to defend himself or make excuses or think of extenuating circumstances. We automatically search for a defense. Instead, Nathan used an illustration. He chose a good one, involving a pet lamb. David had been a shepherd boy and loved his sheep so much he fought a lion and a bear to protect them. He would feel keenly the injustice of the rich man’s cruel act. He passed judgment as an impartial person, not being personally involved. Or so he thought. Then, after he had rendered an incensed and impartial decision, he learned he was the guilty man. What could he say? He had already gone on record. He could only acknowledge the greatness of his sin, and Jehovah made him suffer keenly for it.

Today as we preach we bump into much prejudice. People have pet doctrines and their pride is keenly hurt to have to say they have been wrong for years. Prejudice keeps them from facing the Scriptural facts. Illustrations can be useful here. Here is one that may be used. You hear of a father that has a son who misbehaved. The boy’s wrong was serious; it must be punished. So you are told the father held the boy’s hand against a red-hot stove, actually cooking it. What do you think of that? Is that the act of a loving father, or of a fiend? Are you not nauseated by such horrible injustice? But later you learn that the father never did that at all. The one who told you he did lied to you. Are you not indignant with the liar? And how do you think the loving father will feel toward the liar who is blaspheming him, and even toward you if you continue to believe he is so fiendish? So it is with those who teach that Jehovah torments people in a place of hell-fire. He is not less loving than human fathers, but more so. He corrects, but does not fiendishly torture. And how do you think he feels toward those who lie about him, saying he is such a fiend? And toward those who believe the liars, even after the truth is presented to them?

From the foregoing it is clear that illustrations are useful in preaching today. They make truths clearer, easily visualized, remembered, and enable us to present sensitive issues tactfully and dodge the personal prejudices that blind our listeners. The illustrations will not convert the unworthy ones, but they will make the meek listen and inquire further. We know the questions that frequently arise, the objections that are often raised when presenting the truth at the doors. Anticipate them. Think of illustrations to answer them. Use illustrations in back-call discussions, planned in advance. Use them in service talks and public lectures. But use them in moderation. Be selective. Use only a few, and keep them pointed. Overworked, they will become commonplace and lose their force and make the presentation seem jerky. A few fine ones are better than many mediocre ones. The Bible is exemplary in its use of illustrations. Copy it.

She Wanted Bread, She Was Given a Stone

A Catholic priest in Nassau visited one of his flock and found her reading the book “New Heavens and a New Earth”. He told her that it was “poisonous and pernicious stuff,” and that she was an infidel for reading it. If it was reading matter she wanted, he could provide all that for her. So he brought her a novel based on the supposed love life of Mary Magdalene. This, however, did not satisfy her, as she was hungry for truth and not for fiction. After reading more Watch Tower publications this sheeplike one has come to see that the teachings of Jehovah’s witnesses are indeed the truth. In view of the tactics used by the priest is it any wonder that today there is a “famine in the land” regarding the “hearing the words of Jehovah”?—Amos 8:11, AS.