Loading...
Larger font
Smaller font
Copy
Print
Contents

The Spirit of Prophecy in the Advent Movement

 - Contents
  • Results
  • Related
  • Featured
No results found for: "".
  • Weighted Relevancy
  • Content Sequence
  • Relevancy
  • Earliest First
  • Latest First
    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents

    How The Colporteur Agency Came

    It has been through the agency of the colporteur service that the great circulation has been given to the message-filled books. One missionary organ has said: “The Seventh-day Adventist Church is the only one that has in the past made adequate provision for the handling of its literature.”SPIAM 74.1

    Considering that they are one of the smallest of churches, it is remarkable that they should be ranked as high in the output of publications on Bible doctrines. “How do they do it?” said a Protestant congress in South America. “How do they do it?” has been the question in Asia, Africa. Europe, and other lands.SPIAM 75.1

    The real secret is in the message that is in the books. That awakens an interest on the part of people to read, and the urgency of the message and the love of souls nerves the colporteur army to hold to the field. Of them it may be said, as the ancient historian, Herodotus, wrote of the messengers of the great Persian king: “Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”SPIAM 75.2

    “On goes the colporteur, nor slacks his zeal,
    Through hard times or prosperity, through woe or weal.
    Placing in countless homes books full of grace
    That point earth’s weary to a resting place.”
    SPIAM 75.3

    But how is it that this great evangelistic agency has been so developed by this advent movement? It was not because some of our men, as the Oriental mission organ suggested, “put more brains” than others had done into a publishing work.SPIAM 75.4

    Here again it was this oft-despised gift of the Spirit of prophecy that pointed the way. In 1879 the movement had not a colporteur in the field. No one had thought doctrinal books could be sold in that way. Then, as M. E. Olsen has written in “The Origin and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists:” “The most important step in the history of the denominational publishing work was the adoption of the plan of selling books by subscription. This plan was first proposed by Mrs. E. G. White, in a testimony dated 1879.”—Page 426.SPIAM 75.5

    “Some things of grave importance,” she wrote, had not received attention. “Men in responsible positions should have worked up plans whereby our books could be circulated.” Books should have been produced in an attractive way. “Hundreds of men,” the testimony said, “should be engaged in carrying the light all through our cities, villages, and towns.”—“Testimonies,” Vol. IV, pp. 388, 389.SPIAM 75.6

    That started things; and exactly the work described is seen going forward in all the continents and in many languages. Observers outside praise the efficiency shown. They attribute it to the keen perception of men. But we who know the facts, know it was the leading of God, through this gift of the Spirit of prophecy, that placed this great evangelizing agency in the advent movement.SPIAM 76.1

    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents