WHERE SHALL THE PLATFORM BE?
We start with the obvious statement that we cannot preach everywhere. However willing we may be, the harvest is beyond the capacity of the labourers, 7 and our problem is to make the best use of the labour we have. It is not a problem which the preacher, in the sense of speaker, is expected to solve, but it is a preaching task, and its proper discharge comes within the scope of a book on preaching.

The task falls, generally, on bodies of Arranging Brethren, Campaign Committees or individual Campaign Leaders, and the local and central Committees of the A.L.S. There are forms of witness by advertisement, through mail, press or poster, which are not subject to local limitations and can be considered separately, 8 and the particular problem which confronts us now can be stated in this question: " Shall we preach elsewhere, in addition to, or perhaps instead of, our Ecclesial Hall? If so, where, and for how long? "

The campaigners' answer comes easier than the ecclesias'. The latter have the particular responsibility of maintaining organized meetings at or near the place where their members dwell, and if the former cannot disclaim responsibility for what happens when their primary effort is over, they are themselves mobile and subject to fewer limitations. To them, then, the answer in general terms is: " The unconverted world is wide: Go, and preach. Be on your guard against false reasons for avoiding certain localities. Let no misapprehended sense of our own dignity lead us to look askance at poor districts where the pride within us would hate to be seen. Let us keep prominently before our eyes that, when they which were bidden were not worthy, the disciples were sent into the highways and byways to fill up the marriage-feast.9 Above all, fight and defeat the fear of publicly naming Christ where yourselves are known." This general counsel given, considerations such as these will help to guide our choice: -
(1) Is there a suitable hall available for our indoor meetings?
(2) Is there a convenient place for outdoor meetings, available for our use?
(3) Are there readily available advertising facilities, in newspapers, on posting stations, in public vehicles?
(4) Is there ready transport for those who will wish to come and help us ?
(5) Are there in the neighbourhood brethren and sisters who are ready to go to great pains in pursuing any interest which is aroused?
(6) Can those who come from a distance be housed and fed within workable reach of the place? Not one of these is decisive in itself against any place, and certainly none of them is sufficient reason for not preaching at all because the place of our first choice is not suitable. The points are intended only as guides in helping us to decide between competing claims in circumstances where demand altogether exceeds supply.

Some warning is needed, in any case, about applying (4). It has been rightly urged that we should take all possible I pains to see that special efforts are not dissipated when they pare over, and we ought to be deeply concerned with the " follow-up." Yet we must be careful lest the desire to consolidate wherever we go fetters us so heavily that we; will not venture beyond where Christ is already named. If we will not permit ourselves to go more than a few miles beyond I the nearest home of responsible brethren, we may never reach the outer regions where brethren are not found.

Each form of effort has its own sphere, and it is suggested here that the ecclesial sphere is the smallest and the most concentrated, the work of the A.L.S. and of week-end campaign bodies wider but still restricted, and the radius of holiday campaigners widest of all. It would be well for that to become an accepted principle, and for no considerations of local convenience to prevent some efforts-and holiday campaigns seem the most suitable-from being made where otherwise no work would be possible. So long as carelessness is guarded against, and all available means of reaping for God the fruits of our labours are taken-as by post and periodic short-term revisitation-we would do well to be more venturesome.

Indeed, if we were as venturesome as the Apostles, the id of extension we contemplate here would present no problem at all. If we were to follow the example of Paul, Sand leave behind in the places where we had preached, workers who could pursue efforts we had begun, 10 the problem of follow-up would be partly solved. Of course difficulties of employment and remuneration exist, and even graver difficulties of disinclination, but if the latter can be overcome, can the former, and it would be unworthy of the frankness with which we have tried to write, to shun mention of this opening because we perceive its embarrassments. It is by no means impossible, in normal times, that small groups of brethren and sisters, perhaps a family or two families, should find suitable employment in any of the large centres where the Truth is not established, and constitute themselves the ecclesia in that place. The number of places still totally empty is appallingly large.11

We turn now to the ecclesias. Take first the case of the big ecclesia with from 100 to 1,000 members, a good deal of available talent already known, and much more which would arise if there seemed to be the need for it. Its members meet week by week in its own hall for Breaking of Bread and a public lecture, and a handful of its number is actively engaged. Its elders are conscientious, and seek to provide for the edification of the remainder with a number of purely internal activities. From time to time it organizes a short special effort, say four well-advertized week-night lectures, and then returns to its former habits, and the care of the very few strangers who attend its ordinary meetings.

Unless there are strong reasons to the contrary, there is an obvious course for that ecclesia. To discharge its responsibilities, to employ its idle talent and develop its latent resources, to stimulate an enthusiasm which fades a little and an enterprise which may become unhealthily in-centred, it should change its routine. Let it continue to meet as a unit for Breaking of Bread (if this is its wish), but open another Christadelphian Hall at the other side of the town with regular weekly meetings there also, with a pre-arranged and adequate number of its members pledged to its support. Let it commence the new hall's work with a special effort, but sustain it long after the special enthusiasm shall have passed. The same canons should be applied to the new hall as have been tolerated for so long with the old, and the work here must not be allowed to lapse because the number of regular strangers has fallen to half a dozen or less, when they have "been this with everyone's assent at the ordinary meetings for as long as the members can recall.

There are only two objections to this suggestion, or some "better modification of it, and only one can possibly be allowed. The first (which has been heard) is that " the brethren and sisters prefer the regular meetings, and won't attend the suburban one." There can be no compromise in the answer to this: there are certainly better reasons than a sense of duty for preaching, but duty is quite sufficient. With the commands we are given and the opportunity before us, without even a reasonable plea of hardship to pit against it, our preferences are vain and frivolous. Even if they were relevant, we can provide for our social relations with our brethren and sisters in other ways; and they are not relevant. We know that ventures of this kind have been made and have been closed down because the support has dwindled impossibly, and we have been painfully reminded of Jesus's words about " setting our hands to the plough and looking back ", 12 The real business of preaching the Truth cannot be ' continually spiced with novelty, nor ever effortlessly indulged in accustomed places. We must be ready both to go where opportunity offers, and stay while it remains.

The second is that " we have tried everywhere and cannot get another hall," and that is only valid so long as it is strictly and exhaustively true, and is not privately qualified by " except a stuffy little room over a cafe," or, " except in Wapping where I shouldn't like to be seen." War-time apart (when it certainly has arisen) it is very rarely that the situation is as desperate as this, and even then, . . . another mile further on, perhaps there is a hall there, and many of us can go another mile on a bus, on a cycle, or on foot. They used to cycle twenty miles to their special efforts a couple of generations ago.

Now in the small ecclesia, which may have faithfully proclaimed the Truth without a break, and without a soul in sight, for the last twenty years, and seems to find it natural, two extreme situations arise: either it has tried every available means to improve the situation where it is, by the public means at its disposal and with all its personal powers; or it has not. If it has not, there lies the first step. Except where illness or age or a few other valid limitations interfere, it can advertise more, and canvass more, and it is not often, if ever, that lack of money need embarrass it; if its own resources run out, there are central funds eager to flow where they can be well used. If it has so tried, then perhaps it could move, move bag and baggage to some neighbouring place, and try again. Let us remember clearly: it is not a question whether the new meeting place will be as convenient as the old, but whether we can get there at all. It may well be that we cannot expect the faithful but infirm brethren and sisters to undertake such hazards after their conscientious service for so long, and they should assuredly not be neglected. Yet the younger can remedy that by meeting with them for Breaking of Bread at their convenience, and then setting forth to preach elsewhere.

We need to re-introduce flexibility into our preaching. It is the natural tendency of each one of us, and of the Body most of all, to develop, to consolidate, then to vegetate and decay. We live ecclesially in a consolidating age, with vegetation not so far off as we might wish. With the best of motives (which we would not question), many ecclesias have secured their own premises, and so acquired amenities and stability which they lacked before, and opportunities for comradeship which can be precious. But it has dangers so long as we are not aware of them. In our own hall (in which we take great pride) we meet to Break Bread, to study the Word, to be refreshed in our common activities; and there we hold our lectures also, and it might be that we would come to feel it right to hold them there, there only, whether the visitors come or not. And here we must stop. Let the Ecclesial Hall serve the work of the Church of Christ with its fullest usefulness, but let it never rule. If the analogy is not strictly applicable, yet it breathes the spirit we should have: Paul taught for two whole years in the school of one Tyrannus. By then, all Asia had heard the Word of God, and Paul packed up his Bible and moved on.12

It is too often forgotten that a " special effort " by itself may be nearly valueless while an effort properly continued may bear fruit. Visitors may come to two or three lectures and depart, forgetting what they have learned, unless we take specific steps-other than our usual Sunday meetings-to sustain their new-found interest. Many times the Truth has been preached and fruit has been borne by forming immediately a Bible Discussion Class. In such circumstances the visitors will often stay to receive systematic instruction, which is itself far more valuable than the lectures which first interested them, and provides all the factual material which is needed for baptism.

The method is often more satisfactory, at first, than more intimate instruction in the homes of brethren and sisters, since the native shyness of many men and women masters the reluctance to enter our homes at once, though they may be willing to continue in a class where they can be personally less conspicuous. It should not need emphasizing, however, that we should spare no effort to make them look upon us as friends and accept the hospitality of our homes whenever we can offer it, so that the aloofness and reserve may be broken down and mistrust give place to confidence.

A final word is needed. In this chapter we have ventured (with a fear which may not have appeared) upon ground where it might be thought we were trespassers. We have made suggestions which may meet with approval or disapproval, and wherever they are questioned it can certainly be objected that we are ignorant of local conditions in the counsel we give. This is true. Those, however, who know them better, are asked to read what we have said, not as interference in ignorance, but as advice, the spirit of which is not open to dispute, and the better application of which rests, with God's blessing, in their own hands. We should have failed in our duty to ecclesial elders still young had we neglected this task.