Ecclesiastes 11:1
Cast thy bread upon the waters.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The very first service which my youthful heart rendered to Christ was the placing of tracts in envelopes, and then sealing them up that I might send them, with the hope that, by choosing pertinent tracts, applicable to persons I knew, God would bless them…I used to write texts on little scraps of paper, and drop them anywhere, that some poor creatures might pick them up, and receive them as messages of mercy to their souls. I could scarcely content myself even for five minutes without trying to do something for Christ. If I walked along the street, I must have a few tracts with me; if I went into a railway carriage, I must drop a tract out of the window.
KENNETH MOODY-STUART (1841-1904): Very few Christians can be preachers―but there are none who cannot be tract distributors.
C. H. SPURGEON: [Tract distribution] is admirably adapted to those persons who have but little power and little ability, but nevertheless, wish to do something for Christ. They have not the tongue of the eloquent, but they may have the hand of the diligent. They cannot stand and preach, but they can stand and distribute here and there these silent preachers…They may buy their thousand tracts, and these they can distribute broadcast. How many a little one in Zion has spent his life in doing this good, when he could not perhaps have found any other good within his reach. This however, is but the beginning—the smallest part of the matter. And when men begin with little efforts for Christ, such as the giving away of a tract, they become stronger to do something else afterwards…I look upon the giving away of a religious tract as only the first step for action not to be compared with many another deed done for Christ; but were it not for the first step we might never reach to the second, but that first attained, we are encouraged to take another, and so at the last, God helping us, we may be made extensively useful.
There is a real service of Christ in the distribution of the gospel in its printed form, a service the result of which heaven alone shall disclose, and the Judgment Day alone discover. How many thousands have been carried to heaven instrumentally upon the wings of these tracts, none can tell. I might say, if it were right to quote such a Scripture, The leaves were for the healing of the nations,—verily they are so. Scattered where the whole tree could scarcely be carried, the very leaves have had a medicinal and a healing virtue in them, and the real word of truth, the simple statement of a Saviour crucified, and of a sinner who shall be saved by simply trusting in the Saviour, has been greatly blessed, and many thousand souls have been led into the kingdom of heaven by this simple means.
ROBERT MURRAY M’CHEYNE (1813-1843): The smallest tract may be the stone in David’s sling. In the hands of Christ, it may bring down a giant soul.
GEORGE MÜLLER (1805-1898): Precede all your labours with earnest, diligent prayer…On every tract we give we should ask God’s blessing that it may touch the heart of the one who reads it.
KENNETH MOODY-STUART: There is often opposition in our own hearts before we can humble ourselves even to hand a tract to an acquaintance or to an unknown fellow-passenger …We have heard [Brownlow North] say that, after he had served the Lord for years, it sometimes cost him half an hour’s internal struggle before he could muster the courage to offer a tract to a gentleman travelling in a railway carriage with him.
BROWNLOW NORTH (1810-1875): But shall God’s people, therefore, cease to try? God forbid. The command is, Cast thy bread upon the waters.
C. H. SPURGEON: And now what shall I say to bind up what has been already said into a compact form? Let each one of us, if we have done nothing for Christ, begin to do something now. The distribution of tracts is the first thing.
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Editor’s Note: May we suggest an easy beginning? It might be better for Christians to pay all their utility, telephone, and other household bills by regular Postal mail than to make their payments electronically. Payment by mail provides a fear-free first-step way to sow the seed of God’s Word by including a good tract with their payment. We also suggest using tracts containing only Bible verses, for it is by the power of His Word that God saves souls, James 1:18; Hebrews 4:12. Good inexpensive Scripture tracts can be obtained from the Trinitarian Bible Society.
