Don't Wait Any Longer by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 26, 1871

Don't Wait Any Longer.

By James White

For a long time we have been wondering why so many were delinquent in paying for the REVIEW, Instructor, and Reformer. We have turned the matter over, and over again in our mind, and have decided time and again that the delinquency of not less than ten thousand dollars on these three good periodicals could not be because of any lack in the papers themselves; for they are certainly excellent, and worth many times the subscription price.

The enlarged REVIEW is printed with good type, on superior paper, and is well filled with Bible truth, experiences, and matter of general and special interest to the reader.

The enlarged and improved Reformer needs not a word to be said in its favor. And so long as its columns are filled with deeply interesting matter from warm-hearted and able contributors, its patrons will feel doubly paid for the trifling sum of one dollar a year.

And then the Youth's Instructor, so admirably adapted to the wants of the youth, and well filled with just what our children need, is worthy to be promptly paid for by all of its readers. It, therefore, cannot be because of any fault in our periodicals that any who receive them neglect to pay for them.

Neither is it because of loose teaching in these periodicals that the readers become slack in the sacred duty of paying for them. They are all high-toned as to morality. And the REVIEW in particular, in adopting the ten commandments as the great basis of all moral action, and taking the position that the ten precepts grow out of the two grand principles of God's moral government, of supreme love to God, and equal love to our fellows, in its teachings does really unchristianize the man who adopts its positions, and neglects to pay for the paper that teaches such elevated truth. If men who are able to pay for these periodicals carelessly neglect this duty, they do not love their neighbor as themselves. They do not keep the commandments of God. And more, they do violate the declarations of Christ, and those of the inspired writers of the New Testament, where justice, faithfulness, and brotherly love, are made important in forming the Christian character.

But it will not do to say that none of these delinquents are Christians. No, this would be hasty in us. Then what is the reason of this strange delinquency?

Nor does it exist because our patrons can safely conclude that we have no need of these thousands of dues. No, they have been told that we are putting up a new Office building at the expense of ten thousand dollars, and they must know that the work needs just the amount they owe the Publishing Association. Why then this great delinquency under such circumstances?

The most charitable answer we can give to this question is this, that those delinquents who are able to pay for the periodicals they read, and have fallen behind, are afraid to trust their money with the mails. The sums due are too small to put into money orders, or drafts on the banks, and they dare not trust bank notes in letters with the mails.

We are prepared to state that we can now help all such cautious people, if they will follow our directions. Here they are.

1. Our delinquent patrons should find out how much they owe by comparing the volume and number printed on the first page of our periodicals with volume and number printed on the paster, indicated by the figures given in connection with their names. To illustrate: Vol. 38, No. 15, is the present issue. If the figures on your paster are 38–15, you have paid up to the REVIEW you are reading, and no more. If the figures on the paster fall below these, you are in debt for as many volumes and numbers as they fall below. If the figures rise higher than 38–15, then you have paid in advance for just as many volumes and numbers as the figures are above 38–15. If there should be persons who cannot understand their accounts, after this explanation, information will be cheerfully given as to the amount due this Office, if they will inquire by letter.

2. Our patrons are recommended to pay for our periodicals, if convenient, to persons authorized to receive such pay, at our yearly camp-meetings, and other large gatherings, or to our authorized ministers who labor among them. But to all who may not find it convenient to pay to an agent, we would here state,

Enclose the small sums, which are the yearly subscription prices of our periodicals, securely enveloped, with a plain statement of your wishes how the money should be applied, always giving your name, the name of your post-office, and the name of the State, kingdom, or province in which you live; and then, after addressing your letters, REVIEW & HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich., and paying the postage, commit them to the mails, and then, if any of these small sums should be lost, which is very seldom the case, the Publishing Association will sustain the loss, provided that in no case the sum in any one letter exceeds Two Dollars.

Larger sums may be sent in several letters, two dollars in each, at different times, or in Money Orders, or Drafts on the Banks. Those who send in bank notes, in sums of more than two dollars in any one letter, will do it at their own risk. We have never recommended registering letters, neither do we. The cost of Drafts and Money Orders, may be deducted from the amount to be paid at the Office.

Having, in the above statements, removed the only conceivable reason why Christian men and women should hesitate to pay for the worthy periodicals they and their children read, we shall now expect to witness prompt and speedy payment of the many small dues, but which amount in all to at least the sum of ten thousand dollars. Don't wait any longer.

James White, President S. D. A. Publishing Association.