THE THEME OF THE LECTURE
Our first lecture generally tries to present the whole Truth in a nutshell. In a commendable desire to express the fulness of our conviction we generally (or so it appears) succeed in using the most unpromising title to cover most of our first principles, with the results, first, that we crowd an impossible bustle of ideas on to our first canvas (with the implied quixotic hope, perhaps, that a glance at such a picture will convince the world at once); and, second, that when we come to suck our pencils for the second lecture there is nothing we have not said before.

That situation passes. The Truth is not as many sided to us in the early years of our pilgrimage as it begins to appear as experience grows: the nature of our early training has often been such that we can compress our knowledge of the Gospel into a series of simplified propositions (e.g., " God is Love "; " There is One God "; "We must be baptized "; " Jesus will come again ") which do not take long to state and (after a fashion) to expound. A series of texts can be adduced for each which certainly fit the case, and there is the lecture.

The situation passes. It passes the faster the more we read of the Word of God, and mark and learn its message. It passes the faster the more we see of the complexity of men's ignorance, indifference and error-the more we can put ourselves in their place and offer them what we should need. It passes the faster the more we apprehend the impact of the Word of the Gospel upon ourselves. " God is Love " is one thing as a proposition to be proved from texts; it is a new, a higher and deeper and broader thing as a divine approach to be experienced, an intimate message, to receive which is the very essence of conversion-and therefore to preach which convincingly is the fullest office of preaching.

There arises now a realization of the number of ways in which the same truth can be offered. They merge into one another so gradually that any classification is bound to be artificial, but it might help to make some such division as this:
(1) The Christian Evidence Lecture.
(2) The First Principle Lecture.
(3) The Prophecy Lecture.
(4) The Heresy Lecture.
(5) The Christian Life Lecture.
(6) The Difficult Passage Lecture.
(7) The Gospel-as-a-Whole Lecture.
(8) The Lecture which expounds an individual C or book.
(9) The Bible-Reading Lecture.

Christian Evidence covers all those lectures in which the primary object is to show that there is a sound basis for faith: that the Bible is reliable as the Word of God, that Jesus did rise from the dead, and all the contributory matter. Since the fulfilment of prophecy is one valuable part of that evidence, the third division overlaps the first. Since we cannot always assume that those who listen to us will accept our basis, these lectures must be given from time to time, and the principal qualification which we need for most of them is accurate knowledge of the outside material which must be used. If we wish to speak of the fulfilment of prophecy, our history must be sound; of the reliability of the Old Testament, our archaeological facts must be authoritative; of science, we must at least have a grounding in scientific method and more than a newspaper acquaintance with scientists' views. If brethren are not familiar with such groundwork, they must leave these lectures alone.1 The warning already given of the enormously greater learning required to comment on others' views than to expound our own faith is needed here again. It will recur later.

" First Principle " Lectures, in one form or another, are the backbone of our preaching system. First things do come first, and when a sudden swing in the world's barometer tempts us to unduly prolonged expository high-jinks in the way of prophetic lectures, we do well to remember this. But fashions change. It is more rarely that simple expositions of the promises to the Fathers, of the kingdom of God, of the nature of man, of the need for baptism, have a ready hearing, than at one time it was. The promises, the kingdom, our mortal nature and the command to be baptized must be expounded none the less, but generally in a new guise. Their relevance to the men and women of our present world must be shown, and some suggestions will be made later in the chapter to this end.

Prophecy Lectures have been partly covered under " Christian Evidence." That is their principal use. But the prophecy comes in as spice to a good many others, notably those dealing with the Kingdom of God and the Coming of Jesus. To see God's work having moved so far towards its climax is to look more expectantly for its completion.2 But its consolations are for the saints (compare Chapter III): for the world it is Christian evidence-an assurance that God works and must be heeded-or it is nothing.

Heresy Lectures will always attract-the giver of them. They also attract controversy (often a forerunner of conversion) if the right heresies are chosen. That is, if we attack error, it must be a current error. It would serve no good purpose today to denounce the worship of Moloch or (in its heathen form) Ashtoreth or Baal, though the prophets of Israel attracted much attention by these means. So now, The Trinity, the worship of Angels, the Devil rouse less enthusiasm than they did because their devotees are fewer or less zealous. But the age has its heresies, quite apart from doctrinal survivals and, because we have a truth to put in their place, we do well to expose them. They are its practical worldliness, its-love of pleasure more than love of God, its evil and adulterous character. We were told it should be so, 3 and it is-increasingly. Let us, regularly and constantly, testify thereof, that its works are evil. If it hate us for that, it is better than to despise us for beating the air.4 We have fine precedent for this: Noah did it, and the prophets, and Paul and Peter and the Master.5

This takes us very near the "Christian Life" Lectures. The world is what it is because its men and women are like that: wars and fightings come of your own lusts.6 We are to call them to a betterment of life of which repentance and baptism are the start and sign, faith and faithful continuance in well-doing the outworking. We need more of these lectures, on a solid scriptural basis. We need to be more comfortable in giving them. We must set an example before we can preach with a clear conscience, which is not always seen to be true of a First Principle, theoretically expounded. " By their fruits ye shall know them "7 has its particular application here: All that the Christadelphians bid you do and observe-that observe and do. And after our works? 8

Difficult passages are not as popular as they were. Most people do not know the difficulties until we show them, which is no way to preach. True, " many mansions " is still repeatedy misapplied at the grave-side, and the Thief-on-the-Cross is still an argumentative chestnut. Certainly let us answer them. But generally speaking, it is better to let them appear and be dealt with in a natural manner in the course of an address on their subject, than to make them titles of highly specialized addresses. Scrupulous honesty must be observed everywhere, but it is nowhere more necessary than here.

The Gospel-as-a-whole Lecture is something in the nature of a summary. One first principle at a time, more or less, is all we can manage with any thoroughness in general, but from time to time we must show what we stand for, and what we have to offer, as a whole. " The Faith of the Christadelphians " is the generic name of such addresses, and remember, the lecture is intended to show what we do believe and teach, not primarily what we do not.9

The Bible Reading Lecture meets a particularly pressing present need. There can hardly have been a time since Wycliffe's excellent project of making the Book " under-standed of the people," when the people " understanded " it less. Sheer abysmal ignorance characterizes our age. Chapter VII contains some suggestions under this head for use in canvassing, but the same thing applies to our lectures too.

The proportions in which these various types of lecture should be blended can hardly be stated: different speakers will combine their qualities differently, and only the most general counsel can be given. Generally, though, since most of the visitors in whom we are chiefly interested will attend many times, routine lectures should contain much of class (2) (with its variants in (4) and (6)); a good sprinkling of class (1) (with its variant in (3)) and more than we generally get of class (5). There are special occasions which need special treatment. " Special " efforts would normally have a higher proportion of (1) and (3), but it would now be well to give them a good seasoning with (9) also. There are times when persistent waverers require pointed counsel of the type of " How long halt ye between two opinions? "10 to help them make up their minds, and there is real value in the kind of lecture in which the facts of the Gospel are considered as proved, and the time devoted to impressing their urgency. Perhaps two or three times a year we need to give a lecture of the type (7) in order to reassure ourselves that we can see both wood and trees.

Examples of the most important of these types will be given in note-form later in the chapter.