230
Life Sketches of Ellen G. White
and evenings were spent in study. The sales of books and tracts
in Scandinavia in 1886 amounted to $5,386, and subscriptions to
periodicals to $3,146.
Years afterward, Elder Matteson declared that in his efforts in
behalf of the colporteur work soon after his return from the Basel
conference, he was so fully convinced that his workers must live on
a very meager income, that he persuaded each one to keep a strict
cash account, and to let him examine this account once a week, and
advise economies. Soon the scale was turned, for the colporteurs
were spending less and earning more, and a number earned enough
to support themselves without drawing anything from the conference
treasury. [
Note.—The earnest endeavors put forth to establish the
canvassing work on a substantial basis in Scandinavia, bore early
fruit. At the 1889 General Conference, Elder O. A. Olsen was
able to report fifty canvassers in Scandinavia, who were having good
success. (See 1889
Church and Sabbath School Bulletin, 4
.) The
book sales for 1889 amounted to about $10,000, and in later years
these figures were swelled to upwards of $20,000. During the 1891
General Conference, the general agent for Scandinavia declared: “The
canvassers are supporting themselves, and besides this, are helping to
support the cause by their gifts. Several hundred kroner have come into
the treasury of the Swedish conference through the donations of our
canvassers, and I presume this is also true of Norway and Denmark....
The more our canvassers sell, the more they can sell.... Many have
already accepted the truth by reading our publications.” (
Church and
Sabbath School Bulletin, 1891, 84
.)]
[287]
In central Europe the canvassing work waited for books and for
a teacher and leader. The “Life of Christ,” which was proving to
be a popular book in the Scandinavian countries, was translated into
German and French, and was ready for the people early in 1887.
Elder L. R. Conradi had come from America early in 1886,
and having visited the churches and companies of Sabbath keepers
in Germany, Russia, and Switzerland, he reported that one of the
most urgent needs of the European fields was books on present truth,
carried to the homes of the people by consecrated and well trained
colporteurs. He saw clearly that our literature must be used to carry
the advent message to the multitudes of Europe, and that because the
mission funds would not make it possible to pay even a small salary