Remarks of Elder A. G. Daniels by Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 18, 1902

Remarks of Elder A. G. Daniels.

By Arthur Grosvenor Daniells

Your chairman has anticipated me somewhat this morning. I rather thought he would talk on the commercial side of this institution, and I would talk on the missionary side; but he has turned it around. I cannot do better, I think, than to cover some of the ground he has so briefly referred to.

As I understand it, this institution was started solely for the purpose of helping to give this message to the world. It is designed to be a mighty factor in the proclamation of the Third Angel's Message, God's last call to humanity; and I would be glad if all our work were so adjusted, and all our efforts, in the Office and in the field abroad, everywhere, were so directed that the entire strength of this plant might be spent in this one thing.

I do not say it is wrong to do commercial work; but I do believe that it would be a great deal better if we were able to give our whole time to our denominational work. And I believe that this is the end we ought to keep continually in view, and that there ought to be the strongest and warmest and heartiest co-operation all the time between the institution itself and the masses of our people abroad.

All of our denominational organizations—our Conferences, our schools, our mission fields, our workers everywhere—ought to be in close touch with the publishing house, and bend their energies toward creating such a great demand for literature that it would tax the resources of this institution to meet that demand. It is not so at the present time; but we must work to that end the very best we can.

I believe that before this work closes up, there will be a great deal more for this Office to do in the denominational work than it is doing to-day. I believe this message is going to the world with such power, and we are going to scatter the literature of this denomination so thoroughly and generally over the world, that this Office will be called upon to do a great deal more than it is now doing in this direction. We shall have less commercial work, and a great deal more of our own work to do.

I wish the institution were not so large as it is. I wish it had grown just as the demands of the field called for enlargement. But still, I cannot help feeling that there is yet before us an important work, and a great future, for this publishing house.

Now, conceding that the institution is here for the one great purpose of giving this message of salvation to the world, we all see at once that it is essentially different from a worldly publishing institution. It is not like some worldly, commercial institution in its character. It has a different mission, and it must have a different atmosphere. It must have a different standard of character and discipline. It must be governed by different and higher principles all the way through. It should be a spiritual institution. The managers of it should be men that are in touch with the great Leader of the work for which the institution has been called into existence.

The Bible says, “Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.” We know very well that an unclean man, a worldly-minded man, an unconverted man, is not in a fit condition to carry on a spiritual work, a gospel work. The Bible declares that he is out of harmony with God. He does not see things as God sees them. The things that God sees to be right and proper, appear to that man as foolishness. The Bible says it, and it is so. The worldly man does not see it so; but God says it is so. The man who is in harmony with God can see that it is so.

The character of this institution, its real life, is just what the character of the managers is—just what the character of the people that are in it is. And I understand that when we speak of it as being a spiritual institution, a clean institution morally, we do not refer to the mortar and the bricks, nor to the desks and machinery; we refer to the men and women who are connected with it. They should be converted people. They should have good morals; they should be spiritual people; they should be in touch with God, so that they can see light in His light, so that they can understand this spiritual work as God looks at it. And unless they are in that condition, they are no better prepared to carry on the publishing work, to meet the purpose for which it exists, to meet the mind of God, than an unconverted man would be who should attempt to take hold of the ministry of the gospel.

Therefore I believe that we should aim continually to have managers who know and fear God. And in taking in apprentices, we should continually aim to get young men and women who are converted, who are Christians, and who are clean in every way. Then, in our control, our discipline, our management of these apprentices, we should ever aim to keep them converted, and to have them grow in grace, and become broad Christians. And while they become more skilful, and better operatives, they should, as men and women, be growing better all the time. So we may keep the whole moral atmosphere of the institution what we know it ought to be, and something that we can be glad of, and that the world can scrutinize.

There ought to be in our publishing house an atmosphere that would impress a business man, or any one coming there, as a divine atmosphere; and in his association with the men in charge, from the time he enters the door, and as he goes through all the departments, there ought to be something there that would impress that man that there is a divine power in that institution.

When our young men and women come here from their homes to become apprentices, they should be impressed at the very beginning with the thought that there is something here that challenges their admiration, something that is worthy of their emulation; and they should never be disappointed.

With that thought in view, I believe that the management should continually aim to keep the moral tone of the institution up on the plane that the gospel demands. They should endeavor to keep out all immoral and vicious employees. I believe that these ought to be kept out of the Office just as far as possible.

Let us aim at honesty, at purity, at sobriety, industry, Christian character, and whenever we see one not in harmony with that, we will endeavor to remove such a person. First seek to reform, to reconstruct, and save the individual that comes. We are to do all that we can by prayer, by education, by solicitation and moral suasion. But when an individual refuses to yield to these influences, tell him that he has missed his place, that he has got into the wrong place; that this is not the place he was looking for at all, and he is not the one we are looking for. Excuse such a one, and get some one else that is seeking for that sort of help, and that sort of influence.

I am indeed glad that steps are being taken to provide a home for apprentices, for young men and women to be under good influences and under good discipline. That step is in the right direction, and it has my prayers. I want to see it succeed. As I travel over the States, and meet with young men and women, I should like to see the flower of our young people who have a mechanical turn of mind brought to this publishing house to learn a trade. I should like to see them placed, at the very beginning, under good influences, with a good father and mother. They have all their lives been under the direction of good parents. They leave home for the first time to come here. How essential that they have a good home to go into, with some one to take an interest in them, some one to be a father and mother to them, to counsel with them, to see that they keep right hours, to help them study the Scriptures, get their Sabbath-school lessons, and seek that which is noble. This is a great deal better than to turn them loose, and let them do as they please.

I am glad that the school is being conducted. It seems to me that this is right; that an effort should be made to give young people a training and an education. As they acquire skill in the different branches that they are taking, let them build on a broad foundation, so that they will know more than the mere twist of the wrist, or the mechanical, or the art part of the work.

Then, again, I believe that this Office ought to be a missionary institution as well as educational. From the very start it was designed that this institution should establish branches and depositories in different parts of the world. In South America there are thirty-eight million people. They must have this message. Why is it not a very proper thing for the Review and Herald publishing house to establish a small, inexpensive branch there? And when they do, why is it not proper to man it with skilled laborers that they have trained here, persons whom they can send abroad, whom they can have confidence in, knowing that they can really depend upon them to take any branch of the work that is given them, and carry it through successfully? It is perfectly right that they should do this. I hope they will be blessed in moving out in that way. Instead of gathering all their profits to increase their capital, to enlarge their institution, and increase the number of their presses, they should reach out, plant institutions in other places, and thus build up the work. Then, as these branch institutions become organized by self-government and self-support, let the Office turn over to those parts all that it possibly can.

I have been made happy the past summer to see the liberality of the Review and Herald toward the needy parts of the field. We know the South is a needy field. I certainly believe that they need help there, and they need something in the way of printing. The Review and Herald Company, as has been said, gave the Southern field about $9,000 this year. I consider that a liberal gift, and it should encourage our people abroad, that this institution that they have been fostering all these years by their labor and their toil, their prayers and their means, is ready to lend a helping hand to needy parts of the field.

In Canada we have recently organized a Canadian Union Conference. That Conference has taken over the entire field and the management of the work; and the Review and Herald Company have turned over their Toronto Branch to them. The real gift to Canada was something like $8,000. While this was not a direct cash contribution, perhaps, on the part of the Review and Herald (that is, an investment of $6,000), it is a gift of $6,000, which is as good as though it had been an actual cash investment by the Board. So the Canadian Union Conference takes that printing business with all the stock, amounting to $5,300, and $292 worth of furniture, and $3,500 in accounts receivable, without any indebtedness. I believe that is right. Canada is a large field, covering thousands and thousands of miles, and including thousands of people. It is a promising field, and the new Union Conference can take this property unencumbered, and invest it wisely, and manage it wisely, to carry on and build up the work; and I am very glad of this action.

So far as I have been able to observe, it has seemed to me, as I have watched the efforts of the Board, that there was a strong disposition in all this management to move under the direction of God. Hence, my confidence in it. And I have confidence that there are many as truly devout, consecrated Seventh-day Adventists in this institution as can be found anywhere in the denomination.

During the week of prayer we made some efforts at reform. The Lord blessed us. On Christmas day my heart was filled with joy to overflowing at the spectacle I saw. We thought we would omit the meeting on Christmas day, and so we made no appointment. But just before the employees left the building on the evening before, two or three of them felt as though it was a mistake to drop out Christmas, and they thought they ought to have a volunteer service announced, and let anybody come who had a disposition to do so. I did not expect that there would be a dozen persons at the meeting, but to my astonishment, there were almost a hundred employees there, who had volunteered to come to meeting for a consecration service. The Lord blessed us abundantly. I could tell from the words that were spoken, and from the spirit that was manifested, that there were a hundred men and women who are as true to this message, as far as they understand it, as we have anywhere in the world.

I want to see the Review and Herald prosper. I want to see such a strong spiritual influence there that pulsations will go out from the Review and Herald to the very extremities of this important work. It can be done. And as a member of this body, a believer in this message, a worker in this cause, I want to join you in effecting that condition.

I believe we are on the road to it, and I feel encouraged. I can say, God bless every one of you, managers and employees, and hasten this work until it is all done, and we are gathered to a better place.