Progress of the Cause by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 26, 1873

Progress of the Cause.

By James White

It is truly gratifying to witness the present progress of the cause. To learn that persons of moral worth and mind, not only of the American people, but those from other nations in our country, are joining our ranks, is very encouraging. And the fact that union exists to a good degree among our people, and that the efforts being put forth to bring up all our people in the spirit of missionary work are not in vain, and that the pure testimony seems to be ripening in the church, gives hope and courage to all who have the cause of God at heart.

But when we consider the extent and magnitude of the work to be accomplished, as marked out in prophecy, the brief period in which it must be done, and how little, comparatively, is being done, we are forced to the conclusion that God requires of us broader plans and more vigorous efforts. It seems that the providence of God is far in advance of us.

WORKS IN OTHER LANGUAGES.

God is wonderfully moving upon the minds and hearts of the people of other tongues in our country. Here and there, a few French, Germans, and Swedes, come out upon the Sabbath, without the aid of books, or the living preacher of these languages. We should have had works printed in the German, French, and Swedish languages, as well as in the Danish, several years since. These manifestations are very wonderful, and should stir us, as a people, greatly. In one report from Bro. Butler of the Minnesota Camp-meeting, he stated that there were urgent calls for our publications by believers present, who speak and read the French, German, and Swedish languages. Bro. Matteson has done a good work for the Danish and Norwegian people, in translating our works, and in getting out their monthly. This has required faith and perseverance under discouragements; and God will bless him and his people if they humbly persevere, and push the work onward in the name and strength of God. The Advent Tidende is not more than one-half supported by the subscribers. The other half must come in by donations.

We are very happy to learn from Bro. Matteson, through the REVIEW, of the work of the Lord by Bro. Lee among the Swedes. He must have books to help him in his work. We bid our Bro. Lee a hearty welcome, not only to the toils, privations, hardships, and griefs attending successful missionary work, but to the sympathy of all true believers in the present truth, and the glorious reward of the faithful missionary to be given when the Lord comes. In the Lord he must put his trust, as he has done under his discouragements, and he will have strength and wisdom to win souls to Christ.

And while the Lord has been blessing the labors of our Bro. Lee in Minnesota, it seems that Bro. James Sawyer of the Wright, Mich., church, while teaching school in the State of Illinois the year past, has been very successful in obtaining command of the Swedish language; and with the assistance of educated native Swedes has already translated the tract, “Who Changed the Sabbath?” and part of the “Millennium” tract. This seems indeed providential.

Bro. Sawyer proposes to obtain a more perfect knowledge of the Swedish language, then enter a Swedish printing office and learn to handle the types, then go to Battle Creek, translate, and print our works in Swedish, as means are furnished to sustain the work. This is a work of sacrifice. Bro. Sawyer enters upon it in this spirit; and if he cautiously and patiently pushes it forward, our people will sustain him in it. We trust that soon after camp-meeting season, the president of the General Conference will be able to assist Bro. Matteson, Sawyer, and Lee, by good counsel, and encouragement of proper support.

There are no reasons why missions among the French, Germans, and Swedes in our country may not be as successful as the one among the Danes and Norwegians, if the same energy and self-sacrifice can be manifested in the men who may lead out. But those who start out in such missions will find, if they are successful, that the work is no child’s play. We found this to be the case, especially in the early history of the work among the American people. We think we speak understandingly when we say that not one-half of our preachers, in whatever language they may speak, really have a striking part of that devotion to the work, that spirit of labor, and burden for souls, necessary to make them efficient ministers of Jesus Christ. The spirit of ease, and the love of self, are dwarfing them; and unless they take broader views of the work, and become baptized with the true missionary spirit, they will soon find themselves destitute of any part or lot in this work.

We wish here to state that Bro. Charles Lee of Minnesota started out on his mission to the Swedes penniless and on foot. He appeared on the Minnesota Camp-ground in 1873 with the same suit of clothes that he wore on the same camp-ground in 1872, and in which he stood and preached, and, by the help of the Lord, turned between sixty and seventy of his countrymen to the Lord’s Sabbath, and brought them to a position so that Bro. Matteson could organize them into churches, according to the close plan of S. D. Adventists.

It is true that Bro. Lee’s suit of clothes was much worn; but that he might appear with becoming neatness upon the Minnesota Camp-ground in 1873, with his own hands he took his garments apart, turned them, and made them up again. Without assistance from either the Minnesota or General Conference, he has toiled on in faith and hope, trusting in God for his reward. Here is the secret of his success. This has been as God would have it. If our young ministers cannot thus go out, trusting in God till they can show unmistakable fruits of their labors, they can never make successful laborers.

It might have been as well for Bro. Lee, and the cause among the Swedes, had the General Conference, or the Minnesota Conference, given him assistance and encouragement sooner. But the probabilities are that it is best that they did not. Bro. Lee has had a chance to see how blessed it is to trust in God; and those just entering the ministry have also seen the good results of so doing. And now, while Bro. Lee should not suffer a murmuring feeling to lodge in his breast for a moment, but, rather, to feel grateful that he has had help from above to endure, the General Conference Committee should supply his present wants, and care for him while he manifests the same spirit of sacrifice for time to come.

We have not a single reflection to cast on the Minnesota Conference in this matter. They, and our brethren in other States, have had their feelings and acts of liberality so abused by selfish ministers, older as well as younger, that it is right that they should wait for unmistakable fruits, and not hastily empty their treasury into doubtful pockets.

Father Bates sat down to write his first book on the Sabbath in 1846 with only a York shilling in his purse, having previously disposed of his wealth in the Second-Advent Cause. The first Conference of S. D. Adventists that Mrs. W. and ourself attended was in Connecticut in 1848, and the money that paid our fare to that meeting we earned chopping cord wood. The second Conference was held the same year in Western New York, and the money that paid our second-class fare to that Conference we earned in the hay-field. And we regard those days as the most pleasant and profitable of our experience.

We have ordered $50.00 to be sent to Bro. Lee, and charged to our account at the Office, to purchase him a suit of clothes, with the request that he send his worn suit, in which he labored with success, to the REVIEW Office, to be preserved as a memorial for the benefit of those who do the work of the Lord only for cash.

The fields are all white and ready for the harvest. There is not only a want of publications in different languages, and men filled with the spirit of their mission to preach to the people of other languages in our own country, and scatter publications among them, but we must send men to Europe to establish the work there. The brethren in Switzerland have been calling, and are still waiting for help. And we suggest that Eld. J. N. Andrews should be spared to accompany Bro. Vuilleumier to Europe this fall. Both Bro. Ertzenberger and Bro. Vuilleumier can act as interpreters till Bro. Andrews can speak freely in the French and German languages. He could, even now, assist greatly in perfecting translations of our works in both these languages to scatter through Europe.

We have a European Mission Fund on hand of nearly $2,000, from which the expenses of a missionary to Europe can be paid. He should not go to Europe expecting to spend his time attending to the local embarrassments and difficulties of our brethren in Switzerland; but to hush them to silence upon these little local and personal matters, and call their minds to the great truths for our times, and the work which God is willing to do through his people, so that these little matters will be lost sight of and forgotten.

God’s ministers everywhere should be clothed with a humble dignity, and deal in principles, and avoid personalities. Then we shall see God’s people everywhere lifting themselves up above the petty trials and trifles of this life, to the great things of God and the life to come.

BROADER PLANS OF OPERATION.

The fields are all white. There should be those to preach the truth, and circulate our works in the great thoroughfares of travel, in our principal cities, such as Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. These larger cities, and smaller ones also, must be entered, and tons of our publications in the different languages circulated. When one of our larger cities shall be entered with a tent, a daily paper must be established in connection, as an advertising medium of the meetings in the tent, and of our publications, and to give the substance of each day’s lectures for the instruction of the reading masses. We have altogether too long made child’s play of the message which God has committed to us to give to the people. Let us from this time have our efforts correspond with the magnitude and importance of the work, or, let us abandon our profession.

There are scores of men in the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists who have become literally rich since they embraced the message. And when our ministers take hold of the work in a manner to inspire hope in our people, that something is to be done, and the General Conference Committee, in a judicious manner, lay plans broad enough, our wealthy brethren, and our brethren in more moderate circumstances, will back up the work with their means.

We have recently been looking over the broad field relative to our publishing interests. We think the time has come to stereotype our standard books, pamphlets, and tracts, and at the same time take two sets of plates, one for a branch office on the Pacific coast, and one for the Atlantic. This would reduce the cost of our publications, and also the need of capital and of office room at Battle Creek. Probably, when the third building, now being erected, shall be completed, and can be spared for the business of the Association, the three will furnish all the room that our Association will need at Battle Creek.

Paper is but a trifle higher in San Francisco than in Battle Creek. It is made on the coast of Maine, and shipped to the Pacific. And on the Atlantic, stock is cheaper than in Michigan.

The day is not far distant when our publications will be printed from duplicate plates, both on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. This will greatly reduce the labor of type setting, and our heavy freights on publications from the interior to the east and to the west.

And why may we not expect our periodicals worked from duplicate plates? Five or even seven pages of the REVIEW, filled with the most important matter, and edited with the greatest care, in plates, could be expressed to the branch offices, while the eighth, containing local matters, could be put in type. Thus the cause in the wide field could be better served in point of local news and appointments. And plates containing the most important expositions of our faith and hope could be preserved; and when large cities shall be entered, calling for a daily paper, two of the four pages of each issue could be made from the plates.

God is ready to do great things for his cause on the Pacific coast. He has shown his willingness to work for his cause and people in California, especially in the year past, in sending them help when they needed it most in the sad crisis of last fall, and in greatly blessing the labors of his servants the present season. The General Conference Committee is disposed to extend the work up the coast, to Oregon and Washington Territory, and may send missionaries to that field soon. The friends of the cause on the Pacific coast should have the cash ready to liberally help establish a Branch Office and Health Institute in 1874.

We would here state to those who may regard these suggestions as fanciful, that nothing of any amount has ever been accomplished in our cause without laying plans, and persevering efforts to execute them. Those of our people who have neither faith nor interest in the prosperity of the cause, but have been willing to shut themselves up to their own interests in this life, have never been ready to second our plans and efforts to extend and push forward the work. It is no use to appeal to such in reference to laying broader plans.

But in hope that our own words will be felt, we do appeal to our General Conference Committee, to the State Conference Committees, and to the officers of our Tract and Missionary Societies. The General Conference Committee, seeing the pressing wants of the cause, should lay their plans wisely and well, sufficiently extensive to meet present and future demands.

OUR SCHOOL AT BATTLE CREEK.

In the matter of the school at Battle Creek, and the enlargement of our Health Institute, the General Conference Committee and the representative men at Battle Creek cannot wait until the means are all raised. They must lay a foundation sufficiently broad, and then go to work with the means already raised. And while the buildings are going up, let the money be raised to complete the work. Should it be necessary, on account of narrow views and the tardiness of our people, a debt could be made, to be reduced year by year, as the men of this world do successfully in the execution of worldly schemes.

OUR HEALTH INSTITUTE.

The Health Institute should be placed by our people in a condition to be able to treat three hundred patients. Then it could also treat many charity patients. During the period of fourteen months, ending April, 1873, the deductions on charity, or part charity patients, amounted to $4,000. And during that time, one of our oldest ministers from old Vermont paid for board and treatment of his worthy wife at half prices, more than $200 from his scanty purse. Our people should place the Institute where all such persons can be treated free. But, if they will not do this, the Institute will not be able to treat as many charity patients as heretofore. In justice to those who took stock in the Institute which they are not able to hold, there should be no charity patients at our Institute until these urgent liabilities are met.

But this must not be. It will not be. With a liberal hand, our people will place the Institute free from all obligations, capable of receiving three hundred patients, where the worthy afflicted people of the Lord, who have not the means to spare, can find an asylum for a few weeks, or months, free of charge. When there shall be stock taken in our Health Institute to swell the sum to $100,000, the interest all to be expended for the charitable uses of the Institute, then it will be placed forever above want, and be able to expend $10,000 annually on the worthy poor.

Bro. Abbey reports seventy patients at the Institute, and that there are daily arrivals from all parts of the country. And not one-fifth of these are S. D. Adventists. The increasing confidence in the Health Reformer, the Health Institute, and the ability and integrity of our people in the management of such matters, is encouraging. And it is wonderful that the knowledge and influence of these should be so extensive, when we have advertised only in our own publications. A few hundreds of dollars expended in advertising, and there could be three hundred patients called to the Institute as easily as seventy. But we have not dared to advertise, lest more should come than could be treated. This is a living shame to our people. The Health Institute has been, and still can be, one of the most powerful means of shedding light and truth into honest minds, and spreading abroad, in the most favorable manner, the knowledge of the truth. Let the capital stock at our Institute be at once raised to $100,000.

At present, until the dividend of stock shall either be signed over to the charitable uses of the Institute, or refunded in cases where it should be, the Institute cannot justly treat persons free of charge, unless our people raise more stock at once to meet these liabilities. We

say to the General Conference Committee. Let the stock be raised, and let the Institute go free from its present crippled condition.

THE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION.

The Publishing Association, in order to carry on its business, must have a large increase of its capital stock. The third building, including lot, will cost $10,000. The power press has now run fifteen years, and must very soon be laid up for repairs. If it was in good running order, it would have to run day and night, as it did at great loss all last winter, to do our work. We are, therefore, under the necessity of immediately purchasing two new presses, that two may run constantly, while a third shall be held in reserve to be called into use in case of a break down in any one press. The two presses, freight, and the expenses of putting them in running order with a large engine, will cost not far from $9,000, so that the third building and presses cost the present season the sum of $19,000.

The rapid increase of the business of the Association calls for these, also for more printing material and stock to correspond, so that there should be raised by our people the present season the sum of $25,000, or the Association will have to pay interest on hired capital.

We wish here to appeal to the feelings and the sense of justice and honor of our people. You were informed by REVIEW for July 8, 1873, that all that the numerous friends had done for our publishing interests for the period of twenty-one years, in donations, shares of stock, and legacies, was only $36,000; while those who had worn out their energies in building up the publishing interests had, with the blessing of God, added $37,000, besides paying the sum of $5,000 during the three years past, to the writers of new books, it being one-half the profits on first editions.

And this has been accomplished while selling our publications at extremely low prices. It has been our policy to press our publications into the hands of the people everywhere, and we have put down prices very low, that we might give them a wider circulation. Our prices are generally below other publishing houses, even those largest houses where they turn out one large edition after another from plates for the reading million. While the real cost of their books is at least twenty per cent less than the cost of ours, their prices are twenty per cent higher. It is under such circumstances that $37,000 has been added to the $36,000 put in by our people. And now that $25,000 are wanted the present season, will our people raise this sum? or, will they withhold their means, and leave the work to be crippled until this sum shall be earned by those who toil incessantly for from six to twelve dollars per week, enough, simply, for a subsistence? Which shall be done?

In the struggle to accomplish what has been done, we have broken down in health; and the secretary of the Association, in her untiring and efficient labors, has been compelled to leave the work. The care of the business must mainly fall to others, who will not, and who should not, carry the load that your broken-down president and secretary have fallen under. The business of the Association is now carried on to disadvantage for want of experienced heads in the most important departments. Do any of our patrons inquire why the business of the Office was done so very correctly from 1869 to near the close of 1872? we answer, Your secretary, and her faithful assistants, personally attended to it with a care that has worn them. And do you ask why so many errors have occurred during the last ten months? we reply, Changes have taken place in the counting room in consequence of impaired health in those who served you most faithfully for small pay.

We are conscious that those who have sacrificed health, and have endangered life, have erred in supposing that the friends of the cause would fully appreciate their toils and sacrifices. They did confidently expect that the low prices of our publications, and devotion to the work which has secured great prosperity, would inspire in the hearts of all the friends of the cause a corresponding spirit of sacrifice, to meet the rapidly-increasing demands for more capital to be invested in buildings, presses, types, stock, &c. Will not the facts and figures presented in the foregoing, relative to the Association, give confidence in the work, and provoke the friends of the cause everywhere, to love and to good works? If not, then we despair of their ever being moved to come up to the help of the Lord with their means.

DISCOUNTS ON PUBLICATIONS.

Again, we have, by careful examination and reflection, decided that our publications are sold by the quantity at too great a discount. If our prices were equal to those of other publishers, we could give large discounts, and still save reasonable profits. But with both exceedingly low prices, and large discounts, we have been doing injustice to authors, printers, and to the Association. Our ministers are well supported from the S. B. treasuries, and do not need large profits on the books they sell, at no expense whatever to themselves. We have been giving one-third or more discount to ministers who receive $12 per week for their services as such, while most of the men at the Office, who make ten or more hours of confining labor, six days in each week, do it for the sum of $9 per week. Here is a wrong that should be corrected.

We suggest that our publications cost the same to receivers in all parts of the field, and that after September 1, 1873, we return to one-fourth discount on bound books and pamphlets, and that the Association pay common railroad freight to all parts of the field, unless the distance exceed fifteen hundred miles.

Tract and Missionary Societies must be encouraged in their work. One-half of the wholesale price of all our books should be paid from our Book Fund, and the other half, by the T. and M. Societies. Let the Book Fund be used in this way, and let the rich among us have a chance to cast in their hundreds, and the poor, their mites. The discount on our tracts to all parties will be one-half.

We repeat: The discount on bound books and pamphlets will be one-fourth; on tracts, one-half. And on all publications, actually paid for by the T. and M. Societies, one-half the wholesale price will be paid from the Book Fund. And all freight will be paid by the Association, unless the distance exceeds fifteen hundred miles.

SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE.

Our system to raise means for the support of the cause is equitable in its workings, and ample in its results. But in the rapid growth of the cause, it must be guarded carefully from abuses by careless auditors and unconsecrated ministers, lest our people become discouraged at improper appropriations, and the system become broken down.

It is the duty of the officers of the Tract and Missionary Societies to see that all our people come up to the figures. This duty devolves especially upon the Presidents of the several Conference T. and M. Societies. Michigan, as a Conference, does not half come up to the figures of the system. That numerous and wealthy Conference should have $6,000 to spare at the next session after doing justice to all her preachers.

The auditing of accounts and settling with licentiates at the last session, in some cases, was such that if our people were acquainted with the facts, many would not pay into the treasury at all. We are glad to know that the President of the General Conference is aroused to the dangers to which the S. B. funds are exposed.

The books at the Office show that several hundred dollars were paid to a licentiate one year since, of wealthy, believing parents, a single youth, who had not made his mark as a successful laborer, while a preacher of considerable experience, who had labored ardently and successfully in Indiana and Michigan, received less than the licentiate. True, he, as well as others in Michigan, speaks from place to place, reports good attendance, prejudice removed, &c., &c. But where are the conversions? What churches are being raised up by them, to bring funds into the treasury? Is it not astonishing that auditing committees will pay funds out of the treasury to such men, who do little or nothing to bring means into the treasury? Men in such circumstances in life, who do not add to the cause and the treasury, and who would take money out of it, would sell their Lord for less pieces of silver than were pocketed by Judas.

For the benefit of such, the case of Bro. Lee is given. Bro. Matteson reports the organization of S. B. among the Swedes, of several hundreds of dollars. This is all accomplished before Bro. Lee received a dollar from the treasury.

As a people, we should have a zeal for truth, justice, and righteousness. Our efficient ministers, who labor and study, and become workmen, and successful, especially those that are worn under the burdens of the cause, should be fully sustained. Our young men should be encouraged. And all licentiates should be directed and encouraged to take a course to become men of God, and successful laborers. But those who have not a heart in them to venture out, and endure hardships and discouragements, and still believe and hope on, till God gives them success, which will place them in the confidence of our people, are not worthy to receive funds which have been sacredly consecrated to the support of the cause.

Before paying money from the treasury, would not the auditing committee do well to take into the account the amount of labor put forth, and the amount of good accomplished? the circumstances and real wants of the minister, and the number of dependents in his family? whether he keeps house and entertains others and has heavy home expenses? or whether he and family live upon the brethren, and have no home expenses?

We feel assured that an important crisis in our cause is at hand. Great trials, and also glorious victories, are before us. May God give to his servants wisdom and grace to deal justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.

J. W.