p. 404 | REPORTING by S. N. Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 8, 1881

REPORTING.

By S. N. Haskell

BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.

The reporting system will give life and interest to the tract and missionary meetings. If there is no labor reported, no experience related, it will be impossible to give proper instruction. In fact, the mentioning of commendable acts that result in good is following the example of Christ and the apostles. We should have had at least one book less in the New Testament, had not the Acts of the Apostles been written. The New Testament would lose much of its beauty were its writings to consist only in doctrinal instruction. No individual is exalted by thus magnifying the work of God, but God is honored inasmuch as others are provoked to love and good works. By letting our light so shine, others, seeing our good works, are led to glorify our father which is in Heaven.

Each member of the Tract Society should keep a record, and report the number of pages of reading matter distributed by him. This can easily be done in one of two ways. First, make an account of the number of pages you have on hand, then when you receive a package of tracts from the librarian, note its number of pages also. Put it all down in a little pass-book. Then, when you are furnished with a blank to fill out, subtract the number of pages you then have on hand from what you have received, and the number of pages distributed will at once appear; and thus you can fill out the blank. Or, secondly, you can keep the pass-book with you and note down the number of pages as you distribute the tracts. Also, keep the number of SIGNS, Reviews, and Instructors distributed; and also all moneys you have paid to the librarian, or director, or to any one else, that goes to the tract and missionary interest; and report the same in filling out the blank. Then, each blank report should be forwarded to the district secretary, through the librarian or director; and the district secretary will make out a report from the blanks received, to be read at the quarterly meetings. It is by these reports that he can tell how much money has gone into the different funds of the Tract Society during the quarter. The director is responsible for the money.

Then a report of all moneys received, with the entire proceedings at the quarterly meeting, is made by the district secretary to the State Tract Society secretary. The director will pay the money received into the hands of the State treasurer. Then at the general quarterly meeting, the report of the State secretary will agree with the treasurer's report. If they do not agree, the error can be detected at once. This system is simple and plain, and will keep the financial matters of the Tract Society straight. We again appeal to our brethren and sisters to fill out the blank reports sent to them at the close of each quarter, and return them to the church librarian or district secretary.

There are many friends who have not seen the utility of reporting. They will scatter our publications, manifest an interest in the missionary work, donate freely to it, and would do nothing to retard the tract and missionary enterprise for their right hand; and yet these very individuals are really impeding the work by not reporting. Their influence would add very much to the up-building of the cause, could they see the utility of reporting. If we have adopted a right system as far as we have gone, and the results clearly indicate that we have, then we should heartily and cheerfully support it. If we can amend it, we shall do so. But there is no individual member of the Tract Society who sees and feels the importance of this work, who would raise a hand to abolish the reporting system. A united effort is what gives strength to any system.

Our field of operation is the world. And there are companies of believers, to our certain knowledge, in many of the different nations of Europe, also in nearly all the States and Territories of this country. Publications in the principal languages of the civilized world are about being furnished. Then there are men and woman of these same languages in connection with our Tract Societies. There is no reason, therefore, why the strength of our system should not be felt in every civilized nation on the globe. We should never forget the great fact that there is a world lying in wickedness. And if God has committed to us a truth by which it is to be warned, we are made responsible, to a certain extent, for the accomplishment of this work. We have financial strength, if it is brought into use, sufficient to warn the world. We have a system by which it can be done, if properly carried out. We, as a people, have the ability to accomplish this, if it be consecrated to the work of God. And shall we individually act our part, and work in the sphere God assigns us?

If, in the fear of God, we act faithfully our part, no matter how small and insignificant that work may appear to be, in the end it will prove that that very work was important, and by it we were up-building the cause of Christ. Do we say that we rejoice in its prosperity, and at the same time, refrain from putting forth that individual effort that is necessary for its accomplishment? If so, we shall meet with an irreparable loss.

Now is the time to secure to ourselves the applaud it, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." These are golden moments lent to us for the accomplishment of a certain work. If they pass by without being faithfully improved, they are lost forever. If they have been rightly used, they will yield us a golden harvest throughout eternal ages.