The Summary by E. R. P.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 30, 1908

The Summary

By E. R. P.

THE canvassers’ summary for the month of June gives cause for encouragement, and furnishes a theme for profitable study. First, let us notice a few of the encouraging features:—

Taken as a whole, the summary is the best we have ever published. The total is about seven thousand dollars above the total for the month of July, 1907. That report has stood as the high-water mark until now.

This summary for the month of June covers four weeks, ending June 26. The summary for the month of July, 1907, was for five weeks. Therefore the summary for June, 1908, is much better in comparison with July, 1907, than appears by simply comparing the figures.

In the Comparative Summary which follows the June Summary, the reader will find an interesting comparison of the totals of each summary published during the first seven months of 1906 and 1907, and for the first six months of 1908. We are now making the record for July, and shall wait with interest for the figures which will doubtless make it the record month for the current year.

The summary is almost complete, there being only one field that failed to report; and that failure we believe to be due to a misunderstanding as to where the report should be sent. It is not often that we have a blank space in any of our Southern union conferences.

We appreciate the reports from the Southern and Southeastern union conferences. While we can not expect them to compete in large figures with some of the wealthy conferences of the North, yet they certainly do excel in steady work, and in faithfulness in reporting; and when we bear in mind that these two weak unions, with a small constituency, have been formed out of the Southern Union Conference, and consider their total sales for four weeks ($8,596.53) in the light of their small constituency, small schools, and the many difficulties under which they labor, it becomes evident that our brethren in the South are lifting with an energy which should be an incentive to many of our conferences in the North.

The Atlantic and Columbia Union conferences were formed from the conferences of the old Atlantic Union and Ohio. The sales from these two unions for the month of June, 1908, amount to $12,226.20. In the same territory for the corresponding month last year, the sales amounted to $5,899.46, thus showing the gain to be over one hundred per cent.

The gain in the North Pacific Union is also above one hundred per cent, the summary last year amounting to $3,655.53, as compared with $7,965.65 for June, 1908.

And so the grand work of spreading the gospel moves mightily onward. We can hardly comprehend the meaning of this advance, or keep trace of it in our own minds. Let your eye run over the summary and catch such items as the sales in Kansas; the total for the Central Union, which is the largest we have ever published for one union conference; the substantial standing of the new union formed in Western Canada; and the strong, steady work in some of our foreign mission fields. Then after looking up these details of progress, let us try to comprehend the report as a whole, and understand, as far as we may be able, what it means to have about twelve hundred consecrated, well-trained canvassers going from house to house and leaving such a number of our message-filled books with the people. The Lord is surely working with his people, and is demonstrating beyond the possibility of a doubt the strength of his everlasting arm when it swings in opposition to such adverse conditions as Satan is able to bring to bear upon the workers.

We have no further need to fear that panics or politics, labor conditions or weather conditions, will be sufficient to hinder God’s work so long as we rely upon him who controls all conditions, and who obtains his chiefest glory from victories of his children under adverse circumstances. E. R. P.