15 Sermon Illustrations on Unity in Christ

I had the pleasure to meet that most interesting man, Rammohun Roy, at breakfast in my own house. I invited men of various religious opinions to meet him, and there were about thirty persons present. The conversation was very lively, and well sustained. The Brahmin exhibited wonderful shrewdness. "Ah!" he said, "you say that you are all one in Christ, all brethren, and equal in him. Well, you go to the cathedral at Calcutta. There you see a grand chair of crimson velvet and gold: that is for the Governor-General of India. Then there are other chairs of crimson and gold; they are for the members of council. And then there are seats lined with crimson: they are for the merchants, &c. Then there are the bare benches for the common people and the poor. Yet you say we are all one in Christ. But if the poor man whose seat is there, on that bare bench, — if he go and sit down on the crimson velvet chair of the governor-general, they will break his head! Yet you are all one in Christ!" Some one was about to expound this matter to the Brahmin, and explain the impropriety of any one taking the seat of the representative of majesty. But the thing was too good for our Quaker friend, James Cropper, quietly to let it go. He so thoroughly sympathized with the Brahmin's view of the matter, that he could not refrain from interposing. "Nay, nay," he cried, "thou must not seek to put aside the force of our friend's remark." So the Brahmin and our friend James had the matter entirely to themselves. Dr. Raffles.

There were two men, says Anselm, who, a little before the sun was up, fell into a very earnest debate as to that part of the heavens wherein that glorious body was to arise that day. In the controversy, they became so engaged as to fall by the ears, and ceased not their buffettings till they had beaten out each other's eyes. So it came to pass, that, when the sun did show itself, neither of the champions could see one jot. So it often is with controversialists.

— Bp. Patrick

Look not alone for your relations in your own house or in your own sphere. The blood of Christ is stronger for relationship than blood of father or mother. Look above you. All there are yours. Go down even to the bottom of society. All below you are judgment-day brothers; and God's eternity is on them and you alike. Beecher.

By true faith all distinctions between Jew and Gentile, clean and unclean, are swept away. "All one in Christ Jesus"—through simple contact of faith

The Rev. John Fawcett, D.D., wrote the hymn, “Blest be the tie that binds”--perhaps the noblest hymnic expression of Christian brotherhood; and the author is himself one of the best examples of its sentiment. Brought to God by the Methodists, under the ministry of Whitefield, he joined that body, and became later pastor of a Baptist church in Bradford, England, and finally was settled at Wainsgate. Receiving a call to succeed the celebrated Dr. Gill in London, he had his goods packed ready for removal, when his loving people gathered, weeping, to say farewell, which so touched him and his good wife that he said, “I will stay; you may unpack my goods, and we will live for the Lord lovingly together.” This experience, it was, which led the author to compose the now popular hymn. (Text.)

Where such things can be done in nature as are described below there should be hope of a time when the varieties of human nature, varying sects, creeds and practises may be merged into a common Christian type.

An orange-cucumber, or cucumber-orange, as the name has not yet been decided, is a freak combination raised by Howard S. Hill, a cucumber grower of Gardner, Mass., which he is cultivating as a new dish to tickle the palate of exacting diners.

The new fruit or vegetable resulted from an experiment made by Mr. Hill. At that time an orange-tree was in full bloom in his cucumber hothouse at the same time that the blossom of the cucumber vines first appeared. Mr. Hill transferred the pollen from the orange-blossoms to several cucumber flowers.

The first appearance of the fruit was the same as that of an ordinary infant cucumber, but as the fruit grew, the result of the inoculation became apparent. The cucumber, instead of lengthening out, remained round like an orange, with the orange-bloom scar, but the skin was that of a cucumber, with the same corruptions. When ripened the new product assumed a bright orange color, and from a distance appeared the same as an orange.

With the seeds from the best specimens Mr. Hill is growing a number of vines and thinks that the new fruit will become established and prove a favorite, as the taste of the orange and cucumber blend in an excellent manner and make a pleasing combination.

Spirit and foot rule have nothing to do with each other. The same light comes out of a dew-drop that comes out of the sun. The smallest bird that trills its infinitesimal melody utters occasional notes that would blend with the voluminous progressions of the grandest oratorio, or that would even chime in with the anthem of the heavenly host praising God and singing, “Glory to God in the highest.” And as the little note of the bird fits the splendid symphony of the angel-choir, so thought is still thought everywhere, mind is mind in both worlds, the sea-shell yet hums the murmur of the sea whence it sprang, the younger star still moves in the orbit it learned while one with the parent star from which it was born, God and man think in the same vernacular, the Father and His children understand each other, the hills and the mountains are divine thoughts done in stone, and in the heavens the interpreting mind of man calmly fronts and steadily reads the meaning of God, and in the scintillant paragraphs of the star-dotted sky, with a divine genius, spells out thought that lay eternal in the great Mind before ever He said, “Let there be light.”--CHARLES H. WINTHROP PACKARD, “Wild Pastures.”