p. 190 | The Pacific Coast by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 26, 1874

The Pacific Coast.

By James White

THERE is a decided advance in the cause on the Pacific. Besides the new tent sent to the Walla Walla Valley, now being used by Bro. and sister Van Horn, the California Conference Committee have ordered a second double-top tent for this State. The plan is to send one of these tents forward into a new place each month, so that each tent can remain two months in a place, and send forward the leading lecturers each month, leaving others to spend the second month in each place, to finish the work, organize, and build a meeting-house.

It is the general impression with our people on this coast that the time has come to act their faith in the message, and take hold of saving the people in the best way that sanctified judgment and the Spirit of God may dictate. They feel assured that God is giving us the field. Recent aggressive movements on the part of the opposition have been turned to the glory of God, the unity of his people, and the exposure of the weakness of the law-abolished heresy.

We immediately issue the first number of a weekly paper, “The Signs of the Times.” Terms, gratis, as long as the paper can be sustained by the donations of the liberal. As we pen this line, we hold in our left hand the first number of “The Present Truth,” a very small sheet published on the Atlantic, in 1849, twenty-five years since. The terms of that sheet were gratis. We then ventured out with only a handful of friends to establish a paper in the East. God has helped. And we now, twenty-five years later, venture out to establish the press in the West, with many more friends here than we had twenty-five years since, and a host of old, tried friends in the East.

There is a great work to be done on the Pacific Coast, and it is absurd to suppose that it can be carried on with no press nearer than Michigan. It requires from three to eight weeks to communicate with our people in these States and Territories through the Battle Creek press. It is very important sometimes to give appointments of meetings on short notice. We have just received a cheering note from Eld. J. D. Van Horn from the North Pacific Mission. He writes from Walla Walla:—

“REVIEW No. 19, of April 21, reached us to-day, two weeks after it was printed. It takes this time for the REVIEW to get here. I see in it your statement about publishing a paper on the Pacific Coast, and I heartily concur in the project. You may hold me good for $10. I will lay this matter before our brethren here at the earliest opportunity, and report the result to you.”

BRO. Van Horn adds: “Our tent-meeting in this place is the all-absorbing theme of conversation. The interest is good. Some of the most influential citizens are interested.”

We call on all our friends, old and new, to assist us in putting the Signs into the hands of those who will read with interest. Neither we nor our friends have money to throw away in casting pearls before swine. What we ask of our numerous friends who are able to donate, is a liberal donation to our new enterprise, accompanied by the names and addresses of the Lord’s poor, and all candid persons who would read our paper with interest. Let the names and the means come in. We expect to hear from a host of friends who will remember “after a godly sort” the North Pacific Mission.

Our new paper is not designed to take the place of the REVIEW, on the Pacific Coast, or anywhere else. Again we call on the friends of the cause everywhere, but especially those on the Pacific, to help sustain the enterprise. This is a new and extensive field, and will justify the appropriation of means for the advancement of the cause. Remember our address is

ELD. JAMES WHITE, Oakland, Cal.