Rapidly Going to Pieces by E. R. P.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 19, 1909

“Rapidly Going to Pieces”

By E. R. P.

It has recently been said by one who is now opposing the organized work of Seventh-day Adventists that “it is evident that the organized work of Seventh-day Adventists is rapidly going to pieces.”

A response to this assertion comes to us from far-away Australia, in the following words:—

“If the organized work of Seventh-day Adventists is rapidly going to pieces, it is evident from facts presented in official reports and statistics that the pieces are getting very large and are sticking very closely together.”

Four years ago in an address at a National Reform convention, held in Allegheny, Pa., the following statement was made by the speaker:—

“Where are our enemies? Where is the secular league that threatened to undermine our very existence? Where is the Seventh-day journalism that fought us so vigorously?—They are all disorganized and silent. They have come to naught. This is evidence that we are organized and founded in our principles upon a divine plan, and that God is with us, and against them.”

In the light of the preceding statement, it is interesting to read the following editorial announcement in the August, 1909, issue of the Christian Statesman, the official organ of the National Reform Association:—

“One hundred new subscribers—that is our record for the month of July. It was but three days after the mailing of the July Statesman containing the appeal for new subscribers that we received from a reader in a Pennsylvania town the name and address of a new subscriber that he had obtained. Others followed in quick succession, until, from this and other sources, we have at date of present writing, July 19, exactly one hundred new names added to our mailing list.”

We take pleasure in presenting below a few facts and figures concerning the progress being made by “Seventh-day journalism,” and the general circulation of Seventh-day Adventist literature, as an indication of the “rapidity” with which this cause is “going to pieces.”

It is often true that a few facts shed a clearer and better light upon a subject than mere flashes of words and thundering assertions.

We are now publishing 333 bound books containing an aggregate of 103,261 pages. One copy of each of these in the cheapest binding would cost $377.03.

We are publishing 287 different pamphlets, containing 21,286 pages, the retail value of which amounts to $35.87.

Of tracts we are circulating 1,096, which contain a total of 15,174 pages, the retail value of which is $15.97.

We are now publishing 118 different journals, containing a total of 28,855 pages, the total annual subscription price of which is $59.13. These journals are prospering, and are rapidly carrying God’s truth to the world. How does this statement of facts look in the light of the assertion quoted above, that “Seventh-day journalism” is “disorganized and silent”?

During the past four years the total value of literature distributed year by year has been as follows:—

1905, $548,000; 1906, $824,000; 1907, $1,035,000; 1908, $1,280,000. Total for four years, $3,687,000.

The Christian Statesman, the official organ of the National Reform Association, is a ten-cent monthly magazine. It states, as quoted above, that one hundred new subscriptions were received during the month of July, and declares that to have been a record for that month. During the month of June our agents sold 248,000 copies of our ten-cent magazines, and these magazines are only five out of the 118 periodicals previously mentioned.

One of the ten-cent magazines included in this report made a gain of 15,000 copies in its circulation during the month of June. During the past three months our publishing house in Washington, D. C. (one of our four leading publishing houses in America), received nearly 10,000 yearly subscriptions for the Protestant Magazine, their latest periodical which was launched the first of May of the present year. This is an average of over 3,000 yearly subscriptions a month.

Again, a brother recently sent in his check for 103 yearly subscriptions for the same magazine. During the year 1908 one of our publishing houses circulated a grand total of 3,153,096 copies of its five periodicals.

In its issue for May, 1906, the Christian Statesman contained an editorial on Liberty, entitled “A New Opponent in the Field.” The zeal of our magazine was accounted for “by the fact that it is the mouthpiece of the Seventh-day Adventists, and is published by the Review and Herald Association.” From April 1, 1906, to Aug. 1, 1909, the fourteen numbers of this quarterly magazine have had a circulation of 695,000 copies, an average of about 50,000 copies for each issue. This means that our agents for this “magazine of religious freedom” have received from the American public the sum of $69,500 for the first fourteen numbers of this periodical alone.

A lady agent in the West has just sent in an order for 3,100 copies of this magazine. One of our local tract societies recently sent in 304 yearly subscriptions for Liberty. A previous order received from the same society, only a few days before, enclosed 300 yearly subscriptions. Thus two letters contained 604 yearly subscriptions for this magazine.

Read again the quotation beginning with the words, “Where are our enemies?” We leave the reader to work out the conclusion which must follow if the principle laid down by the speaker at the National Reform convention is correct.

We do not believe, however, that outward success is conclusive evidence that a work is founded upon sound principles and a divine plan, but we do believe that if we adhere closely to the Word of God and to his divine leadership, he will prosper the work of our hands, and the truth of God will light up the darkness in this sinful world. E. R. P.