Editorial Correspondence by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 28, 1912

Editorial Correspondence

By F. M. W.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CAL., March 1, 1912.

ONE very encouraging feature of our denominational work is the change that has taken place in the purposes and plans of our institutions during the last few years. There was a time when our colleges were educating many young persons who, on graduating, went out into worldly pursuits. Only a few, comparatively, of those who completed their school work found a place in connection with this great movement. The last few years have witnessed a great change in this respect. Our schools now exist for the special purpose of providing workers for this cause; and that they may fit themselves for the carrying of this message is the great purpose which possesses the majority of the young men and women who enroll as students.

This same transformation has been wrought in the experience of our publishing houses. Years ago the two leading publishing houses of this denomination were engaged in turning out a large amount of commercial work. It was felt that this was necessary to their existence, that they would not be able to exist on the income received from the publication of denominational literature alone. Repeatedly and urgently the instruction came through the spirit of prophecy that commercial work should not be done; that its demoralizing influence should be eliminated from our publishing houses; and that if our offices of publications would undertake the manufacture of books dealing with the great truths of God, these would find ready sale, and that the publishing houses would have all they could do on denominational work alone.

Contrary to human judgment, but in faith that God was leading in the matter, our publishing houses undertook this work. The Review and Herald Publishing Association in the East, the Southern Publishing Association in the South, and the Pacific Press in the West left off commercial work, and since that time the facilities of the institutions and the energies of the workers have been devoted in ways which contribute to the advancement of this message. God has signally blessed this course. The most expectant hopes of our brethren have been realized, and to-day our publishing houses are sometimes sorely pressed in their efforts to meet the demand which exists in the field for our books and periodicals.

Of the prospering hand of God in this particular, and of his great mercy which has attended the work in many other and in very special ways, the Pacific Press Publishing Association is fully cognizant. The sale of their plant in Oakland and the removal to a quiet country town was attended with many difficulties. But this step was in line with providential leadings. Removed from the evil influences of a large city, in the quiet, restful atmosphere of a suburban town, the institution has been able at last to surround its workers with such an atmosphere, and to direct the work in such ways, as have brought to it both material and spiritual blessings.

The earthquake disaster, followed by the fire of 1906, which nearly destroyed the institution, was a severe blow; and yet those connected with the institution believe that God overruled even this disaster for the good of the work, in that it brought the association more fully than ever before to realize their dependence upon God, and the call of God to devote the entire resources of the work to the promulgation of this message.

Every year has witnessed material progress. The year just closed has been one of special victory in many ways. The year 1910 ran ahead of every preceding year in the volume of business transacted, but 1911 exceeded the business of 1910 by over $9,000, making the volume of business for last year in excess of $397,000. The interest-bearing debt for 1911 showed a reduction of $5,000. The net gain in the operation of the institution for 1911 was over $28,000.

As indicating something of the volume of business which is being carried forward, over fifty car-loads of paper and binding material was used in the work during last year. During the same time 154 tons of bound books and tracts were shipped out to various parts of the field from the main office in Mountain View.

Three regular journals are published by the Pacific Press; namely, the Signs of the Times weekly, Signs of the Times Monthly, and Our Little Friend.

The Signs of the Times weekly enjoyed a splendid increase of circulation over that of the preceding year. Fifty numbers were issued, with an average circulation of nearly 25,000 copies. This did not include the Harvest Ingathering number, of which 550,000 copies were printed and circulated. The average circulation of the Signs of the Times Monthly amounted to nearly 35,000 copies. This made a total circulation gain over the preceding year of nearly 45,000 copies. The average circulation of Our Little Friend during the year was nearly 15,000 copies.

The value of these publications may be estimated according to the price placed upon such matter in the marts of the world, but what estimate can be placed upon the good accomplished as these books and periodicals have been read by their thousands of readers during the last twelve months? Their value can be estimated only by the value of the souls to whom they will be instrumental in bringing the saving knowledge of the gospel of our Lord. That these periodicals are doing a splendid work in reaching the hearts of men and women, there is abundance of evidence. In the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists to-day may be found many men and women filling important positions in our denomination who received their first knowledge of this closing message from the reading of our pioneer missionary paper, the Signs of the Times. In those days this paper was largely used by our church missionary societies and by individual members. It was sent out to addresses obtained in various ways, followed up by letters of inquiry and correspondence, resulting in study on the part of the readers, and their subsequent acceptance of the truth. That kind of missionary work, while it brought people to a knowledge of the truth, kept those already in the truth alive and awake to its spirit.

That old-time spirit of missionary labor is sadly needed among Seventh-day Adventists to-day. There is danger that we shall adopt worldly methods and seek to do even the work of God by proxy. We may pay a faithful tithe for the support of the work in the home land, we may give liberally to the support of foreign missions; all this is good, but all this may be done and yet the doers thereof lack the touch of personal missionary work, of work that is the very life of the soul. It is the personal touch with Jesus Christ, the personal touch with men in imparting to them the grace we ourselves have received, that keeps the love and missionary spirit of the Lord Jesus burning brightly in our hearts. This spirit we need to cultivate. And we know of no better medium for carrying on such work than the excellent papers published by the Pacific Press Publishing Association. Scores of our brethren and sisters should be engaged in the sale of the Signs of the Times Monthly. Our church missionary societies, and our isolated brethren and sisters should take clubs of the Signs of the Times weekly, and revive the work which proved so effective in the beginning of this movement. They will find that such methods have lost none of their power.

It has been a genuine pleasure for us to associate with the editors, and the management of the Pacific Press Publishing Association, during the last few days. We have found here an earnest company of men and women whose hearts God has touched, and who are laboring devotedly to give the trumpet a certain sound, in the writing and preparation of the gospel message for these last days. While rejoicing in the material success which has come to the work, they feel that the true and greater success to be attained, after all, is a living connection with God, which will give them power so to present the message they carry as to move the hearts and mold the lives of men.

Let us pray God to give power to these great agencies that are operating in the world. Let us hold up the hands of our institutional workers, because these, even above the workers in the field, need a daily divine unction. Shut up within four walls, laboring day after day, and many times at work which appears wholly mechanical, they need the constant, divine touch in order that they may be sanctified instruments through whom God can constantly permit his divine Spirit to flow out to the world.

The work is one. Let us remember this. No institutional walls should confine our interests; no conference lines or sectional divisions should mar our unity. We are debtors to all men. Let us stand together as one united army of the Lord to accomplish his work in this generation. Thus laboring, we shall see of the revelation of his mighty power in cutting the work short in righteousness.

F. M. W.