Sermon Illustrations

I SHALL BE ALIVE...

One of the penetrating churchmen of the past generation was Reverend James Gordon Gilkey. While living in Portland, Oregon, he was told by his physician that he had an incurable disease. Death could not be averted, nor long delayed. What did he do? Here is his own story:

"I walked out to my home five miles from the center of the city. There I looked at the river and the mountain which I love, and then—as the twilight deepened—at the stars glimmering in the sky. Then I said to them, "I may not see you many times more. But River, I shall be alive when you have ceased running to the sea. Mountain, I shall be alive when you have sunk down into the plain. Stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen in the ultimate disintegration of the universe."

(1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching)

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