Nagasaki, Japan by Walter L. Foster

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 6, 1911

Nagasaki, Japan

By Walter L. Foster

WALTER L. FOSTER

My heart goes out in sympathy to the unwarned millions of Japan. Sinful and lost they are; but the Lord has something for them, and it is the same thing that brought hope into our own lives. If the future of the message in Japan can be judged by the past, the living preacher will never get the people warned in this generation—not even one half nor one third of them. But there is a quicker, less expensive way. Let the people read the message. A good, well-equipped printing-plant and a hundred well-trained canvassers could do a mighty work in helping to carry the last gospel message to this people.

In such a country as Japan, not many can get from reading enough to make them Seventh-day Adventists. But the honest ones—those who want the message—can be found in this way; and what they learn from reading will make the rest of the work for them very much easier.

Some insist that we can never sell literature in Japan. If it is the right kind, we know literature can be sold. The present facilities for publishing are so small that hardly enough suitable literature for more than three or four good canvassers can be prepared. The special Owari now being published is not perfect by any means, but it is much better than anything else yet on the market. A fair opportunity is afforded to demonstrate what can be done. Mrs. Foster and another lady worker have been selling the last special for some time. Recently the sales of Mrs. Foster alone have been amounting to more than one hundred papers a day. One day she sold one hundred twenty papers. That would make a profit in United States money of $1.50. This is not theory, but actual experience; and by improving the paper a little, and giving the canvasser a good training, he might often sell many more papers than this.

I believe the book work will also have its day. There are many young people who will be glad to do such work if they can get the literature, and if some one will teach them how to sell it. Japan needs another tent and a printing-plant.