"Often when I have been asked what are the causes of crime, or what is the peculiar cause that sends most of our men to prison, I have of late years invariably answered, 'The want of family discipline.' The indulgence of the father and mother, who allow the child to grow up without any discipline to form character, leads almost inevitably to evil ways, and, consequently, prison."
And the Word of God informs us that disobedience to parents is one of the marked characteristics of the last days. See 2 Tim. 3:1-5. How striking is the fulfilment!
Central Publishing House in Battle Creek, Mich., East Building.
PROGRESS AS INDICATED IN THE PUBLISHING WORK
By Uriah Smith
[By the Editor Review and Herald.]
THE publishing work of which we here speak is that of the Seventh-day Adventists, which began in 1849, and has just now reached the termination of its first half century. In estimating its progress, and the influences which have contributed to its success, something more than merely statistical figures are necessary. We must take into account the conditions under which it commenced, the work it was established to accomplish, the opposition it has had to meet, and other difficulties it has had to encounter.
The cause in which it boldly threw to the breeze its banner, was no less than a new theological departure in the religious world. Some of the principles and views it was designed to promulgate were not such as received any countenance in Christendom, nor such as would naturally find favor in the human heart. It started with no prestige of great names, nor endorsement from earth's high places; and the only human means behind it were the daily wages drawn by the day laborer from the harvest-field and the wood lot.
In addition to this, consider the field it was to occupy, and the work it was intended to do. It was established in the wake of a movement which had stirred the whole eastern portion of the United States to its profoundest depths; a movement which had caused more agitation, and aroused more antagonism and opposition, than any religious movement for a hundred years before; a movement which had apparently proved false in all its pretensions, and lay buried under the stigma of ignominious failure. The task it was to undertake was to vindicate this prostrate cause, to remove this stigma, to show to an incredulous and scoffing world that the failure was only apparent, not real, that a wrong application of only one prophecy, in only one particular, had led to all the apparent failure and the disappointment. It was to show that the prophecy did not warrant the claim that the Lord was to come in 1844, or on any particular day that could be specified, but only that the sanctuary was to be "cleansed"—a different event of a different nature (see works on the subject of the sanctuary); that consequently the doctrine of the soon coming of Christ was still a current and pertinent theme; but that before that event there was to be a reform in the practise of the people, touching the law of God, specifically in reference to the Sabbath, against which all Christendom, with the exception of one denomination, was set in hostile array; and that the church was to have in exercise the gifts of the Spirit, which all men stood ready to denounce as fanaticism, deception, or, worse still, as demonology.
Central Publishing House at Battle Creek, at Different Periods.
What hope was there that a publishing interest inaugurated for such a purpose, could possibly succeed? What warrant could any one see to induce one to embark in such an enterprise as this?—It was simply this: The great advent movement which had just preceded, had called out a study of the prophecies, more thorough and exhaustive than had been witnessed since the days of the apostles; and the new light then arising showed additional steps to be taken, a further work to be done. A few devoted persons whom God was evidently teaching, read their duty in Rev. 10:11. The message that came to John (who there stands as the representative of the church after the trial of verses 8-10, symbolizing the great disappointment of 1844), namely, "Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings," was to them an announcement that a further message, or rather a continuation of the same message, with additional and important features, must be given anew to the world; and when the prophecy says "must," those to whom the light is given, if they maintain their integrity, have no alternative but to obey. Implicit faith, unhesitating obedience—these were the motives which nerved the pioneers in this work to their boldness and activity. But what fruit could be expected from their efforts? In the lamentation of the ancient prophet, it would seem that they might
have exclaimed, "Who will believe our report, and to whom will the arm of the Lord be revealed?" The thought that it was of God, and that some would be found who would themselves yield to the impulses just named, gave the movers the only ground of hope for progress in their work.
The means first used for the promulgation of new views is usually the living voice, or word of mouth. The next is the printed page, a periodical, or a means of communication among the friends of the movement, and books as permanent and continual advocates and defenders of the cause and its purposes. Beginning in 1845, adherents brought in by the spoken word soon became so numerous that some publication was demanded to acquaint the workers with one another, and to unify the work. Accordingly, in 1849, a small sheet called The Present Truth was started by Elder James White, the pioneer in the publishing work, in Middletown, Conn., and published more or less regularly there for two years, when, enlarged in size, and with name changed to The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, it was moved to Paris, Maine, and issued as a semi-monthly. Under the latter title it continues to the present time, weekly, as the organ of the denomination.
The first number of the first paper, the Present Truth, named above, when ready for the mail, and addressed to all the then known friends of the movement, was easily contained in a single hand satchel, and carried by the editor, on foot, to the post-office, five miles away. The Advent Review, after being issued for a few months in Paris, Maine, from the year 1851, was moved to Saratoga, N. Y., and afterward to Rochester, N. Y. In 1855 it was moved to its present location, Battle Creek, Mich., where the brethren had erected a humble building for its future use, and where it has since had a local habitation of its own. Nothing was done in the line of tracts, pamphlets, and books till 1854, and then in a very small way.
Echo Publishing House, Melbourne, Australia.
In 1861 there was formed a legally incorporated association, under the laws of Michigan, which took into its hands the management of all the then denominational publishing interests. Previous to this move, it had all been in the hands of one man, Elder James White, the pioneer above mentioned. To this time he had been the sole manager. In this year, 1861, a new brick building was erected. To this, as the growth of the work demanded, additions and consolidations followed in 1871, 1873, 1878, 1881, 1887. See illustrations bearing these dates. The main structure, three stories in height above the basement, has a street frontage of 120 by 165 feet, comprising 80,000 square feet of floor space. The building is supplied with 2 steam elevators, and equipped with all facilities for doing first-class work in every department of book and job printing, bookbinding, electrotyping, drafting, and engraving by all processes. It has twenty-five presses of various sizes, steam paper cutters, machinery for folding, stitching, embossing, ruling, and trimming, and every form of facility which modern ingenuity and inventive genius5have produced for the purpose of accomplishing first-class work in all branches of the publishing business; and all the machinery, from the electrotype foundry to the electric-light plant, and the elevators, is run by a hundred horse-power engine, and boilers of still greater capacity. Across the street from the main building, as shown in the illustration, is the so-called "west building," in which is located the banking department, attorney's office, packing and shipping rooms, wholesale and retail, salesrooms, besides storerooms sufficient to hold $90,000 worth of finished books. These two buildings are as closely connected by telephones and speaking tubes as if under one roof. The capital invested is $250,000. From 275 to 350 hands are employed, varying according to the pressure of the business. Nearly a quarter of a million dollars' worth of work is turned out each year. It is often necessary to put on a night force of workmen to keep pace with orders. And from two to four hundred tons of Gospel literature is sent out every year.
Publishing House, Christiania, Norway.
Should the reader now wish to take his bearings in reference to the progress which these facts indicate, let him place beside this steam-driven, busy establishment the one solitary man, in 1849, wending his way on foot toward the post-office, bearing in a single satchel the entire first month's output of the publishing work as it then existed.
The foregoing has been spoken only of the central publishing house located at Battle Creek, Mich. But the message, being world-wide, was prophetically designated in the divine program to go, not only to all parts of this country, but "to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people." Work was commenced on the Pacific Coast in 1868, and a publishing house was incorporated in Oakland, Cal., April 1, 1875. Not to enter into particulars, this office, in all its equipments, equals, and in some respects surpasses, the Battle Creek house. It is one of the largest and most complete publishing houses west of the Rocky Mountains. The investment amounts to over $225,000. Some 200 persons are employed. Both of the offices named maintain branches at important centers; the first, in Chicago, Ill.; Atlanta, Ga., and Toronto, Ont.; the second, in Kansas City, Mo., and New York, N. Y.
Publishing House, London, England.
An office of publication was established for Central Europe, at Basel, Switzerland, in 1884; and a large building was there erected for its use, $60,000
being invested in the enterprise.
The publishing work was commenced in Christiania, Norway, in 1880, and was prospered till the building shown in the illustration became a necessity, and was erected in 1885, at a cost of $60,000. Over 35 hands are employed, and the output in the different Scandinavian languages is large.
In 1885 also, mission work was commenced in Australia; and in the following year, 1886, a monthly, now weekly, journal was started in Melbourne, called the Bible Echo. Published at first in a rented office, a lot was subsequently bought, and the building shown in the illustration was erected. The ground, building, and office fixtures involved an outlay of about $25,000. A youth's paper and a religious liberty journal are now published there.
In 1884 the General Conference started a monthly journal, called The Present Truth, in Great Grimsby, Eng. In 1887 this was moved to London, where it is still published, having now a weekly circulation of 16,000 copies.
Papers are also published in Cape Town, South Africa; Calcutta, India; Buenos Ayres, Argentina; Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies, and Guadalajara, Mexico. Besides these there are local or State papers issued in nearly every conference in this country. In the seven leading offices about 40 periodicals are issued in the leading languages of the world. Nearly twoscore languages are now found in our catalog of books and pamphlets. Thus the publishing branch of the work is doing its part to speed the message to the accomplishment of its designed purpose, to carry to all nations, tongues, and kings the warning of the coming of the great day of the Lord.
What has led to the wonderful growth and expansion exhibited in the foregoing facts and figures?—It is the blessing of God upon the onward march of study and investigation to which the students of prophecy have been inspired in these last days, accompanied by the faithful preaching of the Word, and the multiplication of friends to the views presented. Growth of publishing facilities to meet these conditions was the natural and inevitable consequence.
But, aside from the increased labor and expense necessary to achieve these results, the message has shown its vitality and vigor by the way it has surmounted other obstacles. One of these has been the opposition it has had to meet. The opposition from without, from non-professors and hostile religious denominations, was easy to bear. That simply acted as a tonic to give vitality and vigor to the cause, and inspire its friends with new zeal. Thus it tended to the furtherance of the work rather than to its hindrance. But opposition from within was more ominous of mischief. As even the apostles had false brethren in their day, so in this cause opposition has from time to time developed in the very ranks of its professed friends, bringing out elements calculated to reproduce the scenes of Acts 20:29, 30.
In more recent years religious professors, not understanding what they were doing, have been taking advantage of the remnants of some old medieval laws still remaining on the statute-books of many States, and have tried to hinder the work by legal pains and penalties. But so far they have not been able to accomplish any visible results. They seem to overlook the fact that in dealing with this cause, the one great element they must reckon with is the heaven-born vitality with which it is endowed.
Polyglot Publishing House, Hamburg, Germany.
Pacific Press, Home of the "Signs of the Times," 1899.
So over all these disturbing factors—opposition from prejudiced professors and the openly profane worldling, over internal defection and financial burdens, the work has moved steadily forward, thereby showing that a providence higher than any worldly wisdom, and stronger than any earthly power, was working in its behalf. And this has inspired its friends to rest down calmly in the same assurance that Gamaliel expressed in regard to the work of Christ in his day: "If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye can not overthrow it." Acts 5:34-39.
Pacific Press, 1878.
URIAH SMITH.
America's Rejection of Liberty
Abraham Lincoln said: "Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands, everywhere. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God can not long retain it."
And when the nation that freed the negroes in North America establishes a despotism over the black man in the Philippines, it is inviting the inroads of its own decay. A hundred years ago the United States was leading the world in the most substantial and glorious reforms. To-day she has turned her back upon her foundation principles, and her mighty influence among men and nations is in the direction of the most alarming perils. And it should not be forgotten that the unerring lines of prophecy have foretold that when America goes down the whole world goes with her.
INCREASING LIGHT.
THE wise man tells us, "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
Herein is set forth a principle manifest in all true growth and progress.
It is true of the individual Christian. His greatest light is not that which shone upon his pathway at his conversion. True, there are many who are forever pointing back to the very hour and day and year, the very occasion and place and people, when, and where, and among whom, and under what circumstances their conversion took place. At every social meeting the experience is repeated with brokenness of heart and tears, coupled with mourning and complaint over the present.
We would in nowise minimize any genuine experience in the mighty power of God. We would take from the heart of none the pleasure of the new birth. In some Christian lives these experiences have been marvelously rich in blessing and revelation and peace.
But, bright as any of these experiences are, God did not design that the very brightest even should be the climax of blessing or revelation or joy. The conversion of the sinner is like the shining of the day star, bright and effulgent in the gray dawn of the morning. God designs that the increasing light shall chase away the darker shadows, dispel the morning mists, shine out even the bright herald of morning, and flood all the earth with waves and deluges of sunshine till the perfect day shall be marked by the ripeness of high noon. God never wishes the Christian to lament for "the days that are gone." He never wishes him to long that to-day were yesterday. God wishes to reveal clearer light to-day than He did yesterday. He would give new light and life to-day. He would feed the soul on the manna fresh from the heavenly table. He wishes to give new joy, new strength, new power, new victories. The child life of the Christian began at conversion. God desires a rapid development through lusty, loyal youth to a strong, sturdy, vigorous manhood, which in moral power and soul illumination never knows decline. If this be not the case, the trouble is with the human, not with God.
The principle of progression is also true of the church as a whole. God designed from the time when He called her out of Egypt that His church should be the light of the world, flashing the bright rays of truth and salvation farther and farther into the great pall of sin and darkness which overshadows mankind till the whole earth should be lightened with His glory.
Abraham had more light than Noah; Moses, more light than Abraham; Elijah and Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel, more than Moses. And when Jesus Christ came, those who listened to His marvelous teachings, and witnessed His wonderful life, saw light far exceeding anything the world had yet known. Said Jesus to His disciples: "Verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them." And the apostle Paul, referring to this fuller, clearer revelation of the Gospel, declares it to be "according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." And again, in referring to this very Gospel, we are told that in other ages "it was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit," to the intent and the extent "that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known through the church the manifold wisdom of God."
But it has all been in Jesus Christ from the beginning. And from age to age, as Satan developed new plans and schemes for the destruction of man, God has revealed more and more of His wonderful resources, His all-abounding grace, His unlimited power, His infinite love—to save.
Following the marvelous revelation of God's love at the first advent of Christ, the church turned her back upon the light, and walked in her own shadow into the Dark Ages. But God did not leave her. When man's need was greatest, when the night was darkest, out of the infinite storehouse of God's Word flashed the light of His Gospel. It kindled the lamps of Huss and Wickliffe and Luther and Tindale and other noble souls, and they shone out to the world. True, these lights were still dimmed by the shadows of pagan and papal tradition. These souls at first saw men as trees walking; but their eyes were opened. Oftentimes their moral conduct would not endure the test of greater light, but they were far in advance of the dying, corrupted church to which God sent them as messengers.
Luther had more light than Huss. Zwingle had light Luther did not have. John Wesley, of a later day, had more light than Luther. Baptists had light which other denominations have been slow to admit in theology, tho they have in scholarship. And in some form each of the great denominations holds in theory or have emphasized some great truth not possessed or emphasized by others. Certainly in no one have we the fulness of the Gospel.
Does not this very condition of things show that God has yet new light to give to the world, light which will lead into one fold all hearts in all companies and creeds of men who long for the light and truth as it is in Jesus? Seven centuries before Christ the prophet of God had declared: "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Isa. 40:3. For seven long centuries that voice was not heard in the desert waste of a backsliding church, till we come to the days of John the Baptist. He fulfilled the prophecy, and the acceptance of his message "justified God." John 1:19-23; Luke 7:29, 30.
And now what mean the messages God has recorded in the prophecies for these days of development? What means the great threefold message of Rev. 14:6-12, which warns against all error and false worship, which leads to all truth by leading to God, which has power to heal all the divisions of Babylon by the balm of the everlasting Gospel, and which will gather out from all nations, tongues, and kindreds a remnant people, little flock tho it may be, of whom it is said, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus"? What mean these and hundreds of other scriptures? These scriptures are not of man, but God.
Reader, what mean all these warnings, admonitions, appeals, entreaties, commandments of God's Word for these days? What means the greater light which is to lighten the world with its glory, and call God's people out of Babylon—confusion, discord, division? (See Rev. 18:1-4.) These are not denominational questions, or questions of sect; they are questions vital to the souls of this generation. How are you, O soul, deciding them?
