Some of our dear brethren have in love censured us occasionally. We find generally these two points, sometimes in the same letter, namely, "Why do you not send your paper out more frequently and more regularly?" the other, "I think you have not been on your guard enough to keep out of debt." Well, there it is. We could have kept entirely out of debt if we had issued fewer papers, and we might have issued every two weeks had we gone more in debt. But no one of our experience could possibly have issued more frequently, with our income and slow facilities. Our dear brethren are without a knowledge of what they are talking about. But now, beloved, as we are in this desperate effort to get entirely out of debt and to get situated so as to cut off much of our past expense, we hope that all will send us the help they can.
The move to Bucyrus was made in May, 1883. About that time the first good press was purchased. It was a rebuilt Country Campbell, allowing either belt- or hand-power to be used, and costing perhaps six hundred dollars.
The trying times through which the Trumpet had to pass in its early years are known only to God. It was perhaps his design that it should be tried as gold is tried. There were always a few consecrated hearts who contributed of their means. Some put everything they had into the work. Thus the work was kept alive. Little did Brother Warner realize, when he was located at Bucyrus and the prospects looked good, that there he should go through the bitterest trial of his life. The light of the Trumpet came very near being snuffed out entirely. Bucyrus was the narrows in the Trumpet's voyage, through which it barely passed. This will be described in our next chapter.
The office of the Trumpet remained at Bucyrus nearly a year. Some brethren in Michigan were desirous of having it moved to their locality. Progress had been made at Bucyrus, but it was through the furnace of trial rather than any extension of influence. But doubtless all this experience was necessary as an equipment for greater usefulness.
The move to Williamston, Ingham County, Mich., was made in April, 1884. A Mr. Horton, a business man of Williamston, in whom the Lord had planted a love for the truth, went to Bucyrus and had the office equipment shipped. The saints in Michigan had in the meantime obtained possession of a two-story building 28 x 84, and they had it partitioned, or remodeled, to suit the need, the upper story to be used for a hall or assembly-room, the rear of the lower floor to be used for living rooms and the front for an office. Brother Warner rejoiced with tears when the work got started in its new and enlarged quarters in Williamston. The first number of the paper published there was dated April 15. From its columns we quote the following greetings:
We are happy to greet your ears once more, beloved, with the sound of the trump of God. The devil has spent all his infernal powers in vain to crush this work of God. We have thoroughly learned his attitude toward us. In his hellish clamor about us for many days, saying, 'You must give up the Trumpet,' he has clearly committed himself against this cause, and all who are against this dissemination of the light of God we know are on the devil's side, either wilfully or ignorantly. Oh, how hell has poured forth upon us! Night after night we had to leave our bed at two, three, and four o'clock, and go to the office and cry unto God to drive away the hosts of hell that had encamped against us. And every time the power of God dispersed these infernal spirits of darkness, the Lord recommissioned us to blow the Trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on his holy mountain, and we were made joyfully conscious of his approving smile for not having backed down before the legions of hell. But the devil having drawn to his side the best agents he could ever expect to use against us, was fierce and determined to hush the trumpet-sound of freedom from all sin and Babylon yokes. Oh, halleluiah!
During this terrible combat with the powers of darkness, we had to do more fighting than working, hence the work went on slowly. We were ready to print about the first of February, then the Lord called us by telegram to Kalamazoo, Mich. The next day our printer accidentally spoiled the rollers, so that he could not print. So the work lay until our return. After looking to the Lord until he assured us that the office would be cleared from the mortgage, we ordered new rollers, and went to work again in the name of the Lord. About the time we were ready to print, God sent Bro. Thomas Horton, from Williamston, Mich., who paid off the five hundred-dollar mortgage, some other debts, chartered a car, loaded us up, and moved office, household goods, Master Willie, and ourself to this place. Wife and child having remained behind to visit with friends. Moving just at the time caused a few days delay in this issue, but now we expect to greet you regularly. Praise the Lord! "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord!" So said Job. If it was the devil that took it away, he had to get a permit from God before he could do it, therefore it was of the Lord, and "blessed be the name of the Lord"; for when he permits the devil to take anything away he has given to his children, he always returns fourfold. We have understood this principle long ago, and have thrown it in the face of the devil every time he has shown his teeth at us. Blessed be God forever and ever! And thus hath God done unto us again. We left an office where we were hampered up in 14 × 26 feet, and here has God furnished a building two stories high, 28 × 84 feet, all of which is dedicated to the Lord. It contains a large meeting-hall, and plenty of room for office and all families connected with it. It is, however, under repairs, and we have taken temporary quarters for a few weeks.
Every change that was made gave occasion for new hopes for the advancement of the publishing work. Accordingly we read in the first issue at Williamston: "After one more issue we expect steam-power, and there is no telling what God will yet do for the Trumpet if the devil doesn't quit his hellish opposition." An engine was purchased during the first year at Williamston. It was of three horse-power and cost two hundred dollars. Thus, after the trying times of the first four years of its life, the Trumpet work began to make substantial progress and the reformation cause to expand and become permanent.
The next move for the Gospel Trumpet was in the summer of 1886. Near Bangor, in Van Buren County, was a yearly camp-meeting. There were many saints in the vicinity and near Grand Junction, seven miles north. At the Bangor camp-meeting in June, 1886, the subject of moving the Trumpet Office to that part of the State was considered. It seemed to be the mind of the Spirit and of all the saints that the removal should be made. A commodious and substantial building in the town of Grand Junction was offered for eight hundred dollars, or about half its worth. The saints agreed to purchase the property, and money was raised to pay moving-expenses. An encumbrance of five hundred dollars on the machinery was also paid off. Accordingly it was decided to move. One freight-car held the entire outfit of office material, machinery, and household goods.
Grand Junction, "where two lightning tracks lay crossing," was a small town of a few hundred inhabitants, the junction of the Chicago and West Michigan (now the Pere Marquette) and a branch of the Michigan Central Railways, ten miles from South Haven on the lake and thirty miles west of Kalamazoo. This became the permanent home of the Gospel Trumpet during twelve years of its history.