Book Work at Union College
By G. Phillips
ACCORDING to previous appointment, the State agents of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri met at Union College the eighth of May, to look after the interests of the book work among the students, and to lay before them the needs of the canvassing work in the Central Union Conference. The president, Professor Lewis, and the faculty, were very kind indeed to us, and have helped us in every possible way. They gave us the chapel hour each morning, and assisted us in various other ways in arousing an interest in the canvassing work, and over fifty responded to the calls made. More and more I see that our schools are becoming recruiting stations for the canvassing work. We had fourteen in the class here who are going to Missouri to canvass, and when they arrive, we shall have between thirty-five and forty canvassers in that State, and a large majority of these have, either directly or indirectly, come from our church-schools or this college. We are receiving some very interesting reports from different parts of the State. Our canvassers are taking, on an average, more than $1.50 worth of orders an hour. I am just in receipt of a report from a young man seventeen years of age, which is as follows: “Twenty-six hours, ninety-two dollars’ worth of books sold.” He is handling “Great Controversy.” We are striving to the best of our ability to follow the direction that God has given by the spirit of prophecy in this work. He has said we should press the sale of the books giving an account of the rebellion in heaven, and we are doing this. It is wonderful to see the way God is blessing our efforts. During the fifteen years I have spent in the canvassing work, I have never seen a better prospect for this work than at the present time. We propose to follow the guiding hand of God and the leading of his Spirit, believing that if we work as he directs, and handle the books that he tells us to, he will give good results. We have made “Great Controversy,” “Daniel and the Revelation,” and “Patriarchs and Prophets,” our leading books; and the way the Lord has blessed our feeble efforts is wonderful. We have reached a time when the canvassing work must take on larger dimensions. We must lengthen our cords and strengthen our stakes, and go forth in the strength and power of our God,19pressing the battle bravely, and thus hasten the coming of our blessed Saviour. I must express my thankfulness to God for the kindness and co-operation of the president and faculty of Union College, and the president and ministers of Missouri, the church-school teachers, and the dear fellow workers in the Kansas City Branch Office, for their kindness and co-operation in this work. It is not through any great effort of the writer, but through the efforts of the faithful workers already mentioned that the work in the State of Missouri and the Central Union Conference is being revived. May the Lord help us one and all to work “while it is day;” for “the night cometh, when no man can work.”