The Publishing Association.
By Editor
The entire debts of the seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association amounted last March to the sum of $3500. Then we proposed to issue a catalogue of share-holders, with the number of shares, donors, with the amount of their donations, whether churches or individuals; also those who have pledged, with the amount paid, and unpaid pledges. We designed to issue the catalogue about the middle of July; but as only about $1000 of the above-named amount was paid in up to the first of July, it was decided to defer the publication of the catalogue till after the second annual meeting of the Association, in the hope that by that time all pledges would be paid, many more shares would be taken, and liberal donations come in, sufficient to meet every demand against the Association. The present indebtedness of the Association is not far from $2500. With a little effort this sum can be raised before the first of October. The times have changed. Labor and the products of the farmer, command good prices. Money for a season will be plenty. Now is the time to strike. Those who do not immediately meet their obligations to the Association, probably never will meet them. We plead for promptness now, that the pages of the forthcoming catalogue may present a clean and liberal appearance, and that in that document it may be said that the Association is free from debt. To this end, 1. Let all forthwith redeem their pledges. If any who have pledged are unable to pay in consequence of losses or sickness which has reduced them to want, on reporting themselves they will be excused. All others will be reported, and we hope to report them paid. 2. Let those who have taken shares and can take more without feeling it, take more. Brethren, let your companions and children take stock in the Association. Let the whole family, as far as consistent, take a part in the work, and feel that they have an interest in the cause. We have eight shares, Mrs. W. two, and we now take one each for our three children. This matter must and will be carried through. 3. Let the thousands of brethren and sisters in the ranks who profess full faith in the great facts brought out by the third message, who have not yet taken stock in the publishing enterprise, now come forward. Some of you are poor; but most of you can raise ten dollars for a share in the Association, and many of you can raise from twenty to one hundred without feeling the want of it. Where is the brother, sister, young man, or young woman of comfortable circumstances, who does not want to be represented in the first catalogue of the Association with at least one share? 4. Let our churches, also individuals, send in their donations. Most of you have, or should have, money in your s. b. treasuries. If you have no better use for it, send it in to help pay the debts of the Association. Battle Creek church has donated $150, Monterey $100, Wright $100, and others liberally. Now is a good chance for our churches east and west, north and south, to collect in their s. b. funds, and send in the surplus till the debts of the Association be paid. Some of the old hands who have in time past done much for the cause, have had but little chance to do since systematic benevolence has brought a surplus of means into the treasury, making comparatively light drafts upon them. God has especially blessed many of these in basket and in store for their past liberality, and they are now in possession of accumulated means that they hardly know what to do with. Here is a chance, brethren, to wheel in a few hundreds, and help stop this gap in the debts of the Association. 5. Let those who are indebted to the Association for books sold, the Review or Instructor, come forward with the pay. You never can, probably, raise money so easily as this fall. Send 'United States' bills if you have them. By a new system of mailing we shall in a few weeks be able to state on the margin of every paper, from week to week, just how every subscriber's account stands. We invite all delinquents to see to it in season, that the new mailing machine may report them, on the margin of their papers, paid in advance. If the above suggestions be carefully and prayerfully considered, and reasonably acted upon, the catalogue proposed to be issued about the middle of October next, will be able to report the Association free from debt.