ADDRESS AND APPEAL by James White; Dudley Marvin Canright; S. N. Haskell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 4, 1878

ADDRESS AND APPEAL.

By James White; Dudley Marvin Canright; S. N. Haskell

The General Conference Committee, being together at Battle Creek, where our flourishing institutions are located, feel called upon to address our brethren scattered abroad, and appeal to them in the following words:—

Dear Brethren and Sisters,—

God has dealt very graciously with us as a people, and has prospered us in our work far beyond our expectations. Our publishing house at this point, to say nothing of those in California and Switzerland, has never done the amount of work that it has the past year. It is now fitted up to do all kinds of printing and binding in as good style as any publishing house in America. Recently complete stereotyping and electrotyping machinery have been added. The growth of the publishing business at this point calls for an outlay of about four thousand dollars to connect the two buildings which stand near each other. This will obviate the difficulty of carrying books and papers from one building to the other, as all the work will be done under the same roof. This was sometimes very disagreeable in rainy weather.

The number of students who have attended our college the past year has been four hundred and seventy-eight, and we are happy to state that the income has been sufficient to meet all expenses in a prompt and respectable manner. It is just to state, however, that our professors and teachers work faithfully on very small salaries.

The advent of three or four hundred students at the beginning of the next college year will swell our Sabbath congregation to nearly double its present size. How to accommodate them with seats in our present house of worship becomes a matter of great anxiety, for the usual number of visitors and patients crowd our present building to its utmost capacity. The Battle Creek Sabbath-school during the past year could not be convened in the present house. It was therefore divided and about one-half taken to the largest room in one of our publishing buildings. There are at present one hundred and twenty-five patients at the Sanitarium. These, with about fifty helpers, who are brethren and sisters with the exception of a very few, would make another comfortable congregation. Nearly this entire number wish to attend the morning service every Sabbath, so that it is probable that by the first of September a house of worship will be needed at Battle Creek of sufficient size to convene not less than fifteen hundred persons.

The Battle Creek church do not need a larger house of worship, the present one being of sufficient size for their use; but the General Conference, which includes all our State Conferences, needs a place of worship of sufficient size to seat 2,000 persons. A plain tabernacle would cost less than ten thousand dollars. Of this sum the Battle Creek church will pay, including what they can get for the present building, the sum of five thousand dollars. This would leave five thousand to be raised by wealthy brethren of all our Conferences, who send students to our college and patients to our Sanitarium. Not one dollar of this will come from our S. B. treasuries. Many patients who come to the Sanitarium to be treated feel that their hold on this world is weakening, and they feel the necessity of a firmer grasp upon the next. These are very anxious to attend our meeting, but many of them do not, because we are not able to give them a comfortable seat in our present house of worship. Here we are losing one of our very best opportunities of reaching these, and others through their influence, with the last saving message of mercy. Under the present disadvantageous circumstances, there are not less than fifty persons who have embraced the faith during the past year from the direct influence of their sojourn at Battle Creek. We appeal to you on this important subject. We ask you to assist the church at Battle Creek to erect a house of worship sufficiently large to accommodate all the students you may send to the College, and all the patients you may send to the Sanitarium.

It is said that it is not possible to raise the money so as to build the present season, and that this work must be put off one entire year. The loss to the cause by this delay, and the great inconvenience, cannot be estimated by dollars and cents. There has not been a time for the last twenty-five years when such a house could be built as cheaply as the present year. Laborers can be hired for small wages. There are many of our brethren who are first-class workmen out of employment. Many of these could give liberally in work. All kinds of material can be purchased at very low figures. A portion of this money can be raised at once, and the remainder during the year of 1878. We therefore recommend that the work of building commence without delay. We shall send out circulars for pledges from individuals, and shall expect the sum of five thousand dollars will be pledged immediately. A word to the wise is sufficient. If you have confidence in the men you have elected to stand at the head of the highest body recognized by the church, who are now on the ground and see the wants of the cause, you will respond to this appeal promptly. And may grace, mercy, peace, and the love of God abide with us until the message be finished, Jesus shall appear, and eternal life be given.

Servants of the Church,

JAMES WHITE, Gen. D. M. CANRIGHT, Conf. S. N. HASKELL, Com.