The chart on page nine shows that we have circulated almost twice as much reading matter during the last ten years as in the twenty years preceding. Such figures are a strong indication of the growing vitality of a great cause, and a prophecy of its triumphant climax.
Energetic Colporteur in the Philippines, Old Watchtower in the Background
Chart of Publishing Work
Our Present Publishing House at Shanghai
The Ministry of the Press
BY N. Z. TOWN
Secretary of the Publishing Department
“THE ministry of the press is not merely an auxiliary to which the Christian teacher can look to supplement his labors; it is itself an evangelistic agency, even penetrating further and delivering a more effective message than any missionary could.”
This has been found true by the people who are sending out this Harvest Ingathering Number of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. The story of the growth of the circulation of our literature since its beginning in 1845, is illustrated in the following figures:
Total sales for sixty years,
1845-1904 ............ $ 7,577,000
Sales 1905-1914 ............ 14,086,000
The figures show that during the last decade, the total value of literature circulated is almost double that of the previous sixty years. During 1914, we reached the two million dollar goal toward which we have been looking, and for which our faithful colporteurs have been striving for a number of years. Our thirty-seven publishing houses and branches, located in twenty different countries and islands of the world, are kept busy continually, producing this literature in over eighty different tongues.
Our First Press in China
Colporteurs’ Class in the Philippine Islands
In the Philippine Islands, our missionaries are working their little press from 5:30 in the morning until 10:00 at night, trying to meet the demand for literature among the native Filipinos. They are printing books of five and six hundred pages on a small job press, and are looking forward anxiously to the time when they may receive help to obtain better equipment.
The outbreak of the European war has created a great demand for literature that will throw light on the Bible prophecies regarding these times. And notwithstanding the special difficulties that the war brings to our colporteurs, even in some of the countries that are at war our missionary literature is having a wider circulation than ever before. We thank God for the souls rescued through the ministry of the press.
