14 Sermon Illustrations on Spiritual Fruitfulness

"The apples appear when the sap is not seen. It is the operative and lively graces that will discover themselves. A man may think well, or speak well; but it is that grace which governeth his actions which most showeth itself." There could be no apples if there were no sap, but the sap itself has no manifestation except in the leaves and fruit. If we have inward grace it is well for ourselves; but others cannot see it or profit by it till it works itself into our daily life. This it is bound to do, and we may not think lightly of such a result, for as it would be a token that something ailed the sap of the tree if it brought forth no fruit in its season, so it would be a mournful proof of spiritual declension if our conversation yielded none of the graces of the Spirit. It is all very fine to plead, as some have done, that they are doing inside work; if their fruit is all within they will have to be cut down that it may be got at. A true epistle of Christ is not written in invisible ink, and then sealed up, but it is known and read of all men. A tree of the Lord's right-hand planting bears fruit to his honour and glory, visible to those who are round about him. Lord, make me one that can bear to be looked at. Make my inward grace to be so vigorous that my outer life may be fruitful to thy praise. May no one have to enquire about the sap; may they see so many baskets of fruit that they may be quite sure about the life of the tree.

How beautiful is the language of the Psalmist! "The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing" (Ps. xcii. 12-14). The palm is indigenous to tropical and other warm climates. It grows to a considerable height and size, and presents a beautiful appearance. Its fruits, which are called dates, are much valued, and are eaten both fresh and preserved, and are also pressed for both sirup and wine. But it is not for its fruit alone that the palm is so valuable. From the boughs, which are yearly lopped off from the lower parts of the stem, are made baskets, bird-eages, ropes, and sacks; from the leaves, mattresses, sandals, &c. It is an evergreen, and lives to an extreme old age; the wood is durable, and much used. How striking an emblem of a good man!—he shall flourish like the palm-tree. The cedar was considered by the Hebrews as the monarch of the vegetable world, on account of its magnitude, majesty, the number and extent of its boughs, and the durability of its wood, which was so remarkable that some supposed it to be incorruptible. Moreover, every thing about the Oriental cedar has a strong balsamic odor; and hence the whole forest is so perfumed with fragrance, that a walk through it is delightful. Mount Lebanon was in ancient times covered with forests of cedars, of which, however, few only now remain. Again we say to the Christian, Behold your emblem,—"He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." J. A. James.

Few minds are sun-like, — sources of light in themselves and to others. Many others are moons, which shine with a derivative and reflected light. Among the tests to distinguish them is this, — the former are always full; the latter, only now and then, when their suns are shining full upon them.

Feeble souls are like those tracts of land which have neither depth nor richness of soil, yet, however arid, produce something to serve the world. The sandy and stormy deserts of the Cape are covered with beath of every line and form to beautify the scene and to charm the traveller's eye. Even so the feeblest soul can display some phase of feeling and character that shall add a beauty to its sphere. The world wants the heath as well as the oak; and the genial heavens shine alike on both. "Even the most feeble are necessary." Dr. Thomas.

A year or two after the publication of his COMPLETE DUTY OF MAN, that excellent minister, the Rev. Henry Venn being once at an inn, having held a religious conversation with a waiter, took down his address, which he was very anxious to give, and sent him, upon his return to London, a copy of THE COMPLETE DUTY OF MAN. Many years after this, a friend travelling to see him, brought him a letter from this very person, who then kept a large inn, in the west of England, having married his former master's daughter. His friend told him, that coming to that inn on a Saturday night, and proposing to stay there till Monday, he had inquired of the servants, whether any of them went on Sunday to a place of worship. To his surprise, he found that they were all required to go, at least one part of the day, and that the master, with his wife and family, never failed to attend public worship, and to have family prayer, at which all the servants, who were not particularly engaged, were required to be present. Surprised by this uncommon appearance of religion, where he little expected to find it, he inquired of the landlord by what means he possessed such a sense of the importance of religion. He was told that it was owing to a work which a gentleman had sent to him several years ago, after speaking to him, in a manner which deeply interested him, of the goodness of God in giving his Son to die for our sins. On desiring to see the book, he found it to be THE COMPLETE DUTY OF MAN. Rejoiced to find that his guest was going to pay a visit to Mr. Venn, the innkeeper immediately wrote a letter, expressing, in the fulness of his heart, the obligations which he owed to Mr. Venn, and the happiness which himself, his wife, and many of his children and domestics enjoyed daily, in consequence of the conversation which Mr. Venn had had with # -USEFULNESS OF.

him, and the book which he had sent him; and which he had read again and again, with increasing comfort and advantage.

There was once an obscure and pious woman living in a city in the South of England. History is silent respecting her ancestry—her place of birth—or her education. She had an only son, whom in his infancy she made it her great business to instruct, and train up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. At seven years of age his mother died, and a few years after he went to sea, and became at length a common sailor in the African slave trade. He soon became a great adept in vice—a swearer most horribly profane; and though younger than many of his companions in years he was one of the oldest in guilt. But he could not shake off the remembrance of his pious mother's instructions.—Though dead and in her grave she seemed speaking to him still. After many alarms of conscience and many pungent convictions he became a Christian, and subsequently one of the most successful ministers of the gospel Great Britain ever produced. Of course through the labors of the converted son, we may now trace the influence of the pious mother. In addition to his great ministerial labors, he wrote many evangelical works, and few authors have done more to extend the power of religion. He was highly eloquent and greatly useful in religious conversation; and his hymns, whose use in Divine worship is almost commensurate with the extension of the English language, are of the most elevated and evangelical character. Follow that mother's influence farther. Her son was the means of the conversion of Claudius Buchanan, who subsequently became a minister of the gospel, and went to the East Indies. Here he occupied a responsible station; and his labors in behalf of the English population, and for the improvement of the moral and spiritual condition of the natives, are deservedly ranked among the noblest achievements of Christian philanthropy. His little work entitled "The Star in the East," was the first thing that attracted the attention of Adoniram Judson to a mission in the East Indies. Hence, had it not been for that mother's faithfulness her son might never have been converted, Dr. Buchanan never been converted, nor that train of causes put in operation which are now shedding such a flood of light on Burmah and the surrounding regions.

The converted sailor was also the means of the conversion of Thomas Scott, from the dark mazes of Socinianism to the belief, practice and preaching of evangelical truth. He was a very successful preacher for a good portion of his long life in the metropolis of England,—engaged with vigor and zeal in every enterprise that he thought conducive to the moral welfare and salvation of man. He was, too, the author of a very valuable commentary on the Bible, almost unequalled in its practical tendency and the extent of its circulation. To that pious mother's influence, operating through the efforts of her son, all this is easily traced. Besides, to the connection of her son with the poet Cowper, the evangelical character and great religious influence of Cowper's poetry are doubtless to be mainly attributed. It was by the heavenly counsels and prayers and letters of his clerical friend, that the poet's piety was deepened, and the gloom of his mind dispersed. Again, to this same minister's influence, in connection with that of Doddridge, the conversion of Wilberforce is traced by some. For during fourteen years after he first saw W., and until his conversion, he made W. the constant subject of his prayers. And with what glorious results was the conversion of Wilberforce fraught to the interests of man! What vast contributions did he make with his princely fortune to objects of benevolence! To his influence, in a great degree, may we impute the abolition of the African Slave Trade, and, in subsequent years, the emancipation of slaves in the British West Indies; for the former step prepared England for taking the latter. In addition to this, Wilberforce was the author of "A Practical View of Christianity," which did much to commend spiritual religion to the higher classes of his countrymen, and which, since his death, has been widely circulated and widely useful. This book was the means of the conversion of Leigh Richmond, the author of the "Dairyman's Daughter," which has been the means of the conversion of thousands!—Such are some of the stupendous and glorious results of one holy woman's efforts to educate her son for God—a wide and mighty posthumous influence which an angel might feel honored to exert. Who was she? THE MOTHER OF THE REV. JOHN NEWTON.

At a meeting of teachers connected with the Newcastle-on-Tyne Sunday School Union, in 1823, an old teacher observed that he had known the Orphan House Methodist Sunday school for twenty-one years; and that, during this period, no less a number than twenty-six preachers had issued from it, either from the scholars or the teachers. Can there be a stronger proof of the utility of Sunday schools?