Winter Canvassing by E. R. P.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 25, 1909

Winter Canvassing

By E. R. P.

It appears, from observation, that there is a large class of people in this world who are very sensitive to climatic conditions. When asked to go to a foreign mission field, they want to know if the climate is hot or cold, desiring, it would appear, a place that is comfortably lukewarm. Evidently many of our canvassers have, in the past, belonged to this class. Their mental and spiritual temperatures rise and fall very much in accordance with the weather.

But there are signs of improvement. Last year both panics and politics were conquered by our Gideon army. We have now attempted the capture of another stronghold. This may seem like a peculiar undertaking; but we actually expect this grand and rapidly growing army of ours to lay siege to the weather, and secure an unconditional surrender of all its strongholds, and especially the great freezing bulwarks of winter.

A few successful battles have already been fought in this campaign. When we publish the summary for January, 1909, the reports will show that several of our union conferences have made substantial progress in developing winter work. This is very encouraging indeed. The following items we publish in advance from the January summary, comparing the sales in the conferences mentioned during January, 1908, with January, 1909. These sales show a decisive victory in the union conferences named:—

CONFERENCE	SALES, 1908	SALES, 1909
Southern	$ 773.65	$2,000.33
Southeastern	1,156.65	2,683.30
Atlantic	809.90	3,003.15
Columbia	1,702.45	4,000.00

Now, brethren, let us go on fighting this battle until the victory is universal and complete. There is no more reason why a child of God should be defeated by the cold than by panics and politics. It is the glory of the gospel to triumph over all these, and bring success to the workers in spite of such temporal difficulties. The child of God should enjoy such a warm, springlike experience within that he will be unaffected by external temperatures.

Most of our changes in temperature are mental anyway. Physically, we change very little. There is not usually a change of even one degree in the heat of the body, whether the thermometer stands at forty degrees below zero, or at one hundred degrees above. If the cold winds blow outside, the pores close up, and conserve the heat. If the hot wind scorches, the body cools by perspiration. It is even so with the practical Christian who enjoys a day and night, summer and winter, experience in the good things of God. Floods and droughts, panics and politics, heats and colds, pass by on the outside, while the eternal springtime of God's indwelling presence gives steadiness in experience, and steady, constant work and success under God's blessing without regard to temporal conditions.

E. R. P.