Encouraging Experiences With Newspaper Editors by W. L. Burgan

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 24, 1914

Encouraging Experiences With Newspaper Editors

By W. L. Burgan

WORKERS in different parts of the field are having encouraging experiences in responding to the requests of editors for our views on the war situation. The persistency of our brethren in the past to have extracts of sermons on doctrinal subjects published is now bringing a change that will be helpful in giving the message wider publicity.

Those editors who have been watching the development of our denomination, and who have also read the various phases of our message as the reports have come to them, know that we have the truth concerning the present war and what it means as a sign of the times, and they are calling upon our workers to give the Biblical meaning of it. These editors, as well as the readers of their papers, are wondering what this terrible slaughter means, and are willing to devote considerable space to a consideration of the subject from the Bible point of view. Quite a number of our evangelists have responded to the requests of editors for war articles, and these articles have brought an increased attendance at the tent meetings. The men in the field should take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to give to the papers not only one article on the war, but several, and thus bring the truth before thousands, and perhaps millions, from different viewpoints.

In telling of the eagerness of one paper to get an interview on the war question, a worker in Colorado says: “Early in the week one of the reporters called up the conference office and asked for three different workers. After being told that all were away, he asked the young lady in the office some questions on the war, and an item appeared in his paper that evening. When I returned, she told me of the reporter’s telephone call, and I decided to give a talk on the subject, and offer the paper a report, which was gladly accepted.”

One of our ministers who has labored in several large cities along the Pacific coast, writes of the success that he is now having in connection with his effort in one of the leading cities of Nevada. This worker is a strong advocate of the newspaper work, and uses this medium in practically every place he labors. He says: “Though we have had good success with the papers in other places, the Lord has given us special favor here. Tonight, August 22, will be our thirty-fifth evening service in the tent, and the papers have already published fifty-seven articles on the message. These papers circulate throughout the State, and I am sure the Lord will direct the attention of many to the truth thus given. A lady in Big Pine, Cal., wrote: ‘Reading the Nevada State Journal, I became interested in your sermons. Can I get tracts? I should like to know the truth. Do you think this is the last generation?’” This same minister says that extracts of his sermons have been published as far east as Albany, N. Y.

From a city in Texas, where one of our workers has been laboring for about a year, comes this word: “The Lord is giving us success in soul winning. We have had a very satisfactory experience with the newspapers here; they have always given us all the space we desired, and seemed glad for the copy we furnished. I have good reason to believe that great good has been accomplished in this way, not only in keeping the meetings advertised, but in getting the message before the people. I believe that this is destined to be one great and inexpensive means of getting the message before the reading public.”

There are twenty-four thousand newspapers in the United States. Every one ought to be used as an agency for the spread of the truth. With this vast number of publications in this country alone, our brethren and sisters can readily see that we still have a great work to do, if every one of these papers is to be used to carry the truth to the people. Let us keep on, and work with renewed energy and courage as we see this wonderful channel opening to us for the heralding of the third angel’s message.

W. L. BURGAN.