River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1909-12-02

= 4 ilize, but to evan.
L. IT gelize. Regenera-
ton, not education, is to be our first
aim. CD After men have heard and
been saved. then "baptize and teach"
The third text gives one OF the divine
methods of teaching What thou
seest write in a book and send 1t to
the seven churches which are in Asia"
The living voice and the pen were the
two instruments used in the apostolic
times for the propagation of the
gospel
1t is we'll that we have all the
Bible bound in one book, but 1t was
not such at first. 1t was written In
short tracts. We cannot circulate too
many Bibles, but we should use at
the same time the original plan of
circulating small portions of it, ex,
pounded so as to meet the needs of
the time.
A colporteur in central Missouri
called at the house of a farmer noted
for his violent opposition to churches
and all things religious. The family
was not at home, SO he put under the
door a four-page tract, such as he
thought would do good to the man
or any of his household il they should
read it. On entering the door the
farmer was the first to see the tract,
and picking it up crushed it in his
hand and was about to throw 1t into
the fire; but suddenly a better i'm
pulse seized him and he determined to
sit down and see what these Chris
tians were going around and putting
under the doors of peoples houses.
The result was that he sent for the
colporteur to come and instruct him
in the way of life. The colporteur
baptized the whole household and or
ganized a church In the neighborhood.
The little tract had prepared the way
of the Lord. If the colporteur had
gone at first In person he might
have been repulsed, perhaps In
suited.
Addison, the great English author,
is said to have been converted by a
tract sent to his home under cake
by Christian baker. We have heard
of a dissolute cobbler who was con-
verted by reading part of a tract
which he found between the soles OF
shoe he was mending. An infidel
young man in North Carolina, who
never went to church, was saunter-
ing one beautiful Lords day along the
shore of a fish pond, and, for the
lack of something else to do, picked
up some torn pieces of paper which
had been thrown from a fisherman's
basket and amused himself by put
ting them together and reading them.
He saw written there his doom as a
sinner and fastened to seek the coun-
sci of an earnest Christian.
If John Bunyan had not written we
should doubtless be ignorant of The
fact that such a man ever lived Lu-
Their took hold of the printing press
and made the Reformation permanent.
No wonder the monks said: "If we
do not put down this printing press 1t
will put us down" Richard Baxter
was converted by reading a book, and
such a man is apt to want to do good
by writing book himself; so he
wrote his Call to the Unconverted,"
which Philip Doddridge read and was
converted. Doddridge wrote THE Rise
and Progress of Religion in the Soul"
which led William Wilberforce to
Christ. Wilberforce wrote practical
View of Christianity" by means Of
which Leigh Richmond became a
Christian; and Leigh Richmond wrote
little tract called "The Dairyman's
vii fra In
into more than a hundred languages,
and not less than 100000 Of them
have been circulated. More than 1000
persons are known to have been led
to Christ by reading "The Dairyman's
Daughter" To it / owe my first act
of conse Grafton to Christ. | read the
simple story of patient suffering and
peaceful JOY IN Christ. The moment
it was finished | was on my knees,
asking God to take me and make me
the true Christian the poor girl was.
The Gospel in the daily press goes
where no living voice can enter, and
is in many cases the power of God
unto salvation. Paul preached In the
market place, for there the people as
sembled to hear the news. The daily
paper is the market place of today,
and If Paul were here he would speak
through it to the millions. If had the
money | would fill at least column of
every daily paper in the land with
Gospel truth, and l would rather pay
for it than have it printed Sree, for
the fact that it is known to cost car
ries weight with the readers.