WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW
" Experience teaches " as we have said, and nothing can tell us better what we need to know in canvassing than to canvass and find out. In the few cases where discussion is possible, we may perhaps learn by the painful road of showing to the one we canvass that we do not know, but learn we shall, and discussion with others afterwards will fill up most of the deficiencies. It would be possible to give a list of " difficult passages " which sometimes arise, but it would be to give altogether an exaggerated idea of their importance, and give the wrong emphasis to what we do. The positive evidence for the Truth of what we say is always overwhelmingly greater than the apparent divergence of a few passages, and it is much more important that we should be well-informed on the former than word-perfect on the latter.

Nevertheless, we must not start out as novices. There is a minimum of knowledge of the Word of God without which we must not attempt to teach others. The kind of grasp of the Truth which we have tried to outline in " the preacher's message " should be ours before we set out, and though it will certainly broaden and deepen with experience, we must from the start have a message we can explain. We should be very clear about the positive nature of what we have to preach, and very reluctant to set about a campaign of idol-breaking without the message of the living and true God to put in the place of the gods we destroy.

The salient themes are perhaps:
(a) The Fall-the Mortality of man-the need for Redemption-Jesus as Saviour-Baptism;
(b) God's dealings with the earth-the Jews as His Witnesses-the Kingdom of God as it was- Jesus as King-the Return of Jesus-the Resurrection of the Dead-the Kingdom as it will be. These, and the simplest evidence for them, we should know well, and a few crystal-clear passages for each should be always ready to hand, to be turned up on the spot, or given on a slip of paper to the one who is interested. Many of these have been referred to earlier in the Book, and it is better to make our own selection than to have it stereotyped for us. Lists of potted doctrines and their proofs would do more harm than good, for canvassers (and the rest of us) must shun potted thinking. Even the lists we do compile for ourselves should be constantly open to revision and extension.