Illustrations Search

There is a tale told of that great English actor Macready. An eminent preacher once said to him: “I wish you would explain to me something.” “Well, what is it? I don’t know that I can explain anything to a preacher.” “What is the reason for the difference between you and me? You are appearing before crowds night after night with fiction, and the crowds come wherever you…

Two friends, one an army officer, met after an interval of ten years. They had been attached to each other and shook hands cordially. After a little chat, the civilian, looking at the other man with a curious air, said, "By the way, General, they tell me you have gone mad over religion." "Well," responded the general, "I'm not aware of being crazy; as far as I know I'm enjoying all my senses. But…

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

There is one couple I shall always remember from my days as a hospital admitting clerk. The husband, a heart-attack victim, was immediately whisked away by the staff. Hours passed, though, before his wife was allowed to see him. She was dismayed to find him hooked up to elaborate machines that blipped, hissed and beeped.

She tiptoed toward his bed and, bending over him, whispered, “George,…

Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones. - Phillips Brooks

We drop a seed into the ground,

A tiny, shapeless thing, shriveled and dry,

And, in the fullness of its time, is seen

A form of peerless beauty, robed and crowned.

Beyond the pride of any earthly queen,

Instinct with loveliness, and sweet and rare,

The perfect emblem of its Maker’s care.

This from a shriveled seed?—

—Then may man hope indeed!

For…

Dr. Guthrie, attending a school gathering in a slum area, followed a speaker who had referred to poor neglected children as "the scum of society." This roused the indignation of Dr. Guthrie. Taking a clean sheet of paper and holding it up, he said, "Yes, this was the scum of society once, only filthy rags, but they can be cleansed and made into spotless white paper on which you may write the name…

Have you not heard of the madman who lit a lamp in the bright morning and went to the marketplace crying ceaselessly, “I seek God! I seek God!” There were many among those standing there who didn’t believe in God so he made them laugh.

“Is God lost?” one of them said.

“Has he gone astray like a child?” said another. “Or is he hiding? Has he gone on board…

My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. that’s always been pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I’ve become somebody, I still have to prove that I’m SOMEBODY. My struggle has never ended, and it probably never will.