p. 15 | Selling the Bible

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 13, 1908

Selling the Bible

THE report of colportage for 1907 in Bohemia, Moravia, Vienna, and Russia, as made by our missionary, Rev. A. W. Clark, to the National Bible Society of Scotland, recites briefly the experiences of each of the thirty and more men who have traversed to the regions indicated, selling the Scriptures to whoever would buy. There is a general similarity to the stories which these men report. The record is too long and much of the detail too repetitious to be repeated in full here; but to one who thinks upon what it means, it is a moving tale of heroism in lowly service for Christ. As Mr. Clark says: “To be hated, persecuted, and ridiculed, and brought face to face with temptation, unbelief, fanaticism, and bigotry—who is sufficient for these things?—No one in his own strength. Brave men, earnest men, men of self-denial, men who love souls more than anything else, only such can endure the difficult life of a colporteur in this land.”

Many interesting incidents appear on the pages of this report. A colporteur in southern Moravia had some pleasant experiences in visiting factories. One Jewish owner was kind to him, granting him free entrance at any time to sell the Bible to his workmen. He was astonished at the cheapness of the New Testament, and now is himself reading the word of Christ.

A young soldier saw, in the little trunk of a comrade, a Bible, to him an unknown book. He wished to get a copy, but as his pay was less than three cents a day, he had no money to spare. Interested friends got him a Bible, and now he is asking to be received into the little church. An atheist painter employed to put on the wall of the meeting-room the motto, “We preach Christ crucified,” was greatly impressed by the words, and is now reading the Scriptures faithfully. The quiet ministry of these heralds of the Word is to be counted among the forces that make for the kingdom over such wide and needy fields.—The Missionary Herald.