p. 224 | THE CAUSE IN ENGLAND by J. N. Loughborough

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 19, 1881

THE CAUSE IN ENGLAND.

By J. N. Loughborough

THE quarterly meeting of the National Tract and Missionary Society of Great Britain is just passed. The report of labor for this quarter is as follows:—

No. of members……………………………………27 No. that reported…………………………………16 No. of families visited…………………………1,389 No. of letters sent out…………………………4,275 No. of letters received…………………………222 No. of new subscribers obtained………………28 No. of pp. of tracts and pamphlets loaned…18,925 No. of pp. of tracts given away ………………14,883 No. of pp. of tracts sold ………………………8,181 Total………………………………………………41,989 No. of periodicals sent by post………………8,903 No. otherwise distributed……………………1,218 No. sold …………………………………………581 Total………………………………………………10,702 Amount of money received from book sales…$34.50 By donation to society…………………………2.05 Total………………………………………………$36.55 No. of ships visited……………………………108

In the number of papers and letters posted, and in letters and subscribers received, this report is an improvement over that of last quarter. We hope to do still better during the quarter on which we have just entered. The few who have reported have been quite busy, and as the weather becomes more favorable, we hope to see more engaged in this work. If this is the case, we look for improvement in other branches of the missionary work.

Since my last report we have received many interesting letters from those to whom we have sent copies of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. I can quote only from a few of the many.

One person writing from Kent, who has been reading the SIGNS a few weeks says, “I beg to express my satisfaction with the contents of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES.”

Another from near Canterbury, who has been reading for a year, writes, “How thankful I am that you are so kind as to send me the SIGNS. I have read the Bible all my days, but I have learned more of it through reading the SIGNS than ever I knew before in all the fourscore years I have lived. The Bible is so nicely explained in the SIGNS. I continue to make one paper do for two or three families by changing them about, and then I mail them to my friends living round about in the towns. I give them your address, so if they wish, they can subscribe for the paper. Please inform me the price per year. I do not expect, at my age, to be in this world much longer. I want to do what good I can.”

One writing from Northamptonshire says, “I am very much pleased, indeed, with the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, but there is one little fault only, so it seems to me, and that is that they contain rather old news when they arrive here, but I suppose that it is to be accounted for by the distance they have to come.”

Another writing from Essex says, “It gives me much pleasure to read the papers, SIGNS OF THE TIMES, so kindly sent me, and to show my appreciation of the same, I inclose stamps for subscription in order to have the continued pleasure of perusing your paper.”

One from Berkshire inclosing a year's subscription says, “I am much pleased with your paper, and will do all I can for you by circulating it among my friends.”

Another, inclosing pay for the paper, says, “I find the SIGNS very profitable reading. There is a high Christian tone about the articles that pleases me much. I have not yet been able to consider the subject that you have taken up, namely, the “Personality of the Devil,” but I hope to do so, with a desire to get clear and truthful views on a subject I have found difficult to understand.”

We have only room to quote one more this time. It is from one who writes to renew his subscription; he says; “I have read your letters respecting Mr. R. Robert's lectures with considerable interest. I am very glad you have so ably confuted those erroneous ideas which cannot but proceed from his too vivid imagination. I wish everybody could read them; for I am led to believe that, though he may do it ignorantly, he has been the means of driving a great many believers over to Mr. Bradlaugh's views.”

We give these letters only as a sample of the words of good cheer that come in to encourage us in this branch of our work.

On the 12th of April, we had the pleasure of one-half hour's conversation with Bro. Matteson on the steamer Necker, which made a halt in Southampton Waters, on its way to Bremen from New York. We were indeed glad to see his face once more, but should have been much better pleased could he have spent a week or more with us. We were also pleased to meet sister Bertha Stein, from Oakland, California, who left the steamer and accompanied us to our house where she tarried one day. She was on her way to Germany to visit her native home, and induce, if possible, her friends to become interested in the views she holds so dear.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.