(Scripture Reading Exercise.)

SPECIAL LESSON.

ARE THE SOURCES OF MAN'S KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, APART FROM REVELATION, SUFFICIENT FOR AN INTELLIGENT FAITH IN GOD?

NOTES.

1. The Reason For No Analysis: As in all these special lessons, no analysis of the subject is given in this one, the design being, that helped by the analysis of other lessons, the student will exercise his own ingenuity in planning his treatment of the subject here presented.

2. Suggestions to the Class Teacher: This subject may with profit be allotted to two or even more speakers. Permission should be given members of the class to ask questions which the speakers in these special lessons rather than the teacher should be required to answer. Answering questions will be found to be a most excellent mental exercise.

3. Treatment of the Subject: From the nature of the subject its treatment must be argumentative. See the suggestions as to argumentative discourse, Seventy's Year Book No. II, pp. 68-72.

4. Introduction, Discussion, Conclusion: Each speaker to the above important, and rich-with-opportunity question, should remember our old formula of the First and Second Year Book in relation to speeches, lectures and discourses—viz: In what you say be sure to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. That is to say, an introduction, a discussion and a conclusion. See Seventy's Year Book No. 1, pp. 59-60 and also pp. 86-87.

5. Suggestions to the Speakers: In both the First and the Second Seventy's Year Book, frequent use of suggestions is made from the work of Mr. Pittinger on "Extempore Speech," referring therein to the formation of discourses, methods of preparation, gathering materials, thought-gatherings, and the like. In these special lessons occasion will arise to quote him again on other phases of the art of expressing thought; and I know of nothing now that could be of more benefit to the young student than what he says in relation to the—

6. First Moment of Speech: "Having completed all your preparations, you now anxiously await the commencement of the intellectual battle. This period is often a severe trial. Men who are physically brave sometimes tremble in anticipation of speedily standing before an audience. The shame of failure then may appear worse than death itself. As the soldier feels more of cold and shrinking terror when listening for the peal of the first gun, than afterward, when the conflict deepens into blood around him, so the speaker usually suffers more in this moment of expectancy than in any that follows. You behold the danger in its full magnitude, without the inspiration that attends it. Yet whatever effort it may cost, you must remain calm and collected, for if not master of yourself, you cannot expect to rule others. Your material must be kept well in hand, ready to be used at the proper time, though it is not well to be continually conning over your preparation. That would destroy the freshness of your matter and bring you to the decisive test weary and jaded. You only need such an occasional glance as will assure you that all your material remains within reach. It is seldom possible by any means to banish all fear, and it is to the speaker's advantage that he cannot. His timidity arises from several causes, which differ widely in the effects they produce. A conscious want of preparation, expecially when this arises from any neglect or indolence, is one of the most distressing sources of fear. A species of remorse then mingles with the embarrassment natural to the moment. If the speaker has no other motive than to win reputation—to minister to his own vanity—he will feel terrified, as he realizes that shame instead of honor may be the result of his rashness. That man is fortunate who can say, "I only speak because I feel it to be a duty which I dare not refuse—a work that I must perform whether well or ill. The lawyer who must defend his client, the minister who feels that the hour of service has arrived, the teacher in the presence of his class, are examples of those who speak under the same kind of compulsion that calls a field laborer out into the burning heat of a July noon whether he feels like it or not." (Extempore Speech, pp. 187-8.)