Stephen N. Haskell
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Well might S. N. Haskell promote tract distribution, for it was a tract that brought him into the Sabbath truth. In 1852, when he was only nineteen, he began preaching with the first-day Adventists, in a sort of irregular way, while working at making and selling soap. When first he heard of the Sabbath, through William Saxby, at Springfield, Massachusetts, he bluntly replied: "If you want to keep that old Jewish Sabbath, you can do so, but I never shall."
However, William Saxby, a tinner, was tactful. He was tinsmith for the railway. The shop was near the station, and when the young man landed at the station, hardly knowing what to do with his trunk, our brother gladly offered to store it in his shop. Then he invited young Haskell to his home for the evening. In later years, Elder Haskell told us:
"He took me home with him, and hung up a chart illustrating the three messages, the sanctuary, etc., . . . and gave me, in short, a synopsis of present truth."
The young man saw that he would have to study to find out what to say about such things. He was just then bound for the Canadian border. William Saxby gave him the tract, Elihu on the Sabbath, which was one of the most familiar Sabbath tracts in earlier times. Stephen Haskell was bound for a port on Lake Consecon, in Canada, he told us; but five miles this side of his destination he left the boat and went off alone to settle this Sabbath question. He wrote:
"I got off at Trent, and went to the woods, and thus spent the day in reading my Bible and praying on the subject. Finally, before night, I came to the conclusion that, according to the best light I had, the seventh day was the Sabbath, and I would keep it until I could get further light. So I have kept it ever since." — The Review and Herald, April 7, 1896.
Back in Massachusetts, in 1854, he began to talk the Sabbath and preach it, and soon he had a group keeping it. William Saxby had kept in touch with him, and now asked Joseph Bates to visit the group. A ten-day meeting brought them all fully into the message.
Settling later in South Lancaster, Massachusetts, S. N. Haskell found there our pioneer of missionary correspondence, Mrs. Mary Priest, who, with a band of other women, was giving herself to the spreading of the message. These women had won some souls to the truth by sending out papers and tracts by mail to people whose addresses they secured, and by following up with correspondence. Elder Haskell's forceful grasp of practical things saw here a power to be set into organized operation. In 1869 he organized the first Vigilant Missionary Society at his house in South Lancaster. The idea caught attention, and he was the promoter of similar organizations in the churches in all the field. Thus he was called the father of the tract and missionary work among us.
Elder Haskell lived only for Christ and for the message of salvation. He led in the founding of our school at South Lancaster, now Atlantic Union College. In 1885 he led the first party to open work in Australia and New Zealand. In 1887 he was in England, transferring the headquarters and publishing work for Britain to London. In the year following he made visits to India, China, and other regions beyond, and brought back inspiration that greatly increased mission interest. In later years he himself labored in South Africa and Australia. He died in 1922, in honored old age.