Required reading
Lectures to my students by Charles Spurgeon (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapter 3 (The use of anecdotes and illustrations).
My summary
This week Spurgeon continues to encourage us to use anecdotes and illustrations in our preaching.
He gives us seven reasons for their use: 'Now, gentlemen, these seven reasons — that they [anecdotes and illustrations] interest the mind and secure the attention of our hearers, that they render the teaching vivid and lifelike, that they explain some difficult passages to dull understandings, that they help the reasoning faculties of certain minds, that they aid the memory, that they arouse the feelings, and that they catch the ear of the careless — have reconciled me for many a day to the use of anecdotes and illustrations, and I think it is very likely that they will reconcile you to the use of them, too. '
What grabbed me
I appreciated the counsel against the use of too many anecdotes: 'At the same time, gentlemen, I must warn you against the danger of having too many anecdotes in any one sermon. You ought, perhaps, to have a dish of salad on the table ; but if you ask your friends to dinner, and give them nothing but salad, they will not fare very well, and will not care to come to your house again. '
Salad is helpful, but doctrinal meat is why we gather each Lord's day.
Next week's reading
Read Chapter 4 (Where can we find anecdotes and illustrations).
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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