Now Is the Time by S. H. Lane

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 11, 1902

Now Is the Time

By S. H. Lane

NEVER during the last decade has the time been more propitious for selling books than the present. During the last two or three years work has been abundant, wages good, and during this season, especially, crops have been plentiful. On account of these conditions there is much money in circulation. The past few years have been especially good for farmers. Mortgages that heavily encumbered real estate of almost every description have been lifted, because of the prosperity of the times. Especially is this true in the West. A money stringency recently has been experienced by the bankers of the East, not because of the scarcity of money, but from the fact that it is deposited by the farmers out of debt in Western banks, and many thousands are in transit from East to West to pay for and move the large crops of the Western States. Produce is being marketed from the crops of the last season, and money is now in the hands of the people, who will spend it not only for the necessities, but also for that which is pleasing and attractive. As our own books are attractive, and contain the truth, now is the time to push their sale as never before. It is true that the mainspring of all our effort in disposing of our literature should be from the basis that it is right to dispose of it, yet it is the part of sound wisdom to make an earnest endeavor to sell our works while the times are so favorable, and they certainly are favorable at present.

Since the writer visited the Western and Southwestern States last summer, he has felt deeply over the fact that there are so few canvassers in the field, and that our people are not putting forth more earnest efforts to dispose of our works. Thousands of books will be sold for holiday gifts, and cannot many of our brethren and sisters spend a greater part of their time between now and the fifteenth of December in getting our works before the people? Many should work now, even if they do not intend to make canvassing their steady employment. Books can be sold. Thousands can be placed in the homes of our people in every State in the Union.

While riding through the fertile State of Arkansas a few weeks ago, and beholding the immense crops of fruit, corn, and cotton, the writer wished there were a thousand canvassers in that State. At the Little Rock camp meeting the writer met Brother V. P. Watts, who donated five dollars to the Missionary Acre Fund. A receipt was sent to him a short time ago, and in reply he says, “It does not seem that my little mite [his donation] was anything, but a thousand such would lift a great burden. It does me good to hear that the Sanitarium at Battle Creek is progressing well. The sanitarium is prospering here, and is filled to the limit. The work is still onward in Little Rock. We had two accessions to the church last Sabbath. I have been canvassing for ‘Great Controversy,’ and have taken two hundred and twenty orders in sixteen days. There were two days in which I took twenty-four orders each, amounting to over eighty dollars a day. The Lord blessed me wonderfully, and to him I give all the praise. I hope to have a delivery of the value of more than twelve hundred dollars by November 17. It would have been more if I could have stayed in the work all the time. I wish that more of our people had a burden for the canvassing work. These prosperous years are the time to push the book work. If I have success in my delivery this fall, I will give you some more money for the Missionary Acre Fund. I want to help all I can to get the Sanitarium work started, also help pay off the large tract society debt. I want to see all departments of the work advance, and I believe that the more we give, the more God gives us to give.”

This brother has been aiding in the tent work at Little Rock this summer. He has looked after the company there, and gone out and canvassed a few days at a time. Surely the Lord has blessed him in his work. There are many others who can do the same thing. We are anxious that the rank and file of our people should sell our books as never before, not only because of these prosperous times, but because the work of God demands haste. Darkness, ignorance, and superstition have held sway for centuries in the past, but the time is now here when the earth shall be lightened with the glory of the descending angel from heaven, and the time has come that—

“The boast of haughty error, No more shall fill the air, But age and youth Shall love the truth, And spread it everywhere.”

Who will help in this work? The battle is not to the strong, but to every one who has a willing heart, and earnestly labors as never before.

S. H. LANE.