Literature Distribution in India by G. G. Lowry

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 21, 1912

Literature Distribution in India

By G. G. Lowry

NAZARETH, SOUTH INDIA.—Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! It is indeed wonderful how much one little tract or one paper filled with the message will sometimes accomplish when put into the hands of people. Not long ago a man who had heard that there were people in India who kept all the commandments of God, wrote to us asking if we had any literature on the Sabbath question, whereupon a tract was sent to him. After looking over the tract for a moment, he pronounced it heretical and destroyed it. But, while he was doing so, another man, who had but recently come out of heathenism, was standing by listening to the conversation, and saw the address on the tract. Within a few days he started out on foot to find our mission, which was about seventy-five miles away. When he reached the mission, he asked us if it is really true that we keep the Sabbath according to the commandment in the Bible. We told him that it is true, and from that moment he became deeply interested in the truth; and after a careful study of it for about two months, he, like the eunuch of old, asked what there was to hinder his being baptized. Upon being told that there was nothing, he, with a number of others, was baptized, and since has enlisted in the Master’s service as a colporteur. He has been working incessantly ever since to bring to those who sit in darkness a knowledge of the coming of Christ, and of the truth for this time. He is full of courage and faith in God, and is untiring in his efforts for the advancement of the truth.

This shows us the great importance of placing suitable literature in the hands of the people of India. As a rule, those who have had the advantages of an education are very anxious to get reading-matter. They will read; and if good, wholesome literature is not given to them, they take the trashy, worthless kind which is being freely distributed throughout India.

It seems plain that the majority of the millions of India will have to be reached with the message by literature charged with the truth, because it will be next to impossible, with our limited number of workers and with the small amount of means at our command, to reach them by personal contact. May the Lord help us to be awake to every opportunity, ready to take advantage of every means which he gives us for the carrying out of his work. G. G. LOWRY.