40
Manual for Canvassers
Young men can be trained to do much better work than has been
done, and on much less pay than many have received. Lift up the
standard, and let the self-denying and self-sacrificing, the lovers of
God and of humanity, join the army of workers. Let them come, not
expecting ease, but to be brave and of good courage under rebuffs
and hardships. Let those come who can give a good report of our
publications, because they themselves appreciate their value.
Economy
Economy is needed in every department of the Lord’s work. The
natural turn of youth in this age is to neglect and despise economy,
and to confound it with narrowness and stinginess. But economy is
consistent with the most broad and liberal views and feelings. Where
it is not practised, there can be no true liberality. No one should
think it beneath him to study the best means of saving the fragments.
After Christ had performed a notable miracle, He said, “Gather up the
[58]
fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”
John 6:12
.
Quite a sum may be expended in hotel bills that are not all neces-
sary. The cause of God lay so near the hearts 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 young women gen-
erally are not educated to economize; and everywhere waste follows
waste. In some families there is a wicked waste of material which, if
reasonable economy were exercised, would be sufficient to support
another family. If, while traveling, our youth will keep an exact ac-
count of the money they spend, item by item, as it is their duty to do,
their eyes will be opened to see the leak. While they may not be called
upon to deprive themselves of warm meals, as the early workers did in
their itinerant life, they may learn to supply their real wants with much
less expense than they now think necessary. There are persons who
practise self-denial in order to give means to the cause of God; then let
the workers in the service of God in any line also practise self-denial
by limiting their expense as far as possible. It would be well for all
our workers to study the history of the Waldensian missionaries, and
to approach the imitation of their example of sacrifice and self-denial.