Your ShelfYour Projects

The Canvassing Work in South Africa

8%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 17, 1910

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 7.

Read the full edition

The Canvassing Work in South Africa

By G. H. Clark

THE statement in the Testimonies that “there shall be delay no longer,” is meeting its fulfilment in the South African field to-day.
For about six years the average sale of books per annum in this territory has been between four thousand and five thousand dollars. When I arrived here the last of August, 1909, there were seven canvassers bravely “holding the fort” under very discouraging circumstances.
The time for the Lord to work had fully come. Before leaving America, the secretary of the Publishing Department advised me to start with a few canvassers in the field; but in less than four months we have thirty canvassers for books and six for papers and magazines. Eight of these are students from Union College, Cape Town, who are earning scholarships. This is the first time that an effort to earn scholarships has been made in this field.
During the camp-meeting at Johannesburg, the Spirit of the Lord was abundantly poured out, and about twenty persons decided to attend the canvassers' institute which followed immediately. This institute was greatly blessed of God. The report for the first three weeks following this institute totals a value of twenty-three hundred seventy-two dollars in that one conference alone.
G. H. CLARK, GENERAL AGENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN UNION CONFERENCE, WITH HIS COMPANY OF CANVASSERS AT THE CAMP-MEETING AT JOHANNESBURG
G. H. CLARK, GENERAL AGENT OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN UNION CONFERENCE, WITH HIS COMPANY OF CANVASSERS AT THE CAMP-MEETING AT JOHANNESBURG
In the Cape Colony Conference we expect to hold a two-weeks' institute at the close of the camp-meeting. Doubtless several new canvassers will be secured at that time.
It is wonderful how the Lord is laying this work upon our strong young men and women from twenty to thirty-five years of age. They are enjoying the work very much, and the Lord is greatly blessing them.
The officers of the union and local conferences have labored most earnestly with me in an effort to bring this branch of the Lord's work into its rightful place. The Lord is doing, and will continue to do, a mighty work in South Africa.
Almost every week our Sabbath-keepers are asking for something to do. We are encouraging them to enter the field and distribute the printed page. The average results from the work of our agents are indicated by the fact that during the past four or five weeks, nine of our agents have sold books to the value of three thousand seventy-five dollars, or an average of seventy-five dollars a week for each agent.
Our youngest canvasser in South Africa, Hugh Williams, the fourteen-year-old son of Elder E. R. Williams, recently secured twelve orders for “Coming King” in eight hours. The total orders for books, including the sale of papers, since the first of September have amounted to seven thousand one hundred fifty-two dollars.
We have given these facts and figures, not because we wish to emphasize the value of the books sold, but because we wish to set forth the wonderful manner in which the Lord is working for us. Beloved, let us all take our place in this closing work of God.
G. H. CLARK.