SUGGESTIONS ABOUT CONDUCTING A COURSE OF LECTURES by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 28, 1878

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT CONDUCTING A COURSE OF LECTURES.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

INTRODUCTION OF SUBJECTS.

I am persuaded that many of our brethren make a mistake in introducing a course of lectures, I mean in giving the first lecture. The very best introduction that can be made under ordinary circumstances, the one that will interest people the most, and that will secure their attendance the next night, and give them something to talk about to their neighbors, is a lecture on the chart, a lecture on the second chapter of Daniel. This is so simple and so plain that it always interests everybody, and it will bear repeating after you have secured a larger audience. It is a mistake to give the first lecture on some dry, practical subject, or the importance of studying the Scriptures, or why we believe the Bible to be the word of God, or something like that. A lecture like this gives the impression that you are going to talk like common, second-rate preachers.

No; pitch right in the first night with the best thing you have. Even a lecture on the sleep of the dead, annihilation of the wicked, or seventh-day Sabbath would be better than a carefully arranged subject that would not affect anybody. What we want to do is to let the people know that we have something new, stirring, and interesting. You want to get the whole neighborhood talking about you just as soon as you can; but if you commence in a moderate, tame, common-place manner, the impression soon goes out that you don't amount to much. So don't throw away your time in trying to say something that will offend nobody, and please every one; rather set out with something that will astonish all your hearers and create a sensation, and get them to talking about it.

ANNOUNCING YOUR SUBJECT.

During the first two or three weeks of a course of lectures, very much depends upon properly advertising your lecture each evening ahead; that is, at the close of the lecture each evening you should announce your subject for the next evening. It is a matter of no small importance to do this properly. Keep within the bounds of truth, and yet so announce it as to create an interest, create a desire in every one present to hear the next lecture. It will not do simply to tell them it will be a lecture of importance, or something interesting; but you must state the most important points that you propose to take up, how they bear upon the present lecture, and how important it is that they should hear that in order to understand what is to follow. Announce it with confidence, and with as much enthusiasm as you can put into it. If there is any class of people whom it will particularly interest, or specially hit, or be likely to offend, you should say so, and ask your present audience to be sure to invite all such persons to be present. Then they will come out of curiosity to see how you are going to handle somebody else.

About every lecturer has two or three thrilling subjects which he intends to give sometime to draw out the people. These should be given as early as possible, in order to secure a crowd on the start. Suppose you were to lecture on the devil or spiritualism. These subjects always draw a crowd, if anything will; but it is worse than time thrown away to use them for that purpose after you have lectured, say a month, in a place. If you do get in an extra audience that late, you will not hold them, they will not come again; but if you can succeed in getting a crowd the first week, the impression will go out that you have a great interest, and that everybody goes. Then timid souls will dare to come, and come again. At the end of three or four weeks, the character of your meetings is settled any way, and the best you can do then is to work up what you have.

CONNECTING YOUR SUBJECTS.

Very much depends also upon properly connecting your lectures. That is, each one should prepare the way for the next one; and they should be so arranged as to make the connection apparent to every one. For instance, a lecture on the sanctuary alone, disconnected from the messages, or from the subject of the Judgment, would be of no importance. It should be given in such a connection as to explain the 2300 days, the first angel's message, and the investigative Judgment. Hence, these subjects, when begun, should all be given together. So, simply the lecture on the two-horned beast, without connecting it with the third angel's message, would not amount to much. It would be a bad thing to give one lecture on the law, then one on the sleep of the dead, followed by one on the Sabbath. People cannot digest things so fast. Such a course would only fill their minds with objections, and leave them in the fog.

When a subject is introduced, stick to it long enough to clear it all up, and make a deep impression. Where there is a large interest, sometimes a full week of consecutive lectures should be devoted to the nature of man. In short, when you have attacked a strong-hold of the enemy, take the fort before you attack some other point.

D. M. Canright.