Hand Out the Literature
[
The Signs of the Times, November 11, 1875
.]
Several speakers had addressed large and attentive congregations
at the camp meeting at Rome, N.Y., on First day, September 12, 1875.
The following night I dreamed that a young man of noble appearance
came into the room where I was, immediately after I had been speaking.
This same person has appeared before me in important dreams to
instruct me from time to time during the past twenty-six years. Said
he: You have called the attention of the people to important subjects,
which, to a large number, are strange and new. To some they are
intensely interesting. The laborers in word and doctrine have done
what they could in presenting the truth, which has raised inquiry in
minds and awakened an interest. But unless there is a more thorough
effort made to fasten these impressions upon minds, your efforts now
made will prove nearly fruitless. Satan has many attractions ready
to divert the mind, and the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of
riches all combine to choke the seed of truth sown in the heart, and in
most cases it bears no fruit.
In every effort such as you are now making, much more good
would result from your labors if you had appropriate reading matter
ready for circulation. Tracts upon the important points of truth for the
present time should be handed out freely to all who will accept them,
without money and without price, which might eventually result in a
hundredfold return to the treasury. You are to sow beside all waters.
The press is a powerful means to move the minds and hearts of the
people. And the men of this world seize the press and make the most
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of every opportunity to get poisonous literature before the people. If
men under the influence of the spirit of the world and of Satan are
earnest to circulate books, tracts, and papers of a corrupting nature,
you should be more earnest to get reading matter of an elevating and
saving character before the people.
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