Pictures and Emblems - Illustrations for Sermons by Alexander Maclaren and published by Classics.
It will be acknowledged that illustrations have a place and a purpose in sermons. But illustrations should be selected with a reference to their force rather than their beauty, and be marked more by their homely propriety than by their grace and elegance. Whatever is pure is also simple because it does not focus on itself.
Effective illustrations will not divert the mind from the truth it is designed to illustrate. It is not like some gorgeous stained glass window, through which the light streams through, tinged with a thousand hues, which attracts to the pomp and splendour of the artist’s work but the window should be forgotten in the landscape it displays.
Dr Maclaren’s sermons have won a high place amongst our Christian classics, and the illustrations from those sermons which have been gathered in this volume are characterized by freshness and refined with a delicate beauty and are rich in devotional, not less than in practical lessons. It is hoped that this publication in a separate volume may be helpful and acceptable to all those who can appreciated what is beautiful and true in our best sermon literature.
