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General Conference Bulletin, vol. 4

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    THE CANVASSING WORK

    Continuation of Report of Meeting Held in Review and Herald Chapel, April 17.

    S. H. LANE: Our canvassers have many difficulties to meet, yet there are more blessings than difficulties. I would like to know if there is any canvasser here to-night who would sell out his experience for all the money that he has ever gained through book-selling. Would you? [Voice: Money could not buy it.]GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.4

    I was a canvasser once, before I worked in the Review Office. I can not describe to you how I felt when it came to knocking at the first door. Everything in me went down below zero. I was in hopes that no one would come. When the woman did open the door, I was so scared that I did not know what to say, and I stood there till she said. “What do you want?” I said, “I want to sell you a book.”GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.5

    “Oh, are you a book agent?”GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.6

    “Yes.”GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.7

    “Well,” she said, “they are not much account.”GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.8

    “I know it,” said I, “as a rule, but I am an exception.” Then she smiled, and I got into the house. That little thing did me more good than I can tell.GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.9

    Every one of our ministers ought to have an experience in canvassing. If you were ministers, you would know how it seems when you enter a town to look around for a piece of ground for a tent. You would rather pay three times the price of that lot if you had the money, than to go and beg some merchant to let you have it,—to go up to his store and ask him for that lot. I have been through that. He would want to know what I wanted it for? What kind of tent? Then I would have to tell him. “Seventh-day what? What are you preaching?” Then I would have to tell him. And the sweat would force itself from the pores. Have you not felt like that? But you let a man canvass three or four years, and he will knock complacently; and when he hears the tread of the footstep, he is glad; and when the door is opened, he stands up and states his business in such a straightforward way that it makes an impression.GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.10

    I am glad that our instructors are doing a little differently. The time was when they used to tell the classes to go straight ahead and sell books, and never stop to talk. You will never lose anything if you stop to talk a while. It will pay you financially to do it. You will not visit more than a few minutes before they will say, Can’t you stop a minute?GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.11

    When I had charge of canvassers in England, I noticed that some of them would get up late, and there would be a little rain. They would say, I guess I will wait until nine or ten o’clock, and it will perhaps clear up. Then by that time. “I have got to do just a little writing before I go out. I can not go out this forenoon. I will take an early dinner, and get a good start in the afternoon.” The dinner is later than they expected. They have got to go three or four miles, and “I do not think I can go out to-night, I will wait until tomorrow morning and get an early start.” This goes on for two or three days, and then, “Half the week is gone. I think I will rest this week, and make a success next week.”GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.12

    Procrastination is the thief of time. Every canvasser ought to be on his track in the morning. If the workers should do this way at the Review and Herald Office, what do you suppose Brother Sisley would do? I am not saying that canvassers can put in ten hours a day, but they can put in every day in the week. I do not mean to go out on Sabbath: but if you have to stay away from our people, there is a day for missionary work. If I were canvassing I would go to church on Sunday. I would shake hands with the people and get acquainted with them. [Voice: I have had reports of 64 hours in a week.] Good! I am not saying you should overwork. Our canvassers are selling more books according to the number of hours they work than ever before.GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.13

    There never was a time when so much financial prosperity should attend Seventh-day Adventists as at present. Why?—Because we have all our institutions built up, and our facilities have been acquired, and we are selling more books than ever before. I long to see the time when every Seventh-day Adventist institution is out of debt, when all the surplus earnings will be used in extending the work. If we were free from interest-bearing debts, we could use thousands of dollars in sending out little tracts and leaflets, which would be scattered like the leaves of autumn. I would rather send out 600,000 penny tracts than to pay $6,000 in interest, as we have to do now.GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.14

    H. H. Hall: I have noted the failure of some of our best agents, and it has nearly always been because of discouragement. It reminded me of one time when I was walking along the street with a little girl, on a rainy, muddy, and disagreeable day, and remarked to her what a miserable day it was. Said she, “Yes, but it is just the weather to make the strawberries grow.” I took that little remark to heart, and I am going to remember it all my life. If all would remember that some of these gloomy days “make strawberries grow,” it would be a great help.GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.15

    Brother McReynolds: I feel thankful for what we have seen and heard of unity during this Conference. It seems to me from what we have heard that every man who is engaged in the third angel’s message ought to be thoroughly interested in every other man who is engaged in every other line of the work. All officers of the Conference and tract societies should work together to hold canvassers’ institutes in all these places. Is that giving too much prominence to the canvassing work? I long to see that thing done in every Conference in the world.GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.16

    Ten years ago at the General Conference I promised the Lord I would go anywhere for him. Soon after that the call came for me to go to Arkansas. I felt that I would rather go almost anywhere than to go to that field. But I would not go back on my consecration vow to the Lord, and I went. Brother Dixon and I went to work to get canvassers to go into the field, for I believe the canvassing work is the backbone of any Conference that will get right at it. We went to a little church to hold some meetings there, and took Brother Dixon with us. And, by the way, Conference Presidents, it is an excellent thing to take along the State agent to help you in holding meetings. God blessed us, and we had some excellent meetings. I remember a man who got up to testify, and said, “In our season of prayer a few weeks ago, I prayed earnestly that the Lord would raise up laborers, and I feel that God is now calling upon me to help answer my own prayers. I want to go into the canvassing work.” That man had a family; and after he had gone out, learned that they were having a hard time at home. His wife was feeling anxious over the matter. I wrote that woman a long letter telling her how she could encourage her husband in the field; and he told me afterward how much good that letter had done in encouraging them both. I leave you to judge whether God called that man to the canvassing work. That man was Brother Phillips, who is district agent now. Brother Phillips, have you any question as to being called into the work?GCB April 22, 1901, page 392.17

    Brother Phillips: I am sure I was, brethren, and I thank the Lord for it. I want to say that when we pray the Lord to send out laborers, we can have something to do in answering our own prayers. This has been the richest experience of my life.GCB April 22, 1901, page 393.1

    S. B. Whitney: I feel impressed to say a few words to let you know how I stand. I have been connected with the canvassers’ institutes and Bible schools in Dakota, Kansas, and Arkansas. There are no experiences in my life that I look back upon with more satisfaction. Never have I enjoyed more of the blessing of God. I would be glad to see that practice adopted and carried out in every Conference in our cause. I believe it is one of the best things for the encouragement and efficiency of the workers, and will prove advantageous to every branch of the work, because it brings all the workers into a sort of union where the Lord can work with them together, and can give them a common interest in the cause that will bring success.GCB April 22, 1901, page 393.2

    G. G. Rupert: May I speak a word on the question of unity? I believe there is missionary work here in Battle Creek you can do before you leave. I have been visiting the Office. Every morning there is a meeting for ten minutes before the hands go to their work. I have been speaking to them on the unity there should be between those who work in the printing office, and those who carry the truth to the people. I know the feeling is here that they get their wages every week, and they are not really working in the cause of God. I told them I get my wages every week and I help to carry these books to the people. I wanted to know if they were not working in the cause of God just as much as I was. I tried to impress upon them the thought that we were common laborers. I am glad to see this spirit of unity coming in all through.GCB April 22, 1901, page 393.3

    Elder Russell: I am very much interested in the canvassing work, and in the question of co-operation. When you get your presidents and ministers all falling into line on the canvassing work, there will be a great many books sold throughout your territories. I notice that there has been a spirit of backsliding on the part of the ministers. The canvassing work has been dropping out of their heart. I remember when I started in the ministry in Pennsylvania, at our first tent-meetings we would have $50 or $75 worth of books every night, and would advertise them, and in this way we got a good many books before the people. A man can always talk best on those subjects he is interested in; and if you can only get the fire of bookselling rekindled in the heart of the ministry, the fire will strike the people.GCB April 22, 1901, page 393.4

    We want to watch for laborers in the cause of God as we would watch for souls. In Texas we have had small institutes, and I have thought that many times these small schools resulted in as much good as a large canvassers’ schoolGCB April 22, 1901, page 393.5

    We have received letters from different parts of the State from people who have accepted the truth from reading the printed page. Churches have been raised up through the influence of the canvassers. If I were to give my opinion as to the results of canvassing work. I believe that in the final summing up it will be found that fully one third of those who have accepted the light of the third angel’s message will accept it either directly or indirectly from the printed page. I believe it is a work that will grow.GCB April 22, 1901, page 393.6

    W. C. Sisley: I am so thankful that there is “a sound of a going among the mulberry trees.” I thoroughly believe that the canvassing work is going to start again, and go with more power than ever before. We long to see the old-time missionary spirit. It seems to me there is no people better able to bring that about than the canvassers. The self-supporting missionary is well qualified to start that spirit among the rank and file of our people. It seems to me that that should be part of our work. We should go around among our churches, trying to stir them up to more activity in missionary lines.GCB April 22, 1901, page 393.7

    We have read a great deal about the canvassing work being a work that was worthy of earnest thought. I have always believed that, but I never believed it quite so fully as I have since I have undertaken to do a little canvassing myself. For the last three months I have made a business of selling to every one I can get hold of. I found I had to do a lot of thinking and studying and praying. It was wonderful to me how many different ways and shapes I had to present my book in order to get it in the best way. It has often been hard for me to do it, but I have felt the real blessing of the Lord in it all.GCB April 22, 1901, page 393.8

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