In any home where there are small children with parents who do not sanction a complete submission to television, the most familiar request is: "Tell us a story." And those stories are remembered for the rest of their lives.

There is not a single adult or child, I dare say, who could not tell the story of Little Red Riding Hood, of Goldilocks and her bears, of the three little pigs, the big, bad wolf, and countless other favorite characters. This is true of a congregation or a reader. A congregation almost verbally says to the preacher: "Tell us a story to illustrate what you are saying." I heard one preacher say that he could take an old sermon, change the illustrations, and preach it every three to six months. "My congregation would never recognize the main points," he said, "but they re…