Gospel Wagon Work

Pretty much everything that can be said in favor of open-air meetings can be said in favor of Gospel wagon work, in fact, it is a special form of open-air work. But many of these advantages are found ina larger degree in the work of the Gospel wagon, and there are other advantages which are peculiar to it.

1. The great advantage of gospel wagon meetings is their portability.

A Gospel wagon can drive rapidly from one part of a city to another, carrying a large number of workers. A Gospel wagon can also go from town to town throughout the country, and readily reach places where there are no churches or other religious opportunities. One Gospel wagon in a single summer held meetings all through Connecticut and Massachusetts, and afterwards went out to Chicago and then down into the Southern States, being blessed of God wherever it went, holding meetings all along the road.

2. The second advantage of the gospel wagon ts its novelty. While there are many Gospel wagons in opezation to-day, in most communities the Gospel wagon is still a decided novelty. People love something new and flock to see it, and a large opportunity is thereby given for preaching the Gospel.

3. The third advantage of the gospel wagon its its attract- 2VENESS.

This comes not only from its novelty, but for many other reasons. The wagon is attractive not only to the people, but also to the workers. It is hard work to trudge from place to place in a city, holding open-air meetings, and many people who could do splendid work in a Gospel wagon are not able to go if one must make his travels on foot. The wagon also affords shelter from the heat of the sun and from sudden storms.

The speakers and singers are lifted above the heads of their audience and can easily speak to a much larger crowd than they could in any other way. How attractive the Gospel wagon is to hearers is proven from the fact that in many towns where it is difficult to get one hundred out to a meeting house, it is not uncommon to get one thousand or more out to listen to a Gospel wagon service.

4. The great advantage of gospel wagon work ts that tt reaches and converts the people.

Mr. Leonard Weaver, speaking of Harry Moorhouse’s Bible carriage work in England says: ‘‘I could tell of would-be suicides who have been arrested on their march to death and converted to God. They have flung the poison from their pockets. I could tell of men, ruined as the results of their lives of sin, accepting Christ and finding rest for their battered spirits in His embrace; of Christians being brought together on this union basis, and losing the bitterness of sectarianism and learning to love one another; of workers being banded together and carrying on a weekly service in the open air after the van has been removed; of mission halls opened where they have large memberships, reaching thousands with the Gospel. Many a Gospel stream, the ripple of which is heard in the courts of heaven, can be traced back to this grand, God-honored Bible carriage work.’’ Gospel wagons are not an experiment; they are a work that God has approved. It is said that two consecrated men of God who will travel with a Bible carriage for six months will circulate more Bibles than any fifty men from door to door. Mr. Leonard Weaver says again, ‘‘Let me say to the praise of God, with the help of another worker I have sold and given away over one million of the Scriptures. In two hours we have sold one thousand copies of the New Testament, not in quantities to one purchaser, but one by one. Then beside these we sent forth millions of Gospel books.’’

Gospel wagons and Bible carriages are now in use in England, Scotland, Australia, Spain, Italy, the Argentine Republic, and in many cities and States of the Union.

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II. Kinds of gospel wagons.

There are various kinds of Gospel wagons. The simplest form of a Gospel wagon is simply a little low cart drawn by hand, upon which an organ can be placed, and which will also serve for a platform for the speaker at an open-air meeting. Just one degree above that is ‘‘the Gospel push cart,’’ as they call it in Washington. This consists of a low wagon that will hold an organ, has a platform that will let down for speakers and singers, and an electric light. This is sometimes drawn by a single horse, or pushed and pulled by two men. Still higher is a little express wagon furnished with chairs and organ. Such an express wagon has been used with excellent results by a church in Chicago, one of whose deacons peddles through the week and uses the express wagon for Gospel work on Sunday. In one of the Western States a very simple wagon is in use that holds six people and has a low platform behind that holds an organ. The whole conveyance is drawn by a single horse, and is gladly welcomed as it moves from place to place where there are no churches. An ordinary band wagon is used in many places with good results.

In the city of Washington a very elaborate wagon is used costing $800, and accommodating twenty or thirty people. It is fitted up with every convenience, and though large and heavy can be rapidly drawn over the excellent roadways of that city. It has been in use for many years, and every day vast audiences hear the Gospel and many have been converted. A still more elaborate wagon has been used. This has a reception room inside, and four berths, much after the pattern of a sleeping car.

a CHAPTER IX

COLPORTAGE WORK

I. Colportage work defined.

What is Colportage work? By Colportage work we mean the distribution of religious literature. from house to house. As a rule, the literature thus distributed is ‘sold, sometimes for its al value, sometimes at less than cost.

II. Its importance and advantages.

1. People who fail in other lines of Christian work can succeed in Colportage work.

There are many who wish to work for the Lord, and feel they have a definite call to give their whole time to that work, who are unable to preach to edification, who are incompetent to run a mission, who would not even succeed as house to house visitors. What can they do? They can do Colportage work and oftentimes meet with great success init. I have in mind one man who felt a call to Christian work, but it soon became evident that he had no gifts whatever that would warrant his preparation for the ministry. He was exceedingly slow and tiresome in speech, he lacked fire, and apparently lacked energy. He was induced to take up the Colportage work, and he became one of the most successful colporters I ever knew, not only making a very generous living by the work, but also reaching many homes and touching people who could be reached in no other way. Another man who could not even speak to edification in prayer meeting, who was exceedingly limited in all directions, sold during a single month 1,200 volumes and cleared about $54 over and above expenses; the same person cleared about $400 in ten months. Going from town to town, he was the means of doing untold good. Superannuated ministers who have reached the point where their services are no longer in demand for churches, do not need to give up the Lord’s work. They can take up Colportage work, and perhaps be more useful than they were in their preaching days.

Ministers and other Christian workers who are broken down physically, and unable to bear the strain of regular work, can take up Colportage work with great advantage to their health, and accomplish very much for the Master.

2. Colportage work reaches neglected districts. -

All over the land there are stretches of country so sparsely settled that it would be impossible to maintain religious services, yet in these thinly settled districts taken together, there are thousands upon thousands of souls that need to hear the Gospel. Oftentimes they can be reached by Colportage work better than in any other way. One solution of the religious problem in the country is to be found in Colportage work.

3. Colportage work ts self-supporting.

The Colporter needs to have no missionary society back of him. He can go out and sell his books and support himself, and if he has any gift in this direction, make a comfortable living. Take for example the books of the Bible Institute Colportage Association. ‘They contain some of the very best evangelical literature of the day, books adapted to the unsaved to lead them to Christ, books on the deeper Christian life, books on Christian work. They are written by some of the best known and most gifted authors, men like F. B. Meyer, Campbell Morgan, Andrew Murray, D. L. Moody, Major D. W. Whittle, Charles Spurgeon, and others. These books can be secured in quantities by the Colporter at seven cents each, while he sells them for fifteen cents each, thus making eight cents on each book sold. It is a comparatively easy thing to make from $1.50 to $5 a day at this work.

4. Colportage work converts sinners and builds up Chris- trans.

All over our land to-day there are many people who have been led to Christ, and many Christians who have been led into a deeper knowledge of Christ, through the work of Colporters,

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5. Lts results are permanent and ever-widening. /

A pteacher goes away, but a book stays. One man reads a book and is blessed by it and hands it to another, and he still to another. A single book may be read by scores of persons.

6. It opens doors to other work. /

Many a man begins Christian work as a humble Colporter, but as he goes from house to house and village to village with the little books that carry the knowledge of Jesus Christ, he soon begins to preach the Word, and is quite likely in time to receive a call to be a pastor or an assistant pastor.

7. Colportage work 1s a splendid preparation for other Christian work

The Colporter gets right into the home, gets acquainted with all kinds of men, has to learn through necessity the modes of convincing men. There is perhaps no better preparation for many phases of ministerial work than the work of a Colporter.

III. How to do colportage work.

1. Get a few books to begin with, and then begin.

A man once came to me out of money and out of employment. I bought for him four Colportage books for 28 cents, and sent him out. He came back in less than half an hour with 60 cents. He then took his share of the money and bought himself other books, and thus the work widened. The way to begin is to begin.

2. Visit every house and store and saloon.

When one undertakes to do Colportage work in any given district, as a rule it is well to visit every house and store and Saloon in the district. Of course, if one continues to work the same district, he will soon learn what houses can be visited again and again, and what places to avoid. Experience shows that many even in saloons will buy the books, and sometimes the saloon-keepers themselves, and no one can measure the good thus done.

3. Leave the books in envelopes for examination.

Some have found it very useful to have envelopes that will contain the books, and leave the books in every house on a street, giving notice that they will be called for afterward, and if the people wish to keep the books, they can leave the money in the envelope; if not, return the books. Opportunities for conversation are often thus opened. One prominent Christian worker, wishing to experiment on the work for himself, went down one of the leading streets of a western city, leaving a book in every house. As he came back, he found interesting opportunities for speaking with people whom the ordinary missionary could not reach. Even where the books are not purchased, they will often be read and so the truth will get a hearing.

4. Churches can employ a church visitor without expense to themselves, by equipping the church visitor with Colportage books which they can sell, and thus meet their expenses.

Of course the visitor must have the public endorsement of the pastor of the church, and in this way he gets an entrance for his work. This plan has been adopted with great success in some quarters.

5. Get pastors to recommend the books.

When the Colporter visits a new village, he should look up the pastors of the place and present to each of them a copy of one of his best books. In this way the interest of the pastors will be enlisted, and if they will speak a word of endorsement in the prayer meeting or some other place, it will be a great help. Many churches have the Colportage books on sale in the vestibule.

6. Get pastors to preach on certain lines, and then go around and sell the books that bear upon the subject in which the pastor has awakened an interest.

For example, if the pastor speaks upon the baptism with the Holy Spirit, go through the community with McNeil’s ‘‘Spirit-Filled Life.’’

7. Attending religious conventions.

A great work can be done by Colporters attending religious conventions, and there disposing of books along the lines of the subjects treated in the conventions.