p. 183 | THE POWER OF A TRACT by L. G. Moore

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 7, 1876

THE POWER OF A TRACT.

By L. G. Moore

In the winter of 1874, as I was seated in the comfortable office of Dr. —— in the little city of Hastings, Michigan, a gentleman came in carrying a neat-looking valise. We soon found that he was a book and tract distributer. He had a curious-looking engraving which he called “The Way of Life from Paradise Lost to Paradise Restored.” He was neatly, yet plainly, dressed, and really made a good impression. He dilated at some length on the merits of the book he was selling—“The Hygienic Family Physician”—showing the advantages we have over disease when treated from a health-reform stand-point. As I had taken the Laws of Life, I was very much interested.

But not so with the doctor; he believed the “good old way was the best.” As the agent directed his conversation to him, I sat as an interested listener. Not being successful with the book, he endeavored to interest him in a paper called the REVIEW AND HERALD, which he claimed was the paper for the times, giving, as it did, clear expositions of the leading lines of prophecy, which have their termination in our day, and as it advocated the restoration of the original Sabbath of the Lord, which he said had been trodden under foot for hundreds of years by the majority of mankind. He was confident that each number would contain items which could not fail to interest the earnest inquirer after truth. But no; the doctor thought the seventh day might do for the Jews; but, as for him, he was willing to risk his salvation on the observance of the Christian Sabbath.

A shade of sadness seemed to gather on the face of the distributer. I felt to sympathize with him, as I judged from his appearance that his sole object was to do good; but it was only for a moment, and he was more animated than before as he said, “You certainly would not object to reading the paper if I should send it free of cost?” Still the doctor hesitated. He then laid some tracts on the table with the remark that we must have something to read. I presume the doctor was convinced that he was honest in his belief, even if it was an error, and he a keeper of the Jewish Sabbath. As he departed he said, “I shall send the paper for six months.”

The tracts lay in their original position on the table for some three or four weeks, when on leaving the office one Saturday evening my attention was called to them; and I said that if he was willing, I would take some of them home and look them over the following day. “Yes, certainly, take some—take them all,” said he, “I am really tired of seeing them around.” Well, I did. Yes, I took them all, several hundred pages. Some on the “Sabbath,” the “State of the Dead,” the “Immortality Question,” “Littlejohn and Statesman,” and others. When I took them I had not the faintest idea that I should read them all. That evening I read them aloud. My companion, as well as myself, was deeply interested, so much so that it was late when we retired. The next day I continued to read them until my eyes became so weak that I had to refrain for a time. Oh! how gladly did we receive the truth, as we were sure it must be. For over a year we had prayed for the Lord to send some one to preach the truth in its gospel purity, and we felt that our prayers were answered.

Previous to this time, we were entirely ignorant of the peculiar views of Seventh-day Adventists; but our hearts were not in sympathy with the practices of the church to which we belonged. It was but a few days after taking the tracts from the office that I found a REVIEW AND HERALD posted to the doctor in my letter box, and as I entered I found him reading one of the same. I remarked that I had the Adventist paper for him. At that he uttered a very improper word, and thrust the paper into the stove, saying that he was ashamed to have his name on such a paper. Said I, “If you intend to destroy them, let me have them.” “You can,” said he, “if you will have your name affixed instead of mine, as I don’t want people to know that I countenance such trash.” I took the paper home and we read it. The first remark in regard to it was, “What a clean paper! not a word of slang in it.” Never before had we read a paper so full of instructive matter, and we anxiously looked for its return each week as we would for a near and dear friend. We were convinced that the seventh day was the Sabbath, and—I do not say it boastfully—we did not plead our peculiar circumstances—for in my business Saturday was an important day—but immediately endeavored to keep it sacredly unto the Lord. How clear the Bible has been since! Passages in which we had failed to see beauty are now like rays of living fire. Truly the “entrance of Thy word giveth light.”

We immediately opened our house for meetings, it being a central point for the few faithful ones who are trying to keep the “commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Since that winter, I have scattered many of the precious tracts, the result of which eternity will reveal. As I look around and see others who are better by nature than we are, still sitting in darkness, and who are unwilling to investigate these solemn truths that we as a people hold dear, my heart is sad. Soon the Lord will come; and the scripture says, “To them who look for him will he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” If it is salvation to those who are looking for him, may we not infer that it will be the opposite to those who are not? May the Lord bless the tract distributors.

L. G. MOORE.