Chapter XIV: The Colportage Association

Chapter XIV.
The Colportage Association

ALTHOUGH in order of time the Colportage was our third work, we are very far from considering it to be of third-rate importance; on the contrary, we believe it to be one of the most efficient and economical agencies in existence, and, as education increases, it will be more and more so. The sale of vicious literature can only be met by the distribution of good books: these can only be scattered in rural districts by carrying the books to the doors, and even in towns the book-hawkers' work greatly stimulates their sale. Scotland has long had a grand staff of colporteurs, it was time to make a beginning for England. The work was forced upon us by the earnestness of a generous friend at the Tabernacle to whom we are under great obligations. The committee was formed in September, 1866: certain earnest young brethren undertaking the management of the enterprise. During the next two years six men were employed, and it was not easy to find the means for their support; this enterprise seemed to be one plant too many in our garden, and had it not been for the persevering entreaties of the principal promoter of this work, we should have allowed it to die out. In 1872 the work began to grow, and God's good hand was with it, so that thirteen men were in the field. This growth rendered it needful to supplement the energetic labours of the honorary staff, to whom great honour is due, by appointing a paid secretary, Mr. W. Corden Jones, who has proved to be well adapted to his place. In 1874 the sales had nearly reached £3,000, with thirty-five men at work, and at this moment (1876) forty-five men are employed. The Society now possesses a trade stock of £800, and is in need of an annual income of £2,500. These dimensions are respectable, but to meet the demands of England they ought to be multiplied by ten. The depot of this society is in the College buildings. The society is unsectarian in principle, after the same manner as the London City Mission; although most of its colporteurs are Baptists at present, "this arises from the fact that they have been applied for by Baptists and supported by them. Each man costs about £80 per annum, but on the receipt of £40 a-year from any lovers of a full and free salvation, a colporteur will be appointed to the district which the donors may select, and the colporteur will work in connection with those who provide this measure of support. Many churches find such a man to be the best and cheapest worker imaginable.

THE COLPORTEUR. The colporteur not only endeavours to sell books, but he visits from door to door, and in so doing converses with the people about their souls, prays with the sick, and leaves a tract at each cottage. He is frequently able to hold prayer meetings, open air services, and Bible-readings. He gets a room, if possible, and preaches, founds Bands of Hope, and makes himself generally useful in the cause of religion and temperance. He is in fact at first a missionary, then a preacher, and by-and-by in the truest sense a pastor. We have some noble men in this work. All are not equally good, some have even proved slothful; but the system is one which soon discovers a man's negligence, since his sales fall off, and the monthly report tells the tale. The book-hawker stands upon a vantage ground as a house to house missionary. His pack is a passport to every door, the attempt to sell is an opportunity for declaring the Gospel, and the book itself is a ready text. When we think of 300,000 visits paid in one year among a priest-ridden peasantry, we are encouraged, and give God the glory. But we cannot restrain the sigh "O that some rich stewards of the Lord would look on this work and help us to increase it." London has only one of our colporteurs and yet needs them badly; how is this? Will no one employ a man? No money can be more wisely expended, nor used more directly for the benefit of those who most require it. Send on your cheques to C. H. Spurgeon, Nightingale Lane, Clapham, Surrey. Reports and every information will be cheerfully sent on application to the Secretary of the Colportage Society, Pastors' College, Temple Street, Southwark.

BIBLE CARRIAGE.

Mr. Charlesworth's two Bible-classes have generously agreed to support a brother with a Bible carriage in the streets of London. Would not some other communities of young people do well to have their own man at work in the regions where they dwell? Think of it.