Emphasis. Emphasis is importance placed on an element in a literary work. Repetition and elaboration are two of the techniques used to produce emphasis. This dramatic sermon employs both techniques.
Analogy. An analogy is a comparison of two things that are alike in some respects. Often an analogy explains or describes something unfamiliar by comparing it to something more familiar. A simile is an expressed analogy; a metaphor is an implied analogy. In this sermon, Edwards uses analogy in order to give his listeners a clear, concrete picture of the abstract ideas he presents.
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The following excerpt is from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” a sermon Edwards delivered in Enfield, Connecticut, on Sunday, July 8, 1741. Another minister who was present reported that Edwards spoke with calm dignity, yet the effect was highly emotional, with “such a breathing of distress, and weeping, that the preacher was obliged to speak to the people and desire silence, that he might be heard.” The text of the sermon was published over eighty years later, in 1829–1830, in a multi-volume edition of Edwards’s works.
Create a chart like the one below to list analogies you find in Edwards’s piece. In one column write the thing being described, and in the other, write the thing it is likened to. You may restate the analogies in your own words or quote the passage directly if you wish.
What does the word grace mean to you? In what ways can people extend grace to those around them?
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