What Our People Are Saying
By H. H. Hall
“We do not know what we can do until we give up our own way, and ask the Lord to do the work for us,” said a sister to me the other evening, after having gone out for the first time with papers and books. She is a timid, retiring woman, but her heart had been so stirred as she saw people all about her without this saving truth, that she felt forced to carry it to them herself. “I know the Signs of the Times can be sold, because I have tried it,” said one of our brethren, a business man, at a recent prayer-meeting which I had the privilege of attending. He told how he had taken a few papers down town the preceding Saturday night, and had sold them to merchants with whom he was acquainted, and how he wished he had more when they were gone. “No, I do not care for your book; who publishes it?” said one man, as a canvasser was showing him “The Desire of Ages” yesterday. “It is published by the Seventh-day Adventists,” was the reply. “Is that so? Well, come in, and I will look at it.” He did so, and an order was the result. “I was talking with my wife a few weeks ago as to whether or not we should remain at home in such a crisis as this,” said an experienced salesman last week, “whether or not a real Seventh-day Adventist with some ability to circulate in printed form the truth for this time could remain at home when the demand for such workers is so great. Long and earnestly we discussed our home comforts, and the needs of the field, until finally we concluded that God was calling us to the field.” This man and his wife are now successfully selling the “Desire of Ages.” I heard another brother say, two or three days ago, “I am perplexed to know whether I should give up my regular work where I am earning money for the cause, and engage in house-to-house effort in this city with books and periodicals.” He has not yet decided fully, but is doing such work as he can with the Life Boat and Signs, and we believe the Lord is leading him to give to such work his entire time. Dear readers, what does all this mean? The spirit of prophecy replies: “There is a work to be done in our cities, and work to be done in other places. God will take men from the plow, from the sheepfold, from the vineyard, and will give them a work to do. . . . The Lord is preparing the way before those who are seeking wisdom from above, those who are willing to walk in his way.” But, dear brethren and sisters, there are many who have not as yet decided, as have those mentioned above; for from this same authority we hear this agonizing appeal: “O that thousands more of our people had a realization of the times in which we live, and of the work to be done in field service in house-to-house labor.” Are you one of the thousands who will respond to this call?