The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
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— <strong>The</strong> Salvation Economy —<br />
and text posters for twenty-nine different occupations and in seven foreign<br />
languages for distribution in western Europe and Scandinavia.<br />
Tract distribution was work not merely for organisations but for the<br />
individual evangelical. ‘A tract is a vicarious witness that can go where a<br />
humble minister <strong>of</strong> the Gospel would be debarred from entry.’ 53 Predicting<br />
the impact <strong>of</strong> tracts was almost impossible: ‘Why should some tracts carry<br />
with them blessing resulting in abundant fruit, and others be apparently<br />
worthless paper?’ <strong>The</strong> answer, most tract organisations recommended, was<br />
‘praying always when giving them’. 54 Of all forms <strong>of</strong> missionary work, it<br />
required the least resources: ‘<strong>The</strong> outfit <strong>of</strong> the tract distributor is modest<br />
enough. It consists in the acquisition <strong>of</strong> one or more suitable tracts, a<br />
gracious manner, a humble heart willing to be guided, and a prayerful spirit.<br />
Let your behaviour, before and after <strong>of</strong>fering the tract, be Christ-like and<br />
gracious.’ Careful advice was given:<br />
Cultivate an attractive manner <strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong>fering a tract. You see a gentleman<br />
sitting quietly on a seat, resting; do not bustle up to him, thrust a<br />
tract upon him with a hasty word and be gone . . . If you can spare<br />
the time, sit down for a moment, take a booklet from your pocket,<br />
and begin reading it. <strong>The</strong>n in a minute or two say, perhaps, ‘I wonder<br />
whether I might <strong>of</strong>fer you a copy <strong>of</strong> this booklet.’ He takes it with<br />
a smile and a word <strong>of</strong> thanks, while you add, it may be, ‘I have read<br />
and re-read it many times; I feel sure you will enjoy it.’ A moment<br />
or two later you leave with a bright ‘Good morning’, which he,<br />
engrossed in his reading, looks up to acknowledge and returns to the<br />
tract. Even if you have not time to sit down, spare a moment to slow<br />
up, <strong>of</strong>fer a booklet with a bright smile and a courteous word, and<br />
leave him with the realisation that you are a messenger <strong>of</strong> God, interested<br />
in his eternal welfare. 55<br />
If <strong>of</strong>fering a tract to a member <strong>of</strong> the opposite sex, ‘wisdom and discretion’<br />
were required: ‘Let dignity be added to courtesy, and to both a gravity<br />
that consorts with the holy business at hand.’ Every opportunity was to<br />
be taken: ‘You get into a lift and find yourself alone with the lift-man.<br />
“Fourth floor, please; slip this in your pocket and read it when you get a<br />
chance.”’ Taxi drivers, the novice was advised, ‘rarely refuse a courteously<br />
<strong>of</strong>fered booklet.’ 56<br />
<strong>The</strong>re were almost endless variations on the religious publication.<br />
Charles Cook specialised in visiting prisoners in London prisons and using<br />
the stories he heard there to write tracts on ‘sad ends’. 57 Tracts contained<br />
a fairly limited style <strong>of</strong> content: didactic exhortation to keep the Sabbath,<br />
acknowledge sin, and come to Christ without delay. After the mid-1850s,<br />
the several hundred Drummond Tracts showed a noticeable shift towards<br />
the narrative story, dramatic and sometimes melodramatic in form, and<br />
invariably claimed as true. <strong>The</strong>re is little way to assess the authenticity <strong>of</strong><br />
51