With the coming of the printing press using movable type, invented by John Gutenberg in 1456, came also the opening of the doors of nations to the evangel of Jesus Christ in a larger way. The Protestant Reformation was soon to be born, and the message of "the just shall live by his faith" must have wings to carry it over land and sea. In God's great plans for the dissemination of truth He looks far ahead and arranges the stage, so that when the time comes for action He has ready men and ready tools for the carrying out of His plans. J. H. M. D'Aubigne says about Luther:
"If he did not find missionaries to bear instructions to distant lands, God had provided a missionary of a new kind. The printing-press was the successor of the Evangelists. This was the breaching-battery employed against the Roman fortress. Luther had prepared a mine the explosion of which shook the edifice of Rome to its lowest foundations."—History of the Ref ormation, book 6, chap. 6, p. 197.
Dr. A. T. Pierson, great missionary and religious writer of the past century, says of Christian literature : "Christian literature, as a means of overtaking the needs of men, belongs among secondary agencies, but, among them, takes front rank."—The Modern Mission Century; p. .475.
The "breaching-battery" of Luther's day is just as effective in our day. In the spread of the third angel's message we owe much to Christian literature. The Adverit Movement of 1833-44 was speeded on to all the earth by God's white-winged messengers. Tracts, leaflets, pamphlets, books small and large—all were used to call the attention of men to the great events which God was heralding to the world at that time.
The first Present Truth carried factual Bible truth to believers in New England, and some copies fell into the hands of individuals in other parts of the United States. It was the beginning of the era when great rays of light were to go clear round the world-23,000 miles of light rays. And how it has gone ! Monetary figures are not telling the whole story, for money does not tell of the tens of thousands of books going into the homes of the people. It is not only the colporteur sales that account for the spread of truth-filled literature, good as these sales reports are, for there are also the millions of pages of gospel-filled magazines, leaflets, tracts, and Bible correspondence lessons.
Look at Inter-America for a moment. The year is 1878. The judgment-hour message and the Sabbath truth had not yet found lodging in this area of the world. From far across the seas, even from old England, came some of God's white-winged messengers. Some fell into the waiting hands of Henri Williams, deacon of the Wesleyan Church. The Sabbath was made known. He accepted it. The tract was passed on to a schoolteacher, Nord Isaac, and he became the first herald of the message, the first national ordained minister in Haiti. Today more than eleven thousand Sabbath school members come together to praise God on the Sabbath day, and to study His Divine Word. The white-winged messenger has multiplied in fruitage.
A sea captain carried in his hand a package of these captive white-winged messengers and strewed them upon the wharf at Georgetown, British Guiana, saying as he did so, "I have fulfilled my promise." Eventually one of the papers fell into the hands of a woman who was looking for some rays of truth. Thus the 'light of the glorious third angel's message was kindled in another dark land, kindled never to go out until the Lord Jesus should come for His people.
We must keep them flying, these white-winged messengers. Who can tell which tract, leaflet, book, or magazine will be the one to win a soul? The ministers of God are to encOurage the people to a greater faithfulness in the use of gospel-filled literature.
Just the other day, over in one of the French islands of the West Indies, I heard it said by a worker:
"Brother Conello, of Gaudeloupe, is holding meetings at Douville. Four were converted. He moved to Douville to live and now has a Sabbath school of 537 members, He went from house to house, using Leaves of Autumn in French. A friend gave him the use of his house for meetings. They organized the believers to go two and two to the houses, carrying tracts with them. Twenty-five people have taken their stand for the message, and eighteen of these have already been baptized."
The time is ripe for a wider circulation of all truth-filled literature.
"Let the leaflets and tracts, the papers and books, go in every direction. Carry with you, wherever you go, a package of select tracts, which you can hand out as you have opportunity."—Review and Herald, June 10, 1880.
"Let our literature give the message as a witness to all the world.'—Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 61.
Keep the white-winged messengers flying. Retard them not. They are the agencies of God for good in an evil world. Who knows which shall prosper, this or that?
