The Third Campaign by P. T. Magan

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 7, 1902

The Third Campaign

By P. T. Magan

We are now about to enter upon the third campaign for the relief of the schools. We must go in to win, with faith and courage firmly grounded in Jesus Christ, the great emancipator from all debt.

Looking back over the past, we see much for which to be thankful in this good work. God has wrought wonderfully, and already much more has been accomplished than even the most sanguine had dared to hope. “The sale of ‘Christ’s Object Lessons’ is the Lord’s own plan, and his blessing is attending the effort being made to carry this plan to completion.”

As the last century was drawing to a close, all our leading schools in the United States found themselves almost hopelessly in debt. They were owing in the neighborhood of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Year after year the interest was being added to the principal, and the financial bondage of the institutions designed of God to be well-springs of life for the denomination, was becoming more and more complete.

At the Battle Creek College the situation was the worst. Her debt was about eighty-four thousand dollars, without a single available asset from which to pay a dollar. Then it was that the teachers and students met together, day after day, and pleaded with God to send relief. Those hours were dark and sad, yet

blessed. And of them the servant of God has written: “God heard the prayers and saw the tears of a few poor men who struggled with an intolerable burden of debt, and in the night gave to me, his humble servant, the plan of ‘Christ’s Object Lessons’ for the relief of the schools.”

But with the plan there came to God’s chosen servant another thought: “I have depended upon this book to pay my workers, and I must be just before I am generous.” Then she adds, “In the night season I was considering the problem of my finances. I desired to save money to pay my debts, that I might be free from the burden of interest; but I could see no other way for the schools to be relieved than for me to give ‘Christ’s Object Lessons’ for this purpose, and I said, ‘It must be done.’ Then the conflict ended; light filled my mind.”

Thus, in sacrifice, was laid the foundation stone of this blessed work. Thus was the birth of a movement which has grown until it has become one of the greatest and most successful enterprises ever undertaken among us.

The first copies of “Christ’s Object Lessons” were ready for delivery in October, 1900, and at that time the first campaign for the relief of the schools began. It was carried on with varying success, in different conferences, through the winter of 1900–01. Up to the time of the General Conference, in the spring of 1901, there was definite record of 46,553 copies having been sold. Besides this, about twenty-four thousand copies were in the hands of the people, and sales were daily going on.

These were great results; every one felt glad for them. Many, however, were of the opinion that the most that could be done in the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons” had already been accomplished. It was thought that people had given away copies to all their friends who would care to receive them, and had sold to all who could be persuaded to buy, and that, from this on, while a few books would be sold from time to time, the number would be limited, and that there would never be a “boom” again in the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons.”

The summer of 1901 passed away, and autumn, the time set for the beginning of the second campaign, arrived. It had been voted at the General Conference that during the autumn and winter of 1901–02 a Herculean effort should be made to push the book again. But at the very outset, the writer, to whom had been intrusted the general charge of that work, was taken dangerously ill, so that no aggressive work was done by the Relief of the Schools office. For some reason or other the sale of the book almost entirely stopped. October, November, and December—the best months of all the year for disposing of our literature—rolled away, with a record of only a mere handful of sales. It looked as if the work was dead beyond a possibility of revival.

There were those who said, “I told you so; there was a great boom last year, but the thing was overdone, and this is the result. It can never be resurrected.”

But God willed otherwise. He had said that “the plan for the sale of ‘Christ’s Object Lessons’ was heaven-born.” He would not let it thus ignominiously fail. True, the best months for the sale of the book were over; and the most inclement season of the year was at hand. It was even a time described by the giver of the book as “not bright or cheerful, with difficulties standing in the way of rapid advancement.”

Nevertheless, the Spirit of God was moving upon the hearts of our leading men to give their influence to this work, to put their shoulders to the wheel, and in the name of the Lord make things move.

In the month of January, 1902, Elder A. G. Daniells, the General Conference president, opened the second campaign for the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons.” The first battle was fought in the Lake Union Conference in behalf of Emmanuel Missionary College. Sister E. G. White addressed a ringing appeal to ministers and people to aid the school, just struggling into life. The Spirit of God filled the hearts of the brethren and sisters everywhere, and men, women, and children engaged in the blessed work.

It was not long before everywhere the spirit of working with “Christ’s Object Lessons” for the relief of the schools, caught like tongues of holy fire all over the land. The Pacific Coast States, which, up to that time, had done but little, began to work in earnest. In the territories of Union College (Nebraska) and Keene Academy (Texas) most determined and well-organized efforts were begun. The New York and New England Conferences, in the East, led the van for the freedom of South Lancaster Academy. In Canada plans were laid to begin the warfare, the proceeds of the sales to be used for the erection of an industrial school, in which the youth of Sabbath keepers in the Dominion could be trained for the kingdom of God. A little later Elder George I. Butler and his colleagues began the work in the Southern Union Conference, for the benefit of the Graysville Academy and the Huntsville Industrial School. Up to that time but little had been accomplished in the South. Since then the work has gone with power.

Thus all over the land, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Dominion of Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, the second campaign with “Christ’s Object Lessons” for the relief of the schools was waged. And its victories brought hope to the hearts of the weary workers who for so long had struggled with “intolerable burdens of debt;” and the hearts of thousands of soldiers of the cross who engaged in the warfare were made glad; the believers were unified, and many souls were added unto the Lord and the church.

All this was done in the unfavorable season of the year, when the weather was inclement, and the holiday trade a thing of the past. All these things were accomplished when very many thought that the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons” was dead beyond reviving.

Figures concerning the actual number of books which were sold during this campaign will be published in another article. Suffice it to say that the number of sales during the second campaign were more than double those of the first campaign. This is evidence of a great work and a great victory. It was contrary to the expectations of almost all. It was unprecedented in a movement of this kind. That many books could be sold by the generality of our people in the first campaign, under the influence of their first love, very few were disposed to deny; but that about double the number of books could be sold in the second campaign, after the first blush was over, and the novelty of the work was worn off, scarcely any had faith to believe.

Such, nevertheless, was the result of the second campaign. In the history of the Adventist Church it must go down as marking a bright era in the story of the preparing of the people to meet their God.

And now the time has arrived for the opening of the third campaign for “Christ’s Object Lessons.” The three months prior to the Christmas holidays are the best for the sale of our literature.

When the relief of our schools was undertaken in 1900, three years were set aside, and, as it were, dedicated to this work. Two of these seasons have passed away, and now the third and last struggle is before us. What shall be its record?

Everything favors us. Peace, thank God, reigns in the earth. Prosperity, unprecedented, fills the land. Persecution and prejudice against our people burn low. God has given us favor in the eyes of our fellow men. Shall we not take advantage of all these things? Who knows what another year may bring forth? The voices of heaven softly murmur to us, through a thousand different channels: Son, go work to-day in my vineyard; for the night cometh, when no man can work.

In every conference, in every church, at every hearth and fireside, let plans be laid for the completion of this work. Let those who have already sold their quotas, and those who have not, join hands once more, for the third and last time, that the work so nobly begun may be gloriously finished.

Again we say, The time for the third campaign is here. The hour for the last battle in this work has arrived. The crisis is upon us. Will it be a stepping-stone, or will it be a stumbling-block? We are a spectacle unto God, to angels, and to men. Which way the tide of this work shall set is now for us to decide. The destiny of the schools from which our youth are to go forth to the battle fields of the message waits upon our actions, and what shall those actions be?

P. T. MAGAN.