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Let me begin by quoting one or two instances in which great modern preachers have used church history for interesting and effective illustrations. I select modern instances because this illustrative use of history is by no means common in the great classic preachers of past days. I find few or no instances of it in such preachers as Barrow, South, Tillotson, or even Jeremy Taylor.
There were some most interesting and effective pages with which Archdeacon Hare ended his sermons on 'The Victory of Faith." After mentioning apostles and martyrs, he went on to St. Polycarp; and the Syrian hermit Telemachus, and St. Ambrose, and St. Chrysostom, and St. Athanasius; and then continued to enforce his subject by such instances as these:
"By faith Gregory, when he saw the captive Angles, exclaimed that, were it only for their beauty, they ought to be received into the brotherhood of the angels, and sent Augustine to preach the Gospel in this land.
"By faith Boniface, leaving his home and refusing high ecclesiastical honors, went into the wilds of Germany to convert the heathen natives. By faith he cut down the huge oak of Thor while the people were raging tumultuously around, expecting that the vengeance of the god would burst upon his head. By faith he baptized one hundred thousand souls ... and met his martyrdom with patient joy. By faith the hermits Peter and St. Bernard stirred up the nations of Europe to march as one man ... and deliver the tomb of the Savior from the unbeliever.
"By faith Bonaventura, being asked in what books he had learnt his marvelous wisdom, pointed to his crucifix.
"By faith Elizabeth of Hungary, the daughter of kings, being left a widow at twenty, gave all she had to the poor, and dwelt among them as their servant.
"By faith the Waldensians retired among mountain fastnesses and dwelt in the caves of the Alps that they might keep their religion in undefiled purity ...
"By faith Wycliff, the morning star of the Reformation, rose out of the darkness, and heralded the coming daylight.
" By faith Luther proclaimed his Theses ... burnt the Pope's Bull ... went to the Diet at Worms ... translated the Bible.
"By faith Rogers, the protomartyr of the Reformation, when his wife and his eleven children met him on his way to the stake, and an offer of life and pardon were brought to him in their sight, walkt on with a stout heart and washt his hands in the flames ...
" By faith Oberlin went forth among the Vosges ... and spread the blessings of religion among the wild inhabitants.
"By faith Clarkson and Wilberforce overthrew the slave trade ...
"By faith Simeon preacht the Word of God in this town (Cambridge) through a long life of persevering activity ...
"And what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Ignatius, and Justin, and Cyprian, and Perpetua, and Basil, and Patrick, and Columban, and Bede, and Anselm, and Huss, and Melanchthon, and Zwingle, and Calvin, and Knox ... and Penn ... and Zinzendorf ... and Howard, and Henry Martyn."
I have greatly abridged a long passage, but this passage was remembered for years, and few University sermons produced greater effect than this.
By J. Wilbur Chapan, "Present Day Parables."
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