The Art of IllustrationSpurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon)
Religion
The Art of Illustration
Spurgeon, C. H. (Charles Haddon)
Homiletical illustrations; Preaching
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
well-chosen anecdotes. Time calls upon me to have done, and how can I
come to a better close 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 well 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 three extracts from the little book entitled "Arrows
and Anecdotes by D. L. Moody."
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, 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, 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 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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