ouls would be
saved." The vast proportion of volumes of "Apologetics" are a waste of
ink and paper. If they could all be kindled into a huge bonfire, they
would shed more light than they ever did before. It is not our business
to answer every sceptic who shies a stone at the solid fortress of truth
in which God places His ambassadors. If Tobiah and Sanballat are
challenging us to come down into the plain, and meet them on their
level, our answer must ever be: "I am God's messenger, preaching God's
word and doing God's work. I cannot stop to go down and prove that your
swords are made of lath."

To my younger brethren I would say: "Preach the Word, preach it with all
your soul, preach it in the strength of Jehovah's Spirit, and He will
give it the victory."

I found the effectiveness of my sermons increased by the use of every
good illustration I could get hold of, but I tried to be careful that
they illustrated something. Where such are lugged into the sermon merely
for the sake of ornament, they are as much out of place as a bouquet
would be tied fast to a plough-handle. The Divine Teacher set us the
example of making vital truths intelligible by illustrations, when he
spoke so often in parables, and sometimes recalled historical incidents.
All congregations relish incidents and stories, when they are "pat" to
the purpose, and serious enough for God's house, and help to drive the
truth into the hearts of the audience During my early ministry I
delivered a discourse to young men at Saratoga Springs, and closed it
with a solemn story of a man who died of remorse at the exposure of his
crime. The Hon. John McLean, a judge of the United States Supreme Court
and a prominent man in the Methodist Church, was in the congregation,
and the next day I called at the United States Hotel to pay my respects
to him. He said to me, "My young friend I was very much interested in
that story last evening; it clinched the sermon. Our ministers in
Cincinnati used to introduce illustrative anecdotes, but it seems to
have gone out of fashion and I am sorry for it." I replied to him, "Well
Judge, I am glad to have the decision of the Supreme Court of the United
States in favor of telling a story or a personal incident in the
pulpit." There is one principle that covers all cases. It is this:
Whatever makes the Gospel or Jesus Christ more clear to the
understanding, more effective in arousing sinners, in converting souls,
in edifying believers