By Rev. J.J. Morgan, Secretary of Southwestern Agency
Actual experiences of a half day in Bible work given us by our veteran colporteur, G.A. Perkins. They illustrate the average experience of a Bible colporteur in his house-to-house canvass. This half day was spent in the poor district of an Oklahoma oil town.
First house; “No, we don’t want any Bibles.”
Next: Same answer.
Next: “Oh, Mother, buy me one of them little Bibles,” cries a sturdy little boy of eight years. He becomes the proud possessor of our 38 cent Bible.
This little boy beats me to the next house, and when I arrive, he is showing his Bible to a neighbor friend. Another sale.
Next: “Well, I guess I need one. I have not had a Bible in my house for 16 years, and I confess I have been a sinful woman. Do you think God will forgive, if I repent?”
A large print Testament. A short prayer. A woman in tears, and we trust, a woman saved.
Next: No one at home, but we have difficulty getting safely away, for an ugly dog attacks us.
Next, and next and next are all well supplied.
Next house: The door is slammed in our face. We lose ‘pep’ here, and stop for a moment in silent prayer.
Next: “I am so glad to see you. I have heard of your being in town, and I have been hoping you would come to my house. I want some Bibles for my Sunday-School Class. God bless you! Yu are doing a great work.”
We straighten up, take a long breath, thank God, and press on.
Next house: Nothing doing.
Next: “I want one of those Bibles with a family record. I am 28 years old, married, and have three children. |This is the first Bible we have ever had in our home. No, we don’t go to church or Sunday school.” A short prayer—a penitent mother.
Next: We hear footsteps, slow and feeble, coming to the door. “Oh, we have plenty of Bibles, but nothing that I can read. The print is so fine.”
“How is this?”
“I can read that! What is is worth?”
The American Bible Society will sell you the Bible at the cost of manufacture, namely $1.50.”
“But I have only one dollar in the house.”
“This is mission work; you may have it for one dollar.”
We meet a street car conductor. “No, I have one of those army Testaments. It is all stained with blood from a wound in France, and I wouldn’t take anything for it.”
“Well, I will tell you what you ought to do; you ought to dig up that Bible and read it. God will hold you responsible for neglecting His Word.”
Again on our way. We hear footsteps behind us. A little girl runs up all out of breath, and says, “Mister, have you any more of those pretty little Testaments? I want one so bad? No sir, I haven’t got but 10 cents.”
From the front page of the Star of Zion, July 14, 1921. The Star of Zion is a Charlotte newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The American Bible Society was begun in 1816 and is still selling or giving away Bibles today American Bible Society.
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