Our Publications by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 17, 1874

Our Publications.

By James White

OUR publications have been written with great care, and are printed on superior paper, with good type. They will favorably compare with those of the best religious publishing houses in the United States.

Authors have written them with little or no pay, printers have labored with small wages, and our publishing business has been managed with that care and economy to enable the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association to offer them at very low prices, and at the same time be able to give a report of profits equal to ten per cent on the entire capital invested.

The trustees of the Association, feeling the importance of keeping on hand a good supply of all our works, from an eight-page tract to a respectable bound volume, and realizing the importance of these being put into the hands of the reading public without delay, have published largely, so that at this date there is on hand ready to ship not less than $25,000 worth.

Our preachers have generally been colporters. And for their accommodation, agencies were established in the different States for a time. But for want of the spirit of benevolent co-operation on the part of some of both agents and colporters, heavy losses were sustained, and the credit system has been abandoned, which has a tendency to limit the sales of our publications.

And notwithstanding the efficiency of the tract and missionary system, it is evident that there is a great want of interest among our people generally to circulate our publications.

And right here we wish to state that everything has been done that can be done by the Association to encourage the broadest circulation of our publications. And the last effort, but by no means the least, was to strike from the publication column the entire list of prices of postage, which takes several thousands of dollars from the business annually. Now our patrons can have our publications taken by the U. S. mail to their very doors at the same prices they have paid for them at our camp-meetings, or elsewhere.

And the publications, properly enveloped, will generally reach the homes of our people in better order than they now do, subject to the wear and exposure of the common modes of transportation.

One thing stands in the way of sending our publications out in the mails. It is the fear of losses. But with care in enveloping money, and in directing both letters and packages of books, we do not believe the risks will exceed one in ten thousand. Money can be sent in drafts and money orders. Or, from localities where these are not obtainable, not exceeding $2.00 in one envelope, money may be sent at the risk of the Association.

Our friends on the Pacific Coast can remit in gold dollars, first, closely enveloped in soft paper or cloth, then safely folded in the note of directions, and properly enveloped and directed.

We have been greatly disappointed that hundreds of the History of the Sabbath have not been ordered by mail each week. Brethren, you should order this invaluable volume for your friends everywhere. And there is the Family Physician, Bro. Littlejohn’s book on the Religious Amendment to the Constitution—the Sunday and Sabbath—and other books of the kind. They are waiting at the Office to be ordered out where they can be read.

And there is no way that the scriptural illustration, entitled, “The Way of Life,” can come to you in perfect safety from damage, only by the U. S. mail. Please look over our lists of publications, both in the REVIEW and in the Reformer, and no longer wait for the very books you and your friends should read. Send in your orders, and let the books come to you by mail, in the safest way, and in as cheap a way as you can obtain them.

Responsibilities rest upon those to whom the present truth is committed. And it is our opinion that those who have prepared our publications, and have published them, have done their work in a manner to meet the Master’s approval, “Well done.” And we appeal to our numerous friends to whom we have looked to give them wings to fly abroad everywhere, to do their duty, and act their part in this work. Come up to the help of the Lord, brethren, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.

Let your orders come in a cloud and light upon the counting-room tables by thousands. These steam presses are moving, and when the present stock of books gets low, we will have more presses. God speed the work.

JAMES WHITE, Pres. S. D. A. P. A.