T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S LOVED OUT OF SIN The frail daughter of General Booth had preached her sermon and told her story night after night In a crowded room In the city of Paris, only to be mocked and jeered by those who came to crowd about her. At last, one night with breaking heart she came down from her platform, walked through the crowd, and said to a poor fallen girl who sat in the rear seat, as she. took her face in her hands and bent over and kissed her: “ My dear sister, I would to God that I could love you to Christ.” Pure lips like those had not touched her cheek for many a year. She raised her face, instantly started to her feet, and then staggered from weakness down the hall, and fell, the first one, at the penitent form. She came that night to know Christ as her Savior, and stands today as one of the leading Sal vation Army officers in that same coun try. If you were to ask her what it was that led her to know the Christ, she would answer: “ I was loved out of my sin into the Kingdom of God.” There is a verse in Isaiah which de clares: “ Thou hast in mercy delivered my soul from the pit,” the marginal reading of which is: “ Thou hast in mercy loved up my soul from the pit.” This is the spirit we must have as the children of God if we would lead the lost to know Him. FIRST TRACT SOCIETY "Wesley,'” says Fitchett, “ was the first discoverer of that much criticized form of literature, the ‘tract,’ and he anticipated the famous Religious Tract Society by many years. That society was organized in 1799; but, more than fifty years earlier—in 1742—Wesley was busy printing and circulating thous^ ands of brief, pungent appeals to various classes of wrongdoers; to drunkards, to swearers, to Sabbath-breakers, etc.
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By means of his helpers, Wesley scat tered these earliest of tracts like seed over the evil of the three kingdoms.” One of John Wesley’s most useful and honored assistants was Joseph Taylor, who, it is said, specially earned Wesley’s favor by his attention to the sale and distribution of the works he issued. In his letters to Taylor ref erence is often made to this. Wesley tested his preachers by the way they distributed evangelical literature. Such faith had he in the value of the printed page that he required each of his preachers to be a colporteur and book agent. In his journal, under the date December 18, 1745, he writes: “ We had within a short time given away , some thousands of little tracts among the common people.............And this day, ‘An Earnest Exhortation to Serious Repentance,’ was given at every church - door, in or near London to every per son who came out; and one left at the home of every householder who was ab sent from Church. I doubt not but God gave a blessing therewith.” In 1782 Wesley formed the first Tract Society and printed a list of thirty tracts. In what was called “ An Ex tract of the Original Proposals” for this society, Wesley said: “ I cannot but earnestly recommend this to all those who desire to see true Scriptural Chris tianity spread throughout these na tions. Men wholly unawakened Will not read the Bible. They have no relish for it. But a small tract may engage their attention for half an hour, and' may, by the blessing of God,. prepare them for going forward.” ate ate OH, BE SWIFT “ Oh, be swift whp bear the message! Oh, be generous, ye who stay! Lavish gifts upon the altar, Pray and give, and give and pray. Till the multitude in darkness In His beauty see the King, And the nations to His kingdom Shall their praise and glory bring.”
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