heads when a preacher, saying, "It is like," has
led his hearers into the fields where they had toiled during the
previous week? Often have we seen a mining congregation captured _en
bloc_ when some brother miner, speaking in native doric from the wagon
at a camp meeting, has taken them "doon the pit," or "in bye." We have
watched the faces of sea-going men gleam with a new interest as the
preacher drew a simile, or caught a metaphor from the mighty deep.
Only, in using such illustrations as these, let the user be quite
certain that he is _accurate_. One mistake about the farm, the mine,
the sea, and all is over! With accuracy as a quality constantly
present, those illustrations are most effective whose material is most
homely and familiar. Things startling, novel and foreign, may arouse
interest and excite wonder, but it will probably be at the expense of
that realisation of truth which was sought to be created. Jesus said
"Like unto leaven," "Like to a grain of mustard seed," "Behold a sower
went forth to sow," "Consider the lilies of the field." His hearers
saw these things every day. Perhaps they were in view as He spoke.
Finally, the less hackneyed our illustrations are, the better. If this
were more generally remembered we would miss, and that with a sense of
relief, a few grey-headed similes which, having haunted our youth,
threaten to haunt also our age; and which have assailed us so often as
to create the kind of familiarity that breeds contempt. In how many
Sunday school addresses--and a Sunday school address is preaching in a
way--in how many such addresses have we seen the twig bent; in how many
the giant oak which none can train? How often have we heard of that
boy in Holland who saved his country by the simple expedient of pushing
his finger into a hole in the dyke through which the dammed-up waters
had begun to escape? There is that other lad, too, who has come down
in history by reason of his insane resolve to climb "one niche the
higher"--how often have we been told his thrilling story? These two
boys are no longer young and have surely earned an honourable
superannuation. That little incident of Michael Angelo and the block
of marble from which he "let the angel out"--even that improving
narrative might with advantage be pigeon-holed for a generation or two.
The reason why these hardy perennials are seen in the gardens of so
many preachers must surely be, that every "Treasury of Illustratio