Let us, then, first notice the relation of material to the power of the pulpit. This material is divine truth. It is properly termed a force, because it tends to produce an effect, and when the heart is opened by the Spirit of God, does produce it. Light is not more fitted to effect a change in the eye, and form an image on the retina, than is divine truth to produce a change in the soul, and impress upon it the image of God. Air is not better adapted to impart life to the body, than the inspired Word to give life to the soul. And just as man may close his eyes, and shut his mouth against the good gifts that come pouring into him, and thus die, so may he bar his soul against God's purer light, and walk into eternal darkness and death. Yet both the light and the truth are no less forces, because they may be resisted. When permitted to act, they will go on to fulfill their blessed mission, the one to fill the whole body with light, and to bathe it in an ocean of light, the other to pour into the soul a celestial light, and fill it "with all the fullness of God."

But not only is divine truth a force in preaching, it is preöminently the force, because through it alone does the Holy Spirit convert and sanctify the soul. Other forces of the pulpit rise in importance only as they contribute to present the truth in its full force. They are at best only its aids, never its equals. Hence preaching, to be powerful, must be built up out of the truth. It must be born of the truth, if it would inherit its force. As it would never have come into being without the truth, so can it not live a forceful life, dissevered from it. It must touch the truth at every point, if it would be full of power.

And yet, evident as this must be to the preacher, he will be, at times, tempted, if I mistake not, to dwarf his power by seeking his material outside the truth. One must be an indifferent observer of the times, who does not see that our age is drifting away from its confidence in the Word of God as a force. This distrust crops out here and there along the surface of society. It is seen in the low estimate at which the Bible is rated among the forces of the day. We hear on every side of the "force of association," of the "force of public

opinion," of the "force of civilization," of every force but that which lies beneath them all, and gives to them whatever efficiency for good they possess. The sacred Word has come to be regarded by not a few among us, as a force well nigh spent. It did well enough in its day. It served very well to restrain a rude people, and break them into law, to bring forth the nations from the mists of superstition; but now it must retire, and leave them to mightier forces which must henceforth conduct them on their high career of civilization. Such persons look upon the Bible with something of the reverent curiosity with which they view an ancient castle, whose gray walls and frowning towers, perforated with loop-holes for the discharge of arrows, are of little account in an age of powder and artillery.

And this sentiment abroad in the community has, to some extent, and in a modified form, invaded even the Church. It may be seen in the growing demand for preaching upon secular themes, not so much that the truth may bring down its force upon them, as that the truth itself may gather force from the contact.

In such an atmosphere, it would not be strange if the preacher himself were to become infected, and losing by degrees a robust faith in the energy of the divine Word, should attempt to infuse into it energy, by linking it to earthly forces; or,-what is more probable,-if while retaining his confidence unshaken in the truth as a force, he should build largely into it secular material, in order to give it greater stature and influence among the people.

But in either case, whether it be from waning faith in the truth, or from a desire to exalt it before his hearers, if the preacher step outside of it for his material, he will soon find that he has stabbed to the heart his power as a minister of "the gospel of the grace of God." For the truth is the appointed channel through which the divine efficiency flows in preaching, and the preacher who opens other channels, will find no "living water" coursing through them for thirsting souls. He may build upon the gospel foundation his "gold, silver, precious stones," or "wood, hay, stubble," but his work will come to naught. His brilliant essays, his philosophical disquisitions,

his lofty encomiums, his burning denunciations, may, indeed, for a time, bear him high on the waves of popular applause, but he will find no Jesus walking on that sea. Such preaching may well be styled "sensation preaching," for it never descends beneath the senses, to move the depths below. The preacher who would be clothed with might, must abide in the truth; he must "lodge under the shadow of the Almighty," and come forth to speak to men, with an invincible faith in the energy of the Divine Word. He must feel that he is blowing no "ram's horn," but wielding the "sword of the spirit," made to cut its way right to the heart. His power will rise or fall much as his faith in the efficiency of the truth rises or declines.

But if preaching, to be a power, must be built up out of Biblical truth, it is not less essential to its fullness of power, that it be built up out of the whole of such truth. There is no good reason for thinking that the Deity in a revelation to man would communicate more truth than would be needed, in order to accomplish the object of such revelation. There is no wasteful expenditure with God. We may, therefore, reasonably conclude that every doctrine set forth in the Bible is necessary to the attainment of the end designed by Infinite Wisdom in giving his Word to man. An apprehension and reception of all its truths may not indeed be essential to salvation. Nor do they all come with equal power to the heart. But though among them one stands forth like the sun amidst attendant orbs, yet reflecting its effulgence, they each descend with power on the soul. The forces of the Bible, like those of nature, are feeble in isolation, mighty in combination. The justice of God, for instance, is fitted to awaken no terror when viewed by itself. Angels, doubtless, contemplate it with joy. But let it confront the sinfulness of man, and it will cause him to quake with terror. Let them both be viewed in the light of the Cross, and what a power dwells in the three combined, to make the sinner fly to Christ, and thus to form within him the germ of a new life! And as the forces of nature have each a part to perform in the germination and growth of the seed committed to the earth, so have the forces of the Divine Word each a part to execute in the development of the germ

of spiritual life formed in the soul. If the tree, deprived of its full nutriment, will have a sickly growth, and produce a shriveled fruit, so must the spiritual life of the Christian become somewhat dwarfed and unfruitful, if it be not nourished and built up by the combined action upon it of all divine truth. It is only when the soul comes under the transforming power of all the forces of the Word of God, that it shoots up continually toward a "perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." This the Apostle intimates, when he affirms of the Old Testament Scripture, that given by inspiration of God, it is "all profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect." Hence, it would seem to follow that the preaching which embraces in its sweep the most doctrines of divine revelation, which wields the most forces of God's magazine, which combines the most perfectly the elements of the chemistry of the Word, will be the most effect ive. It also follows that if preaching ally itself only to a portion of the Word of life, if it retrench and mutilate the Word, it will cut off just as much of its own power as it cuts away from the body of truth. It matters not what may be the cause of such mutilation, whether a wrong theology, a wrong heart in the preacher, or external pressure, a like result will follow.

Facts confirm this theory. In all ages of the Church the most powerful preachers have been those who have wielded the most forces of God's Word. To mention names would be to give a catalogue of the most effective preachers who have lived. He whose preaching has taken the strongest hold on men, moved them the most profoundly, and been productive of most good, has ever been he whose discourses have grown up out of all the doctrines of Revelation. And it is no less clearly a fact that the preacher whose discourses have not embraced the great truths of Inspiration, who, from whatever cause, has failed to set forth "all the counsel of God," has, to the extent of such failure, been impotent. Witness in any community the feebleness of the pulpit which rejects the Atonement, and the well-nigh utter pow erlessness of that which denies the doctrine of eternal punish

ment. And this, which has always been true of individual preaching, has also been true of the type of preaching that has prevailed among any people. Where has the pulpit had such power as in Scotland and in our own New England ?—a power which has swayed the intellect and moved the heart, and moulded the character of whole peoples, evoked and directed their energies, built up their noble institutions, and going forth even to the barren moors and rocky hillsides, has transformed them into fruitful gardens. Observe, on the other hand, the impotence of the pulpit throughout a large portion of Europe, where, for centuries, it has ignored a cardinal doctrine of God's Word; and see also what mighty power flowed back into it, and streamed through it in Germany, when the great reformer restored to it the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

But aside from the fact that the pulpit which retrenches divine truth, retrenches equally its own power, it will also, I apprehend, be found true, that whatever effect it does produce, partakes also of its own feebleness. If indeed such preaching does reach the heart, and bring one out into the liberty of Christ, how puny a child of God he is, compared with one born under the preaching of the whole truth! Observe every where the imbecility and the one-sidedness of Christian life which has been called into being, and nourished by the pulpit that has mutilated the truth. On the other hand, see what robust and symmetrical Christians grew up under the ministry of the elder Edwards and his compeers! "There were giants in the earth in those days," and the children born to them became giants also.

Thus far we have noticed chiefly the connection which religious truth sustains to the renovation of man, and in his relation to Deity. But the Christian has other ties than that which connects him with heaven. His new life must find expression in outward action, and enter into other relations. And so the design of God in giving a revelation to man was not simply to form within him a new life which should fit him for a better world, but also to teach him how through its manifestations in all the forms of outward activity, to live well in this. Hence the Word of eternal life, beginning with the