Colporteur Evangelist and Finance
77
it should be? How is it that no voice is raised to correct this state of
things?—
Manual for Canvassers, 47, 48
(1902).
But many are attracted into the canvassing work to sell books and
pictures that do not express our faith, and do not give light to the
purchaser. They are induced to do this because the financial prospects
are more flattering than those that can be offered them as licentiates.
These persons are obtaining no special fitness for the gospel ministry.
They are not gaining that experience which would fit them for the
work. They are not learning to bear the burden of souls and daily
obtaining a knowledge of the most successful way of winning people
to the truth. They are losing time and opportunities.
These men are frequently turned aside from the convictions of the
Spirit of God, and receive a worldly stamp of character, forgetting how
much they owe to the Lord, who gave His life for them. They use
their powers for their own selfish interests, and refuse to labor in the
vineyard of the Lord.—
Manual for Canvassers, 43
(1902).
Not to Offer Special Inducements—Many of the workers in the
canvassing field are making no sacrifices. As a class they have less
of the missionary spirit than the workers in any other denomination.
When the way is all prepared for them, when they can command the
highest wages, then they are willing to enter the field. Many induce-
[99]
ments are presented to canvassers to handle popular books; large wages
are offered them; and many refuse to work for less wages to circulate
books treating on present truth. Therefore the inducements have been
increased to correspond with those offered by other publishers, and
as a consequence the expense of getting our publications before the
people is large; many of the canvassers obtain their money easily and
spend it freely.—
Testimonies for the Church 5:403, 404
(1885).
Economy and Self-Denial—Quite a sum may be expended in
hotel bills that are not at all necessary. The cause of God lay so near
the heart of the pioneers in this message that they seldom took a meal at
a hotel, even though the cost was but twenty-five cents each. But young
men and women generally are not educated to economize, and waste
follows waste everywhere. In some families there is a wicked waste of
enough to support another family if reasonable economy were used. If,
while traveling, our youth will keep an exact account of the money they
expend, item by item, their eyes will be opened to see the leaks. While
they may not be called upon to deprive themselves of warm meals, as