Untitled article by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 22, 1908

Experiences in the Publishing Work—No. 12

By John Norton Loughborough

DURING the eight months of publishing the REVIEW in Paris, Maine, eight new names were added to the list of ministers who gave themselves more or less to preaching the truth of the third angel’s message. Among these were S. W. Rhodes, Hiram Edson, F. Wheeler, E. P. Butler, and J. N. Andrews. This accession was a source of spiritual strength, and an encouragement to the believers, as it furnished more ministerial help for the New England States, New York, and Michigan. Meanwhile Elder Joseph Bates was still doing pioneer work in these States, and also pushing the work and gaining vantage-ground in Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Canada.

Volume I of the Advent Review is replete with articles upon the past movement, the third angel’s message, perpetuity of the law, and the Sabbath and its history. In the number for May, 1851, is an article occupying over five pages from the pen of J. N. Andrews, on the subject of the three messages. In this he applies the prophecy of the two-horned beast of Revelation 13 to the United States, taking the position, on the strength of the prophecy alone, that the enforcement of Sunday as the Sabbath would be the point on which a union of church and state would finally be formed in this nation. His argument rested wholly upon the prophecy, as no movement at that time pointed very strongly in that direction, the strongest expression that could be found favoring it being a statement from Dr. Durbin, taken from the Christian Advocate and Journal:—

“When Christianity becomes the moral and spiritual life of the state, the state is bound, through her magistrates, to prevent the open violation of the holy sabbath, as a matter of self-preservation.”

This article was printed also in a tract of thirty-two pages, entitled, “The Three Angels’ Messages of Revelation 14, and the Two-Horned Beast.” An edition of one thousand copies of this tract was not all distributed until the year 1853. This was the first effort of our people in publishing a work of that character. It had required much careful and prayerful study to produce that brief treatise on the subject. Of this we read, from the words of Sister White:—

“When we began to present the light on the Sabbath question, we had no clearly defined idea of the third angel’s message of Rev. 14: 9-12. The burden of our testimony as we came before the people, was that the great second-advent movement was of God, that the first and second messages had gone forth, and that the third was to be given. We saw that the third message closed with the words, ‘Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus;’ and we as clearly saw as we now see that these prophetic words suggested a Sabbath reform; but as to what the worship of the beast mentioned in the message was, or what the image and the mark of the beast were, we had no definite position.

“God by his Holy Spirit let light shine forth upon his servants, and the subject gradually opened to their minds. It required much study and anxious care to search it out, link after link. By care, anxiety, and incessant labor has the work moved on until the great truths of our message . . . have been given to the world.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. I, pages 78, 79.

In the spring of 1851 Brother Thompson, of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., a farmer in comfortable circumstances, having accepted the truth, offered to Brother and Sister White rooms in his house, and their provisions for living, if they would move the printing business to that place. This they did, and published there the second volume of the Advent Review, the first number bearing date of August 5 of the same year. This volume consisted of fourteen numbers, and was issued as a semimonthly. The last number was published March 23, 1852. The name of the paper was slightly changed, from that of Second Advent Review, to ADVENT REVIEW AND SABBATH HERALD, the name which, in its eighty-fifth volume, it still retains. The size of the journal was increased to three columns, eight pages, the printed page measuring eight and one-fourth by eleven and three-fourths inches.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.