DEBATE
This is a time-worn method. Our leaders have left their prowess on record for us to read. The method is not so popular as it was in any circles, but it is still occasionally useful. It has the great advantage, of course, of summoning an audience from the opposite camp, so that we are certain of attentive hearers. The challenge may come from the others or from ourselves, but whether we challenge or accept, some points we need to observe:

(i) we do not enter into debate, of this or any kind, for the joy of victory. We wish to show the Truth to be true, not to expose our opponent as silly;

(ii) if our antagonist is disposed to be unscrupulous, all the advantage of debate lies with him : he may be able to use the tricks which win applause and make us laughing-stocks- we cannot permit ourselves to retaliate in kind ;

(iii) that is, we may not be merely clever. We may, and must, of course, use the best reasoning we can command, and with the utmost sincerity employ the most powerful persuasion: but all that we say must be true and truly intended;

(iv) the methods of debate being what they are, the enterprise is not to be lightly undertaken without adequate qualification: it is not a task for the immature to leap at. There is more at stake than our own standing or falling;

(v) here, more than anywhere else, we need to know the opponent's point of view. In a debate on " Spiritualism," for example, it is easy for us to show that the Bible disallows the practice, and that the nature of man forbids us to suppose that " messages " and "phenomena" are the results of the interposition of our dead friends. From what we read, casually and authoritatively, about the nature of the " spirit communications," it is hardly less easy for us to denounce the triviality of their content. But very much deeper learning is needed before we can deny that there are phenomena we cannot explain, and it is open to very grave doubt whether we shall ever be able to do that. Slighting allusions to the exposure of mediums-and of course many have been exposed - will lay us open to devastating evidence from those who have been waiting for just this opportunity, of mediums who have not. There is a clear course-that of Scripture's plain teaching and plain commandments-which we can follow with safety and success. Any other may shipwreck our effort.5

If we must debate, that is our platform throughout: what the Bible is; why we may trust it; what it teaches.
For those who believe the Bible already, that is enough to-settle the question. In the matter of Spiritualism again, though our speaker may oppose a man who does not accept that authority, he will be speaking to many who do, and in any case the basic facts of the Bible-such as the Resurrection of Jesus-which our opponent will be loath to reject, may still be used to counter the validity of his system.