It is expected on the appearance of a new religious paper, that some good reasons will be given why it should be published. The Signs of the Times does not make its appearance because the cause it designs to serve has not a good paper. We regard the Review and Herald, published at Battle Creek, Mich., as the best religious periodical in our country, and every way adapted to serve the cause to which it is devoted. Neither are we prompted in the publication of this sheet by sectional or party feelings, or by personal ambition. But from a settled conviction that the cause of unpopular Bible truth west of the plains demands it, we engage in the enterprise of establishing an office of publication upon the Pacific coast. We solemnly believe that the time has come, and offer the following reasons:
1. Judging from the nature of our message and mission, and the prosperity that has attended the cause, we shall soon be a strong people upon the Pacific coast, with sufficient patronage to fully sustain an office of publication. And in view of the shortness of time, and the great and rapid work to be done, we decide that it is high time to commence the work. It will be far the safer course to have an early and small beginning, that the growth may be more gradual and permanent.
2. It will greatly facilitate the cause in the Pacific coast States and Territories to have a general depot of all our publications at the office of the Signs of the Times, where they can be readily obtained by mail, or otherwise, instead of the delays attendant upon ordering them from the general office at Battle Creek.
3. The cause in this extensive and new field has greatly suffered for want of a local medium through which to give appointments of conferences, the annual camp-meeting, and quarterly and special meetings. It requires from three to eight weeks for our missionaries and leading men upon this coast to communicate with our people through the Battle Creek press. Therefore, most appointments for the past five years have been made by letter writing, which is at least fifty years behind the present age.
4. Our fields of operation as a people, are becoming so numerous and wide that there is hardly room in our Battle Creek paper to give appointments that prominence and space they require. Instead of the next annual camp-meeting of the California State Conference being noticed, necessarily, in a few lines of fine print, in the few copies of the Review and Herald which cross the plains, prominence and space can be given to it in thousands of copies of the Signs of the Times circulating through the State, which will greatly increase the attendance. By the grace of God there is earnest talent in the ministry on the Pacific, and a good degree of devotion to the cause with our people generally. And the magnitude of the work, and the importance of the hour, demands that all should labor to the best advantage possible.