THE PREPARATION OF THE LECTURE
(a) The First Notes. The title has been selected or imposed. The lecture is to be given in a month or six weeks (do not, at first, leave yourself less than this). Thoughts begin, to come disorderly into the mind, and unless arrested, leave it again. Therefore, in bed, at meal-times, in the wide world, carry a small note-book and put down all the thoughts which come, regardless of order or connection.

(b) The Concordance. The first ideas will not be complete. They should be given rein first, though, because unless they are recorded, they will tend to be lost as we consult other works. But they must now be supplemented; the key-words of the title and other crucial terms which have come in our earlier meditations, followed up in the concordance and with the R.V. references, provide an array of passages of which the salient phrases need writing out for easy reference when proper preparation is begun. If there are different originals for the same word, with significantly different meaning, this should be indicated.13

(c) Other Reading. This is again the right order: the combination of what we first thought and what the new reference to the Scriptures has suggested will tell us now where we need to look. It may be a chapter in one of the Truth's works, with its abundant references to supplement our own. It may be a commentary on a particularly appropriate book of Scripture, a reference in a Bible Dictionary, or a specialized book on some topic of doctrine, history or prophecy. If the books have been abstracted already (as suggested in Chapter III) the task is easier.

(d) Taking Stock. Basic materials have now been accumulated (though additions can be made if needed), and a crucial question arises: What do I want to do? When we choose our own subject we have to be particularly clear about this, but even when others do it for us, and the theme is the most straightforward imaginable, we must conceive an aim and pursue it. There is no need to be too rigid about it: if a better scheme suggests itself as we proceed, certainly let us scrap the earlier one or modify it radically, but we must have an objective. Having decided on that objective, we ask next which parts of the evidence we have accumulated will help to achieve it. There will be some which do not bear on it at all, and these can be struck out; some which are related but raise difficulties-we must decide whether our purpose will be best served by meeting the difficulties at this stage: some which stand out as contributing directly to what we have in mind.

(e) Making a Plan. The useful material must now be marshalled, to provide for an arresting introduction (which may be the stating of the problem, or a sketch of our intentions, with countless variations in the way it may be done); a proper development of our aim; and a convincing conclusion.

(f) Composition. The lecture must be written out in full. No other alternative will be entertained here. What later progress on the part of the reader may permit him to do is his own concern, but he comes here for guidance when he most needs it, and there shall be no half-measures on this point. Too many slipshod lectures are given because brethren are satisfied to have their ideas broadly apprehended, and the expression of them neglected; too much hesitating and inconsequent utterance arises from the proper sequence of ideas not having been seen in cold reality, in the lecturer's own words, before the address was given. Therefore: write out the lecture. And do not let increasing facility of utterance too quickly lead to the abandonment of the labour. How often have we noted powerful preachers reach their climax and then decline because they have presumed upon an accumulation of knowledge, and taken too little care to marshal it for presentation? Moreover, there is no better method of remembering what we want to say than having said it before on paper. The proper method of using what we have written will be considered shortly; but for the present-We must write it.