THE CONDUCT OF THE MEETING
There are very few rules. We may have a president or we may not. The niceties of the lecture-hall do not bind us here. But we must have an opening prayer, and we must not use it as an occasion of preaching. Those who are assembled together to carry out the work should gather quietly together near the rostrum and ask for a blessing on what they are to do. There is no need to be furtive about it: if men care to watch and listen they are welcome, for we are not ashamed of our dependence upon God, and if they come to see us God-fearing men and women, it is to the advantage of His work on our lips.

" Rostrum " is a more pretentious word than circumstances often warrant. It may be an orange-box or a chair, or a simple elevation in the ground on which we stand. There may be none at all; or we may have something designed for the purpose, rather like an auctioneer's desk. It is not important. The last, if we have one, gives an air of authenticity and preparedness which is perhaps to our advantage, but it is a refinement we need not worry about, and we must not let occasion slip for lack of one. Other equipment is simple. A table (and " table " here means something dry and sufficiently firm) for a display of small literature; notices- (such as sandwich-boards) to identify us and declare the purpose of our presence, and: -what has already been tacitly assumed-a number of brethren and sisters.

Even the last is not absolutely necessary. Brethren have started and conducted outdoor meetings without such support, to their great credit, and we have no intention of establishing a rule that open-air addresses shall not be given without it. But it helps: it helps vastly. Opinions are widely divergent as to whether it is better for the helpers to cluster close around the speaker, establishing a well-defined nucleus for the visitors to see, or (in part) to disperse to the confines of audible range and add themselves to the obviously interested, I as though innocent of collaboration. In the writer's diffident opinion the latter is a rather transparent subterfuge of very questionable utility and arguable moral standing, and in any case defeats its own object unless the supporters are very numerous. Thin, straggling audiences are probably much more discouraging in themselves than small, and obviously keen and compact ones. " Obviously keen " is important. The brethren and sisters themselves cannot expect the strangers to be more enthusiastic than they. For those who are not otherwise engaged, a careful attention to what the speaker has to say is becoming, even if the message has been heard a hundred times before, and the brother's message has its own turns of phrase which the listeners can hear before he utters them. Other engagements include keeping a watchful eye on the visitors present, ministering to their needs with literature and conversation as they are going away (but not before), and, when times permit it, roving the lines of approach to the site with advertising leaflets. They do not include setting up an opposition meeting within easy earshot of the speaker and his proper audience, nor pestering would-be listeners with untimely advances.

Generally, open-air meetings are held as ancillary meetings I to indoor arrangements. This is the best system. In such cases, the president, if there is one, or each speaker in his-turn, will see to it that the audience is regularly reminded that " an indoor meeting, where you can listen to a fuller development of this subject, in greater comfort, will be held " at the appropriate place and time; and the posters around the site will bear testimony to the same fact. This to some extent arranges the subject in advance, but it is not imperative. There are some subjects which are pre-eminently suitable for outdoor development, and some much less so, and an adroit president will find no difficulty in relating what has been said outdoor to what is to follow within: for there is an intimate relationship between all parts of the one Gospel. The length of a meeting depends on many circumstances. If there is no interest whatever, and no likelihood of any, it had better finish early, for the open air does not lend itself to the game of pretending we have strangers, which can be so strangely soothing indoors. But flexibility is of its essence. If the staff is so small that the indoor meeting cannot be conducted at the same time, that sets a limit, but in other circumstances we must be guided by events. On one occasion within the writer's recollection, after he had given a longish address-half-an-hour or so-and left another brother holding the attention of a sizeable audience to help at the indoor meeting, he was hastily summoned out after the first hymn by a distracted campaigner: '' Come out quickly and be ready to speak again. X has been going for 40 minutes now; he's nearly dropping and can't carry on, and crowds are just coming out of the pictures! " That reveals the adaptability which the work demands. The meeting lasts as long as it is useful. A fine example of adaptability occurred in a village effort, when the writer had laboured heavily through his address to an absolutely non-existent audience, and was much disconcerted towards its close by an accumulation of children from a nearby school, whose interest Seemed to be directed to other things than his matter. When he ceased, however, another brother diverted the meeting into a Scripture lesson for the children which they vastly enjoyed. A repeat effort next day was similarly successful, and some of the children were enrolled in the ranks of the Isolation Sunday School.