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BV 2369 .S8 

Stevenson, John McMillan, 

1812-1896. 
Toils' and triumphs of Union 



TOILS AND TRIUMPHS 



OF 



%mm gissiuiwwj Jfatyarfit^ 



FOE 



TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, 



BY ONE OF THE SECKETAKIES 

OF THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 




PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 



We address in the following pages our 
brethren in the Ministry and the pasto- 
rate, officers in the army of the Lord of 
hosts, who are eager to discern and 
prompt to accept whatever scriptural 
agency shall proffer its aid in their work 
of subduing the world to Christ ; we 
address church officers and men of be- 
nevolent hearts and means who have 
consecrated themselves and their wealth 
to the advancement of Christ's kingdom ; 
we address all who love •our Lord Jesus 
Christ and the souls he has redeemed, 
beseeching each one to extend to the 
system of Christian effort herein por- 
trayed, such sympathy, prayer and co- 
operation as, in his judgment, wdien 
candidly made up, shall best subserve 
the cause of our common Lord. 

' J. m. s. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

Colpoetage, Origin and Nature oe the System — His- 
tory — Elements of power in combination — Why called 
Missionary — Why Union page 5 

CHAPTER II. 

The True Place of this Union Agency — Visible church 
now divided — Vital question: "Shall I work only with 
my own branch ?" — Answer — It has high claims — Church 
universal high claims — Christ the highest claims — Work 
in both ways - - - 13 

CHAPTER in. 

The Need of such an Agency — Causes of Destitution — 
Extent not appreciated — Illustrations in New England — 
New York — Middle Western — Southern states — Con- 
clusion - 25 

CHAPTER IT. 

Special Adaptation of Union Missionary Colpoetage to 
this Want — Denominational colportage adapted to its 
own people — Union colportage to the outyling — As 
seen in the character and range of its literature and the 
spirit of its laborers — Welcomed by all — Specially adapt- 
ed to the divided state of the church — To the common 
mind — To the very poor and destitute — To the sick and 
dying — to those speaking foreign tongues 35 

CHAPTER V. 

The Versatility of Colpoetage— Can turn its hand to any 
good work — To Soldiers — To Seamen — To Infidels — 
To Eomanists 51 



4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Kesuxts — It forestalls bad by good books — Promotes the 
Sabbath-school cause — Aids the ministry — Promotes 
revivals and the formation of churches — Trains workers 
for Christ — The German errand-boy — The youth of the 
swamp - -- ---"._ 70 

chapter yn. 

A Comprehensive View — An individual record— A partial 
exhibit— General summation — Conclusion - - - 98 



CONTEXTS OF APPENDIX. 



Statements of Colporteues — The work exemplified — 
' Hard work and its fruits — A day's work and its results — 
Power of the press among the destitute — Colportage 
permeating and attracting — The union element — 107 

Testimony of Expeeience — A father's words — Aids the 
ministry — Origin and practical working of colportage — 
Its power — Aggressive character — Four definite conclu- 
sions - - - 115 

Testimony of Retired Laboeees — Catholicity — Four de- 
ductions— Colportage cooperative and supplementary — 
An earnest exhibit — Colportage fits for foreign mission- 
ary labor — General view -- 132 

Opinions of Pastoes — Colportage indispensable— In 
crowded as in scattered communities — Especially in the 
South — As a pioneer — Its relation to organized church- 
es — Fruits gathered- - 147 

An Aemy Colpoeteur described 157 



COLPORTAGE 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SYSTEM DESCRIBED. 

In the year 1841 was inaugurated by the 
officers of the American Tract Society the 
system of Union Missionary Colportage, they 
little imagining whereunto it would grow. 
Having completed its quarter of a century, 
we come to speak of its toils and triumphs, 
and commend its further prosecution and 
wide expansion to the attention of the church 
universal. 

The spirit of colportage is found in apos- 
tolic times, when the disciples, "who were 
scattered abroad, went everywhere preach- 
ing the word." The name colporteur, of 
French origin, was at an early day applied 
to the bearer of religious books from house 



6 COLPORTAGE. 

to house, combating error, and talking with 
the people of the great salvation. In the 
Reformation, "Germany was overrun with 
colporteurs," and Luther's works were thus 
circulated in France, Spain, England, and 
Italy. 

In more recent times the term describes a 
large class of laborers in Europe who are 
diffusing the Bible and other books, by sale 
or gift, among the masses of the people. Its 
present form in our country was given it in 
the spring of 1841. For some years previous 
to this date the American Tract Society had 
prosecuted with large success the volume en- 
terprise and tract distribution, during which, 
with the aid of above thirty thousand volun- 
tary laborers, two million volumes of evan- 
gelical truth were put into circulation, largely 
in the cities, chief towns, and wealthy neigh- 
borhoods. This effort brought out the fact 
that immense numbers of our population, and 
they the most needy, could not be reached 
by this effort, and hence that some benevo- 
lent scheme must be devised for carrying to 
their houses the word of life. 

At this juncture, while the tear of compas- 



THE SYSTEM DESCRIBED. 7 

sion was falling over the neglected millions of 
the land, and the executive officers were anx- 
iously inquiring what could be done, the agent 
for volume circulation at the West, Mr. Seely 
Wood, one of the first and most energetic 
laborers in the work, came to the anniver- 
sary, and spread before the Committee the 
immense population unreached by the agen- 
cies of the Society on his field. "Will the 
Christian public sustain the men sent out 
to visit the destitute and dying masses?" 
was the question anxiously canvassed by the 
executive officers, Hallock, Eastman, and 
Cook, Mr. Wood, and others. During pro- 
tracted conferences, in which the senior Sec- 
retary with special earnestness insisted that 
the destitute masses must be sought out at 
their own homes, it was at length determined 
to inaugurate the work, the Committee throw- 
ing itself in faith upon the benevolence of the 
churches. Secretary Cook attended the an- 
niversary of the Society in Boston a few days 
thereafter, and there publicly presented the 
scheme, when two men immediately proposed 
to go out as colporteurs, and a patron ap- 
peared to sustain one of them. Thus was 



8 COLPORTAGE. 

originated Union Missionary Colportage, to 
which Mr. Cook gave for many years the 
best powers of his gifted mind. At the close 
of the first year, eleven colporteurs had been 
commissioned ; at the end of the second, 23 ; 
the succeeding year, 76; the next, 143; the 
next, 175. And thus the work has advanced 
till the present. 

Colportage, as an evangelizing agency, 
combines the two great elements of power 
God has given his people — the living voice and 
the living press. By these, as instruments, 
singly or united, all advancement, intellect- 
ual, social, and religious, is made. The voice 
is more potent for the moment, the press 
abiding for the long years. The voice arouses 
and instructs the worshipping congregations ; 
the press seeks out and warns the larger 
masses, who rarely go into worshipping as- 
semblies : the voice thrills the thousands 
gathered upon some great emergency ; the 
press reaches with a quieter power the mill- 
ions scattered over the land: the voice is 
limited in its reach; the press ubiquitous in 
its range. The two combined — the voice 
uttering burning thoughts, impelled by glow- 



THE SYSTEM DESCBIBED. 9 

ing affections ; the press, driven by steam and 
aided by electricity, multiplying in million- 
form the truths to be taught — sometimes 
move our entire people, as the forest is 
swayed by the winds of heaven. 

The combination of these in colportage is 
most felicitous. A living man, with heart of 
love and tongue of zeal, and laden with pre- 
cious pungent printed truth, goes to his field 
purposing to bring that truth into direct con- 
tact with every soul. This he does by seeing 
the people house by house, individual by in- 
dividual, conversing of Christ with each, and 
so far as possible and expedient, praying with 
all ; and when his words of instruction, com- 
fort, warning, or exhortation, have been spo- 
ken, his printed truth in the form of tract or 
book remains to plead for God when he has 
passed on, each family supplied with words 
whereby they may be saved. His words 
wake attention and start inquiry; the books 
fix the thought and give the information ; the 
personal interview conciliates, the printed 
volume instructs ; the kindness of a Christian 
visit wins the confidence, the pungency of the 
tract touches the heart; the prayer in the 



10 COLPORTAGE. 

Cliristless cabin sets the children npon won- 
dering inquiry ; the picture cards and cate- 
chisms placed in their hands explain the duty 
and blessedness of piety ; the exhortation in 
the social meeting leads Christians to ask, 
How can we serve God more faithfully? the 
volumes they secure suggest modes of active 
good doing; the address to the Sabbath- 
school awakens new thoughts; the library 
furnished is a permanent source of interest 
and instruction. 

Colportage is not book-peddling, either in 
aim, spirit, or result. Its aim, to supply the 
destitute with saving truth, and bring souls 
to Christ; its spirit, that of the Master, self- 
denying and benevolent; its result, the win- 
ning of many to the Saviour — all distinguish 
it broadly from mere book-selling. Nor is it 
simply a zealous running to and fro in earnest 
exhortations, much of which is forgotten as 
soon as uttered, for it places permanent min- 
isters of truth in each house, to urge and re- 
iterate the claims of Christ upon every soul. 
It is thus seen to be a combination in happy 
measure of the two world-moving instrumen- 
talities — personal influence and printed truth. 



THE SYSTEM DESCRIBED. 11 

It is called missionary colportage, because it 
carries its message to the destitute people, not 
waiting for them to come after it. Seeking 
them out in the by-ways and alleys of the 
city, in the secluded nooks and glens of the 
country, in the recesses of the forests, in the 
fastnesses of the mountains, in the wide prai- 
ries of the west, in the broad savannahs and 
dark swamps of the south : wherever human 
habitations are found or human beings live, 
there are its footsteps directed and its bur- 
dens of truth borne. While it neglects none 
who may desire and welcome its visits, its 
chosen field is the destitute — those unreached 
by other means. As the advanced cohort of 
the Lord's workers, it sows the seed in all 
vacant fields, bestows its culture upon all 
waste places, as the church of Christ should 
ever work, assured that the local organiza- 
tions will, one or another, gather the fruitage. 

The term union missionary colportage ex- 
presses the cooperation of evangelical Chris- 
tians of all names, and the catholicity of its 
publications and laborers, as distinguished 
from denominational works and workers. 

The fundamental truths of the gospel cen- 



12 COLPOIITAGE. 

tring in the cross and clustering about it, 
are common to the evangelical church in all 
ages and all lands. This "common salva- 
tion," as inspiration terms it, this truth es- 
sential to salvation, this "faith of the saints" 
in all ages, is the principal element in all 
[gospel preaching, the body of the practical 
and devotional literature of the church, and 
the truth which the Spirit usually employs in 
the conversion and sanctification of men. 
This is the truth which union colportage car- 
ries to the people. 

The colporteurs must also be of catholic 
spirit, aiming at the one vital point, the union 
of men to Christ by faith, not unduly influ- 
encing their denominational relations. 

Such then is the nature of the system : as 
colportage, carrying the good news to the 
people; as missionary, seeking out the spe- 
cially needy ; as union, employing the central 
doctrines in which the church in general 
unite — combining the use of spoken and 
printed truth. 



TRUE PLACE OF THIS AGENCY. 13 

CHAPTEE II. 

THE TRUE PLACE OF THIS UNION AGENCY. 

If the cliurch of Christ were a visible and 
harmonious unit, none could doubt the place 
and power of a general colportage in the 
evangelization of the world. The entire body 
of Christ's people throwing their energies 
into such a plan for reaching the masses, one 
generation would scarcely pass until all in 
civilized lands should hear the blessed name. 
But we are far from realizing that ideal 
church in our day. God's children are 
grouped in many organizations under differ- 
ent names, often in seeming opposition to 
the real unity ; and as each branch of the one 
true church has modes of Christian effort, 
boards of missions, education, and publica- 
tion, a serious question exists in some minds 
as to cooperating in a union work. The 
question assumes this shape, "As my own 
branch of the church is fully organized for 
the work of Christ, should I not work only in 
her channels? Is not my highest obligation 



14 COLPOKTAGE. 

and first duty to ray own denomination? 
Or may I, in the present divided state of the 
visible church, wisely expend part of my time 
and means in a union enterprise ?" 

While we would not assume to judge for 
others, the following considerations may aid 
in reaching a right conclusion. 

1. The Christian sustains a precious and 
cherished relationship to his own section of 
the church. By voluntary covenant he has 
entered into this relation, and taken upon 
himself its vows. He has associated with a 
little band of the great family, because he in 
some respects is more nearly allied to them 
in doctrines, modes of worship, tastes, and 
general sympathies. With these he labors in 
supporting the ministry, maintaining public, 
social, and Sabbath-school services. Here 
he brings his children to hear the gospel; 
here he celebrates the love of Christ at His 
table; and when he dies, here his brethren 
assemble to lay away his body and mingle 
their tears with those of his weeping family. 
Clearly he owes high and important duties 
to this particular organization ; and if it be 
a part of a general denomination, his obliga- 



TRUE PLACE OF THIS AGENCY. 15 

tions extend to all the members of that sec- 
tion of the church, because of his connection 
with this local organization. He is not gen- 
erally the most devoted Christian who has no 
denominational preferences and attachments. 
Many duties are best performed in denomi- 
national channels, as making a public profes- 
sion of religion, organizing local churches, 
attendance regularly upon divine service, 
educating men for the ministry, and whatev- 
er pertains directly to denominational church 
extension, either at home or abroad. 

So far there can be no question. But more 
may be stated. When his particular branch 
of the church has wisely undertaken aggres- 
sions upon the kingdom of darkness by new 
organizations, he is bound to give means and 
time and prayer to aid in this form of effort, 
for thus will his own denomination, which he 
believes nearest the scriptural standard, be 
strengthened and extended. 

2. But this Christian is also a member of 
the church catholic, that grand and glorious 
body to which the promises of a universal 
dominion are given. To this blood- bought 
church — the entire body of Christ — he owes 



16 COLPOBTAGE. 

fraternal affection, kindness, gentleness, lov- 
ing sympathy, and wherever possible, cordial 
cooperation. No duty to a local organiza- 
tion or a given denomination can free him 
from obligation to the church general. He 
cannot owe an exclusive affection to a frac- 
tional part of the one body. As a brother 
may not love one brother in the family to the 
injury or even the neglect of others, neither 
may the members of a particular Christian 
household so love their restricted circle as 
to withhold enlarged affection from the whole 
brotherhood. If, through the imperfection 
of its members in knowledge and holiness, 
this one church now appears in a great num- 
ber of visible parts, its essential unity still 
exists. " The unity of the church does not 
require," says one, "absolute uniformity, but 
admits of many semblances of diversity. She 
may exist in separated generations, in sepa- 
rate countries, under different names, and in 
great variety of age, education, taste, and 
social position, in the same congregation, 
without destroying her real unity, just as the 
human race exists in different countries under 
different forms of government, and in various 



TRUE PLACE OF THIS AGENCY. 17 

social conditions, and still is one. A com- 
mon humanity pervades the race, and links 
together successive generations, its tides 
ebbing and flowing in the heart of every 
man. So amid the differences of true Chris- 
tians there beats in all hearts a common love 
for Christ," and, where not repressed and 
chilled by ignorance, prejudice, or bigotry, 
for each other. The points in which Chris- 
tians agree are far more vital than those in 
which they differ. They constitute one body, 
are indwelt by one Spirit, have one hope, 
bow to one Lord, believe in one creed as to 
the essentials of salvation, have one baptism, 
by which they are united to Christ, and are 
all children of one Father. Eph. 4 : 4-6. 
" Thus united by a seven-fold bond — essen- 
tially a unit — men of different denominations 
often bow together before the same mercy- 
seat, and sing the praises of the same Ee- 
deemer with one heart in sweet and full ac- 
cord. Even widely separated generations of 
Christians have fellowship with each other. 
The words of a golden-tongued Chrysostom, 
of a noble Augustine, of a pious Thomas a 
Kempis, the recorded faith and prayers and 

Colportage. 2 



18 COLPORTAGE. 

hymns of the whole church of the past, re- 
fresh the church of the present. Yes, there 
is a profound unity amid the greatest cir- 
cumstantial diversity of true Christians. The 
cry of the anxious soul, ' Men, brethren, 
what shall we do?' will arouse the pious 
effort of the Christian as promptly as the cry 
of the drowning man arouses the humane 
efforts of him who hears it, and this always 
and everywhere." 

To this church, the whole body of Christ, 
each member owes an unceasing and wide- 
reaching affection, which no local organiza- 
tion or single denomination may monopolize ; 
for is not the body worthy of an intenser and 
more controlling affection than a single one 
of its members ? 

3. The strength of this claim will be more 
impressively felt if we note the Christian's 
deeply personal relation to Christ, the head 
of his body, the church universal. By faith 
he has become one with Christ, and holds 
constant and sweet communion with him. 
All his duties arise primarily out of this per- 
sonal relation, and here lie the motive and 
mainspring of all his acts. He reads the 



TRUE PLACE OF THIS AGENCY. 19 

Bible because Christ speaks to liini in it; he 
prays in the closet, family, and social meet- 
ing, that he may commune with Christ; he 
restrains evil passions and propensities for 
Christ's sake ; he trains his family in scriptu- 
ral knowledge that they may learn of Christ ; 
he pleads with sinners to come to Christ. 
All this he does because he is a Christian. 
As a minister of the gospel, he preaches 
because called of God to this work, and not 
because he belongs to a particular section 
of the church. The place in wdiich he pro- 
claims the message is determined by his 
denominational bonds, the message by Chris- 
tian bonds. Indeed there are few acts of a 
Christian minister which are primarily de- 
nominational. Nine sermons of ten are upon 
the great themes common to the true church, 
and would be as appropriate and acceptable 
in any other evangelical pulpit as in his own. 
His daily life and personal influence, the sum 
of his Christian conduct, as that of private 
members, spring primarily and purely out 
of his relation to Christ as a redeemed sin- 
ner, whereas his external denominational re- 
lationships are of far less vital importance. 



20 COLPOIJTAGE. 

Here tlien is the Christian sustaining a 
cherished relation to his own denomination, 
and a broader and profounder one to the 
church universal, both springing out of his 
personal union to, and identification with, 
Christ. From which it would appear that 
his highest duty is directly and personally to 
his Saviour, then to his whole body the 
church, and then to that section of the church 
of which he is a member. In serving Christ, 
he may neither allow an ^discriminating 
catholicity to destroy local affection, nor a 
denominational exclusiveness to forget all 
except his own narrow circle; but with an 
affection world-wide and Christ-like, he must 
labor in those channels in which, guided by 
an enlightened and scriptural judgment, he 
may best promote the glory of Christ and the 
unity of his visible church. 

While a part of his Christian effort should 
be in denominational channels, shall it all be 
thus expended? Is there no broader field 
where, joining hands with brethren of other 
names, members with him of the one glorious 
church, he may do a grand work, which, in 
his denominational capacity, owing to the 



TEUE PLACE OF THIS AGENCY. 21 

divisions in Christ's body, lie cannot so 
speedily and efficiently perform ? May it not 
be that the different denominations, cluster- 
ing at the centres of population, in efforts to 
establish local churches, leave large numbers 
of the outlying and interlying masses unap- 
plied with gospel privileges, which some urrion 
effort of good men may reach ? 

If it shall appear that at least one-third of 
our entire population are, and must continue 
for long years, beyond the direct range of the 
denominational organizations, is it noi>at least 
possible that they may be overtaken more 
speedily by some combined agency? If we 
cannot immediately supply them with the full 
equipment of gospel ordinances, may we not 
carry to them the Bible and the " common 
salvation," in which we all agree, and press 
upon them, w T ith earnest pleas from loving- 
hearts, the claims of a common Saviour ? 

This form of inquiry w T e beg to press upon 
the attention of ministers and office-bearers 
in every branch of the evangelical church. 
If all work for Christ must be done in denom- 
inational channels, then is there no need or 
place for Bible Societies, Tract Societies, or 



22 COLPORTAGE. 

uuion colportage. It is possible for Chris- 
tians to labor exclusively in their own section 
of the church, to confine their benefactions, 
sympathies, and even prayers to their own 
denomination, and to refuse fraternal inter- 
course with all but the narrowest circle ; or, 
retaining firmly their visible church connec- 
tion, their ministry, their sacraments, their 
creeds and catechisms, their schools and col- 
leges and missionary boards, they may yet 
heartily and efficiently cooperate with breth- 
ren of other names in a union effort to reach 
speedily with the offer of salvation the out- 
lying and perishing masses. Which plan 
they should pursue is a question of vital 
import. 

If it shall appear that such a cooperative 
work as union missionary colportage comes to 
the captious and the unbelieving with special 
pow r er, disarming them of prejudice and win- 
ning their confidence by a sole desire to bring 
them to a loving Saviour, this will constitute 
an urgent reason for enlisting in its support. 

Further, if the heart of the church univer- 
sal has ever sought for some public expres- 
sion of its oneness, has striven after it with a 



TRUE PLACE OF THIS AGENCY. 23 

desire so ardent as almost to accept as scrip- 
tural the forced and unnatural semblance of 
unity seen in the Romish system, may there 
not be some organizations, embracing thou- 
sands of the good men of every evangelical 
name, who will give, in their union work for 
Christ, an impressive exhibition of the true 
spiritual oneness of the body of Christ — a 
union of faith in the essential truths, a union 
of affection in Christian offices, a union of 
effort in works of evangelization ? 

Such an expression of Christian unity — 
unity in doctrine, in affection, in labor — is 
the system of union missionary colportage as 
originated and prosecuted by the American 
Tract Society. During twenty-five years, 
above four thousand laborers of various de- 
nominations have been engaged in this blessed 
cooperation, have made millions of Christian 
visits to the needy, speaking only of salvation 
through the Redeemer, and have circulated 
many millions of books and tracts, all con- 
taining the admitted truths of the " common 
salvation." And to aid in carrying forward 
this work, unnumbered men and women have 
contributed their means, sympathies, and 



24 COLPOItTAGE. 

prayers. May it not well be called the prac- 
tical evangelical alliance for the conversion of 
the unreached masses ? 

That there is urgent need for such coopera- 
tive work, that it can be done without infring- 
ing upon the prerogatives of any denomina- 
tion, and that it may be performed to the 
great advantage of the, true church of our 
Lord, we think may be conclusively shown. 



NEED OF SUCH AN AGENCY. 25 

CHAPTEE III. 

THE NEED OF SUCH AN AGENCY. 

A combination of causes creates a necessity 
for some such agency. The wide expanse of 
our country opening new fields for emigration 
and enterprise ; the sudden development of 
new forms of labor and wealth, as seen in the 
mining and oil regions ; the inflow weekly of 
thousands from other countries ; the abound- 
ing facilities for travel in all directions ; and 
the general prosperity of all classes, with im- 
mense increase of national wealth, create and 
foster a ceaseless migration of our people. 
Thousands are removing from old homes to 
new, and this through all the years. The 
stream flowing Westward is vast and resist- 
less, and as it approaches the great basin, 
spreads out like the. channels of the Nile or 
the Mississippi, pouring its multitudes by 
millions into new and diverse localities. In 
addition, war has recently desolated one- 
third of our states, breaking up their system 
of labor, sweeping away their wealth, and 



26 COLPORTAGE. 

creating millions of freemen without homes 
or an assured resting-place. 

As the result of these and like causes, 
above one-third of our population are desti- 
tute of the means of grace as furnished in 
church organizations ; in some places one- 
fourth, in others one-third, in still others 
more than the half have no accessible house 
of evangelical worship. And herein lies the 
need of a union colportage which shall be 
able, adapting itself to the actual destitu- 
tions in any locality, to reach every soul with 
the word of life. 

If the church were a single organization, 
holding her power in hand for every exi- 
gency, fired with a great love for souls, and 
ready to project a new congregation wher- 
ever a new cluster of houses appeared, she 
might overtake and supply these destitutions 
by a united effort. As now constituted, she 
attempts to push out into the waste places — 
a half-dozen systems of denominational or- 
ganizations, interlacing and overlapping each 
other in village, and hamlet, and neighbor- 
hood, where there is scarce material enough 
for one ; hence great numbers in the more 



N*EED OF SUCH AN AGENCY. 27 

sparsely settled regions must be unreached. 
This does not imply want of energy in the 
different sections of the church, but loss of 
power from want of union. 

It seems impossible for those who have 
not explored portions of the country in order 
to learn the facts, to believe the extent of this 
destitution, and that it exists, in measure, 
everywhere. Colportage, as an exploring 
agency, has, by its laborers running to and 
fro for twenty-five years, accumulated a mass 
of testimony upon this point from which there 
is no escape — the destitution is vast, ubiqui- 
tous, fearful. Cases of want found and met 
with blessed results crowd upon us. 

In the New England states we see common 
schools, Sabbath-schools, churches, and an 
intelligent, educated people, where we might 
not expect to find much need of such mis- 
sionary labor. Nowhere in our land, per- 
haps, is there such a general supply of gos- 
pel ordinances ; and yet even here have been 
found very many unreached by the means of 
grace. A clerical colporteur, who has laboi- 
ed for two years in Maine and northern New 
Hampshire, says, "I- find many dark and 



2S .COLPORTAGE. 

neglected corners, where the families are 
reached by no other agency. They have no 
Sabbath-school, attend no religions meeting, 
are not known by the resident ministers, each 
supposing they fall within the care of others. 
They themselves are restrained by unreason- 
able prejudices, chained down by poverty, or 
stupefied by unbelief. Many towns have 
these dark borders, into w r hich the rays of 
religious truth seldom shine. In one town I 
found forty families without any religious 
book, several without the Bible, though it 
contained three evangelical churches." An- 
other in a different portion of New England 
avers of his field, " Not more than one-fourth 
of the population attend upon preaching of 
any kind. Many professed Christians seem 
more devoted to the service of the world than 
of Christ. Many towns are destitute of the 
stated means of grace ; intemperance and 
kindred sins prevail to an alarming extent, 
and Christian home-training is greatly neg- 
lected." "With modifications, this is true of 
portions of every New England state. 

Passing to New York, we find the same 
truth constantly presented, the result of care- 



NEED OF SUCH AN AGENCY. 29 

ful examination. One colporteur testifies : 
" Nearly or quite one-third of the people on 
my field are unreached by ministers, and 
unvisited by Christian laymen, and unless 
sought out by the colporteur, must live and 
die unwarned and uncared for." Another 
avers: "The voluntary destitution of many 
is amazing. Here is a family, living near a 
large village where are Bibles, and good 
books, and a church, who had not possessed 
a Bible for nineteen years, nor been to a 
religious meeting for several years. Here is 
another, father, mother, and seven children. 
He has kept house eleven years without a 
Bible, and in neglect of the sanctuary." 
Still another speaks of a mother and three 
children, with whom he prayed. " On rising 
from my knees, I found them in tears, the 
mother saying, by way of apology, they 
never heard any one pray before, and knew 
not what it meant. And that family lived 
within the sound of church bells, though she 
admitted they had not been to church in 
nine years." 

This truth becomes painfully impressive as 
we pass into the Middle states, increasingly 



30 COLTORTAGE. 

so the farther we go, following the onrushing 
of population. "In one of these counties 
more than half the territory is destitute of a 
religious teacher." " One lady told me she 
had not been to meeting for six years, anoth- 
er for two, another for eight." "In a dis- 
trict twenty-four miles long and fifteen, 
broad, there is neither stated preaching nor 
Sabbath-school." "In a village of twelve 
hundred souls, not above one-fourth attend 
the sanctuary." 

Facts from the Western states are still 
more distressing. A pastor in Michigan 
gives this fact : " There are 2,200 souls in this 
new county, 300 of whom are connected with 
the churches, 400 more may occasionally 
attend preaching, leaving 1,500 without any 
means of grace." Over scores of counties of 
the vast Northwest equal destitutions exist. 
The evidence is overwhelming. 

Turning our eyes Southward, with a pity- 
ing glance, over eleven states lately swept by 
mighty armies, filled with widows and or- 
phans, impoverished by loss of men, material, 
and labor ; with churches destroyed, congre- 
gations scattered, schools broken up, and 



NEED OF SUCH AN AGENCY. 31 

struggling under accumulated evils, can we 
expect any thing better than widespread and 
most fearful destitutions ? The seven follow- 
ing sentences, from as many different letters, 
present a sad view : " Nearly half the families 
1 visited were destitute of religious reading." 
" One village has neither church nor school- 
house within three miles, and there is but 
one professor of religion in it." "I have 
been in many places where the gospel trum- 
pet was never sounded, nor a prayer ever 
heard by many of the young." " Many coun- 
ties in this state are without a church, min- 
ister, Sabbath-school, or common-school." 
"Unless the colporteur take good books to 
these families and talk to them of Jesus, 
many will grow up and never hear His 
name." "The people have no religious 
books, no Bibles, no preaching; colportage 
alone will reach them." "Not more than 
one-third of the people are supplied with 
regular preaching, and not more than one- 
third of these attend." 

A colporteur in Tennessee says : " My field 
embraces two counties, with a population of 
twenty thousand souls, who, even before the 



32 COLPORTAGE. 

war, were without a bookstore, and had but 
seven educated ministers. Multitudes hear 
the gospel but once a month, and many 
never. I found seven families on one moun- 
tain, thirty upon another, and twenty-seven 
upon a third, entirely separated from all good 
influences." A minister of high standing 
from another point writes : " Since the war, 
religion and morals have fallen into a deplor- 
able condition; churches are without pas- 
tors, houses of worship wholly destroyed or 
unused. God is greatly forgotten ; his name 
much profaned. "Wrath and malice, bitter- 
ness and revenge, lurk and brood in many 
hearts that are estranged from each other. 
Yice and crime are prevalent. What but 
the saving grace of God can recover us from 
this unhappy state ?" 

A minister in Texas, perhaps better ac- 
quainted than any other man with the reli- 
gious condition of its people, after giving a 
sad picture of the wants of the freedmen and 
the poor white people, makes the following 
startling statement : " Besides Americans, 
there are fifty thousand Germans in the 
state, of whom five thousand are Roman- 



NEED OF SUCH AN AGENCY. 33 

catholics. Not above two thousand of this 
number attend regularly upon the gospel 
ministry, leaving forty-eight thousand souls 
which, if not reached through the faithful col- 
porteur, may be left to perish." Such is the 
unsolicited testimony of a trustworthy man. 

The destitutions throughout the entire 
Southern states, with few exceptions, are fear- 
ful beyond description, as the result in part 
of the protracted and desolating strife. Inclu- 
ding the entire population, we cannot hope 
that one half of them have any adequate 
gospel privileges. Millions upon millions are 
perishing now for want of the bread of life, 
and must perish eternally unless the true 
church of God, North and South, shall work 
with a sterner purpose and a more flaming 
zeal than she has ever yet done. 

But why give isolated examples of the 
need ? The general result of facts which 
have been accumulated during many years, 
and by four thousand laborers, in this field 
of effort, confirmed by the investigations of 
other societies and individuals, is that more 
than one-third of our entire population are un- 
reached by the organized churches. 

Col portage. 3 



34 COLPORTAGE. 

Is tliere not, then, an imperative call for 
some agency with capabilities equal to the 
demand, and adaptations suited to the exi- 
gency? Some system so extensive as to 
reach the ten millions of our population now 
unreached by the organized churches ; so ver- 
satile as to meet each case ; so evangelical as 
to present saving truth ; so earnest, prayerful, 
persevering, and believing, as to secure the 
blessing of God? 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 35 

CHAPTER IY. 

SPECIAL ADAPTATION. . 

Has Union Missionary Colportage any 
special aptitude to meet this want ? 

Denominational colportage is clearly adap- 
ted to meet the wants of its own people. A 
given branch of the visible church, having 
adopted a system of doctrine and mode of 
worship which it believes most nearly con- 
formed to the teachings of the Bible, desires 
to use the press in aid of the ministry, for* 
indoctrinating all its members and families 
in the truths believed and forms of worship 
practised. To accomplish this it must first 
create a denominational literature adapted to 
all classes of its people, and this in great va- 
riety of form to meet the varying shades of 
thought, taste, and mental development, of 
its congregations. 

This accomplished, it remains to convey 
this truth to the families of its people, and 
press it upon their attention and actual ac- 
ceptance by sale or gift. In the pressure of 



36 COLPOItTAGE. 

exhausting labor now exacted of the minis- 
try, it should not be asked of them to do this 
needed work ; nor should we wait for the 
people to come for these publications. Here 
denominational colportage stands ready for 
the toil. Let energetic men, who feel it im- 
portant to train up the churches in their be- 
lief and practice, be chosen and freighted 
with the volumes and tracts prepared, and 
sent into all the local organizations of that 
denomination. Let the pastor furnish the 
names and residences of all the membership, 
and let the poorest and most ignorant be 
.sought and supplied freely with this denom- 
inational and other literature, and let this 
system be carried on from year to year, and 
a vast increase of intelligent and scripturally 
indoctrinated church membership may be 
expected as the result. The system can be 
extended as the denomination enlarges, and 
adapted to the wants' of that branch of the 
church. So might each denomination pre- 
pare and circulate a literature suited to 
its distinguishing doctrines, and thus every 
branch of the evangelical church train its 
own families. 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 37 

But in the meantime, the years — ages, it 
may be — before this shall come, how shall 
the millions inter lying and outlying beyond 
the influence of the evangelical denomina- 
tions be visited and supplied with the central 
truths in which they all agree ? the soul-sav- 
ing truths without which they must be lost ? 
the foundation truths which, accepted, will 
fit them for membership in any one of the 
denominations ? 

That Union Colportage has the most feli- 
citous adaptation to this unreached popula- 
tion, is readily seen. A literature embodying 
the essential doctrines, and avoiding minor 
controverted points, has been in the course 
of preparation for forty years. It has accom- 
plished the vast accumulation of three thou- 
sand five hundred distinct books, from the 
entire Bible with references, maps, notes, and 
instructions, and numerous Bible helps, down 
to the picture card and the infant catechism, 
covering a wide field of practical, devotional, 
revival, biographical, historical, and critical 
writings ; each of which works is, as far as 
possible, permeated and suffused with the 
Spirit, and love, and holiness of Christ ; all 



38 COLPORTAGE. 

variations, rich, and sweet, and soul-moving, 
upon the one key-note, "Christ, and him cru- 
cified." 

Here, then, is the first requisite for union 
colportage — the stores of generally-admitted 
truth. Can the second be secured? Can 
devoted Christian men be found in the differ- 
ent denominations, of scriptural knowledge, 
irreproachable character, burning zeal, un- 
questioned prudence, untiring perseverance, 
and Christlike self-sacrifice, who, while re- 
taining their own denominational preferences, 
will yet consent to hold these in abeyance, 
urging only the "common salvation," as they 
go forth among the gospel neglecters ? To 
this question the experience of twenty-five 
years, and the actual employment of above 
four thousand men by the American Tract 
Society, give the decisive answer. In every 
denomination of the true Israel such men 
have been, will be found. 

Freight these men with this literature, and 
bid them, go forth into the highways and 
hedges of our entire country, to the one-third 
of the people now unreached, and what favor 
will they meet ? 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 39 

The pastor welcomes union colportage as 
an illustration of Christian zeal which he 
longs to see kindled among his own people ; 
as an aid to him in the prayer-meeting and 
the revival; as a faithful visitor to all the 
careless gospel neglecters scattered among 
his people, and upon the outskirts of his 
congregation ; as the tireless seeker out of 
the children attending no Sabbath-school; 
in a word, to discover and report gospel de- 
linquents, and if possible, to lead all to some 
church of Christ. Christian parents welcome 
him for the blessed effects of his visits upon 
their children and households. The souls 
burdened on account of sin, many of whom 
are found in all religious communities, wel- 
come him because he so freely speaks to them 
of their concealed griefs, and so plainly and 
affectionately points them to the great Phy- 
sician. The careless listen to his exhorta- 
tions, for they glow .with the fervor of an 
unselfish consecration. The captious and 
skeptical, who magnify the defects of Chris- 
tians and their want of agreement among 
themselves into an unanswerable argument 
against Christianity ; who insist, in exagger- 



40 COLrOETAGE. 

ated phrase, that the church is broken Tip 
into a hundred fragments, each at war with 
every other, and make this their great stum- 
bling-block — even these are compelled to ad- 
mit that union colportage is an illustration of 
a united church, laboring solely to save men 
without regard to denominational aggran- 
dizement. So that these laborers are met 
everywhere and among all classes, either with 
a joyful welcome, or a willing toleration, 
which gives them a vast power for good. 

It may be well to note this special adapta- 
tion of union colportage in several particu- 
lars; as first, 

. To the present divided state of the church. 
Upon this point it is difficult to present the 
testimony before us without a liability of be- 
ing understood as depreciating denomina- 
tional efforts. Nothing is farther from our 
purpose ; the entire aim being to show the 
special adaptation of .this agency to this 
class, not its superiority to denominational 
effort, where there is material for a church 
organization. 

One writer says, " Your publications, free 
from the peculiarities which mark a sect, are 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 41 

received with almost universal favor." An- 
other : " My field contains at least seventeen 
denominations. I can, with good faith, ap- 
proach them all, and give them just what suits 
them, without being blamed for trying to 
build up any one. I am welcomed by nearly 
all, and have aided many in revival meetings, 
pointing sinners to the Lamb of God, and 
furnishing better printed instructions than 
my poor words. "When asked what denom- 
ination my books belong to, I answer, 'To all 
and for all ; just the books God blesses for 
leading sinners to him, and building up be- 
lievers in faith.' " 

Another testifies : " I am hailed as coming 
from a national institution, and greeted as 
laboring for the good of all, interested only 
in their spiritual welfare." Another: "As 
my work is for everybody in need and every- 
where, and not for any particular order of 
Christians, I am welcomed by good people, 
and rarely repelled by any. Joining the peo- 
ple in their prayer-meetings, as I constantly 
do, talking and praying as I would do if a 
member of their own church, helps them to 
feel more brotherly to other denominations. 



42 COLPORTAGE. 

How many crooked, fault-finding professors 
are silenced by a kind talk in the spirit of 
Christ." Another says : "I am often told 
these are the publications which should be 
circulated among all classes; they will do 
good to all, and harm to none. A faithful 
and highly-esteemed minister said to me, ' If 
I were going out as a colporteur, I would go 
from 3 T our Society, as I could thus, free from 
captious objection, speak to any one of 
Christ ;' and so I find it everywhere." 

Such is the testimony of hundreds of col- 
porteurs, and in all states of the Union ; and 
this is just what we should expect, human 
nature being what it is. The excuse of the 
gospel neglecter, that Christians do not agree 
among themselves, is not a good one, and 
usually is a mere subterfuge ; still it is univer- 
sal, and with the unregenerate is, perhaps, 
one of the most potent. He has repeated it 
over and over until he believes in its validity, 
and by a minister of a given denomination it 
is, he thinks, unanswerable. But a plain, 
earnest colporteur presses upon him the 
claims of Christ in what the objector sees is 
an unselfish wish for his salvation, without 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 43 

regard to any particular church relation; by 
his life of self-sacrifices he demonstrates that 
he seeks the souls of men ; this disarms op- 
position, and the objecter often yields. 

Adaptation to the common mind. The three 
thousand five hundred different publications 
prepared by the Society are nearly all adapt- 
ed to the comprehension of the common 
people, the masses of poorly educated and 
hard working ones, who constitute so large a 
portion of our population. To furnish these 
with the marrow of the gospel in cheap edi- 
tions, in plain language, and with striking 
illustrations, has been a cherished object of 
the Society. If men of large intellectual re- 
sources and ambitious aspirings after great- 
ness find little to interest them in these pub- 
lications, the godly minister, laboring to win 
souls to the Saviour, turns to them as the 
richest storehouse of saving truth, aiding him 
in presenting the gospel to the comprehen- 
sion of the untrained masses. 

Colportage usually chooses its laborers 
from the ranks of the common people, select- 
ing those who, by years of experience in the 
Christian life, by special devotion to the 



44 COLPORTAGE. 

cause of the Master, by native talent for con- 
versation, and acquired readiness in prayer, 
are fitted for commending to the people the 
religion they have experienced ; men inured 
to hardness as good soldiers, able to endure 
the toils, the coarse fare, the poor lodgings, 
the rough habits of too many in our land; 
men who can therefore place themselves in 
sympathy with the common people, win their 
confidence, interest their minds, sympathize 
in their lot, and lead them to higher aspira- 
tions. The entire history of the work has 
shown its adaptation to this result. 

A faithful Christian pastor who has devo- 
ted thirty-five years to evangelizing efforts in 
the West,' acting as a voluntary colporteur 
over wide fields before the work had been 
reduced to a system, and ever since, after 
giving illustrations of its power in the con- 
version of souls, as witnessed by him, adds 
these words : " I admire this work as without 
an equal in one aspect — that its agencies are 
so happily adapted to the common mind. 
We do not estimate aright the power of 
strong, striking, self-sealing thoughts on 
minds unused to think, but which to the in- 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 45 

telligent are familiar as the alphabet. This 
is what gave such a charm to the teachings 
of Jesus. He originated bold thoughts, de- 
livered them in simple language, and gather- 
ed his pictures from scenes which- were to his 
countrymen familiar as household words ; and 
we are not surprised that the common people 
heard him gladly, followed him into the des- 
ert and around the lake, wondering at the 
gracious words he uttered." 

The value of any system adapted to the 
common people will be appreciated when we 
consider that four-fifths or more of our desti- 
tute come under this appellation. 

Adaptation to the very poor and destitute. 
Any system which will accomplish what is 
needed in our country to-day must have a 
penetrating power to reach the poorest, most 
secluded, most destitute. Churches will be 
organized by one or another denomination 
wherever villages, or even thickly-settled 
neighborhoods are found; but many thou- 
sands of our people have wandered far from 
the centres of population, many live isolated, 
and not a few of these are both ignorant and 
poor. To these the gospel should be preach- 



46 COLPORTAGE. 

ed — must be, if we obey the command of our 
risen Lord. But thousands of these will 
pass into eternity unwarned, unless an itine- 
rant and all-pervasive agency shall seek them 
out in their isolation, and supply their cry- 
ing wants. This, missionary colportage is 
exactly adapted to accomplish. None too 
poor to be visited, and prayed with, and ex- 
horted to higher aspirations; none so desti- 
tute that they cannot be supplied. Of the 
mountainous parts of New Jersey, a colpor- 
teur writes: "Many families cannot attend 
any church, and they are destitute of all sav- 
ing influences. They are perishing for want 
of spiritual food. Oh that Christians could 
be aroused to the importance of seeking and 
saving these dying ones." 

In the forests of New York, a laborer tes- 
tifies : "I left my horse, and went a few miles 
into the woods to find some families remote 
from gospel means. I was depressed in 
spirit in view of the character which they 
were reputed to have, and knelt by a log and 
committed my way to my blessed Saviour. 
The first man I found was without love to 
Christ. He promised that his wife should 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 47 

read to him the little books I gave — he could 
not read. I went to another clearing, and 
found a number of men at work. They were 
all strangers to grace. One of them kindly 
went with me through the brush to find a 
path to another house. Of nine families thus 
found that day, most of them without the 
Bible or any good book, I conversed and 
prayed with seven. Several said no one had 
ever before talked to them about the welfare 
of their souls. Another day I sought out 
eight poor families, conversed on personal 
religion with five of them. Four of them had 
not a scrap of religious reading; five were 
without the Bible. I supplied them all. Still 
another tour revealed ten families utterly 
destitute of religion; among them, a woman 
with four ragged children, in the deejDest pov- 
erty, who yet, when I spoke of the love of 
Christ, burst into tears, and said she often 
felt the need of a new heart, that she might 
love him. These poor people must be sought 
out, or they will perish." 

A clerical colporteur, laboring in Delaware, 
was impressed with the numbers of utterly 
desolate ones who were unreached by the reg- 



48 COLrORTAGE. 

ular means of grace, and among many cases 
met almost daily, he cites this : " I found a 
miserably poor widow with five children, the 
eldest thirteen years of age, living in a log 
hut, the door without hinges, no glass in the 
window, the light and wind coming in be- 
tween the logs, the roof leaking, and but one 
bed in which she and her five children slept — 
a picture of deepest poverty. Her eyes filled 
with tears as she spoke of her trials. As 
neither she nor the children could read, 
except the eldest a very little, I gathered 
them about me, and told them of the way of 
life, and left some simple stories which the 
child might spell out, and perhaps under- 
stand. Who will carry the bread of life to 
these desolate ones?" 

A godly worker in Virginia gives even a 
sadder view of the poor on his field : " One 
lady, a Christian, once rich, wept bitterly 
when I called, saying, ' My children are grow- 
ing up without a knowledge of Christ. We 
have no preaching, and I have no means to 
purchase good books.'" He adds: "There 
are over two hundred families in this county 
without Bible, Testament, or religious book, 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 49 

and without means to purchase. There are 
many widows and orphans who must have 
something to point them to the Lamb of 
God ; and the colporteur is the only one who 
can meet their wants just now, as many of 
them cannot afford sufficient -clothing to ap- 
pear in a congregation, and all the means of 
grace they can enjoy must be carried to their 
houses." 

To such cases as these, and they are fear- 
fully numerous, colportage goes as an angel 
of mercy, with light, and love, and sweet 
comfort, in its message. To its efficiency, a 
minister testifies : " From what my eyes have 
seen, my ears have heard, my heart has felt, 
I do not hesitate to regard the system of 
catholic colportage as the cheapest and best 
method of which I have any knowledge, to 
reach, elevate, and evangelize, the destitute 
millions, found among the mountains, in the 
wide valleys, and in the ten thousand waste 
places of our land." 

Adaptation to the desolate, sick, and dying. 
Wearisome days, sleepless nights, and pro- 
tracted and painful suffering, are allotted to 
some of God's trusting and patient children ; 

Colportage. 4 



50 COLPOETAGE. 

but when surrounded by kind friends, attend- 
ed by skilful physicians, and comforted by 
the counsels and prayers of godly pastors, 
the sick chamber often becomes a place of 
heavenly joy. And when death comes to 
such an abode, he seems robbed of his ter- 
rors, and a welcome messenger to take the 
saint home. ' But how few of earth's myriads 
suffer and die thus! How many without 
hope, and without sympathy, pass away into 
the dark unknown! No sadder sight does 
earth produce than is often witnessed by the 
colporteur in his journeys among the poor. 
With the same immortal natures with us, the 
same spiritual needs, the same certainty of a 
coming judgment, but without the light and 
comfort of the blessed hope, they struggle 
with disease, writhe in pain, groan in agony 
of spirit, and die in despair. If ever the gos- 
pel comes as a pure angel of mercy, it is to 
such agonized souls, to whom no minister of 
Christ has access. To such, the colporteur 
often comes just in the hour when the deso- 
late spirit is longing for some one to explain 
repentance and faith, to tell of Christ's ato- 
ning work, of his willingness and ability to 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 51 

save, or to cheer the departing spirit as it 
enters the dark valley. 

In the mountains of Virginia, a colporteur 
had sought out the isolated dwellers, and told 
them of the Saviour. Seven years later, in 
revisiting that field, he was called to the 
cabin of a dying woman, who. addressed him 
thus : "You were the messenger of mercy to 
me, and I wish you to be present when I 
die." She lingered some hours, hearing his 
counsels and responding to his petitions, 
gaining faith for the final scene, and then 
said to her husband, "John, I am going to 
glory. I will stay till you come, and will 
look for you every day;" and so departed in 
the faith, having learned of the way only 
through the humble colporteur. So poor was 
the family, and so far removed from " the 
settlement," that this rescued and now glori- 
fied one was wrapped in a sheet and laid 
away in a coffin made of boards hewn out 
of the timber by her own sons after her 
death. 

Adequation to tliose speaking foreign tongues. 
Assuredly, one of the most difficult problems 
before the American churches is this, How 



52 COLPORTAGE. 

shall we reach effectively, with the gospel of 
Christ, immigrants, of whom a thousand per 
day are seeking our shores from the nations 
of the old world ? They will be permanent 
members of society £ud citizens of the state, 
bearing their proportion of its burdens, and 
having an equal share in its management; 
and they now constitute a powerful element 
in determining the future of our social, polit- 
ical, and religious character. fThey speak 
all the tongues of Europe, and are of all 
shades of belief, with a large prevalence of 
Homish tendencies, or of blank infidelity. 
With such a population, amounting to one- 
fourth, perhaps, of our entire people, it is 
evident that their assimilation to our insti- 
tutions, and above all their speedy evange- 
lization, are of vital moment to our future 
well-being as a nation. 

Colportage has demonstrated its adapta- 
tion, in a most felicitous manner, and to a 
remarkable degree, to this needed work. By 
its many-tongued colporteurs — and men have 
been employed speaking three, four, and 
five languages — and by its books and tracts 
in the nine leading languages of these thou-_ 



SPECIAL ADAPTATION. 53 

sands, it can reach almost every soul with 
the truth of Christ. The success of the 
work in this nearly unoccupied field would 
justify its enlargement tenfold. "We simply 
advert to this vast field without* giving illus- 
trations. 



54: COLPORTAGE. 

CHAPTER Y. 

THE VERSATILITY OF COLPOPTAGE. 

In a new country, where society is in a 
forming process, and agricultural and me- 
chanical skill is scarce, he is a useful man 
who can "turn his hand" to any thing which 
needs to be done. In like manner the moral 
and religious agencies which would keep 
abreast of the wants of our rapidly changing 
people, must have much of this versatile 
power, promptly adapting themselves to the 
ever-varying phases of society. Colportage 
is characterized by this versatility to an almost 
unlimited extent, illustrations of which press 
for record. 

In time of war. When the fearful scourge 
of war came upon us, calling out hundreds 
of thousands from their homes and churches, 
crowding them into camps, cutting them off 
from social, intellectual, and Christian privi- 
leges, and exposing them to new and violent 
temptations, it was impossible for the church 
through denominational channels to meet 



VERSATILITY OF COLPORTAGE. 55 

this new emergency; but union colportage 
stood ready, and instantly entered upon the 
work. The first regiment passing through 
New York in April, 1861, on its way to save 
Washington, was met and supplied with re- 
ligious reading; and the last army in the 
field was supplied in like manner; while all 
the way through the bloody strife godly men 
were found in every department, employing 
the double agency of the voice and the press 
to hold back the soldiery from sin and bring 
them to the cross. This work, commenced 
by the Tract Society, and followed by others, 
soon developed itself on a grand scale in the 
United States Christian Commission, which, 
in its almost limitless range of ministry, was 
but a specific application of union colportage 
to this new and vast demand. The details of 
that work, as conducted by the Commission, 
do not fall within our range. As conducted 
by the American Tract Society, they are 
already written upon many hundred pages of 
its reports, and their hallowed effects upon 
many thousand hearts; and the facts demon- 
strate indubitably the adaptation of the 
agency to the end sought. 



56 COLPORTAGE. 

A long-time laborer in a western state 
wrote from its capital, where the soldiers were 
collected in large numbers at the beginning 
of the war, " What a field is opened in the 
camps ! I was the first to commence reli- 
gious services among them on the Sabbath, 
and continued them with the assistance of 
the pastors, until a chaplain was appointed. 
I also organized prayer-meetings, blessed 
to many, as I have since learned." 

The experiences of one of the Society's 
colporteurs in a southern state, and the good 
use to which his books were put, are well 
told by him: "The confederate authorities 
seized all my books, and appropriated them 
for the reading of their army. As the judge 
knew me, he gave the books to me to dis- 
tribute. I immediately went into the army, 
and commenced my work, and with good 
effect, for a revival of religion soon was 
spreading through the ranks, and several 
young men told me the reading of these pub- 
lications was the means of their coming to 
the Saviour. One sad result followed. When 
the federal forces came to my house, the 
commanding officer learned that I had been 



VERSATILITY OF COLPORTAGE. 57 

in the Confederate army — lie knew not in 
what capacity — and he pnt me under arrest, 
and allowed the foragers to strip my house of 
provisions, wardrobe, and every thing ; I saw 
my poor family reduced to beggary, and I 
was in the hands of the military. I was driven 
to despair, when my wife — God bless the 
woman — thought of my commission from the 
American Tract Society. She handed it to 
the commanding officer, whose headquarters 
were at my house. After examining it, he 
called for me and asked, "Have you been a* 
colporteur f6r this Society?" "Yes, sir, for 
six years, and rejoice in it." " "Well, sir, if I 
had known this, not a thing should have been 
taken from you. You are discharged from 
custody, sir." After this I could generally 
make the commission a sure protection. 

On another occasion, army colporteur John 
E. Vassar, when following the army of the 
Potomac and laboring for the good of the 
soldiers, was captured by the cavalry of Gen. 
Lee, near Gettysburg. Not appearing with 
military garb and equipment, he was sus- 
pected as a spy, charged, and about to be 
tried, with excitement running high against 



58 COLPORTAGE. 

hirn, when lie thought of his commission, 
and produced it. His captors instantly re- 
laxed their stern visages, commended his 
work, took his word of honor not to leave 
his present position for six hours, and bade 
him go free. 

The commission of the Society was a sure 
passport to the camps of the soldiery in all 
places and at all times. The army colpor- 
teurs could go wherever a squad of soldiers 
could penetrate. In the peaceful camp, in 
the forced march, in the deadly charge, in the 
disastrous retreat, in the beleagured fort, in the 
long-drawn trenches, in the open battle-field, 
and in the crowded hospital, they were found 
swift to aid the wounded, sick, or dying ; and 
no brighter page is written in the history of 
humane and Christian effort than that which 
tells of Union Colportage through the Sani- 
tary and Christian commissions, and by the 
agents of this Society. Details, abundant 
and cheering, are on record. 

To Seamen. Not less adapted is Union 
Colportage to the wants and circumstances 
of sailors, seamen, and boatmen, in our navy, 
merchant marine, and on our rivers, lakes, 



VERSATILITY OF COLPORTAGE. 59 

and canals. These classes comprise some 
hundreds of thousands of men, cut off, by 
their occupation, from church, and home, 
and the refining influences of female society, 
and exposed to many demoralizing tenden- 
cies. They greatly need some expression of 
the Christian heart of the land, which shall 
reach them in their isolation, and tell them, 
in an effective form, of the claims of a re- 
deeming Saviour upon their affections and 
service. This, colportage effects to an extent 
almost ubiquitous in its range, and with just 
such counsels and publications as reach their 
minds and hearts. At the different sea'ports, 
most largely at New York, the outgoing ves- 
sels are supplied with books and tracts in the 
various languages represented among sea- 
men; packages are also supplied for distri- 
bution in foreign ports, and upon the return 
voyages. On our lakes, rivers, and canals, 
through seamen's societies, the same work is 
carried forward unceasingly, and with abound- 
ing evidence that God approves. We need 
not ask whether any other than a union 
agency could reach with acceptance and 
promise of usefulness these various and nu- 



60 COLPORTAGE. 

merous classes. None other attempts the 
work to any extent, so far as we know. We 
give a solitary example of what has been clone 
by one man upon a single thoroughfare. 

"Since May, 1860, I have been principally 
engaged in laboring to improve the moral 
and spiritual condition of the sailors and 
others who daily pass through the Welland 
canal. In the second year I was received 
with the utmost cordiality, which was not in- 
variably the case during my first season. 
Groups of sailors surrounded me and listen- 
ed attentively to my pleas for Jesus. They 
received tracts, and as the result of reading 
them, I found many under deep conviction, 
and over some I rejoice as true converts. 
The general behavior of the boatmen has 
greatly improved, profanity and drunkenness 
being much lessened, and increased interest 
in religious reading exhibited by the sailors. 
A captain said, ' Sir, you are doing us a great 
amount of good. My men all read your 
tracts, and they have ceased visiting the 
whiskey-shops in consequence. I want a new 
tract for each man.' I have found many Ro- 
man-catholics and infidels glad to receive 



VERSATILITY OF COLrORTAGE. 61 

books and tracts. To a captain of this latter 
class I sold ' Nelson's Cause and Cure.' When 
I next met him he said, ' Nelson met my case 
exactly, and cured me of infidelity.' A cap- 
tain said, ' You are doing a great amount of 
good among these men ; it can now be con- 
ceived only in part.' Another, ' Your work 
is accomplishing wonders in the lives and 
conduct of these men.' 

" These men are exposed to losses by ship- 
wreck, and they have lonely hours when they 
have nothing to read. I see no other way of 
reaching them than by colportage. The col- 
porteur, with his unsectarian principles, can 
find access to all ranks and classes of soci- 
ety, and offers such books as are approved 
by all evangelical denominations." 

This colporteur has visited six thousand 
two hundred and twenty-two vessels, and cir- 
culated, by sale and grant, $7,500 worth of 
saving truth during his long and faithful ser- 
vice; but what figures shall tell the amount 
of good done for the men themselves, their 
families at home to whom the books finally 
come, and for all reached by their influence ? 

To Infidels. That error of all grades, from 



62 COLPOKTAGE. 

mere formalism down to sheer infidelity and 
blank atheism, abounds in some parts of our 
land, becomes fearfully apparent to those 
who employ so pervasive an agency as Mis- 
sionary Colportage. And the impossibility 
of reaching it by the ordinary instrumental- 
ities of the denominations, is equally patent. 
The heretical sects guard their adherents 
from the influence of the evangelical churches 
most rigidly ; and the skeptics and atheists, 
of course, avoid the churches where the gos- 
pel is truly proclaimed, declaiming, in their 
hatred of Christ, against what they call 
" priestcraft and superstition." These classes 
can only be reached by an agency so aggres- 
sive as to go wherever men live, so benevo- 
olent as to disarm, or at least assuage the 
bitterness of prejudice. How happily col- 
portage turns itself to this difficult work is 
illustrated by instances numerous and strik- 
ing. 

A colporteur in the Northwest, laboring 
among a people given up to formalism and 
flagrant error, says, " Though I have not ac- 
cess to these foreigners' pulpits, yet I can 
take a chair for my pulpit and a family for 



VERSATILITY OF COLPORTAGE. 63 

my audience, and preach Christ and him cru- 
cified, and seldom do I have careless hear- 
ers. In this way I can reach the Universal- 
ist and the Spiritualist. Oh, how they strive 
to make us give up that old Bible, or pervert 
it to their notions ! How many hundreds 
there are for miles all around these churches 
that scarcely hear more than the bell that in- 
vites others to worship God." Who will be 
preacher and Sabbath-school teacher to them 
at their firesides, but the colporteur ? 

Another reports some startling facts, show- 
ing that the arch-enemy of truth is busily 
employing this very system of colportage in 
scattering widely the seeds of ruin and death. 
He says, " I have visited, during the quarter, 
five different counties, carrying as many 
books as I could, and hunting up the people 
in their shanties and hamlets. One of the 
greatest enemies I had to contend with was 
Eenan's 'Life of Jesus.' Hearing that, by 
the liberality of some wealthy infidels, two 
intelligent agents were canvassing a neigh- 
boring county, and selling this dangerous 
book at a reduced price, I travelled day and 
night to reach the place to try, by the help 



66 COLPOItTAGE. 

reaped large rewards, though it is true that 
much of its labor among Bomanists has pro- 
duced no immediate fruit. But as the simple 
gospel, presented in an earnest spirit and an 
uncontroversial form, is mighty through God, 
we know good will follow in his time. 

A colporteur in Nova Scotia testifies that 
"kind and earnest discussion with Catholics 
causes them to think and exercise their judg- 
ment upon matters that concern their salva- 
tion. I sell books largely among them, and 
sometimes to the priests. To one I sold 
Baxter and Burder, and two packages of 
tracts, in which he said he might get some 
useful hints. A young man bought the Tes- 
tament with notes, to compare it with their 
own. By giving them good books, and deal- 
ing gently with them in argument, and pray- 
ing with and for them, I am convinced much 
good may be done. There is the strongest 
demand for such labor among them now; for 
as education advances, and the mind expands 
from the iron grasp of priestcraft, unless 
something purer is presented, it will plunge 
into infidelity. I meet some already carried 
away." 



VERSATILITY OF COLPOETAGE. 6t 

Sometimes the colporteur "catches them 
with guile," as did Paul the captious ones of 
his day. A shrewd laborer overheard a wily 
Eomanist lay a wager that he " could buy a 
pack of cards of that hypocritical Protest- 
tant," and was ready when approached in a 
confidential tone, and asked if he had " any 
cards." "Certainly," said the colporteur, 
" if you will put them quietly in your pocket, 
and let no one know where you got them." 
Chuckling over his success, the Eomanist 
paid for the "Scripture" cards, and went 
home. " Next morning I noticed the children 
were well supplied with these 'Scripture 
Facts,' and I tried to meet my customer, but 
he invariably found a cross-street before 
coming within speaking distance. So, for 
once, the Tract Society had a Eonian-catho- 
olic colporteur distributing ' Scripture Facts ' 
among Eoman-catholic families." 

Another writes that on a part of his field 
the people are mostly Eomanists, among 
whom, especially upon his second and subse- 
quent visits, he sold and granted many books 
and tracts, and with some he enjoyed precious 
seasons of prayer. 



6Q COLPORTAGE. 

reaped large rewards, though it is true that 
much of its labor among Romanists has pro- 
duced no immediate fruit. But as the simple 
gospel, presented in an earnest spirit and an 
uncontroversial form, is mighty through God, 
we know good will follow in his time. 

A colporteur in Nova Scotia testifies that 
"kind and earnest discussion with Catholics 
causes them to think and exercise their judg- 
ment upon matters that concern their salva- 
tion. I sell books largely among them, and 
sometimes to the priests. To one I sold 
Baxter and Burder, and two packages of 
tracts, in which he said he might get some 
useful hints. A young man bought the Tes- 
tament with notes, to compare it with their 
own. By giving them good books, and deal- 
ing gently with them in argument, and pray- 
ing with and for them, I am convinced much 
good may be done. There is the strongest 
demand for such labor among them now ; for 
as education advances, and the mind expands 
from the iron grasp of priestcraft, unless 
something purer is presented, it will plunge 
into infidelity. I meet some already carried 
away." 



VERSATILITY OF COLPORTAGE. 6t 

Sometimes the colporteur "catches them 
with guile," as did Paul the captious ones of 
his day. A shrewd laborer overheard a wily 
Komanist lay a wager that he " could buy a 
pack of cards of that hypocritical Protest- 
tant," and w T as ready when approached in a 
confidential tone, and asked if he had " any 
cards." "Certainly," said the colporteur, 
" if you will put them quietly in your pocket, 
and let no one know where you got them." 
Chuckling over his success, the Romanist 
paid for the "Scripture" cards, and went 
home. " Next morning I noticed the children 
were well supplied with these 'Scripture 
Facts,' and I tried to meet my customer, but 
he invariably found a cross-street before 
coming within speaking distance. So, for 
once, the Tract Society had a Rornan-catho- 
olic colporteur distributing ' Scripture Facts ' 
among Eoman-catholic families." 

Another writes that on a part of his field 
the people are mostly Romanists, among 
whom, especially upon his second and subse- 
quent visits, he sold and granted many books 
and tracts, and with some he enjoyed precious 
seasons of prayer. 



68 COLPORTAGE. 

Anotlier describes a timely visit to a lady 
who was to have been baptized on the fol- 
lowing Sabbath by the priest, but who bought 
of him some books, one of which was "Nev- 
ins' Thoughts on Popery," and was rescued. 
" She often thanks God that I came just at 
that crisis. Those books opened her eyes ; 
though my door was well pounded with brick- 
bats for the good act of delivering her out of 
their hands." 

But we need not insist further upon the 
versatility of this agency, by which it can 
adapt itself to every state of society, and 
meet every possible exigency. A shrewd 
man, with a warm Christian heart, with 
ready utterance and a thorough knowledge 
of human nature, and withal supplied with 
the widest range of practical and scriptural 
books and many hundred different tracts, 
can scarcely ever be taken at unawares ; nor 
will he find a human being whose moral and 
spiritual condition demand counsel or in- 
struction which his stores are not adapted 
to meet. "I find this great advantage," 
writes an experienced colporteur, " that while 
my work is purely evangelical, it is not de- 



VERSATILITY OF COLPORTAGE. 69 

nomination al. I can reach all; and preju- 
dice is disarmed. I introduce the subject of 
religion in each house, and have constant 
opportunities for instruction, warning, and: 
exhortation. Admonitions coming unexpect- 
edly from a book peddler, as they at first re- 
gard me, often, with the blessing of God, 
make a deeper impression because they were 
unlooked-for. A lady once said to me, 'I 
envy you your opportunities for doing good. 
The very titles of your books and tracts in- 
troduce for you the subject of salvation.' " 



70 COLPORTAGE. 

CHAPTEE VI. 

KESULTS. 

Twenty-five years of toil have also been 
years of triumph for Christ's cause. While, 
as in all other modes of good-doing, much of 
the labor may seem lost, there are yet actual 
and unquestioned results, which swell away 
beyond our limits of record. The variety also 
of these results is such as to increase the 
difficulty of presenting them in a condensed 
form. Yet illustrations will be given, under 
various heads, enough, at least, to convey a 
hint of the work and its reward. 

Forestalling bad by good books. When this 
can be done a vantage-ground is gained of 
untold value to the prevalence of truth. Yice, 
like noxious weeds, having obtained the 
ground, is hard to eradicate. First fill the 
measure with wheat, and there is no room 
for chaff. Nor should it be overlooked that 
books, good or bad, have a tenfold influence 
in new countries, where the people are scat- 
tered, with little to occupy their minds in 



RESULTS. 71 

intellectual, or even in social channels. On 
Sabbath clays, and clays of storm and rain, 
and during periods of sickness, many long 
hours are unemployed, and the active mind 
of the frontiersman seeks occupation. Place 
in his hand a book, and it is not thrown 
aside at a glance to be forgotten; but in 
many cases is read, and reread, and thought 
over, and discussed, and then reexamined, 
until it becomes a part of his mental and 
moral being. Hence the power of books in 
colporteur fields. If vile literature, in the 
form of trashy novels, infidei" books, or licen- 
tious pamphlets, is diffused by the craft of 
the devil in a forming community in advance 
of a saving literature, most -disastrous are the 
fruits, and long years of Christian effort are 
necessary to supplant these and instal the 
writers whose words are life. And here col- 
portage may come with its swift foot, and 
ready tongue, and beneficent hand, to preoc- 
cupy the ground, and guard the scattered 
dwellers against the coming flood of desola- 
ting issues from the obscene and infidel press. 
Indeed, colporteurs' reports are crowded with 
instances, in which, as in the apostles' day, 



72 COLPORTAGE. 

bad books " were brought together and burn- 
ed " to give place to the truth. 

" I sold ' Nelson's Cause and Cure ' to an 
infidel. He afterwards told me that when he 
bought it, his tables and shelves were filled 
with novels. ' When I read Nelson, I gather- 
ed them up, took off the griddle from the 
stove, and shoved them in.' He is now a 
preacher of the gospel." 

Another says : " On my first visit, many 
inquired for novels, and books on Universal- 
ism and infidelity, and many had them. On 
my second call, I was told that many of the 
bad books had been burned. The parents 
were very anxious to keep out the vicious 
reading, having seen its ruinous effects." 

" In a great many instances I have had the 
pleasure of seeing the most profane works 
burned, and Bunyan, Baxter, and Doddridge, 
received in their stead. At a sale, one day, 
I noticed Paine's 'Age of Reason ;' but when 
offered by the auctioneer, the old lady said 
that was her husband's favorite book, and it 
must not be sold out of the family. I went 
next day and offered her the Bible and Bax- 
ter for it, which she accepted. She and her 



BESULTS. 73 

children became pious, and often thanked 
God that the American Tract Society had 
sent me there ; for, said she, ' If you had not 
brought me those precious books, I should 
have held on to Paine, and died as the old 
man did.' " Another says, "I have frequent- 
ly exchanged my books for bad ones, and 
have put this corrupt and worthless stuff 
where it could never be read again." 

But the effect of circulating standard evan- 
gelical books by the thousand, and the hun- 
dred thousand, in the waste places of our 
country, vastly transcends in importance the 
mere destruction of a few volumes of the vile. 
They become a permanent power for good, 
laying the foundation of character in thou- 
sands of households, where the corrupting 
literature will no longer be tolerated. " The 
desire for religious reading has been greatly 
increased on my field," writes a faithful 
worker; "and parents will no longer permit] 
their children to read the miserable stuff 
heretofore so common." " By the twenty- 
four thousand volumes I have circulated," 
writes another, " great- good has already re- 
sulted. Vicious literature has been counter- 



74 COLPOIiTAGE. 

acted, novel readers have given up their trash, 
and some have embraced the Saviour." "In 
creating a taste for good reading and coun- 
teracting the bad," says one, "no tongue can 
tell the influence of the seventeen thousand 
five hundred volumes of truth I have circu- 
lated in the last seven years. I see the re- 
sults constantly." " When I commenced my 
work, religious books were rare and novels 
abundant," writes another; "now, tables 
that formerly groaned under the load of soul- 
destroying literature are filled with the issues 
of the Tract and other good societies." Here 
then, in preoccupying the ground, or in driving 
out the vile and installing the good, colport- 
age has reaped some of its most precious 
rewards. 

Golpartage promotes the Sabbath-school cause. 
True, it is not specifically a Sabbath-school 
enterprise, neither is it primarily a Bible dis- 
tributor ; . and yet it labors largely in both 
directions. A true Bible Christian, such as 
every colporteur should be, cannot leave any 
family unsupplied with the precious Source of 
all his hope, and the American Bible Society 
nobly responds to his request for the power 



RESULTS. 75 

to supply each destitute family lie may find. 
An earnest lover of children, as every true 
colporteur is, cannot leave any neighborhood 
destitute of a Sabbath-school where one can 
be formed, and his thorough visiting of every 
house reveals the number of children ungath- 
ered ; while his stores of children's books en- 
able him to fit them out with a suitable 
library. Hence a large and blessed inciden- 
tal result of this system is its aid to the Sab- 
bath-school cause. 

Especially in the newer districts, every col- 
porteur accomplishes something in this line. 
One described a county canvassed, contain- 
ing fifteen thousand children, of whom less 
than three thousand attended Sabbath-school. 
He formed twelve new schools for these des- 
titute ones, supplying them with the begin- 
ning of a library, and enlisted good people 
in the work of teaching. Another, referring 
to a former year's work in a Southern state, 
notes, "In that year I organized nine schools, 
embracing four hundred scholars. One of 
these stood the shock of war, being in the 
very midst of it. They have procured preach- 
ing, and enjoyed a precious revival of reli- 



7G COLTOItTAGE. 

gion, the fruits of which the various evangel- 
ical denominations are realizing." Another, 
who has travelled above twenty thousand 
miles on foot and on horseback, and visited 
fourteen thousand four hundred families dur- 
ing the seven years of his service, says, "I 
have been instrumental in forming eighteen 
schools, and supplying many others with 
books." One laborer, who has been in the 
service for eighteen years, in giving an inter- 
esting account of his work, adds, "I have 
aided in forming one hundred and thirty-five 
schools in these years." Who can estimate 
the value for time and eternity of such a 
service ? 

A still larger work is reported by a godly 
man, who has long toiled on in a mountain- 
ous and neglected district — neglected until 
he went there, now supplied very generally 
with the preached gospel : " I have organized 
one hundred and seventy-eight Sabbath- 
schools, where there had never been any 
before. In some of these places the people 
were so poor they could not purchase even 
the tickets to commence with, and I have 
taken in pay for books, Irish potatoes, maple 



BESULTS. 17 

sugar, and other produce, and hauled it thir- 
ty-five miles to market. After a time, they 
began to save money to buy books. One 
youth offered to buy a large Testament if 
I would take a gallon of brandy he had 
just brought from the still-house, and prom- 
ised he would never drink another drop. I 
closed the bargain, took the jug, and broke 
it over a rock. He has since become a Chris- 
tian, and is doing well in a worldly point of 
view." 

Such facts, running through the entire 
history of the enterprise, demonstrate the 
value of Union Missionary Colportage to the 
youth of our land, and these are but isolat- 
ed specimens. A superintendent over one 
agency has left a record of above seven hun- 
dred Sabbath-schools formed on his field by 
colporteurs. Some of the results, in numerous 
conversions and the formation of churches, 
will appear in the following pages ; the entire 
results in the great day. 

Colportage aiding the Ministry. Colportage 
is designed to be helpful to the ministry of 
every true church of Christ. Its rules of ac- 
tion, its specific instructions to every worker, 



78 COLPORTAGE. 

its means of influence, all intend the further- 
ance of truth and righteousness ; and the 
committee who have it in charge rejoice to 
know, from evidence constant and accumu- 
lating, that it meets an almost universal ap- 
proval from ministers and people over our 
entire land. Those who prefer to work in 
strictly denominational channels, still en- 
dorse it as adapted to the "regions beyond," 
while most rejoice in its hearty and efficient 
cooperation in every good word and work, 
and more especially in periods of gracious 
reviving. And the value of its aid directly 
to the faithful and overworked minister is 
gratefully acknowledged in thousands of in- 
stances. 

Says one, writing the Society, " Your liter- 
rature has contributed largely to the exten- 
sion of Christ's kingdom among us, by break- 
ing up the fallow ground of the heart, and 
preparing it to receive the word preached." 
Another writes to the colporteur, "I thank 
you for your labors among inquirers and the 
young converts during our precious revival. 
God has abundantly blessed your work. I 
feel that our church and myself owe a deep 



RESULTS. 79 

debt of obligation to you and your Society." 
Another, "I have been quickened to more 
activity by the perusal of the soul-stirring 
publications. The ' Reformed Pastor ' I prize 
greatly, and while perusing it, have been in- 
structed and stirred up, and I hope to become 
a better minister of Jesus Christ." 

In addition to the direct aid afforded the 
minister, the colporteur not unfrequently 
awakes among his peoj)le the determination 
to supply his library, often too meagre for 
his needs, with valuable additions from the 
standard works of the Society, thus the bet- 
ter equipping him for his laborious work. 
And in many ways, as a fellow-helper, the 
colporteur passes from church to church sow- 
ing good seed, which the ministry harvest for 
God. This is recorded among the results of 
colportage in a vast number of cases. 

Conversions and Bevivals. While looking 
at these evidences of God's mercy in saving 
sinners, we would be far from claiming col- 
portage as the single, or in many cases the 
principal instrument. The agencies for con- 
version which the Holy Spirit uses are mani- 
fold, and often, in their operation, inscrutable 



80 COLPORTAGE. 

to human vision; and the most unseen are 
sometimes the most efficient. The hearing 
of a single sermon, the reading of a single 
tract, a chance remark by a stranger, a 
prayer offered in the family, even a blessing 
asked at a meal, may be the immediate in- 
strument, in God's hand, of arresting the 
attention and riveting conviction, leading to 
the surrender of the soul to Christ. Yet the 
preparation for this may have been long 
years of faithful preaching, and the prayers 
and instructions of pious and now sainted 
parents. All this we do not forget in the in- 
cidents which follow. True, there are many 
cases where colportage, to human view, was 
almost the sole instrument ; yet even here we 
would refer all to infinite mercy, and praise 
God that he can use the feeblest instrumental- 
ity in snatching men from destruction. But 
it is right, in sketching the history of this 
mode of Christian effort, to note, for the 
strengthening of our faith, how richly the 
divine blessing seems to attend it. Instances 
might be multiplied by hundreds. 

Let the first illustrate as well the power as 
the grace of God, in rescuing a family from 



BESULTS. 81 

the deepest degradation, and lifting its mem- 
bers to the dignity of fellow-heirs to an eter- 
nal inheritance. "Far in the mountains I 
entered a cabin, without windows or floor, 
and found a family of ten children, not one 
of whom could read a word, nor had they 
ever heard a sermon. The father was unable 
to read, and was dreadfully profane, uttering 
an oath in every sentence, even when speak- 
ing of serious things. The mother could 
read imperfectly, but was very ignorant. I 
held a long conversation with the old man, 
who claimed to be an infidel because his em- 
ployer boasted of being one, though this poor 
man did not know what the word meant. He 
admitted a belief in a future state of awards, 
and with an oath declared he was not fit for 
a holy world. After he left the house, the 
mother showed deep anxiety on the subject 
of religion, and begged me to leave it for her, 
so she might get it. She had some time heard 
talk of ' getting religion.' The husband re- 
fused to accept a Bible, saying, 'the old wo- 
man would spend all her time trying to read 
it ;' and she was unwilling to take it, after he 
left, lest he should find it and abuse her. 

Colpoitage. 6 



82 COLPOETAGE. 

However, I determined to pnt the Bible 
where she could ' get it,' and so placed it un- 
der the steps as I left the house. I subse- 
quently learned the result. This cabin was 
six miles from the settlement, and the old 
man was often away all day, and she had 
time to spell out much of the New Testament. 
She read to the children, three of whom were 
grown girls, and they became interested. At 
length she felt that she must pray, and ex- 
acting a promise from the children that they 
would not tell the father, she commenced to 
pray with them. One evening the old man 
came in unexpectedly, and found her reading 
the Bible. ' Oh, ho, how is this ? Just as I 
expected ; that fellow that prayed here left it, 
did he ? Well, old ivoman, read some for us.' 
She commenced, and read slowly of Christ 
being led out to Calvary and nailed to the 
cross, and that two thieves were nailed, one 
on each side of him. He stopped her, and 
with an oath told her to read it again, and 
again. At length he retired. She found 
the light dawning on her mind, and was 
able to accept of Christ as her Saviour ; 
and in the fullness of her heart, felt she 



RESULTS. 83 

must pray with her children, and commit 
them to her new-found Saviour. But the old 
man, though quiet, was not asleep ; and her 
prayers and rejoicings, ' I 'ye got religion, 
I've got religion, bless the Lord,' reached 
his heart. In the morning he went out to 
the woods, and tried to pray ; and when he 
returned, he called his wife, and said, 'Moth- 
er, gather the family ; I swear I must be a 
Christian;' and with a great oath, which he 
did not mean to be profane, he promised to 
be the Lord's, and from that hour commenced 
his service. Of all this I knew nothing ; but 
in my travels I determined to call again upon 
the family. I went at the middle of the day, 
when I supposed the old man would be away. 
To my astonishment, I saw him before I 
reached the house, and checked my horse, 
for I was afraid of him. He ran out with his 
arms expanded, crying, ' Bless God for send- 
ing you here again,' and pulled me off my 
horse, and actually carried me in his arms 
into the house. He told me the whole story 
of his conversion, and I could not doubt its 
reality. He was a new man. I sent them a 
preacher, who instructed them more fully in 



84 COLrORTAGE. 

the truth, and the parents and nine of the chil- 
dren professed faith in Christ." Such is a 
specimen of the direct result of colportage. 

Known to the writer are the following facts, 
as connected with a single colporteur's labors, 
and he a humble, modest man. An impeni- 
tent, but educated youth became convinced, 
from closely watching his conduct, that reli- 
gion was a reality, and after a time of inquiry, 
was brought to Christ through his instru- 
mentality. He first became a voluntary 
colporteur, visiting the poor and wicked fam- 
ilies around, and praying with them ; then he 
studied theology, all the while working suc- 
cessfully for the Lord; at length he went a 
missionary to India, and for years taught the 
heathen the way of life ; failing in health, he 
returned, and is now a most zealous and effec- 
tive minister of Christ. This colporteur vis- 
ited another student in college ; was at first 
repulsed, but continued his efforts, and the 
student became eminently pious, and went to 
Africa to preach for the Saviour. After a 
faithful service, and recently, he has gone 
home. ■ Perhaps a score of men have been 
called into the ministry, more or less directly 



RESULTS. 85 

through this man's agency, and his four sons 
are in the sacred office, while numerous con- 
versions have occurred all along his history 
of twenty years in this work. 

"In going over my former field last sum- 
mer," reports a godly brother, "I found 
about twenty, with whom, when impenitent, 
I had conversed and prayed, who now were 
rejoicing in hope. One young lady, in whose 
school I had pleaded with the children to 
give their hearts to Christ, was herself con- 
victed, and I was present the next summer 
when she made a profession of religion. She 
told me that her salvation was owing to God's 
blessing upon the talk to her school." 

Another writes, "In this place, there fol- 
lowed my distributions a great interest, and 
many were brought to repentance ; and the 
work so increased that I devoted my time to 
the inquirers, and others sold my books, and 
the result was a large increase in the church- 
es around." Another : " About four hundred 
have been added to the different churches on 
my field, not that my labors and books were 
the only, or the principal cause, yet I am sure 
the good seed sown for years has at length 



86 COLPORTAGE. 

taken root downward, and borne fruit up- 
ward." A faithful brother in Missouri enu- 
merates in detail nine hopeful conversions 
directly through the agency of the colpor- 
teur's visits and books. "The pastor told 
me," says another, " that of the forty acces- 
sions to his church immediately following my 
labors there, a number were awakened by 
the books and tracts." A brother who has 
labored thirteen years, circulated thirty-three 
thousand volumes, travelled above fifty-eight 
thousand miles, and made more than nine- 
teen thousand family visits, after speaking of 
many cases of conversion, gives this incident : 
"I called upon a family whose head was 
skeptical, but courteous. The Lord seemed 
to help me in conversation, and his heart was 
touched. He bought Watson's 'Beply to 
Paine.' In a short time he embraced Christ. 
I met him a few years after, when he told me 
he considered my first visit to his house the 
starting point not only of his own, but his 
wife's and two daughters' religious life." But 
why should instances be here multiplied, when 
the entire history of the work is illuminated 
by such cases ? 



RESULTS. 87 

Result in founding Churches. If Union Mis- 
sionary Colportage is thus blessed to the 
conversion of many souls, we should natur- 
rally look for the springing up of churches in 
its wake. Such has been the fact in very 
many cases, especially in the newer settle- 
ments. God is using this system as a fore- 
running agency to the organization of local 
and permanent worshipping assemblies. 

"I labored awhile," reports a clerical col- 
porteur, "in a neighborhood where Sabbath 
breaking, profanity, and all sin, abounded ; 
but could sell no books. I niade-an appoint- 
ment to preach in a school-house, and there 
was a good attendance. The love of God and 
the story of the cross, melted their hearts. I 
had to continue the meetings for three weeks. 
A church was formed, a house of worship 
built, and a general reformation wrought. 
A good many Universalists gave up their 
errors, and are useful members of the 
church." 

A brother who had labored on one field for 
ten years, and had sold twenty thousand vol- 
umes, given away six thousand, and travelled 
on foot, horseback, and in a buggy, above 



88 COLPORTAGE. 

twelve thousand weary, toilsome miles, writes, 
" Sabbath-schools and churches have been 
originated all over my field since I commen- 
ced, and many of them attribute their ori- 
gin and prosperity largely to the colporteur 
work." An earnest brother, in a mountain- 
ous region, avers: "Over much of my wide 
field, preachers have followed my labors, and 
organized considerable congregations. Take 
one district as an example. In the whole re- 
gion of B there was no preaching when 

I commenced. After laboring about twelve 
months among the people, I succeeded in ob- 
taining a godly United Brethren's minister, 
who went with me into the mountains, and for 
seven weeks we held most precious meetings. 
As a consequence, at the next conference they 
laid out a circuit on that territory, and every 
preaching-place was at a point where I had 
organized a Sabbath-school. That circuit 
has now three ministers." 

In training Workers for Christ. Work for 
Christ has a fourfold reward : in the approval 
of God, in the good done, in the happiness 
of the worker, and in Ms increased 'power of 
usefulness for the future. The development of 



RESULTS. 89 

muscular, and brain, and heart power, de- 
pends upon exercise, and lie who employs 
them all in active exertion for Christ will 
grow to be a symmetrical and stalwart Chris- 
tian. Only by vigorous and long-continued 
exercise, and in great variety of circumstan- 
ces, does any one attain to that ideal of Chris- 
tian character presented by the apostle, in 
which, to faith is added manly courage, scrip- 
tural knowledge, personal control, untiring 
patience, great devoutness, brotherly kind- 
ness, and an enlarged catholicity. 2 Peter 1: 
5-7. How beautifully colportage, by its union 
principles, Christian aims, and infinite variety 
of opportunities for exercise, works ,to this 
end, could be illustrated to an indefinite 
extent. 

The constant trials to which the faithful 
laborer is subjected, strengthen his graces 
and develop -his powers for greater contests 
and victories. A plain, uneducated man 
grows even eloquent in describing his experi- 
ence: "Has any been sneered at as a canting 
hypocrite ? so have I. Has any been jeered 
as getting his living without work? so have 
I. Has any been ordered home to attend to 



90 COLPORTAGE. 

his own business, and let others' alone ? so 
have I. Has any been driven violently out 
of the house? so have I. Has any been 
threatened with mob violence? so have I. 
Has any been refused Christian hospitality ? 
so have I, many a time. But none of these 
things move me, and I can humbly say, 'I 
count not my life dear unto me, if I may win 
souls to my Saviour.' Has any received, 
day by day, the witness of the Spirit ; has 
any found kind friends day by day; found 
grace in every time of need ; had a foretaste 
of the joy in reserve for the righteous ; and 
been strengthened with might in the inner 
man for every good word and work? I more ; 
for God is with me." 

Another describes and rejoices in this work, 
so admirable for developing the Christian 
graces : " None but self-denying followers of 
the Redeemer can hope for success. I re- 
member the first day I went out to labor : not 
meeting with immediate success, I wept bit- 
terly ; but before the day's work was finished 
I was rejoicing. It will not do for the col- 
porteur, when he comes to a house, to halt 
and shout, ' Hallo,' and from the roadside in- 



RESULTS. 91 

quire if there is any thing in the way of reli- 
gious books wanted. No ; he must dismount, 
tie up, and enter the house, and with a con- 
fiding love in his Redeemer unknown to 
many professed Christians, beseech and en- 
treat the inmates, whom he never expects to 
see again, not only to take his books, but to 
be reconciled to God. It is not the rich that 
take him by the hand generally; but the poor 
in this world's goods, and the lowly that of- 
tenest cheer his heart. Although I have met 
with many kind-hearted people of wealth, 
still they are the exceptions. And if ever the 
American Tract Society shines with a sweet 
and heavenly lustre, it is in this very thing, 
that it bears the gospel to the poor, and seals 
the word by pointing the inquiring, the err- 
ing, and the hardened sinner to Jesus. If 
all the admonitions, encouragings, warnings, 
entreaties, expostulations, prayers, wrestlings, 
cryings, heart-breakings, hungerings, thirst- 
ings, wettings and scorchings by the way, in- 
sults of sinners, and greetings of friends, dia- 
logues and arguments made use of and en- 
dured by the colporteur in his labors for a 
series of years, were accurately set clown and 



92 COLPORTAGE. 

penned in a book, the result would be over- 
whelming; yet, blessed be God, though my 
trials are not known to man, they are known 
above, and the humble servant who has not 
shrunk from duty in the hour of severest trial 
will receive a gracious crown in the day when 
He comes to make up His jewels. I look 
upon my work as matchless in grandeur." 

A little German errand boy is trained up 
to the ministry of the glorious gospel by col- 
portage: "In the year 1853 I was employed 
in St. Louis as errand boy for the depository. 
After a time, I became clerk. While in the 
depository, by reading such works as ' Bax- 
ter's Call,' 'Come to Jesus,' and the Me- 
moirs of Martyn and Brainerd, I was enabled 
to consecrate myself to Christ, and experi- 
ence his pardoning mercy. The reading of 
'Harlan Page,' 'Claudius Buchanan,' and 
James' 'Christian Progress,' awakened in me 
a desire to do good. My first efforts con- 
sisted in the distribution of tracts in desti- 
tute portions of the city. In connection with 
three other young men, I took part in the 
organization of a mission Sabbath-school, 
and for three years filled the position of 



RESULTS. 93 

treasurer in it. The school now has an aver- 
age attendance of fourteen hundred. In 1857 
another person and myself established anoth- 
er mission Sabbath-school in the northwest- 
ern part of the city. The majority of the 
scholars were secured by our personal solici- 
tation while engaged in tract visitation. Dur- 
ing my connection with both schools, a num- 
ber of conversions blessed the labors of the 
teachers. During the revival season in 1857, 
the cheaper publications of the Society were 
extensively used. Four persons attributed 
their salvation to the tract, 'The Act of 
Faith.' One was savingly blessed by read- 
ing, * Behold the Lamb of God.' ' A Pastor's 
XJounsel' was put into the hands of every 
young convert, and with the happiest results. 
The spirit which made the lives of Henry 
Martyn and Edward Payson fragrant with 
self-sacrificing labors, impelled me to make a 
fuller consecration of myself to Christ, and to 
endeavor from the pulpit to point the perish- 
ing to the atoning Saviour on the cross." He 
is now proclaiming the good news. 

We add another example of one trained by 
colportage for wide usefulness, until this hour 



94 COLPOETAGE. 

devoting himself with increasing strength to 
its prosecution : " Some time in the year 1839, 
being then at my father's house in South Car- 
olina, in my fifteenth year, and nearly deaf 
and dumb, secluded from the world, in the 
midst of deep and impenetrable swamps, sur- 
rounded by about six thousand five hundred 
negroes, and hardly twenty-five whites in all, 
and these ignorant and tyrannical overseers, 
a colporteur of the American Tract Society 
visited father, soliciting the sale of the Evan- 
gelical Family Library of fifteen vokfmes. 
When father was about to decline, I induced 
him to purchase them for me. I commenced 
reading the first volume, Doddridge's ' Rise 
and Progress,' was soon convicted and con- 
verted by God's grace. The last volume, 
'Life of J. B. Taylor,' convicted father. I 
immediately commenced reading every night 
to the negroes, until I read nearly all of the 
volumes to them, and many were converted. 
I joined the church, and was appointed class- 
leader, and commenced visiting from house 
to house, reading and circulating books and 
tracts as fast as I was able to buy or beg 
them. I also commenced Sabbath-schools 



RESULTS. 95 

for the blacks, but was often molested, until 
at length I was appointed captain of the pa- 
trol, which gave me access to these people. 
I at length obtained license to exhort and 
travel on a circuit ; but gave my whole atten- 
tion to the circulation of books, getting them 
from pastors and elsewhere, until 1853, when 
the preachers at Raleigh, who had witnessed 
my work, and Bishop Early said, ' God has 

called M to the book business.' I was 

then introduced to Mr. C , who soon got 

me a commission from the Tract Society ; 
and I have worked ever since. My entire 
work may be summed up thus : Sales and 
grants, $12,000 ; miles travelled, seventy thou- 
sand ; family visits, fifty-three thousand. I 
have travelled on foot over thirty thousand 
miles, and yet I am to-day in good health, 
and can stand fatigue as well as ever I could. 
I have worked in six different states. On re- 
ceiving my commission, I went before God in 
prayer for aid and direction. On surveying 
my field I found an almost total destitution 
of religious books and piety, and the people 
served by many illiterate preachers. Their 
religion was either very cold and formal, or 



96 COLPOHTAGE. 

of the extreme spasmodic kind, all feeling 
without knowledge. I saw clearly that the 
tract volumes stood a happy medium between 
these two extremes, quickening the one to 
zeal and heartfelt religion, while it tamed the 
wild animal excitement of the oth^er. Noth- 
ing has ever done for my own church more 
than the tract volumes. To use an elder's 
language, ' Brother, your books build up our 
church more than all the big, shouting revi- 
vals, because they quietly instruct, and last- 
ing impressions are made. There is a holy 
spirit which pervades every page ; no one 
can read even a few pages without being 
moistened to tears.' In this way they fore- 
stall vicious books. God does bless the book, 
even if the devil should carry it, to the sal- 
vation of souls. A stolen one has, to my 
knowledge, converted the thief. I have or- 
ganized one hundred and seventy-six Sab- 
bath and day schools of nearly five thousand 
eight hundred scholars ; one of one hundred 
and forty in 1855, which is still in operation. 
I have always aided pastors and churches in 
every possible way ; in visiting every house, 
distributing tracts, and begging the people to 



KESULTS. 97 

attend church ; and praying with the people 
in their houses, fields, shops, on the road- 
side, and everywhere I can find them, and 
instructing their children and servants. I 
have always sought out the lowly ones, and 
cheered them." 

What a record of development and Chris- 
tian effort, for one who at the age of fifteen 
was an ignorant boy, almost deaf and dumb, 
in secluded rice swamps, and with no means 
of education ! 



Colportage, 



98 COLrORTAGE. 

CHAPTEB VII. 

A COMPREHENSIVE VI^EW. 

But an imperfect idea of the toil, self- 
denial, true apostolic labor, and large suc- 
cess of colportage can be obtained by the 
selection of isolated incidents, as in the pre- 
ceding chapter. A condensed view of the 
work of years may aid the mind in compre- 
hending the value of the system to the cause 
of Christ. 

An Individual Record. " I have travelled 
on foot, horseback, and in buggy, in nine 
years, thirty-five thousand miles ; have made 
fifty-eight thousand family visits ; have cir- 
culated twenty-four thousand seven hundred 
volumes ; have assisted in organizing four- 
teen Sabbath-schools, and have seen six 
churches springing up on my field, in more 
or less intimate connection with my labors." 
Brief is this record of solitary journeyings, 
which in the aggregate would girdle the globe, 
of the Christian visits to many thousand house- 
holds, of the number of volumes of saving 



A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW. 



99 



truth installed in destitute families, and of 
Sabbath-schools and churches formed ; but 
no one can doubt the vast reach of these two 
thousand seven hundred days of personal 
service for the Master. And this is but one 
of many similar records on the files of the 
Society. 

A Partial View. In the following table we 
group a few statistics from a small number 
of laborers, bringing out the magnitude of 
the work in three aspects. 



j. w. w.- — 

J.McB. 

J. M. 

J. M. 

J. P. 

j. M. 

G. S. 

H. S.~ 

G. W. S.- — 
G. T.H.— - 

B. J.- 

J. D. 

T. C. 

P. B. 

A.O.C. 

D. D/S. 



Length of 


Volumes Cir- 


Family Vis- 


Service. 


culated. 


its made. 


2 y'rs. 


6,400 


9.100 


2 " 


8.000 


5.500 


3 " 


9,000 


6.200 


7 " 


26,000 


19,000 


7 « 


18,200 


14,400 


7 " 


21,000 


11.600 


8 « 


35,000 


25,500 


8 " 


18.900 


20,700 


8f » 


19,900 


21,700 


9J « 


27,700 


58,400 


10 « 


35.200 


24,900 


10J- " 
10* " 


30,100 


28,200 


29,900 


18.400 


11 « 


20.500 


26,500 


13 " 


31.000 


44,500 


13 " 


33.100 


18,900 


130 " 


375.900 


353,500 



iles Trav- 
elled. 



2.500 
5.200 
6,700 
15.500 
20.500 
12.000 
51,000 
24,000 
24.200 
35.000 
15.000 
7.500 
21.000 
16.600 
12.000 
58,200 



326,900 



This table shows as the average that each 
colporteur, in each year of colportage, circu- 



100 COLPORTAGE. 

lated two thousand eight hundred and nine- 
ty-one volumes, made two thousand seven 
hundred and nineteen family Christian visits, 
and traversed two thousand five hundred 
and fourteen miles from house to house. Add 
to this the social meetings addressed, the 
words of exhortation and comfort spoken, 
the Sabbath-schools formed, and the unnum- 
bered influences flowing from such labor, and 
we may form some idea of the efficiency of 
the system. Even this partial table is wor- 
thy of study. 

General Summary of Statistics. So far as 
mere statistics can exhibit the results of a 
missionary work, we are happily in posses- 
sion of the most accurate data. During the 
quarter of a century that colportage has been 
expanding, the laborers have systematically 
reported monthly, quarterly, and annually, 
and in duplicate. These reports are on file, 
and afford the means of comparison and cor- 
rection in each case. The following sum- 
mary is therefore full upon the points it 
touches, and as accurate as care can make 
it ; while, of course, it only attempts to give 
certain great facts wrought out by the system. 



A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW. 101 

SUMMARY VIEW OF COLPORTAGE FOR TWEN- 
TY-FIVE YEARS. 

Time employed, months 48,499 

Number of volumes sold - 8,233,620 

granted 2,264,356 

public meetings addressed, and prayer-* 

meetings held - 222,015 

families destitute of all religious books 

except the Bible 793,743 

families destitute of the Bible 489,013 

families of Roman-catholics 817,637 

families habitually neglecting evangel- 
ical preaching 1,261,285 

families conversed with on personal re- 
ligion, or prayed with 4,874,256 

family visits- 9,354,485 

When we say, in summing np the work, 
that above four thousand years of colporteur 
labor have been performed, more than the 
continuous service of two men from the birth 
of Christ until now ; that ten and a half mill- 
ions of volumes of saving truth have been 
circulated ; that more than two hundred 
thousand religious meetings have been ad- 
dressed; that nearly a million of families 
have been found destitute of religious books, 
and supplied ; that a million and a quarter of 
families have been found who neglected evan- 
gelical worship, and have been urged to duty ; 
that the gospel has been carried to nearly one 



102 COLPORTAGE. 

million Roman-catholic families; and that of 
the more than nine million Christian visits 
made to families, five millions of them were 
accompanied with prayer or direct personal 
appeals in the name of Christ — we have given 
figures which, in their influence for the glory 
of God, sweep far beyond our feeble compre- 
hension. This general summary of facts we 
present for examination and reflection. An 
eloquent speaker at one of the anniversaries 
exclaimed, "Why these are like the figures of 
astronomy ; they make us think of the leaves 
of our forests, or the countless waves that 
gleam along our extended coast!" 

Of the full results of these labors we shall 
not be informed until the enlarged capacities 
of the eternal world shall qualify us to com- 
prehend the realities which will be there re- 
vealed. But when one of the many hundreds 
of colporteurs that have been employed tells 
us of over seven hundred Sabbath-schools or- 
ganized in connection with his labors ; and 
another tells us of one hundred and three 
conversions coming to his personal knowl- 
edge as resulting from the circulation of 
copies of one tract by him ; and another tells 



A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW. 103 

us of three churches growing out of the labors 
of one colporteur in a single district ; and 
others continually report to us in their cor- 
respondence individual cases of conversion, 
and interesting revivals of religion more or 
less directly connected with their labors ; 
when watchmen from the walls of Zion report 
to us their own conversion by the reading of 
some of these publications ; " a mission estab- 
lished among the heathen as the result of the 
reading of one tract published by this Soci- 
ety ;" a revival of religion, resulting in the 
conversion of several hundreds of souls, from 
the systematic circulation of the Tract Soci- 
ety's volumes, accompanied with fireside la- 
bors from house to house ; and when we find 
the record of such statements as these run- 
ning through the whole history of the Society, 
and constantly meet with similar facts every- 
where in our intercourse with Christian men — 
we are constrained to exclaim, "What hath 
God wrought ! " and to accept the conviction 
that truly our labors have not been in vain, 
while from the heart we exclaim, "Not unto 
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name 
give the glory." 



104 COLPORTAGE. 



CONCLUSION. 



In the foregoing pages we have described 
the system of Union Missionary Colportage, 
as originated and conducted by the American 
Tract Society ; have attempted to point out 
its true place, as a forerunner to the organ- 
ized churches, antagonistic to none, helpful 
to all ; have illustrated the need of such an 
agency, from the divided state of the church 
of Christ, and the fearful destitutions which 
exist over large portions of our land ; have 
indicated the happy adaptation of this Union 
agency to the peculiar exigencies of our coun- 
try ; and have shown by a series of illustra- 
tions the versatility of the system to relieve 
every spiritual want and woe of our scattered 
and perishing population. " 

Further, we have presented some of the 
results of twenty-five years of colportage, in 
forestalling bad by good books, in promo- 
ting Sabbath-schools, in aiding the ministry, 
in conversions and revivals, and in founding 
churches ; and have shown the power of the 



CONCLUSION. 105 

S3 T stem in training active and stalwart Chris- 
tians for the work of the Lord ; and finally, 
we have summed up, as far as figures could 
do this, a few of the unnumbered results 
achieved during the first quarter century of 
Union Missionary Colportage. 

From all of which there seem to us to fol- 
low irresistibly these four conclusions : 

That there has existed, and continues to 
exist, an imperative need of Union Mission- 
ary Colportage over much of our land ; 

That there is a special field for such a sys- 
tem as is prosecuted by this Society ; 

That in the present divided state of the 
evangelical churches, its catholicity adapts it 
to perform a grand evangelizing work, in 
which good men of all names can cooperate ; 

And that the results, thus far, give the 
highest sanction to a speedy enlargement, 
and the most earnest prosecution of the sys- 
tem in the future. 

So far as this volume shall cheer and aid 
our brethren whose toil it attempts to por- 
tray ; so far as it shall incline pastors to 
commend the enterprise to the prayers and 
benefactions of their people ; so far as it 



106 COLPORTAGE. 

shall suggest to benevolent men of means 
the blessed privilege of proclaiming Christ to 
thousands by sustaining a colporteur in a 
destitute section ; so far as it shall stimulate 
private Christians to faith, and prayer, and 
personal effort unceasingly for the salvation 
of sinners — thus far will it have accomplished 
the end of its preparation. We commit it to 
that gracious God who can bless the feeblest 
instrumentality, and to the dear brethren of 
every name who love our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and look for his coming and kingdom. 



APPENDIX. 



To illustrate many points briefly presented in the pre- 
ceding pages, the statements of men who have labored in 
the various departments of the work will be found valu- 
able. 

STATEMENTS OF COLPORTEURS. 
A clerical colporteur, who speaks and writes in both 
German and English, though imperfectly in the latter, 
thus ^graphically describes his work : 

I have labored the last fifteen years and forty days as a 
colporteur. I have sold about $6,200, and granted $900 ; 
travelled about sixty-five thousand seven hundred miles. 
I made fifty-four thousand three hundred family visits, 
and labored for ten thousand soldiers. The influence 
from $7,100 worth of our Christian books, which I have 
brought to families in my field, is very great. There is 
little inquiry for novels any more ; I hear the question; 
perhaps only once a month, if I have novels among my 
books. Many Christians, through my influence, are talk- 
ing against novels and other wicked books. When I 
started, fifteen years ago, there was inquiry for novels, 
perhaps more or less every day ; but now they want our 
Christian books, and there is taste for Christian reading 
nearly everywhere. True Christian religion has made 



108 COLPORTAGE. 

great progress here, through our Christian literature. I 
have helped in organizing Sabbath-schools, brought in 
teachers and scholars, given addresses, and introduced 
much of our Christian literature. My whole soul is en- 
gaged for their increase and prospering. 

I visited, some time ago, a German Eonian-catholic 
family with niany children ; I spoke to the parents about 
sending their children to the Sabbath-school, and gave 
them cards, but the children appeared very ignorant about 
my questions in religion ; they could not read. But be- 
fore a year was past I came again in that settlement ; the 
children received me very happy, and began to read Eng- 
lish in my books. Full of joy, I inquired, "Where did 
you learn to read so well?" They said, "Have you not 
told us, when you were here, we shall go to the Sabbath- 
school? We did go, and learned it in our Sabbath- 
school." Soon that family moved away in a Yankee 
settlement, and my heart was full of praise, because I be- 
lieve they are lost to the pope for ever, and they, find 
Jesus. I gave them some of our Christian literature, told 
them they shall read the Bible and give their hearts to 
Jesus. 

I spoke with another family about religion, sending 
their children to common-school and Sabbath-school, sold 
them books, and directed that German family to Jesus ; 
also they went to Sabbath-school and English meeting. 
"Last j'ear was a great revival of religion in that settle- 
ment, and father, and mother, and four children became 
converted, and joined the church. Close by, there is an- 
other Koman-catholic man ; his wife is Protestant. I 
spoke with that man much about religion, left them 
many tracts and books ; his wife also became converted 
in the same revival, joined the church, and the children 
are in Sabbath-schools. The man was under conviction, 



APPENDIX. 109 

but did not find Jesus. His wife has family worship 
every day now. That man is also out of popery, and his 
whole family ; I hope they all found Jesus. 

In another settlement I held meetings sometimes among 
Koman-cathoHcs and Protestants ; brought them many 
tracts, good books, and Bibles. After that there was re- 
vival of religion, and a number of them became converted. 
Some are leading men now in the Christian church. I am 
acquainted with many who have been brought up in po- 
pish darkness, not much better than heathen ; now they 
are happy Christians. God is sending us many thousands 
of heathen right before our door. God and the angels are 
looking down from heaven to see what we do for their 
souls. Shall they be neglected right before our doors? 
Are unconverted souls before our doors not so much 
worth as souls in India, Africa, or China ? And be sure if 
Christians do n't do their duty to their unconverted neigh- 
bors around them, they will suffer for it in the future. 
Perhaps they fight against our Sundays, or for popery, 
and will lead our children with them to hell. God help us, 
that we do our duty towards them. I am a great friend of 
missions among heathen, and my prayer has been since I 
was twelve years old, "Lord, make me a missionary, and 
send me to the heathen." God has heard my prayer. 
Christians, lead souls to Christ, so many as you can, in 
foreign countries, but do n't neglect unconverted souls in 
our own country. God sometimes saves souls through 
the reading of a tract. 

I have labored a great deal in revivals. Ministers are 
inviting me to come and labor with them. I have started 
meetings ; preached sometimes two or three weeks every 
night, and on Sundays two, sometimes three times ; and 
through the day I labored from house to house as a col- 
porteur. And glory be to God in the highest, he has 



110 COLPORTAGE. 

saved and converted many souls. I work for revival the 
whole year. Thank God, great revivals are right before 
us. The Spirit of the Lord is working now in many 
places. I work with the Spirit of the Lord, and stir 
Christians up, and tell them they shall lead sinners to 
Christ. But we need colportage work everywhere. There 
is not a whole town or settlement in my field yet where 
every soul is converted. Yes, not one-half from the whole 
population is yet converted. We need colportage labor 
everywhere through the whole land, till Christ comes the 
second time. 

May nobody tell me about stopping colporteur labor ! 
I shall, with the help of God, never stop. No, never. 
And when my body is lying in the grave shall my soul 
pray before God's throne, "Lord, save souls." 

I thought perhaps I labor too hard in the Lord's vine- 
yard, and come before it is time in the grave ; but thank 
God, he is saving souls, and I am willing to go home when 
the Lord calls me. One time I thought heaven is very 
near to me ; Oh, I wish I could go home to glory just 
now ; but in a little while I thought God's Spirit is telling 
me, We can get along very well without you in heaven ; 
but remember, your time has not come yet ; we need you 
yet in Illinois. You can do more for the Lord's cause 
there yet than you can do at home in glory. By-and-by 
you shall come home, and rest from your labor ; but for 
the present we want you to work more for Jesus in Illi- 
nois. Amen, said I, blessed Jesus ; I am not my own ; 
do as thou pleasest ; work through whom thou pleasest ; 
but Oh, my Saviour, save many precious souls for thy 
own name's sake. Amen. 

Now let me take my basket with soul-saving literature ; 
let me stand surrounded on one side by Jesus and those 
that became converted through the Tract Society, and on 



APPENDIX. Ill 

the other side by Eoman-catholics, drunkards, swearers, 
Sabbath-breakers, and others. Now inquire, shall we 
stop colporteur work ? The wicked will halloo, Yes ; but 
Christians will shout through the air, and angels would 
shout down here and in glory, No, never, never, never. 

j. c. D. 
While men of such fiery zeal and tireless perseverance 
as above presented can be found, colportage will never 
lack friends, nor be without God's blessing. 



Hard Work and its Fruits. A fearless pioneer, who, for 
eleven years, has toiled in the mountains of East Tennes- 
see, the swamps of Arkansas and southeastern Missouri, 
the wilds of Iowa, and the plains of Kansas, shrinking 
from no toil and avoiding no self-denial, gives an impres- 
sive account "of streams swam, mountains climbed, caves 
penetrated, swamps threaded, and exposures endured ; 
but the lost were found, the weak strengthened, the dying 
comforted, and the preparatory work done, resulting in 
the organization of several churches. In one portion of 
my field one-half the families were destitute of Bibles, 
and all religious books, with but few schools, and fewer 
churches. Yet here I sold and gave several hundred dol- 
lars' worth of books, organized Sabbath-schools wherever 
I could find one suitable person to take charge of each, 
and employed four other colporteurs who prosecuted the 
work in the swamps, until sickness or death closed their 
labors. But the good seed brought forth a rich harvest. 
Two years after my labors there, I learned from one of 
my fellow-laborers that a church had sprung from nearly 
every Sabbath-school formed, and a presbytery had grown 
mainly out of this forerunning work. Another colporteur 
told me he had organized several churches since closing his 



112 COLPORTAGE. 

labors, and that a new impetus had been given to religion 
and a new cast to society through this agency." d. m. s. 

How feeble a conception does such a recital as above, give 
of the days of toil and nights of sleeplessness, the exposure 
to sun, and rain, and malaria, to coarse food and the coarser 
conduct of the people ; to insult and abuse, and the heart- 
lessness of even some professed Christians, which were en- 
dured in order to reach these neglected thousands. Col- 
portage is no holiday sport, but stern, hard work. The 
incarnate Saviour trod no pathway of flowers, nor should 
his followers desire an easier lot. 



A Day's Work and Us Results, as narrated by a colpor- 
teur, who for thirteen years and three months has faith- 
fully toiled, travelling nineteen thousand miles, often on 
foot, visiting seventeen thousand families, and circulating 
$5, 300 worth of good books, demand a record. It was a 
winter day, the snow deep, and the wind bitterly cold. 
His first call was cheerless, a young man scorning his ex- 
hortations and sneering at religion while he prayed with 
the family. His next visit was to a husband and wife 
backslidden from religion, but tearful when he left. Sev- 
en more families were visited, and not one person found 
who loved the Saviour. As night drew on and the cold 
increased, he could find no place of rest and entertain- 
ment, being repeatedly refused. At length, in deep dark- 
ness and almost exhausted, he found a home and a Chris- 
tian welcome ; but dispirited and wayworn, and tempted 
to give up so hard a work. In after-years, a subsequent 
visit revealed these facts : the backsliders were reclaimed, 
and walking in Christ, the sneering youth had become a 



APPENDIX. 113 

preacher, a revival had followed, a church was organized 
in the neighborhood, and he was assured that the start- 
ing-point of it all was that wintry day's work. God be 
praised that he can use so feeble instrumentality in so 
great a work. t. p. b. 



The Power of the Press among the Destitute is well illus- 
trated by the letter of a brother who labored as colporteur 
for eighteen years in Central Virginia, until the war. He 
describes the state of society when he commenced, the pau- 
city of good books, the masses of ignorant people, the prev- 
alence of crime, the want of Sabbath-schools, and the ina- 
bility of the ministry to reach even half the people with 
sacred instruction ; and then shows how faithful and toil- 
some labor from house to house, year after year, in many 
places brought almost the entire population under gospel 
influences, aided the churches, multiplied Sabbath-schools, 
and put a new face on society. He closes with the words, 
'•' I am fully convinced that there is a power in the system 
of union colportage cooperating with the churches of 
Christ which is indispensable for the speedy evangelization 
of the destitute millions. 

" Tv T e have a special duty in regard to the press used now 
so extensively for evil. Its power for good is unlimited, 
especially among those beyond the reach of the living 
ministry, who with ability to read, are yet starving for 
mental food." c. a. r. 



TJie permeating and attracting power of union colportage 
is well presented by one who has labored long in North 
Carolina. "A prudent colporteur," he declares, "can go 
into any and every family in his field. Wealth, intelli- 
gence, high position in society, commanding influence for 

Colportage. 8 



114 COLPOHTAGE. 

good or evil, poverty, ignorance, vice, want, with all their 
train of sorrows and all their dark abodes of misery, alike 
claim and alike meet his visit ; while, ' Lo I am with you 
alway,' encourages, directs, sustains, protects, prospers, 
blesses him. He acts as a moral leveller for society, soften- 
ing down the self-sufficiency of the rich, and elevating the 
poor to a feeling of self-respect, a sense of duty and ac- 
countability to God. He comes to all as a friend. He 
sees their wants, and makes himself one of each family in 
plan, in effort, in encouragement to get good and do good. 
Whole famihes have followed me from house to house to 
see the books and to hear about Jesus ; and in the long 
winter evenings three or four families would meet me at 
my lodging-place for reading, exhortation, and prayer. I 
once held a prayer-meeting by torchlight at a gold mine, 
the first ever known there ; and for three days went from 
cabin to cabin, and shaft to shaft, talking, praying, and 
distributing tracts. In a year and a half thereafter a 
church of twenty-eight members was organized of these 
same miners." 

After enumerating many instances of conversion, he 
adds, "Thus colportage diffuses knowledge among the 
ignorant, aids in learning to read, tells the simple truths 
of Christ, helps the people to comprehend the gospel, 
cherishes the movings of the Holy Spirit, aids in building 
up churches, and hastens the conversion of the world to 
God." j. n. A. 



The advantages of the union element in this agency are 
strongly presented by a clerical colporteur, who has la- 
bored some years in a mountainous region of New Eng- 
land : "Is it not Christian charity? is it not obedience to 
the commands of Christ? is it not in accordance with the 



APPENDIX. 115 

spirit and agencies of the gospel, to reach these destitu- 
tions with the common salvation, and urge men to flee 
from the wrath to come ? This scheme, from the broad 
platform of evangelical truth and unstinted charity which 
it occupies, meets a hearty welcome. It builds no line 
fences. It does not assort the people, seeking for this or 
that sect. It exalts Christ, and seeks to win the soul and 
fit it for heaven. None regard it as sectarian but those 
who are intensely so themselves; none bring against it 
' a railing accusation ' except those who rail at all that is 
lovely and of good report. Such are the deep convictions 
which years of service among all classes of people have 
produced." a. l. 



TESTIMONY OF EXPEEIENCE. 

A venerable father, who has labored eighteen years as 
agent, writes : The minds originating colportage must 
have been directed from heaven. It came into being in 
an important crisis in our national history, when onr 
broad country was filling up with a rapidity unparalleled 
in the history of the world, and from all nations, trained 
under different forms of government, and of different reli- 
gions, a heterogeneous mass, including much ignorance 
and error. The system in its development met an emer- 
gency, and supplied a great and pressing need. Even in 
portions of New York state over which I have annually 
passed, this need is seen. On either side of a, mountain 
lying nearly parallel with the Hudson, rises a tier of 
churches, each covering six or eight miles square. Of the 
two to three hundred families nominally belonging to each 
church, not more than eighty to a hundred attend regu- 
larly ; while in the mountain gorges there are many hun- 



116 COLPOLITAGE. 

dreds who never visit the sanctuary, living and dying with- 
out hope. These would have gone to the judgment unpre- 
pared, had you not sent a faithful colporteur to seek them 
out. Great good has followed his labors, and many souls 
have been converted. Similar instances have occurred in 
many parts of my field. 

An intelligent and candid Romanist remarked to me, 
"You Protestants make no headway by preaching and 
writing against our system ; but your colporteurs, warm- 
hearted and zealous, coming into our families, talking 
with parents and children, praying for each, and leaving 
books and tracts which undermine the power of the priests 
and destroy our faith in ceremonies, will succeed, and we 
have reason to tremble." Many, I know, have thus been 
rescued. Press on in your work. It is of God. c. r. 



Of colportage as an aid to the ministry in the evangeliza- 
tion of our land, a layman of spirit as gentle as that of the 
beloved disciple thus speaks : In the conduct of colpor- 
tage as superintendent and as a participant in its personal 
labors, with a knowledge of its practical working from the 
beginning, I cannot doubt it was raised up in the church 
and ordained of God as a principal coadjutor of the minis-, 
try in the evangelization of our country. Over oiu- land 
are scattered those of every variety of religious opinion, 
from the simplest Christian faith to the most absurd infi- 
del error — all creeds and sects, to but few of whom any 
one of the others can be useful, because of the recognized 
differences and disbeliefs that separate them. But col- 
portage finds its laborers welcomed by many, courteously 
received and listened to by almost all. ' ' With no creed 
but the Bible, and no insignia but the cross," it approaches 
very nearly in form and spirit the example of the Saviour 



APPENDIX. 117 

and bis immediate disciples, who, rendering unto God and 
to Cassar their appropriate homage, "went about doing 
good." This catholic and cardinal feature of the work, 
characterizing it from the beginning, illustrates divine 
wisdom in its origin, and wonderfully adapts it to supply 
the destitutions of a mixed population in need of the gos- 
pel. The Christian church to-day needs an army of 
ordained missionaries for distant and destitute regions, 
and yet has not enough to fill its pulpits already estab- 
lished ; and with the large ratio of increase in our popula- 
tion, when will it ever overtake and supply this want of 
an educated ministry ? The perishing multitude cannot 
await their coming. But colportage provides a remedy ; 
it drafts its laborers from the rank and file of all the 
churches, from a myriad of soldiers, among whom thou- 
sands may be found to obey the summons and go forth, 
not to fill pulpits, but yet to preach Jesus, in the house, 
by the way, to one, to many, to all who can be reached by 
visit, or voice, or printed page, so that none, if the church 
so willed it, need long remain without the gospel. Its 
economy commends it. It employs humble laymen, 
known, beloved, and welcomed by those among whom 
they labor ; they ask only for ' ' food and raiment, " and 
are "therewith content." Many of them have homes of 
their own, and seem especially raised up by Providence 
and directed to their particular work. By such means the 
gospel can be carried to the masses of the destitute and 
neglected, under favorable circumstances for doing them 
good, and at little cost. 

In the history of the past, there has never been a time 
when the tendency of the Christian church was so cor- 
dially towards union of heart and effort for the spread of 
the gospel. The great army of the church, though mar- 
shalled in different divisions, are recognizing more fully 



118 COLPORTAGE. 

one governing object under our great Leader. In col- 
portage they have at their disposal a union missionary 
agency, providentially provided, approved and beloved, 
which, cooperating with the Christian ministry, furnishes 
the means for the speedy and complete evangelization of 
the destitute masses of our population, and the redemp- 
tion of our country from its heavy and increasing burdens, 
the fruit of irreligion and crime. o. d. g. 



TJxe origin and practical working of colportage is present- 
ed by one who has spent years in collecting means for its 
prosecution, and observed its usefulness. 

In early times the gospel was propagated by three prin- 
cipal agencies — oral preaching, catechetical instruction, 
and personal effort. The invention of printing synchro- 
nizing with the great Reformation, called into being col- 
portage, the carrying of books from city to city, from town 
to town, from village to village, and even from house to 
house, which was soon discovered to be a powerful means 
of spreading the evangelical doctrines. Colportage then is 
not a new system, but as old as printing and Protestant- 
ism. It is the oldest of all our modern schemes of evan- 
gelism. It antedates Sunday-schools, Bible, Tract, and 
Missionary Societies. In our country it has found a 
broader field for expansion, and has developed new capa- 
bilities of usefulness, combining several distinct elements 
of power. The colporteur is not only a bookseller and 
tract distributor, but a Bible reader, a lay preacher, and a 
personal laborer for Christ. 

"There is our pastor," said an intelligent layman ; "he 
preaches good, well-studied, and powerful sermons ; but 
his studies leave him but little time for pastoral work 



APPENDIX. 119 

among the people. And there is Brother H , a colpor- 
teur of the American Tract Society. He goes out with his 
wagon-load of tracts and books, calling at every house. 
He talks with the people, in his plain, earnest way, about 
personal religion, reads the Bible to them, and offers a 
short prayer. He goes over this whole parish, over the 
town, the country, just in that way. He is a ' house-to- 
house ' preacher. And none can doubt that he, and such 
as he, are doing a vast amount of good for the country and 
for the cause of Christ. " 

This is the distinctive mission of the American Tract 
Society — to send these house and wayside preachers into 
every part of the land. There is room enough for this 
special agency, and there is no lack of opportunity, w. v. c. 



The power of colportage, as an auxiliary, is thus present- 
ed by one who, in the spirit of Harlan Page, has devoted 
his entire energy to its expansion for more than a score of 
years : 

From my own experience in the work, and from what I 
have seen and know of its results for more than twenty 
years, I believe that the system of union missionary col- 
portage embodies a mighty power for good ; and if used 
by the churches of Christ generally in connection with the 
personal efforts of each individual Christian, under the 
guidance of faithful pastors, I cannot doubt its adaptation 
to reach, and with the promised aid of the Holy Spirit, 
speedily to evangelize the millions of our outlying and 
destitute population. May the Lord greatly succeed every 
effort to increase and extend the efficiency of this blessed 
enterprise. s. w. s. 



120 COLPORTAGE. 

The writer of the following has not only labored in the 
colporteur work from its origin, but was one of the instru- 
ments, in the hands of God, in its origination. He had 
prosecuted with large success the " volume enterprise " — 
the effort to supply churches and pastors with evangelical 
libraries in which the Society was engaged from 1837 to 
1841, and saw, as did others, that this work left a large 
proportion of the families, and the most needy ones, un- 
supplied, and hence that some system of missionary visi- 
tation must be devised which would reach them. When 
the work commenced, its first colporteurs were placed 
under his care, and he has superintended the enterprise 
over four states ever since. 

After enumerating the need and the toils of the work 
on his field, he gives many instances of rich blessing, and 
adds : A German colporteur, who labored for many years 
successfully in Cincinnati, afterwards became a minister, 
and gathered a church of more than five hundred commu- 
nicants on the field of his former labors, and is now its 
faithful pastor. As I recall the names and labors of more 
than twelve hundred colporteurs who have been connect- 
ed •with this agency for a longer or shorter period of time 
during the last twenty-five years, I rejoice that the evi- 
dence of the grace of God in their hearts and his blessing 
upon their labors is so abundant. Many who have devo- 
ted a few months or years to the colporteur work have 
been led to a more entire consecration of their lives to the 
spiritual good of their race, have sought college and sem- 
inary learning, and are now preaching the gospel. Some 
have finished their work on earth, and rest from their 
labors. s. w. 



APPENDIX. 121 

One who, with a quick eye to discern and a warm heart 
to appreciate the need of such an agency, has prosecuted 
the work with a quiet and persistent energy for twenty 
years, gives a full sketch of the states over which his 
superintendency reaches, and urges the value of the work 
from its aggressive character : 

Indifference to Christ and his claims is the great cause 
of the slow progress of Christianity. Men, like the sol- 
diers at the foot of the cross, are utterly careless and 
regardless of his sufferings for them. Churches stand 
within sight of their doors, the gospel is faithfully and 
earnestly preached, but they hear it or heed it not. Men 
do not want the gospel, else our churches would overflow. 
These careless ones are the subjects of colportage. The 
truth must be carried to them and pressed upon them, 
and they mint be pulled out of the fire. To this work we 
have on my field devoted nearly five hundred years of 
Christian labor, have made a million and a half of Chris- 
tian family visits, and have put into the hands of the peo- 
ple nearly four millions of volumes of pungent truth, 
accompanied by constant effort for their salvation. Great 
and most blessed have been the results ; but this aggres- 
sive work will be needed so long as the multitudes fail to 
come to the house of God. h. n. t. 



Our remaining witness under this head, laboring in the 
Northwest, speaks with the intense earnestness with which 
he works ; and no man whose soul is not on fire with love 
to Christ can work as he does. Combining good judg- 
ment, strong faith, and vehement energy, he has met with 



122 COLPORTAGE. 

large and increasing success. His statement is most im- 
pressive : 

In the fall of 1842, I was introduced to the Tract House 
at 150 Nassau-street, New York, and was informed that my 
home would be with Secretaries Hallock and Eastman, 
then living in adjoining nouses, while I should study the 
documents of the Society and prepare a discourse embody- 
ing my views of the importance of religious reading as a 
means of grace, and the work of the American Tract Soci- 
ety in giving that means of grace to our own country and 
the world. 

Seventeen years of my life have been devoted to this 
service, during which time I have labored in twelve states 
and travelled about one hundred thousand miles, of which 
about forty thousand were traversed with a horse and 
buggy over the prairies of the West, extending into Kan- 
sas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Many thousands of fami- 
lies have been visited at their firesides, business men have 
been consulted at their offices, and pastors in their studies, 
making in all not far from one hundred thousand personal 
visits. Every phase of society has passed in review, and 
all classes and conditions of men have been visited at their 
own homes. As the result of all these labors, the follow- 
ing conclusions have grown and become established in my 
mind : 

1. Colportage is a necessity in this country. The larger 
portion of the population, in almost every section, have no 
identification with the established means of grace, and 
most of these careless millions never enter any place of 
worship. Many thousands of families live beyond the 
reach of all church organizations, where they cannot, if 
they would, attend church ; while in the villages and small 
cities, where two or more churches of different denomina- 



APPENDIX. 123 

tions are started, there is great mutual jealousy of prose- 
lytism, whereby both pastors and people are restrained 
from searching after the careless and the wandering. 
There is, therefore, a necessity for some agency, auxiliary 
to the organized churches, which can go to all men in Je- 
sus' name, and whose duty it shall be to go to every one. 
I have often travelled over miles by hundreds without 
finding any place where a religious book could be bought. 
Bookselling is followed for its profits, and cannot be sus- 
tained where there are few people to buy. These vast 
destitutions of religious reading must therefore continue 
so long as the population of so large a portion of our coun- 
try is but from three to twelve persons to the square mile, 
and so long as there shall remain millions of acres unoc- 
cupied. 

Without attempting to give definite figures, I feel sure 
that at this present time not one half of the families in 
this great Northwest could find a place where to buy a 
religious book, except the Bible, without travelling a 
journey, the time and expense of which would amount to 
the cost of a very fair family library. Add to this the 
ignorance and carelessness of these masses in respect to 
everything pertaining to their souls' interest, and you will 
not wonder that only one-seventh of the population are 
numbered among the people of God ; and you will see in 
these moral desolations the absolute necessity for some 
such agency as colportage to reach the people at their 
own firesides, and " compel them to come in." 

There still remains unoccupied territory stretching off 
fifteen hundred miles westward to the Pacific, south to 
Mexico, and north to the British possessions, making per- 
haps two millions of square miles, tillable and unoccu- 
pied. A mighty tide of immigration flows from the set- 
tlements into these vast wildernesses continually. I am 



124 COLPORTAGE. 

to-day laboring among six millions of people, where but 
twenty years ago there were only about two millions. I 
have chased the frontiers of civilization westward over two 
hundred miles, and gave it up when they took one grand 
stride of five hundred miles to the golden mountains of 
Colorado. What but a ministry " settled on horseback " 
can meet the necessities of such a country? When will 
the floating, ever-increasing millions of these wide wastes 
be supplied with religious reading, if they wait for the 
location of a bookseller within reach ? Surely as a fireside 
lay agency, colportage is an absolute necessity in these vast 
fields, and must, in the nature of the case, continue to be 
a necessity until the country shall become well settled. 

2. Union missionary colportage is particularly adapted 
to the sparse populations of our new settlements. I have 
travelled hundreds of miles where families were so scat- 
tered that a congregation of fifty persons could scarcely 
anywhere be gathered, even though all the families within 
five miles were to assemble. Among these multitudes I 
have labored from house to house and from man to man, 
at the fireside, in the field, the workshop and the office, 
and on the highways, of ten - meeting with persons who 
would pour their long pent-up anxieties and solicitudes 
into my ears, saying, "Sir, you are the first man that ever 
came to my house to talk to me about eternal things. 
My soul has been full of doubts and fears, and I have 
longed for some one with whom to talk. What shall I do 
to be saved?" I am convinced, from the frequency of 
these revelations, that the land is full, and always will be 
full, of persons troubled by the Spirit of God, and anxious 
for some one to come and lead them to Jesus. The man 
of God who shall come to such persons in the name of the 
saving Jesus only, is always a welcome messenger. 
" I have found in the new settlements that these who had 



APPENDIX. 125 

been identified with the church in their former homes 
carry with them their denominational prejudices intensi- 
fied, and when perhaps nine out of every ten such persons 
would at best give a colporteur of any other branch of the 
church than their own a cool reception, I have in nine 
times out of ten met with a kindly and cordial reception 
and earnest invitation to call again, after the nature of my 
mission and labors was understood ; and this has been 
the uniform testimony of thosfe associated with me, some 
of whom have been engaged in denominational labors. 
Among those never identified with the church, the catho- 
licity of this enterprise is a universal commendation often 
commanding attention when every other consideration fails. 
Untrammelled by a necessity to defend the tenets of any 
particular body of believers, the colporteur appears every- 
where to plead with men in Christ's name, sustained by the 
ichole force of the evangelical church, as he persuades them 
to flee from the wrath to come, and accept mercy, pardon, 
and eternal life. Avoiding all controversies, the colpor- 
teur comes directly to the subject of personal salvation, 
and pleads with men to be reconciled to God. Having no 
interest in profits from the sale of books, he recommends 
those best calculated in every case to compass the end of 
salvation or edification, and sells books only and always 
as a means of grace. Being himself fully and heartily 
converted to God and consecrated to his service, he wastes 
no time and sacrifices no friendships or interests by plead- 
ing the advantages of this or that branch of the church, 
but heartily commends every one to be fully persuaded in 
his own mind, and works with equal satisfaction with any 
and all who love the Lord Jesus. Having himself escaped 
the snare of the fowler and found peace in believing, and 
carrying always about with him the dying of the Lord Je- 
sus, he goes to every man in Christ's stead to plead for his 



126 COLPOltTAGE. 

best, his eternal interests. Appreciating the danger and 
the only way of salvation, he exemplifies the true benefi- 
cence of the gospel in his own person, and by his zeal and 
earnestness confounds infidelity, commands confidence 
and sympathy, and conquers success everywhere, Thus 
the adaptation of union colportage to the universal wants 
of this sparse, headlong, and godless people, is demon- 
strated. 

3. The wide range and Messed results of our work are 
most cheering. It has always been a source of unbounded 
satisfaction to me to read and study the publications of 
this Society, and feel and be able to say, without the least 
hesitation or reserve, here is sound, reliable, practical 
religious instruction, exactly adapted to the great pur- 
poses of religious reading. I have personally canvassed 
villages, cities, towns, and counties, and systematically 
supplied every family with something, from a tract to a 
pastor's library. I have enjoyed the cooperation of pas- 
tors, who have visited with me every family within three 
to six miles of their churches. I have found families in the 
wildernesses of Missouri and Iowa whose only reading was 
the religious books or tracts obtained from colporteurs of 
this Society in some eastern or southern state ; and I have 
found missionaries in the great West who have swept their 
fingers over the Pastor's Library, saying, ' ' There is where 
I learned my theology." I have visited thousands of men 
in the camps and hospitals of our armies, and circulated, 
personally and with the aid of those associated with me, 
many hundreds of thousands of these publications among 
the soldiers. 

I know that these laborers and distributions have ex- 
tended to all varieties of settlements and to all classes of 
people. They have been among the miners of Michigan, 
Illinois, and Missouri ; in the pineries of Wisconsin and 



APPENDIX. 127 

Minnesota ; upon the rafts, flat-boats, and steamboats of 
our rivers, and the steamboats and shipping of our lakes ; 
and in the pioneer settlements along the rivers and in the 
prairies and timber of all the northwestern states. They 
have been into the homes of the rich and the poor, the 
mansions of the masters, and the cabins of the slaves. 
These publications have been sown broadcast in all parts 
of the land, and are often found to be the only reading in 
the house, and constituting one great staple in the reli- 
gious influences among the people. Some of the results 
may be noted. 

The demand for aid to Sabbath-schools has always been 
large, and of late years rapidly on the increase. Some of 
the colporteurs find their time largely occupied in organ- 
izing new schools, and visiting and encouraging old ones 
and replenishing their libraries. They are instructed to 
do what they can to encourage schools where they find 
them, and to organize schools where none exist within 
practicable distance ; and nearly all of them report every 
quarter more or less schools organized or assisted. We 
regard this as one of the important branches of our work 
never to be overlooked. 

In accordance with our instructions, with which we are 
fully in sympathy, it is always a duty in which we find 
hearty delight, to encourage and aid missionaries and all 
ministerial brethren who have need of our assistance, in 
their pastoral and fireside labors. Hence our records 
show long lists of grants to these brethren, and our files 
contain many most cherished words of gratitude and en- 
couragement. We regret that the disposition and ability 
to use the press in their work are so little developed, and 
that the value of the press as an evangelical help is so 
little appreciated by many brethren, but rejoice in a grow- 
ing interest in that direction. 



128 COLPORTAGE. 

One of the natural fruits of our labors in these pioneer 
districts is the organized church. A colporteur establishes 
a prayer-meeting or a Sabbath-school in a log-cabin in a 
new settlement, where there are perhaps six to ten or 
twenty families. He watches over and nourishes the 
spark he has kindled, until, in a few months or years, he 
has the satisfaction of seeing there established a church 
and a flourishing congregation. But there are so many 
elements working together for and in the creation of a 
church, that we can seldom say that we have accomplished 
such an organization ; yet there are many cases in the 
aggregate where churches have grown up directly and 
immediately in connection with the labors of the colpor- 
teurs. Thus one reported last year three churches on his 
field as owing their existence to the labors of colporteurs 
who preceded him. Another found himself engaged in a 
series of meetings which grew out of his fireside and pub- 
lic labors. A clergyman was called in to conduct the 
meetings, and the result was the organization of a church. 

I am fully persuaded that the efficient working of the 
plan of colportage, as now conducted, must necessarily be 
much more fruitful in Sabbath-schools and prayer-meet- 
ings and churches, than it has heretofore been. 

A direct tendency of faithful colporteur labors is to re- 
vivals. I enjoyed once the company of a pastor with me 
as I went from house to house among his people. Baxter 
called successfully to the careless sinners, and Alleine 
alarmed their slumbering consciences. A demand soon 
arose for meetings, which were appointed and followed 
up. The result was, an addition of about one hundred 
members to that church. One member of that church has 
continued to support a colporteur ever since. I was in- 
formed that another revival followed the visitations and 
labors in another district. On one occasion I witnessed 



APPENDIX. 129 

the evident outpouring of the Spirit and the conversion of 
a soul, in the presentation of our cause on Sabbath morn- 
ing. There began a work of grace which extended into 
the neighboring country, and consumed my time in daily 
and nightly services for six weeks, hundreds crowding to 
the services. 

There is no more animating, thrilling, glorious, and 
fruitful service than this fireside searching for souls, with 
the aid of the combined power of the best men in history. 
I gave the ' ' Call " to a young man, and at midnight he 
cried aloud to God for mercy, and sent for his pastor, who 
led him to Jesus. I sold Nelson to a gentleman for a 
friend of his, who was thereby saved. Another told me 
that Nelson's "Cause and Cure" led both himself and his 
friend to the Saviour. Another narrated to me the cases 
of six men, in like manner converted by this same book,^ 
bought from a colporteur. Another, too ill to leave his 
bed, sent for a colporteur laboring in his vicinity, to tell 
him that he owed his hope in Jesus to a book and tract 
left at his house years before by a colporteur. One writes 
to me just now, saying, "The first tract. I ever saw was 
the means of iny conversion. I have now labored for 
twenty-five years in the prayer-meeting and Sabbath- 
school, and other years in the service of this Society 
where I have made seven thousand three hundred and 
seventy-three family visits, in nearly every one of which I 
had religious conversation. I have talked and prayed 
from morning to night, week in and week out, until I be- 
came hoarse and worn out." Another says, " I left home 
a week ago to preach to one of my Sabbath-schools. The 
interest became so great, I was obliged to stay the entire 
week. Oh, what a work the Lord has done in so short a 
time ! Many backsliders have been reclaimed and sinners 
converted." 

Colportage. y 



130 COLPORTAGE. 

But why enumerate. Every month brings us blessed 
tidings of souls converted. One man has such power with 
God and with men in his work, that his victories and tri- 
umphs are constant. I arn satisfied that conversions have 
averaged at least five for each year of colporteur labor in this 
field. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. 

4. It is my clear conviction, after twenty-four years of 
observation, study, and experience in this great work, that 
the system of union missionary colportage possesses an 
inherent power under God, which, properly cherished, 
used, and developed by the church of Christ, must be 
a most efficient auxiliary of the church, leading to and 
resulting in the bringing of the knowledge of Christ to 
the people, and identifying them with the established 
means of grace. This system takes the young men of our 
institutions of learning, and gives them, during their vaca- 
tions, a practical training, in personal contact with the 
people and in the study of practical religious books, of 
perhaps more value to them in preparation for the pas- 
toral charge than any other equal portions of the whole 
course. It takes a portion of the lay talent of the church, 
lying in part or wholly undeveloped, and employs it, not 
only for the profitable investment of itself, but in such 
a manner as to bring out and set into proper activity for 
the cause of God much more of the similarly buried talents 
of the church. It goes into all the ramifications of soci- 
ety, and diffuses among all classes the personal influence 
of faithful and zealous fireside labors, stimulating and 
rousing to action the dormant affections and energies of 
believers. It plants in every family a suitable religious 
literature, annually renewing the supply, forestalling evil, 
directing the tastes aright, laying foundations in right- 
eousness, and erecting a barrier against the tides of delu- 
sion that come continually sweeping over the land, threat- 



APPENDIX. 131 

ening to prostrate all landmarks and to desolate the 
churches. It establishes in these practical works and the 
recurring faithful visits and prayers of the colporteur a 
permanent and efficient influence for good, always present 
and auxiliary to a faithful ministry. Thus much it can be 
relied upon to do for the church, while for the world it 
carries the gospel literally to every creature, according to 
the plan and command of the Saviour, and is therefore in 
sympathy and cooperation with him, and may be expect- 
ed to receive, as it has enjoyed hitherto, his blessing. It 
brings the gosjDel to man in its essential aspects, without 
local, sectional, or ecclesiastical prejudices, and com- 
mands the attention, interest, and confidence of those out- 
lying masses, pointing them directly and only to Jesus 
and his salvation. 

This plan, expressed in the language of our times, is 
union colportage. With a body of devoted laymen of 
sound mind and practical judgment, equal in number to 
the counties of our country, or to an average population 
of twenty-five thousand, furnished with an adequate sup- 
ply of practical religious books adapted to all classes, 
counselled, encouraged, and used by pastors and the 
churches, it seems that the whole mass of the people 
might have the gospel brought to them, in the Sabbath- 
school, prayer-meetings, and personal visitations, within 
a few years. G. w. 



132 COLPORTAGE. 



TESTIMONY OF RETIRED LABORERS. 

A minister in high position in the church, who labored 
in Virginia in 1842, testifies : " The catholic nature of my 
work gave me access to all denominations, and secured 
the confidence and cooperation of good people generally. 
Colportage, conflicting with no good work, aids every other 
agency. I look back with tender and precious memories 
to the years devoted to this work." s. b. s. b. 



A beloved pastor writes : " I thank God that I was per- 
mitted to invest thirteen years in this work, laboring either 
as a general agent or a superintendent of colportage. I 
traversed repeatedly Indiana and Northern Ohio, and to 
some extent Maryland, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, 
Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, . and Louisiana ; 
and now, after an interval of nearly five years spent in a 
blessed pastorate, it is pleasant in imagination. to revisit 
those wide fields, and live over again the stirring scenes 
of the tract agency. I would testify, as in the sight of 
God, to the following points : 

1. The work sought to be accomplished was greatly needed. 
In all those states there was widespread spiritual destitu- 
tion. Vast numbers of families were without any religious 
reading, without stated preaching, neither reached, nor 
likely for a long time to be reached, by the ordinary means 
of evangelization. The more systematically and thorough- 
ly we explored, the more extensive and startling were the 
destitutions revealed. Facts of the most humiliating and 
alarming character were developed. Wide districts were 
found in which ' ' the people sat in great darkness ;" while 
in townships and counties supposed to be well supplied, 



APPENDIX. 133 

our brethren going from house to house discovered hun- 
dreds of families as destitute of good books and other gos- 
pel appliances as those living in the wilds of Africa. It 
•was apparent also, that in order to reach these destitute 
ones, the people generally must be visited. 

2. The truly catholic spirit and aim of the work every- 
where commended it to the piety and the common sense 
of the people. The more thoroughly they understood 
just what the Tract Society was trying to do and how, 
the more heartily all who loved Christ, and all good citi- 
zens, bade it God-speed. I never visited a place of any 
importance where there were not individuals ready to rise 
up and bear testimony to the adaptation of colportage 
to meet wants existing in their own- immediate neighbor- 
hood. Said an excellent pastor in his pulpit : "If there 
is in all the land a work suited to the present religious 
wants of the people — a work conceived and carried out in 
the very spirit of the gospel, it is this book-missionary 
work of the Tract Society. " And thousands of times did 
I hear substantially the same sentiments expressed pri- 
vately. 

3. The blessing of God so attended the work, that it was 
remarkably successful. I know of no evangelizing enter- 
prise that has been more successful. God only can tell 
in what great variety and how widely it has diffused en- 
lightening and saving influences. It has carried spiritual 
food to many a famishing child of God, and spiritual light 
and life to many a sinner, who otherwise would have died 
without a knowledge of the Saviour. The ignorant have 
been instructed, the backslider reclaimed, the careless 
awakened, the convicted led to Christ, and the dying pre- 
pared for the great change. Thus it has been the occasion 
of stirring up many to pray, and furnished the means by 
which many a prayer has been signally answered. It has 



134 COLPORTAGE. 

done much to counteract skepticism and infidelity. It has 
sowed the seed of Sabbath-schools, churches, and other 
permanent gospel institutions, widely over the country. 
Almost everywhere its quiet, blessed influence has been 
felt, if not realized. Like the silent, genial influence of 
the sunshine and showers, it has moved multitudes of hu- 
man minds and hearts by the sweet but mighty forces of 
light and love ; and while aiding all other Christian efforts, 
it has hindered none. No laborer for Christ and souls can 
ever rise up and say that at any time, or in any place, this 
work of union colportage has proved injurious to any other 
good work. While its results have to a great extent blend- 
ed with the results of all other Christian influences, and 
thus been lost to our view, the history of this work is 
written indelibly in the memories, consciences, and char- 
acter of immortal beings". Could all that has resulted, 
directly or indirectly, from this enterprise be at once an- 
nihilated, and every thing be put back just as it otherwise 
would have been, a most startling and calamitous change 
would be witnessed — a change that would open all eyes to 
the great and wonderful good which God has accomplished 
through this humble agency. 

4. I see no reason why this system of union colportage, 
cooperating with the churches, may not still be employed 
with blessed results, till the whole land shall be com- 
pletely evangelized. It combines two great elements of 
power — personal Christian effort and the press. The 
press 'is certainly to be employed more and more exten- 
sively to spread the truths of the gospel. It cannot be 
questioned that private Christians must continue to go 
forth as gospel seed-bearers, 'and that they must have a 
more active, working, missionary spirit, before the gospel 
will triumph throughout the land. Who then can doubt 
that a combination of these two great elements of moral 



APPENDIX 135 

power, in some form, is to be employed more extensively 
and successfully, till the world shall have been converted ? 
This method of spreading everywhere the truths of the 
gospel, by private Christians going from house to house, 
and calling the attention of all classes to the invitations 
and warnings of God's word, and with prayer to God 
entreating the people to give attention to their soul's sal- 
vation, is in strict accordance with the commands of 
Christ, the practice of the apostles, and the spirit of Chris- 
tianity. If, in connection with this going forth bearing 
precious seed, there shall be more of the loving, praying, 
weeping spirit which God so highly esteems — more of 
spontaneous, volunteer, Christ-like effort, and less hired 
labor, unquestionably the results will be more blessed and 
abundant." s. w. 



A minister of great energy and executive ability, now in 
the pastorate, writes : It was my privilege to engage as a 
student in colportage in the summer of 1816, after which 
I devoted many years to its prosecution. Interest deep- 
ened with experience and personal knowledge of the needs 
of the people. Everywhere the work was needed, in every 
place it was adapted, in every place where suitable men 
were employed it was blessed, often presenting all the 
points of successful evangelization — supplying the destitute 
with the means of grace, and securing the blessing of the 
Spirit in the conversion of souls, thus creating the "mate- 
rial for churches, stimulating education, promoting intel- 
ligence and the observance of the Sabbath, temperance, 
and general good order and thrift. 

"What is thus quickly and conscientiously said, was not 
so quickly or easily learned ; but the facts haying been 
laboriously gathered, nothing can rob them of their power 
over my mind and heart. The wisest planning of the best 



136 COLPORTAGE. 

hearts and heads developes the fundamental necessity in 
our times and country for loving, and faithful, and capable 
personal work accompanying and enforcing the teachings 
of evangelical truth in some of its printed forms. 

As an agency for evangelization, combining in a simple 
and effective manner these great elements of power, Union 
Colportage is still the great need of this country, not as a 
substitute for the ministry or the organized church, but as 
a pioneer and then as a supplementary work, for which 
there is a field almost everywhere. 

As a general cooperating agency, hindering none and 
helping all others which are built upon and employ the 
truth as it is in Jesus ; as a promoter of individual 
awakening and conversion, of revivals and Christian edi- 
fication, a help to the ministry, and the trusted auxiliary 
of all working Christians, bringing aid when and where 
most needed, strengthening hands and hearts ready to fail 
without the timely and practical relief — we gratefully point 
to a long and never- to-be-obliterated record with which 
we have been personally familiar, and over which the heart 
has often been lifted in thanksgiving to God. It is a 
blessed way of reaching and saving the millions of our 
land, who must perish if not sought out by earnest men of 
God, who carry a revival of religion in their hearts and the 
saving truths of the gospel in' their hands. 

The land is flooded with infidel, frivolous, and vicious 
books and periodicals. Preoccupy the ground with an at- 
tractive Christian literature by the most aggressive means, 
or the nation is cursed. None but the most aggressive 
means will do the work. Delay not, falter not ; reiterate 
the claims of the masses ; proclaim the efficacy of personal 
effort aided by the press ; fill the land with itinerant gos- 
pel carriers and workers ; call upon the people of God to 
pray and give, to employ the press at home, and let the 



APPENDIX. 137 

leaves of the tree of life be spread before every ignorant or 
indifferent mind. God bless the Tract Society, and its 
noble system of colportage. Y. H. • 



No man living better understands the working of col- 
portage, or has been more devoted to its expansion, than 
the writer of the following ; and few have gathered such 
abundant results : 

In the fall of 1844, God led me to labor for one year as 
a colporteur of the American Tract Society. From that 
to the close of 1865, with the exception of four months, 
my whole time was given to this work in some of its de- 
partments. I have traversed western Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and some 
portions of Georgia, besides numerous excursions in other 
states. As to the need of colportage over this vast field, 
the thousands of families without Bibles or books of any 
kind who have been visited and supplied, the seventy-five 
thousand children brought into Sabbath-schools, many of 
whom by this means received their first book and learned 
their first lesson — is enough to satisfy the most skeptical. 
I have found thousands of families who had never seen a 
preacher in their houses, never heard a chapter of God's 
word read, or a prayer offered. I have often heard children 
between eight and eighteen years old, when on our knees, 
call out, "Dad, (or mam,) v what is that man doing?" and 
they would sometimes run out crying or laughing, and 
peep in at us between the logs of the cabin. 

While the number of families entirely destitute of reli- 
gious books is greatly reduced, still hundreds have but a 
small supply. New families are constantly springing up 
that must be supplied in the same way, or die in igno- 
rance and sin. Such is the broken and almost impassable 



138 COLPORTAGE. 

condition of large portions of the field over which I have 
labored, that at least one generation must pass into eter- 
nity before the people will be able to supply themselves 
with the stated means of grace — churches, pastors, books, 
and schools. 

While there are many portions of this field as well sup- 
plied with ministers, churches, and books, as any in our 
country, still I know of no place where an intelligent, 
prudent man of God might not do great good by preach- 
ing and distributing books and tracts from house to house. 
I am very certain that tracts are still read with more in- 
terest than they ever have been. I have often been told 
by intelligent men that they have no time to read a book 
through, but they read all the tracts which come in their 
way. Not long since, I had to wait four hours for a con- 
veyance in a little village, where a number were drinking 
and swearing. There were three grog-shops well filled 
with customers, in all stages of intoxication. In one hour 
I had said a few words to, and put a tract in the hands of 
every person I could find. I remained two hours after, 
but did not hear another oath. One man said he had not 
"took in" that much religion for years. 

I have never found any community where there were not 
some families who attended no place of worship and could 
say, No man cares for our souls. Few pastors are able to 
meet the demands made on them by their own people ; 
consequently those who don't go to church are left to 
perish in their sins. They are neglected, for fear that 
those who visit them should be suspected as proselyters. 
As a general rule, a stranger can do them more good than 
those who know them. To all classes who neglect the 
house of God, colportage is peculiarly adapted. The 
physician examines his patient, and then makes his pre- 
scription : this is just what the colporteur does. If he 



APPENDIX. 139 

finds an infidel, he gives him Nelson's "Cause and Cure ;" 
if a hardened sinner, Baxter's "Call," or something sim- 
ilar ; to a Sabbath breaker, a Sabbath manual ; and so on 
through the whole catalogue of sinners, he has a prescrip- 
tion for every one. At least one out of every four coun- 
ties over all the vast field I have explored stands in crying 
need of a pious, godly colporteur of the Tract Society. 

The actual results of this kind of labor have proved it to 
be a most successful, as well as a most economical system 
of doing good. The first man I ever employed as colpor- 
teur had been a circuit preacher sixteen years. At the 
close of his first year of this work, he told me he believed 
he had accomplished more real good in that year than in 
the sixteen previous years. He said he had been preach- 
ing to a people without any books, and when converted 
they did not stick; but now, said he, they stick, as a gen- 
eral rule, well. 

It is the only way a large class can be supplied with a 
religious literature. One half the people have never seen 
a book-store, and many who are able to buy never will,\ 
while thousands are utterly unable. By carrying religious 
books to them, we forestall 'a vicious literature, and pre- 
pare the way for all other good influences to follow. 
They are John the Baptists going before, crying, "Pre- 
pare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight ;" and 
they turn many to righteousness. It is a thorough way to 
gather all the children into Sabbath-schools. It greatly 
aids ministers in their work to carry in their pockets a 
variety of tracts. In protracted meetings they are like the 
gentle rain that follows the shower, percolating into the 
earth. The sermons are the showers which rouse the 
feelings, reading tracts during the recesses impresses the 
truth deeper into the soul, and acts more directly on the 
judgment. 



140 COLPORTAQE. 

If all the different branches of the church which preach 
and teach the very truths taught by the Tract Society 
would unite their efforts in this Society, a colporteur 
could be employed for every two counties in our country, 
without interfering with any denominational enterprise. 
Oh that the day may soon come when the prayer of Jesus 
Christ may be answered, that his people may all be one in 
cooperation, as he and the Father are one in fact. j. c. 



Not a few of the most godly and successful foreign mis- 
sionaries commenced their active work for Christ in this 
home missionary agency. Their estimate of its adaptation 
to the destitute, both at home and abroad, is based upon 
actual experiment and wide observation. Of this class, a 
few words well embody the general judgment of all. 

One racily describes his experience in the earlier days of 
the work, in a field near to the city of New York, and then 
adds : From personal experience, gained week after week 
from house to house, I am constrained to think that no 
pastor or church-member knows the condition of the com- 
munity in which he resides, unless he has engaged in 
some such labor ; and whether engaged in by pastor or 
colporteur, or better, by pastor and layman and colporteur 
combined, such labors are of inestimable advantage, and 
constitute the hope of the church militant. This sphit 
carries the gospel to other lands ; and when the gospel is 
planted there, this spirit sets native colporteurs at work 
there as leaven, without which the lump cannot be leav- 
ened. 

Kepresenting no local sect, no narrow circle, no single 
church or land, through these undying works breathes 
and lives again the highest consecration of past ages. 



APPENDIX. 141 

Thomas a. Kernpis and Baxter, Luther and Edwards, D'Au- 
bigne and Brainerd, Martyn, McCheyne, and Judson — 
all Chi'isfs, and now saints in heaven, still plead. Stir- 
ring up no personal antagonism, awaking no present prej- 
udices, this still printed voice comes with the hushed 
whisper of the mighty past, and quietly tells the infidel 
his sophism, the impenitent his guilt ; and they can quar- 
rel neither with the body in the grave nor the soul in the 
bosom of God. 

As a stranger, the colporteur finds no sectarian opposi- 
tion. Churches, pastors, elders, Sabbath-schools, parents, 
welcome an ally, and press him into a common work. 
Aged mothers in Israel put on their spectacles and gaze* 
upon the fresh page, hallowed by the genius of the well- 
known dead. Those unused to prayer allow the stranger 
to kneel and pray for them, and often reveal the hidden 
want of their souls to one whom they regard as a messen- 
ger from God. Little children at the roadside, going home 
from school, gaze at the illustrated Scripture stories ; and 
then sometimes the sunny smile of the child melts the 
parent's icy soul. When the narrative written, for a child 
has made the strong man a child, the entering wedge is 
found, and gospel truth may be driven home through 
what had been most fixed and knotted opposition. 

Meantime the young theological student is learning 
human nature, and being fitted for future work. As he 
marks and ponders the puerile and absurd sophisms 
which seem trusted bulwarks for infidels and universa- 
lists, he recognizes the stubbornness of that opposition to 
God which in so defenceless a position can maintain so 
prolonged and desperate a resistance. "While he meets 
the lowly, and by his lips "to the poor the gospel is 
preached," he finds a growing union with Him who had 
compassion on the sheep without a shepherd. May God 



142 COLPOKTAGE. 

bless the American Tract Society a hundred-fold, and 
make its pages leaves of healing for all nations. 

D. W. M. 



Since the following was written, its lamented author 
has been called "up higher." We cannot doubt his tes- 
timony even now would be the same. 

I would testify most explicitly to the reflex influence of 
colportage on those who are permitted to engage in it, 
especially such as are preparing to preach the gospel, 
either at home or abroad. The theological student who 
spends his vacations in active colportage, recruits his 
health, strengthens his body, acquires a practical acquain- 
tance with human nature, a knowledge of the various 
forms and devices of error, and skill in meeting them, a 
sympathy with the poor and ignorant, and facility of ac- 
commodating himself to their circumstances, and a habit 
of enduring hardship and practising self-denial which can 
be attained in no other way. I question whether there be 
any one branch of instruction in the whole theological 
course more valuable to the pastor than this experience. 
But to the missionary in foreign lands and among the de- 
graded heathen, such a preparation is still more helpful. 
This has been my own experience ; and since my return 
to this country, having been repeatedly asked by candi- 
dates for the ministry what special preparation was needed, 
or what extra branches should be studied to fit one for the 
foreign field, I have often replied that I knew of no other 
branch of study, not included in the regular seminary 
course, which would be so useful as this. Would it not 
be well if our ecclesiastical bodies, in their examination 
of candidates for ordination, should insist on some such 



APPENDIX. 143 

practical course of labor as a necessary preparation for the 
highest usefulness in the pastoral office? J. e. f. 



Another missionary writes : " As to the general good 
influence of the training secured by colporteur service, I 
am very positive : I have always looked back to that expe- 
rience as one of the best of my life, I think I never more 
directly and simply served God than in my colporteur 
labors." This gentleman is occupying one of the most 
responsible positions in the church. 



One who prefers to work through ecclesiastical organi- 
zations, where this can be done, thus speaks of his colpor- 
teur labors : It was the only practical training which I had 
before I entered the ministry, and without something of 
the kind, my increasing conviction is that no man ought 
to be ordained. Colporteur work was to me a develop- 
ment of that dormant side of the student — how to use 
one's weapons. He gets the armor in college and semi- 
nary ; but if he goes forth to battle with it without putting 
it to the proof, he will be sure to make mistakes. In the 
missionary work, we are colporteurs as well as preachers 
and teachers. I seldom left my house without a bundle of 
tracts, and often tried the plan which 1 had learned as a 
colporteur, and was more bold to undertake for Christ 
from my former experience. j. k. w. 



"We close these extracts with the well-considered thoughts 
of one who, for the last ten years, has been an honored 
pastor in the West. His cordial and earnest words reveal 



144 COLPORTAGE. 

the great heart in his bosom, which beats so warmly with 
love for souls. 

If there are any years of my life on which I look back 
with delight ; if there has been any period in which I was 
of use in the Master's service ; if there are any remem- 
brances precious beyond the power of language to express, 
they grew out of the agency I was permitted to perform 
for the American Tract Society. Of the many impressions 
received never to be effaced, I note, 

1. One thing that from the first and all along gave me 
great assurance, was the gradual providential development of 
the work. It was not a beautiful scheme of man's devis- 
ing, perfected at once, like a manufactory, all its machi- 
nery perfected before a single thread is spun ; or like a 
gallant ship, all her rigging adjusted and her sails set be- 
fore she leaves the harbor. To illustrate what I mean : 
When the lamented Dr. Porter, in a private parlor inci- 
dentally suggested to a few friends, that if a large edition 
of some book or tract were printed, it might be obtained 
for a less sum than they had been accustomed to pay, and 
so gratuitous circulation would be facilitated, who but the 
all-seeing Eye discerned that out of that suggestion would 
grow the present world-wide enterprise of the American 
Tract Society ? 

When the idea was started — we know not in whose mind 
it originated ; we would fain believe that it was a scintil- 
lation from the throne of God — but when the idea Mas 
started in 1832 that it was desirable to place one or more 
religious tracts in every accessible family between lake 
Erie and New Orleans, who would have predicted as the 
resiilt the kindling of that zeal which has placed already 
so many millions of such tracts in the dwellings of this 
land? 



APPENDIX. 145 

When four Christian men in 1828 gave eight hundred dol- 
lars to the Society for the purpose of perpetuating ' ' Dod- 
dridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," the first 
book printed by the Society — fit harbinger of the issues 
that should follow — who would have ventured the predic- 
tion that in forty years a single organization would have 
conveyed to the families in this country more than twenty 
millions of such books ? We believe they are to be found 
in every inhabited county and district of these United States. 

When the lamented Evarts, who with ,; the tenderness 
of a child that could stoop to the sufferings' of the indi- 
vidual combined a love that could belt the globe," urged 
upon the Society the duty of publishing the gospel in for- 
eign and pagan lands, he did not venture to express the 
hope that in so short a time the people of one hundred and 
forty languages and dialects should reafl, "in their own 
tongues wherein they were born, the wonderful works of 
God." 

And when a young man, so unnoticed and unknown 
that his name probably will be scarcely heard among men, 
cried out almost in anguish, "I cannot live so ; I cannot 
stand it any longer : you send me out to sell these books ; 
but I call on one family after another, one family after 
another, who have not a single picayune to buy with ; I 
converse with them and pray with them, but I leave them 
as destitute of truth on the printed page as I found them ; 
and I cannot live so ; I cannot stand it any longer ; and 
unless you can devise some way by which I may give the 
gospel to the poor without money and without price, I must 
stop ;" an indifferent listener would scarcely out of this 
longing to supply the destitute have elaborated the method 
and the results, as witnessed by us, of union colportage. 

From such small beginnings, from such incidental sug- 
gestions, the work of the Society has extended all over 

Colportage. 10 



146 COLPOETAGE. 

this land. ' ' Behold how great a matter a little fire kin- 
dleth!" But it needed to be kindled by the love and 
fanned by the breath of the Spirit of God. 

2. A personal acquaintance with a great many of those 
laborers furniske^ delightful evidence of the power of 
divine grace to produce a truly enlarged and benevolent 
charity. Though born in different lands, speaking differ- 
ent tongues, and associated with many different commu- 
nions, there was great unity of sentiment and experience 
as to what is essential to salvation. Barely in their labors 
and in their colporteur conventions would a word be spo- 
ken to the prejudice of any Christian brother. My con- 
viction that all true Christians are one, was constantly 
deepened by the observation of more than fifteen years in 
connection with the work of colportage. 

3. Another fadt, giving assurance of success in prose- 
cuting colportage, is the character of the publications. 
It was almost uniformly the case with pastors, when an 
unusual seriousness pervaded their congregations, to say 
to me, " Cannot you send to me a package of tracts?" or, 
"I must have some of the publications of the Society to 
meet the condition of my people." The grateful conclu- 
sion, not to be resisted, was, these pastors know whereof 
they affirm, and it must be that these publications are 
eminently suited to promote the spiritual welfare of the 
people. The complaint has been made that they were not 
sufficiently denominational to suit some persons ; but I do 
not recall a single instance when it was named as a fault 
that they were lacking in saving truth. What condition 
in life is there — what possible trouble of mind, or body, 
or estate, in which the sufferer may not derive instruction, 
warning, or consolation, from some of the excellent trea- 
tises issued by the Society ? 

4. How the moral destitutions of this great country can 



APPENDIX. 147 

be better explored, brought to the notice of the church, 
and supplied with saving truth in a permanent form, than 
by union colportage, in advance of, and in connection 
with, the Christian ministry, I do not know. These des- 
titutions are so great, it is difficult to gain any adequate 
apprehension of them. A residence of more than ten 
years in the valley of the Mississippi has confirmed me in 
the impression that this great West presents a field of 
labor imperative in its demands, glorious in its prospects, 
and at the same time almost disheartening, because of its 
vastness. This may to a certain extent be conjectured by 
the length of the majestic river that runs through its cen- 
tre, indicated by the variety of temperature its waters en- 
counter in their passage to the gulf. I look out from my 
window to-day and witness its mighty throes, as if deter- 
mined to be rid of its bondage of ice. Above us, for a 
month yet to come, it may quietly wear its chains ; while 
below us, the flowers are in full bloom on its banks ; and 
lower still, the trees have passed through their blossom- 
ing, and are well on their way to fruitage. All the dis- 
tance through these thousands of miles, from its source to 
its mouth, on either side of it, and far, far back on its 
prairies, already multitudes of immortal beings are spend- 
ing their season of probation and forming characters for 
eternity ; and alas, how few comparatively are toiling for 
their salvation ! When our Saviour said to his disciples, 
"The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; 
pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would 
send forth laborers into his harvest," can it be that his 
heart of infinite love did not embrace the inhabitants of 
this vast territory? As the tide of immigration sets so 
strongly in this direction, so may the facilities for reach- 
ing them at their firesides, however far apart, furnished by 
union colportage, be multiplied a thousand-fold. h. b. h. 



148 COLPORTAGE. 



OPINIONS OF PASTORS, 



A pastor iu New York state, of large experience, thus 
writes : ' ' Next to the preaching of the gospel, colportage, 
when rightly conducted, has long seemed to me to be the 
grand instrumentality appointed by the church's Head for 
the extension of his kingdom. In all parts of our land 
there are multitudes of people who are utterly overlooked 
by the ordinary instrumentalities of grace. Under the 
very shadow of the magnificent churches of the great 
cities there are thousands who never enter them. 

But this agency is specially needed in the sparsely set- 
tled portions of the country. In very many places there 
is an absolute famine of the bread of life. No schools 
on either week day or Sabbath, no churches accessible, 
no books, except perhaps some far worse than none, 
whose tendency is to debase and ruin the morals and the 
soul, which the emissaries of the spirit of Evil are usually 
found earnest in disseminating in advance even of tie 
agency of the Tract Society. In such cases, and their 
name is legion, what can be expected but that Satan will 
rule supreme, and that the people will perish for lack of 
knowledge. 

Here is the especial field of colportage. Surely it is the 
duty of the whole church, without regard to denomina- 
tional distinctions, to send forth faithful laborers to scat- 
ter broadcast the good seed of the word throughout all 
those moral desolations. This is the cheapest, most effi- 
cient, and successful instrumentality practicable. To es- 
tablish churches and give the preached gospel by the liv- 
ing voice wherever humanity is spread, is not possible at 
the present day. The way must be prepared for the 
establishment of Messiah's kingdom in such wildernesses 



APPENDIX. 149 

of sin by the humble, but invaluable and absolutely ne- 
cessary labors of the colporteur. Let any one read those 
wonderful records, "Five Years in the Alleghanies, " and 
"Twenty Years among the Colporteurs," lately published 
by the Tract Society, and tell me when and where such 
an incalculable amount of good has ever been effected at 
so small a cost of money by any other agency. Multi- 
tudes of souls, converted to God through the effusion of 
his Spirit and his blessing on the faithful labors of the 
colporteurs, many converts brought themselves to be first 
colporteurs, and afterwards preachers of the gospel ; and 
all this costing less money to the church than is needed 
to support a single one of the great churches of the land, 
and not a tithe of what is yearly expended in the support 
of one of those hotbeds of immorality, our metropolitan 
theatres. 

The power of this agency for the regeneration of the 
world is incalculable, and it only needs to be rightly em- 
ployed to make it mighty to the pulling down of the 
strongholds of sin. It supplies for the people of all class- 
es just the sanctified literature they need, for it gives food 
for babes and strong meat for the most cultivated intellect 
and holy heart. It is the true and faithful handmaid of 
the settled ministry, a handmaid abundantly owned and 
blessed by the Head of the church. d. m. m. 



An honored and useful pastor in New York state, after 
describing the wonderful effects of the Society's work in 
his own church, adds: "I cannot but regard the Tract 
Society as one of the great religious instrumentalities in 
the providence of God for evangelizing the masses, espe- 
cially that class who, from various causes, are excluded 
from regular attendance on the sanctuary." 



150 COLPORTAGE. 

A pastor, residing in one of the large seaboard towns in 
.Massachusetts, writes : The field I cultivate greatly needs 
the kind of labor bestowed by the colporteur. It is spe- 
cially adapted to do unbounded good here. Colportage 
has been a blessing, not only to the masses outside of the 
churches and the ministry, but to the churches and the 
ministry themselves. It has been a universal benefit to 
this people. We need this day as much as any one means 
of grace, a living, discreet colporteur. He would do 
more for home evangelization than any other effort. I 
often hear the indifferent, the irreligious as well as the 
Christian, speak of the influence of colportage, as it has 
been enjoyed in years past in this place. May the time 
not be distant when we may welcome among us another 
to help in the great work of saving souls. 



A pastor of one of the churches in Maine writes : I have 
had an opportunity for the past two years to observe the 
workings of colportage, and I feel that it is an instrumen- 
tality which nothing else can supply the place of. Wheth- 
er in destitute neighborhoods, or cooperating with other 
agencies, it is of vast value. Of course it is most needed 
in those places where the gospel is not preached ; yet 
there is great good done by the visitation of those places 
blessed by a faithful ministry, by conversing with families, 
seeking out the neglected and remote, and supplying the 
want of good, sound, wholesome books. The labors of 
Dea. S. on the broad field he has traversed, have been of 
exceeding value. His visits have been prized ; his books 
are the seed of a coming harvest, some already gathered. 
Our land can never be Christianized till men are sought 
out in the byways and forsaken precincts, and the gos- 
pel preached to them by laymen sent forth for this very 



APPENDIX. 151 

work. I have no doubts as to the importance and adapt- 
edness of this mode of activity, if you can get men of 
zeal, and self-denial, and discrimination to engage in this 
work. There is need of thousands all over our land, who 
can not only distribute books, but teach and preach wher- 
ever they go. Every good pastor and superintendent in 
our rural districts, or those away from business centres 
where books can be obtained, rejoice in the visit of the 
colporteur, and his presence and aid in the school and the 
prayer-meeting. I need not allude to the value of his 
visits to the family circle waiting for the supply of just 
such books as he carries, safe, healthy, and fitted to lift 
up and purify the heart. 



A pastor in M writes : While laboring, some years 

since, at the South, I became impressed with the special 
usefulness of colportage there, from its peculiar adaptation 
to the state of the population. In large portions of the 
South the people are so sparsely settled that colportage 
seems to be the only agency by which the gospel can 
reach them. At least, it is an essential agency for cover- 
ing the large margin of deficiency, after the ordained min- 
istry and all church appliances have done their best. Ex- 
cept at county sites, it is rare that a minister's labors are 
confined to a single parish ; and preaching-places are so 
far apart that they must be visited in their turn, and on 
separate Sabbaths. The families are so scattered that very 
little pastoral visitation is attempted. I found one minis- 
ter settled at a county site, who, besides ministering to 
the church where he lived, and teaching at the academy, 
and keeping a boarding-house, and overseeing a planta- 
tion, had three other congregations, which must take their 
turn on successive Sabbaths, the nearest of which was 



152 COLPORTAGE. 

twelve miles distant ; one was twenty-four miles. Though 
this is an extreme case, yet it illustrates how far short the 
regular ministry comes, and must of necessity come, of 
meeting the spiritual wants of the people. Another fact 
which makes colportage more needed South than in some 
other portions of the Union is that the South is not so 
flooded with books, and so overrun with agents of all 
kinds, consequently the colporteur is welcomed, and his 
books are gladly received and eagerly read. 



A minister of wide experience, in an Eastern state, tes- 
tifies : Every day's observation increases my conviction 
that colportage should be largely increased in New Eng- 
land. I would not confine these men to the poorer and 
more sparsely settled portions of the country. It would 
pay abundantly to have every part of our country travers- 
ed by them, and every family, if possible, visited. Vastly 
could the influence and the power of the church be aug- 
mented by such an agency well chosen, and having the 
confidence and the cooperation of the people of God. 
There is not a city or a rural district where the labors of a 
faithful colporteur would not result in rich harvests of 
blessing. I doubt if, in a land like this, and during the 
current year, a half-million of dollars could be more wisely 
or hopefully employed than in sending into the different 
parts of our land an army of over a thousand devoted 
Christian colporteurs. I would love to see so grand an 
experiment on actual trial. I believe there is a growing 
conviction of the need of this agency, and of its great 
value. May friends not be wanting to give it new life and 
power in this land. 

♦ ■ 

Says another minister : It appears evident to my mind 
that the church in its organized form cannot speedily 



APPENDIX. 153 

reach the multitude scattered on the frontier, in the moun- 
tains, and other sparsely-settled portions of our country. 
To effect the great end of the gospel respecting such com- 
munities, we must go back to primitive apostolic plans. 
They went everywhere preaching the word. Now in twos, 
now in groups, here perhaps a single one ; but all .telling 
of Jesus, his crucifixion, resurrection, and glorious ascen- 
sion into heaven, and exhorting all to believe in him. 
Had they possessed the tracts and books of the American 
Tract Society, I think they would have carried them ' ' to 
the regions beyond. " They would have been faithful and 
true colporteurs. Colportage goes out as the vanguard of 
the army of the Lord, as the pioneer of the organized 
church, preparing the way and selecting appropriate 
ground for encampments. And when this work is com- 
plete, it cooperates with the churches, and everywhere 
compels attention, induces conviction, reclaims the back- 
slider, guides the inquiring, and through the printed page 
and the living ministry points all to the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world. s. p. l. 



A successful pastor in New Jersey writes : As a pioneer, 
your Society has done much to awaken the attention of 
the evangelical churches to existing destitutions, and the 
facts becoming known have stimulated the churches to 
explore their outlying and unknown territory, and follow 
your colporteurs with the more regular, permanent, and"* 
systematic ordinances of the gospel. 



A pastor of national reputation, large influence, and 
great success, thus expresses his views : I have felt a par- 
ticular interest in colportage since it was inaugurated, and 



154 C0LP011TAGE. 

all my observation and experience have been constantly 
raising my estimate of it. While I was at E , my at- 
tention to Northern Pennsylvania satisfied me that it was 
invaluable and indispensable in agricultural districts ; and 

my work of more than fifteen years in U , has as tally 

satisfied me of the need and importance of it in large 
towns. As a preacher of the gospel, I should not be likely 
to depreciate the ministry ; but it is not the sole agency 
in the cause for which it performs a preeminent part. 
Nay, limited and exercised as the ministry is, only the 
smaller portion of the people are reached by it in the most 
favored communities. It has long been the distress of 
many of my brethren that we addressed only our congre- 
gations, and that these were constituted by less than one- 
half or two-thirds of our fellow-citizens. We do not tire 
of appealing to the same ears, but we long to speak to the 
multitudes who never listen to us. They will not come to 
hear us, and if we prepare ourselves to say any thing 
worth being announced from the pulpit, and give due 
heed to those who attend to us there, we cannot possibly 
be talking to others at their homes and places of labor and 
business. We must have cooperation if the masses are to 
be evangelized. 

It has long been a favorite idea with me that the local 
churches should make it their mission not to build them- 
selves up, but to Christianize the surrounding population. 
This is widely regarded as an extra service, or as an inci- 
dent to the services of the sanctuary, instead of being 
aimed at primarily and principally. The proper order 
and progress are reversed. Instead of seeking to bear the 
gospel to the community, and in this way, and as the re- 
sult of this, enjoy an enlargement and strengthening of the 
church, the object is to enlarge and strengthen the 
church, and to let the community, to some extent, be thus 



APPENDIX. 155 

furnished with the gospel. The Saviour does not com- 
mission his disciples in any town to make a flourishing 
organization of the First or Second Presbyterian, or 
Reformed Dutch, or Congregational, or Methodist, or 
Episcopal, or Baptist societies ; but to take the truth to 
the inhabitants of that town and to press it upon them ; 
and they ought to associate together, not to form large 
and wealthy bodies, but to press the truth on every citi- 
zen. With such a policy, a church is most sure to pros- 
per. It is a benevolent, instead of a selfish spirit that 
animates it, and this alone is its true life. It is doing the 
Lord's work, and not its own, and he may be expected to 
favor it. The character of the members is improved by it, 
and they are much more sure to help the fraternity to which 
they belong. The evangelization of the surrounding popu- 
lation must ordinarily be accomplished, and is ordinarily 
best accomplished, by the communicants of a church. Com- 
paratively few can afford a paid agency, and it is an inesti- 
mable advantage to them to perform it themselves. But 
there is a great extent of field in the country, for which 
volunteers cannot be, and certainly will not be enlisted; and 
the Tract Society may have use for all the means it can com- 
mand in sending laborers into it, permanent and transient, 
and laborers who, while doing the needful work for the time 
being, may induce resident Christians to embark in it. 

Earnestly praying for a continued blessing on your So- 
ciety throughout its wide sphere, and particularly the de- 
partment of colportage, I am yours, p. h. f. 



Our remaining witness, an able and devoted minister in 
Ohio, writes from personal observation extending over a 
wide field and for many years : I have watched, with in- 
creasing interest, the efforts of the American Tract Soci- 



156 COLPORTAGE. 

ety to evangelize the masses by union colportage. At an 
early day I saw the necessity for such an agency. My 
home was near a dense country population with small 
means of grace, and a part of my time was given to a vol- 
untary colportage among them. The Lord blessed the 
means, and his own work of conversion met me every- 
where. At a subsequent period, I was connected with one 
of our colleges as a professor. The population for miles 
around was without a ministry of Christ, or a Sabbath- 
school. An extensive colportage was commenced, and 
the whole region has been enlightened by this means. 
Many of the young men have spent their vacations as col- 
porteurs, and filled the country with Sabbath-schools and 
publications. The contrast between the population of to- 
day and at that period is marked and wonderful. The 
change is, in a great measure, due, under God, to this labor. 
While in college life and since, I have travelled on reli- 
gious exploring tours in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and 
Indiana, over fifty thousand miles. A large portion of 
this on horseback and among our outlying and interlying 
masses beyond and between the churches, and witnessed, 
at many points in the South and West, the evangelizing 
effects of colportage. The moral and religious condition 
of these masses is, in many places, most melancholy and 
deplorable. Ignorance, as dense as Egyptian darkness, 
envelops them. In Ohio we have between one-third 
and one-fourth of our entire population living and dy- 
ing without the gospel. In Indiana and Kentucky is a 
large proportion in the same awful state. Colportage is 
the only agency by which, at present, they can be evan- 
gelized ; and this, to be effective, must not be denomina- 
tional, but union. By all means, let the land be filled 
with it. In addition to the country round about the col- 
lege referred to, I am personally acquainted with other 



APPENDIX. 157 

sections where the same efforts have been followed with 
the same blessed results : the darkness has been dissipa- 
ted, souls converted, Sabbath and day schools introduced, 
churches organized, and the population redeemed. Bless- 
ed be God for such an agency and such results ! j. m. e. 

Would to God that all our pastors cooperated heartily 
in this blessed work. 



AN AKMY COLPORTEUE DESCKIBED. 

BY CHAPLAIN J. E. H. 

If one should visit the army of the Potomac, and stay 
for some time in any part of it, he would be pretty certain 
to meet an odd little man going round among the boys. 
He generally has a satchel slung over his shoulder, or a 
package under his arm, or both ; and if you should see 
him approaching your home, where scenes are peaceful, 
you would prepare for an interview with an old-fashioned, 
energetic dealer in some kind of small-wares. His appear- 
ance, though not remarkable, excites interest ; and you 
say to yourself, ' ' I wonder what that little man is doing 
in the army." He is about five feet six inches in height, 
and of a square-built, chunky frame ; he wears a soft felt 
hat and a brown coat, both of which have done good ser- 
vice ; his vest and pants, a little soiled, suggest that he 
works actively sometimes ; his warm shirt, of gray stock- 
ing-web, has been selected for comfort rather than for 
beauty ; the paper collar, without any necktie, buttoned 
carelessly on the shirt, is the only mark about him of any 
deference to fashion ; and the plain, unpolished shoes, 



158 , COLrORTAGE. 

which are of the kind that soldiers have, put it beyond de- 
nial that the little man is given to walking. His face has 
a somewhat abstracted expression, yet indicates kind- 
heartedness, vivacity, humility, and shrewdness. He 
seems between fifty and sixty years of age ; time and care 
have made furrows on his cheeks, and his dark brown hair 
is growing thin and sparse. But his eye is bright and 
restless ; and he shoves along with his bundle under his 
arm, as though he had plenty of business on hand. 

Mark him as he enters a camp and is recognized by the 
soldiers. "Hey, Uncle John, is that you?" says one, who 
starts to meet him. ' ' How are you, Uncle John ?" echoes 
another from within his tent. "I am glad to see you, 
Uncle John. Have you any soap to-day ?" cries a third ; 
and a fourth nephew inquires, "Uncle John, have you 
brought the writing-paper and envelopes you promised ?" 
The wide-awake little man is at home among them, and 
answers in a cheery, lively way, "How are you, dear boys? 
I 'm glad to see you. I guess I 've got a little something 
for you — I was thinking you 'd be wanting a little paper 
and needles, for the paymaster has n't been round for a 
good while, has he ? Just step up, boys ; I can't carry 
much, you know, but I '11 give you what I 've got." He is 
instantly surrounded by a circle of our blue-coated heroes, 
ready for his little gifts, and yet more ready for what Un- 
cle John may have to say ; for they know well that he 
never finds himself among soldiers without saying some- 
thing that is worth listening to. 

Hark to the merry laughter, as Uncle John makes^some 
singular observation! See the fixed attention, as he re- 
lates some stirring news, or interesting incident ! Listen 
to ' ' That 's so. Uncle John ; that 's so," as he renders some 
excellent sentiment or advice, in his terse, striking way ! 
And all the time both his hands are busy dispensing sheets 



APPENDIX. 159 

of paper, and pens, and thread, etc., with skilful and im- 
partial generosity. After these gifts, tracts and religious 
reading, produced from the black satchel, are distributed 
to many glad recipients, Uncle John, the meanwhile, con- 
tinuing his remarks. Now his stock is exhausted ; and 
the little man earnestly repeats an invitation which he has 
already given incidentally, perhaps half-a-dozen times. 
' ' Now boys, do n't forget the prayer-meeting the chaplain 
is going to have this evening. Come, come, dear boys, 
and let us ask God to bless us." "We will, Uncle John, 
we will, " is the response of many voices ; and possibly the 
evening hour will show that the invitation has been also 
accepted by many silent, softened hearts that did not dare 
to speak. The next moment " Uncle Johnnie 's gone!" 
but the influences of his genial soul are scattered all 
around. 

The full name of this ubiquitous little man, who has all 
the soldiers in the army of the Potomac for his nephews, 
is known to but few of those who are familiar with his 
countenance and person ; but it is a name which is en- 
rolled for everlasting life and honor in the blessed book 
above. He labors as distributing agent for the Sanitary 
Commission, and as army colporteur of the American 
Tract Society, by whom he is supported ; but he is so 
original a genius, and such an active, whole-souled, liber- 
al-hearted philanthropist, that it is difficult to think of 
him as connected with any particular institution. I was 
struck with the remark of a colored man, as some were 
discussing the character of Uncle John: "I'll just tell 
you, then, what /thinks ; I thinks this — I' thinks Uncle John 
is a real Christianity." The truth could scarcely be express- 
ed better. While entertaining decided denominational sen- 
timents and attachments, Uncle John labors everywhere 
with such a largeness of spirit, and such a loftiness of view, 



160 COLPOIiTAGE. 

m 

that one can regard him only as belonging to the church of 
God and the religion of Jesus Christ. 

The first half of his life was passed in his cousin's brew- 
ery, and was thoroughly given to business ; but about fif- 
teen years ago God touched the brewer's heart, and claimed 
him for a higher service. A severe struggle with old 
views and habits terminated in complete triumph, and he 
consecrated to the cause of Christ those energies which 
had been devoted to secular concerns. Uncle John aban- 
doned his position in the brewery, and with it flattering 
prospects of wealth. He felt that it could be his calling no 
longer. "Heaven," I have heard him say, "seemed too 
far away when I looked up at it from among the beer bar- 
rels." Disengaged from worldly pursuits, he gave him- 
self with zeal to tract distribution, exhortation, prayer- 
meetings, and various evangelical labors, so that the good 

people of P were astonished ; many even thought him 

crazed. They did not understand the case. A mind of 
natural strength and fervency had received a strange and 
powerful impulse from new-born faith and love. To him, 
religious things, no longer invisible and distant, were seen 
and present. His awakened soul accepted Bible truths as 
living and wonderful realities. Christ's cross and judg- 
ment-seat seemed very near, radiant with tender attrac- 
tions and with awful glories. The curtain concealing 
futurity had fallen ; and from beholding the endless desti- 
nies of the righteous and the wicked, he turned to his 
fellow-men, and earnestly besought them to seek the 
divine favor and^preparation for heaven. 

This practical zeal for God and souls, arising partly from 
natural character and yet more from vivid realization of 
the truths of religion, was no temporary flame. Burning 
to-day with its original brightness, and with more than its 
original fervor, it is the immediate source of the ceaseless 



APPENDIX. 161 

Christian activity of our beloved Uncle John. He found 

but a limited sphere of usefulness in P , and possibly 

had cause to feel that it was "his own country." Going 
westward, he spent some years traversing the prairies of 
Illinois with horse and wagon, as colporteur of the Amer- 
ican Tract Society. God went with him over those grassy 
solitudes, and blessed his labors, and filled him with joy 
and praise. It was in this service that he gained that 
experimental familiarity with the best thoughts of Chris- 
tian authors, and that Wonderful command of religious 
language which have compensated in great measure for 
the want of a liberal education, and which have contribu- 
ted greatly to his success in the work of the Lord. 

Keturning to P , he began visiting the churches as 

Providence opened the door, and became instrumental of 
untold good in several wide-spread revivals. He went 
from place to place, "feeling his way" and working with 

the pastors. P county especially thrice witnessed a 

great outpouring of the Divine Spirit, chiefly in blessing 
upon his efforts. Finding an interest in some members 
of a decayed backslidden church, he would spend the day 
visiting in the congregation from house to house, conver- 
sing and praying with every one, and in the evening he 
would attend a prayer-meeting at the residence of some 
pious family ; " for," says he, "it would never do to com- 
mence in a cold church ; but after God pours down his Spirit 
in answer to prayer, then the lecture-room will be needed, 
and the church too." In those times his soul overflowed 
with happiness, when sanctuaries were nightly crowded 
with inquirers, and God came down in love and power. 

As one of the almoners of the royal bounty of the Sani- 
tary Commission, Uncle John is indefatigable. It is his 
special delight to find unseen and neglected spots, and to 
secure for them their share of comforts. Thousands of 

Colpoitage. 11 



162 COLPORTAGE. 

poor fellows bless hini for timely and thoughtful care. In- 
deed I never met any one who combined in a similar degree 
prompt and exact attention to .items of business with un- 
remitting spiritual aims and efforts. It seems part of bis 
religion to neglect nothing. Those evangelical labors, 
however, to which his other pursuits are subsidiary, are 
the chief exponents of his character and power. In these — 
I can express myself in no other way — in these Uncle John 
is great. His pleading particularizing prayers, his varied, 
choice, and ready store of hymns, his rapid yet unoffend- 
ing directness of personal appeal, his easy and quick com- 
mand of thought and language, his homely, pointed, and 
solemn method in public address, and his very appearance 
and voice and manner, unpretending and deferential, yet as 
earnest and sympathetic as they possibly could be— all qual- 
ify him to succeed anywhere, but especially with soldiers. 

I have been amazed sometimes at the beauty of his 
prayers. On one occasion, during the heats of summer, 
we rode together through the woods to a distant pasture, 
that our horses, then fed only on grain, might enjoy graz- 
ing for an hour. Uncle John had been somewhat de- 
pressed, and we sat under the shade of a little tree. Sud- 
denly he exclaimed, "Brother H , let us pray," threw 

himself forward upon the grass, and instantly began, " O 
God, on this beautiful day, amid these old woods, and 
beneath thine own clear heavens, we lift up our souls to 
thee." His voice, at first slow and full, was rich with mel- 
ody and pathos ; and as petition after petition, exquisitely 
expressed, followed each other in beautiful succession, I 
thought the sacred eloquence of that unstudied prayer 
such as I had never heard before. While the prostrate 
body rested on hands and knees, crouching in lowliest 
humility, and the face, with close-shut eyes and intensity 
of expression, sometimes almost touched the ground, the 



ArPENDIX. 163 

longing, believing spirit seemed to rise, as on angels' wings, 
into the presence and glory of its God. While we were 
returning, he said that he seemed to have had a glimpse 
of heaven, and was refreshed and comforted. I could 
easily believe it. 

Uncle John is a great power in a soldier's prayer-meet- 
ing, for he generally imparts to his fellow-worshippers 
much of his own spirit. With excellent wisdom he inva- 
riably looks to the chaplain for the organization and con- 
trol of religious assemblies, even of those in which he him- 
self may be the principal actor; "for," he says, "I'm 
nothing but an old shepherd dog, and I try to help the 
pastors in tending their flocks." But after the meeting 
has been set a-going, Uncle John, "assisted," as he would 
say, "by the good Spirit of the Lord," is the very life of it. 

The first time I ever saw him was last winter, near 

B , in a chaplain's meeting in the log church of the 

brigade. The quaint sprightliness, the overflowing broth- 
erly love, the humility and Christian readiness of the little 
man, were apparent. Ever since the completion of the 
log chapel in our brigade, an increasing interest in reli- 
gion had been manifested among the boys, and Uncle 
John promised to attend one of our meetings. He came, 
and moved us all by his earnest words and fervent prayers. 
After this I was going away for ten days, and asked him 
to look after my boys in my absence. He consented at 
once. On my return I was prepared for something of a 
revival, but not to learn that the chapel was crowded, and 
that meetings were kept up three times a day. And when 
I entered the chapel that afternoon, what a scene pre- 
sented itself! The place was half Babel, half Bochim. 
Such a murmuring of confused sounds never before had 
greeted my ears. Most of the soldiers were kneeling by 
the benches, several were engaged in prayer, and sob- 



1G4 COLrORTAGE. 

bings and groanings, loud responses, and fervent ejacula- 
tory petitions, resounded in every part of the building. 
Uncle John was in the midst of the congregation, kneel- 
ing in the aisle in front of the pulpit, and seemingly the 
most engaged of all. After the principal prayer was over, 
he rose, and in his sweet soprano voice began a favorite 
hymn ; all joined : and the swelling praise went up 
through the white trembling canvas roof. Other prayers 
were offered, interspersed with verses of hymns and with 
remarks by Uncle John and the chaplain ; and before the 
meeting was dismissed, all present were earnestly invited 
to attend the evening service. It seems that he had insti- 
tuted the morning assembly for inquirers and young con- 
verts, and that in the afternoon for the prayers and exhor- 
tations of Christians generally, while more formal exer- 
cises occupied the meeting at night. The excitement and 
confusion at first seemed to me excessive and injurious ; 
but I found that they were to a certain extent the natural 
consequences of religious feeling among the soldiers, and 
that they were rather checked than stimulated by Uncle 
John ; for our soldiers sometimes remind one of those an- 
cient warriors — ''homines rustici atque militares" — whom 
Cicero mentions as having given vent to their enthusiasm 
in loud shouting. Besides, the other chaplains did not 
find the noise objectionable. The evening meeting was 
the most important. Generally there was regular service, 
including a sermon by one of the chaplains, after which 
those who loved the Lord and those who desired to do so, 
were requested to remain. Commonly very few went 
away ; and then Uncle John's woik began. After some 
prayers and hymns, he would make a short address, and 
conclude by asking those who felt themselves in need of 
salvation, and who desired Christians to pray for them, to 
stand up. And then what earnestness in persuading sin- 



APPENDIX. 1G5 

ners to declare for Christ. He would continue making 
his remarks, and looking over the assembly, perhaps for a 

minute, till some one rose, "There's one," says Uncle 
John with visible emotion. "Oh, Mess (lie Lord! There 
is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth." Then, 
after a short pause, he would add in the most inviting 
tones, '• And is there no other precious soul here that 
wants a Saviour ? Yes, there 's another. God bless you, 
dear brother. Oh, it was for such that Jesus died — Jesus 
the Son of God!" and Uncle John would sing, 

" He died for you, 

He died for me, 
He died to set poor sinners free. 

Oh, who 's like Jesus, 
That died ou the tree?" 

Another pause. "And isn't there any more who want to 
love this blessed Saviour ? Yes, I see you, dear brother. 
I knew there would be more. I feel that God is here to- 
night. And there 's another, and another, and another. 
Oh, hallelujah! Praise - the Lord!" Another pause. 
"Now come, dear friends ; don't be afraid. The Lord is 
waiting ; and Oh, he is waiting to be gracious. You do n't 
suppose you're too great sinners to be saved, do you? 
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. Yes, 
precious Saviour, precious Saviour, thy blood coiild cleanse 
a universe from guilt." In this way he would go on till 
perhaps a dozen or twenty had risen ; after which, in order 
to intensify good resolutions, he would invite them to the 
front seats, which were vacated for them. This he did 
often, not always. After more prayers and hymns, the 
audience were dismissed, only the inquirers remaining; 
and then Uncle John and the chaplains conversed and 
prayed with each individual according to his case. 

"Talking meetings," designed chiefly for remarks, ex- 



1G6 COLPORTAGE. 

hortations, and relations of personal experience, sometimes 
took the place of these that I have described ; they proved 
very useful. Uncle John participated in them, as he did 
in all the rest. The revival interest continued with little 
abatement for five or six weeks, and resulted in the estab- 
lishment of small congregations of believers in those regi- 
ments that had chaplains. Nearly one hundred and fifty— 
about one- tenth of the whole brigade — professed faith in 
Christ, either renewedly or for the first time. Very few of 
these dear boys are with us now ; many are in soldiers' 
graves ; many are sick or wounded at home ; some are in 
southern prisons, and some have finished their term and 
been discharged. But so far as I know, the great major- 
ity have shown that their profession was well-founded. 

In all our meetings, Uncle John's singing did excellent 
service. To use an expression of his own, he is "a walk- 
ing hymn-book." He has a large variety of hymns at 
command, set to appropriate tunes, and a wonderful facul- 
ty of instantaneously producing in a meeting the verses, 
and notes specially suitable to each particular conjunc- 
ture. How often have I heard him, so soon as a prayer or 
address might end, strike up the hymn needed to correct 
or to carry out the impression of it. He would seldom 
sing the whole hymn ; but if one or two verses satisfied 
the occasion, he would cease, that the meeting might go 
on. This tact often helped greatty to render the interest 
of our exercises continuous and progressive. 

Uncle John's voice is not strong, but it is clear and 
pleasant ; and as he sings with earnestness and truthful- 
ness of expression, his lips sometimes seem to clothe old 
verses with new beauty, and to impart a striking and un- 
expected fulness of meaning to words that have long been 
familiar. Those who have heard him will not forget with 
what joyous faith he sings, 



ArPENDIX. 167 

" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun 
Does his successive journeys run ;" 

nor how invitingly and solemnly he renders 

'• There is a fountain filled with blood, 
Drawn from Immanuel's veins ;" 

nor the tenderness of those lines, 

"Come, trembling sinner, in whose breast 
A thousand thoughts revolve ; 
Come with your guilt and fear opprest, 
And make this last resolve ;" 

nor the heartiness of the verses, 

" Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, 
Weak and wounded, sick and sore ; 
Jesus ready stands to save you, 
Full of pity, love, and power." 

How boldly he raises that Christian battle-sojLg, 

" Am I a soldier of the cross ?" 

"What thankfulness and love he puts into that grand hymn, 

,L Oh for a thousand tongues to sing 
My dear Redeemer's praise !" 

"With what plaintive melody he sings, 

" Did Christ o'er sinners weep ? 
And shall my tears be dry?" 

and with what affectionate longing, 

"Jerusalem, my happy home." 

These and many other old hymns, and the tunes which 
accompany them, are weapons of power with Uncle John. 
Besides these, he has a collection of modern religious 
melodies, generally lively in character, and very popular 
with soldiers. Those beginning, "My heavenly home is 
bright and. fair ;" " There 's a light in the window for 
thee, brother;" "Must Jesus bear the cross alone?" "A 



168 COLPOHTAGE. 

beautiful land by faith I see ;" and those which tell of 
the "Sweet hour of prayer," and of "The gospel ship," 
which is ' ' sailing, sailing, " and of ' ' The heavenly shores " 
to which we are "homeward bound," are fair examples. 
They commonly have a chorus, which adds to their effect. 
I shall not soon forget the delight with which I first heard 
him singing a song, whose lively notes and cheerful re- 
joicing confidence accorded admirably with his own spirit. 
It was towards the close of a crowded meeting in the log 
chapel. He rose after a prayer, and turned round in the 
aisle so as to face the congregation. His right hand held 
the left by two fingers, and kept it out of the way behind 
his back. Standing in his humble but easy manner, he- 
began in a clear voice, 

" We are joyously voyaging over the main, 
» Bound for the evergreen shore, 
Whose inhabitants never of sickness complain, 
And never see death any more." 

Warming as he went on, he kept looking over the audience 
to observe their feeling ; and before he had finished, he 
was clapping his hands quietty in time to the tune, and 
leading us all in the chorus, like an enthusiastic singing- 
teacher. The h'ynm, though familiar now, was then new 
to most of us, but we could not help joining with Uncle 
John to the best of our ability in the chorus, 

" Then let the hurricane roar, 
It will the sooner be o'er ; 
We will weather the blast, and we '11 land at last, 
Safe on the evergreen shore." 

Few, perhaps none, went away from the meeting that 
night without resolving to secure transportation in that 
good ship, for which, according to his wont, Uncle John 
was looking lip passengers. 



APPENDIX. 169 

Some striking qualities of Brother V 's character are 

exhibited in his dealings with others relative to their reh> 
gious state and duty. His earnestness of manner, his 
unfeigned and affectionate interest in one's personal wel- 
fare, and his entire freedom from any sort of conventional- 
ity or constraint, soon make the heart trustful, and beget 
openness of conference and confession. During a time of 
religious awakening, he labors with inquirers night and 

day. At B , all who witnessed his zeal marvelled that 

flesh and blood could endure such incessant excitement 
and activity. Three meetings a day, in all of which he 
prayed and spoke and sang, seemed in no degree to dimin- 
ish his energy for special and private exertions. For 
weeks he spent his spare time in going from tent to tent 
conversing and praying with every one who manifested 
an} 7 concern regarding religion. As he set out one morn- 
ing to follow up the impressions of the preceding night, I 
went with him down into the company streets. Entering 
a tent where two out of the four occupants were Chris- 
tians, he addressed himself to each man in suitable inqui- 
ries and exhortations, and led in a short prayer. Then he 
asked for a sergeant whom he knew to be under deep con- 
viction. The young man came in as we were going out to 
find him. Uncle John instantly read the trouble of his 
face, which expressed the most profound melancholy ; and 
laying his hand affectionately on the shoulder of the young 
man, exclaimed with sadness and tenderness, "O Albert, 
Albert, my dear boy, have n't you given your heart to the 
Saviour yet ? What is the matter, Albert ? "Why do n't 
you throw every thing else away, and trust only in the 
Lord Jesus ?" The young man answered that he was try- 
ing to do that, bat could not find any peace. Every thing 
seemed dark, somehow. Uncle John replied, ' ' Then you 
must pray to God to make it light. He can cause light to 



170 COLPORTAGE. 

slime in darkness. And now, dear boys, let us all pray 
for Albert, for nobody bnt God can help him, and let 
Albert pray for himself. Chaplain, lead us in prayer." "We 
all knelt down in the little shanty, which barely held us. 
The chaplain prayed, and then Uncle John said, "Now, 
Albert, you pray." The lad offered a few simple and ear- 
nest petitions. We left him with some words of encour- 
agement. Several frays afterwards I met him going to one 
of the meetings with a shining and happy face. ' ' "Well, Al- 
bert," said I, "how do you feel to-day?" " Oh, bright as a 
shilling," was the singular but expressive reply ; and bright 
ever since has been his Christian character and course. 

Uncle John, without being exactly abrupt, is wonder- 
fully quick and direct in personal appeal. His prepara- 
tory remarks, if he makes any, are very short ; sometimes 
merely the manner and evident spirit of the man intro- 
duce what he says ; but, in any case, the first startling 
sentence clears the way for any that may follow. ' ' Here," 

said I, as we went down the street, ' ' is Sergeant M , 

Uncle John." "How are you, sergeant?" says the ready 
little man, taking the sergeant by the hand. "And I 
hope, chaplain, this good soldier has enlisted under the 
banner of King Jesus ? Dear sergeant, how is it ? Now 
just tell Uncle John. Are you trying to be a faithful ser- 
vant of God? Have you given yourself to that blessed 
Saviour who died for you, and who bought j t ou with his 
precious blood ?" As these words were uttered with great 
earnestness and affection, the sergeant looked thoughtful. 
He confessed that he was not a Christian, but said that he 
often desired to be one. "Oh, why then delay? Wh} r 
risk your eternity ? Who knows how soon the whizzing 
bullet or bursting shell may lay one low ? And then, to 
enter God's presence unprepared ! Oh, sergeant, will you 
not seek the Lord now, and secure that glorious hope 



APPENDIX. 171 

which is full of immortality ?" With such words, spoken 
by the way, Uncle John has moved many a soul to the 
consideration of its eternal interests. 

The treatment given to his approaches and exhortations 
by different parties is very various ; but he is equal to 
any emergency. He instantly appreciates the nature of 
each case, and gives the instruction, encouragement, re- 
proof, or reply which is needed. I have been astounded 
sometimes to hear officers, of whose profanity, drunken- 
ness, gambling, and dishonesty, I was well aware, and 
who never to my knowledge showed even decent respect 
for religion, tell Uncle John that they were Christian men. 
I suppose they meant that they had been church-mem- 
bers while in civil life. They seldom deceived him. His 
interviews with such miserable men are generally made 
brief. Without even insinuating distrust, he utters a few 
awakening words, and is gone. "Oh," I have heard him 
say, ' ' how solemn a thing it is to be called by the name 
of Chkist. What a responsibility lies on us to adorn the 
doctrine of God our Saviour in all things ; and how hard 
it is to be a Christian in reality, in deed as well as in name. 
Yes, dear friends, we must strive to enter in at the strait 
gate. I often think what a mercy it will be if Uncle John 
ever gets to .heaven. It will be by the triumph of grace 
divine. Oh the riches of the grace of God ! " With such 
sayings he leaves the backsliders thinking and ill at ease. 
Consistent believers, on the contrary, seldom meet him 
without enjoying some bright view of heavenly things, by 
which their hearts are strengthened in faith and hope and 
love. 

The skill and spirit with which he replies to the pre- 
tences of unbelief and to the excuses of the unconverted, 
could not be surpassed. While maintaining the best 
temper, and exhibiting overflowing kindness and affection 



172 COLTORTAGE. 

for souls, he attacks every form of sinfulness and error 
with unsparing fidelity.' "0 dear captain," I heard him 
say. "how I wish you would make up your mind to give 
yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to become a faith- 
ful soldier of the cross." '-Well, Uncle John," said the 
captajfi, "I try to do my duty, and I think that is all that 
is required of me." " Why, captain, "^answered the little 
man in tones of astonishment, "how can you say so? No 
man does his duty who does not give his heart to God, 
and live in God's love and service. What would you think 
of a man brought up by a kind father, and provided by 
him with every means of happiness, who should be a good 
brother and husband and neighbor and citizen, and yet be 
a heartless and undutiful son ? Do n't you think his wick- 
edness would be unspeakably great?" "But the cases 
are different," rejoins the captain. "No, they're not," 
said Uncle John. "That man would be condemned by 
the moral sense of the community ; and the godless sin- 
ner, you may depend upon it, will be condemned by the 
public opinion of the universe." Thus boldly does this 
humble servant of God contend with the adversary, and 
assert the prerogatives of his Master ; and he is as ready 
to do this with officers in high command as he is with 
private soldiers. Colonels and generals have received 
faithful admonition from him on things vital to their eter- 
nal peace. 

On one occasion, I cannot say whether I was more 
amused to see the familiar yet respectful assurance, or 
gratified to witness the startling directness with which he 
interrogated a brave colonel whom he had never seen be- 
fore. A meeting had been concluded in front of the head- 
quarters' tent, and Uncle John had conversed and prayed 
with a young man, who had shown deep conviction and 
anxiety regarding his sins. Utterly unconscious of human 



APPENDIX. 173 

presence, and with a simplicity and earnestness which 
rose above all influences of time and place, and surround- 
ed themselves with their own proprieties — silence, solem- 
nity, and attention — he knelt with the lad in the midst of 
a crowd of bystanders, and prayed for him, for his com- 
rades, for the officers of the regiment, and for the whole 
army. The vigorous colloquial language of the prayer, 
and its particularizing petitions, in which names and 
places and circumstances were freely mentioned, interest- 
ed and impressed the hearers of it. Conventionalities 
plainly had little to do with Uncle John's religion. The 
young man went away comforted, and trusting in God ; 
and the crowd dispersed. Then we entered the colonel's 
tent, in which \je found one or two officers of the com- 
mand, together with their chief. After a few words of 
conversation regarding the history of the regiment, and 
its part in the summer's campaign, in which it had lost 
heavily, Uncle John remarked that it was a blessed thing 
to have a hope that no bullet or cannon-ball can touch, 
and a life indestructible and immortal. Then turning to 
the colonel, he said in a confidential and coaxing w r ay, 
"And now, colonel, just tell Uncle John, how it is with 
you. We are all perishing creatures, and must soon be 
in eternity together. Have you, dear colonel, a good 
hope in Christ ? Can you say that you knoic that your 
Eedeemer liveth ? You '11 pardon Uncle John for asking 
you ; he'sa poor dying old man that loves your soul, and 
wants it to 'be saved." This appeal, made rapidly, with- 
out any apparent premeditation, and w r ith great tact and 
tenderness, evidently affected the colonel. Uncle John 
proceeded in the same manner as before, "You know 
what I mean. I do n't mean, Are you a professor of reli- 
gion ? for there are many unworthy professors ; but, has 
your heart been renewed by grace divine? That is the 



174 COLPORTAGE. 

point. Have you become a new creature in Christ Jesus? 
Have you experienced that change of which our Saviour 
speaks when he declares that a man must be born again 
before he can see the kingdom of God ?" The colonel ex- 
pressed a hope that he was a Christian ; and Brother 

V replied that he rejoiced to hear him say so ; that he 

prayed the Lord to bless him and make him faithful to 
the end ; and that he wished before God that all our lead- 
ers were earnest, believing men." 

I have not spoken hitherto of Uncle John as a public 
speaker, because the peculiarities of his character are bet- 
ter illustrated by other topics, and perhaps also from a 
consciousness of inability to describe correctly his more 
sustained efforts. During the revival of last winter he 
frequently moved the audiences in the log chapel with 
short but thrilling strains of extemporaneous eloquence. 
Few of those who listened to these addresses regarded 
them in a rhetorical aspect ; criticism is not in the line of 
soldiers ; but all felt his power, and agreed that "he knew 
how to talk." Those of us, however, who were accustomed 
to notice mental methods, could not but wonder at the 
man's gifts. For myself, I listened to passages in his ora- 
tory such as, I think, are seldom heard from either pulpit 
or rostrum. His style at times reminded one of the more 
serious and moving utterances of Gough. But his dis- 
courses showed more argument than is commonly attempt- 
ed in those of that interesting lecturer. Thought after 
thought was presented and illustrated with admirable 
though untaught adherence to the rules of art. The logi- 
cal order of the ideas, their progressive continuity of im- 
pulse, their practical development and application, w r ere 
faultless. Homely condensed language, natural and strik- 
ing metaphors, unexpected similes, antitheses, and turns 
of expression, a becoming gesticulation, and a voice won- 



APPENDIX. 175 

derfully persuasive and rich with sympathetic feeling, 
engaged attention, awoke the heart's best emotions, and 
excited new interest in the saving truths of Christianity. 
The sincere and humble earnestness of the man was also 
a chief element of his power. Not a word was uttered for 
oratorical effect. Every sentence manifested yearning 
love for souls, vivid conceptions of eternal things, and a 
solemn sense of the presence of God. Success too, though 
confidently looked for, was expected solely through the 
divine blessing. What wonder was it that such speaking 
produced results that have been visible ever since ? For 
my part, I doubt not that it was instrumental of everlast- 
ing good. 

During the early part of last summer he labored in the 
army of the James, among the colored regiments, and 
as might be conjectured, was very successful in arousing 
the lively African soldiers to the duties and attractions of 
religion. From one thousand to fifteen hundred souls 
were frequently present at meetings held in the open air. 
It was a scene worthy of a painter's skill, when the little 
man, in his own tender and telling way, addressed the 
gathered hundreds of his sable brethren ; and when he led 
those assemblies in one of his stirring hymns, I think that 
the loud notes of praise rivalled in spirit and grandeur 
any that ever echoed from cathedral roofs. 

After a time he was induced to have his headquarters 
with us, and to make our division the principal field of 
his labors. In this way I had the privilege, several times 
during the summer, of hearing him speak in public. His 
addresses are invariably extemporaneous. He says that 
deliberate composition is very difficult and irksome for 
him ; which, indeed, might be inferred from his vivacious 
and emotional temperament, and his want of literary 
training. His efforts too, though always interesting to his 



176 COLFORTAGE. 

hearers, are not always of equal power. I was particularly 
pleased with au address which he made one September 
evening in the plaza of Fort Davis to a regiment drawn up 
before him in line. The colonel had directed a notifica- 
tion of the companies for a prayer-meeting which we pro- 
posed to have ; but the adjutant, thinking, I presume, to 
do the business thoroughly, ordered out the wdiole com- 
mand, as if for dress-parade. Uncle John stood with his 
hands behind him, leaning against a tree in front of the 
headquarters, while company after company filed past him, 
faced to the rear, and dressed into correct position. The 
men evidently w r ere wondering what was going on ; and 
some of the officers seemed to think that a joke w r as being 
perpetrated on the chaplains and Uncle John. However 
we were ready for the emergency. A prayer-meeting was 
out of the question ; so we resolved on some public exer- 
cises. After an introductory address, a hymn, and a 
prayer, Uncle John was invited to speak. He began by 
expressing his gratitude to the colonel for that opportunity 
of addressing the officers and men of ' ' the dear old Sev- 
enth." He had come expecting enly to attend a prayer- 
meeting, but was glad to meet so many brave men. As 
he looked on the faces before him, and saw how T very few 
were present of those whom he had seen last winter, the 
thought arose, "Where were those brave boys that left 

the old camp at B ■?" They are gone ; they lie on the 

battle-fields of the Wilderness, and of Spottsylvania, and 
of the North Anna, and of Coal Harbor — all along the way 
from the Kapidan to Petersburg. Some are at home in 
the North, or in hospitals ; but how many occupy their 
long, last home — a soldiers grave! Scarcely one is left of 
the familiar faces. Ah, well did he remember some of 
those noble boys that he used to see in the old log chapel, 
and whom he should see never more on earth. But, 



APPENDIX. 177 

blessed be God, he had a bright hope of meeting them in 
heaven. They were heroes of Christ, and of his cross. 
Now they have fought their fight, they have finished then- 
course, and they have received their crown. Oh, how he 
wished that every soldier was a truly Christian man, and 
prepared for any chance that might befall him. He knew 
many brave men who were not Christians ; but it was al- 
ways a mystery to him how any man could face death 
without a hope in that blessed Saviour, who had triumph- 
ed over death and the grave. He supposed a sense of 
duty would do much, but how much better was it to be 
sure that one's soul has been saved with an eternal salva- 
tion. Then the king of terrors is dethroned, and death 
becomes the gate of heaven. Did you never think, he 
asked, against what love you offend while you remain un- 
reconciled to God ? Oh, it filled all heaven with wonder 
when God's glorious Son took on him our salvation, and 
offered himself for our sins. Never was love Like His 
love. How can you refuse your hearts to that loving, dy* 
ing Saviour? Surely you will not suffer it to be that 
Christ should have died for you in vain. 

" The Son of God in tears, 
Angels with wonder see ; 
Be thou astonished, my soul, 
He shed those tears for thee. 

" He -^ept that we might weep, 
Each, sin demands a tear. 
In heaven alone no sin is found, 
And there 's no weeping there." 

Dear soldiers, if I know my own heart, I earnestly desire 
the welfare of you all. God knows that I love you, and 
want to see you happy. And when I think of the fatigues 
and exposures, and dangers which soldiers must undergo, 
Oh, how I wish to have them sustained and comforted by 

Colportafe. 12 



178 COLPORTAGE. 

the hopes and consolations of the gospel ! I would that 
every one of you had a sure title to a mansion in the skies. 
I would that you could all look from these scenes of con- 
flict, and suffering, and death, to that blessed land where 
there is war no more. Oh, yes ; no whistling minie ball, 
no bursting Parrot shell, shall disturb the peaceful inhab- 
itants of that heavenly country. In that land there shall 
be rest for the weary ; pain and grief shall not enter there ; 

" No groans shall mingle with the songs, 
That warble from immortal tongues." 

Now let me say a few words to those of you who are Chris- 
tians. Dear brethren, you are surrounded by temptations ; 
but strive to live faithfully ; hold fast your profession ; let 
no man rob you of your crown. Trust not in yourselves, 
but in One that is mighty. Keep looking up to Jesus, 
and you will be conquerors, and more than conquerors 
through him that loves you. Recently by the bedside of 
a dear corporal, that formerly belonged to your regiment, 
but that now sleeps in Jesus, I felt what truth, what pow- 
er, there is in the religion of Christ. All was peace with 
him, perfect peace. He knew that he was dying ; but he 
rejoiced in the hope of a better life, in the sure prospect 
of a glorious immortality. "Oh let me die the death of 
the righteous, and let my last end be like his." And as 
for you, dear Mends, who are without Christ, will you not 
seek an interest in his salvation ? Will you not begin to 
love and serve that Redeemer who can save and bless you 
for ever ? Yes ; Jesus is the Saviour that you need ; 
"None but Jesus, 
None but Jesus 
Can do helpless sinners good." 

Oh, then, do not hesitate. To-morrow may be too late. 
Who knows how soon the bolt of death may come? Now, 
while it is called to-day, give your hearts to God, and 



APPENDIX. 179 

kneel before him in penitence and prayer. Dear sol- 
diers, I thank you for the kind attention with which you 
have listened to me. May the Lord bless you all, and 
bring you to his heavenly kingdom ! 

Such, as nearly as memory serves me, was the course 
of thought and style of language employed by Uncle John. 
But the foregoing sketch can give no adequate idea of the 
living power with which he spoke. His allusions to the 
uncertainty of life and the nearness of death had a pecu- 
liar significance with those whom he addressed. Several 
of their number had been instantaneously killed, not long 
before, on the picket line in front of the fort ; and a day 
or two subsequently to our meeting, one poor lad was 
struck by a minie ball and died in five minutes, only a 
few paces from the spot where he had listened to Uncle 
John. The summer's campaign had made us all too 
much accustomed to these things. 

Uncle John's labors during the summer with the sick 
and wounded of the army were abundant. He went with 
the trains and the steamboats laden with the disabled of 
the great battles, and exerted himself incessantly for the 
welfare of both body and soul. He considered no service 
too laborious or too menial to perform for the helpless 
sufferers. Many owe their lives to him, and by him many 
have been led into the way of life eternal. The large tents 
which constitute the hospital wards, receive daily visits 
from him ; and any special want of their inmates engages 
his immediate attention. He is particularly ready to con- 
verse and pray with those who are dangerously ill, or who 
express spiritual anxiety. Every evening also, if duty 
does not call him elsewhere, he assists a chaplain in con- 
ducting short exercises. The wards, to the number of 
eight or nine are successively visited, and in each of them 
two or three verses are sung and a prayer is offered. In 



180 COLPOKTAGE. 

these services Uncle John's gift of song is most happily 
employed. His choice variety of hymns, his tact in select- 
ing verses, and his admirable use of tunes, both old and 
new, contribute greatly to render this evening worship in- 
teresting and profitable. I have noticed, too, that occa- 
sionally he gives a line according to a version of his own, 
no way inferior to the variations of the hynm-books. 

Besides these employments at the hospitals, a great 
part of his time is taken up in visiting the camps, where 
he distributes religious reading and sanitary comforts, 
and helps the chaplains at prayer-meetings and public 
services. These journeyings call into play his powers as 
a pedestrian, which are most extraordinary. He thinks 
nothing of a stretch of eight or ten miles ; and one hot 
day of last summer I knew him to walk fifteen miles and 
back again, with very little appearance of fangue. Every- 
where, and among all classes, he finds a cordial welcome. 
Many chaplains particularly, and among them the writer 
of this, feel themselves under profound obligations to 
him ; for we are generally agreed that it would be difficult, 
perhaps impossible, to find another man in the country so 
well qualified as he for religious labor among soldiers, at 
least for that kind of labor which Uncle John performs. 
And certainly no one could enter upon such work with 
more self-devoting zeal than that which animates this sin- 
gularly-gifted man. The camp and hospital, the march 
and the bivouac, the siege-line and the battle-field, have 
witnessed his untiring energy in the service of a Divine 
Master. Ten thousand thanks to the American Tract So- 
ciety for sustaining such a man in so blessed a work. 

When I look upon Uncle John as he is now, a ready 
and mighty laborer in the cause of man's regeneration, 
and compare him with what he was sixteen years ago, the 
lively and driving manager of work in a brewery, I ex- 



APPENDIX. 181 

claim, "How powerful is the grace of God ; what changes 
it can effect ; how marvellously it fashions the most un- 
likely materials into blessed instrumentalities of good ! " 
Under its influence, abilities and habits, developed in a 
life of eager worldliness, are employed with singular effi- 
ciency in the pursuit of heavenly objects ; the want of 
early preparation and instruction is compensated by the 
improvement of a devoted mind ; and a holy consecration 
of purpose is unflinchingly sustained for years, and crown- 
ed with ever-increasing success. Such an instance is rare ; 
so that none should presume to squander precious time in 
the hope of future faithfulness ; but what encouragement 
it contains for those, of whatever age or condition of life, 
who feel. themselves called to some special department of 
the service of God. How surely he can sustain and pros- 
per us while, in some fitting sphere, we labor earnestly 
for him ! 

I now bring to a close my intellectual companionship 
with Uncle John ; and I do so with regret. It has pleas- 
antly occupied some evenings, which otherwise might 
have passed unimproved in the bomb-proof and the wall- 
tent. Fare ye well, dear, good man. You have some- 
times been a sad reproof to me for my want of resolution 
and fidelity in the discharge of a holy calling — a reprooft 
none the less potent because all unconsciously adminis- 
tered : but for that I bear you no ill-will ; I rather render 
thanks to Heaven that I have seen the living power of 
Christianity brightly illustrated, and I pray God for a 
baptism of his Holy Spirit, that I may more successfully 
emulate the example of his devoted servants, in closely 
following the footsteps of our divine Saviour. Fare ye 
well, dear Uncle John. May God long spare you, a bless- 
ing to your kind, and at last take you gently to his heav- 
enly home! And when separating years shall have 



182 COLPORTAGE. 

passed away ; when the great war, now nearing its end, 
shall have been succeeded by times of national prosperity ; 
when your friend, the chaplain, if God prosper him, shall 
have attained his desire, and be the pastor of some peace- 
ful village flock ; when your moving and persuasive voice 
shall be hushed in death ; when your face and form, now 
welcome and familiar, shall present themselves no more 
for cordial greetings ; and when your triumphant spirit, 
freed from earth's fetters, shall be rejoicing on high, in 
the activities of an immortal life — then it may give pleas- 
ure to review these pages, the souvenir of the acquaint- 
ance of a twelvemonth ; to recall lovingly the most cher- 
ished memories of one's army life, and to think of a 
sainted Uncle John. 

This remarkable man — John E. Vassar — 
entered Richmond with the federal forces 
upon its evacuation by the Confederates, and 
has ever since toiled with unflagging zeal, 
and amazing success, for the spiritual wel- 
fare of the Southern poor. Thousands of 
white and colored children have been taught 
to read God's word in Sabbath-schools form- 
ed through his agency ; and hundreds of souls 
are blessing God to-day, that through him 
they have found Christ precious. 

May he long live to serve that Saviour 
through Union Missionary Colportage as 
conducted by the American Tract Society ! 



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