2

SECOND SERIES

OF

LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS:

BEING

ADDRESSES DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS

Of

The Pastors’ College,

METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE.

BY C. H. SPURGEON.

PRESIDENT

3

INTRODUCTION.

THE former series of my lectures met with a welcome which was by no

means anticipated by their author. Everyone has received the book kindly,

and some have grown enthusiastic over it. To the gentlemen of the press I

am deeply indebted for their cordial reviews, to the general public for

largely purchasing, but specially to the many individuals who in private

letters have spoken of the work in approving words, which I am not

ungrateful enough to forget, nor vain enough to repeat. A man may be

allowed to feel glad when he is thanked for having been of service to his

fellow ‘men, and those men the ministers of the Lord. It is comforting to

know that you have aimed at usefulness, pleasant to believe that you have

succeeded, and most of all encouraging to have been assured of it by the

persons benefited. With no little fear and trembling the former lectures

were submitted to the public eye, but the result is now looked back upon

with unusual content. As in duty bound and by gratitude prompted,

thanksgivings to God are hereby very earnestly recorded, and indebtedness

is also expressed to kindly hearts who have given my addresses so hearty a

reception.

One result of the unanimous generosity of my critics has been this second

series of lectures: whether this will prove to be a fresh trial for patience, or

a further source of satisfaction to my readers, time alone will show. I hope

the lectures are not worse than their predecessors. In some respects they

ought to be better, for I have had three years’ more experience; but there is

one valid reason why the latter should hardly be expected to be equal to

the former, and it is this — the subjects are not numerous, and the first

choice naturally takes off the cream, so that the next gathering must consist

of minor topics. I hope, however, that the quality has not very seriously

fallen off, and that the charity of my readers will not fail. At any rate, I do

not offer that which has cost me nothing, for I have done my best and

taken abundant pains. Therefore with clear conscience I place my work at

the service of my brethren, especially hoping to have a careful reading from

young preachers, whose profiting has been my principal aim. I have made

my addresses entirely for students and beginners in preaching, and I beg

that they may always be regarded, from that point of view, for many

remarks which are proper enough to be made to raw recruits it would be

4

gross impertinence to place before masters in Israel. The intent and object

will be borne in mind by every candid reader.

I seize the present opportunity to call attention to ‘the second of my three

books for students, for this is properly the third; I allude to the volume

entitled, “Commenting and Commentaries.” It embodies the experience

and information of a lifetime, but being very much occupied with a

Catalogue of Commentaries it cannot commend itself to popular tastes, and

must be confined in its circulation to those who wish for information upon

expository works. To my own surprise it is in the tenth thousand, but

numbers of readers to whom it might be valuable have not yet seen it. As

almost all the reviewers speak of it with much praise, I think it will be

worth any young meanwhile to buy it before he gets far on in the formation

of a library. It is on my heart, if life is spared, to issue six half-crown books

for preachers: the fourth, which is much of it prepared, will be occupied

with” The Art of Illustration,” and I am anxious in no one instance to

waste time and labor upon books which will not be read. Hence my reason

for mentioning the Commenting book in this place. Life is short, and time

is precious to a busy man. Whatever we do we wish to make the most of.

One more apology and note. The lectures upon “Posture, Gesture, Action,

etc.,” will probably be judged to make too much of a secondary matter. I

wish I could think so myself. My own observation led me to think them

needful, for it has scores of times occurred to me to lament that speakers

should neglect those minor points until they spoil themselves thereby. It

matters little how a man moves his body and hands so long as he does not

call attention to himself by becoming ungainly and grotesque. That many

do this is a fact which few will deny, and my motive is not to make mirth at

good men’s expense, but to prevent its being done by their hearers. It is

sad to see the Lord’s message marred by being ill told, or to have attention

taken off from it by the oddities of the messenger manner. Could those

who consider me to be trifling only see the results of bad action, as they are

seen by those who wish that they did not see them, they would discover

that a very serious propose lies beneath the somewhat sarcastic humor

which I have employed; and if they also believed, as I do, that such evils

cannot be cured except by exposing them to ridicule, they would acquit me

of trifling, even if they did not approve of my mode of dealing with the evil.

5

Hoping that some benefit may accrue to the rising race of preachers, and

through them to the church of God, this book is offered to the Lord’s

service, in the hope that he will use it for his own glory.

6

THE PASTORS’ COLLEGE

THE lectures of which this volume is composed were delivered the Pastors’

College, in the rear of the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and, therefore, we take

the liberty to notice that Institution in these pages. To make the College

known, and to win for it willing friends, is confessedly one object of our

publications upon the ministry, which may, indeed, be viewed as merely the

giving forth to a wider area the instruction carried on within the College

walls.

The Institution is intended to aid useful preachers in obtaining a better

education. It takes no man to make him a minister, but requires that its

pupils should, as a rule, have exercised their gifts for at least two years,

and have won souls to Jesus. ‘These we receive, however poor or

backward they may be, and our endeavors are all directed to the one aim

that they should be instructed in the things of God, furnished for their

work, and practiced in the gift of utterance. Much prayer is made by the

Church in the Tabernacle that this end may be accomplished, nor has the

prayer been in vain, for some 365 men who were trained in this manner are

now declaring the gospel of Jesus. Besides the students for the regular

ministry, several hundreds of street preachers, city missionaries, teachers,

and workers of all kinds have passed through our Evening Classes, and

more than 200 men are now with us, pursuing their callings by day and

studying in the evening. We ask for much prayer from all our brethren, that

the supply of the Spirit may sanctify the teaching, and anoint every worker

for the service of the Lord.

As it would be quite unwarrantable for us to interfere with the

arrangements of other bodies of Christians, who have their own methods of

training their ministers, and as it is obvious that we could not find spheres

for men in denominations with which we have no ecclesiastical connection,

we confine our College to Baptists; and, in order not to be harassed with

endless controversies, we invite those only who hold those views of divine

truth which are popularly known as Calvinistic, — not that we care for

names and phrases; but, as we wish to be understood, we use a term which

conveys our meaning as nearly as any descriptive word can do. Believing

the grand doctrines of grace to be the natural accompaniments of the

fundamental evangelical truth of redemption by the blood of Jesus, we hold

7

and teach them, not only in our ministry to the masses, but in the more

select instruction of the class room. Latitudinarianism with its infidelity,

and unsectarianism with its intolerance, are neither of them friends of ours:

we delight in the man who believes, and therefore speaks. Our Lord has

given us no permission to be liberal with what is none of ours. We are to

give an account of every truth with which we are put in trust.

Our means for conducting this work are with the Most High God,

possessor of heaven and earth. We have no list of subscribers or roll of

endowments. Our trust is in him whom we desire to serve. He has

supported the work for many years, by moving his stewards to send us

help, and we are sure that he will continue to do so as long as he desires us

to pursue this labor of love. We need at least £120 every week of the year,

for we have 113 men to board, lodge, and educate, preaching stations to

hire, and new churches to help. Since our service is gratuitous in every

sense, we the more freely appeal to those who agree with us in believing

that to aid an earnest young minister to equip himself for his life-work is a

worthy effort. No money yields so large a return, no work is so important,

just now none is so absolutely needful.

NIGHTINGALE LANE,

CLAPHAM, SURREY,

C. H. SPURGEON

8

INTRODUCTORY NOTES.

MR. SPURGEON, in his preface to the Second Series of Lectures to my

Students, wrote: — “I seize the present opportunity to call attention to the

second of my three books for students, for this is properly the third. I

allude to the volume entitled, Commenting and Commentaries. It embodies

the experience and information of a lifetime; but, being very much occupied

with a Catalogue of Commentaries, it cannot commend itself to popular

tastes, and must be confined in its circulation to those who wish for

information upon expository works. To my own surprise, it is in the tenth

thousand, but numbers of readers to whom it might be valuable have not

yet seen it. As almost all the reviewers speak of it with much praise, I think

it will be worth any young man’s while to buy it before he gets far on in the

formation of a library. It is on my heart, if life is spared, to issue six halfcrown

books for preachers; the fourth, which is much of it prepared, will

be occupied with The Art of Illustration, and I am anxious in no one

instance to waste time’ and labor upon books which will not be read.

Hence my reason for mentioning the Commenting book in this place. Life

is short, and time is precious to a busy man. Whatever we do, we wish to

make the most of.”

Accordingly, Mrs. Spurgeon thought that, after the publication of her dear

husband’s Commentary on the Gospel according to Matthew, — The

Gospel of the Kingdom, that pathetically-precious volume that

memorializes the author’s transition from preaching the Gospel on earth to

entering the Kingdom in heaven, — the first of his unfinished books to be

completed must be the one to which he had himself given the title, The Art

of Illustration, and for which he had so long and so carefully been

gathering the materials. Hence the issue of the present work.

Of the seven lectures included in this volume, the first two were revised

and stereotyped during Mr. Spurgeon’s lifetime. Three of the others were

partially revised by him, before being re-delivered to a later company of

students than those who heard them for the first time. The two re-rosining

lectures are printed substantially as they appeared in the reporter’s

transcripts; only such verbal corrections have been made as are were

absolutely necessary to ensure accuracy of statement so far as it ,could be

ascertained. It was a providential arrangement that, just as are the lecture

9

on “The Science of Astronomy as a Source of Illustration” was being

prepared for the press, a book entitled, The Voices of the Stars, by J. E.

WALKER, M.A. (Elliot Stock), was received for review in Sword and the

Trowel. As the author of that very valuable volume has taken great pains

“to verify, on the highest authority, the facts which are the basis of the

theological and spiritual correspondences” pointed out in his work, we

have been glad to avail ourselves of his figures, in certain instances, so as

to bring the lecture down to date; and we gratefully acknowledge our

indebtedness to Mr. Walker for this assistance.

Of course, it is needless to say that this volume of lectures is not what Mr.

Spurgeon would have made it had he been spared to see it published; but,

fully recognizing that fact, every possible effort has been exerted to make

the work as helpful as possible to those for whom it is specially intended.

In the catalogue of books of anecdotes, illustrations, etc., the “etc.” has

been rather widely interpreted so as to include the Sword and Trowel

reviews of all works of the kind that were likely to be useful to ministers,

students, local preachers, Sunday-school teachers, and Christian workers

generally. The notices of these illustrative volumes, which appeared in “Mr.

Spurgeon’s Magazine” up to the time of his promotion to glory, were

almost (if not quite) all written by himself; so that, with Lectures 5 and 6,

and Appendix A, readers will be able to see what the late Pastor of the

Metropolitan Tabernacle judged to be the best books of this nature that

had come before his notice. He was himself such a master of “The Art of

Illustration” that his opinions upon the subject have the added weight of

long practical experience and this will, doubtless, make them of great value

to others.

It was necessary to adopt some kind of order for the reviews; and as any

other arrangement would have seemed invidious, it was decided that the

notices should be printed as they appeared, chronologically, in the

Magazine. The published prices of the books are given as a guidance to

intending purchasers; and in the case of works reviewed, but now out of

print, that fact is stated, to prevent disappointment to readers, and useless

inquiries of publishers. It may be that books which are out of print can still

be obtained of second-hand booksellers. Where the volumes have passed

out of the hands of the original publishers, the names of the present

publishers have been inserted, with the prices at which the books can now

be bought.

10

The issue of this volume will awaken, in the minds of the ministers

educated in the Pastors’ College, many memories of their “peerless

President.” The happy Friday afternoons, when these and similar lectures

were delivered to them, will never fade from the recollection of the highlyprivileged

band of brethren who had the honor of sitting at the feet of C.

H. Spurgeon. Those who read the contents of this book, and the three

previous series of lectures, will understand, in part at least, how it is that

“Spurgeon’s men” increasingly mourn the loss of their loved leader; but

they can never fully know all that, under God, he was to his sons in the

faith. Oh, that everyone who came under his blessed influence might be

more like him, and so become, as he was, “a good minister of Jesus

Christ”!

For the information of friends who are not fully aware of the character and

purpose of Mr. Spurgeon’s Lectures to my Students, it may be well to

reproduce here what he, almost apologetically, wrote when submitting

former specimens of them to the judgment of the general public: — “My

College lectures are colloquial, familiar, full of anecdote, and often

humorous: they are purposely made so, to suit the occasion. At the end of

the week I meet the students, and find them weary with sterner studies, and

I judge it best to be as lively and interesting in my prelections as I well can

be. They have had their fill of classics, mathematics, and divinity, and are

only in a condition to receive something which will attract and secure their

attention, and fire their hearts. Our venerable tutor, Mr. Rogers, compares

my Friday work to the sharpening of the pin: the fashioning of the head,

the straightening, the laying on of the metal, and the polishing, have been

done during the week, and then the process concludes with an effort to

give point and sharpness. To succeed in this, the lecturer must not be dull

himself, nor demand any great effort from his audience. I am as much at

home with my young brethren as in the bosom of my family, and therefore

speak without restraint .. At any rate, I do not offer that which has cost me

nothing, for I have done my best, and taken abundant pains. Therefore,

with clear conscience I place my work at the service of my brethren,

especially hoping to have a careful reading from young preachers, whose

profiting has been my principal aim.! have made my addresses entirely for

students and beginners in preaching, and I beg that they may always be

regarded from that point of view, for many remarks which are proper

enough to be made to raw recruits it would be gross impertinence to place

11

before masters in Israel. The intent and object will be borne in mind by

every candid reader.”

Some time before he was called home, Mr. Spurgeon had employed a

friend to select from his published sermons all the Anecdotes and

Illustration he had used in preaching. It was his intention to issue these in a

number of small volumes which he hoped would prove helpful to other

preachers and speakers. Possibly, the first of this series may speedily follow

the present work, as it would be an appropriate sequel to The Art of

Illustration. In the meantime, as a second Appendix to this book, a list is

given of all the illustrative works by Mr. Spurgeon already published.

There are many more of his Lectures to my Students that have not yet been

printed, including a course on the important subject of Soul-winning; these

are in preparation for the press, and will be published when the opportunity

occurs.

Now, having finished our task — by no means an easy one — with the

ever-present remembrance of the beloved President and Pastor who would

have done the work immeasurably better, yet with devout thankfulness that

another volume of his gracious and happy utterances is completed, we

close our” Introductory Notes” with Mr. Spurgeon’s own words in

launching the previous series of lectures: — “Hoping that some benefit

may accrue to the rising race of preachers, and through them to the Church

of God, this book is offered to the Lord’s service, in the hope that he will

use it for his own glory.”

J. W. H.

12

CONTENTS.

LECTURE 1. —

Illustrations in Preaching

LECTURE 2. —

Anecdotes from the Pulpit

LECTURE 3. —

The Uses of Anecdotes and Illustrations

LECTURE 4. —

Where can we find Anecdotes and Illustrations?

LECTURE 5. —

Cyclopaedias of Anecdotes and Illustrations

LECTURE 6. —

Books of Fables, Emblems, and Parables

LECTURE 7. —

The Sciences as Sources of Illustration. ASTRONOMY

APPENDIX A. —

Supplemental. List of Books of Anecdotes, Illustrations, etc.

APPENDIX B. —

List of Mr. Spurgeon’s Illustrative Works

13

LECTURE 1.

ILLUSTRATIONS IN PREACHING.

THE topic now before us is the use of illustrations in our sermons. Perhaps

we shall best subserve our purpose by working out an illustration in the

present address; for there is no better way of teaching the art of pottery

than by making a pot. Quaint ‘Thomas Fuller says, “reasons are the pillars

of the fabric of a sermon; but similitudes are the windows which give the

best lights.” The comparison is happy and suggestive, and we will build up

ore’ discourse under its direction.

The chief reason for the construction of windows in a house is, as Fuller

says, to let in light. Parables, similes, and metaphors have that effect; and

hence we use them to illustrate our subject, or, in other words, to

“brighten it with light,” for that is Dr. Johnson’s literal, rendering of the

word illustrate. Often when didactic speech fails to enlighten our hearers

we may make them see our meaning by opening a window and letting in

the pleasant light of analogy. Our Savior, who is the light of the world,

took care to fill his speech with similitudes, so that the common people

heard him gladly: his example stamps with high authority the practice of

illuminating heavenly instruction with comparisons and similes. To every

preacher of righteousness as well as to Noah, wisdom gives the command,

“A window shalt thou make in the ark.” You may build up laborious

definitions and explanations and yet leave your hearers in the dark as to

your meaning; but a thoroughly suitable metaphor will wonderfully clear

the sense. The pictures in The Illustrated London News give us a far better

idea of the scenery which they represent than could be conveyed to us by

the best descriptive letter-press; and it is much the same with Scriptural

teaching: abstract truth comes before us so much more vividly when a

concrete example is given, or the doctrine itself is clothed in figurative

language. There should, if possible, be at least one good metaphor in the

shortest address; as Ezekiel, in his vision of the temple, saw that even to

the little chambers there were windows suitable to their size. If we are

faithful to the spirit of the gospel we labor-to make things plain: it is our

study to be simple and to be understood by the most illiterate of our

14

hearers; let us, then, set forth many a metaphor and parable before the

people. He wrote wisely who said, “The world below me is a glass in

which I may see the world above. The works of God are the shepherd’s

calendar and the ploughman’s alphabet.” Having nothing to conceal, we

have no ambition to be obscure. Lycophron declared that he would hang

himself upon a tree if he found a person who could understand his poem

entitled “The Prophecy of Cassandra.” Happily no one arose to drive him

to such a misuse of timber. We think we could find brethren in the ministry

who might safely run the same risk in connection with their sermons. Still

have we among us those who are like Heraclitus, who was called “the Dark

Doctor” because his language was beyond all comprehension. Certain

mystical discourses are so dense that if light were admitted into them it

would be extinguished like a torch in the Grotta del Cane: they are made

up of the palpably obscure and the inexplicably involved, and all hope of

understanding them may be abandoned. This style of oratory we do not

cultivate. We are of the same mind as Joshua Shute, who said: “That

sermon has most learning in. it that has most plainness. Hence it is that a

great scholar was wont to say, ‘Lord, give me learning enough, that I may

preach plain enough.’”

Windows greatly add to the pleasure and agreeableness of a habitation, and

so do illustrations make a sermon pleasurable interesting. A building

without windows would be a prison rather than a house, for it would be

quite dark, and no one would care to take it upon lease; and, in the same

way, a discourse without a parable is prosy and dull, and involves a

grievous weariness of the flesh. The preacher in Solomon’s Ecclesiastes

“sought to find out acceptable words,” or, as the Hebrew has it, “words of

delight”: surely, figures and comparisons are delectable to our hearers. Let

us not deny them the salt of parable with the meat of doctrine. Our

congregations hear us with pleasure when we give them a fair measure of

imagery: when an anecdote is being told they rest, take breath, and give

play to their imaginations, and thus prepare themselves for the sterner

work which lies before them in listening to our profounder expositions.

Riding in a third-class carriage some years ago in the eastern counties, we

had been for a long time without a lamp; and when a traveler lighted a

candle, it was pleasant to see how all eyes turned that way, and rejoiced in

the light: such is frequently the effect of an apt simile in the midst of a

sermon, it lights up the whole matter, and gladdens every heart. Even the

little children open t. heir eyes mid ears, and a smile brightens up their

15

faces as we tell a story; for they, too, rejoice in the light which streams in

through our windows. We dare say they often wish that the sermon, were

all illustrations, even as the boy desired to have a cake made all of plums;

but that must not be: there is a happy medium, and we must keep to it by

making our discourse pleasant hearing, but not a mere pastime. No reason

exists why the preaching of the gospel should be a miserable operation

either to the speaker or to the hearer. Pleasantly profitable let all our

sermons be. A house must not have thick walls without openings, neither

must a discourse be all made up of solid slabs of doctrine without a

window of comparison or a lattice of poetry; if so, our hearers will

gradually forsake us, and prefer to stay at home and read their favorite

authors whose lively tropes and vivid images afford more pleasure to their

minds.

Every architect will tell you that he looks upon his windows as an

opportunity for introducing ornament into his design. A pile may. be

massive, but it cannot be pleasing if it is not broken up with windows and

other details. The palace of the popes at Avignon is an immense structure;

but the external windows are few that it has all the aspect of a colossal

prison, and suggests nothing of what a palace should be. Sermons need to

be broken up, varied, decorated, and enlivened; and nothing can do this

well as the introduction of types, emblems, and instances. Of course,

ornament is not the main point to be considered; but still, many little

excellences go to make up perfection, and this is one of the many, and

therefore it should not be overlooked. When wisdom built her house she

hewed out her seven pillars, for glory and for beauty, as well as for the

support of the structure; and shall we think that any rough hovel is good

enough for the beauty of holiness to dwell in? Certainly a gracious

discourse is none the better for being bereft of every grace of language.

Meretricious ornament we deprecate, but an appropriate beauty of speech

we cultivate. Truth is a king’s daughter, and her raiment should be of

wrought gold; her house is a palace, and it should be adorned with

“windows of agate and gates of carbuncle.”

Illustrations tend to enliven an audience and quicken attentions.

Windows, when they will open, which, alas, is not often the case in our

places of worship, are a great blessing by refreshing and reviving the

audience with a little pure air, and arousing the poor mortals who are

rendered sleepy by the stagnant atmosphere. A window should, according

to its name, be a wind-door, through which a breath of air may visit the

16

audience; even so, an original figure, a noble image, a quaint comparison, a

rich allegory, should open upon our hearers a breeze of happy thought,

which will pass over them like life-giving breath, arousing them from their

apathy, and quickening their faculties to receive the truth. Those who are

accustomed to the soporific sermonizings of certain dignified divines would

marvel greatly if they could see the enthusiasm and lively delight with

which congregations listen to speech through which there flows a quiet

current of happy, natural illustration. Arid as a desert are many volumes of

discourses which are to be met with upon the booksellers’ dust-covered

shelves; but if in the course of a thousand paragraphs they contain a single

simile, it is as an oasis in the Sahara, and serves to keep the reader’s soul

alive. In fashioning a discourse think little of the bookworm, which will be

sure of its portion of meat however dry your doctrine, but have pity upon

those hungering ones immediately around you who must find life through

your sermon or they will never find it at all. If some of your hearers sleep

on they will of necessity wake up in eternal perdition, for they hear no

other helpful voice.

While we thus commend illustrations for necessary uses, it must be

remembered that they are not the strength of a sermon any more than a

window is the strength of a house; and for this reason, among others, they

should not be too numerous. Too many openings for light may seriously

detract from the stability of a building. We have known sermons so full of

metaphors that they became weak, and we had almost said crazy,

structures. Sermons must not be nosegays of flowers, but sheaves of

wheat. Very beautiful sermons are generally very useless ones. To aim at

elegance is to court failure. It is possible to have too much of a good thing:

a glass house is not the most comfortable of abodes, and besides other

objectionable qualities it has the great fault of being sadly tempting to

stone-throwers. When a critical adversary attacks our metaphors he

generally makes short work of them. To friendly minds images are

arguments, but to opponents they are opportunities for attack; the enemy

climbs up by the window. Comparisons are swords with two edges which

cut both ways; and frequently what seems a sharp and telling illustration

may be wittily turned against; you, so as to cause a laugh at your expense:

therefore do not rely upon your metaphors and parables. Even a secondrate

man may defend himself from a superior mind if he can dexterously

turn his assailant’s gun upon himself. Here is an instance which concerns

myself, and I give it for that reason, since these lectures have all along been

17

autobiographical. I give a cutting from one of our religious papers. “Mr.

Beecher has been neatly tripped up in ‘The Sword and the Trowel.’ In his

‘Lectures on Preaching’ he asserts that Mr. Spurgeon has succeeded’ in

spite of his Calvinism;’ adding the remark that ‘the camel does not travel

any better, nor is it any more useful, because of the hump on its back.’ The

illustration is not a felicitous one, for Mr. Spurgeon thus retorts: —

‘Naturalists assure us the camel’s hump is of great importance in the eyes

of the Arabs, who judge of the condition of their beasts by the size, shape,

and firmness of their humps. The camel feeds upon his hump when he

traverses the wilderness, so that in proportion as the animal travels over the

sandy wastes, and suffers from privation and fatigue, the mass diminishes;

and he is not fit for a long journey till the hump has regained its

proportions. Calvinism, then, is the spiritual meat which enables a man to

labor on in the ways of Christian service; and, though ridiculed as a hump

by those who are only lookers-on, those who traverse the weary paths of a

wilderness experience know too well its value to be willing to part with it,

even if a Beecher’s splendid talents could be given in exchange.’”

Illustrate, by all means, but do not let the sermon be all illustrations, or it

will be only suitable for an assembly of simpletons. A volume is all the

better for engravings, but a scrap-book which is all woodcuts is usually

intended for the use of little children. Our house should be built up with the

substantial masonry of doctrine, upon the deep foundation of inspiration;

its pillars should be of solid Scriptural argument, and every stone of truth

should be carefully laid in its place; and then the windows should be ranged

in due order, “three rows” if we will: “light against light,” like the house of

the forest of Lebanon. But a house is not erected for the sake of the

windows, nor may a sermon be arranged with the view of fitting in a

favorite apologue. A window is merely a convenience subordinate to the

entire design, and so is the best illustration. We shall be foolish indeed if

we compose a discourse to display a metaphor; as foolish as if an architect

should build a cathedral with the view of exhibiting a stained glass window.

We are not sent into the world to build a Crystal Palace in which to set out

works of art and elegancies of fashion; but as wise master-builders we are

to edify, spiritual house for the divine inhabiting. Our building is intended

to last, and is meant for everyday use, and hence it must not be all crystal

and color. We miss our way altogether, as gospel ministers, if we aim at

flash and finery.

18

It is impossible to lay down a rule as to how much adornment shall be

found in each discourse: every man must judge for himself in that matter.

True taste in dress could not; be readily defined, yet everyone knows what

it is; and there is a literary and spiritual taste which should be displayed in

the measuring out of tropes and figures in every public speech. “Ne quid

nimis” is a good caution: do not be too eager to garnish and adorn. Some

men seem never to have enough of metaphors: each one of their sentences

must be a flower. They compass sea and land to find a fresh piece of

colored glass for their windows, and they break down the: walls of their

discourses to let in superfluous ornaments, till their productions rather

resemble a fantastic grotto than a house to dwell in. They are grievously in

error if they think that thus they manifest their own wisdom, or benefit

their hearers. I could almost wish for a return of the window-tax if ‘it

would check these poetical brethren. The law, I believe, allowed eight

windows free from duty, and we might also exempt “a few, that is eight”

metaphors from criticism; but more than that ought to pay heavily. Flowers

upon the table at a banquet are well enough; but as nobody can live upon

bouquets, they will become objects of contempt if they are set before us in

lieu of substantial viands. The difference between a little salt with your

meat and being compelled to empty the salt-cellar is clear to all; and we

could wish that those who pour out so many symbols, emblems, figures,

and. devices would remember that nausea in oratory is not more agreeable

than in food. Enough is as good as a feast; and too many pretty things may

be a greater evil than none at all.

It is a suggestive fact that the tendency to abound in metaphor and

illustration becomes weaker as men grow older and wiser. Perhaps this

may, in a measure, be ascribed to the decay of their imagination; but it also

occurs at the same time as the ripening of their understanding. Some may

have to use fewer figures of necessity, because they do not come to them

as aforetime; but this is not always the case. I know that men who still

possess great facility in imagery find it less needful to employ that faculty

now than in their earlier days, for they have the ear of the people, and they

are solemnly resolved to fill that ear with instruction as condensed as they

can make it. When you begin with a people who have not heard the gospel,

and whose attention you have to win, you can hardly go too far in the use

of figure and metaphor.’ Our Lord Jesus Christ used very much of it;

indeed, “without a parable spake he not unto them;” because they were not

educated up to the point at which they could profitably hear pure didactic

19

truth. It is noticeable that after the Holy Ghost had been given, fewer

parables were used, and the saints were more plainly taught of God. When

Paul spoke or wrote to the churches in his epistles he employed few

parables, because he addressed those who were advanced in grace and

willing to learn. As Christian minds made progress the style of their

teachers became less figurative, and more plainly doctrinal. We seldom see

engravings in the classics of the college; these are reserved for the spellingbooks

of the dame-school. This should teach us wisdom, and suggest that

we are to be bound by no hard and fast rules, but should use more or less

of any mode of teaching according to our own condition and that of our

people.

Illustrations should really cast light upon the subject in hand, otherwise

they are sham windows, and all shams are an abomination. When the

window-tax was still in force many people in country houses closed half

their lights by plastering them up, and then they had the plaster painted to

look like panes; so that there was still the appearance of a window, though

no sunlight could enter. Well do I remember the dark rooms in my

grandfather’s parsonage, and my wonder that men should have to pay for

the light of the sun. Blind windows are fit emblems of illustrations which

illustrate nothing, and need themselves to be explained. Grandiloquence is

never more characteristic than in its figures; there it disports itself in a very

carnival of bombast. We could quote several fine specimens of sublime

spread-eagleism and magnificent nonsense, but one alone may suffice as a

favorable sample of a form of display which is rather more common across

the water than in these old-fashioned regions. The author’s name we will

not mention, but the extract is given verbatim, and is taken from a sermon

upon “To die is gain.” Let the young preacher ponder and wonder, but let

him not imitate. We give the whole passage for the sake of the frigate bird,

and the granite porphyry-jasper staircase.

“There is a bird that mariners call the ‘frigate bird,’ of strange habits and of

stranger power. Men see him in all climes, but never yet has human eye

seen him near the earth. With wings of mighty stretch, high borne, he sails

along. Men of the far north see him at midnight moving on amid auroral

fires, sailing along with set wings amid those awful flames, taking the color

of the waves of light which swell and heave around him. Men in the tropics

see him at hottest noon, his plumage all incarnadined by the fierce rays that

smite innocuous upon. him. Amid their ardent fervor, he bears along,

majestic, tireless, Never was he known to stoop from his lofty line of flight,

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never to swerve. To many he is a myth, to all a mystery. Where is his

perch? [This is fine indeed. Let us add,” Who shall lay salt on his tail?”]

Where does he rest? Where was he brooded? None know. They only know

that above cloud, above the reach of tempest, above the tumult of

transverse currents, this bird of heaven (so let us call him) on selfsupporting

vans that disdain to beat the air on which they rest, moves

grandly on. [Grand ideal The critter flies without moving his wings,

disdaining to beat the air, as well he may, for he beats all creation.] So

shall my hope be. At either pole of life, above the clouds of sorrow,

superior to the tempests that beat upon me, on lofty and tireless wing,

scorning the earth, it shall move along. Never shall it stoop, never swerve

from its sublime line of flight. They shall see it in the morning of my life;

they shall see it in its hot noon-day; and when the shadows fall, my sun

having set, using your style of speech; but, using mine, when the shadows

disappear, my sun having risen, the last they see of me shall be this hope of

gain in dying, as it sails out on steady wing, and disappears amid the

everlasting light.”

“I feel, friends, that no exhortation of mine will lift you to this pedestal of

hewn granite, on which it is given to monumental piety to stand. [Quite

right: an exhortation cannot very well lift a body on to a pedestal; it needs

a leg or an arm to do that. But what is monumental piety?] Only by

analysis, by meditation, by thought that ponders in the night time the

majestic utterances of Scripture, and by the open lattice — or, better yet,

beneath the grand dome — bows in prayer, and holds communion with the

possibilities that stand beyond this life, like unfilled thrones waiting for

occupants. Only in this way, and in others suggested by the Spirit to minds.

fit to receive them, will you or any ever rise to the level of the emotion

which dictated the text. Where is Paul to-day? Where does he stand, who,

from his prison at Rome, sent out this immortal saying? Is there one of us

that has verified the statement that “to die is gain? Not one.” [Pretty safe

question! Who among us has been dead?] We know he walks in glory. He

moves amid the majestic spaces where even Deity is not cramped.

[Eloquent “or blasphemous, which?] After all his struggles, he has entered

into rest. Yet what has he received that is not in reserve for us? What has

he that has not come to him in the way of gift? And is not his God mine

and yours? Will the eternal Father feed with a partial hand? Will he

discriminate, and become a respecter of persons, even at his own table?

Piety can never receive into its mind the awful suspicion. Our Father feeds

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his children alike; and the garments that they wear are cut from a royal

fabric, even his righteousness. They shine like suns brought by the action of

a sublime movement into conjunction. “Rise, then, my friends, ye people of

his love; rise and climb with me the mighty stairway whose steps are

changed from granite to porphyry, and from porphyry to jasper, as we

ascend, until our feet, pure as itself, stand on the sea of crystal which

stretches in seamless purity before the throne.” [Upstairs to the sea! And

up three pair of stairs too! Sublime idea, or, at least, within a step of it.]

This piece of high-flown oratory sheds light upon nothing, and does not in

the faintest degree enable us to understand the reason why “to die is gain.”

The object of language of this kind is not to instruct the hearer, but to

dazzle him, and if possible to impress him with the idea that his minister is

a wonderful orator. He who condescends to use clap-trap of any kind

deserves to be debarred the pulpit for the term of his natural life. Let your

figures of speech really represent and explain your meaning, or else they

are dumb idols, which ought not to be set up in the house of the Lord.

It may be well to note that illustrations should not be too prominent, or, to

pursue our figure, they should not be painted windows, attracting attention

to themselves rather than letting in the clear light of day. I am not

pronouncing any judgment upon windows adorned with “glass of various

colors which shine like meadows decked in the flowers of spring”; I am

looking only to my illustration. Our figures are meant not so much to be

seen as to be seen through. If you take the hearer’s mind away from the

subject by exciting his admiration of your own skill in imagery, you are

doing evil rather than good. I saw in one of our exhibitions a portrait of a

king; but the artist had surrounded his majesty with a bower of flowers so

exquisitely painted that everyone’s eye was taken away from the royal

figure. All the resources of the painter’s art had been lavished upon the

accessories, and the result was that the portrait, which should have been all

in all, had fallen into a secondary place. This was surely an error in

portrait-painting, even though it might be a success in art. We have to set

forth Christ before the people, “evidently crucified among them,” and the

loveliest emblem or the most charming image which calls the mind away

from our divine subject is to be conscientiously foresworn. Jesus must be

all in all: his gospel must be the beginning and end of all ‘our discoursing;

parable and poesy must be under his feet, and eloquence must wait upon

him as his servant, Never by any possibility must the minister’s speech

22

become a rival to his subject; that were to dishonor Christ, and not to

glorify him. Hence the caution that the illustrations be not too conspicuous.

Out of this last observation comes the further remark that; illustrations are

best when they are natural, and grow out of the subject. They should be

like those well-arranged windows which are evidently part of the plan of a

structure, and not inserted as an afterthought, or for mere adornment. The

cathedral of Milan inspires my mind with extreme admiration; it always

appears to me as if it must have grown out of the earth like a colossal tree

or rather like a forest of marble. From its base to its loftiest pinnacle every

detail is a natural outgrowth, a portion of a well developed whole, essential

to the main idea; indeed, part and parcel of it. Such should a sermon be; its

exordium, divisions, arguments, appeals, and metaphors should all spring

out of itself; nothing should be out of living relation to the rest; it should

seem as if nothing could be added without being an excrescence, and

nothing taken away without inflicting damage. There should be flowers in a

sermon, but the bulk of them should be the flowers of the soil; not dainty

exotics, evidently imported with much care from a distant land, but the

natural upspringing of a life natural to the holy ground on which the

preacher stands. Figures of speech should be congruous with the matter of

the discourse; a rose upon an oak would be out of place, and a lily

springing from a poplar would be unnatural: everything should be of a

piece and have a manifest relationship to the rest. Occasionally a little

barbaric splendor may be allowed after the manner of Thomas Adams and

Jeremy Taylor and other masters in Israel, who adorn truth with rare gems,

and gold of Ophir, fetched from far. Yet I would have you note what Dr.

Hamilton says of Taylor, for it is a warning to those who aim at winning

the ear of the multitude. “Thoughts, epithets, incidents, images came

trooping round with irrepressible profusion, and they were all so apt and

beautiful, that it was hard to send any of them away. And so he tried to

find a place and use for all, — for ‘flowers and wings of butterflies,’ as

well as ‘wheat;’ — and if he could not fabricate links of his logical chain

out of ‘the little rings of the vine,’ and ‘the locks of a new-weaned boy,’ he

could at least decorate his subject with exquisite adornments. The passages

from his loved Austin and Chrysostom, and not less beloved Seneca and

Plutarch, the scholar knows how to pardon. The squirrel is not more

tempted to carry nuts to his hoard than the bookish, author is tempted to

transfer to his own pages fine passages from his favorite authors. Alas! he

little knows how flat and meaningless they are to those who have not

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traversed the same walks, and shared the delight with which he found great

spoil.. To him each polished shell recalls its autumnal tale of woods, and

groves. and sunshine showering through the yellow leaves; but to the

quaint collection ‘the general public’ very much prefer a pint of filberts

from a huckster’s barrow.” No illustrations are half so telling as those

which are taken from familiar objects. Many fair flowers grow in foreign

lands; but those are dearest to the heart which bloom at our own cottage

door.

Elaboration into minute points is not commendable when we are using

figures. The best light comes in through the clearest glass: too much paint

keeps out the sun. God’s altar of old was to be made of earth, or of

unhewn stone, “for,” said the word, “if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou

hast polluted it:” Exodus 20:25. A labored, artificial style, upon which the

graver’s tool has left abundant marks, is more consistent with human

pleadings in courts of law, or in the forum, or in the senate, than with

prophetic utterances delivered in the name of God and for the promotion of

his gloat. Our Lord’s parables were as simple as tales for children, and as

naturally beautiful as the lilies which sprang up in the valleys where he

taught the people. He borrowed no legend from the Talmud, nor fairy tale

from Persia, neither fetched he his emblems from beyond the sea; but he

dwelt among his own people, and talked of common things in homely style,

as never man spake before, and yet as any observant man should speak. His

parables were like himself and his surroundings; and were never strained,

fantastic, pedantic, or artificial. Let us imitate him, for we shall never find a

model more complete, or more suitable for the present age. Opening our

eyes, we shall discover abundant imagery all around. As it is written, “The

word is nigh thee,” so also is the analogy of that word near at hand: —

“All things around me whate’er they be

That I meet as the chance may come,

Have a voice and a speech in them all —

Birds that hover, and bees that hum,

The beast of the field or the stall;

The trees, leaves, rushes, and grasses;

The rivulet running away;

The bird of the air as it passes;

Or the mountains that motionless stay;

And yet those immovable masses

Keep changing, as dreams do, all day.” ft2

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There will be little need to borrow from the recondite mysteries of human

art, nor to go deep into the theories of science; for in nature golden

illustrations lie upon the surface, and the purest is that which is uppermost

and most readily discerned. Of natural history in all its branches we may

well say, “the gold of that land is good”: the illustrations furnished by

everyday phenomena seen by the ploughman and the waggoner are the

very best which earth can yield. An illustration is not like a prophet, for it

has most honor in its own country; and those who have oftenest seen the

object are those who are most gratified by the figure drawn from it.

I trust that it is scarcely necessary to add that illustrations must never be

low or mean. They may not be high-flown, but they should always be in

good taste. They may be homely, and yet Chastely beautiful; but rough and

coarse they should never be, A house is dishonored by having dirty

windows, cobwebbed and begrimed, patched with brown paper, or stuffed

up with rags r such windows are the insignia of a hovel rather than a house.

About our illustrations there must never be even the slightest trace of

anything that would shock the most delicate modesty. We like not that

window out of which Jezebel is looking. Like. the bells upon the horses,

our lightest expressions must be holiness unto the Lord. Of that which

suggests the groveling and the base we may say with the apostle, “Let it

not be once named among you, as becometh saints.” All our windows

should open towards Jerusalem, and none towards Sodom. We will gather

our flowers always and only from Emmanuel’s land; and Jesus himself shall

be their savor and sweetness, so that when he lingers at the lattice to hear

us speak of himself he may say “Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the

honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue.” That which grows

beyond the border of purity and good repute must never be bound up in

our garlands, nor placed among the decorations of our discourses. That

which would be exceedingly clever and telling in a stump orator’s speech,

or in a cheap-jack’s harangue, would be disgusting from a minister of the

gospel. Time was when we could have found far too many specimens of

censurable coarseness, but it would be ungenerous to mention them now

that such things are on all hands condemned.

Gentlemen, take care that your windows are not broken, or even cracked:

in other words, guard against confused metaphors and limping

illustrations. Sir Boyle Roche is generally credited with some of the finest

specimens of metaphorical conglomerate. We should imagine that the

passage is mythical in which he is represented as saying, “I smell a rat; I see

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it floating in the air; I’ll nip it in the bud.” Minor blunderings are frequent

enough in the speech of our own countrymen. An excellent temperance

advocate exclaimed, “Comrades, let us be up and doing I Let us take our

axes on our shoulders, and plough the waste places till the good ship

Temperance sails gaily over the land.” We well remember, years ago,

hearing a fervent Irish clergyman exclaim, “Garibaldi, sir, he is far too great

a man to play second fiddle to such a wretched luminary as Victor

Emmanuel.” It was at a public meeting, and therefore we were bound to be

proper; but it would have been a great relief to our soul if we might have

indulged in a hearty laugh at the spectacle of Garibaldi with a fiddle,

playing to a luminary; for a certain nursery rhyme jingled in our ears, and

sorely tried our gravity. A poetic friend thus encouragingly addresses us,

—

“March on, however rough the road,

Though foes obstruct thy way,

Deaf to the barking curs that would

Ensnare thy feet astray.”

The other evening a brother expressed his desire that we might “all be

winners of souls, and bring the Lord’s blood-bought jewels to cast their

crowns at his feet.” The words had such a pious ring about them that the

audience did not observe the fractured state of the expression. One of your

own number hoped “that every student might be enabled to sound the

gospel trumpet with such a clear and certain sound that the blind might

see.” Perhaps he meant that they should open their eyes with astonishment

at the terrific blast; but the figure would have been more congruous if he

had said “that the deaf should hear. A Scotch writer, in referring to a

proposal to use an organ in divine service, says: — “Nothing will stem this

avalanche of will-worship and gross sin but the falling back on the Word

of God.”

The Daily News in reviewing a book written by an eminent Nonconformist

minister, complained that his metaphors were apt to be a little

unmanageable, as when he spoke of something which had remained a

secret until a strangely potent key was inserted among the hidden wards of

the parental heart, and a rude wrench flung wide the floodgates and set free

the imprisoned stream. However, there is no wonder that ordinary mortals

commit blunders in figurative speech when even his late Infallible Holiness

Pius IX. said of Mr. Gladstone that he “had suddenly come forward like a

viper assailing the barque of St. Peter.” A viper assailing a barque is rather

26

too much for the most accommodating imagination, although some minds

are ready for any marvels.

One of those reviews which reckon themselves to be the cream of the

cream took pains to inform us that the Dean of Chichester, being the select

preacher at St. Mary’s, Oxford, “seized the opportunity to smite the

Ritualists hip and thigh, with great volubility and vivacity.” Samson smote

his foes with a great slaughter; but language is flexible.

These blunders are to be quoted by the page: I have given enough to let

you see how readily the pitchers of metaphor may be cracked, and

rendered unfit to carry our meaning. The ablest speaker may occasionally

err in this direction; it is not a very serious matter, and yet like a dead fly it

may spoil sweet ointment. A few brethren of my acquaintance are always

off the lines; they muddle up every figure they touch, and as soon as they

approach a metaphor we look for an accident. It might be wisdom on their

part to shun all figures of speech till they know how to use them; ]!or it is a

great pity when illustrations are so confused as both to darken the sense

and create diversion. Muddled metaphors are muddles indeed; let us give

the people good illustrations or none at all.

At this point I will close my lecture, which is only meant to be an

introduction to my subject, and not a full treatment of it.

27

LECTURE 2

ANECDOTES FROM THE PULPIT

IT is pretty generally admitted that sermons may wisely be adorned with a

fair share of illustrations; but anecdotes used to that end are still regarded

by the prudes of the pulpit with a measure of suspicion. They will come

down low enough to quote an emblem, they will deign to use poet’s

imagery; but they cannot stoop to tell a simple, homely story. They would

probably say in confidence to their younger brethren, “Beware how you

lower yourselves and your sacred office by repeating anecdotes, which are

best appreciated by the vulgar and uneducated.” We would not retort by

exhorting all men to abound in stories, for there ought to be discrimination.

It is freely admitted that there are useful and admirable styles of oratory

which would be disfigured by a rustic tale; and there are honored brethren

whose genius would never allow them to relate a story, for it would not

appear suitable to their mode of thought. Upon these we would not even

by implication hint at a censure; but when we are dealing with others. who

seem to be somewhat, and are not what they seem, we feel no tenderness;

nay, we are even moved to assail their stilted greatness. If they sneer at

anecdotes, we smile at them and their sneers, and wish them more sense

and less starch. Affectation of intellectual superiority and love of rhetorical

splendor have prevented many from setting forth gospel truth in the easiest.

imaginable manner, namely, by analogies drawn from common events.

Because they could not condescend to men of low estate they have

refrained from repeating incidents which would have accurately explained

their meaning. Fearing to be thought vulgar, they have lost golden

opportunities. As well might David have refused to sling one of the smooth

stones at Goliath’s brow because he found it in a common brook.

From individuals so lofty in their ideas nothing is likely to flow down to the

masses of the people but a glacial eloquence, — a river of ice. Dignity is a

most poor and despicable consideration unless it be the dignity of turning

many to righteousness; and yet divines who have had scarcely enough of

real dignity to save themselves from contempt, have swollen “huge as high

Olympus” through the affectation of it. A young gentleman, after delivering

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an elaborate discourse, was told that not more than five or six in the

congregation had been able to understand him. This he accepted as a

tribute to his genius; but I take leave to place him in the same class with

another person who was accustomed to shake his head in the most

profound manner that he might make his prelections the more impressive,

and this had some effect with the groundlings, until a shrewd Christian

woman made the remark that he did shake his head certainly, but that there

was nothing in, it. Those who are too refined to be simple need to be

refined again. Luther has well put it in his Table-Talk: “Cursed are all

preachers that in the church aim at high and hard things; and neglecting the

saving health of the poor unlearned people, seek their own honor and

praise, and therefore try to please one or two great persons. When I preach

I sink myself deep down.” It may be superfluous to remind you of the oftquoted

passage from George Herbert’s “Country Parson,” and yet I cannot

omit it, because it is so much to my mind: — “The Parson also serves

himself of the judgments of God, as of those of ancient times, so especially

of the late ones; and those most which are nearest to his parish; for people

are very attentive at such discourses, and think it behoves them to be so

when God is so near them, and even over their heads. Sometimes he tells

them stories and sayings of others, according as his text invites him; for

them also men heed, and remember better than exhortations; which, though

earnest, yet often die with the sermon, especially with country people,

which are thick, and heavy, and hard to raise to a point of zeal and

fervency, and need a mountain of fire to kindle them, but stories and

sayings they will well remember.”

It ought never to be forgotten that the great God himself, when he would

instruct men, employs histories and biographies. Oar Bible contains

doctrines, promises, and precepts; but these are not left alone, the whole

book is vivified and illustrated by marvelous records of things said and

done by God and by men. He who is taught of God values the sacred

histories, and knows that in them there is a special fullness and forcibleness

of instruction. Teachers of Scripture cannot do better than instruct ,their

fellows after the manner of the Scriptures.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the great teacher of teachers, did not disdain the

use of anecdotes. To my mind it seems clear that certain of his parables

were facts and, consequently, anecdotes. May not the story of the Prodigal

Son have been a literal truth? Were there not actual instances of an enemy

sowing tares among the wheat? May not the rich fool who said — “Take

29

thine ease,” have been a photograph taken from the life? Did not Dives and

Lazarus actually figure on the stage of history? Certainly the story of those

who were crushed by the fall of the tower of Siloam, and the sad tragedy

of the Galilaeans, “whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices,”

were matters of current Jewish gossip, and our Lord turned both of them

to good account. What HE did we need not be ashamed to do. That we

may do it with all wisdom and prudence let us seek the guidance of the

Divine Spirit which rested upon him so continually.

I shall make up this present address by quoting the examples of great

preachers, beginning with the era of the Reformation, and following on

without any very rigid chronological order down to our own day.

Examples are more powerful than precepts; hence I quote them.

First, let me mention that grand old preacher, Hugh Latimer, the most

English of all our divines; and one whose influence over our land was

undoubtedly most powerful. Southey says, “Latimer more than any other

man promoted the Reformation by his preaching”; and in this he echoes the

more important utterance of Ridley, who wrote from his prison, “I do think

that the Lord hath placed old father Latimer to be his standard-bearer in

our age and country against his mortal foe, Antichrist.” If you have read

any of his sermons, you must have been struck with the number of his

quaint stories, seasoned with a homely humor which smacks of that

Leicestershire farmhouse wherein he was brought up by a father who did

yeoman’s service, and a mother who milked thirty kine. No doubt we may

attribute to these stories the breaking down of pews by the overwhelming

rush of the people to hear him; and the general interest which his sermons

excited. More of such preaching, and we should have less fear of the return

of Popery. The common people heard him gladly, and his lively anecdotes

accounted for much of their eager attention. A few of these narratives one

could hardly repeat, for the taste of our age has happily improved in

delicacy; but others are most admirable and instructive. Here are three of

them: —

THE FRIAR’S MAN AND THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

“I will tell you now a pretty story of a friar, to refresh you withal. A

limiter of the grey friars in the time of his limitation preached many

times, and had but one sermon at all times; which sermon was of

the ten commandments. And because this friar had preached this

30

sermon so often, one that heard it before told the friar’s servant

that his master was called ‘Friar John Ten Commandments’:

wherefore the servant showed the friar his master thereof, and

advised him to preach of some other matters; for it grieved the

servant to hear his master derided. Now, the friar made answer

saying, ‘Be like, then, thou canst say the ten commandments well,

seeing thou hast heard them so many a time.’ ‘Yea,’ said the

servant, ‘I warrant you.’ ‘Let me hear them,’ saith the master; then

he began, ‘pride, covetousness, lechery,’ and so numbered the

deadly sins for the ten commandments. And so there be many at

this time, which be weary of the old gospel; they would fain hear

some new things: they think themselves so perfect in the old, when

they be no more skillful than this servant was in his ten

commandments.”

S. ANTHONY AND THE COBBLER.

“We read a pretty story of S. Anthony, which, being in the

wilderness, led there a very hard and straight life, insomuch as none

at that’ time did the like. To whom came a voice from heaven,

saying, ‘Anthony, thou art not so perfect as is a cobbler that

dwelleth at Alexandria.’ Anthony, hearing this, rose up forthwith,

and took his staff and went till he came to Alexandria, where he

found the cobbler. The cobbler was astonished to see so reverend a

father to come into his house. Then Anthony said unto him, ‘Come

and tell me thy whole conversation, and how thou spendest thy

time.’ ‘Sir,’ said the cobbler, ‘as for me, good works I have none,

for my life is but simple and slender; I am but a poor cobbler. In the

morning, when I arise, I pray for the whole city wherein I dwell,

specially for all such neighbors and poor friends as I have. After, I

set me at my labor, where I spend the whole day in getting of my

living, and keep me from all falsehood’; for I hate nothing so much

as I do deceitfulness: wherefore, when I make ,to any man a

promise. I keep it and do it truly; and so spend my time poorly with

my wife and children, whom I teach and instruct as far as my wit

will serve me, to fear and dread God. This is the sum of my simple

life.’

“In this story you see how God loveth those that follow their vocation, and

live uprightly without any falsehood in their dealing. This Anthony was a

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great and holy man, yet this cobbler was as much esteemed before God as

he.”

THE DANGER OF PROSPERITY.

“I read once a story of a good bishop, which rode by the way and

was weary, being yet far off from any town; therefore seeing a fair

house, he went thither, and was very well and honorably received:

there were great preparations made for him, and a great banquet; all

things were in plenty. Then the man of the house set out his

prosperity, and told the bishop what riches he had, in what honors

and dignities he was, how many fair children he had, what a

virtuous wife God had provided for him, so that he had no lack of

any manner of thing, he had no trouble nor vexations, neither

outward nor inward. Now this holy man, hearing the good estate of

that man, called one of his servants, and commanded him to make

ready the horses: for the bishop thought that God was not in that

house, because there was no temptation there: he took his leave

and went his ways. Now when he came a two or three mile off, he

remembered his book which he had left behind him; he sent his man

back again to fetch that book, and when the servant came again the

house was sunken and all that was in it. Here it appeareth that it is a

good thing to have temptation. This man thought himself a jolly

fellow, because all things went well with him. But: he knew not St.

James’s lesson: Beatus qui suffert tentationem, ‘Blessed is he that

endureth temptation.’ Let us therefore learn here, not to be irksome

when God layeth his cross upon us.”

Let us take a long leap of about a century, and we come to Jeremy Taylor,

another bishop, whom I mention immediately after Latimer because he is

apparently such a contrast to that homely divine, while yet in very truth he

has a measure of likeness to him as to the point now in hand. They both

rejoiced in figure and metaphor, and equally delighted in incident and

narrative. True, the one would talk of John and William, and the other of

Anexagoras and Scipio; but actual scenes were the delight of each. In this

respect Jeremy Taylor may be said to be Latimer turned into Latin. Jeremy

Taylor is as full of classical allusions as a king’s palace is full of rare

treasures, and his language is of the lofty order which more becomes a

patrician audience than a popular assembly; but when you come to the

essence of things, you see that if Latimer is homely, so also Taylor narrates

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incidents which are homely to him; but his home is among philosophers of

Greece and senators of Rome. This being understood, we venture to say

that no one used more anecdotes than this splendid poet-preacher. His

biographer truly says, — “It would be hard to point out a branch of

learning or of scientific pursuit to which he does not occasionally allude; or

any author of eminence, either ancient or modern, with whom he does not

evince himself acquainted. He more than once refers to obscure stories in

ancient writers, as if they were of necessity as familiar to all his readers as

to himself; as for instance, he talks of ‘poor Attillius Aviola,’ and again of

‘the Libyan lion that brake loose into his wilderness and killed two Roman

boys.’” In all this he is eminently select and classical, and therefore I the

more freely introduce him here; for there can be no reason why our

anecdotes should all be rustic; we, too, may rifle the treasures of antiquity,

and make the heathen contribute to the gospel, even as Hiram of Tyre

served under Solomon’s direction for the building of the temple of the

Lord.

I am no admirer of Taylor’s style in other respects, and his teaching seems

to be at times semi-popish; bat in this place I have only to deal with him

upon one particular, and of that matter he is an admirable example. He

lavishes classic stories even as an Asiatic queen bedecks herself with

countless pearls. Out of a single sermon I extract the following, which may

suffice for our purpose: —

STUDENTS PROGRESSING BACKWARDS

“Menedemus was wont to say, ‘that the young boys that went to

Athens, the first year were wise men, the second year philosophers,

the third orators, and the fourth were but plebeians, and understood

nothing but their own ignorance.’ And just so it happens to some in

the progresses of religion; at first they are violent and active, and

then they satiate all the appetites of religion; and that which is left

is, that they were soon weary, and sat down in displeasure, and

return to the world, and dwell in the business of pride or money;

and, by this time, they understand that their religion is declined, and

passed from the heats and follies of youth to the coldness and

infirmities of old age.”

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THE PROUD MAN WHO BOASTED OF HIS HUMILITY.

“He was noted for a vain person, who, being overjoyed for the cure

(as he thought) of his pride, cried out to his wife,’ Cerne, deposui

fastum;’ ‘Behold, I have laid aside all my pride.’”

DIOGENES AND THE YOUNG MEN

“Diogenes once spied a young man coming out of a tavern or place

of entertainment, who, perceiving himself observed by the

philosopher, with some confusion stepped back again, that he

might, if possible, preserve his fame with that severe person. But

Diogenes told him, Quanto magis intraveris, tanto magis eris in

caupona: ‘The more you go back, the longer you are in the place

where you are ashamed to be seen.’ He that conceals his sin still

retains that which he counts his shame and burden.”

No examples will have greater weight with you than those taken from

among the Puritans, in whose steps it is our desire to walk, though, alas!

we follow with feeble feet. Certain of them abounded in anecdotes and

stories: Thomas Brooks is a signal instance of the wise and wealthy use of

holy fancy. I put him first, because I reckon him to be the first in the special

art which is. now under consideration. He hath dust of gold; for even in the

margins of his books there are sentences of exceeding preciousness, and

hints at classic stories. His style is clear and full; he never so exceeds in

illustration as to lose sight of his doctrine. His floods of metaphor never

drown his meaning, but float it upon their surface. If you have never read.

his works I almost envy you the joy of entering for the first time upon his

“Unsearchable Riches,” trying his “Precious Remedies,” tasting his “Apples

of Gold,” communing with his “Mute Christian,” and enjoying his other

masterly writings. Let me give you a taste of his quality in the way of

anecdotes. Here are a few brief ones which lie almost upon the same page;

but he so abounds with them that you may readily cull scores of better ones

for yourselves.

MR. WELCH WEEPING.

“A soul under special manifestations of love weeps that it can love

Christ no more. Mr. Welch, a Suffolk minister, weeping at table,

and being asked the reason of it, answered, it was because he could

love Christ no more. The true lovers of Christ can never rise high

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enough in their love to Christ; they count a little love to be no love;

great love to be but little; strong love to be but weak; and the

highest love to be infinitely below the worth of Christ, the beauty

and glory of Christ, the fullness, sweetness, and goodness of Christ.

The top of their misery in this life is, that they love so little, though

they are so much beloved.”

SUBMISSIVE SILENCE.

“Such was the silence of Philip the Second, king of Spain, that

when his invincible Armada, that had been three years a-fitting, was

lost, he gave command that all over Spain they should give thanks

to God and the saints that it was no more grievous.”

FAVORITES SUBMITTING TO THEIR LORDS.

“When Tiribazus, a noble Persian, was arrested, at first he drew his

sword and defended himself; but when they charged him in the

king’s name, and informed him that they came from the king, and

were commanded to bring him to the king, he yielded willingly.

Seneca persuaded his friend to bear his affliction quietly, because he

was the emperor’s favorite, telling him that it was not lawful for

him to complain whilst Caesar was his friend. So saith the holy

Christian, Oh, my soul! be quiet, be still; all is in love, all is a fruit

of Divine favor.”

SIR PHILIP SYDNEY.

“A religious commander being shot in battle, when the wound was

searched and the bullet cut out, some standing by, pitying his pain,

he replied, ‘Though I groan, yet I bless God I do not grumble. God

allows his people to groan, though not to grumble.’”

Thomas Adams, the Conforming Puritan, whose sermons are full of rugged

force and profound meaning, never hesitated to insert a story when he felt

that it would enforce his teaching. His starting-point is ever some Biblical

sentence, or scriptural history; and this he works out with much

elaboration, bringing to it all the treasures of his mind. As Stowell says,

“Fables, anecdotes, classical poetry, gems from the fathers and other old

writers, are scattered over almost every page.” His anecdotes are usually

rough-and-ready ones, and might be compared to those of Latimer, only

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they are not so genial; their humor is generally grim and caustic. The

following may serve as fair specimens: —

THE HUSBAND AND HIS WITTY WIFE.

“The husband told his wife, that he had one ill quality, he was given

to be angry without cause; she wittily replied, that she would keep

him from that fault, for she would give him cause enough. It is the

folly of some that they will be offended without cause, to whom the

world promises that they shall have causes enough. ‘In the world ye

shall have tribulation.’”

THE SERVANT AT THE SERMON.

“It is ordinary with many to commend the lecture to others’ ears,

but few commend it to their own hearts. It is morally true what the

Christian Tell-truth relates: A servant coming from church, praiseth

the sermon to his master. He asks him what was the text. Nay,

quoth the servant, it was begun before I came in. What then was his

conclusion? He answered, I came out before it was done. But what

said he in the midst? Indeed I was asleep in the midst. Many crowd

to get into the church, but make no room for the sermon to get into

them.”

THE PICTURE OF A HORSE.

“One charged a painter to draw him equum volitantem, a trotting or

prancing horse; and he (mistaking the word) drew him volutantem,

a wallowing or tumbling horse, with his heels upward. Being

brought home, and the bespeaker blaming his error; I would have

him prancing, and you have made him tumbling. If that be all, quoth

the painter, it is but turning the picture wrong side uppermost, and

you have your desire. Thus in their quodlibetical discourses they

can but turn the lineaments, and the matter is as they would have it.

I speak not this to disgrace all their learning, but their fruitless,

needless disputes and arguments, who find themselves a tongue,

where the Scripture allows them none.”

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THE PIRATE.

“As when the desperate pirate, ransacking and rifling a bottom, was

told by the master, that though no law could touch him for the

present, he should answer it at the day of judgment; replied, Nay, if

I may stay so long ere I come to it, I will take thee and thy vessel

too. A conceit wherewith too many land-thieves, oppressors, flatter

themselves in their hearts, though they dare not utter it with their

lips.”

William Gurnall, the author of “The Christian in Complete Armor,” must

surely have been a relater of pertinent stories in his sermons, since even in

his set and solid writings they occur. Perhaps I need not have made the

distinction between his writings and his preaching, for it appears from the

preface that his “Christian in Complete Armor” was preached before it was

printed. In vivid imagery every page of his famous book abounds, and

whenever this is the case we are sure to light upon short narratives and

striking incidents. He is as profuse in illustration as either Brooks, Watson,

or Swinnock. Happy Lavenham to have been served by such a pastor! By

the way, this “Complete Armor” is beyond all others a preacher’s book: I

should think that more discourses have been suggested by it than by any

other uninspired volume. I have often resorted to it when my own fire has

been burning low, and I have seldom failed to find a glowing coal upon

Gurnall’s hearth. John Newton said that if he might read only one book

beside the Bible, he would choose “The Christian in Complete Armor,” and

Cecil was of much the same opinion. J. C. Ryle has said of it, “You will

often find in a line and a half some great truth, put so concisely, and yet so

fully, that’ you really marvel how so much thought could be got into so

few words.” One or two stories from the early part of his great work must

suffice for our purpose.

BIRD SAFE IN A MAN’S BOSOM.

“A heathen could say, when a bird (feared by a hawk) flew into his

bosom, ‘I will not betray thee unto thine enemy, seeing thou comest

for sanctuary unto me.’ How much less will God yield up a soul

unto its enemy, when it takes sanctuary in his Name, saying, ‘Lord,

I am hunted with such a temptation, dogged with such a lust; either

thou must pardon it, or I am damned; mortify it, or I shall be a

slave to it; take me into the bosom of thy love for Christ’s sake;

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castle me in the arms of thy everlasting strength; it is in thy power

to save me from, or give me up into, the hands of my enemy: I have

no confidence in myself or any other; into thy hands I commit my

cause, my life, and rely on thee.’ This dependence of a soul

undoubtedly will awaken the almighty power of God for such a

one’s defense: he hath sworn the greatest oath that can come out of

his blessed lips, even by himself, that such as ‘flee for refuge’ to

hope in him shall have ‘strong consolation’: Hebrews 6:17, 18.”

THE PRINCE WITH HIS FAMILY IN DANGER.

“Suppose a king’s son should get out of a besieged city, where he

hath left his wife and children (whom he loves as his own soul), and

these all ready to die by sword or famine, if supply come not the

sooner; could this prince, when arrived at his father’s house, please

himself with the delights of the court, and forget the distress of his

family? or rather would he not come post to his father (having their

cries and groans always in his ears), and, before he ate or drank, do

his errand to his father, and entreat him, if ever he loved him, that

he would send all force of his kingdom to raise the siege, rather

than any of his dear relations should perish? Surely, sirs, though

Christ be in the top of his preferment, and out of the storm in

regard of his own person, yet his children, left behind in the midst

of sin’s, Satan’s, and the world’s batteries, are in his heart, and

shall not be forgotten a moment by him. The care he takes in our

business appeared in the speedy despatch he made of his Spirit to

his apostles’ supply, which, as soon almost as he was warm in his

seat at his Father’s right hand, he sent, to the incomparable comfort

of his apostles and us that to this day, yea, to the end of the world,

do or shall believe on him.”

JOHN CARELESS.

“When God honors a person to suffer for his truth, this is a great

privilege: ‘Unto you it is given not only to believe, but to suffer for

his sake.’ God doth not use to give worthless gifts to his saints,

there is some preciousness in it which a carnal eye cannot see.

Faith, you will say, is a great gift; but perseverance greater, without

which faith would be little worth, and perseverance in suffering is

above both honorable. This made John Careless, an English martyr

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(who though he died not at the stake, yet in prison for Christ), say,

‘Such an honor ‘tis as angels are not permitted to have; therefore,

God forgive me mine unthankfulness.’”

MR. BENBRIDGE.

“Oh, how many die at the gallows as martyrs in the devil’s cause

for felonies, rapes, and murders! He might withdraw his grace, and

leave thee to thy own cowardice and unbelief, and then thou

wouldest soon show thyself in thy colors. The stoutest champions

for Christ have been taught how weak they are if Christ steps aside.

Some that have given great testimony of their faith and resolution

in Christ’s cause, even to come so near dying for his name as to

give themselves to be bound to the stake, and fire to be kindled

upon them, yet their hearts have failed; as that holy man, Mr.

Benbridge, in our English martyrology, who thrust the faggots from

him, and cried out, ‘I recant, I recant!’ Yet this man, when

reinforced in his faith, and indued with power from above, was able

within the space of a week after that sad foil, to die at the stake

cheerfully. He that once overcame death for us, ‘tis he that always

overcame death in us.”

John Flavel is a name which I shall have to quote in another lecture, for he

is greatest in metaphor and allegory; but in the matter of anecdote his

preaching is a fine example. It was said of his ministry that he who was

unaffected by it must either have had a very soft head or a very hard heart.

He had a fund of striking incidents, and a faculty of happy illustration, and

as he was a man in whose manner cheerfulness was blended with

solemnity, he was popular in the highest degree both at home and abroad.

He sought out words which might suit the sailors of Dartmouth and

farmers of Devon, and therefore he has left behind him his “Navigation

Spiritualized,” and his “Husbandry Spiritualized,” a legacy for each of the

two orders of men who plough the sea and the land. He was a man worth

making a pilgrimage to hear. What a crime it was to silence his heaventouched

lips by the abominable Act of Uniformity! Instead of quoting

several passages from his sermons, each one containing an anecdote, I have

thought it as well to give a mass of stories as we find them in his

prelections upon —

39

PROVIDENCE IN CONVERSION.

“A scrap of paper accidentally coming to view hath been used as an

occasion of conversion. This was the case of a minister of Wales,

who had two livings, but took little care of either. He being at a

fair, bought something at a pedlar’s standing, and rent off a leaf of

Mr. Perkins’ catechism to wrap it in; and reading a line or two of it,

God sent it home so as it did the work.”

“The marriage of a godly man into a carnal family hath been

ordered by Providence for the conversion and salvation of many

therein. Thus we read, in the life of that renowned English worthy,

Mr. John Bruen, that, in his second’ match, it was agreed that he

should have one year’s diet in his mother-in-law’s house. During

his abode there that year (saith Mr. Clark) the Lord was pleased by

his means graciously to work upon her soul, as also upon his wife’s

sister, and half-sister, their brothers, Mr. William and Mr. Thomas

Fox, with one or two of the servants in that family.”

“Not only the reading of a book, or hearing of a minister, but

(which is most remarkable) the very mistake or forgetfulness of a

minister hath been improved by Providence for this end and

purpose. Augustine, once preaching to his congregation, forgot the

argument which he first proposed, and fell upon the errors of the

Manichees, beside his first intention; by which discourse he

converted one Firmus, his auditor, who fell down at his feet

weeping, and confessing he had rived a Manichee many years.

Another I knew, who, going to preach, took up another Bible than

that he had designed, in which, not only missing his notes, but the

chapter also in which his text lay, was put to some loss thereby; but

after a short pause he resolved to speak to any other Scripture that

might be presented to him, and accordingly read the text, ‘The

Lord is not slack concerning his promise’ (2 Peter 3:9); and though

he had nothing prepared, yet the Lord helped him to speak both

methodically and pertinently from it; by which discourse a gracious

change was wrought upon one in the congregation, who hath since

given good evidence of a sound conversion, and acknowledged this

sermon to be the first and only means thereof.”

“Going to hear a sermon in jest hath proved some men’s conversion

in earnest. Mr. Firmin, in his ‘Real Christian,’ tells us of a notorious

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drunkard, whom the drunkards called ‘Father,’ that one day would

needs go to hear what Wilson said, out of no other design, it seems,

but to scoff at the holy man; but in the prayer before sermon, his

heart began to thaw, and when he read his text, which was, ‘Sin no

more, lest a worse thing come unto thee’ (John 5:14), he could not

contain: and in that sermon the Lord changed his heart, though

formerly so bitter an enemy that the minister on lecture-days was

afraid to go to church before his shop door. ‘Lo, these are parts of

his ways; ‘but how little a portion is heard of him?’”

George Swinnock, for some years chaplain to Hampden, had the gift of

illustration largely developed, as his works prove. Some of his similes are

far-fetched, and the growth of knowledge has rendered certain of them

obsolete; but they served his purpose, and made his teaching attractive.

After deducting all his fancies, which in the present age would be judged to

be strained, there remains “a rare amount of sanctified wit and wisdom”;

and sparkling here and there we spy out a few telling stories, mostly of

classic origin.

THE PRAYER OF PAULINUS.

“It was the speech of Paulinus, when his city was taken by the

barbarians, Domine, ne excrucier ob aurum et argentum: ‘Lord, let

me not be troubled for my silver and gold which I have lost, for

thou art all things.’ As Noah, when the whole world was

overwhelmed with water, had a fair epitome of it in the ark, having

all sorts of beasts and fowls there; so he that in a deluge hath God

to be his God, hath the original of all mercies. He who enjoyeth the

ocean may rejoice, though some drops are taken from him.”

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE MILKMAID.

“Queen Elizabeth envied the milkmaid when she was in prison; but

had she known the glorious reign which she was to have for fortyfour

years, she would not have repined at the poor happiness of so

mean a person. Christians are too prone to envy the husks which

wandering sinners fill themselves with here below; but would they

set before them their glorious hopes of a heaven, how they must

reign with Christ for ever and ever, they would see little reason for

their repining.”

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THE BELIEVING CHILD.

“I have read a story of a little child about eight or nine years old,

that being extremely pinched with hunger, looked one day pitifully

necessitous on her mother, and said, ‘Mother, do you think that

God will starve us?’ The mother answered, ‘No, child, he will not.’

The child replied, ‘But if he do, yet we must love him and serve

him.’ Here was language that spake a well-grown Christian. trot

indeed God brings us to want and misery, to try us whether we love

him for his own sake, or for our own sakes, or for those

excellencies that are in him, or for those mercies we have from him;

to see whether we will say with the cynic to Antisthenes, Nullus

lain durus erit baculus, etc. ‘There should be no cudgel so crabbed

as to beat me from thee.’”

FASHIONABLE RELIGION.

“I have read of a popish lady in Paris, that when she saw a glorious

procession to one of their saints, cried out, ‘Oh, how fine is our

religion beyond that of the Huguenots! — they have a mean and

beggarly religion, but ours is full of bravery and solemnity.’ But as

heralds say of a coat of arms, if it be full of gays and devices, it

speaks a mean descent; so truly that manner of worship which is

mingled with men’s inventions speaks its descent to be mean —

namely, from man.”

THE BUSY DUKE.

“The French Duc d’Alva could say, when he was asked by Henry

the Fourth whether he had seen the eclipse of the sun, that he had

so much business to do upon earth, that he had no time to look up

to heaven. Sure I am, the Christian may say with more truth and

conscience, that he hath so much business to do for heaven, that he

hath no time to mind vain or earthly things.”

Thomas Watson was one of the many Puritan preachers who won the

popular ear by their frequent illustrations. In the clear flowing stream of his

teaching we find pearls of anecdote very frequently. No one ever grew

weary under such pleasant yet weighty discourse as that which we find in

his “Beatitudes.” Let two quotations serve to show his skill.

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THE VESTAL AND THE BRACELETS.

“Most men think because God hath blessed them with an estate,

therefore they are blessed. Alas! God often gives these things in

anger. He loads his enemies with gold and silver; as Plutarch

reports of Tarpeia, a Vestal nun, who bargained with the enemy to

betray the Capitol of Rome to them, in case she might have the

golden bracelets on their left hands, which they promised; and being

entered into the Capitol, they threw not only their bracelets, but

their bucklers, too, upon her, through the weight whereof she was

pressed to death. God often lets men have the golden bracelets of

worldly substance, the weight whereof sinks them into hell. Oh, let

us superna anhelare, get our eyes ‘fixed’ and our hearts ‘united’ to

God the supreme good; this is to pursue blessedness as in a chase.”

HEDGEHOG AND CONIES.

“The Fabulist tells a story of the hedgehog that came to the conyburrows

in stormy weather, and desired harbor, promising that he

would be a quiet guest; but when once he had gotten entertainment,

he did set up his prickles, and did never leave till he had thrust the

poor conies out of their burrows: so covetousness, though it hath

many fair pleas to insinuate and wind itself into the heart, yet as

soon as you have let it in, this thorn will never cease pricking till it

hath choked all good beginnings, and thrust all religion out of your

hearts.”

I think this must suffice to represent the men of the Puritanic period, who

added to their profound theology and varied learning a zeal to be

understood, and a skill in setting forth truth by the help of every-day

occurrences. The age which followed them was barren of spiritual life, and

was afflicted by a race of rhetorical divines, whose words had little

connection with the Word of life The scanty thought of the Queen Anne

dignitaries needed no aid of metaphor or parable, there was nothing to

explain to the people; the utmost endeavor of these divines was to hide the

nakedness of their discourses with the fig-leaves of Latinized verbiage.

Living preaching was gone, spiritual life was gone, and consequently a

pulpit was set up which had no voice for the common people; no voice,

indeed, for anybody except the mere formalist, who is content if decorum

be observed and respectability maintained. Of course, our notion of making

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truth dear by stories did not suit the dignified death of the period, and it

was only when the dry bones began to be stirred that the popular method

was again brought to the front.

The illustrious George Whitefield stands, with Wesley, at the head of that

noble army who led the Revival of the last century. It is not at this present

any part of my plan to speak of his matchless eloquence, unquenchable

earnestness, and incessant labor; but it is quite according to the run of my

lecture to remind you of his own saying, — “I use market language.” He

employed pure, good, flowing English; but he was as simple as if he spoke

to children. Although by no means abounding in illustration, yet he always

employed it when needed, and he named incidents with great power of

action and emphasis. His stories were so told that they thrilled the people:

they saw as well as heard, for each word had its proper gesture. One

reason why he could be understood at so great a distance was the fact that

the eye helped the ear. As specimens of his anecdotes I have selected these

which follow: —

THE TWO CHAPLAINS.

“You cannot do without the grace of God when you come to die

There was a nobleman that kept a deistical chaplain, and his lady a

Christian one; when he was dying, he says to his chaplain, — ‘I

liked you very well when I was in health; but it is my lady’s

chaplain I must have when I am sick.’”

NEVER SATISFIED.

“ My dear hearers, there is not a single soul of you all that are

satisfied in your stations: is not the language of your hearts when

apprentices, We think we shall do very well when journeymen;

when journeymen, that we should do very well when masters; when

single, that we shall do well when married; and to be sure you think

you shall do well when you keep a carriage. I have heard of one

who began low: he first wanted a house; then, says he, ‘I want two,

then four, then six’; and when he had them, he said, ‘I think I want

nothing else.’ ‘Yes,’ says his friend, ‘you will soon want another

thing, that is, a hearse-and-six to carry you to your grave’; and that

made him tremble.”

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DR. MANTON’S HEART.

“A good woman, who was charmed with Dr. Manton, said, ‘Oh,

sir, you have made an excellent sermon to-day; I wish I had your

heart.’ ‘Do you so?’ said he, ‘good woman; you had better not

wish for it; for if you had it, you would wish for your own again.’

The best of men see themselves in the worst light.”

Fearing that the quotation of any more examples might prove tedious, I

would only remind you that such men as Berridge, Rowland Hill, Matthew

Wilks, Christmas Evans, William Jay, and others who have but lately

departed from us, owed much of their attractiveness to the way in which

they aroused their audiences, and flashed truth into their faces by wellchosen

anecdotes. Time calls upon me to have done, and how can I come

to a better dose than by mentioning one living man, who, above all others,.

has in two continents stirred the masses of the people? — I refer to. D. L.

Moody. This admirable brother has a great aversion to the. printing of his

sermons; and wall he may have, for he is incessantly preaching, and has no

time allowed him for the preparation of fresh discourses; and therefore it

would be great unwisdom on his. part to print at once those addresses with

which he is working through a campaign. We hope, however, that when he

has done with a sermon he will never suffer it to die out, but give it to the

church and to the world through the press. Our esteemed brother has a

lively, telling style, and he thinks it wise frequently to fasten a nail with the

hammer of anecdote. Here are four or five. extracts from the little book

entitled “Arrows and Anecdotes, by D. L. Moody. By John Lobb”: —

THE IDIOT’S MOTHER.

“I know a mother who has an idiot child. For it she gave up all,

society, almost everything, and devoted her whole life to it. ‘And

now,’ said she, ‘for fourteen years I have tended it and loved it, and

it does not even know me. Oh! it is breaking my heart!’ Oh I how

the Lord must say this of hundreds here! Jesus comes here, and

goes from seat to seat, asking if there is a place for him. Oh! will

not some of you. take him into your hearts?”

SURGEON AND PATIENT.

“When I was in Belfast I knew a doctor who had a friend a leading.

surgeon there, and he told me that the surgeon’s custom was,

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before performing any operation, to say to the patient: ‘Take a

good look at the wound, and then fix your eyes on me, and don’t

take them off till I get through the operation.’ I thought at the time

that was a good illustration. Sinner, take a good look at the wound

to-night, and then fix your eyes on Christ, and don’t take them off.

It is better to look at the remedy than at the wound.”

THE ORPHAN’S PRAYER.

“A little child, whose father and mother had died, was taken into

another family. The first night she asked if she could pray as she

used to do. They said, ‘Oh, yes.’ So she knelt down, and prayed as

her mother had taught her; and, when that was ended, she added a

little prayer of her own: ‘Oh, God, make these people as kind to me

as father and mother were.’ Then she paused, and looked up, as if

expecting the answer, and added: ‘Of course he will.’ How sweetly

simple was that little one’s faith! She expected God to ‘do,’ and, of

course, she got her request.”

THE ROLL-CALL.

“A soldier lay on his dying couch during our last war, and they

heard him say, ‘Here! ‘They asked him what he wanted, and he put

up his hand and said: ‘Hush! they are calling the roll of heaven, and

I am answering to my name’; and presently he whispered: ‘Here!

‘and he was gone.”

NO HOME BEYOND THE GRAVE.

“I have been told of a wealthy man who died recently. Death came

unexpectedly to him, as it almost always does; and he sent out for

his lawyer to draw his will. And he went on willing away his

property; and when he came to his wife and child, he said he

wanted them to have the home. But the little child didn’t

understand what death was. She was standing near, and she said,

‘Papa, have you got a home in that land you are going to?’ The

arrow reached that heart; but it: was too late. He saw his mistake.

He had got no home beyond the grave.”

I will weary you no longer. You may safely do what the most useful of men

have done before you. Copy them not only in their use of illustration, but in

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their wisely keeping it in subservience to their design. They were not storytellers,

but preachers of the gospel; they did not aim at the entertainment of

the people, but at their conversion. Never did they go out of their way to

drag in a telling bit which they had been saving up for display, and never

could anyone say of their illustrations that they were

“Windows that exclude the light,

And passages that lead to nothing.”

Keep you the due proportion of things lest I do worse than lose my labor,

by becoming the cause of your presenting to the people strings of

anecdotes instead of sound doctrines, for that would be as evil a thing as if

you offered to hungry men flowers instead of bread, and gave to the naked

gauze of gossamer instead of woolen doth.

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LECTURE 3.

THE USES OF ANECDOTES

AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE uses of anecdotes and illustrations are manifold; but we may reduce

them to seven, so far as our present purposes are concerned, not for a

moment imagining that this. will be a complete list.

I. We use them, first, to interest the mind and secure the attention of our

hearers. We cannot endure a sleepy audience. To us, a slumbering man is

no man. Sydney Smith observed that, although Eve was taken out of the

side of Adam while he was asleep, it was not possible to remove sin from

men’s hearts in that manner. We do not agree with Hodge, the hedger and

ditcher, who remarked to a Christian man with whom he was talking, “I

loikes Sunday, I does; I loikes Sunday.” “And what makes you like

Sunday?” “’Cause, you see, it’s a day of rest; I goes down to the old

church, I gets into a pew, and puts my legs up, and I thinks o’ nothin’.” It

is to be feared that in town as well as in country this thinking of nothing is

a very usual thing. But your regard for the sacred day, and the ministry to

which you are called, and the worshipping assembly, will not allow you to

give yore’ people the chance of thinking of nothing. You want to arouse

every faculty in them to receive the Word of God, that it may be a blessing

to them.

We want to win attention at the commencement of the service, and to hold

it till the close. With this aim, many methods may be tried; but possibly

none will succeed better than the introduction of an interesting story. This

sets Hodge listening, and although he will miss the fresh air of the fields,

and begin to feel drowsy in your stuffy chapel, another tale will stir him to

renewed attention. If he hears some narrative in connection with his village

or county, you will have him “all there”, and you may then hope to do him

good.

The anecdote in the sermon answers the purpose of an engraving in a

book. Everybody knows that people are attracted by volumes with pictures

in them; and that, when a child gets a book, although it may pass over the

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letterpress without observation, it is quite sure to pause over the woodcuts.

Let us not be too great to use a method which many have found successful.

We must have attention. In some audiences, we cannot get it if we begin

with solid instruction; they are not desirous of being taught, and

consequently they are not in a condition to receive the truth if we set it

before them nakedly. Now for a bunch of flowers to attract these people to

our table, for afterwards we can feed them with the food they so much

need. Just as the Salvation Army goes trumpeting and drumming through

the streets to draw the people into the barracks, so may an earnest man

spend the first few minutes with an unprepared congregation in waking the

folks up, and enticing them to enter the inner chamber of the truth. Even

this awakening prelude must have in it that which is worthy of the

occasion; but if it is not up to your usual average in weight of doctrine, it

may not only be excused, but commended, if it prepares the audience to

receive that which is to follow. Ground-bait may catch no fish; but it

answers its purpose if it brings them near the bait and the hook.

A congregation which has been well instructed, and is mainly made up of

established believers, will not need to be addressed in the same style as an

audience gathered fresh from the world, or a meeting of dull, formal

churchgoers. Your common-sense will teach you to suit your manner to

your audience. It is possible to maintain profound and long-continued

attention without the use of an illustration; I have frequently done so in the

Tabernacle when it has been mainly filled with church-members; but when

my own people are away, and strangers fill their places, I bring out all my

store of stories, similes, and parables.

I have sometimes told anecdotes in the pulpit, and very delicate and

particular people have expressed their regret and horror that I should say

such things; but when I have found that God has blessed some of the

illustrations I have used, I have often thought of the story’ of the man with

a halbert, who was attacked by a nobleman’s dog, and, of course, in

defending himself, he killed the animal. The nobleman was very angry, and

asked the man how he dared to kill the dog; and the man replied that, if he

had not killed it, the dog would have bitten him, and torn him in pieces.

“Well,” said the nobleman, “but you should not have struck it on the head

with the halbert; why did you not hit it with the handle?” “My lord,”

answered the man, “so I would if it had tried to bite me with its tail.” So,

when! have to deal with sin, some people say, “Why don’t you address it

delicately? Why don’t you speak to it in courtly language?” And I answer,

49

“So I would if it would bite me with its tail; but as long as ever I find that it

deals roughly with me, I will deal roughly with it; and any kind of weapon

that will help to slay the monster, I shall not find unfitted to my hand.”

We cannot afford, in these days, to lose any opportunity of getting hold of

the public ear. We must use every occasion that comes in our way, and

every tool that is likely to help us in our work; and we must rouse up all

our faculties, and put forth all our energies, if that by any means we may

get the people to heed that which they are so slow to regard, the great

story of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. We shall need

to read much, and to study hard, or else we shall not be able to influence

our day and generation for good. I believe that the greatest industry is

necessary to make a thoroughly efficient preacher, and the best natural

ability, too; and it’ is my firm conviction that, when you have the best

natural ability, you must supplement it with the greatest imaginable

industry if you are really to do much service for God among this crooked

and perverse generation.

The fool in Scotland, who got into the pulpit before the preacher arrived,

was requested by the minister to come down. “Nay, nay,” answered the

man, “you come up, too, for it will take both of us to move this stiffnecked

generation.” It will certainly take all the wisdom that we can obtain

to move the people among whom our lot is cast; and if we do not use every

lawful means of interesting the minds of our hearers, we shall find that they

will be like a certain other congregation, in which’: the people were all

asleep except one poor idiot. The minister woke them up, and tried to

reprove them by saying, “There, you were all asleep except poor Jock the

idiot;” but his rebuke was cut short by Jock, who exclaimed, “And if I had

not been an idiot, I should have been asleep, too.”

II. I will leave the moral of that well-known story to speak for itself, and

will pass on to my second point, which is, that the use of anecdotes and

illustrations renders our preaching life-like and vivid. This is a most

important matter. Of all things that we have to avoid, one of the most

essential is that of giving our people the idea, ‘when we are preaching, that

we are acting a part. Everything theatrical in the pulpit, either in tone,

manner, or anything else, I loathe from my very soul. Just go into the

pulpit, and talk to the people as you would in the kitchen, or the drawingroom,

and say what you have to tell them in your ordinary tone of voice.

Let me conjure you, by everything that is good, to throw away all stilted

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styles of speech, and anything approaching affectation. Nothing can

succeed with the masses except naturalness and simplicity.. Why, some

ministers cannot even give out a hymn in a natural manner I “Let us sing to

the praise and glory of God,” [spoken in the tone that is sometimes heard

in churches or chapels] — who would ever think of speaking like that at

the tea-table? “I shall be greatly obliged if you will kindly give me another

cup of tea,” [spoken in the same unnatural way] — you would never think

of giving any tea to a man who talked like that; and if we preach in that

stupid style, the people will not believe what we say; they will think it is

our business, our occupation, and that we are doing the whole thing in a

professional manner. We must shake off professionalism of every kind, as

Paul shook off the viper into the fire; and we must speak as God has

ordained that we should speak, and not by any strange, out-of-the-way,

new-fangled method of pulpit oratory.

Our Lord’s teaching was amazingly life-like and vivid; it was the setting

out of truth before the eye, not as a flat picture, but as in a stereoscope,

making it stand up, with all its lines and angles of beauty in life-like reality.

That was a fine living sermon when he took a little child, and set him in the

midst of the disciples; and that was another powerful discourse when he

preached about abstaining from carking cares, and stooped down, and

plucked a lily (as I suppose he did) and said, “Consider the lilies of the

field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin.” I can read fly

suppose that some ravens were flying just over his head, and that he

pointed to them, and said, “Consider the ravens; for they neither sow nor

reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them.”

There was a life-likeness, you see, a vividness, about the whole thing. We

cannot always literally imitate our Lord, as we have mostly to preach in

places of worship. It is a blessing that we have so many houses of prayer,

and I thank God that there are so many of them springing up all around us;

yet I should praise the Lord still more if half the ministers, who preach in

our various buildings, were made to turn out of them, and to speak for

their Master in the highways, and byways, and anywhere that the people

would go to listen to them. We are to go out into all the world, and preach

the gospel to every creature, not to stop in our chapels waiting for every

creature to come in to hear what we have to say. A sportsman, who should

sit at his parlor window, with his gun loaded all ready for shooting

partridges, would probably not make up a very heavy bag of game. No, he

must put on his buskins, and tramp off over the fields, and then he will get

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a shot at the birds he is seeking. So must we do, brethren, we must always

have our buskins ready for field work, and be ever on the watch for

opportunities of going out among the souls of men, that we may bring

them back as trophies of the power of the gospel we have to proclaim.

It might not be wise for us to try to make our sermons life-like and vivid in

the style in which quaint old Matthew Wilks sometimes did; as when, one

Sabbath morning, he took into the pulpit a little box, and after a while

opened it, and displayed to the congregation a small pair of scales, and

then, turning over the leaves of the Bible with great deliberation, held up

the balances, and announced as his text, “Thou art weighed in the balances,

and art found wanting.” I think, however, that was puerile rather than

powerful. I like Matthew Wilks better when, on another occasion, his text

being, “See that ye walk circumspectly,” he commenced by saying, “Did

you ever see a tom cat walking on the top of a high wall that was covered

with bits of broken glass bottles? If so, you had just then an accurate

illustration of what is meant by the injunction, ‘See that ye walk

circumspectly.’” There is the case, too, of good “Father Taylor”, who,

preaching in the streets in one of the towns of California, stood on the top

of a whisky-barrel. By way of illustration, he stamped his foot on the cask,

and said, “This barrel is like man’s heart, full of evil stuff; and there are

some people who say that, if sin is within you, it may just as well come

out.” “No,” said the speaker, “it is not so; now here is this whisky that is in

the barrel under my foot; it is a bad thing, it is a damnable thing, it is a

devilish thing, but as long as it is kept tightly bunged up in the barrel, it

certainly will not do the hurt that it will if it is taken over to the liquor-bar,

and sold out to the drunkards of the neighborhood, sending them home to

beat their wives, or kill their children. So, if you keep your sins in your

own heart, they will be evil and devilish, and God will damn you for them;

but they will not do so much hurt to other people, at any rate, as if they are

seen in public.” Stamping his foot again on the barrel, the preacher said,

“Suppose you try to pass this cask over the boundaries of the country, and

the custom-house officer comes, and demands the duty upon its contents.

You say that you will not let any of the whisky get out; but the officer tells

you that he cannot allow it to pass. So, if it were possible for us to abstain

from outward sin, yet, since the heart is full of all manner of evil, it would

be impossible for ‘us to pass the frontiers of heaven, and to be found in

that holy and happy place.” That I thought to be somewhat of a life-like

illustration, and a capital way of teaching truth, although I should not like

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always to have a whisky-barrel for a pulpit, for fear the head might fall in,

and I might fall in, too.

I should not recommend any of you to be so life-like in your ministry as

that notable French priest, who, addressing his congregation, said, “As to

the Magdalenes, and those who commit the sins of the flesh, such persons

are very common; they abound even in this church; and I am going to

throw this mass-book at a woman who is a Magdalenes” whereupon all the

women in the place bent down their heads. So the priest said, “No, surely,

you are not all Magdalenes; I hardly thought that was the case; but you see

how your sin finds you out!” Nor should I even recommend you to follow

the example of the clergyman, who, when a collection was to be made for

lighting and warming the church, after he had preached some time, blew

out the candles on both sides of the pulpit, saying that the collection was

for the lights and the fires, and he did not require any light, for he did not

read his sermon, “ but,” he added, “when Roger gives out the Psalm

presently, you will want a light to see your books; so the candles are for

yourselves. And as for the stove, I do not need its heat, for my exercise in

preaching is sufficient to keep me warm; therefore you see that the

collection is wholly for yourselves on this occasion. Nobody can say that

the clergy are collecting for themselves this time, for on this Sunday it is

wholly for your own selves.” I thought the man was a fool for making such

remarks, though I find that his conduct has been referred to as being a very

excellent instance of boldness in preaching.

There is a story told about myself, which, like very many of the tales told

about me, is a story in two senses. It is said that, in order to show the way

in which men backslide, I once slid down the banisters of the pulpit. I only

mention this, in passing, because it is a remarkable fact that, at the time the

story was told, my pulpit was fixed in the wall, and. there was no banister,

so that the reverend fool (which he would. have been if he had done what

people said) could not have performed the antic if he had been inclined to

attempt it. But the anecdote, although it is not true, serves all the purposes

of the life-likeness I have tried to describe.

You probably recollect the instance of Whitefield depicting the blind man,

with his dog, walking on the brink of a precipice, and his foot almost

slipping over the edge. The preacher’s description was so graphic, and the

illustration so vivid and life-like, that Lord Chesterfield sprang up, and

exclaimed, “Good God 1 he’s gone I” but Whitefield answered, “No, my

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lord, he is not quite gone; let us hope that he may yet be saved.” Then he

went on to speak of the blind man as being led by his reason, which is only

like a dog, showing that a man led only by reason is ready to fall into hell.

How vividly one would see the love of money set forth in the story told by

our venerable friend, Mr. Rogers, of a man who, when he lay a-dying,

would put his money in his mouth because he loved it so, and wanted to

take some of it with him! How strikingly is the non-utility of worldly

wealth, as a comfort to us in our last days, brought before us by the

narrative in which good Jeremiah Burroughes speaks of a miser who had

his money bags laid near his hand on his dying bed I He kept taking them

up, and saying, “Must I leave you? Must I leave you? Have I lived all these

years for you, and now must I leave you?” And so he died. There is a tale

told of another, who had many pains in his death, and especially the great

pain of a disturbed conscience. He also had his money bags brought, one

by one, with his mortgages, and bonds, and deeds, and putting them near

his heart, he sighed, and said, “These won’t do; these won’t do; these

won’t do; take them away! What poor things they all are when I most need

comfort in my dying moments!”

How distinctly love to Christ is brought out in the stow of John Lambert,

fastened to the stake, and burning to death, yet clapping his hands as he

was burning, and crying out, “None but Christ! None but Christ I” until his

nether extremities were burned, and he fell from the chains into the fire,

still exclaiming in the midst of the flames, “None but Christi None but

Christi” How clearly the truth stands out before you when you hear such

stories as these! You can realize it almost as well as if the incident

happened before your eyes. How well you can see the folly of

misunderstanding between Christians in Mr. Jay’s story of two men who

were walking from opposite directions on a foggy night! Each saw what he

thought was a terrible monster moving towards him, and making his heart

beat with terror; as they came nearer to each other, they found that the

dreadful monsters were brothers. So, men of different denominations are

often afraid of one another; but when they get close to each other, and

know each other’s hearts, they find out that they are brethren after all. The

story of the negro and his master well illustrates the need of beginning at

the beginning in heavenly things, and not meddling with the deeper points

of our holy religion till we have learned its elements thoroughly. A poor

negro was laboring hard to bring his master to a knowledge of the truth,

and was urging him to exercise faith in Christ, when he excused himself

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because he could not understand the doctrine of election. “Ah I Massa,”

said the negro, “’don’t you know what comes before de Epistle to de

Romans? You must read de Book de right way; de doctrine of election is in

Romans, and dere is Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, first. You are only in

Matthew yet; dat is about repentance; and when you get to John, you will

read where de Lord Jesus Christ said dat God so loved de world, dat he

gave his only begotten Son, dat whosoever believeth in him should not

perish, but hub everlasting life.” So, brethren, you can say to your hearers,

“You will do better by reading the four Gospels first than by beginning to

read in Romans; first study Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and then you

can go on to the Epistles.”

But I must not keep on giving you illustrations, because so many will

suggest themselves. I have given you sufficient to show that they do make

our preaching vivid and life-like; therefore, the more you have of them, the

better. At the same time, gentlemen, I must warn you against the danger of

having too many anecdotes in any one sermon. You ought, perhaps, to

have a dish of salad on the table; but if you ask your friends to dinner, and

give them nothing but salad, they will not fare very well, and will not care

to come to your house again.

III. Thirdly, anecdotes and illustrations may be used to explain either

doctrines or duties to dull understandings. They may, in fact, be the very

best form of exposition. A preacher should instance, and illustrate, and

exemplify his subject, so that his hearers may have real acquaintance with

the matter he is bringing before them. If a man attempted to give me a

description of a piece of machinery, he would possibly fail to make me

comprehend what it was like; but if he will have the goodness to let me see

a drawing of flute various sections, and then of the whole machine, I will,

somehow or other, by hook or by crook, make out how it works. The

pictorial representation of a thing is always a much more powerful means

of instruction than any mere verbal description ever could be. It is just in

this way that anecdotes and illustrations are so helpful to our hearers. For

instance, take this anecdote as illustrating the text, “Thou, when thou

prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy

Father which is in secret.” A little boy used to go up into a hay-loft to pray;

but he found that, sometimes, persons came up, and disturbed him;

therefore, the next time he climbed into the left, he pulled the ladder up

after him. Telling this stow, you might explain how the boy thus entered

into his closet, and shut the door. The meaning is not so much the literal

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entrance into a closet, or the shutting of the door, as the getting away from

earthly sources of distraction, pulling up the ladder after us, and keeping

out anything that might come in to hinder our secret devotions. I wish we

could always pull the ladder up after us when we retire for private prayer;

but many things try to climb that ladder. The devil himself will come up to

disturb us if he can; and he can get into the hay-loft without any ladder.

What a capital exposition of the fifth commandment was that which was

given by Corporal Trim, when he was asked, “What dost thou mean by

honoring thy father and thy mother? “and he answered, “Please, your

honor, it is allowing them a shilling a week out of my pay when they grow

old.” That was an admirable explanation of the meaning of the text. Then,

if you are trying to show how we are to be doers of the Word, and not

hearers only, there is a story of a woman who, when asked by the minister

what he had said on Sunday, replied that she did not remember the sermon;

but it had touched her conscience, for when she got home she burned her

bushel, which was short measure. There is another story which also goes to

show that the gospel may be useful even to hearers who forget what they

have heard. A woman is called upon by her minister on the Monday, and’

he finds her washing wool in a sieve, holding it under the pump. He asks

her, “How did you enjoy last Sabbath’s discourses?” and she says that they

did her much good. “Well, what was the texts.” She does not recollect.

“What was the subject?” “Ah! sir, it is quite gone from me,” says the poor

woman. Does she remember any of the remarks that were made? No, they

are all gone. “Well then, Mary,” says the minister, “it could not have done

you much good.’ Oh! but it had done her a great deal of good; and she

explained it to him by saying,” I will tell you, sir, how it is; I put this wool

in the sieve under the pump, I pump on it, and all the water runs through

the sieve, but then it washes the wool. So it is with your sermon; it comes

into my heart, and then it runs right through my poor memory, which is

like a sieve, but it washes me clean, sir.” You might talk for a long while

about the cleansing and sanctifying power of the Word, and it would not

make such an impression upon your hearers as that simple story would.

What finer exposition of the text “Weep with them that weep,” can you

have than this pretty anecdote? “Mother,” said little Annie, “I cannot make

out why poor Widow Brown likes me to go in to see her; she says I do

comfort her so; but, mother, I cannot say anything to comfort her, and as

soon as she begins crying, I put my arms round her neck, and I cry, too,

and she says that that comforts her.” And so it does; that is the very

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essence of the comfort, the sympathy, the fellow-feeling that moved the

little girl to weep with the weeping widow. Mr. Hervey thus illustrates the

great truth of the different appearance of sin to the eye of God and the eye

of man. He says that you may take a small insect, and with the tiniest

needle make a puncture in it so minute that you can scarcely see it with the

naked eye; but when you look at it through a microscope, you see an

enormous rent, out of which there flows a purple stream, making the

creature seem to you as though it had been smitten with the ax that killeth

an ox. It is but a defect of our vision that we cannot see things correctly;

but the microscope reveals them as they really are. Thus you may explain

to your hearers how God’s microscopic eye sees sin in its true aspects.

Suppose that you wanted to set forth the character of Caleb, who followed

the Lord fully; it would greatly help many of your people if you said that

the name Caleb signifies a dog, and then showed how a dog follows his

master. There is his owner on horseback, riding along the miry roads; but

the dog keeps as close to him as he can, no matter how much mud and dirt

are splashed upon him, and not heeding the kicks he might get from the

horse’s heels. Even so should we follow the Lord. If you wish to exemplify

the shortness of time, you might bring in the poor seamstress, with her little

piece of candle. stitching away to get her work done before the light, went

out.

Many preachers find the greatest difficulty in getting suitable metaphors to

set forth simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a capital anecdote

of an idiot, who was asked by the minister, who was trying to instruct him,

whether he had a soul. To the utter consternation of his kind teacher, he

replied, “No, I have no soul.” The preacher said he was greatly surprised,

after he had been taught for years, that he did not know better than that;

but the poor fellow thus explained himself, “I had a soul once, but I lost it;

and Jesus Christ came and found it, and now I let him keep it, for it is his,

it does not belong to me any longer.” That is a fine picture Of the way of

salvation by simple faith in the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ; and

the smallest child in the congregation might be able to understand it

through the story of the poor idiot.

IV. Fourthly, there is a kind of reasoning in anecdotes and illustrations,

which is very clear to illogical minds; and many of our hearers,

unfortunately, have such minds, yet they can understand illustrative

instances and stubborn facts. Truthful anecdotes are facts, and facts are

stubborn things. Instances, when sufficiently multiplied, as we know by the

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inductive philosophy, prove a point. Two instances may not prove it; but

twenty may prove it to a demonstration. Take the very important matter of

answers to prayer. You can prove that God answers prayer by quoting

anecdote after anecdote, that you know to be authentic, of instances in

which God has really heard and answered prayer. Take that capital little’

book by Mr. Prime on the Power of Prayer; there, I believe you have the

truth upon this subject demonstrated as clearly as you could have it in any

proposition in Euclid. I think that, if such a number of facts could be

instanced in connection with any question relating to geology or

astronomy, the point would be regarded as settled. The writer brings such

abundant proofs of God’s having heard prayer, that even men who reject

inspiration ought, at least, to acknowledge that this is a marvelous

phenomenon for which they cannot account by any other explanation than

the one which proclaims that there is a God who sitteth in heaven, and who

hath respect unto the cry of his people upon the earth.

I have heard of some persons who have had objections to labor for the

conversion of their children on the ground that God would save his own

without any effort on our part. I remember making one man wince who

held this view, by telling him of a father who would never teach his child to

pray, or have him instructed even as to the meaning of prayer. He thought

it was wrong, and that such work ought to be left to God’s Holy Spirit.

The boy fell down, and broke his leg, and had to have it taken off; and all

the while the surgeon was amputating it, the boy was cursing and swearing

in the most frightful manner. The good surgeon said to the father, “You

see, you would not teach your boy to pray, but the devil evidently had no

objection to teach him to swear.” That is the mischief of it; if we do not try

our best to bring our children to Christ, there is another who will do his

worst to drag them down to hell. A mother once said to her sick son, who

was about to die, and was in a dreadful state of mind, “My boy, I am sorry

you are in such trouble; I am sure I never taught you any hurt.” “No,

mother,” he answered, “but you never taught me any good; and therefore

there was room for all sorts of evil to get into me.” All these stories will be

to many people the very best kind of argument that you could possibly use

with them. You bring to them facts, and these facts reach their conscience,

even though it is imbedded in several inches of callousness.

I do not know of any reasoning that would explain the need of submission

to the will of God better than the telling of the story, which Mr. Gilpin

gives us in his Life, of his being called in to pray with a woman whose boy

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was very ill. The good ,man asked that God would, if it were his will,

restore the dear child to life and health, when the mother interrupted him,

and said, “No, I cannot agree to such a prayer as that; I cannot put it in

that shape, it must be God’s will to restore him. I cannot bear that my child

should die; pray that he may live whether it is God’s will or not.” He

answered, “Woman, I cannot pray that prayer, but it is answered; your

child will recover, but you will live to rue the day that you made such a

request.” Twenty years after, there was a woman carried away in a fainting

fit from under a drop at Tyburn, for her son had lived long enough to bring

himself to the gallows by his crimes. The mother’s wicked prayer had been

heard, and God had answered it. So, if you want to prove the power of the

gospel, do not go on expending words to no purpose, but tell the stories of

cases you have met with that illustrate the truth you are enforcing, for such

anecdotes will convince your hearers as no other kind of reasoning can. I

think that is clear enough to every one of you.

Anecdotes are useful, also, because they often appeal very forcibly to

human nature. In order to rebuke those who profane the Sabbath, tell the

story of the gentleman who had seven sovereigns, and who met with a

poor fellow, to whom he gave six out of the seven, and then the wicked

wretch turned round and robbed him of the seventh. How clearly that sets

forth the ingratitude of our sinful race in depriving God of that one day out

of the seven which he has set apart for his own service! This story appeals

to nature, too. Two or three boys come round one of their companions,

and they say to him, “Let us go and get some cherries out of your father’s

garden.” “No,” he replies, “I cannot steal, and my father does not wish

those cherries to be picked.” “Oh I but then your father is so kind, and he

never beats you.” “Ah! I know that is true,” answers the boy, “and that is

the very reason why I would not steal his cherries.” This would show that

the grace and goodness of God do not lead his children to licentiousness;

but, on the contrary, they restrain them from sin. This story, also, appeals

to human nature, and shows that the fathers of the Church are not always

to be depended upon as fountains of authority. A nobleman had heard of a

certain very old man, who lived in a village, and he sought out and found

him, and ascertained that he was seventy years of age. He was talking with

him, supposing him to be the oldest, inhabitant, when the man said, “Oh!

no, sir, I am not the oldest; I am not the father of the village; there is an

older one, my father, who is still alive.” So, I have heard of some who have

said that they turned away from “the fathers” of the Church to the very old

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fathers, that is, away from what are commonly called “the patristic fathers

“, back to the apostles, who are the true fathers and grandfathers of the

Christian Church.

Sometimes, anecdotes have force in them on account of their appealing to

the sense of the ludicrous. Of course, I must be very careful here, for it is a

sort of tradition of the fathers that it is wrong to laugh on Sundays. The

eleventh commandment is, that we are to love one another, and then,

according to some people, the twelfth is, “Thou shalt pull a long face on

Sunday.” I must confess that I would rather hear people laugh than I would

see them asleep in the house of God; and I would rather get the truth into

them through the medium of ridicule than I would have the truth neglected,

or leave the people to perish through lack of reception of the truth. I do

believe in my heart that there may’ be as much holiness in a laugh as in a

cry; and that, sometimes, to laugh is the better thing of the two, for I may

weep, and be murmuring, and repining, and thinking all sorts of bitter

thoughts against God; while, at another time, I may laugh the laugh of

sarcasm against sin, and so evince a holy earnestness in the defense of the

truth. I do not know why ridicule is to be given up to Satan as a weapon to

be used against us, and not to be employed by us as a weapon against him.

I will venture to affirm that the Reformation owed almost as much to the

sense of the ridiculous in human nature as to anything else, and that those

humorous squibs and caricatures, that were issued by the friends of Luther,

did more to open the eyes of Germany to the abominations of the

priesthood than the more solid and ponderous arguments against

Romanism. I know no reason why we should not, on suitable occasions,

try the same style of reasoning. “It is a dangerous weapon,” it will be said,

“and many men will cut their fingers with it.” Well, that is their own lookout;

but I do not know why we should be so particular about their cutting

their fingers if they can, at the same time, cut the throat of sin, and do

serious damage to the great adversary of souls.

Here is a story that I should not mind telling on a Sunday for the benefit of

certain people, who are good at hearing sermons and attending prayermeetings,

but who are very bad hands at business. They never work on

Sundays because they never work on any day of the week; they forget that

part of the commandment which says, “Six days shalt thou labor’,” which

is just as binding as the other part, “The seventh day is the sabbath of the

Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” To these people who

never labor because they are so heavenly-minded, I would tell the story of

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a certain monk, who entered a monastery, but who would not work in the

fields, or the garden, or at making ,clothes, or anything else, because, as he

told the superior, he was a spiritually-minded monk. He wondered, when

the dinner-hour approached, that there came to him no summons from the

refectory. So he went down to the prior, and said, “Don’t the brethren eat

here? Are you not going to have any dinner?” The prior said, “We do,

because we are carnal; but you are so spiritual that you do not work, and

therefore you do not require to eat; that is why we did not call you. The

law of this monastery is that, if any man will not work, neither shall he

eat.”

That is a good story of the boy in Italy who had his Testament seized, and

who said to the gendarme, “Why do you seize this book? Is it a bad

book?” “Yes,” was the answer. “Are you sure the book is bad?” he

inquired; and again the reply was, “Yes.” “Then, why do you not seize the

Author of it if it is a bad book?” That was a fine piece of sarcasm at those

who had a hatred of the Scriptures, and yet professed to have love to

Christ. That is another good story of our friend the Irishman, who, when

he was asked by the priest what warrant an ignorant man such as he was

had for reading the Bible, said, “Truth, but I have a search-warrant; for it

says, ‘Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and

they are they which testify of me.’”

This story would not be amiss, I think, as a sort of ridiculous argument

showing what power the gospel ought to have over the human mind. Dr.

Moffat tells us of a certain Kaffir, who came to him, one day, saying that

the New Testament, which the missionary had given him a week before,

had spoiled his dog. The man said that his dog had been a very good

hunting dog, but that he had torn the Testament to pieces, and eaten it up,

and now he was quite spoiled. “Never mind,” said Dr. Moffat, “I will give

you another Testament.” “Oh I” said the man, “it is not that that troubles

me, I do not mind the dog spoiling the book, for I could buy another; but

the book has spoiled the dog.” “How is that?” inquired the missionary; and

the Kaffir replied, “The dog will be of no use to me now, because he has

eaten the Word of God, and that will make him love his enemies, so that he

will be of no good for hunting.” The man supposed that not even a dog

could receive the New Testament without being sweetened in temper

thereby; that is, in truth, what ought to be the case with all who feed upon

the gospel of Christ. I should not hesitate to tell that story after’ Dr.

Moffat, and I should, of course, use it to show that, when a man has

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received the truth as it is in Jesus, there ought to be a great change in him,

and he ought never to be of any use to his old master again.

When the priests were trying to pervert the natives of Tahiti to Romanism,

they had a fine picture which they hoped would convince the people of the

excellence of the Church of Rome. There were certain dead logs of wood:

whom were they to represent? They were the heretics, who were to go into

the fire. And who were these small branches of the tree? They were the

faithful. Who were the larger ones? They were the priests. And who were

the next? They were the cardinals. And who was the trunk of the tree?. Oh,

that was the pope! And the root, whom did that set forth? Oh, the root was

Jesus Christ! So the poor natives said, “Well, we do not know anything

about the trunk, or the branches; but we have got the root, and we mean to

stick to that, and not give it up.” If we have the root, if we have Christ, we

may laugh to scorn all the pretensions and delusions of men.

These stories may make us laugh, but they may also smite error right

through the heart, and lay it dead; and they may, therefore, lawfully be

used as weapons with which we may go forth to fight the Lord’s battles.

V. Fifthly, another use of anecdotes and illustrations lies in the fact that

they help the memory to grasp the truth. There is a story told — though!

will not vouch for the truth of it — of a certain countryman, who had been

persuaded by some one that all Londoners were thieves; and, therefore, on

coming to London for the first time, he tried to secure his watch by putting

it into his waistcoat pocket, and then covering it all over with fish-hooks.

“Now,” he thought, “if any gentleman tries to get my watch, he will

remember it.” The story says that, as he was walking along, he desired to

know the time himself, and put his own hand into his pocket, forgetting all

about the fish-hooks. The effect produced upon him can better be imagined

than described. Now, it seems to me that a sermon should always be like

that countryman’s pocket, full of fish-hooks, so that, if anybody comes in

to listen to it, he will get some forget-me-not, some remembrancer,

fastened in his ear, and it may be, in his heart and conscience. Let him drop

in just at the end of the discourse, there should be something at the close

that will strike and stick. As when we walk in our farmer friends’ fields,

there are certain ‘burrs that are sure to cling to our clothes; and brush as

we may, some of the relics of the fields remain upon our garments, so there

ought to be some burr in every sermon that will stick to those who hear it.

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What do you remember best in the discourses you heard years ago? I will

venture to say that it is some anecdote that the preacher related. It may

possibly be some pithy sentence; but it is more probable that it is some

striking story which was told in the course of the sermon. Rowland Hill, a

little while before he died, was visiting an old friend, who said to him, “Mr.

Hill, it is now sixty-five years since I first heard you preach; but I

remember your text, and a part of your sermon.” “Well,” asked the

preacher, “what part of the sermon do you recollect?” His friend answered,

“You said that some people, when they went to hear a sermon, were very

squeamish about the delivery of the preacher. Then you said, ‘Supposing

you went to hear the will of one of your relatives read, and you were

expecting a legacy from him; you would hardly think of criticizing the

manner in which the lawyer read the will; but you would be all attention to

hear whether anything was left to you, and if so, how much; and that is the

way to hear the gospel.’” Now, the man would not have recollected that

for sixty-five years if Mr. Hill had not put the matter in that illustrative

form. If he had said, “Dear friends, you must listen to the gospel for its

own sake, and not merely for the charms of the preacher’s oratory, or

those delightful soaring periods which gratify your ears,” if he had put it in

the very pretty manner in which some people can do the thing, I will be

bound to say that the man would have remembered it as long as a duck

recollects the last time it went into the water, and no longer; for it would

have been so common to have spoken in that way; but putting the truth in

the striking manner that he did, it was remembered for sixty-five years.

An American gentleman related the following anecdote, which just answers

the purpose I have in view, so I will pass it on to you. He said, “When I

was a boy, I used to hear the story of a tailor who lived to a great age, and

became very wealthy, so that he was an object of envy to all who knew

him. His life, as all lives will, drew to a close; but before he passed away,

feeling some desire to benefit the members of his craft, he gave out word

that, on a certain day, he would be happy to communicate to all the tailors

of the neighborhood the secret by which they might become wealthy. A

great number of knights of the thimble came, and while they waited in

anxious silence to hear the important revelation, he was raised up in his

bed, and with his expiring breath uttered this short sentence, “Always put a

knot in your thread” That is why I recommend you, brethren, to use

anecdotes and illustrations, because they put knots in the thread of your

discourse. What is the use of pulling the end of your thread through the

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material on which you are working? Yet, has it not been the case with very

many of the sermons to which we have listened, or the discourses we have

ourselves delivered] The bulk of what we have heard has just gone through

our minds without leaving any lasting impression, and all we recollect is

some anecdote that was told by the preacher.

There is an authenticated case of a man being converted by a sermon

eighty-five years after he had heard it preached. Mr. Flavel, at the close of

a discourse, instead of pronouncing the usual benediction, stood up, and

said, “How can I dismiss you with a blessing, for many of you are

‘Anathema Maranatha’, because you love not the Lord Jesus Christ?” A

lad of fifteen heard that remarkable utterance; and eighty-five years

afterwards, sitting under a hedge, I think in Virginia, the whole scene came

vividly before him as if it had been but the day before; and it pleased God

to bless Mr. Flavel’s words to his conversion, and he lived three years

longer to bear good testimony that he had felt the power of the truth in his

heart.

VI. Sixthly, anecdotes and illustrations are useful because they frequently

arouse the feelings. They will not do this, however, if you tell the same

stories over and over again ever so many times. I recollect, when I first

heard that wonderful story about “There is another man,” I cried a good

deal over it. Poor soul, just rescued, half-dead, with only a few rags on

him, and yet he said, “There is another man,” needing to be saved. The

second time I heard the story, I liked it, but I did not think it was quite so

new as at first; and the third time I heard it, I thought that I never wanted

to hear it again. I do not know how many times I have heard it since; but I

can always tell when it is coming out. The brother draws himself up, and

looks wonderfully solemn, and in a sepulchral tone says, “There is another

man,” and I think to myself, “Yes, and I wish there had not been,” for I

have heard are that story till I am sick and tired of it. Even a good

anecdote may get so hackneyed that there is no force in it, and no use in

retailing it any longer.

Still, a live illustration is better for appealing to the feelings of an audience

than. any amount of description could possibly be. ‘When Mr. Beecher

brought a beautiful slave girl, with her manacles on, into his pulpit, he did

more for the and-slavery cause than he might have done by the most

eloquent harangue. ‘What we want in these times is not to listen to long

prelections upon some dry subject, but to hear something practical,

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something matter-of-fact, that comes home to our every-day reasoning;

and when we get this, then our hearts are soon stirred.

I have no doubt that the sight of a death-bed would move men much more

than that admirable work called Drelincourt on Death, a book which, I

should think, nobody has ever been able to read through. There may have

been instances of persons who have attempted it; but I believe that, long

before they have reached the latter end, they have been in a state of

asphyxia or coma, and have been obliged to be rubbed with hot flannels;

and the book has had to be removed to a distance before they could

recover. If you have not read Drelincourt on Death, I believe I know what

you have read, that is, the ghost story that is stitched in at the end of the

book. The work would not sell, the whole impression was upon the shelves

of the bookseller, when Defoe wrote the fiction entitled, “A True Relation

of the Apparition of Mrs. Veal after her death to Mrs. Bargrave,” in which

Drelincourt on Death is recommended by the apparition as the best book

on the subject. This story had not a vestige or shadow of truth in it, it was

all a piece of imagination; but it was put in at the end of the book, and then

the whole edition was speedily cleared out., and more were wanted. It may

be something like that very often with your sermons; only you must tell the

people of what has actually occurred, and so you. will retain their

attention, and reach their hearts.

Many have been moved to self-sacrifice by the story of the Moravians, in

South Africa, who saw a large enclosed space of ground, in which there

were persons rotting away with leprosy, some without arms and some

without legs; and these Moravians could not preach to the poor lepers

without going in there themselves for life to rot with them, and they did so.

Two more of the same noble band of brethren sold themselves into slavery

in the West Indies, in order that they might be allowed to preach to the

slaves. When you can give such instances as these of missionary

disinterestedness and devotedness, it will do more to arouse a spirit of

enthusiasm for foreign missions than all your closely-reasoned arguments

could possibly do.

Who has not heard and felt the force of the story of the two miners, when

the fuse was burning, and only one could escape, and the Christian man

cried out to his unconverted companion, “Escape for your life, because, if

you die, you are lost; but if I die, it is all right with me; so you go.”

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The fool’s plan, too, I have sometimes used as a striking illustration. There

was a little boat which got wrecked, and the man in it was trying to swim

to shore, but the current was too strong for him. After he had been

drowned an hour, a man said, “I could have saved him,” and when they

asked him how he could have saved him, he described a plan that seemed

to be most excellent and feasible, by which the man might, no doubt, have

been saved; but then, unfortunately, by that time he was drowned I So,

there are some who are always wise just too late, some who may {rove to

say to themselves, when such and such a one is gone the way of all living,

“What might I not have done for him if I had but taken him in time!”

Brethren, let that anecdote be a reminder to us all that we should seek to

be wise in winning souls before it is too late to rescue them from

everlasting destruction.

VII. Seventhly, and lastly, anecdotes and illustrations are exceedingly

useful because they catch the ear of the utterly careless. Something is

wanted in every sermon for this class of people; and an anecdote is well

calculated to catch the ear of the thoughtless and the ungodly. We really

desire their salvation, and we would bait our trap in any way possible by

which we might catch them for Christ. We cannot expect our young people

to come and listen to learned doctrinal disquisitions that are not at all

embellished with anything that interests their immature minds. Nay, even

grown-up people, after the toils of the week, some of them busy till early

on are the Sunday morning, cannot be expected to attend to long prosaic

discourses which are not broken by a single anecdote.

Oh, dear, dear, dear I How I do pity those unpractical brethren ‘who do

not seem to know to whom they are preaching! “Ah!” said a brother once,

“whenever I preach, I do not know where to look, and so I look up at the

ventilator.” Now, there is not anybody ‘up in the ventilator; there cannot

be supposed to be anybody there, unless the angels of heaven are listening

there to hear the ‘words of truth. A minister should not preach before the

people, but he should preach right at them; let him look straight at them; if

he can, let him search them through and through, and take stock of them,

as it were, and see what they are like, and then suit his message to them.

I have often seen some poor fellow standing in the aisle at the Tabernacle.

Why, he looks just like a sparrow that has got into a church, and cannot

get out again! He cannot make out what sort of service it is; be begins to

count how many people sit in the front row in the gallery, and all kinds of

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ideas pass through his mind. Now I want to attract his attention; how shall

I do it? If I quote a text of Scripture, he may not ‘know what it means, and

may not be interested in it. Shall I put a bit of Latin into the sermon, or

quote the original Hebrew or Greek of my text? That will not do for such a

man. What shall I do? Ah! I know a story that will, I believe, just fit him.

Out it comes, and the man does not look up at the gallery any more; but he

is wondering whatever the preacher is at. Something is said that so exactly

suits his case that he begins to ask himself ‘who has been telling the

minister about him, and he thinks,” Why, I know; my wife comes to hear

this man sometimes, so she has been telling him all about me!” Then he

feels curious to hear more, and while he is looking up at the preacher, and

listening to the truth that is being proclaimed, the first gleam of light on

divine things dawns upon him; but if we had kept on with our regular

discourse, and had not gone out of our way, what might have become of

that man, I cannot tell. “They say I ramble,” said Rowland Hill, in a sermon

I have been reading this afternoon; “they say I ramble, but it is because you

ramble, and I am obliged, to ramble after you. They say I do not stick to

my subject; but, thank God, I always stick to my object, which is, the

winning of your souls, and bringing you to the cross of Jesus Christ!”

Mr. Bertram aptly illustrates the way in which men are engrossed in

worldly cares by telling the story of the captain of a whaling ship, whom he

tried to interest in the things of God, and who said, “It is no use, sir; your

conversation will not have any effect upon me. I cannot hear what you are

saying, or understand the subject you are talking about. I left my home to

try to catch whales, I have been a year and nine months looking for whales,

sir, and I have not caught a whale yet. I have been. ploughing the deep in

search of whales; when I go to bed, I dream of whales; and when I get up

in the morning, I wonder if there will be any whales caught that day; there

is a whale in my heart, sir, a whale in my brain, and it is of no use for you

to talk to me about anything else but whales.” So, your people have their

business in their heads, and in their hearts, they want to make a fortune,

and retire; or else they have a family of children to bring up, and Susan

must be married, and John must be got into a situation, and it is no use for

you to talk to them about the things of God unless you can drive away the

whales that keep floundering and splashing about.

There is a merchant, perhaps, who has just thought of some bad bill; or

another has looked across the building, and noticed a piece of ribbon of a

particular color, and he thinks, “Yes, I ought to have had a larger stock of

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that kind of thing, I see that it is getting fashionable!” or it may be that one

of the hearers has caught sight of his neighbor, and he thinks he must pay

him a visit on the morrow; and so people’s thoughts are occupied with all

sorts of subjects beside that of which the preacher is speaking. You ask me

how I know that this is the ease. Well, I know because I have been guilty

of the same offense myself; I find this occurs when I am listening to

another brother preaching. I do not think, when I am preaching, that I get

on very well; but sometimes, when I go into the country, and take the

morning and evening services, and then hear some one else in the

afternoon, I think, “Well, really, when I was up there, I thought I was a

stick: but now! I only wish I had my turn again!” Now, this is very wrong.,

to let such thoughts come into our minds; but as we are all very apt to

wander, the preacher should carry anecdotes and illustrations into the

pulpit, and use them as nails to fasten the people’s attention to the subject

of his sermon.

Mr. Paxton Hood once said, in a lecture that I heard him deliver, “Some

preachers expect too much of t, heir hearers; they take a number of truths

into the pulpit as a man might carry up a box of nails; and then, supposing

the congregation to be posts, they take out a nail, and expect it to get into

the post by itself. Now that is not the way to do it. You must take your

nail, hold it up against the post, hammer it in, and then clinch it on the

other side; and then it is that you may expect the great Master of

assemblies to fasten the nails so that they will not fall out.” We must try

thus to get the truth into the people, for it will never get in of itself; and we

must remember that the hearts of our hearers are not open, like a church

door, so that the truth may go in, and take its place, and sit upon its throne

to be worshipped there. No, we have often to break open the doors with

great effort, and to thrust the truth into places where it will not at first be a

welcome guest, but where, afterwards, the better it is known, the more it

will be loved.

Illustrations and anecdotes will greatly help to make a way for the truth to

enter; and they will do it by catching the ear of the careless and the

inattentive. We must try to be like Mr. Whitefield, of whom a shipbuilder

said, ,’ When I have been to hear anybody else preach, I have always been

able to lay down a ship from stem to stern; but when I listen to Mr.

Whitefield, I ,cannot even lay the keel.” And another, a weaver, said, “I

have often, when I have been in church, calculated how many looms the

place would hold; but when I listen to that man, I forget my weaving

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altogether.” You must endeavor, brethren, to make your people forget

matters relating to this world by interweaving the whole of divine truth

with the passing things of every day, and this you will do by a judicious use

of anecdotes and illustrations.

Now, gentlemen, these seven reasons — that they interest the mind and

secure the attention of our hearers, that they render the teaching vivid and

life-like, that they explain some difficult passages to dull understandings,

that they help the reasoning faculties of certain minds, that they aid the

memory, that they arouse the feelings, and that they catch the ear of the

careless — have reconciled me for many a day to the use of anecdotes and

illustrations, and I think it is very likely that they will reconcile you to the

use of them, too.

At the same time, I must repeat what I before said, we must take care that

we do not let our anecdotes and illustrations be like empty casks that carry

nothing. We must not have it truthfully said of our sermons, as was said by

a certain lady, who, after having heard a clergyman preach, was asked what

she thought of the sermon, and whether there was not much spirit in it.

“Oh, yes!” she replied, “it was all spirit; there was no body to it at all.”

There must be some “body” in every discourse, some really sound doctrine,

some suitable instruction for our hearers to carry home; not merely stories

to amuse them, but solid truth to be received in the heart, and wrought out

‘in the life. If this be so with your sermons, my dear brethren, I shall not

have spoken to you this afternoon in vain upon the uses of anecdotes and

illustrations.

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LECTURE 4.

WHERE CAN WE FIND ANECDOTES

AND ILLUSTRATION?

DEAR BRETHREN, after my last lecture to you, upon the uses of anecdotes

and illustrations, you are probably quite ready to employ them in your

discourses; but some of you may ask, “Where can we get them?” At the

very beginning of this afternoon’s talk, let me say that nobody need make

anecdotes in order to interest a congregation. I have heard of one, who

called to see a minister on a Friday, and lie was told by the servant that her

master could not be seen, for he was up in his study “making anecdotes.”

That kind of work will not do for a Christian minister. I would also bill you

beware of the many common anecdotes, which are often repeated, but

which I half suspect could not be proved to be matters of fact. Whenever I

have the slightest suspicion about the truth of a story, I drop it at once; and

I think that everyone else should do the same. So long as the anecdotes are

current, and are generally believed, and provided they can be used for a

profitable purpose, I believe they may be told, without any affirmation as to

their truthfulness being made in a court of justice; but the moment any

doubt comes across the mind of the preacher as to ‘whether the tale is at

least founded on fact., I think he had better look for something else, for he

has the whole world to go to as a storehouse of illustration.

If you want to interest your congregation, and keep up their attention, you

can find anecdotes and illustrations in many channels, like golden grains

glistening amongst the mountain streams. For instance, there is current

history. You may take up the daily newspaper, and find illustrations there.

In my little shilling book, ‘The Bible and the Newspaper, I have given

specimens of how this may be done; and when I was preparing the present

lecture, I took up a newspaper to see if I could find an illustration in it, and

I soon found one. There was an account of a man at Wandsworth, who

was discovered, with a gun and a dog, trespassing on some gentleman’s

preserves, and he said that he was only looking for mushrooms! Can you

imagine what the gun and the dog had to do with mushrooms? However,

the keeper felt in the man’s pocket, and laying hold of something soft,

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asked, “What is this?” “Oh!” said the poacher, “it is only a rabbit.” When it

was suggested to him that the creature’s ears were too long for a rabbit, he

said that it was only a leveret, whereas it proved to be a very’ fine and

plump hare. The man, then said that he had found the hare lying near some

mushrooms, but his intention was to get the mushrooms only! Now, that is

a capital illustration. As soon as ever you lay hold of a man, and begin to

accuse him of sin, he says, “Sin, sir! Oh, dear no! I was only doing a very

proper thing, just what I have a perfect right to do; I was looking for

mushrooms, I was not poaching!” You press him a little more closely, and

try to bring him to conviction of sin; and then he says, “Well, perhaps it

was hardly the thing, it may have been a little amiss; but it was only a

rabbit!” When the man cannot any longer deny that he is guilty of sin, he

says that it was only a very little one; and it is long before you can get him

to admit that sin is exceeding sinful; indeed, no human power can ever

produce genuine conviction in the heart of a single sinner; it must be the

work of the Holy Spirit.

I also read, in the same newspaper, of a calamitous shipwreck, caused

through the lack of lights. You could easily turn that incident to account by

using it to illustrate the destruction of souls through the want of a

knowledge of Christ. I have no doubt, if you were to take up any of this

morning’s daily papers, you would very readily find an abundance of

illustrations. Mr. Newman Hall, in addressing us once, said that every

Christian minister ought to read regularly his Bible and The Times

newspaper! should imagine, from the usual mode of his address, that he

does so himself. Whether you read that particular paper, or any other, you

should somehow keep yourselves well stored with illustrations taken from

the ordinary transactions going on round about you. I pity even a Sundayschool

teacher, much more a minister of the gospel, who could not make

use of such incidents as the terrible burning of the church at Santiago, the

great fire at London Bridge, the entrance into London of the Princess

Alexandra, the taking of the census; and, indeed, anything that attracts

public attention. There is in all these events an illustration, a simile, an

allegory, which may point a moral, and adorn a tale.

You may sometimes adapt local history to the illustration of your subject.

When a minister is preaching in any particular district, he will often find it

best to catch the ears of the people, and engross their attention, by relating

some anecdote that relates to the place where they live. Whenever I can, I

get the histories of various counties; for, having to go into all sorts of

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country towns and villages to preach, I find that there is a great deal of

useful material to be dug out of even dull, dry, topographical books. They

begin, perhaps, with the name of John Smith, laborer the man who keeps

the parish register, and winds up the parish clock, and makes mouse-traps,

and catches rats, and does fifty other useful things; but if you have the

patience to read on, you will find much information that you could get

nowhere else, and you will probably meet with many incidents and

anecdotes that you can use as illustrations of the truth you are seeking to

set forth.

Preaching at Winslow, in Buckinghamshire, it would not be at all amiss to

introduce the incident of good Benjamin Keach, the pastor of the Baptist

church in that town, standing in the pillory in the market-place in the year

1664:, “for writing, printing, and publishing a schismatical book, entitled,

The Child’s Instructor; or, a New and Easy Primmer.” I do not think,

however, that, if were preaching at Wapping, I should call the people”

sinners”, as Rowland Hill is said to have done, when he told them that

“Christ could save old sinners, great sinners, yea, even Wapping sinners!”

At Craven Chapel, it would ‘be most appropriate to tell the story of Lord

Craven, who was packing up his goods to go into the country at the time

of the Great Plague of London, when his servant said to him, “My lord,

does your God live only in the country?” “No,” replied Lord Craven, “he is

here as well as there.” “Well, then,” said the servant, “if! were your

lordship, I think I would stop here; you will be as safe in the city as in the

country;” and Lord Craven did stop there, relying upon: the good

providence of God.

Beside this, brethren, you have the marvelous storehouse of ancient and

modern history — Roman, Greek, and English — with are which, of

course, you are seeking to become well acquainted. Who can possibly read

the old classic tales without feeling his soul fire? As you rise from their

perusal, you will not merely be familiar with the events which happened in

“the brave days of old “, but you will have learnt many lessons that may be

of service in your preaching to-day. For instance, there is the story of

Phidias and the statue of the god which he had carved. After he had

finished it, he had chiselled in the corner, in small letters, the word

“Phidias”, and it was objected that the statue could not be worshipped as

a god, nor considered sacred, while it bore the sculptor’s name. It was

even seriously questioned whether Phidias should not be stoned to death

because he had so desecrated the statue. How could he dare, they asked, to

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put his own name on the image of a god? So, some of us are very apt. to

want to put our little names down at the bottom of any work which we

have done for God, that we may be remembered, whereas we ought rather

to upbraid ourselves for wishing to have any of the credit of that which

God the Holy Ghost enables us to do.

Then there is that other story of an ancient sculptor, who was about to put

the image of a god into a heathen temple, although he had not finished that

portion of the statue which was to be imbedded in the wall. The priest

demurred, and declared that the statue was not completed. The sculptor

said, “That part of the god will never be seen, for it will be built into the

wall.” “The gods can see in the wall,” answered the priest. In like manner,

the most private parts of our life, those secret matters that can never reach

the human eye, are still under the ken of the Almighty, and ought to be

attended to with the greatest care. It is not sufficient for us to maintain our

public reputation among our fellow-creatures, for our God can see in the

wall, he notices our coldness in the closet of communion, and he perceives

our faults and failures in the family.

Trying once to set forth how the Lord Jesus Christ delights in his people

because they are his own handiwork, I found a classic story of Cyrus

extremely useful. When showing a foreign ambassador round his garden,

Cyrus said to him, “You cannot possibly take such an interest in these

flowers and trees as I do, for I laid out the whole garden myself, and every

plant here I planted with my own hand. I have watered them, and I have

seen them grow, I have been a husbandman to them, and therefore I love

them far better than you can.” So, the Lord Jesus Christ loves the fair

garden of his Church, because he laid it all out, and planted it with his own

gracious hand, and he has watched over every plant, and nourished and

cherished it.

The days of the Crusaders are a peculiarly rich period for noble stories that

will make good illustrations. We read that the soldiers of Godfrey de

Bouillon, when they came within sight of the city of Jerusalem, were so

charmed with the view that they fell on their faces, and then rose to their

feet, and clapped their hands, and made the mountains ring with their

shouts of joy. Thus, when we get within sight of the New Jerusalem, our

happy home on high, whose name is ever dear to us, we will make our

dying chamber ring with hallelujahs, and even the angels shall hear our

songs of praise and thanksgiving. It is also recorded, concerning this same

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Godfrey, that, when he had entered Jerusalem at the head of his victorious

army, he refused to wear the crown with which his soldiers wanted to deck

his brow, “For,” said he, “why should I wear a crown of gold in the city

where my Lord wore a crown of thorns?” This is a good lesson for us to

learn for ourselves, and to teach to our people. In the world where Christ

was despised and rejected of men, it would be unseemly for a Christian to

be seeking to win earthly honors, or ambitiously hunting after fame. The

disciple must not think of being above his Master, nor the servant above his

Lord.

Then you might easily make an illustration out of that romantic story,

which may or may not be true, of Queen Eleanor sucking the poison out of

her husband’s wounded arm. Many of us, I trust, would be willing, as it

were, to suck out all the slander and venom from the arm of Christ’s

Church, and to bear any amount of suffering ourselves, so long as the

Church itself might escape and live. Would not any one of you, my

brethren, gladly put his lips to the envenomed wounds of the Church today,

and suffer even unto death, sooner than let the doctrines of Christ be

impugned, and the cause of God be dishonored?

What a fine field of illustration lies open to you in religious history! It is

difficult to tell where to begin digging in this mine of precious treasure.

The story of Luther and the Jew might be ‘used to set forth the evil of sin,

and how to avoid it. A Jew was seeking an opportunity of stabbing the

Reformer; but Luther received a portrait of the would-be murderer, so that,

wherever he went, he was on his guard against the assassin. Using this fact

himself as an illustration, Luther said, “God knows that there are sins that

would destroy us, and he has therefore given us portraits of them in his

Word, so that, wherever we see them, we may say, ‘That is a sin that

would stab me; I must beware of that evil thing, and keep out of its way.’”

Stout Hugh Latimer, in that famous story of an incident in his trial before

several bishops, brings out very clearly the omnipresence and omniscience

of God, and the care that we ought to exercise in the presence of One who

can read our most secret thoughts and imaginations. He says, “I was once

in examination before five or six bishops, where I had much trouble; thrice

every week I came to examinations, and many traps and snares were laid to

get something ... At last, I was brought forth to be examined in a chamber

hung with arras, where I was wont to be examined; but now at this time

the chamber was somewhat altered. For whereas, before, there was wont

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always to be a fire in the chimney, now the fire was taken away, and an

arras hung over the chimney, and the table stood near the fire-place. There

was, amongst the bishops who examined me, one with whom I had been

very familiar, and took him for my great friend, an aged man, and he sat

next to the table’s end. Then, amongst all other questions, he put forth a

very subtle and crafty one, and such a one, indeed, as I could not think so

great danger in. And when I should make answer, ‘I pray you, Mr.

Latimer,’ said one, ‘speak out; I am very thick of hearing, and there may be

many that sit far off.’ I marvelled at this, that I was bid to speak out, and

began to suspect, and give an ear to the chimney; and there I heard a pen

writing in the chimney behind the cloth. They had appointed one there to

write all mine answers, for they made sure that I should not start from

them; and there was no starting from them. God was my good Lord, and

gave me answer, else I could never have escaped.” Preaching, some years

afterwards, Latimer himself told the story, and applied the illustration. “My

hearer,” said he “there is a recording pen always at work behind the arras,

taking down all thou sayest, and noting all thou doest, therefore be thou

careful that thy words and acts are worthy of record in God’s Book of

Remembrance.”

You might aptly illustrate the doctrine of God’s special providential care of

his servants by relating the story of John Knox, who, one evening, refused

to sit in his usual seat, though he did not know any particular reason for so

acting. No one was allowed to occupy that chair, and during the evening, a

shot came in through the window, and struck a candlestick that stood

immediately opposite where John Knox would have been sitting if he had

taken his accustomed place. There is also the case of the godly minister,

who, in escaping from his persecutors, went into a hay-left, and hid himself

in the hay. The soldiers went into the place, pricking and thrusting with

their swords and bayonets, and the good man even felt the cold steel touch

the sole of his foot, and the scratch which was made remained for years:

yet his enemies did not discover him. Afterwards, a hen came and laid an

egg every day hard by the place where he was hidden, and so he was

sustained as well as preserved until it was safe for him to leave his hidingplace.

It was either the same minister, or one of his persecuted brethren,

who was providentially protected by such a humble agent as a spider. This

is the story as I have read it: — “Receiving friendly warning of an intended

attempt to apprehend him, and finding men were on his track, he took

refuge in a malt-house, and crept into the empty kiln, where he lay down.

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Immediately after, he saw a spider lower itself across the narrow entrance

by which he had got in, thus fixing the first line of what was soon wrought

into a large and beautiful web. The weaver and the web, placed directly

between him and the light, were very conspicuous. He was so much struck

with the skill and diligence of the spider, and so much absorbed in

watching her work, that he forgot his own danger. By the time the network

was completed, crossing and re-crossing the mouth of the kiln in every

direction, his pursuers came into the malt-house to search for him. He

noted their steps, and listened to their cruel words while they looked about.

Then they came close to the kiln, and he overheard one say to another,

‘It’s no use to look in there; the old villain can never be there: look at that

spider web; he could never have got in ,there without breaking it.’

Without further search they went ~o seek elsewhere, and he escaped safely

out of their hands.”

There is another story, I have somewhere met with, of a prisoner, during

the American war, who was put into a cell in which there was a little slit

through which a soldier’s eye always watched him day and night. Whatever

the prisoner did, whether he ate, or drank, or slept, the sentinel’s eye was

perpetually gazing at him; and the thought of it, he said, was perfectly

dreadful ~o him, it almost drove him mad; he could not bear the idea of

having that man’s eye always scrutinizing him. He could scarcely sleep; his

very breathing became a misery, because, turn which way he would, he

could never escape from the gaze of that soldiers eye. That story might be

used as an illustration of the fact that God’s omniscient eye is always

looking at every one of us.

I remember making two or three of my congregation speak out pretty

loudly by telling them this story, which I read in an American tract. I

suppose it may be true; I receive it as reliable, and I wish I could tell it as it

is printed. A Christian minister, residing near the backwoods, took a walk

one evening for silent meditation, he went much farther than he intended,

and, missing the track, wandered away into the woods. He kept on

endeavoring to find the road to his home; but failed to do so. He was afraid

that he would have to spend the night in some tree; but suddenly, as he was

going forward, he saw the glimmer of lights in the distance, and therefore

pressed on, hoping to find shelter in a friendly cottage. A strange sight met

his gaze; a meeting was being held in a clearing in the middle of the woods,

the place being lit up with blazing pine-torches, lie thought, “Well. here are

some Christian people met to worship God; I am glad that what I thought

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was an awkward mistake in losing my way has brought me here; I may,

perhaps, both do good and get good.”

To his horror, however, he found that it. was an atheistical gathering, and

that the speakers were venting their blasphemous thoughts against God

with very great boldness and determination. The minister sat down, full of

grief. A young man declared that he did not believe in the existence of

God, and dared Jehovah to destroy him then and there if there was such a

God. The good man’s heart was meditating how he ought to reply, but his

tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of his mouth; and the infidel orator sat

down amidst loud acclamations of admiration and approval. Our friend did

not wish to be a craven, or to hold back in the day of battle, and therefore

he was almost inclined to rise and speak, when a hale, burly man, who had

passed the meridian of life, but who was still exceedingly vigorous, and

seemed a strong, muscular clearer of the backwoods, rose and said, “I

should like to speak if you will give me a hearing. I am not going to say

anything about the topic which has been discussed by the orator who has

just sat down; I am only going to tell you a fact: will you hear me?” “Yes,

yes,” they shouted; it was a free discussion, so they would hear him,

especially as he was not going to controvert. “A week ago,” he began, “I

was working up yonder, on the river’s bank, felling trees. You know the

rapids down below. Well, while I was at my employment, at some little

distance from them, I heard cries and shrieks, mingled with prayers to God

for help. I ran down to the water’s edge, for I guessed what was the

matter. There I saw a young man, who could not manage his boat; the

current was getting the mastery of him, and he was drifting down the

stream, and ere long, unless someone had interposed, he would most

certainly have been swept over the falls, and carried down to a dreadful

death. I saw that young man kneel down in the boat, and pray to the Most

High God, by the love of Christ, and by his precious blood, to save him. He

confessed that he had been. an infidel; but said that, if he might but be

delivered this once, he would declare his belief in God. I at once sprang

into the river. My arms are not very weak, I think, though they are not so

strong as they used to be. I managed to get into the boat, turned her round,

brought her to the shore, and so I saved that young man’s life; and that

young man is the one who has just sat down, and who has been denying the

existence of God, and daring the Most High to destroy him!” Of course, I

used that story to show that it was an easy thing to brag and boast about

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holding infidel sentiments in a place of safety; but that, when men come

into peril of their lives, then they talk in a very different fashion.

There is a capital story, which exemplifies the need of going up to the

house of God, not merely to listen to the preacher, but to seek the Lord. A

certain lady had gone to the communion in a Scotch church, and had

greatly enjoyed the service. When she reached her home, she inquired who

the preacher was, and she was informed that it was Mr. Ebenezer Erskine.

The lady said that she would go again, the next Sabbath, to hear him. She

went, but she was not profited in the least; the sermon did not seem to

have any unction or power about it. She went to Mr. Erskine, and told him

of her experience at the two services. ~’ Ah! madam,” said he, “the first

Sabbath you came to meet the Lord Jesus Christ, and you had a blessing;

but the second Sabbath you came to hear Ebenezer Erskine, and you had

no blessing, and you had no right to expect any.” You see, brethren, a

preacher might talk to the people, in general terms, about coming to

worship God, and not merely to hear the minister, yet no effect might be

produced by his words, for there might not be anything sufficiently striking

to remain in the memory; but after such an anecdote as this one about Mr.

Erskine and the lady, who could forget the lesson that was intended to be

taught?

Well now, supposing that you have exhausted all the illustrations to be

found in current history, in local history, in ancient and modern history, and

in religious history, — which I do not think you will do unless you are

yourselves exhausted, — you may then turn to natural history, where you

will find illustrations and anecdotes in great abundance; and you need never

feel any qualms of conscience about using the facts of nature to illustrate

the truths of Scripture, because there is a sound philosophy to support the

use of such illustrations. It is a fact that can easily be accounted for, that

people will more readily receive the truth of revelation if you link it with

some kindred truth in natural history, or anything that is visible to the eye,

than if you give them a bare statement of the doctrine itself. Besides, there

is this important fact that must not be forgotten, the God who is the

Author of revelation, is also the Author of creation, and providence, and

history, and everything else from which you ought to draw your

illustrations. When you use natural history to illustrate the Scriptures, you

are only explaining one of God’s books by another volume that he has

written.

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It is just as if you had before you two works by one author, who had, in the

first place, written a book for children; and then, in the second place, had

prepared a volume of more profound instruction for persons of riper years,

and higher culture. At times, when you found obscure and dill]cult

passages in the work meant for the more advanced scholars, you would

refer to the little book which was intended for the younger folk, and you

would say, “We know that this means so-and-so, because that is how the

matter is explained in the book for beginners.” So creation, providence,

and history, are all books which God has written for those to read who

have eyes, written for those who have ears to hear his voice in them,

written even for carnal men to read, that they may see. something of God

therein, But the other glorious Book is written for you who are taught of

God, and made spiritual and holy. Oftentimes, by turning to the primer,

you will get something out of that simple narrative which will elucidate and

illustrate the-more difficult classic, for that is what the Word of God is to

you.

There is a certain type of thought which God has followed in all things.

What he made with his Word has a similarity to the Word itself by which

he made it; and the visible is the symbol of the invisible, because the same

thought of God runs through it all. There is a touch of the divine finger in

all that God has made; so that the things which are apparent to our senses

have certain resemblances to the things which do not appear. That which

can be seen, and tasted, and touched, and handled, is meant to be to us the

outward and visible sign of a something which we find in the Word of God,

and in our spiritual experience, which is the inward and the spiritual grace;

so that there is nothing forced and unnatural in bringing nature to illustrate

grace; it was ordained of God for that very purpose. Range over the whole

of creation for your similes; do not confine yourself to any particular

branch of natural history. ‘The congregation of one very learned doctor

complained that he gave them spiders continuously by way of illustration.

It would be better to give the people a spider or two occasionally, and then

to vary the instruction by stories, and anecdotes, and similes, and

metaphors drawn, from geology, astronomy, botany, or any of the other

sciences which will help to shed a side light upon the Scriptures.

If you keep your eyes open, you will not see even a dog following his

master, nor a mouse peeping up from his hole, nor will you hear even a

gentle scratching behind the wainscot without getting something to weave

into your sermons if your faculties are all on the alert. When you go home

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to-night, and sit by your fireside, you ought not to be able to take up your

domestic cat without finding that which will furnish you with an

illustration. How soft are pussy’s pads, and yet, in a moment, if she is

angered, how sharp will be her claws I How like to temptation, soft and

gentle when first it cometh to us, but how deadly, how damnable the

wounds it causeth ere long!

I recollect using, with very considerable effect in a sermon in the

Tabernacle, an incident that occurred in my own garden. There was a dog

which was in the habit of coming through the fence, and scratching in my

flower-beds, to the manifest spoiling of the gardener’s toil and temper.

Walking in the garden, one Saturday afternoon, and preparing my sermon

for the following day, I saw the four-footed creature, — rather a scurvy

specimen, by-the-by, — and having a walking-stick in my hand, I threw it

at him with all my might, at the same time giving him some good advice

about going home. Now, what should my canine friend do, but turn round,

pick up the stick in his mouth, and bring it, and lay it down at my feet,

wagging his tail all the while in expectation of my thanks and kind words?

Of course, you do not suppose that I kicked him, or threw the stick at him

any more. I felt quite ashamed of myself, and I told him that he was

welcome to stay as long as he liked, and to come as often as he pleased.

There was an instance of the power of non-resistance, submission,

patience, and trust, in overcoming even righteous anger. I used that

illustration in preaching the next day, and I did not feel that I had at, all

degraded myself by telling the story.

Most of us have read Alphonse Karr’s book, A Tour round my Garden.

Why does not somebody write A Tour round my Dining-table, or, A Tour

round my Kitchen? I believe a most interesting volume of the kind might

be written by any man who had his eyes open to see the analogies of

nature. I remember that, one, Jay, when I lived in Cambridge, I wanted a

sermon very badly; and I could not fix upon a subject, when, all at once, I

noticed a number of birds on the slates of the opposite house. As I looked

closely at them, I saw that there was a canary, which ‘had escaped from

somebody’s house, and a lot of sparrows had surrounded it, and kept

peeking at it. There was my text at once: “Mine heritage is unto me as a

speckled bird, the birds round about are against her.”

Once more, brethren, if you cannot find illustrations in natural history, or

any of the other histories I have mentioned, find them anywhere. Anything

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that occurs around you, if you have but brains in your head, will be of

service to you; but if you are really to interest and profit your

congregations, you will need to keep your eyes open, and to use all the

powers with which the Lord has endowed you. If you do so, you will find

that, in simply walking through the streets, something or other will suggest

a passage of Scripture, or will help you, when you have chosen your text,

to open it up to the people so as really to arrest their attention, and convey

the truth to their minds and hearts.

For instance, the snow to-day covered all the ground, and the black soil

looked fair and white. It is thus with some men under transient

reformations; they look as holy, and as heavenly, and as pure as though

they were saints; but when the sun of trial arises, and a little heat of

temptation cometh upon them, how soon do they reveal their true

blackness, and all their surface godliness melteth away!

The whole world is hung round by God with pictures; and the preacher has

only to take them down, one by one, and hold them up before his

congregation, and he will be sure to enlist their interest in the subject he is

seeking to illustrate. But he must have his own eyes open, or he will not

see these pictures. Solomon said, “The wise man’s eyes are in his head,”

and addressing such a man, he wrote, “Let thine eyes look right on, and let

thine eyelids look straight before thee.” Why does he speak of seeing with

the eyelids? I think he means that the eyelids are to shut in what the eyes

have perceived. You know that there is all the difference in the world

between a man with eyes and one with no eyes. One sits down by a stream,

and sees much to interest and instruct him; but another, at the same place,

is like the gentleman of whom Wordsworth wrote, —

“A primrose by a river’s brim

A yellow primrose was to him,

And it was nothing more.”

If you find any difficulty in illustrating your subject, I should strongly

recommend you to try to teach children whenever you can get an

opportunity of doing so. I do not know a better way of schooling your own

mind to the use of illustrations than frequently to take a class in the

Sunday-school, or to give addresses to the scholars as often as you can;

because, if you do not illustrate there, you will have your lesson or your

address illustrated for you very strikingly. You will find that the children

will do it by their general worry and inattention, or by their talk and play. I

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used to have a class of boys when I was a Sunday-school teacher, and if I

was ever a little dull, they began to make wheels of themselves, twisting

round on the forms on which they sat. That was a very plain intimation to

me that I must give them an illustration or an anecdote; and I learned to tell

stories partly by being obliged to tell them. One boy, whom I had in the

class, used to say to me, “This is very dull, teacher; can’t you pitch us a

yarn?” “Of course he was a naughty boy, and you may suppose that he

went to the bad when he grew up, though I am not at all sure that he did;

but I used to try and pitch him the yarn that he wanted in order to get his

attention again. And I dare say that some of, our hearers, if they were

allowed to speak out during the sermon, would ask us to pitch them a yarn,

that is, to give them something to interest them. I believe that one of fife

best things you can do to teach either the old or the young is to give them

plenty of anecdotes and illustrations.

I think it would be very useful to some of you who are not yet adepts at the

art of illustration if you were to read books in which there is an abundance

of metaphor, simile, and emblem. I am not going fully into that subject on

this occasion, because this lecture is only preliminary to the next two that I

hope to deliver, in which I will try to give you a list of cyclopaedias of

anecdotes and illustrations, and books of fables, emblems, and parables; but

I advise you to study such works as Gurnall’s Christian in Complete

Armor, or Matthew Henry’s Commentary, with the distinct view of

noticing all the illustrations, emblems, metaphors, and similes that you can

find. I should even select non-comparisons; I like Keach’s Metaphors

where he points out the disparity between the type and the Anti-type.

Sometimes, the contrasts between different persons or objects will be as

instructive as their resemblances.

When you have read the book once, and tried to mark all the figures, go

through it again, and note all the illustrations you missed in your first

reading. You will probably have missed many; and you will be surprised to

find that there are illustrations even in the words themselves. How

frequently a word is itself a picture I Some of the most expressive words

that are found in human language are like rich gems, which have passed

before your eye very often, but you have not had time to handle or to value

them. In your second examination of the book, you will notice, perhaps,

what eluded you the first time, and you will find many illustrations which

are merely hinted at, instead of being given at length. Do as I have

recommended with a great many books. Get copies that you can afford to

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mark with a colored pencil, so that you will be sure to see the illustrations

readily; or put them down in one of your note-books.

I am sure that those brethren who begin early to keep a record of such

things act wisely. The commonplace books of the old Puritans were

invaluable to them. They would never have been able to have compiled

such marvelous works as they did if they had not been careful in collecting

and arranging their matter under different heads; and thus, all that they had

ever read upon any subject was embalmed and preserved, and they could

readily refer to any point that they might require, and refresh their

memories, and verify their quotations. Some of us, who are very busy, may

be excused from that task; we must do the best we can, but some of you,

who go to smaller charges, in the country especially, ought to keep a

commonplace-book, or else I am afraid you will get to be very

commonplace yourselves.

Your selection of similes, metaphors, parables, and emblems will not be

complete unless you also search the Scriptures to find the illustrations that

are recorded there. Biblical allusions are the most effective methods of

illustrating and enforcing the truths of the gospel; and the preacher who is

familiar with his Bible will never be at a loss for an instance of that which

“is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in

righteousness.” The Lord must have meant us thus to use his Word,

otherwise he would not have given us, in the Old Testament, such a

number of types and symbols of truths to be afterwards more fully revealed

under the gospel dispensation.

Such a collection of illustrations as I have suggested will come very handy

to you in future days, and you will be reminded, by the comparisons and

figures used by others, to make comparisons and figures for yourself,

familiarity with anything makes us au fait at it; we can learn to do almost

anything by practice. I suppose that I could, by degrees, learn to make a

tub if I spent my time with a man engaged in that business. I should know

how to put the staves and the hoops if I stayed long enough in the cooper’s

yard; and have no doubt that any of you could learn anything you desired

provided you had sufficient time and opportunity. So, if you search for

illustrations, you will learn to make them for yourselves.

That brings me to my last point. I began this lecture by warning you against

the practice of making anecdotes; I close it by advising you often to set

yourself the task of making illustrations. Try to make comparisons from

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the things round about you. I think it would be well, sometimes, to shut the

door of your study, and say to yourself, “I will not go out of this room

until I have made at least half-a-dozen good illustrations.” The Chinese say

that the intellect lies in the stomach, and that the affections are there, too. I

think they are right on the latter point, because, you know, if you are ever

very fond of anybody, — your wife, for instance, — you say that you could

eat her; and you also say that such and such a person is very sweet. So,

too, the intellect may lie in the stomach; and consequently, when you have

been shut in for two or three hours, and begin to want your dinner or tea,

you may be quickened into the making of the six illustrations! have

mentioned as a minimum. Your study would be a veritable prison if you

could not make as many useful comparisons as that from the different

objects in the room. I should say that a prison itself would furnish

suggestions for making many metaphors. I do not wish you to go to prison

for that purpose; but if you ever do get there, you ought to be able to learn

how to preach in an interesting manner upon such a passage as this, —

“Bring my soul out of prison;” or this, “He was there in the prison. But the

Lord was with Joseph.”

If you cannot get your brains to work in the house, you might take a walk,

and say to yourself, “I will wander over the fields, or I will get into the

garden, or I will stroll in the wood, and see if I cannot find some

illustration or other. You might even go and look in at a shop-window, and

see if there are not some illustrations to be discovered there. Or you might

stand still a little while, and hear what people say as they go by; or stop

where There is a little knot of idlers, and try to hear what they are talking

about, and see what symbol you can make out of it. You should also spend

as much time as you can visiting the sick; that will be a most profitable

thing to do, for in that sacred service you will have many opportunities of

getting illustrations from the tried children of God as you hear their varied

experiences. It is wonderful what pages of a new cyclopaedia of illustrative

teaching you might find written out with indelible ink if you went visiting

the sick, or even in talking with children. Many of them will say things that

you will be able to quote with good effect in your sermons. At any rate, do

make up your mind that you will attract and interest the people by the way

in which you set the gospel before them. Half the battle lies in making the

attempt, in coming to this determined resolution, “God helping me, I will

teach the people by parables, by similes, by illustrations, by anything that

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will be helpful to them; and I will seek to be are thoroughly interesting

preacher of the Word.”

I earnestly hope you will practice the art of making illustrations. I will try

to prepare a little set of exercises for you to do week by week. I shall give

you some subject, and some object, between which there is a likeness; and

I shall get you to try to see the resemblance, and to find out what

comparisons can be instituted between them. I shall also, if I can, give you

some subject without an object, and then say to you, “Illustrate that; tell us,

for instance, what virtue is like.” Or, sometimes, I may give you the object

without the subject, thus, — “A diamond; how will you use that as an

illustration?” Then, sometimes, I may give you neither the subject nor the

object, but just say, “Bring me an illustration.” I think we might, in this

way, make a set of exercises which would be very useful to you all.

The way to get a mind worth having is to get one well stored with things

worth keeping. Of course, the man who has the most illustrations in his

head, will be the one who will use the most illustrations in his discourses.

There are some preachers who have the bump of illustration fully

developed; they are sure to illustrate their subject, they cannot help it.

There are some men who always see “likes”; they catch a comparison long

before others see it. If any of you say that you are not good at illustrating, I

reply, “My brother, you must try to grow horns if you have not any on

your head.” You may never be able to develop any vast amount of

imagination or fancy if you do not possess it at the first, just as it is hard to

make a cheese out of a millstone, — but by diligent attention to this matter,

you may improve upon what you now are. I do believe that some fellows

have a depression in their craniums where there ought to be a bump. I

knew a young man, who tried hard to get into this College; but he never

saw how to join things together unless he tied them by their tails. He

brought out a book; and when I read it, I found at once that it was full of

ray stories and illustrations; that is to say, every illustration or story in the

book was one that had used, but there was not one of them that was

related as it ought to have been. This man had so told the story that it was

not there at all; the very point which I had brought out he had carefully

omitted, and every bit of it was told correctly except the one thing that was

the essence of the whole. Of course, I was glad that I did not have that

brother in the College; he might, have been an ornament to us by his

deficiencies, but we can do without such ornaments, indeed, we have had

enough of them already.

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Finally, dear brethren, do try with all your might to get the power to see a

parable, a simile, an illustration, wherever it is to be seen; for to a great

extent this is one of the most important qualifications of the man who is to

be a public speaker, and especially of the man who is to be an efficient

preacher of the gospel of Christ. If the Lord Jesus made such frequent use

of parables, it must be right for us to do the same.

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LECTURE 5.

CYCLOPAEDIAS OF ANECDOTES

AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

IN my last lecture, I promised to give you a list of cyclopaedias of

anecdotes and illustrations, so far as they are at present known to me; and I

hope, on another occasion, to tell you about books that contain fables,

emblems, and parables. For this afternoon, we must confine our attention

to collections of anecdotes and illustrations which have been compiled

specially for the use of ministers and Christian workers in general.

I do not know what book of illustrations the apostle Paul used. He had

some books, for he wrote to Timothy, “The cloke that I left at Troas with

Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially

the parchments.” The books may have been various Latin and Greek works

that Paul needed for reference, and the parchments were, possibly, the

original manuscripts of his epistles; but, whatever they were, he did not like

to lose them, so he asked his son Timothy to bring them to him. The

parchments may have been his notes of illustrations that he had jotted

down in his journeyings, or his commonplace-book, such as I have advised

you all to make. At all events, whatever the earliest preachers had, we

know that books of illustrations, metaphors, and similes, have been issued

for centuries. Those of you who can read Latin easily, may find a great

store of such works. While I was arranging the material for this lecture, I

received a catalogue of nearly three hundred books of emblems, and similar

publications, printed in Latin, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, and German;

but any man who wished to make a collection of such works would need

more money than usually falls to the lot of Baptist pastors.

For us poor English people, the first cyclopaedia that I should recommend

is SPENCER’S Things New and Old. This is a book, you know, which was

scarcely purchasable till Mr. Dickinson reprinted it (after revision by

Revelation J. O. Pilkington, M.A.), bound up with CAWDRAY’S Similes, in

a very bulky volume of 1,112 pages. The original title-page explains the

character of the work, so I will read the description in full, though it is

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rather long: — Things New and Old; or, a Storehouse of Similes,

Sentences, Allegories, Apophthegms, Apologues, Adages, Divine, Moral,

Political, etc., — with their several applications. Collected and Observed

from the writings and Sayings of the Learned in All Ages to the Present.

By John Spencer, a Lover of Learning and Learned Men. With Preface by

Thomas Fuller. This book, published in 1658, was compiled by a man who

was librarian at Sion College more than two centuries ago. I find that

Spencer was elected librarian, September 2, 1634, and with certain

interruptions, during which he was suspended or discharged, and then reappointed,

he occupied the post till his death in 1680. Being for such a

long period in charge of that very remarkable collection of valuable books,

he made extracts from them, and thus prepared this volume. It was a very

happy circumstance for me that John Spencer should have happened to be

the librarian of that institution, and that he should have compiled so good a

book; for I have always been able to make good use of it.

Years ago, I recommended this volume to the students, and several of them

have since told me that they thought I made a mistake in doing so. They

bought the book on my recommendation, but they did not care for it, and

they have sold it. I ought to be impressed by their very valuable opinions;

but I am not, for I like Spencer still. Some of his illustrations are very

queer, cramped, and antique; and if a man does not take the trouble to trim

and shape them into more modern form, he cannot use them. They require

labor to make them of service; but, when I praised the book, I thought that,

if a sensible man could get hold of even the tail of an illustration or

anecdote, it would be enough for him to make something out of it for

himself; and therefore I recommended Spencer. On looking over the

volume again, I must admit that there are many things in it that are not now

usable; but I am also quite certain that, to me, it has been a great thoughtbreeding

book. It has often started me with an illustration that I should

never else have thought of; therefore I have good reason to speak well of

it. I opened my volume again this morning, just to see whether I was

mistaken or not, because I have great faith in the judgment of all the

students who go out of this College; and, on further examination and

consideration, I have come to the conclusion that I was fight in my first

estimate of the work.

Let me read to you No. 11., on page 4: —

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AFFLICTION FROM GOD IS FOR HIS CHILDREN’S GOOD.

“A tender-hearted father, walking with his little son, I suppose in

the City, when he perceives him gaze up and down, and wander

from him, withdraws himself behind some pillar, or hides himself in

some corner of the street, not that he means to lose him, but to

make him cry and seek after him, and keep closer to him

afterwards; so doth our heavenly Father with us. He correcteth

every son whom he loveth; he hides himself, and, as it were, pulls in

the beams of his gracious favor for a time, when we are rambling

about in our thoughts, and roving in our imaginations; but it is to

make us cry after him the louder, and keep closer to him for the

time to come, and walk more circumspectly than ever we did

before.”

I think that is a very pretty illustration. You have often seen a parent or a

nurse thus act with the children. In like manner, God sometimes hides

himself from us for a while that we may be made to cling the more closely

to him afterwards.

Here is another of Spencer’s illustrations, No. XVII., on the next page to

the one I just gave you: —

THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT SPIRITUAL AND CARNAL PRAYERS,

IN RESPECT OF ANSWER.

“Children shoot arrows on purpose to lose them, and never so

much as look where they light; but men, when they shoot, aim at

the mark, and go after the arrow, to see how near it falls. So,

wicked, carnal men, when they have said, not made, their prayers

to Almighty God, it is but opus operatum; they have no more

regard of them. But God’s children, when they, upon the bended

knees of their souls, dart out their prayers, when they pour out their

requests unto him, they look after their prayers, eye them up into

heaven, observe how God entertains them, and wait for a happy

return at his good will and pleasure.”

Therein you have a true idea of prayer, as the psalmist puts it in Psalm 5:3:

“In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” That

would be a good text for you to preach from on Sunday. The idea is that

the suppliant is like a man with a bow and arrow, taking aim, directing his

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prayer unto God, and then looking up to see where it goes, and watching

also to see what answer is coming down in response to his supplication

Take another illustration from the same page: —

GOD’S KNOWLEDGE AND MAN’S KNOWLEDGE,

THE DIFFERENCE IN VIEWING THINGS.

“In a sheet almanack, a man may, uno intuitu (at one view), see all

the months in the year, both past and to come; but in a book

almanack, as he turneth to one month so he turneth from another,

and can but look only on the present. This is the true difference

betwixt the knowledge of God and man. He looketh in one instant

of time to things past, present, and future; but the knowledge of

man reacheth only to a few things past and present, but knoweth

nothing at all of things that are to come. That is God’s prerogative

so to do, and a piece of learning too high for any mortal man to

attain unto.”

That seems to me to be a beautiful picture, looking on the whole year at

once as on a sheet almanack, instead of seeing only a page at a time as in a

book almanack. Thus, to God’s all-seeing eye, events, past, present, and to

come, all stand out dearly revealed, while our restricted vision perceives

but little of the past and present, and nothing of the future.

To No. 23., Spencer prefixes this title, “The Danger of Trusting to Worldly

Greatness in Time of Distress,” and upon this subject he says: —

“As a traveler in a storm that, for shelter against the weather,

steppeth out of the way, betaketh him to a fair spread oak, standeth

under the boughs, with his back close to the body of it, and findeth

good relief thereby for the space of some time, till at length cometh

a sudden gust of wind, that teareth down a main arm of it, which,

falling upon the poor traveler, either maimeth or mischieveth him

that resorted to it for succor; thus falleth it out with not a few,

meeting in the world with many troubles, and with manifold

vexations, they step aside out of their own way, and too often out

of God’s, to get under the wing of some great one, and gain, it may

be, some aid and shelter thereby for a season, but after a while that

great one himself, coming down headlong, and falling from his

former height of favor and honor, they are also called in question,

and so fall together with him, that might other — wise have stood

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long enough on their own legs, if they had not trusted to such an

arm of flesh, such a broken staff that deceived them.”

Well, brethren, you need not use that metaphor exactly as Spencer does;

though I think he turns it to good account. Many a man does go under a

tree for shelter from the storm, and then a bough of that tree falls on him to

his injury. This would be a good illustration of Isaiah 30:1 - 3: “Woe to the

rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and

that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to

sin: that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to

strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the

shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame,

and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.”

This book, Things New and Old, is almost full of good things such as I

have read to you. I have taken them just as my eye caught them; I have not

attempted to make a selection from the 2,283 illustrations that are here

given. Therefore, I still persist in recommending this work to you; and I

hope it will prove as helpful to you as it has long been to me.

CAWDRAY is not so good as Spencer by a long way; his illustrative extracts

are of a very different class. You cannot get Spencer without Cawdray, as

the two are bound together; and, therefore, though he is not so useful as

Spencer, you must take him as being given into the bargain. His book was

printed in 1609; its full title is: A Treasury; or, Storehouse of Similes both

Pleasant, Delightful, and Profitable, for all Estates of Men in General.

Newly-collected into Heads and Commonplaces. /By Robert Caw-dray.

Here is a sample of his selections: —

ADVERSITY BETTERETH THE GODLY, BUT MAKETH

THE WICKED WORSE.

“Even as full wheat in the ear falleth out with the least motion of

the sheaf, but that which is somewhat shrunk more hardly leaveth

the husk, while that which is altogether shrunk will rather go to the

chaff than go out of the ear; so, a sincere-hearted Christian, with

the least affliction, leaveth his sin, and flieth to God. The weaker

Christian more hardly doth the same; but the apostate will rather

burn with unquenchable fire than forsake his beloved sin, that so he

may turn to God.”

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I think that is a very good illustration, because every thresher must know

that there is this difference between the grains of wheat, and there certainly

is such a contrast as Cawdray points out between the effect of affliction

upon believers and the ungodly.

Another pretty illustration is the one numbered 12.: —

AFFLICTION.

“As a piece of brass, being stricken with a hammer upon the anvil

or stithy, breaketh, and withal maketh a sharp and irksome noise;

so, when a hypocrite cometh betwixt the anvil and the hammer of

troubles and affliction, he breaketh with impatience, he murmureth,

crieth out, and lamenteth in blasphemies against God.”

No, if I am examining a book, I do not mind if I have to read twenty pages

before I find one illustration that I can use; I feel rewarded when I meet

with that one, and you must do the same, brethren. Books of illustration

are very much like hymn-books, and books of tunes. There is not a hymnbook

which you ever think of singing through from beginning to end.

There is not a book of tunes extant of which anybody ever sings more than

one in three; even in a collection like Mr. Sankey’s, you would not want to

sing all the pieces. Well, so is it with books of illustrations. Yet, though

you do not sing all the hymns or tunes in any book, somebody else prefers

those which you do not sing, and so the whole selection may be useful to

someone or other. In like manner, you might say of any cyclopaedia of

illustrations, “I could only use twenty of the metaphors here;” but

somebody else, who was less wise than you, might be able to utilize forty;

while another preacher, who had not half as many brains as you had,

managed to secure fifty; and there might even be some brethren who could

find a hundred illustrations where you very clever gentlemen only saw

twenty. There is no harm in having a rather larger supply than you yourself

need; for what you do not use another preacher may.

Here is another of Cawdray’s similes: —

A REGENERATE MAN FALLETH NOT FINALLY’.

“As with a man in travelling from Berwick to London, it may be

that, now and then, he doth go amiss, and out of his way, but he

speedily returns to the way again, and his course generally shall be

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right; even so, it is the property of the regenerate man to walk

according to the Spirit, which does not mean now and then to make

a step forward, but to keep his ordinary course in the way of

godliness.”

Well, brethren, we have probably found that to be true in our own case; if

we have ever gone aside from the right path, I trust that we have speedily

returned to the way of holiness.

I think this must suffice for Spencer’s Things New and Old, and

CAWDRAY’S Similes, published by Mr. Dickinson.

Before Mr. Dickinson reprinted this book, as Spencer’s volume was

extremely dear, and not obtainable by the general public, a Mr. SALTER

brought out a sort of hash of Spencer, with some modern illustrations

intermingled with the older extracts. The title that he gave to his work was,

The Book of Illustrations; or, Scripture Truths Exhibited by the Aid of

Similes, Original and Selected. By the Revelation H. G. Salter, A.M.,

Curate and Lecturer of Glastonbury. It was published by Messrs. Hatchard

and Son. I see that, in 1858, I wrote in my copy, “A right good book, but

not so good as precious old Spencer.” This worthy clergyman, in making

his book, imagined himself to be walking in an untrodden path, and in

attempting the work of collecting metaphors, he thought he should get

very little reward, lie considered that it required no small degree of moral

courage to undertake such a task, because, as he said: — “It is safer to

follow others. The fact that the public are not in possession of some work

of this nature, would discourage most men; and the enquiry, why it was ,o,

would present an obstacle at the beginning. But the request of some,

eminent in judgment, to publish on the subject, which originated the idea,

strengthened by the unanimous approval of those whom I consulted,

overcame my hesitation. Indeed, the desire to possess a full collection of

illustrations, I found, was very general with the clergy to whom it was

mentioned.

“But another and a greater discouragement will be found in the subjectmatter.

Its materials cannot be subjected to the just decisions of Reason,

but the capricious judge to be appealed to is Taste. Whether any particular

illustration should be admitted or rejected, can hardly be decided by

Reason. There are no fixed principles to try it by; it will be liked or disliked

often without any assignable grounds. As our tastes and fancies vary, so

will be our approval or otherwise. So various is the character of men’s

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minds, that it would be impossible to obtain a uniform judgment. Some

illustrations, of singular point and beauty, might secure universal approval;

but this excellence cannot be expected to belong to illustrations in general,

any more than to other subjects. Here, then, we must surrender at

discretion to the taste of our judge. In general, the standard of Taste has

been tolerably adjusted. Here it. is otherwise.”

Mr. Salter made a very good index to his book, and he used scarcely

anything except Spencer; but what he did use that was not Spencer’s was

well chosen, and selected from writers of considerable repute. There are

many good stories in [he volume. Here is one which I have no doubt you

know, but which, possibly, you may never have seen used in this way: —

SELF- RIGHTEOUSNESS.

“Sir James Thornhill was the person who painted the inside of the

cupola of St. Paul’s, London. After having finished one of the

compartments, he stepped back gradually, to see how it would look

at a distance. He receded so far (still keeping his eye intently fixed

on the painting), that he had gone almost to the very edge of the

scaffolding without perceiving it; had he continued to retire, half a

minute more would have completed his destruction, and he must

have fallen to the pavement underneath. A person present, who saw

the danger the great artist was in, had the happy presence of mind

to suddenly snap up one of ‘the brushes, and spoil his painting by

rubbing it over. Sir James, transported with rage, sprang forward to

save the remainder of the piece; but his anger was soon turned into

thanks, when the person said to him, ‘Sir, by spoiling the painting, I

have saved the life of the painter. You had advanced to the

extremity of the scaffold without knowing it. Had I called out to

you to apprise you of your danger, you would naturally have turned

to look behind you, and the surprise of finding yourself in such a

dreadful situation would have made you fall indeed. I had,

therefore, no other method of saving you but by acting as I did.’

“Similar, if I may so speak, is the method of God’s dealing with his

people. We are all naturally fond of our own legal performances.

We admire them to our ruin; unless the Holy Spirit retrieve us from

our folly. This he does by marring, as it were, our best works; by

showing us their insufficiency to justify us before God. When we

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are ‘truly taught of God, we thank him for his grace instead of

being angry at having our idols defaced. The only way by which we

are saved from everlasting destruction, is by being made to see that

‘by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his

sight.’”

I suppose that our ministerial fathers, two generations ago, used to be very

well satisfied with Buck’s Anecdotes. The full title of the book is,

Anecdotes, Religious, Moral, and Entertaining; Alphabetically Arranged,

and Interspersed with a Variety of Useful Observations. Selected by the

late Rev. Charles Buck. It was published by Messrs. Longman, Brown,

Green, and Longmans. The date of my copy is 1842, and the work had at

that time reached the tenth edition; so I judge that it had. a good long run.

I do not see very much in the anecdotes; and I expect the reason why they

do not particularly impress me now is that I know, most of them by heart.

If the stories were just a little older, they would be almost as useful as if

they were new; but they have reached that period in which they are apt to

be considered stale. Still, there are among them some anecdotes that have

not been used more than once a week lately, and therefore can be brought

out again. Here is an old story which, I suppose, you have often heard: —

THE WORLD A SEA.

“A friend of the famous Mr. J. Dod being raised from a mean estate

to much worldly greatness, Mr. Dod sent him word that this was

but like going out of a boat into a ship; and he should remember

that, while he was in the world he was still on the sea. Let us, then,

wisely prepare for difficulties, and learn to cast all our cares on him

who holds the winds in his fists, who stills the waves of the sea, and

who has promised to guide his people safe into the haven of rest.”

Here is an anecdote, rather clumsily told, about —

A PRECOCIOUS BOY.

“A child, six years of age, being introduced into company for his

extraordinary abilities, was asked, by a dignified clergyman, ‘where

God was?’ with the proffer of an orange. ‘Tell me,’ replied the boy,

‘where he is not, and I will give you two.’”

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‘Well, there are many stories as good as these two; and possibly some of

them may be quite new to your congregations. If you can obtain a copy of

this book, it may be worth your while to secure it; indeed, you should

make it a rule that, whenever you see books of anecdotes to be sold

cheaply, you should add them to your library if you can spare the money,

for they are among the things that are indispensable to yore

The next good man who did much to furnish ministers with illustrations

was Mr. John Whitecross. Whitecross’s Anecdotes are always to be had at

a reasonable price. There are three volumes of them; their full titles are,

Anecdotes Illustrative of A Select Passage in Each Chapter of the Old

Testament; Anecdotes Illustrative of Select Passages in each Chapter of

the New Testament; and Anecdotes Illustrative of the Assembly’s Shorter

Catechism. They were published in Edinburgh by Messrs. Oliphant and

Co., and in London by Messrs. Hamilton, Adams, and Co.

The plan of arrangement in Whitecross’s Anecdotes differs from the

method adopted in the books I have previously mentioned, for the. stories

are put under selected passages of Scripture instead of under subjects or

topics. In the Old Testament, for instance, Mr. Whitecross begins with

Genesis, and he gives one anecdote illustrating verse sixteen of the first

chapter of that Book, another on verse three of the second chapter, another

on verse fifteen of the third chapter, and so on; some of the anecdotes

being appropriate to the text, and some of them not so suitable, Here is an

anecdote that is given as an illustration of Genesis 8:22: —

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and

summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

“A minister, going to church one Lord’s-day morning, when the

weather was extremely cold and stormy, was overtaken by one of

his neighbors, who, shivering, said to him, ‘It’s very cold, sir.’

‘Oh!’ replied the minister, ‘God is as good as his word still.’ The

other started at his remark, not apprehending his drift, or what he

referred to; and[asked him what he meant. ‘Mean?’ replied he,

‘why, he promised, above three thousand years ago, and still he

makes his word good, that while the earth remaineth, seedtime and

harvest, and cold and heat, shall not cease.”

Well, that is an interesting anecdote to tell on a wintry Sabbath morning;

but there is not much in it. Neither are most of the anecdotes given in these

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books very remarkable; but many of them may be useful. Do not, however,

say that the incidents happened to you, as I have known some preachers

do. Why, I actually heard, not long ago, of a minister, who said that a

certain thing occurred to him the other day, and yet I told the original story

twenty years ago I ‘When I related it, I said that it had been my experience

the other day, and I believed it was so; but after hearing that this man says

it happened to him, it makes me question whether it really did occur to me

at all. I think it is a great pity for a preacher, or any speaker, to try to make

a story appear interesting by saying that the incident related happened to

him, when it really did not. Scrupulous truthfulness should always

characterize every one who stands up to proclaim the truth of God.

Here is a good story, and there are others of a similar character, which are

both valuable and usable. This is intended to illustrate the fourth verse of

the one hundred and thirtieth Psalm: —

“There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.”

“One Mr. Davies, a young man, being under religious impressions,

opened his mind to Dr. Owen. In the course of conversation, Dr.

Owen said, ‘Young man, pray, in what manner do you think to go

to God?’ Mr. Davies replied, ‘Through the Mediator, sir.’ ‘That is

easily said,’ observed Dr. Owen; ‘but I assure you, it is another

thing to go to God through the Mediator, than many who make use

of the expression are aware of. I myself preached some years, while

I had but very little, if any, acquaintance with access to God

through Christ, until the Lord was pleased to visit me with a sore

affliction, by which I was brought to the brink of the grave, and

under which my mind was filled with horror; but God was

graciously pleased to relieve my soul by a powerful application of

Psalm 130:4. “But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest

be feared.” From this text I received special light, peace, and

comfort, in drawing near to God through the Mediator; and on this

text I preached immediately after my recovery.’ Perhaps to this

exercise of mind we owe his excellent exposition of this Psalm.”

There are also, in Whitecross’s Anecdotes, some very beautiful

experimental pieces from the great divines; and therefore I recommend you

to purchase them if you can.

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THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY published twelve small volumes of

anecdotes, at one and fourpence each. I suppose, therefore, you can buy

them for one shilling each. They should not be reckoned dear at that price,

and each volume ought to supply you ‘with many anecdotes. If you only

pick one or two pearls out of each of these oyster-shells, it will be worth all

you pay for it. The anecdotes in these books are arranged according to

topics, each volume being devoted to one subject: — Admonitions,

Christian Conduct, Christian Graces, Christian Ministers, Christian

Missions, Holy Scriptures, Miscellaneous, Providence, Religious Tracts,

Social Life Sunday Schools, and The Young. The copy which I have in my

hand is on the Holy Scriptures. I will only detain you with one extract; but

I know that there is quite a good selection of anecdotes here, so that, if

you had to speak at a Bible Society meeting in the country, this book

would be sure to furnish you with most of the materials for a speech. This

is the story that I had noted to read to you from this volume: —

FATHER FULGENTIO.

“Father Fulgentio, the friend and biographer of the celebrated Paul

Sarpi, both of them secret friends of religious reformation, was

once preaching upon Pilate’s question, What is truth? ‘when he told

the audience that he had, at last, after many searches, found it out;

and, holding forth a New Testament, said, ‘Here it is, my friends;’

but added sorrowfully, as he returned it to his pocket, ‘It is a sealed

book! ‘It has since been the glory of the Reformation to break the

seal which priestcraft had imposed upon it, and to lay its blessed

treasures open to mankind.”

‘There are some anecdotes in the other volumes which are well worth

telling; here is one from the collection entitled Social Life: —

MARSHAL DE BASSOMPTRE,

“The Marshal de Bassomptre said to one of his officers, ~ How old

are you? ‘‘ I cannot tell exactly,’ said the captain; ‘but I am either

thirty-eight or forty-eight.’ ‘How is it,’ asked the marshal, ‘that you

are so ignorant in a concern that every person finds pleasure in

knowing? ‘‘ Why,’ said the captain, ‘I keep an exact account of my

rents, and what is owing to me, for fear of being cheated; but I

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never trouble my head about my years, because nobody can rob me

of them!’

“Poor man! did he not know that he was robbed of his precious time every

day and every hour? It is gone, too, beyond recovery. If a thief steals our

money, it is possible we may get it again; but time that is past never

returns: life that is wasted is gone for ever. Learn, then, to turn to account

every passing hour.”

I cannot very strongly recommend the twelve volumes, as a whole; still, a

shilling is not much to pay for such a store of stories as each of these little

books contains, so you will do well to add. them to your library.

The book of all books of anecdotes is Arvine’s Cyclopedia of Moral and

Religious Anecdotes: a Collection of nearly Three Thousand Facts,

Incidents, Narratives, Examples, and Testimonies. I took in my copy of

Arvine, many years ago, from the Primitive Methodists, who brought it out

in sixpenny numbers. The edition corrected and authorized by Mr. Arvine

is the one edited by Rev. John Flesher, and published by Mr. George Lamb,

Sutton Street, London, E. Arvine’s work is really a perfect cyclopaedia.

After using it for many years, I am still of opinion that scarcely anything

better in the way of a collection of anecdotes has come out since. The

arrangement and classification of the subjects are excellent, and the

copious topical and textual indexes are admirable. You, gentlemen, who

are very enthusiastic retailers, will find this book exactly to your taste; in

parts, it is as dry as a furnace, and some of the anecdotes are sufficiently

strong for the most ardent abstainer. It is a capital book for all that; and I

should like, for once, to read a volume in which the evils of intemperance

are overdrawn. There is a book, called The Devil’s Chain, written by Mr.

Edward Jenkins, M.P., the author of Ginx’s Baby; but terrible as are the

descriptions in that book, the dreadful doings of drink are not exaggerated.

When I was a boy, I went to Madame Tussaud’s, and paid sixpence extra

to go into the chamber of horrors; but I always thought that I had not my

full sixpennyworth; but when I read The Devil’s Chain, I had horrors

enough there. I do not think anyone could portray all the evils of

intemperance, or of the drink system. ‘This book of Arvine’s is none the

worse, but all the better, for the anecdotes about drunkenness, for those of

you who do not want to use these wonderful stories about intemperance,

can let ‘them alone; and you who do need them for your temperance

addresses, can find plenty of them here.

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! suppose that most of you are well acquainted with Arvine; but I will give

you two of his anecdotes, one showing the doctrinal position of the editor,

and the other giving rather an amusing description of how a preacher

practically “improved the opportunity” of occupying the pulpit o£ a brother

minister: —

RIDDLE’S DYING TESTIMONY.

“Mr. Edward Riddle, an aged Christian in Hull, remarked, a few

days before his death, to one who was present, ‘Some may suppose

that a person at my time of life, and after so long making a

profession of religion, has nothing to do but to die and go to

heaven; but I find that I have as much need to go to God through

Christ, as a sinner, at the last hour as at the beginning. The blood of

Christ, the death of Christ, his victory and fullness, are my only

ground of faith, hope, and confidence; there is the same need of him

to be the Finisher of my faith as there was for him to be the Author

of it.’”

The editor inserts the following foot-note to the paragraph about going to

God as a sinner; but you and I, brethren, will agree with good old Mr.

Riddle: —

“This and similar views are not ours: we believe that Christians may live

without sin; still, other people have as much right to their belief as we have

to ours.”

THE PULPIT WINDOW AND CUSHION REPAIRED.

“The Rev. Zabeliel Adams at one time exchanged with a

neighboring minister, — a mild, inoffensive man, — who, knowing

the peculiar bluntness of his friend’s character, said to him, ‘You

will find some panes of glass broken in the pulpit window, and

possibly you may suffer from the cold. The cushion, too, is in a bad

condition; but I beg of you. not to say anything to my people on the

subject; they are poor,’ etc. ‘Oh, no! Oh, no! ‘said Mr. Adams; but

ere he left home, he filled a bag with rags, and took it with him.

When he had been in the pulpit a short time, feeling somewhat

incommoded by the too free circulation of the air, he deliberately

took from the bag a handful of rags, and stuffed them into the

window. Towards the close of the discourse, which was more or

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less upon the duties of a people towards their minister, he became

very animated, and purposely brought down both fists; upon the

pulpit cushions, with a tremendous force. The feathers flew in all

directions, and the cushion became nearly featherless. He instantly

checked the current of his thoughts, and simply exclaimed, ‘Why,

how these feathers fly,’ and then proceeded. He had fulfilled his

promise of not addressing the Society on the subject; but he had

taught the members a lesson not to be misunderstood. On the next

Sabbath, the window and cushion were found in excellent repair.”

Messrs. Gould and Lincoln, Boston, U.S.A., published another cyclopaedia

of Arvine’s, which I do not think has been reprinted in England. It contains

3,040 illustrations, and is entitled: A Cyclopcedia of Anecdotes of

Literature and the Fine Arts; Containing a Copious and Choice Selection

of Anecdotes of the Various Forms of Literature, of the Arts of

Architecture, Engravings, Music, Poetry, Painting, and Sculpture, and of

the Most Celebrated Literary Characters and Artists of different Countries

and Ages, etc. By Kazlitt Arvine, A.M. You should get it if you can.

Dr. CHEEVER brought out a book of anecdotes, but all, or nearly all of

them, were taken from Arvine. Do not buy Cheever if you have Arvine,

because Cheever is simply a hashing-up of the cold cabbage of Arvine.

What a good thing it is for those who are preparing books of anecdotes today

that so many have been published before! This saves them the trouble

of making illustrations, and they have only to pick out as many as they

choose from the books that have been already issued. That is the way

people do when they are making collections of anecdotes; each man takes

the stories of other people who came before him, so that, if you have many

of such books, you get some of the illustrations over, and over, and over

again. Cheever borrowed from Arvine, and Arvine from Whitecross, or

Buck, or Spencer; and where White-cross and the others borrowed theirs, I

do not know; but there must have been some primeval Whitecross, or

Buck, or Spencer, or Arvine, or someone else, from whom all the others

stole their good things.

Another large collection of illustrations is Bate’s Cyclopoedia. It is

entitled: A Cyclopcedia of Illustrations of Moral and Religious Truths

(Alphabetically Arranged); Consisting of Definitions, Metaphors, Similes,

Emblems, Contrasts, Analogies, Statistics, Synonyms, Anecdotes, etc., etc.

By John Bate. It was originally published by Messrs. Tresidder and Co.,

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but is now in the hands of Messrs. Jarrold and Sons. If anybody praises Mr.

Bate’s cyclopaedia very highly, I should have to a-bate his praise

somewhat. Still, it is not a bad collection of anecdotes, and it has some

very good things in it. It has a good deal of Arvine in it, and some

Whitecross in it, and some Buck in it, and it has some of Keach’s

Metaphors in it. It has also some of Dr. Guthrie’s illustrations; in fact, it

contains a great many very good things, but there is also a considerable

number that nobody could use, or would ever think of using. They help to

make the book bigger, and increase its price; and, I hope, they also increase

the pay of the good man who made the book, which is a very desirable and

proper result. Our friend Bate is a Wesleyan, and there is just the slightest

Wesleyan tinge in his volume. Of course, you who are not Wesleyans can

do with this book what I advised those who are not teetotallers to do with

Arvine; you can pass by anything that you do not like. This is not the best

collection of illustrations that ever was made; but it is very good in its way.

Then followed a book by the Rev. Elon Foster, of New York, bearing the

title, Hebrew Cyclopedia of Illustrations, which Messrs. Dickinson and

Higham brought out; but Mr. Foster, being an American, had appropriated