THE CIRCULATION OF OUR LITERATURE, ESPECIALLY TRACTS AND PAPERS
By D. T. Bourdeau
Our pioneers cheerfully took an active part in circulating our literature, urging our other ministers and the rank and file of our people to co-operate with them in the great and glorious work of distributing our reading-matter, calling “the publishing work among us the right arm of our strength,” and predicting for it a glorious future, and grand, surprising, and most encouraging results. Then our ministers and people generally followed the example of our pioneers, and helped to forward this good work by personal efforts and liberal contributions. Then ministers were not ashamed, but regarded it as an honor and great privilege, to take with them a good assortment of our few tracts and pamphlets, to give away or sell as the way would open. And God crowned with success the107efforts put forth in this direction. The writer is one of those who were led to receive the Sabbath and kindred truths by reading carefully and prayerfully tracts and pamphlets, comparing their teachings with those of the Bible. And what literature did we then have?—Only about one-half dozen tracts and pamphlets, including “Experience and Views,” with “Supplement,” and two or three Testimonies, the REVIEW and the Instructor. I well remember how, at the time of my first visit to Battle Creek, Mich., about forty-four years ago, Elders James White, J. N. Loughborough, and Uriah Smith, accompanied by Brother G. W. Amadon, took me up to the second story of a small wooden building, and showed me the tracts and pamphlets we then had. They could all have been put into a few small boxes. We did not then have one bound book. And with this small amount of literature, consisting of so few tracts and pamphlets, wonders were performed; and our pioneers had faith to predict a glorious future for our publishing work and the great work yet to be accomplished by our literature; and their predictions, based on the infallible prophecies of God’s word, have been fast fulfilling; but the end of their fulfillment is far from being reached, though the end of all things is imminent. If we really believe the truth we profess, we are compelled to say that we are not doing a hundredth part of the work of publishing and scattering our literature that God now requires at our hands, and that must be done before the world is thoroughly enlightened and warned by the Third Angel’s Message. But for this to be realized, there must be far greater efforts to put our literature into circulation. And in this work our small tracts and papers must take the lead, as in the early history of this work. Millions of our small tracts must be put into circulation before the dark, angry, threatening war clouds now hanging over all nations, burst into a fearful whirlwind, leaving devastation, calamities, torrents of blood, mourning, and woe in its track, and making it ten times more difficult to scatter our literature than it now is. I am really encouraged in seeing old times revived with some of our people in their putting our small tracts ahead, handing them out even as a means of more easily disposing of our larger works. If the time has not now come to scatter our small tracts like the leaves of autumn, even if we should have to give most of them away, it will never come. The time has come for the rank and file to do this, as well as the ministers and regular canvassers. Shall we all as one man take hold of this work with heart, soul, and energy, without delay? Unless we do, the blood of souls will be required of us. If we wait for our larger works to be put into circulation before making use of our small tracts and papers, the sales of our larger works will go on sluggishly, and millions of persons will not be reached before the time of general war and distress is upon us. And it will then be much more difficult for those who have not read even our small publications to discern the signs of the times. Indeed, many then will be found in great perplexity, not knowing what is really meant by the striking signs of the times, and will be taken in snares prepared by a busy, wily foe for their wary feet, and will be finally lost, unless we hasten to scatter our small tracts and papers like the leaves of autumn. But if we do our duty in this respect, not neglecting our larger works, all will be warned in time, and the honest who have read some of our literature, though it be but a small tract or a paper, will have an idea of what is coming, and will eagerly ask for more reading-matter. May God grant us all more of the faith of our pioneers in this branch of the work, which will lead us to manifest the zeal and activity that they did in putting into circulation literature on present truth.