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The Review Enlargement

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 16, 1866

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 28, No. 20.

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The Review Enlargement.

By Editor

We have now reached a point where we can speak definitely on this subject. The proposition seems to meet with universal favor. At the large meetings in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, as shown by Bro. Loughborough's Reports, the brethren without exception approved of the plan; and now, as seen by the report in another column, the N. Y. Conference has voted in its favor. Individuals have also written quite definitely on the point.
Bro. Bates says:
“I am in favor of the statements and suggestions which have been published respecting the enlargement of the Review and Herald. And I hope the people of God who have been interested in reading its weekly issues, will cheerfully aid in its enlargement, and its circulation.”
Bro. Cottrell writes to the Trustees of the Association as follows:
“You have offered several good reasons why the Review should be enlarged. I know no reason why it should not. A carefully selected summary of passing events, is a desideratum, especially of those events which have a bearing upon the fulfillment of prophecy, and thus constitute the signs of the times. But the floating items of news must be put through the fanning-mill, and the chaff and dust all blown away.
“In regard to the price, since the Review is almost the only paper that retained the old price during the war, it seems its readers can well afford an increase of fifty cents a year for the paper when enlarged as proposed.”
“I am not so well prepared to judge of this matter as others, and especially those at the office of publication. I confide more in their judgment than my own.
“Trusting that God will guide to a proper decision, I am as ever yours to go through.”
Bro. Cornell writes from Holly, Mich.:
“About enlarging the Review, I will say that I am decidedly in favor of the plan. I have heard many express the wish that the paper was larger. I think the reasons given by the Committee in favor of enlargement, are all sufficient, and that there will be a united voice in its favor. I will do all I can to increase the subscription list, and to persuade as many as I can to pay as much more for the enlarged paper as it is worth to them.”
Bro. Clarke, of Portage, Ohio, gives the feeling of the brethren in his section on this matter as follows:
“All here are much pleased with the proposal to add four pages to the Review. Some ask if it would not be better to add eight pages, and bring the price up to three dollars to all? Would not the brethren generally be better pleased with an addition of eight than of four pages?”
That it will be necessary eventually to enlarge the paper to 16 pages weekly, as above suggested, we have no doubt. But to bring it up to twelve is quite an advance step, and is perhaps enough to undertake at present. This will be equivalent to seventy-eight Reviews in a year, instead of fifty-two, as now.
The Trustees now think they have sufficient indication of the minds of the brethren, to go on with this matter. The paper will therefore be enlarged as proposed at the commencement of the next volume. The regular price will be $2.50 per year. To the poor $2.00 per year. To those who take it on trial for investigation, $1.00 for six months. And all those who can are invited to pay $3.00 per year. And we trust that donations to the poor will not be forgotten, that those who want it, and are not able to pay for it, may not be deprived of its weekly visits.
We are preparing a new heading for the new volume, which has met the approval of the Trustees, and all who have seen it, and we hope in many respects to improve the paper, making it indeed a family paper, doubly welcome in all the households of the saints, and such as shall commend itself to every candid and unprejudiced mind without.
And we invite the brethren and sisters everywhere to carefully consider what is involved in the enlargement. Consider how the publishing department will more than ever need the earnest and constant co-operation of all who can write, that the Review may be filled with matter adapted to the wants of the times, and ever bear a stirring and living testimony. And remember the Review in your prayers, that it may be a still more potent instrument for good, silencing error, spreading abroad the truth in the power and demonstration of the Spirit, breathing forth a spirit of meekness and love to all, carrying conviction to the hearts of the honest, and thus still more powerfully aiding in this great and closing work of the Lord in the earth.
Consider also carefully and prayerfully the matter of extending the circulation of the paper. The circulation should be greatly increased and that at once; and the enlargement is undertaken to a great degree on the supposition that this will be done. At least one thousand subscribers should be added to our list before the commencement of the next volume. Shall we have them? If less than one quarter of our subscribers should only obtain one each, the thing would be accomplished. But why cannot all obtain one, and so double the list? Will you try? Try earnestly; try in the strength of the Lord. And in all your efforts for the advancement of the cause, let the path to the place of secret prayer be well trodden, and let all your desires for the success of this work be well watered with your tears. And God, who still has a care for his down-trodden truth, will send help to his people.