p. 173 | WHICH WAS THE BEST? by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 29, 1877

WHICH WAS THE BEST?

By Dudley Marvin Canright

Each one of us is always anxious that whatever labor we perform in gospel work should be very successful. Hence we naturally seek for the most promising openings to present the truth, either by preaching or by our tracts. Then it is natural to become discouraged if we do not see good fruits immediately. But my experience in preaching has taught me that you can tell but very little which labor is the most successful. Sometimes when it would really appear that we have reaped a rich harvest, a few years' time will show that it was but little gain to the cause; while in other places where we have counted our labor a real failure, we have afterwards learned that we have had the greatest success.

Several years ago while laboring in Maine, we spent five or six weeks working very hard, with little apparent result. Only four embraced the truth, and two of these soon went back. We thought that was lost time; but this was a great mistake. One young man embraced the truth, and has now become a faithful and successful laborer in the work. He has brought many others into the truth, and thus proved that that was a very successful effort after all. In the same State we had what we called a large meeting, and quite a number embraced the truth; but in a few years there were but few left. Which was the best?

So while laboring in the West, we spent more than a month with the tent in a little village. We had a small interest. Only seven or eight embraced the truth, and these were all women but one. We left much discouraged, and did not think it worth while to go back. The next place we had a great interest. Hundreds came to hear. Quite a number came out, but in a year from that time we had much the larger church in the first place where we went. This place came up, and the other went down.

So while in Minnesota. We spent a long time in the tent in one place, accomplishing apparently next to nothing. The audience was small, and only a half dozen or so came out. We felt much discouraged. But among those half dozen was a young man who has now become one of our able ministers, and has raised up a number of good churches. So I now count this one of my most successful efforts. Thus I might give innumerable cases illustrating the fact that we cannot tell at the time which is successful labor, and which is not. Indeed, has not the Lord said, “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good”? Eccl. 11:6.

We may preach a sermon, scatter our tracts, sow our seed in the morning, and think it is all a failure. We see no results; no interest is created: nobody embraces the truth. It is all lost. And yet, perhaps, in years to come we may be astonished to find that that was the most successful of all our efforts. Every minister knows that this is often the case. Every one who has observed the tract work knows it also. Then it is only once in awhile that we can really tell what effect our efforts have had. Sometimes we are permitted to see the fruit ripen. The Lord gives us this for encouragement. But many times impressions are made which keep growing deeper, broader, and stronger, until years afterwards, perhaps in some other State, some other brother or sister may complete the work in that soul, who may then embrace the truth. Yet the first impulse was received long before.

Christ told his apostles that he sent them to reap that which others had sown. The apostles saw this remarkably fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. One sermon gathered in three thousand souls. But no doubt these had been more or less influenced by the labors of John and of Christ. It is just so in our tract work. To-day a man reads a tract. The impression is not powerful enough to bring him out decided upon the truth, to keep the Sabbath; but a favorable impression has been made. He begins to think about it. He thinks kindly of our people. He speaks a word in our favor, that helps somebody else. By and by he hears of one of our ministers lecturing in his neighborhood. He says, “I would like to hear that man; I will go.” In some cases the interest awakened is so deep that the individual puts himself out of the way to inquire after our people. Perhaps he sends for a minister. When the minister comes where the mind is thus prepared, he soon brings the man into the truth. Perhaps the brother or sister who first created the interest in that man's mind may never know the result of it. So, brethren and sisters, don't become discouraged, nor give over your efforts, nor slacken them one whit, whether you see results or not. In the day of God you will know it all; and that is soon enough.

Why is it that our ministers are having so much better success the last five years than formerly? Larger churches are being raised up, greater interests are being aroused, and the work is moving more rapidly. Is it not because the leaven that has been at work for a quarter of a century is now beginning to show itself? We can hardly go anywhere where Seventh-day Adventists are not more or less known. Some will be found there, who will speak a good word for the truth. Either they, or some of their special friends, have been at our Sanitarium, attended our College, have been among our people, heard one of our ministers, or taken our papers, or in some way or other have become acquainted with the truth. When others would slander and misrepresent us, these persons will arise and speak a good word for us. So little a thing as this sometimes turns the scales in a hard-fought battle in a course of lectures. All these things must be looked at and weighed in our works; hence let none of our tract workers be at all discouraged, nor slacken their efforts.

Thirty years ago, there were only about a dozen Seventh-day Adventists in all the world. They were poor and inexperienced. Twenty years ago there were only perhaps two or three thousand; and most of these were poor and young in the work, and had few tracts to work with. But now it is an inspiring thought to know that there are about twenty thousand of the same faith and hope, all zealously at work in the one blessed cause of spreading this present truth. These are the means which God has ordained to ripen the harvest, and to prepare the way for the mighty closing work of this message. All that is needed is systematic, well-directed, persevering effort, and the work will be accomplished by the blessing of God.

D. M. CANRIGHT.