Some may ask, "Does gospel tract distribution accomplish any good? Many are thrown upon the ground immediately after being received. Many are put into the waste paper basket or into the fire. Could not the time and money be put to better service?"

So it might appear at first sight. But again and again there come to light instances of tracts being used by God for the blessing of readers when their being of any value whatever seemed impossible.

My attention was called recently to such an occurrence. In brief, the story was this: A shoemaker received a tract. He did not read it, but being at work, he used it as part of the lining of a shoe he was repairing. (An unlikely place for it to be of blessing to anybody, was it not?) But the shoe, having been well trodden down, it was again sent for repairs to another shoemaker. Ripping off the worn out sole he saw the printed paper folded inside the old sole. Its title arrested his attention at once. It was the message of God to him, awakening him to a sense of his sin and need. He left his work and sought salvation. Before long his eyes were turned in faith to Christ and he found rest to his conscience. The seed was planted in that shoe and eventually it grew in the shoemaker's heart.

This gospel paper has now come into your hands. It brings to you tidings of forgiveness and salvation through the finished work of Christ on the Cross. If you believe on Him, you too will find peace with God and eternal salvation.

So we go on with the work of tract distributing—"In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good" (Eccl. 11:6).

We still hear of cases of souls being saved through tracts given, or found, even in the trash and elsewhere.

—Selected