PARADISE LOST -- MAGNIFICENT ARROGANCE FROM CHAOS One of the great poetical pictures from Milton is the scene of Beelzebub, or Satan, having been cast out of heaven, and now awaking, with his confederates in…
Sermon Illustrations
AH, ARE YOU DIGGING ON MY GRAVE? Thomas Hardy published a number of clever and witty poems under the general title Satires of Circumstance. One of the most delightful is the following in which the…
HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is…
OUTWITTED He drew a circle that shut me out -- Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him in. Edwin Markham
FLOWER IN THE CRANNIED WALL -- TENNYSON Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, I hold you here, root and all, in my hand, Little flower -- but if I…
OPPORTUNITY This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream: -- The world is charged with the grandeur of There spread a cloud of dust along a plain; And underneath the cloud, or in it,…
THE VISION OF THE PATRIOT Breathes there the man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said:/"This is my own, my native land"? Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned As home his…
GOD'S GRANDEUR The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then…
PIED BEAUTY Glory be to God for dappled things -- For skies as couple-color as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut- falls; finches' wings; Landscapes plotted and…
FROM IN TENEBRIS Let him in whose ears the low-voiced Best is killed by the clash of the First, Who holds that if way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at…
INVICTUS Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not…
IN MEMORIAM A.H.H. Strong Son of God, immortal Love, Whom we, that have not seen thy face, By face, and faith alone, embrace, Believing where we cannot prove. Thine are these orbs of light and…
MY HEART LEAPS UP My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky. So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man: So be it when…
LUTHER AND THE DIET OF WORMS Will Durant, in The Reformation, reports the scene with clarity: On April 17 Luther, in his monastic garb, appeared before the Diet: the Emperor, six electors, an awesome court…
INTERCESSORS Intercessors are the powerful ones. Intercessors pray for others until God releases His grace and resources upon them. Intercessors wage spiritual battles with the unseen forces of darkness -- and win. Intercessors sometimes rise…
THE LORD'S FORGIVENESS Psalm 51:11 "Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." The most vivid experience of that anguished prayer and its answer that I can recall came…
MINISTERING OUT OF THE QUIET I get so much personal help from Christianity Today's Leadership Library Series of books. A recent one was by Eugene Peterson, pastor of Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Bel…
PRAYER'S STRENGTH Prayer covers the whole of man's life. There is no thought, feeling, yearning, or desire, however low, trifling, or vulgar we may deem it, which, if it affects our real interest or happiness,…
BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD Every morning lean thine arms awhile Upon the window sill of heaven And gaze upon thy Lord. Then, with the vision in thy heart, Turn strong to meet thy day.…
SPIRIT MOTIVATED PRAYER Dr. Raymond Edmond of Wheaton College had not been in Uruguay as a missionary very long when he became deathly sick. In fact, the Uruguay nationals had his grave dug, and were…
