Outdoor Use of Scripture
This must have a similar directness. If we can cull events from the Book, which are faintly familiar to the hearers, and bring their message pointedly up-to-date, once again the wayfarer is arrested to hear the story through, and a picture is stamped on his mind. Take Jesus's words, " As it was in the days of Noah."12 Conjure up the picture of Noah standing giving an open-air address to the inland people of his day,; building a preposterous ark in the midst of dry land, and saying, " There's going to be a flood ! " Picture the people who might have listened shrugging their shoulders and going away, or making ribald comments on their " end-of-the-world " madman. Outline the consequences. And then draw the parallel in detail. It can be done tellingly without injustice to the story. This is only one of many word-pictures which can be sketched in unforgettable manner. Note the record of snake-bitten Israel, gazing upon a bronze snake on a pole and being healed, and Jesus's use of the event; 13 note the grim realism of Jesus's comparison of the dying nature of each one of us with the violent death of Pilate's victims and of the unfortunate eighteen trapped under the tower of Siloam.14 The field is boundless.

When we quote texts, let it be from words which are already partly familiar to our hearers, if that is possible, such as " God so loved the world..." with the emphasis on " believe " and " perish " to show the duties which that love requires; such as " Thy Kingdom come " from the Lord's prayer; 15 such as the message of the angels at the birth of Jesus, " Peace on earth, goodwill toward men."16 When we go from these to passages which are likely to be less well-known, let them be very simple, bearing their meaning plain in their words and requiring no detailed exposition. " This same Jesus which was taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven "; 17 " God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness . . . "; 18 " Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish "; 19 " As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with my glory."20 A vast amount of Scripture is as plain as this, and this is the material for outdoor speaking.

It is generally a bad practice to turn up the texts we quote, out of doors. It makes a break in our speaking of which open-air audiences are apt to be impatient. Our memories can be trained to carry the simple quotations we need, or our notes may contain sufficient of them to help us remember the rest. But the Bible must be prominently there. Though we quote from memory, it must be made plain to eye and ear that we do so from the Book, and we should have a Bible in our hands as we speak.