Luke 1:6

When No One Is Looking

They were both righteous before God. Luke 1:6.

If you were given a text and asked to make a little sermon from it a real sermon, out of your own experience I wonder how you would begin, and what sort of things you would say.

Once I nearly asked a boy to give me ideas for a short sermon. His name was Jim, and he was in a Sunday-school class that I happened to be teaching. The lesson was about Zacharias and Elisabeth, as it is given in the first chapter of Luke. When we came to the verse, “And they were both righteous before God,” I put the question to the class, “What does that mean?” Jim at once answered, “Please, they were good when nobody was lookin'.” I should have liked to get a few more of Jim's ideas about your text.

Speaking of this text a minister would naturally like to say something about the delightful old couple who lived in a quiet home away among the hills, and who got their religion from the Old Testament. Jim, on the other hand, would possibly have dropped Zacharias and Elisabeth altogether and spoken about “straight chaps.” Further, he would almost certainly have said something to this effect: “The right thing is to fear nobody and tell the truth, even if you get a black eye for the telling of it.”

I think Jim's interpretation of the text is a very good one indeed, especially for boys and girls. You believe that truth will prevail. You know that the men who have done great and good work in the world were straight if they were anything.

You have all heard of President Lincoln, and what he did for the American people in bringing them through their great civil war. He was only a poor lad, but he was very clever. That, however, would not have helped him through his difficulties. It was his righteousness. He was good when nobody was looking. For a long time he had but few friends; but he held on, sustained by his good conscience and his faith in God; and in course of time he heard “hisses turned to cheers, the taunts turned to tribute, the abuse to praise.” He never altered his course, and at his death the whole world mourned his loss. Punch, who at one time had ridiculed this man of the people, printed some verses about him. I shall just quote two lines:

Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer,

To lame my pencil, and confute my pen.

President Lincoln was one of the world's righteous men one of its heroes, one who was good through and through.

Some little time ago there was sold in America a certain famous cup. It was a cup which the German

Kaiser had presented to the winner of a yacht race across the Atlantic. The cup was sold by the owner on behalf of the Red Cross. It was supposed to be of solid gold and was valued at over £1000. It was publicly broken in pieces at New York, and what do you think they found? That the much-vaunted solid gold cup was made of common pewter with a thin gold plating, and was worth only £10! It was a sham at heart.

Boys and girls, those who are good when nobody is looking can stand the test of breaking up. There is nothing sham about them. They are solid gold all through.