F OR T H E S E R M O N , B I B L E R E A D I N G , G O S P E L A D D R E S S
H o MI LET I CAL H e l p s
B y W I L L I A M E V A N S
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ILLUSTRATIONS AND THEIR USE (Continued)
lyn, a God full of sympathy for men’s weaknesses and helpfulness for their daily trials !” No sensible person casts any slur upon the use of illustrations in preaching. Men do complain sometimes, and rightly so, as to their source. That illustrations be fresh, new, helpful, and gathered as the manna was—fresh every day, is what the audience asks, and has a right to expect. Held-over, stoGk illustrations soon run to seed like a pansy garden,, whose owner refuses to pluck the blossoms. 2 . Illustrations Should Be Simple. How simple and easy of comprehension Christ's illustrations were. Any one, even a child, could understand them. The same should be said of the illustrations we use. It has been well said that the illustrations used in the average sermon “are so often cumbered with scientific learning and his toric lore, so that like a stained glass win dow in a cathedral, however beautiful in pattern, they let in little light. But when Christ built up His discourses, doctrines were the pillars,' and illustrations the open windows to flood the whole with sunshine.” 3 . They Should Be within the Compre hension of the Audience. This is more than can be said of many sermons and illustrations used in these days.. Not long ago a young minister from one of our universities spent about ten min utes of the sermon time illustrating the doc trine. he was inculcating by referring his audience—rwhich, Iby the way, was com posed of farmers in a village remote-from a .city Of any ,size—to some latest discov ery in science with which-they had abso-
III.
SUGGESTIONS AND CAUTIONS WITH REGARD TO THE USE OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Beware of Books of Stock Illustra
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tions. Avoid the practice of feathering your arrows with illustrations from such books. The book of life and nature is open before you ; make your own illustrations. Said the late, Henry Ward BeecHer: “Do you suppose I study old musty books when I want to preâch? I study you. When I want to deliver a discourse on theology I study you. When I want to study more about the doctrine of depravity, I study you. When I want to know what is right and what is wrong, I see how you do, and I have abundant illustrations on every side.” Take another instance from Beecher. “He steps into a blacksmith’s shop, and watches the sparks fly for a few minutes, then to his study and his pulpit to talk about ‘the steel that has suffered most.’ If the black smith were there, he understood all about the effect of life’s discipline upon character —furnace, anvil, vise, the rasp, the emery, the hammer, were tools of which he knew well the operation. Beecher took his ser mons and illustrations from life instead of from books. He put the reposé of the granite hills, the smell of the new-mown hay, -the lowing of the cattle, and the gam bols of the lamb into them. Every sunset cloud effect he ever saw paid tribute to his sermons. The beggar was. there, the stu dent, the clerk in the store, and the waiter in the restaurant. He preached where peo ple lived. He brought God down into the streets and workshops and homes of Brook
See “How to Prepare Sermons and Gospel Addresses,” by the author
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