the message is not a philosophy but a
"way." It is neither a guess, nor a speculation, nor a deduction; it
is God's word to men!

Now it may seem a needless thing to insist with such emphasis upon this
view of the substance of true Christian preaching, a view that we hear
and repeat almost every day; but it is not so needless a thing as may
appear. Is it not true that some preachers condescend too much from
the word given unto them? Is it not a fact that some of us fail from
very wont and use to live in the thought that our message is as far
above every message as the Name it reveals is "above every name"? Has
the preacher never been guilty of turning aside from this theme of his
to what the Apostle called "cunningly devised fables"? It seemed to
him that the old story had become so well worn that, for the sake of a
little novelty, which might, perhaps, attract the people who stayed
away, he might turn into some subject less hackneyed than the staple
stock of pulpit addresses. The reason was a very plausible one, and
the preacher altogether sincere. The people _did_ come to hear him,
too, as they had not come concerning the other matters he had been used
to expound. There was a little mild sensation, and sensation is an
agreeable variant of the dulness of grey and monotonous years. Most
folks were pleased, it seemed--indeed all were pleased who were of "any
real account." Many people even waxed complimentary and the preacher
had hard work to keep his humility in flower. The only people who
complained were those survivals of far past ages whose antediluvian
notions accord so ill with the progressive spirit of our times. Of
course _they_ grumbled a little; said the preacher gave them less than
the best, that he went to the newspapers for his subjects and
to--Heaven-only-knew-where for the treatment of the "topics" so
selected. They complained, too, that the only advantage of leaving the
old wells was that the effervescence of the new beverage drew larger
congregations of a sort to whom effervescence is everything and they
even made the amazing statement that the great purpose of preaching was
not, after all, to draw great congregations which might be accomplished
in association with failure as well as in association with success, but
to change the hearts and lives of men and nations. They were actually
so unkind as to remark that of this latter kind of work there could be
little done excepting as a result o