body is a great deformity and blemish to it, so these professors, who are high swollen, and puffed up with conceit, are but as wens in the body mystical: they are but blisters, which contain nothing in them but ill humors, and bring a great deal of deformity and discredit upon that holy religion which they profess. Bp. Hopkins.

A gentleman once entered a ball with his son. They saw a number of well-dressed people,—some of them standing together in groups, others apart; some sitting in various postures. The son's attention was fixed by a pleasant-looking gentleman, somewhat gaudily dressed. He said, "Father, who is that gentleman? He seems a mild, pleasant-looking person; but what a singular dress he wears! Who is he?"—"Ask the gentleman who stands near you," said the father. "If you please, sir, can you inform me who that gentleman opposite is?" No answer. The boy thinks it strange. At last the father tells him, "My son, those are only wax figures: there is no life in them; they are all outside,—very fair to look at, but there is no soul, no life: they are outside, and nothing else." So it is with those who have no internal religion.

A traveller in Russia relates, that he saw a votary of the Greek Church devoutly telling his beads with one hand, and, with the other, deliberately picking the pocket of a fellow-worshipper.

When Archdeacon Hare first visited Rome, some of his Protestant friends, it is said, who knew his love of art and the personal sympathy which he had with the Eternal City, trembled for the effect it might produce upon his mind. These fears were groundless. Rome was all, and more than all, he had imagined. But the splendid vision left him a stronger Protestant than it found him. "I saw the Pope," he used to say, "apparently kneeling in prayer for mankind; but the legs that kneeled were artificial: he was in his chair. That sight was enough to counteract all the aesthetical impressions of the worship, if they had been a hundred times stronger than they were." Thus it is with all mere ritualism and other formalism, — the legs which kneel are artificial.

You have Pilate washing his hands in hypocrisy, as well as you have David washing his hands in innocency. You have the Sadducees with their doctrine, as well as the apostles with their doctrine. You have the Pharisee with his prayer, as well as the publican with his prayer. You have the exorcists with their Jesus, as well as Paul with his Jesus. You have Satan with his Scripture, as well as Christ with his Scripture. You have Cain with his sacrifice, as well as Abel with his sacrifice. You have Ahithophel with his wisdom, as well as Solomon with his wisdom. You have Jezebel with her fasts, as well as Anna with her fasts. You have the harlot with her vows, as well as Jacob with his vow. You have the devils with their faith, as well as Christians with their faith. Henry Smith.

"Miss Edgeworth," says Robert Hall, "is the most irreligious writer I ever read; not so much from any direct attacks she makes on religion, as from a universal and studied omission of the subject. In her writings you meet a high strain of morality. She delineates the most virtuous characters, and represents them in the most affecting circumstances in life; in distress, in sickness, and even in the immediate prospect of eternity, and finally sends them off the stage with their virtue unimpaired; and all this without the remotest allusion to religion. She does not directly oppose religion, but makes it appear unnecessary, by exhibiting a perfect virtue without it. No works ever produced so bad an effect on my own mind. I did not expect to

# 296. OBEDIENCE

Some wear the livery of the church whose religion is a routine of dead things. They open with hireling hand the temple gates

Israelites who had estranged themselves from the vitals of religion, are here seen putting their confidence in mere rituals of religion, hence soon find themselves with only a form of godliness but without the power thereof. Some today carry Bible under arm and even shout for religion but are without real communion with God

At sea the dredge brings up creeping things innumerable, and among them creatures that have their own natural shell to live in; but here comes a fellow who has annexed the shell of a whelk, and bears it about as if it were his own. He lives in it while it suits him, and he gives up the tenancy when it becomes inconvenient; the shell is not part of himself. Avoid such a religion. Beware of a Sunday shell and a week-day without the shell. That religion you can part with, you had better part with. If you can get rid of it, get rid of it. If it is not a part and parcel of yourself, it is good for nothing. If it does not run right through you like a silver thread through a piece of embroidery, it will not avail for your eternal salvation.

On the birth of a Parsee child a magian and a fire-priest, who is always an astrologer, are called in to predict the future life of the babe. The magian, drest in a strange robe of many colors, a pointed cap with jingling bells, and armed with a long broom made of beresma twigs (which is thought to have the power of putting evil spirits to flight), enters the chamber of the Parsee mother and babe and setting the end of his broom on fire dances around, exorcising the evil spirits; finally he flourishes his firebrand over the mother and child and in all the corners of the room. This done, the fire-priest draws a number of squares on a blackboard; in one corner of each square he draws a curious figure of bird, beast, fish or insect, each of which stands for some mental, physical, or spiritual characteristic, together with its appropriate star or planet. The magian then proceeds by means of spells and incantations to exercise any evil spirit that may be lurking unseen in the blackboard. Next the fire-priest begins to count and recount the stars under whose influence the child is supposed to be born, and then with closed eyes and solemn voice he predicts the future life of the babe. Next he prepares a horoscope or birth-paper and hands it to the father. Then, placing the babe on his knees, he waves over it the sacred flame, sprinkles it with holy water, fills its ears and nostrils with seasalt to keep out the evil spirits, and finally returns the screaming infant to its mother’s arms.--MRS. LEONOWENS, _Wide Awake_.

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In a dark wood where wild beasts lived there once lay a man’s boot. How it came there, I can not say, for no man had been there--at least the wild beasts had not seen one in all their lives. But there the boot was, and when the beasts saw it they all came round to find out what it was. Such a thing was quite new to them; but they were not much at a loss for all that.

“Well, there is no doubt as to what it is, I say,” said the bear.

“Oh, of course not,” said the wolf and the goat and all the beasts and birds in one breath.

“Of course,” said the bear, “it is the rind of some kind of fruit off a tree--the fruit of the cork, I should say. This is cork, it is plain to see,” and he showed the sole of the boot.

“Oh, just hear him! just hear him!” cried all the beasts and birds.

“It is not that at all,” said the wolf, with a glance of scorn at the bear. “Of course it is some kind of nest. Look; here is the hole for the bird to go in at, and here is the deep part for the eggs and young ones to be safe. No doubt at all, of course not!”

“Oh, oh!” cried the bear and the goat and all the birds and beasts, “just hear what he says! It is not that at all.”

“I should think not,” said the goat. “It is quite a plain case. Look at this long root,” and he showed the string at the side of the boot. “It is the root of a plant, of course.”

“Not a bit of it,” cried the wolf and the bear; “not a bit of it. A root? How can you say so? It is not that, we can all see.”

“If I might speak,” said an old owl, who sat in a tree near, “I think I can tell you what it is. I have been in a land where there are more of such things than you could count. It is a man’s boot.”

“A what?” cried all the beasts and birds. “What is a man? and what is a boot?”

“A man,” said the owl, “is a thing with two legs that can walk and eat and talk, like us; but he can do much more than we can.”

“Pooh, pooh!” cried they all.

“That can’t be true,” said the beasts. “How can a thing with two legs do more than we can, who have four? It is false, of course.”

“Of course it is if they have no wings,” said the birds.

“Well,” went on the owl, “they have no wings, and yet it is true. And they can make things like this, and they call them boots and put them on their feet.”

“Oh, oh!” cried all the beasts and birds at once. “How can you? For shame. Fie on you! That is not true, of course. It can not be.”

“A likely story!” said the bear.

“Can do more than we can?” said the wolf.

“Wear things on their feet?” cried they all. “On the face of it your story is not true. We know that such things are not worn on the feet. How could they be?”

“Of course they could not,” said the bear; “it is false.”

“It must be false,” cried all the birds and beasts. “You must leave the wood,” they said to the owl. “What you say can not be true. You are not fit to live with us. You have said what you know is false. It must be, of course.”

And they chased the poor old owl out of the wood, and would not let him come back.

“It is true for all that,” said the owl.

And so it was.--_The Nursery._

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Musical connoisseurs often express disappointment at the sound of some imposing-looking organ. The instrument with the great dimensions of its outer frame and the gorgeous show of its great gilded pipes in front would give the impression of great power. But those pipes, instead of being of hollow and sonorous metal, are solid pieces of wood. They are decorated dummies, incapable of giving forth a single sound. The musical pipes in such an instrument are hidden from view but they alone are of service.

In the world we must expect shams of character and ostentations, impositions, but in the Church of God there should be no such thing as “folly that is set in great dignity.” (Text.)

Portrayal of James List, a religious Lutheran from New Jersey who murdered his family because he was concerned they would turn to the world and lose his faith. He disappeared and was caught after being shown on "America's Most Wanted." [see #926]