p. 14 | Newspaper Publicity by Stemple White

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 9, 1914

Newspaper Publicity

By Stemple White

At the direction of the conference committee we planned on holding a few weeks' meetings at Austin, Minn., immediately following the meeting of the Northern Union Conference, before taking up the city work in Duluth. March 1 was Sunday, go to church day, and as a result of free publicity in the Herald, the new house of worship was packed with interested hearers. We put out no cards nor bills whatever, but for nine weeks good reports of the meetings and the gist of the sermon appeared in nearly every daily issue of the Herald. As the interest deepened and the meetings progressed, we found it greatly to our advantage to insert from time to time a paid announcement with appropriate cartoon bearing on the testing points of the message, the expense of which was gladly met by local brethren.

As a result of these few weeks' work, God added twenty-three souls to the Austin church, twenty-one of whom were adults, increasing the membership from thirty-seven to sixty.

Since the all-powerful Word of God is the basis of all reform, how important it is that we take advantage of that greatest medium of free publicity, the press, to get the Word of God before the people. In our few paid announcements we kept prominently before the public the name “Seventh-day Adventist” in connection with a picture of the Bible, rather than with a picture of the evangelist (this we did not use). Many in Austin are now seriously thinking of the truth as a result of reading the Herald, and scores who never attended the meetings are searching for more light. We learned from the editor that the Herald circulates among friends in many parts of the United States, and even in far-away India, where it is eagerly read by a first-day missionary who used to reside in Austin. Only the judgment itself can reveal the wonderful results obtained by such publicity through the public press.

A certain Catholic lady read an article in the Herald on the number of the beast, which the editor had headed “666.” She immediately borrowed the priest's Bible (Douay Version) from his housekeeper, read the book of Revelation, attended one service in which the priesthood of Christ was presented, and at once vowed never to darken the door of the Catholic Church again. She destroyed her rosary and prayer books, and is keeping the Sabbath in her home. Although her husband is very bitterly opposed to the truth, she intends publicly to take her stand for God, and wishes to transfer her children from the parochial school to the local church school.

While in Mankato recently, I spoke on the seven seals, illustrating my subject with large hand-painted charts. Mankato had just been stirred by the lectures of Dr. Boles, and it was a most opportune time to give the warning against the beast, the image, and the mark; so by a little previous arrangement with the editor of the Journal, a full synopsis of the discourse appeared in that paper, under striking headlines. Thus free publicity was given to this phase of the message, and many who had never heard a word on this important line of prophecy had opportunity to study this portion of present truth.

During our recent Minnesota camp meeting at St. Paul, the big dailies gave us favorable mention, and a picture of the baptismal service appeared in the Daily News.

The daily press is yet to play a far greater part in the closing work of the gospel than it ever has in the past.

STEMPLE WHITE.