Chapter 9 - The Use of the Memory
that concerns us.
4. Those who abuse God's good creation are rebuked here since it is clear that God takes care of all things. Any passage in Scripture can be handled in this way. Note, however, that we should not try to expound every doctrine on every occasion; but only those which can be applied appropriately to the present experiences and condition of the church. These must be carefully chosen, and limited to a few, lest those who hear God's Word expounded are overwhelmed by the sheer number of applications.
IX. THE USE OF THE MEMORY
Because it is customary to preach directly from the heart (or memory), something should be said here in connection with the use of the memory.
Artificial memory aids, like those which depend on remembering places and images can teach us how to commit sermons to memory easily, but they cannot be approved, for several reasons:
1. Memory aids which involve the stimulation of an image to trigger the memory involve us in an unspiritual activity. Such a method requires absurd, unworthy and, actually, monstrous thoughts. That is especially true of those which heighten and inflame the most corrupt affections of the flesh.
2. Artificial ways of remembering dull the mind and the memory. They require a threefold rather than a single memory: first remembering the places, then the images, and then thirdly what is actually to be said.