A WORD TO THE TRACT SOCIETIES.
By S. N. Haskell
We have now reached the autumn season, and the long winter evenings are before us. There is no time in the year when missionary effort can be more effectively put forth than during the fall and winter months. The hurry of the summer is past, and intelligent families fix upon some course of reading for the winter season; while many others would direct their minds to some particular course of reading if they had their attention called to it. Then the reports of the camp-meetings during the past season have produced an effect. These reports have been read by hundreds of thousands of people, and have been the means of largely increasing the circulation of some of the papers publishing them. One agent remarked, at the New England camp-meeting, “I have obtained two hundred subscribers already; and had your meeting held one week longer, I would have been satisfied; for then I should have obtained as many more.” The paper for which he was agent had a circulation of 112,600. The universal testimony of newspaper men was, that there had been an unusual demand for the paper since the reporting commenced. It is therefore evident that the public have read these reports with interest. Hence there never was a more important time. There never was a wider door open for the Tract Societies. Shall we take advantage of these circumstances, and obtain readers for our publications and subscribers for our periodicals? Now is the golden moment, and we should not let the present opportunity slip. The work should be entered upon at once. Each Tract Society should be in haste to lay plans wisely. Do not do it hesitatingly, as though there was an uncertainty in the matter. The cloud has arisen, and the providence of God says, Move forward. That pioneer paper, THE SIGNS, should not be neglected. In all the Conferences, especially in New York and New England, money has been raised to relieve the various Tract Societies from their embarrassment, and to obtain subscribers for the SIGNS OF THE TIMES. It was not the object at that time to have a separate fund for the SIGNS or REFORMER, but to so help the Tract Societies that a special move might be made with the SIGNS. Efforts should be made to circulate all our periodicals. Not one of them should be neglected. Then, too, the Health Almanac, our health tracts, and denominational works, demand attention. All should move together; for they are all specialties in the Tract and Missionary work. This is the season of the year in which the most can be accomplished, and it is especially the time for distributing the almanacs. And inasmuch as the providence of God has thus opened the way before us, such a move should be made in the missionary work this fall as never before. All along the line from Maine to California, one general cry should be raised, Forward march! Let drowsiness and stupidity be shaken off, and let there be a general coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. The certainty of the success of our cause is expressed in Isa. 55:10, 11: “For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”