Illustrations in Sermons
By The Watchman
ILLUSTRATIONS, comparisons, metaphors, anecdotes, in a discourse have been likened to the windows in a room. That is a true similitude. But it happens with many anecdotes in sermons as with the windows in Gothic churches; they are put in more to display the colored glass than to reveal the interior. The true, white light, through plain glass, reveals other things, and draws no attention to itself. When, after a sermon, you hear chiefly this, “What beautiful illustrations he used!” it may remind you of the meeting-house in which people said, “What a lovely rose-window!” but you could not see to read the hymn. “Whatsoever doth make manifest is light.” If your anecdote really makes the subject clear, put it in.—The Watchman.