Scope and Work of the General Conference Publishing Department
By Arthur G. Daniells
I AM very much interested in this department, and rejoice to see it moving forward, making steady progress.
Suitable Literature
First of all, the scope and work of this department means providing suitable literature for the world, for all sorts and conditions of men. This is the first step. It is of no use to train canvassers unless we have something for them to put out; it is of no use to hammer away at a system of salesmanship and distribution unless we have something to distribute; it is useless to establish a printing-house and install machinery without something to print; so one of the chief duties of the Publishing Department is to be active in providing up-to-date literature for all the people of the world. We have people in different circumstances and conditions, from the educated in countries of advanced civilization to the poor, illiterate people in Africa, who know nothing about education, the poor of China and India. These people must have literature adapted to them, so written that their simple minds can grasp its teaching, and find it a source of inspiration and encouragement and instruction; and, of course, in the civilized countries there must be literature for the educated and advanced that will command their attention and thought, that will appeal to the very best thinkers. So our department must always be on the lookout, must always remember that we are expanding, enlarging our borders, constantly coming in contact with new people, new tribes, and we must endeavor to provide the sort of books and pamphlets and tracts of various kinds to meet their needs.
Translations
We must not only secure this literature, but it must be put into the language of the people. Perhaps the author of this kind of literature that may be adapted would not be able to put it into the language of the people; and yet I suppose that the men and women who live among the people and associate with them are best able to provide the literature, and, of course, in that case can provide it in the language spoken by the people. But at any rate, the work of translation comes into the scope of the General Conference Publishing Department.19The secretaries, Brother Palmer and Brother Town, together with the publishing men, the managers of our various publishing houses, have all the way along made that a part of their study. The General Conference Publishing Department cannot be indifferent in the matter of translations; and if they do not lead out, they must keep abreast of those in these institutions who are endeavoring to get the literature and books into the languages of the people as fast as we get them together in our missionary endeavors. This requires the securing of writers. Not every one who can use the pen can edit. There must be an editorial instinct, I think, just as much as a teaching instinct. It is a talent, a gift from God that flows out of the individual. When a man has a talent for business, whatever he touches falls into line; he knows how to round up things. The man who has not that talent makes a mess of things, and they melt away from him; he cannot get on. There is a great difference, as we all know.
Some little time ago I was in a camp-meeting where two young women were teaching the children. One of the teachers, who seemed to be well equipped educationally, whose language was proper and prim, was trying to teach the little fellows; but her teaching instinct was poor. The children were wriggling around, and she spent half the time in pressing them to be quiet and look at her. They did not appreciate what she said, so did not heed it. The other teacher stepped up, and it was not two minutes until every eye was riveted on her, and the children watched her as she moved about, following her with open-mouthed interest until she finished. She had the teaching ability. So it is in writing. Some write laboriously, get things out in good and proper shape, but what they write is not interesting. I think our General Conference Publishing Department should watch the development of writing ability, and we should encourage and foster this. I have done that a few times, and it paid. There is one man now in our work, doing general writing, whom I picked out from reading his articles in the REVIEW. They were so direct, so entertaining, so clear, that I concluded he was the sort of man we wanted for certain things, and he is proving good all the time. We can watch and lay hold of writing talent in that way, so that what we provide for the people in magazines, and papers, and books will be of the best.
Printing
Another thing follows, and that is the printing,—this great system of printing-houses. Our department does not have a printing-house of its own,—we do not want any,—and yet we have a great many of them. They are all ours. I am glad that the department manages to keep in direct touch with most of them. A good sympathetic relationship is maintained, and there is cooperation. There must be cooperation. No publishing house in the cause of Seventh-day Adventism can exist but for advancing this work and getting out the literature for this cause. I am glad our publishing houses have seen the importance of putting away all commercial work and all that relates to the world, that they are devoting their facilities and powers to the production of our own literature. Our General Conference Publishing Department is in sympathy with this, and we are always anxious to see our publishing houses prosper. I take great pleasure in reading these balance-sheets, and seeing how the brethren are coming on, and the way they are digging out of the pit, and our department is anxious to cooperate with the publishing houses until they are entirely free of debt. So the scope of our work does relate closely to the management and the work of every publishing house. That gives us the understanding that a brother who is working conscientiously in a publishing house is a messenger of God in this great movement, just the same as the preacher in the field; and I put no difference between the minister and the manager of a publishing house, and the other people in the work, so far as the character of the work is concerned before God. One is an instrument in his hands just the same as the other. So you people in the publishing houses, tied up with machines, working with the business and commercial affairs, compare with the ministry, and you have the prayers and the best wishes and the cooperation of the General Conference Publishing Department and the General Conference Committee as well.
Circulation
Now we have provided the literature from the author, the translator, and the printing-house; and when we have taken that into account, then comes the work of getting it into circulation, placing it in the hands of our people in a way to impress them and lead them to join us in this work. The first thing is to create an interest and a conviction and a consecration in the minds and hearts of our people. That means that this department shall lead along the lines of interesting them in this publishing work, causing them to look on the book work differently than they naturally would. When you go to a bookstore, you see and handle a great many books you don't care for; but when you go into a second-hand bookstore, or any bookstore, or a public library, and see one of our books there, you feel a thrill, your eyes brighten, there is something about that book that is different from any other book in that place. I travel a great deal, and when I see one of our books in a public library, there comes a feeling like that of meeting an old friend. We have had created in our minds an interest in our books that we have not had in other books, and that is the work we must set ourselves about in others. If we had not worked at this, we should never have put out the many books that we have. But we must keep at it as the children grow up and as others come into the truth; we must all the time be creating this interest in these books, be giving men and women the conviction that they ought to do something to circulate and distribute them.
I might relate instances in which young men in New Zealand accepted the truth. I interested them and convinced them that this is God's message to the world, that this is his movement in the world, and that men and women who know this message ought to give themselves to the work of teaching it to others. They asked what they could do, and the first thing I did was to show them one of our larger books and tell them what we did with our books in this country, and also about the canvassing work.
Finally I got a dozen young men in one church to consecrate their lives to the canvassing work, and when I went to another town I took the twelve with me as a body-guard, and what a glorious time we had! Some of the young men in another church joined us, and we had a good company of canvassers. Now we must study all the time and work to the point of making this impression on the young men and women who enter our work through our tent efforts, our Bible readings, etc. As our children grow up and these new ones come in, we must endeavor to interest them in this work; it helps to bind them to the message. Not many canvassers backslide and go to the world; most of them stick to the message and to the work.
But we must do more than provide the “arousement.” As a colored preacher said when he took his text for his sermon: “The text is here, clear before you; the logic you do not need; but you do need the arousement, so I shall go about the arousement directly.” We need the text and a logical conclusion all along. That means the providing of a system of endeavor,—a system of circulation; a system to work to, built on good, rational, solid, honest principles to be adhered to the world over; and if there is anything in this department in which I do rejoice, it is the fact that it is founded on a really good system, good common sense, businesslike, and honest. It inculcates honor in a man; he doesn't have to run around a corner and hide; he can do his work and be honest and true and open. When the system is provided, there must be all the careful work of training people to work to the system, teaching them what it is, and to work to it continually, because there is always danger of drifting. This department stands for continuous, untiring effort in turning new recruits to this system, and encouraging the old ones to stand by it.
One other thing I want to mention, and that is the follow-up work. When we have all this other work provided and launched, we can never take our hands off. We have to follow it up, and stick to it and hang on all the time. Our secretary must constantly send out impulses throughout the field, and these must be caught up by the next men under him, and these men must send them on to the field agents, and these field agents must send them on to the churches, and get them before the people, and in this way we shall keep up our ranks, fill the places of the fallen and departed, for whatever reason, and even multiply our forces.
Home Missionary Work
And there is still one more thing: Foster home missionary work. Our General Conference Publishing Department should stand for more than the selling of subscription books and papers and magazines; we should endeavor to put the rank and file of our people into the field of activity, into the circulation of our literature, getting out thousands and millions of pages of our papers and tracts, doing house-to-house work, and telling present truth to their neighbors. What a great work sixty or seventy thousand people could do if they were endeavoring to put tracts and papers into the hands of their neighbors and friends! My brethren, the department stands for this. A. G. DANIELLS.