1 Sermon Illustrations on True Discipleship

What matters it to the skilful seaman, that with helm in hand, and eye continually upon sea and sky, he has carried his well-trimmed bark over many a league of ocean, and filled her with the treasures of other lands, and steered her through many a rocky channel, and carried her through many a furious gale, if, just as the haven is in sight, the tempest takes her, and whelms her in the deep? And what matters it if we be almost, if we be not altogether, Christians? All knowledge might be ours, so that all mysteries should be clear to us; all faith might be ours, so that we could remove mountains; our goods we might give to feed the poor, and our bodies to be burnt for Jesus' sake: yet if we want the love that binds everlastingly to Christ, and is full of all good fruits, we are nothing. Our last climbing footstep we might plant upon the very threshold of heaven, and, knocking at its closed gates, we might be able to say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" and yet from within the holy habitation the Voice might come, "I never knew you: depart from me ye that work iniquity!"

— Dr. Hanna