A Plea for Our Periodicals by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 16, 1875

A Plea for Our Periodicals.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS; As I have been traveling among our churches, I have been painfully surprised to find how few of our old Sabbath-keeping brethren and sisters take the REVIEW, Reformer, and Instructor. I find large churches where not one family out of six take any of them, and but very few take all three of them. This was not so once. Formerly, every Sabbath-keeper counted as much on having our periodicals as he did on having a Bible. They thought they could not live without them and keep up with the spirit of the message. In this they were right. My observation is, that those who do not take our papers soon get upon the background, become cold in their love for the present truth, and largely lose the spirit of the third angel’s message. I hope the time may never come when our people will feel that they can live without those silent messengers of truth.

My brother, or sister, I write this to impress your mind with the importance of taking these periodicals. I am satisfied that you do not realize your duty in the matter or you would take them. I say nothing here about the SIGNS as that is designed more especially for a pioneer paper. All our own people east of the Plains should take the REVIEW, and then as many as possible should also take the SIGNS.

1. The REVIEW, the Reformer, and Instructor, virtually occupy the place of a pastor to all our churches and scattered brethren. Our situation is different from that of other churches. Nearly all other religious bodies have regular, located and settled pastors, who preach weekly, or at least once in two or three weeks, to every little body of believers. They depend upon these men for their instruction, admonition and encouragement. Without them they could not live. This we see everywhere. Among all the denominations, a church left without a regular preacher soon runs down, and their meetings are discontinued. This is natural. Men are so inclined to forget, to grow cold, and backslide, that unless, by some means, their consciences are appealed to, and their duties constantly set before them, they will become careless and cease their efforts. We see this so continually on every hand that I need not argue the point. We all know that it is so.

But Seventh-day Adventists are a missionary people. Our message must be carried to the world. We have so few preachers that we cannot spare them to labor with our churches. Once in a year or two is about as often as most of our churches can have the labor of our efficient ministers; hence, unless we have some means of weekly communication with our people, the life of our churches cannot be maintained. To meet this urgent demand, the REVIEW, Reformer, and Instructor have been established and are maintained. This is especially true of the REVIEW. It comes to our homes every week just before the Sabbath day. The most earnest, devoted, and live preachers among us speak to us through it. To any one whose heart is at all in the work, nothing is more encouraging and enlivening than to hear of the progress of the work in the great harvest field, to learn of the conversion of souls to the truth, of the many victories which God gives to his truth in different places and departments of the work. Such news can only be obtained through the reports in the REVIEW.

Again, we are constantly forgetting the evidences upon the present truth, which were once so clear to our minds. We may believe them still, but unless they are often revived and presented in a new form, they will become dim in our minds, and our faith will die out. The REVIEW exactly meets this urgent necessity. Every week it comes laden with strong, convincing arguments upon all points of our message. Then every paper contains some articles upon practical duties—duties in the family, duties in the church, duties in the world, duties to God, and duties to one another. Its warning voice is weekly lifted against the common dangers that constantly threaten every pilgrim everywhere. Earnest appeals are made to husbands and to wives, to parents and to children, to brothers and to sisters, to elders and to deacons, to church members, to sinners, and to backsliders. Now, my brother, or sister, you cannot afford to be without this instruction. You cannot estimate the worth of it in dollars and cents. Without it, you are certainly imperiling your soul’s salvation. Without it, you will be certain to backslide. Indeed, my experience is that the person has already gone far in backsliding who feels that he can get along without these periodicals.

But by printing five thousand copies the expense is distributed among so many that it is but little for each one.

2. It is your duty to help support these periodicals. Every believer in the present truth knows that these papers are actually doing more every year for the cause than are our preachers. It would be simply impossible, under present circumstances, to maintain the work of the third angel’s message without them. But they cannot be published for nothing. They cost money—thousands of dollars yearly, which must be paid by somebody. If but few copies of our papers are taken, it makes the cost of each paper much greater than it would be if we had a large list of subscribers. The main cost of publishing a paper comes on the first copy. It takes just as much writing of manuscript, just as much editorial work, just as much type-setting, just as much proof-reading, &c., to print one copy of a paper, as it does to print ten thousand. This is the main part of the cost of a paper. After this the cost is small. So if we were to print only one copy of the REVIEW each week, that single copy would cost several hundred dollars. But by printing five thousand copies the expense is distributed among so many that it is but little for each one.

Now we all belong to one family, the household of faith. As members of this family, it is our duty to share in the necessary expenses of the family. The publishing of our papers is an important item in this bill of expenses. If a part refuse to take it, the cost comes so much the heavier on the other brethren and sisters. Let us not think that this is simply a personal matter about which we can do as we please without affecting others. Let us bear our part like honest men and women, and then we can hope for the blessing of God.

3. Do not plead poverty as an excuse for not taking these papers. It is true there are a very few among us, some poor widows and a few others in very destitute circumstances, who are not able to take even the REVIEW; but these cases are few, and such persons should be supplied with the paper by their abler brethren. If you are not so poor as to make it necessary for your brethren to send you the REVIEW, then you are not too poor to take it yourself.

The REVIEW, the Reformer, and the Instructor, altogether, at full price, only cost $3.50 for one whole year, twelve months, fifty-two weeks. Here is a large amount of the very best reading in the world for this small sum. I am sorry to say that I sometimes find brethren and sisters who claim that they cannot possibly take the REVIEW, yet they can, and do, find money with which to buy jewelry for themselves or children. They can find money to buy tea and coffee, and some of them even tobacco; yet they cannot take the REVIEW. This is a living shame. I know that the blessing of God does not and cannot abide in the hearts of such people.

My brother, or sister, if this is your case, let me warn you to wake up to your situation before it is too late. If you are taking this course, as, alas, too many are, it will soon lead you entirely away from God and his people. There are many of our people who are laying out fives, and tens, and even hundreds of dollars on their dress, in household furniture, and the like, when articles much cheaper and plainer would do just as well and even better. It would be a small matter for them to save $3.50 in the course of a year, by buying a little cheaper article, or by doing without entirely. They could much better afford to do this than to do without our papers. If you have children they need the Instructor. To them it will be invaluable. They should be taught to read it, and to love it. If this is not taken, the devil will fill their young minds with something else. I blush for our people when I say that I know of persons who can send their children to the dance, to the show or circus, and yet they cannot take the Instructor for them. If these children grow up to despise the religion of their parents and become ungodly and wicked, these parents need not wonder at it. Indeed, if it is not so it will be a wonder. O my soul, how is it possible for Christian fathers and mothers, believers in the soon coming of Christ, to become so deluded by the devil. How to wake them up is more than I know.

Then the Reformer is needed in every household. Some get the false idea that it treats only upon diet, upon what they shall eat and drink; and, hence, they do not care for it. This is a great mistake. That is but one item out of the many upon which it treats. There is excellent instruction in it upon everything pertaining to the household, articles that are invaluable, and that will be highly appreciated by everybody, whether they are health reformers or not. It is a household journal of the very best kind. It should be carefully read by all.

It shall be one of the main objects for which I will labor in every church where I go this winter, to induce every family to take these periodicals. If we find families too poor to take them, then we will take up a contribution to obtain them for such individuals. Now, brethren and sisters, prepare for this. Lay aside a few dollars for this purpose to be ready when I come, or, better still, send it on beforehand.

D. M. CANRIGHT.

St. Charles, Dec. 7, 1875.

P. S. But now that I have this article written I do not know what to do with it. If it is simply printed in the REVIEW, it will never reach but a few of the very ones for whom it is mainly designed—those who do not take these papers. How shall we get it before those who most need it—those who will never see it in the REVIEW because they never read it? I thought to appeal to the elders of each church to go to those who do not take the REVIEW and read this article to them; but I well know that very few of them have interest enough to do it. Legitimately, this is the direct and most important part of the work of our Tract Societies; and yet there are places where large numbers of our papers have been sent by members of this society to outsiders, while our own brethren do not take any of them. Hoping that others may know what to do, I leave it here.

D. M. C.