Foreword
Responding to a divine commission, Seventh-day Adventists have
entered enthusiastically upon the work of heralding through the printed
page the truths of the Sabbath and the second advent. In the more than
a century of our evangelistic activity the publishing work has been a
powerful agency for the spreading of the third angel’s message the
world around.
Through the years, guidance in publishing and circulating our
literature has been given through the pen of Ellen G. White. In these
counsels the selling of our truth-filled books and papers is elevated to
a work comparable to that of the gospel ministry. The seller of books
is seen as a colporteur evangelist.
In 1902 a number of statements from the pen of Mrs. White
relating to our colporteur ministry were assembled and published in
Manual for Canvassers. Subsequent Ellen G. White counsels on our
literature ministry led to an enlargement of this work, and in 1920 the
much loved Colporteur Evangelist appeared. This little work has been
published in many languages and has been widely circulated.
The desire to eliminate repetition of subject matter, to place the
counsels in a well-organized topical arrangement, and to include a few
additional choice statements from the Ellen G. White books, periodical
articles, and manuscript files has led to this present compilation, which
has been prepared in harmony with the provision established by Mrs.
White for the posthumous publication of her writings. Reference is
given for each quotation, and the year of writing or of first publication
is noted.
Sideheads, supplied by the compilers, serve as an aid to the reader
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in finding desired statements. Bold-faced type is used to introduce
each excerpt, while italics are used for a heading within the statement
itself. Except for a few statements, repetitious in character, the full
content of Colporteur Evangelist is included in this new volume. All
references are to original sources and not to Colporteur Evangelist, as
it, too, was compiled after Mrs. White’s death.
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