p. 5 | TEN THOUSAND SIGNS by Stephen Nelson Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 14, 1878

TEN THOUSAND SIGNS.

By Stephen Nelson Haskell

Two years ago the tract societies commenced taking the SIGNS in clubs and using them in missionary work. About six thousand copies were thus taken and re-mailed weekly to individuals in different parts of this country, and to every other portion of the globe where the English language is spoken. These were paid for in monthly installments to the librarians, who have paid the same into the tract society fund, and thus the SIGNS Office has received payment each quarter.

The Judgment alone will reveal the results of this effort. We know of scores who are rejoicing in the truth in consequence of simply reading publications furnished by the tract societies. Some ministers are preaching who have never seen one of like faith save a few who have embraced the truth in the same manner or through their influence. In some companies, Sabbath-schools have been organized. In short, the Lord has blessed the movement; and those who have cheerfully sacrificed their ease and means in this work, if they continue faithful a little longer, will see that they have been co-workers with the angels of God in warning the world. But the question arises,

WHAT SHALL WE DO THIS WINTER?

The Signs Office has made the following liberal proposition to the tract societies east of the Rocky Mountains. When taken in clubs of not less than ten copies, the SIGNS is offered at the rate of one dollar and twenty cents per year. (See resolution passed by General Conference.) One dollar per month will pay for ten copies, instead of eight, as last year. In order to furnish them at this price it is necessary that ten thousand copies should be taken among those societies to which this offer is made.

Now is the time to commence this work. The long evenings are upon us. There are thousands of men and women who are anxious for something to read, and we ought to enter the field before the enemy sows tares. Shall we be clear before God if we neglect this work?

REASONS WHY

We should engage in this work: 1. There are thousands of Seventh-day Adventists who long to do something that God will accept; yet because they cannot leave their homes they are doing nothing in the missionary work, and are dying spiritually for something to do. The thought required to plan the work, to hunt up addresses of individuals, and to correspond with them, will give a valuable experience in the work of God.

2. It develops the mind, and educates the soul for Heaven. Thus, in a particular manner, it connects the individual with the world to come.

3. It presents before him a definite object in life, which, if persevered in, will be an effectual cure for that low sentimentalism which is ruinous to soul and body.

4. The varied reading in the SIGNS is far more effectual in awakening an interest than a doctrinal tract.

5. It is a work that each member in the family can take part in.

6. The SIGNS is the best paper in the world for a pioneer sheet on present truth.

7. The love of Christ, the providence of God, and the Spirit of God, bid us labor for souls.

When a club of ten copies of the SIGNS is taken in any church, the money donated to pay for them is paid to one person in the church each month; the papers may be sent to several addresses so that all may take a part in it.

Individuals so situated that they are not connected with any church who wish to take a club of less than ten copies, can do so by corresponding with the State secretary.

HOW TEN THOUSAND COPIES CAN BE SUBSCRIBED FOR BEFORE JANUARY, 1878.

1. Let every president of the tract societies, with the secretaries, bring this matter before the brethren. 2. Correspond with all the officers of the society and leading brethren immediately. 3. Let every company of Sabbath-keepers that reads these lines commence to act immediately, and not one take less than ten copies. 4. Families living alone and individuals boarding out, away from churches, should take three, five, eight, or ten copies, place them in libraries and reading rooms, give them to acquaintances who are not in the truth, and send to friends far and near.

HOW SHALL THEY BE PAID FOR?

In monthly installments. One dollar per month pays for ten copies, fifty cents for five copies, thirty cents for three copies, and so on. Do your business through your tract society officers. Do not wait one week or one day, without planning what you will do, and commence to act. God will help you in the work.

WHAT IF WE DO NOTHING?

Your neighbors and friends will rise up in the Judgment against you unless you lift the warning voice. The most effectual way to do this is to give them reading matter, and the SIGNS is the best we have at present. We are upon the verge of the Judgment; but how little do we realize the importance of the present hour. There should be one general rally to move forward in this work, that it may be said of us individually, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” We expect responses from every church in the country. S. N. HASKELL.