The products of the printing press have an incalculable opportunity. They can do untold good and they can do untold harm. Do we realize the extraordinary dynamic of the printed page? It is like thistledown (the silky down attached to the seeds of a thistle) blown by the wind to scatter the seed.

A woman, whose name is forgotten, dropped a tract in the way of Richard Baxter which resulted in his conversion. Richard Baxter wrote "The Call to the Unconverted." That was the means of bringing a multitude to God including Philip Doddridge. Philip Doddridge wrote "The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul: which brought thousands into the kingdom and among others the great Wilberforce. Wilberforce wrote "A Practical View of Christianity," which was the means of bringing many to Christ, including Leigh Richmond. Leigh Richmond wrote "The Dairyman's Daughter," which has been the means of the salvation of many. How that unknown woman's riches increased with the years—interest upon interest, which can never be computed, and will compound on and on, forever and ever.

The Life is not in the sower, but in the seed. Even if an infidel scattered the Scriptures, he would only be exploding his own battlements. For in scattering divine literature we liberate thistledown, laden with precious seed, which, blown by the winds of the Spirit, floats over the world. The printed page never flinches, never shows cowardice; it is never tempted to compromise; it never tires, never grows disheartened; it travels cheaply and requires no hired hall; it never loses its temper; and it works long after we are dead. The printed page is a visitor which gets inside the home and stays there; it always catches a man in the right mood, for it speaks to him only when he is reading it; it always sticks to what it has said and never answers back, nor takes note of scoffs or jeers.

Another powerful reason for using literature is that the printed page will reach those otherwise utterly unreachable and may be the only chance they will ever have of eternal life. Someone once gave four copies of H.L. Hasting's lecture on the inspiration of the Bible to four infidels at different times. All four were converted and became ministers of the Gospel. Many decades ago a lady gave some leaflets to two actors. One of the actors, led by this tract to attend a gospel service and so becoming converted, was Dr. George Lorimer who became a preacher in Boston. Through his influence, Russell H. Conwell was led into the ministry. Thus, the salvation of these two notable pulpit speakers is traceable to one little leaflet in the hands of a woman.

The printed page is deathless: you can destroy one but the press can reproduce millions. As often as it is martyred, it is raised. The ripple started by a tract can widen down the centuries until it beats upon the portals of eternity. Its very mutilation can be its sowing. When Leigh Richmond was once traveling by coach, passengers got out to walk and he began to give a tract to every wayfarer he met. One of his fellow travelers smiled derisively as he saw a tract treated contemptuously by the receiver, torn in tow, and thrown down on the road. A puff of wind carried it over a hedge into a hayfield where a number of haymakers were seated. Soon they were listening to the tract read by one of their number who had found it. He was observed carefully joining together the two parts which had been town asunder, but were held together by a thread. The reader was led to reflection and prayer and subsequently became an earnest Christian and tract distributor himself. Of the rest, within twelve months three became active Christian workers.

Nor let us forget the enormous electric voltage prayer can put behind the tract. God's "thistledown" enters doors locked to the evangelist. It can be enclosed in every letter. Its economy places it within the reach of all. It preaches in the factory, the airport, the shopping mall. It visits the hospital and the prison and whispers in the ear of the dying. For prayer—that is, God—is behind it.

—Selected