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Persuaded By The Mail
Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 11, 2014 (message contributor)
"I GIVE UP!"
In the early 1960s, the publishers of Time Magazine were concerned about their declining circulation, so they designed a campaign to send out thousands of letters making an emotional appeal to potential subscribers. In the past, such mailings had been done manually, at a great cost in human resources. IBM was developing something called a computer, so they made a proposal to install a fully automated system that would write the letters, seal the envelopes, address them according to a selected database, stamp them and send them into the postal system without the letters ever being touched by a human hand. The huge computer was installed with much fanfare and anticipation.
However, as is still the case with computers, there was a glitch, and as a result a poor rancher in Wyoming received 12,634 letters appealing to him to subscribe to Time Magazine. The surprised rancher, who didn't ordinarily get much mail, opened the mail-bags and started reading the letters. After reading a few dozen, he sent in a $6 check for a subscription with a note that said, "I give up!"
That’s the kind of persuasion that’s hard to resist! God’s love for you is so powerful that it is hard to resist it!
(From a sermon by David Dykes, The Rejected Stone, 8/20/2012)
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