SUGGESTIONS ABOUT CONDUCTING A COURSE OF LECTURES by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 7, 1878

SUGGESTIONS ABOUT CONDUCTING A COURSE OF LECTURES.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

SELLING BOOKS AND OBTAINING SUBSCRIBERS.

It is just as important to get people to reading our books as it is to get them to hear our preaching. We should use every endeavor to get our reading matter before them in some shape, just as much as we should to get them out to hear the sermon. The lecturer who does not realize this fact is not fit to go out; and we always notice that those who can sell the most books and obtain the most subscribers are the most successful preachers; but it requires just as much wisdom and tact to sell a book or obtain a subscriber as it does to obtain a good audience. I have frequently seen brethren who seemed to think that this was hardly a part of their work; at least, that it was not very important. They take so little interest in it and make so feeble an effort that they dispose of but very few publications.

I certainly know that some preachers will dispose of five times as many books as others, with the same interest. Why is this? Simply because they make it a daily study how to do it most successfully. If one way doesn’t succeed they try another. If one book won’t sell, they offer a different one. I have found that I can sell more books the first week of my meeting than during any other. I have found it a good plan to put up a dollar’s worth of our pamphlets and little tracts, and offer them on the second night, or, at the farthest, the third night of our meeting. You will sell a large number that way which you could not dispose of a week later. You do not want to sell books on subjects you have not introduced; but when you have introduced a question, then any book or tract bearing upon that question is in order.

When you have introduced the nature of man, anything bearing upon that question can be advertised; so with the Sabbath. I always have a new book ready to advertise every evening, one treating directly upon the subject of my lecture that evening. Tell them what an able man the author is, how carefully the book has been written, how it has all the references in the Bible to that subject, how it clears up this point and that and the other, how very cheap it is, how they may never have another chance to get it, what an excellent investment it is to put a few cents into a good book instead of throwing it away for some useless article.

I find that the most successful way to sell our small tracts is to put them up in packages of from ten to twenty-five cents’ worth. These generally go rapidly. One evening put up fifteen cents’ worth on the second advent perhaps. Two evenings later put up that many on the soul question. A little later put up twenty-five cents’ worth covering both subjects. So of the Sabbath and other questions. Then offer a half-dollar package, and throw in the prophetic chart or some small book. In fact, we should study every way to introduce our books among the people. I have seen some of our preachers put out our whole catalogue of books all at once, including books on health, tobacco, tea and coffee, and advertise them all together. As anybody might know, very few books would be sold in that place.

When is the proper time to introduce our papers for new subscribers? Answer: The second lecture, or at the farthest the third. Take up the paper, open it full size. Tell all its good points, what subjects it treats upon, how cheap it can be had, how many weeks they will get it for so many cents, and then call for subscribers. You will obtain five the first week where you will get two three weeks later. After you have advertised it, call attention to it again every evening for a week. Keep a clean copy in your pocket constantly; then, whenever you make a call, when you speak with a man, get out your paper and urge him to take it. Do not be afraid to urge him a little; people expect that.

By all means introduce your paper early in your course of lectures. I have seen brethren leave it till about the last thing, till men began to embrace the Sabbath. That is a foolish course. Those who embrace the Sabbath will ultimately take it any way. The great work with your subscribers will be done in the first ten days.

MAKE IT PLAIN.

When you come to the lecture itself, the great, important thing is to make the subject simple, very plain. Often we calculate altogether too much on the scriptural knowledge of our audience; that is, we assume that they know a great deal more about the Scriptures than they really do. Take ten persons promiscuously and question them at home on the simplest facts in the Bible, and you will be astonished to find how little they know about the Bible. Hence do not presume anything on that. Talk just as though they knew nothing about the teaching of the Bible upon your subject.

Do not be afraid to repeat night after night any important point in your main argument. We greatly err sometimes in supposing that after we have said a thing once everybody has heard it, everybody remembers it, and knows all about it. If you wish to be undeceived about that, ask half a dozen persons the next day about the different points of your discourse. You will be inclined to preach it right over. And in fact this is just what we should do, only taking care to mix it up differently, and give it another name. We must drill the present truth into the people, just as a teacher would drill a class of pupils.

Hence, a few of the strongest scriptures on the Sabbath, Advent, and nature of man, should be repeated this way, that way, and the other way, till the dullest hearer cannot possibly forget them. Talk in a simple, childlike manner. Come right down to use the most common words you can think of.

One quarter of every discourse should be devoted to a direct, personal appeal, an earnest exhortation to your audience concerning the truth presented. Success, fruits, are what we are after, and not show.

D. M. CANRIGHT.