What Has Been Done; What Is to Be Done
By H. H. HALL
Those who took a bird's-eye view of the campaign last fall had much to encourage them. Two sisters were here visiting every home in an entire county, leaving in each a set of The Signs of the Times or a message-filled tract. An aged brother and his wife were there, driving over mountainous roads to the scattered homes of a large district, leaving in each a reminder of our Saviour's soon coming. They saw the members of Young People's Societies sending literature and writing letters to every family in certain out-of-the-way villages. They saw others procuring tracts and papers in the language of each family in their vicinity, that they might pass no one by in their house-to-house visitation. They saw families gathered in cottage meetings; they saw Bible readings being given to, and personal efforts being made for, those who had become interested through the work with literature. But above and beyond all these things, they saw by the eye of faith the names of scores being recorded in the Lamb's book of life. Those interested in figures will be glad to know that the circulation of our good12church paper, the REVIEW, was increased by nearly four thousand copies, that the subscription list of Life and Health was largely augmented, that almost a half-million copies of the Gospel Series of The Signs of the Times, 120,000 copies of the Watchman, 116,000 copies of foreign papers, and 200,000 copies of special tracts were circulated, and that a large work was done with forty-per-cent books. But this phase of the campaign which was to be a continuous one, has passed. Our people are largely engaged in agricultural pursuits; so for months they have been working early and late, sowing and gathering in their crops. While we wish more might have been done, even during these busy times, yet all will agree that we should now enter upon the work with renewed courage and fresh energy. And notice, please, how clearly, how definitely, the work is laid out before us:— - The REVIEW AND HERALD in every Sabbath-keeping home.
- The circulation of message-filled tracts by every Seventh-day Adventist.
- A great campaign in behalf of our missionary periodicals.
- Systematic work in behalf of our popular forty-per-cent books.
- Holding Bible readings and cottage meetings, and the carrying on of missionary correspondence with those interested through other features of the campaign.
Now, my dear brother or sister, have you the REVIEW? Have you supplied yourself with a quantity of message-filled tracts? and are you planning to circulate them in your vicinity? Have you secured, or will you secure, a liberal number of the Gospel Series of The Signs of the Times and Watchman, or copies of Life and Health, and a sufficient number of German, Danish, and Swedish papers to supply the families speaking these languages with whom you are or ought to be acquainted? Then there are those who have formerly been successful house-to-house workers with our large books,—men and women who have drifted into other occupations. My dear brother, my dear sister, doesn't the Lord call upon you to once more unite with him and his angels in carrying this last warning message to the world? Have you, my dear young brother or sister, consecrated your strength, enthusiasm, and powers of persuasion to the Lord, and have you asked him to direct you in using them in the circulation of the literature mentioned? There is room, yes, large room, for the children, too. Let me read you a letter from one little eight-year old:— "Signs of the Times,
Mountain View, Cal.
"DEAR EDITOR: I thought that I would write a little of my experience. The Lord does bless me in selling the Signs. Always before going out I kneel down and ask the dear Lord to help me to sell the paper, and that those who read it may receive the true light and walk in it. Some people buy the paper every week, and are glad to get it. Then there are some who slam the door in my face, and I just go on and ask the Lord to touch and tender their hearts.
"Another good thing I find, and that is giving away the leaflets. I take the money that I make off the Signs and use it to buy the leaflets. These I give away. I think this is doing the right kind of missionary work, don't you? Some will not take the Signs, but will take the leaflets all right. We do not know the good those leaflets will do.
"I am eight years old, and I want always to be doing something for the dear Lord."
Doesn't this sound like the days when children preached that the hour of God's "judgment is come"? It does to me. The Program of Christianity
Now let us read what has been appropriately termed, "The Program of Christianity:"— "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."
Some time ago I was asked by the family with whom I was stopping to lead in worship. I read the words just quoted, and then said to their ten-year-old boy, "Who is meant by this verse?" He promptly replied, "Jesus." I then said, "But Jesus is not here now. Who is to preach the gospel now? Who is to bind up the broken-hearted to-day? Who is to speak liberty to those who are in prison now?" He hesitated a moment, and then said, "We must." The dear little fellow was beginning to learn—and let us learn with him—that the "Program of Christianity" is,— "Saved to serve in any station,
Saved to make his goodness known;
Saved to sing his great salvation,
Saved to live for him alone.
"Saved to show by loving-kindness
That his love is full and free;
Saved to lead from error's blindness,
With a tender sympathy.
"Saved to lift my lowest brothers,
As the Highest lifted me;
Crucified with him, that others
May have immortality."