A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT.
By R. Sawyer
I FEEL much encouraged because of the increase in labor performed, and in the number of reports returned for the quarter ending Feb. 14, 1876—an increase of from one-third to one-half. I greatly desire that the other half may come up to the work, that a full report may be obtained. Now let us see what could be done if each of the one hundred T. & M. members of our district would, for the next three months, be as earnest in the work of saving souls as they are in caring for themselves. Seventy-five members can each visit a family a week; in twelve weeks nine hundred families could be visited. Ninety members can each write three postal cards a week to their friends, to warn them of the things which are coming upon the earth and tell them how to escape them. On each card may be written a verse or two of Scripture, such as: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.” “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” “Repent ye therefore, and be converted.” “Search the Scriptures.” John 5:39. Thus more than three thousand cards would be written, and many precious promises and invitations from the Bible would be brought to their minds. Twenty-five members can each write a letter each week, and enclose a four-page tract, making three hundred letters written with twelve hundred pages of tracts circulated. Again, twenty-five members can each pay twenty cents a week. This will amount in a year to $260; fifty can pay ten cents a week, making $260; twenty-five can pay two cents a week, making $26. This would make the sum of $546, with which to carry forward tract and missionary work for one year. Then $150 of this sum could be used to furnish one hundred families with our excellent pioneer paper, the SIGNS, for one year. For $75, our good denominational paper, the REVIEW, could be sent to seventy-five worthy poor families for one year. Fifty dollars would send the HEALTH REFORMER to one hundred new readers for one year, and help prepare the way for the truth. Twenty-five dollars would send our valuable youth’s paper, the INSTRUCTOR, to one hundred new readers for one year. And we should then have $246 left, with which to buy tracts and publications to further carry on the work. Let each member of the Tract Society learn by experience the meaning of the 126th psalm. Oh! that our captivity to this world might be truly turned, that we might go forth weeping, bearing the precious seed of truth; then, if truly wise, we should return with rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us. May the Lord help us to remember that “The fields are all ripening, and far and wide
The world now is waiting the harvest tide;
But reapers are few, and the work is great,
And much will be lost should the harvest wait.” R. SAWYER.
Potterville, Mich., Feb. 24, 1876.