More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Since conversion is a divine work, we must take care that we depend entirely upon the Spirit of God, and look to Him for power over men’s minds.
This being fully admitted, what else should be done if we hope to see conversions? Assuredly we should be careful to preach most prominently those truths which are likely to lead to this end. What truths are those? I answer, we should first and foremost preach Christ, and Him crucified.
Teach the depravity of human nature. Show men that sin is not an accident, but the genuine outcome of their corrupt hearts.
We must also set before our hearers the justice of God and the certainty that every transgression will be punished.
Beloved brethren, we must be most of all clear upon the great soul-saving doctrine of the atonement; we must preach a real bona fide substitutionary sacrifice, and proclaim pardon as its result.
If men are to be saved, we must in plainest terms preach justification by faith, as the method by which the atonement becomes effectual in the soul’s experience. If we are saved by the substitutionary work of Christ, no merit of ours is wanted, and all men have to do is by a simple faith to accept what Christ has already done.
Preach earnestly the love of God in Christ Jesus, and magnify the abounding mercy of the Lord; but always preach it in connection with His justice.
use modes of handling those truths which are likely to conduce thereto.
First, you must do a great deal by way of instruction. Sinners are not saved in darkness but from it;
The best way to preach sinners to Christ is to preach Christ to sinners.
👍
The class requiring logical argument is small compared with the number of those who need to be pleaded with, by way of emotional persuasion.
Sometimes, too, we must change our tone. Instead of instructing, reasoning and persuading, we must come to threatening, and declare the wrath of God upon impenitent souls. We must lift the curtain and let them see the future. Show them their danger, and warn them to escape from the wrath to come. This done, we must return to invitation, and set before the awakened mind the rich provisions of infinite grace which are freely presented to the sons of men.
Do not close a single sermon without addressing the ungodly, but at the same time set yourself seasons for a determined and continuous assault upon them, and proceed with all your soul to the conflict.
Among the important elements in the promotion of conversion are your own tone, temper, and spirit in preaching.
Happy shall we be if we preach believingly, always expecting the Lord to bless his own word.
Preach very solemnly, for it is a weighty business, but let your matter be lively and pleasing, for this will prevent solemnity from souring into dreariness.
Mean conversions, expect them, and prepare for them. Resolve that your hearers shall either yield to your Lord or be without excuse, and that this shall be the immediate result of the sermon now in hand. Do not let the Christians around you wonder when souls are saved, but urge them to believe in the undiminished power of the glad tidings, and teach them to marvel if no saving result follows the delivery of the testimony of Jesus.
Impressed with a sense of their danger, give the ungodly no rest in their sins; knock again and again at the door of their hearts, and knock as for life and death. Your solicitude, your earnestness, your anxiety, your travailing in birth for them God will bless to their arousing.
With all that you can do your desires will not be fulfilled, for soul-winning is a pursuit which grows upon a man; the more he is rewarded with conversions the more eager he becomes to see greater numbers born unto God. Hence you will soon discover that you need help if many are to be brought in. The net soon becomes too heavy for one pair of hands to drag ashore when it is filled with fishes; and your fellow-helpers must be beckoned to your assistance.
To call in another brother every now and then to take the lead in evangelistic services will be found very wise and useful; for there are some fish that never will be taken in your net, but will surely fall to the lot of another fisherman.
In fine, beloved brethren, by any means, by all means, labour to glorify God by conversions, and rest not till your heart’s desire is fulfilled.
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 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.
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.
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.
Illustrations should really cast light upon the subject in hand, otherwise they are sham windows, and all shams are an abomination.
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.
Out of this last observation comes the further remark that illustrations are best when they are natural, and grow out of the subject.
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.
Gentlemen, take care that your windows are not broken, or even cracked: in other words, guard against confused metaphors and limping illustrations.
Dignity is a most poor and despicable consideration unless it be the dignity of turning many to righteousness;
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 honour and praise, and therefore try to please one or two great persons. When I preach I sink myself deep down.”
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.
He employed pure, good, flowing English; but he was as simple as if he spoke to children.
Arrows and Anecdotes by D. L. Moody, by John Lobb:
We use them, first, to interest the mind and secure the attention of our hearers.
second point, which is, that the use of anecdotes and illustrations renders our preaching life-like and vivid.
Our Lord’s teaching was amazingly life-like and vivid;
Thirdly, anecdotes and illustrations may be used to explain either doctrines or duties to dull understandings.
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.
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.
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,
Fifthly, another use of anecdotes and illustrations lies in the fact that they help the memory to grasp the truth.
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 material on which you are working?
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.
Still, a live illustration is better for appealing to the feelings of an audience than any amount of description could possibly be.
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.
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.
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.
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.
