Your ShelfYour Projects

The Middletown (Conn.) Post Office

20%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 24, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 40.

Read the full edition

The Middletown (Conn.) Post Office

By C. H. REIMERS

For the benefit of the readers of the REVIEW I have taken this picture of our post office. Every time I enter it, which is quite often, I think of the beautiful life of Elder James White, and what he sacrificed for this message. I think of how he entered the same building away back in 1849, carpetbag in hand, filled with copies of the Present Truth, to be mailed to its readers. The Present Truth was the beginning of our good paper the REVIEW AND HERALD. You will find a picture of the Present Truth on page 277 of “The Great Second Advent Movement,” and on page 153 of “Rise and Progress of Seventh-day Adventists.”
Sister White’s account of this first paper is as follows:— “He [Elder White] began to publish a small sheet entitled, the Present Truth. The office of publication was at Middletown, eight miles from Rocky Hill, and he often walked this distance and back again, although he was then lame. When he brought the first number from the printing office, we all bowed around it, asking the Lord, with humble hearts and many tears, to let his blessing rest upon the feeble efforts of his servant. He then directed the papers to all he thought would read them, and carried them to the post office in a carpetbag. Every number was taken from Middletown to Rocky Hill, and always before preparing them for the post office, we spread them before the Lord, and with earnest prayers mingled with tears, entreated that his blessing might attend the silent messengers. Very soon letters came bringing means to publish the paper, and the good news of many souls embracing the truth.” —“Testimonies for the Church, Vol. I, page 88.
The Lord willing, I hope in the near future to give you an account and a picture of a beautiful little chapel which we are now finishing, which stands in this city as a memorial for this truth and the work begun here by Elder and Sister White. C. H. REIMERS.