p. 18 | Does It Pay? by W. D. Burden

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 15, 1915

Does It Pay?

By W. D. Burden

Some years ago one of our colporteurs made a trip through the country about two hundred miles north of Tokio, Japan, selling papers and tracts. He did not sell enough to meet expenses, and many times he wondered if it paid. But some who bought read the papers, became interested, and in answer to their calls a worker was sent, with the result that a number became Christians.

I recently visited one of these families. The father, a man about fifty-five years of age, is confined to his bed with rheumatic and paralytic troubles. In early life he was a hard-working, well-to-do silk merchant. It was after he became afflicted that he found his Saviour. I asked him how long he had been in this condition. “Thirteen years,” he replied.

I tried to say some words of regret for his affliction, but he objected, saying that had the gospel come to him when he was in prosperity, most likely he should have rejected it, for he was all wrapped up in his business. Now he has a more enduring pleasure in his new-found religion. Did it pay?

W. D. Burden.