In an American city a godly young woman placed a searching tract on the dresser of her mistress whose eyes fell upon it while preparing for an evening of worldly entertainment. Her attention was arrested, her heart was touched, deep conviction of soul took possession of her and soon she was led to know Jesus to the pardoning of her sins. Though possessed of great wealth and worldly honors, being a leader in society, she laid them aside, became a humble Christian and devoted her talents to the Lord, giving part of her time to tract work.

The circulation of tracts as a means of preaching the gospel is older than the art of printing. Wickliffe, the Reformer, was a great writer and distributor of tracts, employing his friends and pupils to multiply copies. Luther was a worker in the same line, but with the help, however, of the printing press which came to his aid. Two hundred years after, Count Zinzendorf, another devoted German Reformer, made extensive use of the printing press in the spreading of gospel tracts, etc. Toward the close of the eighteenth century Hannah More, from her own pen, produced the Repository Tracts which were so extensively used in her day. Still later on, Christians of various nations have been utilizing the facilities afforded by press, paper and ink for preaching the gospel by the printed page.

A professional diver, while at the bottom of the sea along the coast noticed an oyster holding a piece of printed paper between its closed shells. The diver secured the paper and through the goggles of his headgear began to read. It was a gospel tract and having come to him under such strange circumstances it impressed his heart and he said, "I can hold out against God's mercy no longer." He became, while at the bottom of the sea, a penitent and, as he was later assured, a forgiven man.

Tracts have advantages peculiar to themselves. Their very silence commands the notice of those to whom a verbal appeal might not be acceptable. They often confront the reader unexpectedly.

—A.H.G.