REV. C. PERREN, PH.D., FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY OF SCIENCE, LETTERS AND "Behold, a sower went forth to sow."-) Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by FLEMING H. REVELL, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PREFACE. This book, as its title suggests, is designed for practical use by the Christian worker. Its subjectmatter is threefold; thoughts to stimulate and excite the mind; themes to be elaborated and wrought out for public addresses; and illustrations to impress the thought and ornament the discourse. They are selections from a pastor's Note Book, gathered from various sources during a ministry of over a fourth of a century, and have often been used by him in his public ministrations, and frequently with blessed results in the conversion of sinners and the strengthening of the faith of God's dear children. Of the importance of illustrations little need be said, since they have always been used, and almost every work on Homiletics has a chapter devoted to the subject. The most eminent public speakers have used them freely, and our blessed Saviour, who "spake as never man spake," gave them His sacred sanction, by the use which He made of them in His unparalleled addresses. "It would be an interesting task to gather out all the gems of this kind scattered up and down through His discourses, independently of those peerless illustrations, the parables. Lilies, birds, a hen and her chickens, foxes, a vine, the light, a red sunset, or a lowering morning sky, the crumbs thrown to the 3 |