ANECDOTES, ILLUSTRATIVE OF RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TRUTH. BY MATTHEW DENTON. Fourth Series. "We have opinions and theories enough; what we want are facts."-M. LAPLACE. LONDON: S. W. PARTRIDGE AND CO., 9, PATERNOSTER ROW; G. LAMB, SUTTON STREET, COMMERCIAL ROAD, EAST. 1873. (All Rights reserved.) · 270. g. 489 PREFACE. THE anecdotal is one of the earliest, as it is one of the simplest forms of literature. Tales of invention and discovery-marvellous escapes from shipwreck—happy illustrations of great truths from daily life— wonderful people and wonderful things, have a charm and an interest for all, philosopher as well as ploughboy, old and young, rich and poor. Fact, it has been said, is stranger than fiction; and the romance of science far surpasses all that mere imagination has conceived of the marvellous. Few, indeed, are those who love not to read and hear anecdotes about the brave, the great, and the good. Anecdotes of the warlike exploits of the ancients, told in the nursery, fire the infant imagination. They fix in the mind some new idea, which clings to it with lasting tenacity, penetrates the inner man, and may stamp the future history. How essential then, that Scriptural truth, and narratives of the wise and good, should prepossess the heart of a child. Anecdotes are an important auxiliary in the enforcing of divine and moral truth. "No public speaker can expect to impress a popular audience, unless his speech is more or less parabolic, and illuminated by happy and appropriate illustrations." There is a proverb which says that the surest way to gain access to the hunian heart is by the vividness and power of parables. Anecdotes, when judiciously used in the pulpit, are easily remembered, and sometimes leave a lasting impression on the mind. I have been in the habit of hearing sermons during the last fifty years; and after having heard some of the best and most eloquent preachers of all denominations, I am perfectly convinced that those sermons made the greatest impression and lingered the longest in |