p. 20 | The Coming Conflict by Edith M. Graham

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 23, 1915

The Coming Conflict

By Edith M. Graham

DAY by day, in most parts of the United States, we live peacefully, keeping the Sabbath unmolested, working on Sunday much as we have a mind to do. Our neighbors are friendly, prejudice seems to have died down, and the general aspect appears peaceful.

Appearances are, however, deceptive. Just now a general and extremely strong Sunday law movement is on. Plans are being laid and forces organized for the strongest possible effort to get a Sunday law through the present Congress, and to get similar laws passed in every State.

What do these things mean to us as a people? They mean that we are in the final conflict, and that we have very little time left in which to work. Now, then, is the time to work, and there is no more effective method of work than the circulation of literature.

We have three excellent magazines, each of which should be largely circulated. Two, the Signs Magazine and the Watchman, deal with the signs of the times as related to the message. The other, Liberty, opposes and exposes the present efforts to substitute state control for religious liberty. All are on vital topics of the utmost importance to the public, but how can the Holy Spirit use them to convict and convert souls unless willing hands and earnest hearts will take them to the people? Success is attending our magazine work, as the following experiences will show:—

One sister recently sold five hundred magazines in nineteen and one-half hours. A brother started out, and on the first day sold few; the second and third days his sales were still few; but on the fourth day he sold seventy copies. Persistence always brings success, if it is coupled with consecration and a burden for souls.

Another sister averages one thousand magazines a month. A middle-aged sister has, by perseverance and tact, built up a regular list of three hundred subscribers, who take the magazine month by month. Another finds she can sell from twenty-five to one hundred on Sunday mornings.

A sister took a little boy with her, and he sold twenty-two magazines in one day, saying, “I love to sell these magazines.”

A student took some magazines when he went on a vacation, with the result that he sold four hundred and forty papers in thirty-five hours. One brother sells magazines in all his spare moments, at hotels on Saturday nights, at railroad stations, anywhere and everywhere. He says: “Thus far I have never failed to sell a magazine to every one I have approached at the stations. It is wonderful how these magazines sell. I can give no other reason than that the Lord sells them. I cannot understand why an army of our people are not hastening out with these message-filled magazines.”

One worker recently sold thirty copies in two hours, while waiting for a train. A minister who sells magazines in any spare time he has, sold four hundred copies in one month. A stenographer in one of our tract society offices sells an average of one hundred magazines each month, between office hours.

In these experiences, I have merely mentioned the number of magazines sold by different ones. Eternity alone will tell the results of this work. These magazine sellers will meet souls who have been brought into this truth through their efforts, of whom they never heard in this life. But even now our magazine workers are seeing fruits from their labors, for hearts are being turned to the Lord through these papers.

There is ample room for others to engage in this work, and a pressing need that they should do so, just now, when people want to read Seventh-day Adventist literature. In the war-stricken countries every man is rallying to aid his country. Shall earthly governments receive more loyal support than the God of heaven and earth? Who will enter the army corps of magazine sellers?

EDITH M. GRAHAM.