The Real Explanation

Not for a moment would the leaders in the publishing department of the advent movement accept the suggestion that this efficiency observed is a matter of more brains. Yet we thank God for the gifts of efficiency in business on the part of our publishers, in the factory and in the field. These are spiritual gifts also. But these men would say, “If the movement has excelled in the use of the press as an evangelizing agency, it is first of all due to the appealing power of the definite message of the coming of the Lord which the printed pages set forth; and secondly, to the faithful work of believers in that message in circulating the literature far and near.”SPIAM 72.3

And then, too, there was a gift placed in the movement from the very beginning, which has had a powerful influence for the building up of this branch of the work.SPIAM 72.4

In the early years, following 1844, the pioneers in the advent movement began to talk of plans for a permanent publishing work. They were in council over the matter in 1848. But the believers were few; they had not the necessary means. After hours of discussion, they broke up one night, having decided that they were not able to launch the publishing enterprise. That night, however, came one of those interventions of God’s hand through the gift of the Spirit of prophecy. As Mrs. White tells the story, remember she was then a young woman of twenty-two. But the courage of a divine commission nerved her soul. She wrote:SPIAM 72.5

“At the meeting held in Dorchester, Massachusetts, November, 1848, I had been given a view of the proclamation of the sealing message, and of the duty of the brethren to publish the light that was shining upon our pathway.SPIAM 73.1

“After coming out of vision, I said to my husband: ‘I have a message for you. You must begin to print a little paper, and send it out to the people. Let it be small at first; but as the people read, they will send you means with which to print, and it will be a success from the first. From this small beginning it was shown to me to be like streams of light that went clear round the world.’”—Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 125.SPIAM 73.2

The counsel was followed. The first copy of a little paper called The Present Truth was issued in July, 1849. And the results foretold were seen:SPIAM 73.3

1. The readers sent “means with which to print.”SPIAM 73.4

2. The paper was “a success from the first.”SPIAM 73.5

3. The publishing work did grow until it has been “like streams of light” going round the whole world.SPIAM 73.6

Observers in far lands remark about the special efficiency of Seventh-day Adventists in the publishing of their message. They admire the work; but very likely they would deprecate the idea of the Spirit of prophecy in the church. Yet we know that this gift had its decisive part in the first launching of our publishing work on a permanent basis. And the gift has exerted a powerful influence ever since in the upbuilding of this department.SPIAM 73.7