The Testimony of a Tract.
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i How insignificant an instrument seems a little leaflet; what a weak and worthless witness, a tract; yet " The foolish things of the world hath God chosen '' that He might put to shame the things that are mighty" (1 Cor. 1:27). No one : should hesitate to distribute tracts after reading the following story: Bichard Gibbs, an old Puritan doctor, years and ¡years ago wrote " T he t. Bruised Beed." A tin peddler called at a house to sell his wares, and handed this tract to a boy named Bichard Baxter. Through it he was brought under A the enlightening power of the Spirit of God: and then Ba x t e rs ministry was like the sun in his strength, and old Kidderminster was wonderfully transformed. ^ He was a voluminous tract writer. His " S a i n t 's Besft' and "Call to the Unconverted" were translated into many languages, and continued to speak long ^ after Baxter himself ceased to speak with human tongue. These books have led multitudes to Christ. One of them fell into the hands of Phillip Doddridge ,and it was the means t of bringing him to a richer faith and deeper experience of the things of God., He became a famous preacher and hymn writer and president of a thaelogical academy at Kibwurth. Doddridge wrote a book called " T h e Bise and Progress of Beligion in the Soul." It was translated into several languages and blessed ^ to the salvation of many souls. Just at a critical period in his history this little book fell into the hands of William Wilberforce, the great emancipator of the slaves in the British Colonies, and led him to Christ. Wilberforce wrote " A ^ Practical Yiew of Christianity," which fired the heart of the most famous tract writer the world has; for who has not heard of Leigh Bichmond? He wrote the t simple annal of a Methodist girl, and published it under the title of " The Dairy- man's Daughter," and I would like to know into how many languages that has •f been translated and made of God a power for the spread of truth! Before 1848 as many as 4,000,000 copies were circulated, and I have seen it stated that it has testified for Christ in over fifty different languages. When in St. Petersburg, Wilberforce gave a copy to the Czar of Bussia. He handed it to his daughter, who was led to Christ by it. She had it translated into the Bussiah languages and scattered over that great empire. This same book, " A Practical View of Christianity," went to a secluded r parish in Scotland, and it found there a young clergyman who was preaching a gospel that he did not understand and it instructed him in the way of God, and he came forth a champion valiant for the truth, until all Scotland rang with the eloquence of Thomas Chalmers. .Look at this! Not a flaw in the chain. Bichard Gibbs, Bichard Baxter, Philip Doddridge, William Wilberforce, LeiJ*" Bichmond, Thomas Chalmers—is there not a power in a tract?
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