STUDY XXIV.

TRACTS AND BOOKS.

Memory Verse:  “And when I looked, behold, a hand was sent unto me; and,
    lo, a roll of a book was therein.”—­(Ezek. ii, 9.)

Scripture for Meditation:  Eccl. xi, 1; 1 Tim. iv, 7-16.

The influence of a tract or of a good book can not be estimated.  Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, was converted in boyhood through reading a gospel tract which he found in his father’s library.  “He had been frequently troubled about his soul, and had again and again tried to become a Christian, but had failed so often that he had concluded that there was no use in trying any more.”

An agent of the American Tract Society relates the following: 

“A man on a canal-boat received a tract, but to show his contempt for the tract and its giver, took out his penknife and cut it up into fantastic shapes.  Then he held it up to the derision of the company.

“In tearing it apart, one of the pieces clung to his knee.  His eyes were attracted by the only word on it—­’eternity.’  He turned it over, and there was the word ‘God.’

“These ideas remained in his mind.  He tried to laugh them off; then to drink, to play cards in order to banish them.  But they still clung to him, and plagued him till he sought God and preparation for eternity.”

There is an old true story about a tract, that should be told over and over again: 

A Puritan minister named Sibbs wrote a tract called “The Bruised Reed.”  A copy of this was given by a humble layman to a little boy at whose father’s house he had been entertained over night.  That boy was Richard Baxter, and the book was the means of his conversion.  Baxter wrote his “Call to the Unconverted,” and among the multitude led to Christ by it was Philip Doddridge.  Doddridge wrote “The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul,” and “the time would fail to tell” its blessed influence.  By it Wilberforce was converted, and of his life and labors volumes could be written.  Wilberforce wrote his “Practical View of Christianity,” and this led not only Dr. Chalmers into the truth, but Legh Richmond to Christ.  Richmond wrote “The Dairyman’s Daughter,” which has been published in a hundred languages, and many million copies have been sold.

But he who would make the best use of good literature must be wise.  How little tact some workers have!  In a hospital a tract-distributor handed a leaflet on dancing to a poor fellow who had lost both limbs.  Another zealous young man gave a tract on “The Tobacco Habit” to a beautiful cultured lady, the wife of a minister.  A good supply of common sense is just as necessary to success in the use of this method as in any other.

STUDY XXV.

THE PRAYER LIST.

Memory Verse:  “I will pray for you unto the Lord.”—­(1 Sam. vii, 5.)