p. 12 | GOOD, BETTER, BEST by S. N. Haskell

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, January 1, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 1

GOOD, BETTER, BEST.

By S. N. Haskell

BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.

1. It has been the custom of some T. and M. societies to supply the ministers laboring within their limits with publications to sell. No general plan respecting prices, or the manner of doing the business, has ever been recommended; and, as is always the case under such circumstances, various plans have been adopted in the different societies. Some have charged ministers the wholesale price, adding sufficient to pay freight. This has been a favor to the ministers, which they have appreciated, as they could thus purchase publications in their own State.

2. Some societies have furnished publications to ministers at office prices without extra charge for freight, thus securing their trade in the Conferences at a financial loss to the society. This was done to encourage the ministers and relieve the office of some of its burdens, as a settlement could easily be effected between each minister and the tract society at the annual sessions of the State Conferences. If these ministers gave away tracts, it was at their own expense, unless the Board of Directors saw fit to allow them something on account at the time of quarterly meetings.

3. At the annual session of the New York T. and M. Society in 1878, at which all the ministers were present, another plan was discussed and unanimously adopted. The same course had previously been pursued by some of the ministers. They decided that the society should carry a full supply of publications for the ministers, and that all the proceeds arising from the sales of these publications should be paid to the tract society. In most cases this plan would meet with but two objections; (1) a selfish desire on the part of the ministers to appropriate this profit to their own use; and (2) that some may give away publications at the expense of the society instead of selling them. This last point was guarded by limiting the free distribution by each minister to the profits arising from the publications which he sold. The practicability of this third plan has been demonstrated in the New York Conference during the past year, where the ministers have sold nearly three times the amount of publications of any previous year, the entire sales by them alone having amounted to over $800. The zeal manifested by the ministers in this State to promote the interests of the tract society equals, if it does not excel, that of any other Conference.

The moral strength of our tract societies lies in the spirit of sacrifice manifested; and if those occupying leading positions do not possess it, how can the members be expected to do so? There is no class of men who should be more interested to assist and carry forward our missionary work than S. D. Adventist ministers. Theirs is a purely missionary work. We would not be understood as conveying the idea that every minister who sells publications and does not give all the proceeds to the tract society of which he is a member, is acting from selfish motives; neither that we wish to lay down arbitrary rules for all the tract societies to follow. This question is one which each society should decide with its ministers. In New England and New York there is a mutual understanding between the society and the ministers to act upon this plan.