p. 237 | THE THREE PLANS by S. N. Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · April 8, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 15

THE THREE PLANS.

By S. N. Haskell

BY ELD. S. N. HASKELL.

Three different plans have been adopted by our brethren for the distribution of the Signs. The first is to procure the addresses of friends and acquaintances, and have the paper sent directly to them for a specified length of time. This plan was acted upon by the tract societies several years ago in a six-months’ trial-trip of the REVIEW; ten thousand copies of the Voice of Truth were also sent out in this manner. To this plan there are serious objections: 1. It is not known whether or not the persons to whom the papers are sent are or will become sufficiently interested to read; and if they do not, a year’s subscription is lost; 2. Publishers are forbidden by law to send out printed matter at publishers’ rates of postage, to any who are not regular subscribers; 3. It is quite probable that two or three copies might be sent to one person by different individuals; 4. Those sending the papers simply paid their money, and had no further care, responsibility, or burden of labor in the matter.

By the second plan, individuals or churches subscribe for a club of from ten to five hundred copies, and by correspondence, in connection with sending them out, learn who are interested to read. They then have copies transferred from their clubs to these persons. This course may be followed with a degree of success. There is one objection to it; namely, that frequently the entire club will thus be disposed of, so that the society will have no papers with which to carry on the work.

The third plan is similar to the second in most respects. As large a club as can be paid for by monthly installments, is ordered, and the papers are remailed, each week, to those whose addresses may be obtained from various sources, accompanied, at the proper time, with letters or cards (a letter is better) of such a nature as to call forth a response. These responses will indicate the best course to be pursued afterward. If the individual subscribes for the Signs, or it is thought best to send a copy to him, it is ordered from the Office, and the full number of Signs is retained in the club, with which to obtain other interested readers.

This plan has many advantages over the first, and some over the second: 1. It educates persons to labor for others, and infuses a true missionary spirit wherever it is carried out; 2. It lays a weekly responsibility upon each person, which cannot be properly discharged without much thought and prayer; 3. It calls into exercise much talent which would otherwise be useless to the cause of God; 4. It guards against laying papers aside and not using them, because some may fail to find interested readers; 5. By this plan ten families, at least, will be visited by the Signs, where, by the first method, only one would receive it; 6. It brings into the church a good moral atmosphere. This I have never known to fail.

If you want a healthy church, let there be spiritual exercise, not merely in devotional forms, but in that which requires earnest thought and effort and much prayer. This kind of exercise is as essential to our spiritual health as physical exercise is to our physical health. All S. D. Adventists should discipline themselves to labor for the salvation of precious souls; and they should have clubs of our pioneer sheet and Good Health as auxiliaries in this work.