Truth About the Split — Page 281
281 suitable opportunity to proclaim the truth of the Promised Messiah as without any thought of the size of their audiences or the measure of their popularity. Besides, it was a mere fancy to apprehend that the public would refuse to hear our lectures. People are attracted to lectures by the reputation of those who speak rather than by the subjects on which they speak. A well-known lecturer undertaking to speak even on a commonplace subject would attract a large number of people to hear him. It is another matter that after hearing him they would fall to criticising him. I had occasion, for instance, to deliver a lecture at Cawnpore. As it was stated in the announcement that the lecture would be on the distinctive features of the Ahmadiyya Movement, it was apprehended that only a few people would come and hear. But people came in such large numbers that all of them could not be accommodated in the place where the meeting had been arranged. There were altogether some 1500 people or more, and they were mostly enlightened people, officials and merchants. For two hours and a half they listened calmly to the lecture and even after I had sat down the audience did not stir. Perhaps they thought that I had sat down for a pause. At last it was announced that the lecture was over and that people might depart. Then there was a clamour for the