p. 18 | Personal Experience of a Home Missionary

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 18, 1907

Personal Experience of a Home Missionary

By Mollie R. Miller

My husband and I came to Gastonia, N. C., last October. We have spent five weeks visiting isolated Sabbath-keepers and attending a canvassers’ institute held at Hildebran, N. C. The days have been freighted with golden opportunities and blessings. Open doors and hearts have greeted me. Aside from home duties, I have had the blessed privilege of visiting the sick and dying, selling four hundred and eighty-five copies of the Watchman and taking twenty-four subscriptions, distributing four hundred copies of the Instructor, Little Friend, and other periodicals; have made one hundred and forty-five visits, given thirty-six Bible readings, and written many missionary letters, besides giving away many tracts. To the Lord be all the praise. This report of work is given simply that it may encourage some other sister to attempt something for the Master, even though pressed with household cares.

Some personal experiences may be of interest. After buying a paper, the mistress of the house said, “I want to ask you a question. I have been reading my Bible, and find that all through its pages it teaches that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, and I have made up my mind to obey the Lord and keep next Sabbath.” I hold readings with them each week, and never found more interested people than they. She and her aged mother have now kept the Sabbath three months. They have Sabbath-school in their home, and are awaiting baptism. The two daughters have recently begun to keep the Sabbath with their mother.

In one home where I sold a paper, I called the next week to deliver another. In the Special Watchman the gentleman had seen advertised the book, “Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation.” He purchased it, and tells me he wants more literature.

One man was so interested in his paper that he took it to meeting and read a portion. The minister took him aside and chided him. Later I called at his home, and found that he and his wife were troubled over the Sabbath question. When I left them, they said, “Come again and read the Bible with us.”

At one place where I sold a paper and took a six months’ subscription and an order for “Coming King,” the husband said, showing me a copy of “Daniel and the Revelation,” “There is a book I would not take five dollars for if I could not get another like it.” At another home the lady said, “O, that is the Watchman!” She gave me her subscription, saying, “I know the truth, but do it not,” and began to cry. Just then the daughter came in and said, “Grandma keeps the Sabbath.” In another home while I was reading the headlines, the lady said, “Do you know few people keep the Sabbath?” and she gave me a number of scriptures showing that the seventh day is the Sabbath. She said she knew she ought to keep it. She bought a copy of “Coming King,” and gave me the money for a year’s subscription to the Watchman. One said, “That is no common reading,” and gave me a subscription for six months. Another said, “It makes me feel serious to read that paper.”

A blind man, living at Clifton, S. C., who was visiting at one place where I called, said, “That is an Adventist paper. It has the same sound as mine,—The Christian Record, published by your people at College View, Neb., for the blind. In a few days I expect to begin work, and I hope to aid in its circulation.” Brethren and sisters, is not this a gentle rebuke to us who are blessed with eyesight?

I called at a home where death had entered suddenly that day. I had prayer with the sorrowing wife. She said, “I believe the Lord sent you. I was wishing some one would pray for me.” I went to the next house and took two subscriptions for six months. The woman said, “Mother, who lives in Georgia, visited me Christmas, and was reading the paper you sold me, and said, ‘That sounds like old-time religion.’”

Truly there is joy and rest in the Master’s service. These lines greatly impress me: “All should endeavor to realize the shortness of time and the solemnity and importance of the period in which we live.”

MRS. MOLLIE R. MILLER.