Distribute the Tracts by J. R. Purinton

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 16, 1875

Distribute the Tracts.

By J. R. Purinton

LAST winter I began to feel that I was a poor lost sinner, and that I must do something to gain salvation or make my bed in the cold, silent grave a condemned man. I attended religious revivals in the popular churches, but found no hope at these meetings. All seemed to me to be a mass of contradiction and confusion. I asked my Heavenly Father to direct me to his chosen people, that I might learn of them my duty, and receive of them instructions and aid to assist me out of the gloomy wilderness of error. I desired to find that straight and narrow path in which none but God's chosen people ever walk. My prayer was answered. In looking over some old papers in a waste basket, I found one leaf of a tract. In reading it I became interested upon the Sabbath question, and in searching for another leaf I found the tract, “Who Changed the Sabbath?” In this tract I found food for my hungry soul. Except the Holy Bible, this one tract has been of vastly more service to me than all other religious books or papers I had before perused. It revealed to me the broken and down-trodden commandments of the great Jehovah. It has brought to light God's chosen people, who have the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This one tract has opened the way, and others have become interested.

We cannot all become preachers, but God has provided a work for us all. I know many poor souls who never attend church and never will hear the truths of the gospel unless presented to them at their homes. Because they live in shabby hovels, preachers will not visit them. Preachers seem to think they have no business in such dismal-looking dens. In this they err. All who are working for God and his cause alone should make it a point to enter these humble homes, to visit and seek out the hundredth sheep that has strayed so far from the flock, remembering there is great joy in Heaven over even one sinner that repenteth.

If all who are able would do all they can to furnish the poor with our publications, they might perhaps do vastly more good than they imagine. If you cannot yourself go around and distribute tracts, remember that there are many who would make the best possible use of a few of our publications were they able to purchase them. Who will not do all he can for the advancement of this glorious cause? Let each one of us ask, Am I doing all I can? We have but a few more days in which we can work. Then let us be up and doing, knowing that our Lord will soon come and call for the talent he has given us. J. R. PURINTON.