p. 132 | LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 25, 1877

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

The importance of placing our publications before the public in a systematic manner cannot be overestimated. We say systematic, that the money used may be expended in a manner that will accomplish the most good. This is a work that must increase until the Lord comes, and the time of saving men is over. As the autumnal winds strew the decayed leaves all over the face of the earth, so must our tract workers judiciously place our reading matter before the people. The effort which was commenced last winter by taking the SIGNS in clubs and sending it out to individuals whose address had been procured in various ways, has awakened an interest in hundreds of cases which have come to our knowledge, and has led many to embrace the truth.

You may have no immediate evidence that those to whom the publications have been sent have been benefited thereby, yet months afterward, and sometimes years, it is seen that that labor was not in vain. The following is an extract from a letter from an entire stranger, in response to a letter written by a tract worker. The letter is finely written, and shows culture and refinement. It has reference to the VOICE OF TRUTH:—

“Sir, I once took your paper for a year, and I can conscientiously say that the reading is without exception the nearest to my entire satisfaction of any I have ever found. I read the papers almost daily, notwithstanding they are two years old. I wish to know if the paper is still published. If so, please send me a specimen copy, with terms, &c.”

There is no limit to the influence of this work. Often through one individual you will reach a hundred. The following is a sample of many letters which we receive from preachers and presiding elders in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, in fact, all the Southern States, to say nothing of the many received from other parts of the world: “It affords me much pleasure to say that I have examined your valuable paper (the SIGNS), and I am very much pleased with it. I will become one of your subscribers after our annual Conference in December next. I will do all I can to circulate it among my preachers and friends; I wish also to show the paper to my Sabbath-schools. I am a presiding elder over fifty-two churches. I am very glad to see the SIGNS visiting me down here, and will be glad of its company.”

It is in response to such calls as this, when we have failed to procure a sufficient quantity of SIGNS, that we use old REVIEWS, SIGNS, INSTRUCTORS, and REFORMERS.

The following is from a correspondent in West Virginia: “I am sure your tracts never go to persons who appreciate them more highly than I do. I read them every opportunity I have, and my wife sits up half the night to read them. Mrs. Carey is now a missionary as well as myself, and reading matter of this kind helps both of us much. I intended, should tracts come to my address, to distribute them to my Sabbath-school; but after reading them myself and after Mrs. C. had read them, I decided that the tracts were too valuable to be put into the hands of those whom I know cannot appreciate them.”

These Southern Sunday-schools afford a field for the YOUTH'S INSTRUCTOR, and we hope that not less than five thousand copies will, within one year, be taken by paying subscribers in the South. If we had one hundred old papers where we now have one, we could place them in the hands of individuals who are constantly receiving letters like the above. And there is not a Seventh-day Adventist church in the country that might not weekly receive such letters were they taking the proper steps. Do you live alone? Then organize yourself into a Vigilant Missionary Society. We appeal to all companies of Seventh-day Adventists throughout the world to take hold of this work at once. Let no one say, I cannot do anything; but say, I will try. If you do not know how to take hold, then read what has been written and may be written upon this subject. I have yet to find the church of Seventh-day Adventists where there was not talent, and a disposition to do something, when the members were properly instructed.

Annuals, health publications, everything, old or new, can be made of use here if it contains the truth of God. Then there are the Danes, Swedes, Germans, French, and Norwegians. In our efforts to warn the world, there should be a blending of influence, a concentration of action. Shall this autumn pass without a greater move than we have ever made before? The long evenings are upon us: there is not a moment to spare. Now is the time to enter the harvest field and gather golden sheaves to life eternal. S. N. HASKELL.