Untitled article by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 21, 1908

Early Experiences in the Publishing Work—No. 3

By John Norton Loughborough

As rapidly as possible, Brother Bates prepared the copy for his tract on the Sabbath. In the meantime, he received letters from persons, who, not knowing of his printing work, but who had heard of his advocating the third angel’s message and the Sabbath truth, stated that they were impressed by the Spirit of the Lord that he was in need of money. In three instances, as he told me, the letters contained each a five-dollar bill. Others contained smaller sums.

As the remittance mentioned in a former article had filled the larder with the necessary eatables, what came later was applied on the printer’s bill. So matters progressed until all the proofs had been read, and the day came when the printed sheets were to be completed. There was yet a portion of the bill unpaid. What should now be done?

After praying over the matter, Brother Bates decided that he would go, although it would be disappointing to him to do so, and tell the printer that he would not take the sheets away until the bill was fully paid, as that was the contract first made. Accordingly, he began the apology to Mr. Lindsay, expressing regret that the bill was not all paid. The printer interrupted his speech with words which brought happy surprise to Elder Bates. “Elder,” he said, “you may take your sheets at once, for the bill is all settled.” “What!” said the elder, “how is that?” “Well,” said the printer, “a man came in this morning, an entire stranger to me, and paid the remainder of the bill. He did not give me his name, so I can not tell you who he is. But the bill is paid, and the sheets are yours.”

With a glad heart Brother Bates took the sheets home, and he and Mrs. Bates were soon folding, stitching, and sending out this Sabbath tract free to any they thought might be induced to read it. The tract was in small type, set solid, and contained forty-eight pages. The title-page read, “The Seventh-day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign, from the Beginning to the Entering into the Gates

of the Holy City, According to the Commandment. By Joseph Bates.” The imprint on this title-page was, “Press of Benjamin Lindsay, New Bedford, 1845.”

This book was a mighty lever in advancing the Sabbath truth, and by it many a soul was led to the light. Its pointed arguments and scripture proofs so forcibly arranged, led some in early times to call the tract “that hewing book on the Sabbath.”

Brother Bates never learned who paid the last of that bill for printing his Sabbath tract. It will be of interest to the reader, however, to know who did pay it. In the winter of 1883, after my return from the British mission, I was holding meetings in Memphis, Mich. In one of my discourses I referred to the publication of that first Sabbath tract. Brother Heman Gurney, who resided in the place, was in the audience. After meeting, he said to me, “Come home with me to dinner; I have something interesting to tell you.” As we sat at the dinner-table, he said, “Brother Loughborough, I suppose you would like to know who paid the last of the bill on Brother Bates’s tract?” I replied, “Yes, indeed I would.” “Well,” said he, “Brother Bates never knew who paid it. I, Heman Gurney, paid that bill, and there is a special providence connected with my getting the money, from a portion of which I paid that bill. I was a journeyman blacksmith. I worked for a man who owed me one hundred dollars, which he neglected to pay me. It ran on for a long time. Finally [in the 1844 movement, as singing evangelist with Brother Bates] I left the man’s shop, and he was very angry, and declared he would never pay me. After the 1844 movement I spoke to him about the debt, and he, in a rage, said, ‘If you ever mention the thing to me again, I will give you a whipping.’ So it ran on until the debt was outlawed, and I had decided that I should never get it.”

“On the morning of the day that Brother Bates’s sheets were to be completed, as I was going down the street of New Bedford to a shop in which I then worked, I saw this former employer on the opposite side of the street. He began to beckon to me, and called out, ‘Gurney, come over here.’ I started across the street, not knowing but I was now to receive the threatened ‘whipping.’ As I came up to him, he said, in a subdued tone, ‘Gurney, I honestly owe you one hundred dollars, and I want to pay it.’ Thereupon he took out his purse, and handed to me the one hundred dollars. Of course I thanked him. I said to myself, ‘This is a godsend; I will go and make the first investment with it by paying the balance of the bill on Brother Bates’s Sabbath tract.’ This I did before engaging in that day’s work.”

This is the interesting and true story in every particular of the first effort of Seventh-day Adventists to print a tract on the subject of the Lord’s Sabbath,—that memorial of himself, and his power, which had for so long been trodden underfoot, but was now to be exalted to its true position by the third angel’s message.

As we now look at the Lord’s opening providence thus connected with a people in the depths of poverty, it virtually says, “Go forward, trusting to see the Lord open the way and prosper your work, while you humbly trust him, and stick to the publishing of his sacred message to the world.” How clearly has this been proved in our experiences in the publishing work. If calamities have come to it, they have been allowed only to correct departures from the right course. God’s care and blessing have followed the printing of the truth, and we may be assured his blessing will ever follow those who obey his bidding in the publishing work.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.