Appeal to Vermont Brethren on Missionary Work
By Charles P. Whitford
TO OUR BRETHREN AND SISTERS IN DIST. NO. 1, VERMONT.
As I have of late tried to do something in the missionary work, and also to interest others in the same, my mind has been much exercised on account of the coldness and indifference manifest on the part of some who should be earnestly engaged in the service and work of God. From week to week the REVIEW comes to us containing stirring articles on the importance of circulating our periodicals, and especially THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, which is just now struggling in its infancy to become a self-supporting paper. Our brethren everywhere are appealed to, to become subscribers of this worthy sheet, and then to try to interest those to take it who need to understand the truths with which its pages are filled every week; and yet, notwithstanding all that has been said and written, comparatively nothing is being done toward this worthy object. I have so many times solicited our brethren to subscribe for this paper without success that I have become well-nigh discouraged. Men and women all around us are in a perishing condition for the want of just such light and truth as this paper has to present, and yet we are so far asleep to the dangers to which the world are exposed that we make little or no effort to save them from the wrath to come. I fully believe that very many of our professed Sabbath-keepers are in a condition to be spewed from the mouth of the faithful and true witness. It does seem to me that if any one longs after the living God, and hungers and thirsts for righteousness, the truth for our time will never grow so old and stale that the weekly visits of the REVIEW and SIGNS will not meet with a warm and welcome reception as they come to our homes filled with the glorious and cheerful tidings that Jesus is soon coming again. But it is a sad thought to me that there are those among us professing to believe the last warning message the world will ever hear is now going forth, and yet taking more interest in a common secular newspaper than they do in those which are published with an especial reference to shedding abroad everywhere a knowledge of the present truth,—little or no interest in our periodicals themselves, and less to interest others. Brethren, is not such a state of things sufficient cause for sadness to those who have the cause of God at heart, and earnestly desire its advancement in the world? My heart aches at times in view of the apparent coldness that is manifest on every hand. As for myself, I feel like striving to inherit eternal life, even at the expense of everything else. This world with all of its charms is nothing to me in comparison with an inheritance in that city for which Abraham looked. I feel a thirsting and longing for the glorious, immortal kingdom. I am fully determined to discharge every known duty in the fear of the Lord, to do what I can to spread the light and truth to others, and thus clear my skirts from the blood of perishing souls. Your brother, choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God,