A WORD TO THE TRACT SOCIETIES.
By S. N. Haskell
WHEN the system adopted is carried out, it will be seen that the efficiency of the Tract Society has not been overrated. We as a people are a unit in our faith, and in all our general work. What we now want is to have an individual effort put forth in every part of the field, at the same time, and upon the same point. There is a position for each to fill, and God will bless every individual in filling it. To accomplish this, it is necessary for our officers to be prompt in the discharge of their duties. We therefore make the following suggestions:— 1. The State secretary should live at some central point, where there are good railroad and mail accommodations, and at this place there should be a general depository of our publications, largely tracts, and including all premiums used by our canvassers. This depository should be sufficiently large to supply each district as orders are sent in. 2. A less quantity should be in the hands of each district secretary, to supply each church in his respective district. 3. A still less quantity should be in the hands of each librarian in the several church societies, to supply the members. 4. These publications sent to the general depository in the State, should be sent as freight, as much expense will thereby be saved on expressage. A little planning of this kind will save enough in some Conferences to furnish entire districts with tracts. 5. No business whatever with your Tract Society or the Office should lay over a single mail, unless you have regular days each week to send your business to the Office of publication: In that case, the business with the Office will be attended to on certain days, but not so with matters in the State. These should be attended to the day they are received. 6. The business of the society should be first of all. No person is fit for the Lord's business (and the tract business is the Lord's business) if he has other interests more important than this. No tract society will prosper if the business is delayed or done in a slack manner. Members who have any interest will become discouraged and disgusted, and will in a short time lose their interest in the work. Give us prompt officers, who do business correctly and with dispatch, and the spirit will become so diffused through the members that the whole Conference can unite in any general action within ten days' notice from head-quarters. The New England Conference has become noted for making general moves on short notices. Visit the house of the State secretary, and you will see the secret of this. When an order for tracts is received to be sent to any part of the Conference, there is no work of sufficient importance to prevent filling the order by the next train, and the next mail carries an accompanying bill. It is so with all the tract business. The object of having tract society officers is to do business, and when men and women are placed in official positions, it is expected they will attend to their business. It is unfaithfulness to God on their part, and doing injustice to their brethren, to do the work of the Lord negligently. “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently.” (Margin) Jer. 48 : 10. If there be not funds on hand sufficient to have a State depository, arrangements can be made with the Office to wait for part of the pay for the publications while the money is being raised. When means are once raised for such a depository, the brethren fully come up to the plan of systematic benevolence, and adopt the one-third, by properly guarding the tract fund there will be no trouble about sustaining the tract society. The smallest of our Conferences should have at least one thousand dollars' worth of publications on hand, while larger Conferences, like Iowa, Wisconsin, and New York, should have twice that amount. We do not expect that all this will be accomplished at once, but each society should commence immediately to bring about this state of things. But few realize the importance of the present passing moments. Larger plans are being laid, and a work lies before us in the closing scenes of this world's history, the magnitude and importance of which is not comprehended.