THE EVILS OF A MONEY-MAKING POLICY

L. T. NICOLA

“For many years there has been coming into our work what I might term a sort of commercial, money-making policy. It affects nearly every branch of the work. The first trace that I can see in our Conferences begins with the tract societies in their canvassing work. Not that this is wrong; but when the tract societies began to get returns from the sales of books, they awoke to the idea that they could make money; and so, little by little, they began to study how they could best do so in every transaction, and it has gone to such an extent now, that the true tract and missionary work is generally dead, in comparison with what it used to be. When any plan is presented now, the first question often raised is, ‘Is there any money in it?’GCB July 1, 1896, page 706.2

“Now the same idea has come into the General Conference and the International Tract Society, and the plan has been to raise money from our business for the extension of the truth. Viewed from a human standpoint, — a strictly business point of view, — such a course seems very consistent and reasonable; but looking at it from the standpoint of the gospel, from the standpoint of Christ and his work, and what the gospel is and must be to the world, it is wrong.GCB July 1, 1896, page 706.3