The Art of IllustrationSpurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon)
Religion
The Art of Illustration
Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon)
Homiletical illustrations; Preaching
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 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 fulness, 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.
_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 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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