TRACT AND MISSIONARY SOCIETIES.
By Editor
Our T. & M. Societies are no longer to be treated as an experiment. The fact of their usefulness is well established. It has become a saying with those who have been close observers of our work that the prosperity of the cause in any State is to be measured by the energy and efficiency of the T. & M. Societies. The work is spreading, and the fields are opening too fast to be occupied by our ministers, few as they are. Our periodicals, books, pamphlets, and tracts, have an important place to occupy in this cause, and nothing but organized and systematic efforts will meet the demand. Where society efforts are feeble and inefficient, the cause cannot greatly prosper at this stage of the work. Not only does the cause need the service, but the people need the labor for their own spiritual strength and growth. The church is prosperous when all are workers; it is weak when the labor is left to a few, and the many remain inactive. Inactivity induces laziness; a lazy Christian is an "unprofitable servant;" and the unprofitable servant shall be cast "into outer darkness." Matt. 25:30. What is now transpiring in California shows how speedily the prophecies, toward which we have been looking for a third of a century, may be fulfilled. When the enforcement of the Sunday has been spoken of, California has been supposed to be the last State in which such a work would find favor. But an excitement has been raised on the subject as sudden and intense as it was unexpected. Mass meetings are being held, and the influence of pastors of churches and of State and city officials is brought to bear in favor of the movement. Considerable enthusiasm is manifested, and the public is becoming aroused on the subject. The opponents of the law are also earnestly working, and the strife promises to be fierce and bitter. We deplore it and its consequences, but we cannot avert it. As a political and partisan question we are neutral; we cannot join in the enforcement of the law, nor will we unite with those who are leaguing together to oppose it. There is every indication that we shall soon see, that which we have long believed, that the Sunday question will prove the most prominent and exciting political question of the day. "A little while," and the time will come "when man's work is done." We hope to see a general revival of interest in the Missionary Societies and missionary work. We suggest to the Presidents and Directors to look well to the spiritual condition of their charges. No work can prosper—no energy can be efficiently put forth—without spiritual strength and zeal. "It is not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord."