THE PRESIDENT
The president has (in God's hands) the supreme responsibility for the meeting. He can by his demeanour direct the assembly to chastened, reverent behaviour, even though it might have been otherwise disposed, or he can permit the occasion to be disfigured by an indifference or dead formality which only reflects his own. In his opening prayer he can establish the spirit of worship. This is the only opportunity which will present itself to discuss public prayer, and we can do well to ponder these weighty words: "If your zeal grows dull, you will not pray well on the platform; you will pray worse in the family, and worst in the study at home. When your soul becomes lean, your hearers, without knowing how or why, will find that your prayers in public have little savour for them; they will feel your barrenness, perhaps, before you perceive it yourself."3 To pray mechanically and perfunctorily at home alone, to give thanks with effortless and unconscious formality before our meals, is to offer prayers in public either heavily or artificially. To pray without ceasing in our lives4 (where it cannot be thought that we are praying to be heard of men) 5 is the best preparation for praying, for those present indeed, but unto God's hearing alone, when we are before men.

As the president reads the Scripture chosen, he can give the sense and show that he values what he reads. As he reads the opening words of hymns he can lead fervent praise and pleading, striking a nice balance between raucous, make-believe enthusiasm on the one hand, and icy precision on the other. As he announces the subject he can, without wordiness, have the audience on their toes to receive the speaker before he rises. And when he closes the meeting, he can enhance whatever the speaker has done to make the audience feel that they will be glad to come again.

At the risk of seeming peremptory and dogmatic, we can set out some of the things the president should do of avoid, as numbered propositions. Some of them may charitably be open to differences of view, notably those which deal with set forms of speech on the part of the president, but most of them are quite generally true.

(1) the president will not commence the meeting while private meetings are being, held in the room. He will make it plain that silence is desired, and wait, if need be wait pointedly, standing at the desk, until it is achieved. The noise will nearly always be coming from the brethren and sisters present, not from the strangers.

(2) the president will avoid affected or standardized formalities. Thus he will not ask, " Shall we open the meeting with hymn 59? " but he will announce that as our intention, and do it briefly. He will not need to say, " We will open this meeting for the proclamation of the Truth in praise to God by the singing together of hymn number fifty-nine-the fifty-ninth hymn," but will, far better, announce, " Let us sing praise to God in hymn 59."

(3) the president will address his prayers to God, not at the stranger. It is certainly proper that the stranger should share in a simple petition to God (not addressed as Father) for his own enlightenment, 6 and though there is a far more precious intimacy with the Father for those in Christ, there are other occasions for exercising it; and the president need not, in any case, indulge in offensive addresses such as " The brethren and sisters will unite in prayer," any more than the speaker need begin, " My dear brethren and sisters-and friends "-so putting the friends pointedly in a class apart. " My dear friends " is the most that is required. The stranger can be left to discover from the message we preach that his relationship to God is less than sonship, and there is neither courtesy nor sound purpose in praying it at him.

(4) the president will pause, after announcing the reading, before beginning to read, so that the stranger unfamiliar with the Bible may be able to find the passage, or the brother or sister his neighbour to do it for him.

(5) the president will prepare for the occasion, choosing the hymns in good time with a true eye to the subject (if the choice is left to him) and, whenever possible, looking through the reading beforehand.

(6) the president will not merely read the subject from his notes (nor have to scratch for these hurriedly in the front and back of hymn-book and Bible, and finally on the floor) : he will announce, giving the speaker a running start. Once again, he will avoid wordy archaisms: he will not " now bespeak your earnest attention while our friend and brother, Mr. Smith, of Bruddersfax, comes forward to address us upon the subject already announced, namely . . ." but he will " be glad to call upon Mr. Smith to give us his Bible lecture on . . . "

(7) the president need not thank the audience for listening, which is a doubtful compliment to the speaker. The audience has in any case the greater cause for thanks, though it need not be reminded of this. " We are glad you have been with us to hear this Bible message "-there is good in repeating the " Bible " motif-" and we look forward to having you with us next week to hear another."

(8) the president will not give a second lecture, or even lecturette. A few, fitting words of valediction may not be out of place, but they must be few, and fitting.

(9) the president will not " direct your attention to a quantity of literature on the bookstall at the end of the room, which may be had free of charge or at cost on request to the steward." Much less formally, he might invite our friends to accept one of " a few booklets, based on the Bible, which you may have gladly to help you understand its message "; or, better, he can, in consultation with the speaker, decide that the booklet needed is " The Sure Word of Prophecy," for example, and see that the steward has plenty of these for an audience which has been invited to approach him for them.

(10) the president will not, usually, at a public meeting, call upon a brother in the audience to conclude with prayer. He will do it himself. He offers prayers to God for the meeting by virtue of his office, without his person being considered, and the strangers should not be exposed to the danger of an irrelevant interest in the praying of bro. Brown.

The whole aim of this counsel has been to keep the president alert and active in pursuing his task, free from barren slavery to the tradition of others, and not less free from the temptation to display himself. His part in the meeting is a living contribution to our preaching, and it must be accepted and discharged as responsibly and selflessly as the lecturer's.