Lectures to My Students

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

There must be some “body” in every discourse, some really sound doctrine, some suitable instruction for our hearers to carry home; not merely stories to amuse them, but solid truth to be received in the heart, and wrought out in the life.

For instance, there is current history. You may take up the daily newspaper, and find illustrations there. In my little shilling book, The Bible and the Newspaper, I have given specimens of how this may be done;

You may sometimes adapt local history to the illustration of your subject.

Beside this, brethren, you have the marvellous storehouse of ancient and modern history—Roman, Greek, and English—with which, of course, you are seeking to become well acquainted.

What a fine field of illustration lies open to you in religious history!

exhausted,—you may then turn to natural history,

If you keep your eyes open, you will not see even a dog following his master, nor a mouse peeping up from his hole, nor will you hear even a gentle scratching behind the wainscot without getting something to weave into your sermons if your faculties are all on the alert.

I think it would be very useful to some of you who are not yet adept at the art of illustration if you were to read books in which there is an abundance of metaphor, simile, and emblem.

Pilgrim(s)

Gurnall’s Christian in Complete Armour, or Matthew Henry’s Commentary,

Keach’s Metaphors

You will probably have missed many; and you will be suprised to find that there are illustrations even in the words themselves.

Your selection of similes, metaphors, parables, and emblems will not be complete unless you also search the Scriptures to find the illustrations that are recorded there. Biblical allusions are the most effective methods of illustrating and enforcing the truths of the gospel;

I close it by advising you often to set yourself the task of making illustrations. Try to make comparisons from the things round about you.

ASTRONOMY

3A Discourse concerning Liturgies and their Imposition. Vol. XV. Owen’s Works, Goold’s Edition.