A Warning by R. J. BRYANT

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 19, 1905

A Warning

By R. J. BRYANT

R. J. BRYANT

Just now is the time to put our good books into the homes of the people, for soon the decree will go forth that no man may buy or sell save he that has the mark of the beast. One of the first things that the decree will affect will be the sale of our publications. Already word comes to us that the sale of some of our publications has been stopped in Germany, and it will not be long before the same thing will happen in this country.

Very often we hear our brethren say, “I don't see the use of putting our books out, for the people do not read them.” But I read in “An Appeal for Canvassers,” by Mrs. E. G. White: “Some will lay them on the parlor table, and seldom look into them until some sorrow comes. Perhaps sickness enters their home. Then they will look for those books, and the stricken ones will find peace and rest, and fall asleep in Jesus, resting in his love because he has forgiven their sins and is precious to their souls. This has been the testimony of many.”

And in Volume VI, on page 313, we read: “It is true that some who buy the books will lay them on the shelf or place them on the parlor table, and seldom look at them. Still God has a care for his truth, and the time will come when these books will be sought for and read.” The time that these books will be sought after more than at any other time will be when great calamities come, and the decree goes forth that we can neither buy nor sell. But if we sell them at that time, we shall do so under great difficulties. Now, just now, while it is yet day, and the opportunity still lingers, is the time for us to work.

“But,” you say, “it is hard to sell books now.” Of course, it is harder to sell books now than it was some time ago, and it will get harder still, but this does not relieve us of our duty. The children of Israel finally took the land, but how much easier it would have been for them had they taken it when God first wanted them to take it. Just so, now it is in God's plan that this gospel message be given to the world through the printed page, and it will be done even though it be done under hardships.

It is not God's fault that it is hard to sell the books. He gave us time, and good times too, in which to do this work, but our negligence has carried the work over into the harder times which are a sign of the coming of our blessed Saviour.

But even now the angels are holding the winds for us. God is blessing us this year with such good crops that it seems we can have no excuse for not going to work at once. My brethren and sisters, we ought during the next few months to fairly flood the country with the printed page of truth. Every man, woman, and child in our ranks ought to be doing all that is possible to help scatter the printed page.

We should have at least one hundred canvassers in the field at once. A number are now planning on entering the work, but are there not others who will answer the call while the work is as easy as it is? My brother, my sister, don't wait until the way is hedged up so you can neither buy nor sell without danger of imprisonment. Volume VI says: “We have the Word of God to show that the end is near. The world is to be warned, and as never before we are to be laborers with Christ. The work of warning has been entrusted to us. . . . Let us not be backward now. That which is to be done in warning the world must be done without delay. Let not the canvassing work be left to languish. Let the books containing the light on present truth be placed before as many as possible.”

Des Moines, Iowa.