10 Sermon Illustrations on Responsibility

A young lawyer negotiated a contract of which he was rather proud and took it to an old and wise counselor for his examination. To his surprise the old man, as he read it slowly, shook his head. "That is a great contract, John. It is most skillfully drawn," he remarked as he handed it back. "But, John, you have forgotten the other fellow. No contract is sound which neglects the rights or the equities of any party to it." We are not righteous if we think only of our own rights and neglect the rights of others. No Responsibility A young man applying for a job as usher in a theater was asked by the owner, "In case of fire, what would you do?" "Oh, don't be concerned about me," was the reply. "I'd be able to escape immediately." He did not even think of his responsibility toward others. Of course, he didn't get the job.

I read some time ago of a vessel that had been off on a whaling voyage and had been gone about three years. I saw the account in print somewhere lately, but it happened a long time ago. The father of one of those sailors had charge of the lighthouse, and he was expecting his boy to come home. It was time for the whaling vessel to return. One night there came up a terrible gale, and this father fell asleep, and while he slept his light went out. When he awoke he looked toward the shore and saw there had been a vessel wrecked. He at once went to see if he could not yet save some one who might be still alive. The first body that came floating toward the shore was, to his great grief and surprise, the body of his own boy! He had been watching for that boy for many days, and he had been gone for three years. Now the boy had at last come in sight of home and had perished because his father had let his light go out! I thought, what an illustration of fathers and mothers to-day that have let their lights go out! You are not training your children for God and eternity. You do not live as though there were anything beyond this life at all. You keep your affections set upon things on the earth instead of on things above, and the result is that the children do not believe there is anything in it. Perhaps the very next step they take may take them into eternity: the next day they may die without God and without hope.

Fifty it is that commonly more care is had, and that among very wise men, to find a cunning man for their horses than a cunning man for their children. To one they will give a stipend of two hundred crowns a year, and are loath to offer the other two hundred shillings. God, that sitteth in heaven, langheth their choice to scorn, and rewardeth their liberality as it should be; for he suffereth them to have tame and well-ordered horses, but wild and unfortunate children. So that, in the end, they feel more pleasure in their horses than comfort in their children. Ascham.

The stone flung from my careless hand into the lake splashed down into the depths of the flowing water; and that was all. No, it was not all. Look at those concentric rings, rolling their tiny ripples among the sedgy reeds, dipping the overhanging boughs of yonder willow, and producing an influence, slight but conscious, to the very shore of the lake itself. That hasty word, that word of pride or scorn, flung from my lips in casual company, produces a momentary depression; and that is all. No, it is not all. It deepened that man's disgust at godliness; and it sharpened the edge of that man's sarcasm; and it shamed that half-converted one out of his penitent misgivings; and it produced an influence, slight but eternal, on the destiny of an immortal life. Oh! it is a terrible power that I have, — this power of influence; and it clings to me. I cannot shake it off. It is born with me: it has grown with my growth, and strengthened with my strength. It speaks, it walks, it moves; it is powerful in every look of my eye, in every word of my lips, in every act of my life. I cannot live to myself. I must either be a light to illumine, or a tempest to destroy. I must either be an Abel, who by his immortal righteousness, being dead, yet speaketh; or an Achan, the saddest continuance of whose otherwise forgotten name is the fact that man perishes not alone in his iniquity. O brethren! this necessary element of power belongs to you all. Your sphere may be contracted, your influence may be small; but a sphere and influence you have.

— W. M. Punshon

The light in a lighthouse, through some derangement of the machinery, ceased to revolve as usual. When the keeper discovered it, he ran to the proper position, and, by manual labor, kept steadily revolving the light, until weariness compelled him to call another to his relief. Then another took his turn; and so all night long the light was kept in motion. A stranger afterwards commenting on his solicitude, the man replied, "Why, sir, there may be a hundred seamen looking out from the darkness and storm to catch a glimpse at this light. If it do not move, it will be mistaken for another; and, in their uncertainty and danger, they may lose the channel, and be shipwrecked."