p. 17 | Pacific Press Prosperity Shared with the Mission Fields

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 6, 1916

Pacific Press Prosperity Shared with the Mission Fields

By N. Z. TOWN

WE believe it is not too late to pass on the following inspiring and encouraging paragraphs, written in a private letter, February 13, by Brother C. H. Jones, to the secretary of the General Conference Publishing Department, while he was absent in South America. God is indeed blessing our publishing houses.

“The past year has been the most prosperous in the history of the Pacific Press, as to both volume of business and net gain, the volume of business amounting to $623,391.13, showing a gain of $152,264.69 over last year, which was the best in all our history up to that time. This includes the business done by the branch offices as well as the home office.

“Since 1908 we have set aside $19,343.57 from the net earnings of the institution for the purpose of establishing and enlarging the publishing work in foreign fields, this being a tithe of our net gain. Through the medium of the Signs of the Times and other publications issued by this house, the sum of $23,400.03 has been secured for foreign mission work. This, together with the amount already noted, makes a total of $42,743.60.

“In addition to the above we turned back last year to the various conferences, to be applied on the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund, the net gain of the Signs of the Times weekly, amounting to $2,520.03; this year, following the same plan, we have turned back $2,048.83, making a total of $4,568.86, or a grand total of $47,312.46, set aside for mission work during the past seven years.

“I do not speak of these things to boast,—no, not for one moment,—but simply to show the possibilities that lie in our publishing houses to help the great, needy fields. And now if prosperity continues to attend our work, we shall soon be free from debt, and then it will be our privilege not only to turn over a tithe of our net gain to help carry forward the work in more needy fields, but a substantial part of the whole, and then we shall realize more fully the force of that statement in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VII, p. 144, which reads as follows:—

“Our publishing houses are God’s appointed centers, and through them is to be accomplished a work the magnitude of which is yet unrealized. There are lines of effort and influence as yet by them almost untouched, in which God is calling for their cooperation.”

“At our constituency meeting in 1915 we voted to give $1,000 to each of the colleges in the Pacific Press territory; namely, Pacific Union College, Union College, and Walla Walla College. This money will be forwarded in the course of a few days.

“Besides helping both home and foreign missions in a financial way, it has been the privilege of the Pacific Press to send quite a number of workers to foreign fields, and we have more in training. Indeed, the missionary spirit pervades the entire institution, and we never had a more earnest, devoted band of workers.”

N. Z. TOWN.