Your ShelfYour Projects

DOES IT PAY?

20%

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · May 9, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Supplement to Vol. 51, No. 19

Read the full edition

DOES IT PAY?

By J. N. Ayers

Does it pay to spend time and money in the missionary cause? Let us see. A lone sister in Kansas gave her old REVIEWS to a Methodist neighbor to read. The woman read them, but her husband would not stoop to read an Adventist paper, so they were pasted on the side of the house. The man was a great smoker, and would sometimes tear off a small piece of paper to light his pipe, and as he was going to the stove he would read what was on it. He soon became interested, and would go back and try to tear off the paper to get the whole of the article. He would then get his Bible to see if it was true. He finally embraced the truth, threw away his tobacco, and is now an elder in one of our churches, and has the REVIEW to read weekly without tearing it off from the side of the house.
Did this result pay that sister for her old REVIEWS? I think it did. Now, instead of being alone, she can attend meetings on the Sabbath with a live church. The Lord can bless his truth, if it is pasted on the side of a house.
Hear what a director has to say: “I have just returned home after spending nearly two weeks in making a tour through the district, and am glad to be able to return you as good a report as I do.” “I staid with one family that came out fully on the truth from reading the SIGNS alone, and I never met a warmer reception.” He then inclosed twenty names of new subscribers to our periodicals: 2 for the REVIEW, 3 for the SIGNS, 5 for the REFORMER, and 10 for the INSTRUCTOR. Do you think it paid to send the SIGNS to that family? Will obtaining twenty paying subscribers for our periodicals amount to anything? Who can say that such labor does not pay better than preaching? All have talents; are all using the talent God has given them? Remember the man with the one talent, and his reward.
I believe that our T. and M. society is accomplishing more in Kansas than all our preachers. Interests are being raised all over the State, and calls for the living preacher come from every quarter. The grain is already ripe. The T. and M. society is reaping, and the ministers are gathering the bundles. May God speed the work. J. N. AYERS.