the
eternal message for which the pulpit exists. Most certainly there is no
divine rule which excludes from the sermon all allusions to politics, to
society, to science, to great men; but there _is_ a divine rule, running
through the whole precept and example of the New Testament, which keeps
such things always subordinate to the supreme work of preaching Jesus
Christ.

[32] "I went longing to hear about Christ, and it was only Newman from
beginning to end." This was the actual lament of an anxious soul, one
Sunday in 1890.

FAITHFULNESS.

Across all our thoughts how to secure attractiveness, as a co-ordinate
line which fixes attention to the true point, runs the word
"Faithfulness." The preacher is to be attractive while faithful,
faithful while attractive. And he is to be attractive not for the sake
of so being, but in order that he may win an entrance for the words of
faithfulness, to his Master's praise.

WE ARE MESSENGERS.

Yes, this is what we are to be as preachers. We are to seek "mercy of
the Lord to be faithful." [1 Cor. vii. 25.] We are not popular leaders,
looking for a cry, or passing one on. We are not speculative thinkers,
feeling out a philosophy, communicating our guesses at truth to a
company of friends who happen to be interested in the investigation. We
are "messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord." We are in
commissioned charge of a divine, authentic, and unalterable message. We
are the expounders of a "Word which liveth and abideth for ever," [1
Pet. i. 23.] a Word which man is always trying to judge and to
disparage, but which will judge man at the last day. [Joh. xii. 48.] We
are the bondservants of an absolute Master, who is at once our Sender
and our Message, and who overhears our every word in its delivery.

It is a grave mistake, as we saw in our last chapter, to think that
faithfulness means a repellent utterance of "the faithful Word." [Tit.
i. 9.] But it is at least an equal mistake to think that attractiveness
means a modification of that Word, which to the end of our world's day
will still be a "folly" and a "stumbling-block," [1 Cor. i. 23.] in
some respects, to the unconverted soul, and will always have its
searching point and edge for the converted soul also.

But this consideration here is only by the way. I return from it to the
matter of a right and faithful attractiveness and some of its higher
conditions.

SECRETS FOR TRUE ATTRACTIVENESS.

"_Preach the Gospel-