A New Literature

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 6, 1905

WITHIN a comparatively few years a new order of publications has appeared. The name of these publications is legion, for they are many. They expound the new theology, the new philosophy, the new science, and every new thing which exalts itself above the true knowledge of God and of his salvation. Some are written by wise men from the East who have emigrated to this new world as missionaries of the Oriental philosophy, but the most of them are written by professed believers in Christianity who claim to have discovered such new truths as utterly destroy the fundamental principles of the primitive religion. The religious literature of twenty-five and fifty years ago is being discarded in favor of modern views which really set aside “the faith which was once delivered to the saints,” and by substituting reason for revelation, and by emphasizing the natural in all things, put man in the place of God just as really, although not so openly, as the papacy. The publishing houses and publishing agents of the different denominations are printing and handling this literature, and there are few public teachers who have the discernment and the courage to make any effective protest against it. This is only a picture of what our own situation would have been, if we had not been delivered from it by the authoritative counsel of the spirit of prophecy. “The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? . . . The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of philosophy would be introduced.” This is just what has happened in the other denominations. And these considerations emphasize the demand for the circulation of the books and papers which contain the truth for this time. In the original advent message will be found the antidote for the new literature of the day. Let our books and papers be circulated.