What a Package of Tracts Did
At a recent meeting of the executive committee of the Southwestern Union Conference, Brother J. M. Rees related the following interesting circumstances, which show what the circulation of a few tracts may do:— “At the first camp meeting held in North Carolina, we had a missionary meeting; and while we were holding that meeting, a man and his wife stepped into the back part of the tent, and I noticed that they were interested in what we had to say. Our meeting had not been in session long before a sister produced a small package of tracts, yellow with age, sewed together, and said, ‘Somebody sent me these tracts, and I accepted the truth from them. I do not know where they came from.’ Her husband said that he also accepted the truth from reading those tracts. And then another arose and said the same thing, and another, until eight persons in that congregation had testified that they had received the truth from reading those tracts. They all lived in the same neighborhood. The meeting closed, and the strange woman, who had stayed in the rear of the tent, stepped forward to the woman who had spoken first, and facing her, said, ‘Do you know me? I am your sister, who left North Carolina twenty years ago. We sent you those tracts.’ You never saw such a greeting as they had there, and we all wept in sympathy with them. Then when the greeting was over, the man said, ‘Yes, we are the ones who sent you the tracts. We lived in Kansas, and when we sent those tracts, we were so poor that we did not have any money, and we wondered how to get the postage to send them. We prayed that the Lord would help us to get the postage to send them, and the Lord gave it to us, and we sent them.’” Dear brother, dear sister, would you enjoy such a meeting and such a greeting as this? You can have it; if not in this life, in the world to come. And how?—By the simple means of giving or sending away a few tracts. The coincidence which brought giver and receiver together in the instance related above was exceptional. Few may have the privilege of seeing or knowing in this life the results of their missionary efforts. But in the better land, when the sowing time is over, and the harvest has been gathered home, we shall all have the privilege of seeing all those whom we have been instrumental in saving and helping into the kingdom of God. We can then, to the full, share in the joy of our Lord. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”