Understanding Events & Delegates.

I have a simple question about Events.   Now I have just read this article:  http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/Ashush/DelegatesInCSharp02252008143634PM/DelegatesInCSharp.aspx

The article contains the following snippet of code as an example of how an event is coded.  My question is this:  Why not just bypass declaring an "Event" altogether and just have a delegate?  Instead just have code that says:  "if this delegate is referencing a function (i.e. not equal to null) then execute the function that it's pointing to.   Why the extra layer here?

namespace EventsInCSharp

{

    public class MyClass

    {

        public delegate void MyDelegate(string message);

        public event MyDelegate MyEvent;

        //this method will be used to raise the event.

        public void RaiseEvent(string message)

        {

            if (MyEvent != null)

                MyEvent(message);

        }

    }

    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            MyClass myClass1 = new MyClass();

            myClass1.MyEvent += new MyClass.MyDelegate(myClass1_MyEvent);

            Console.WriteLine("Please enter a message\n");

            string msg = Console.ReadLine();

            //here is we raise the event.

            myClass1.RaiseEvent(msg);

            Console.Read();

        }

        //this method will be executed when the event raised.

        static void myClass1_MyEvent(string message)

        {

            Console.WriteLine("Your Message is: {0}", message);

        }

    }

}