Colporteur Evangelist and Finance
75
A worker who sees that he is unable to make a success of the
canvassing work should go to the proper persons and tell them that he
cannot continue in that line of work.
Every canvasser should be truthful, honest, and faithful. How many
souls might be saved from temptation, and how much sorrow might
be avoided, if all our workers were trained to be as true as steel to
principle!—
Manuscript 20, 1904
.
Results of Careless Financial Habits—Some canvassers have
conducted their business in such a slack, loose way as to be constantly
sapping the funds needed for carrying on the work. They have sold
books, and given the impression that they were working for the cause;
but instead of bringing in the means so much needed to advance the
work, they have taken many dollars from the treasury. The means
which came into their hands, which was not their own, they appropri-
ated to defray their own expenses, the expenses of their families, or to
favor their family connections.
By appropriating to their own use that which belongs to the cause of
God, canvassers involve themselves in difficulties, separate their souls
from God, and create a feeling of uncertainty, a want of confidence
in those who are laboring with them in the field. At the same time
they do injustice to their fellow laborers. Men who do their very best
are liable to be regarded with suspicion, and thus are made to suffer
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because of the course of untrustworthy persons.
The result is that the cause of God is involved in perplexity and
brought into embarrassment, and a heavy burden is cast upon those
who were appointed to bear weighty responsibilities. If this loose
way of doing business is permitted to continue, it will not only drain
the treasury of means, but will cut off the supplies that flow from the
people. It will destroy their confidence in those at the head of the work
who have the management of funds, and will lead many to discontinue
their gifts and offerings.
The course of these careless workmen has brought upon men in
leading positions a burden that grieves them to the heart. They are
perplexed to know how they can guard the cause of God from every
species of robbery, and yet save the souls of those who have such
perverted ideas as to what is true honesty.
The practice of borrowing money to relieve some pressing ne-
cessity, and making no calculation for canceling the indebtedness,