EDITOR, THE MINISTRY:
A hundred thousand souls in danger of the judgment ! A hundred thousand persons to whom God's final message must go before Christ returns ! This was the task that faced the Seventh-day Adventist evangelist as he entered the city "Yet-to-be-warned."
In order to attract the townspeople to his place of meeting, the evangelist inserted large notices in the local paper, had handbills scattered over the city by willing laymen from near-by Adventist churches, and displayed large posters conspicuously in many show windows of obliging businessmen. Titles were used that would take full advantage of thern curiosity within a human being, such as—
"Permanent Peace, or World War HI ?—Which ?" "A Mistake the Whole.World Made."
"Hell Has Been Located."
"The Man That God Forgot."
More than two thousand people attended the meeting on the opening night and on many subsequent Sunday nights, until the testing truths were presented. Even thereafter attendance was good, with five to seven hundred persons present on week nights, and nearly a thousand on Sunday evenings. As a result of the effort, about five thousand townspeople were privileged to hear one or more lectures on God's message, five hundred expressed conviction of the inspiration of the message, and one hundred and fifty were brought into the church, either immediately following the effort or after additional studies. Truly a bountiful harvest!
But what about the 95,000 souls who did not attend even one meeting ! Can we believe that they were truly warned? Were they guilty of rejecting God's last warning? Certainly they had been confronted for weeks by newspaper advertisements, handbills, and posters, but did they receive any divine light from those no-tides? If the statements on the advertisements failed to bring 95 per cent of the city's population to even one meeting, but left the vast majority still without knowledge of God's last warning, then possibly we need a different phraseology that will obtain the desired results. Undoubtedly many of the people of other faiths and even those without any religious convictions, felt that they had the answers already to the queries presented. Why should they bother attending meetings to hear someone else's opinion? In the face of these possibilities, what type of advertising might have brought the truth to such persons even if they would not attend any meetings?
I believe the time is here for us to present straightforward, plain testimonies in every advertisement. The end of all things is at hand, and millions of souls are yet unwarned. Evasion should not obscure the titles of God's messages. Let us declare boldly, "Christ Is Coming Back Soon" or "Christ Will Return in This Generation:" instead of "One Ruler Over All Nations: Who Is He?" or "Will Christ Return in Our Day?" or "The World's Last Great Event." There is no equivocation or subterfuge in such announcements as:
"The Heavens Declare Christ's Soon Return" "Signs on Earth Portend Christ's Coming" "This Same Jesus Will Return Soon"
Regarding the state of the dead, I believe we should announce as our title, "The Dead Sleep Until the Resurrection." When the Sabbath truth is presented, we should declare in no uncertain words:
"The Seventh Day, Saturday, the True Sabbath" "No Scripture for Sunday Observance" "Man, Not God, Changed the Sabbath"
Each Title Backed With Scripture
With each title there should be a verse of Scripture as foundation for the assertion. This feature of the advertisement is most essential. God's Word is sharper than any two-edged sword. The Lord promises that His Word will not return unto Him void. Holy Scriptures will convict and draw sinners to Christ when man's best plans, devices, and artifices have failed. Thus for the title "This Same Jesus Will Return," the following scripture might be used: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Acts 1. For the title "The Seventh Day, Saturday, Is the True Sabbath" either the entire fourth commandment could be quoted, or the first part of Exodus 20:10.
An exception to such a policy might be made in regard to two topics on the Sabbath question. For the subject, "No Scripture for Sunday Observance," possibly the statement by Cardinal Gibbons in The Faith of Our Fathers would be appropriate:
"You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday."—Pages 72, 73 (II oth ed.).
Likewise, for the sermon, "Man, Not God, Changed the Sabbath," it might be desirable to quote from Geiermann's Catechism:
"Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
"A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
"Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
"A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church [in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 3301 transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday."—Page 50 (1946).
Positive Advertising Put to Test
That this, type of advertising will work has been demonstrated through two lay efforts held in Maryland, one in a small, town that had been worked many times by college students with meager or no success, the other in an abandoned rural church. The direct fruits of the two efforts were seventeen souls. The indirect fruits are yet to be realized, but those who held the effort know that every home visited received the seed of present truth. Even the local Catholic priest accepted the announcements with interest. One woman who, did not attend a single meeting told the worker who distributed the announcements at her home, that she was say= ing all the leaflets because of the message they presented. A prominent undertaker attended the meeting on the millennium because, according to his own testimony, he was amazed that such a scripture, as stated on the announcement, was in the Bible, and wanted more information.
USE PICTURES OF CHRIST.—Christ declares, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." Let us exalt Christ, rather than the human instrument, by placing a picture of 'our Saviour on the announcement instead of the evangelist's picture. Sallman's profile of Christ's head, Hoffman's paintings of the Saviour, Martin's "Christ Our Righteousness," and Anderson's modern scenes with Jesus, would be very suitable. Seventh-day Ad-- ventists should make Christ the center of every announcement as well as of every sermon.
RALPH B. NESTLER. (Missionary Layman, Takoma Park, Maryland.]
