p. 2 | QUESTIONS ANSWERED by Stephen N. Haskell

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

QUESTIONS ANSWERED.

By Stephen N. Haskell

“WHEN a member of the Tract Society moves from one place to another, does his membership hold good in the place to which he moves? or should he join in each place where he goes?” Answer: If he moves from one Conference to another, his membership does not hold good, but it is expected he will join wherever he may be; but if he moves simply from one district to another in the same Conference, it makes no difference with his membership; but he should report to that district from which he draws his tracts.

The difference between moving from one State to another and from one district to another is this: In one case the membership fee, and donations from the individual, have gone into the Conference tract society fund, in the other case they have not.

“Shall we place the Annuals in stores to be sold?” We answer, by all means. Every store that will take them should be at once supplied. Properly managed, two hundred thousand Annuals can be sold by the tract societies for more than the first cost of them. 1. Let every family of Seventh-day Adventists take a copy and pay ten cents for it. This goes into the tract society fund. 2. Let every Seventh-day Adventist sell to those not interested in present truth for five cents. 3. Place them in the hands of every store-keeper and peddler in the land who will take them, and who is not of our brethren, at three dollars per hundred. 4. Encourage the children everywhere to sell them. 5. Send a copy to each friend of yours everywhere. In fact, a stir should be made all through the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists. Every store should be visited, and every shop and every family throughout the land.

The information contained in the Annual is invaluable. Give the people the light. Now is the time. November is the best month in the year. December comes next. There is not a moment to spare. Go out with prayer, faith, hope, and courage in God. Commence as soon as you read these lines. Call for Annuals at once of your secretary. If your tract officers do not have them, they should order at once.

With the same effort, Iowa and Minnesota can dispose of as many Annuals as New York, which ranks next to Michigan, having ordered eleven thousand.

QUES. “Some churches are poor, and there is an interest to read in their vicinity; another is well off, but there is no outside interest. How can the distribution of reading matter be equalized by the plan of each church paying for its own publications?”

Ans. It is the duty of the director at the district quarterly meeting to consider this matter, and in connection with the librarian take action upon it, and see how much the other churches will give to this poor church.

This plan is adopted with the districts. One is poor and cannot pay for the publications which it can judiciously use. It is the duty of the directors to consider this matter at the general quarterly meeting, and help such districts by donating them publications. When any money is paid into the Tract Society it becomes Tract Society money, controlled by the board of directors, yet ordinarily each church draws out tracts in proportion to what it has put in, unless in cases like the above, also in cases of general expense, such as freight, &c. It can be seen that every district should have a surplus fund on hand, that there may be a quantity of books in the State. But, says one, “why not have all the money go into one general fund, and the executive committee control the whole matter?” The system is to guard against a reckless distribution of reading matter. If a church squanders its funds, it cannot use any one's else means, unless by consent of the other churches.

This plan of helping each church and district is Bible equality. “But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want; that there may be equality.”

S. N. HASKELL.