ly problems and gives impetus to our search for the indwelling
divinity.

WHAT SHOULD BE SPOKEN OF IN THE MEETING FOR WORSHIP? This question will
be answered for us, inwardly, if we are in the spirit of the meeting, if
the meeting is in God's spirit. We may speak of spiritual things. We may
speak of daily affairs and events, if these are given a spiritual
interpretation. We may speak of world problems, if these are seen in the
light of religion. Anything that comes from the heart is proper and
acceptable. We will not go wrong if we keep in mind the central purpose
of the meeting for worship, and are striving to fulfill this purpose.
Let your heart respond to the need of our meetings for a vital ministry.
Open yourself and accept, should it come to you, the call to an inspired
ministry.

SHOULD MESSAGES COME ONE AFTER THE OTHER IN RAPID SUCCESSION? No. There
should be a due interval between them, a living silence in which the
spirit works deep below the level of words. Messages should arise from
the silence and return to it. Of course there are times when one message
arises from another. Even so, there should be pauses between them during
which the creative forces may operate in unexpected ways. Restraint of
speech improves both the speech and the silence. Read what Thomas Kelly
has to say of spoken words in his pamphlet, _The Gathered Meeting_.

But more frequently some words are spoken. I have in mind those
meeting hours which are not dominated by a single sermon, a single
twenty-minute address, well-rounded out, with all the edges tucked
in so there is nothing more to say. In some of our meetings we may
have too many polished examples of homiletic perfection which lead
the rest to sit back and admire but which close the question
considered, rather than open it. Participants are converted into
spectators; active worship on the part of all drifts into passive
reception of external instruction. To be sure, there are gathered
meetings, which arise about a single towering mountain peak of a
sermon. One kindled soul may be the agent whereby the slumbering
embers within are quickened into a living flame.

But I have more particularly in mind those hours of worship in which
no one person, no one speech stands out as the one that "made" the
meeting, those hours wherein the personalities that take part
verbally are not enhanced as individuals in the eyes of othe