History of the Sabbath and first day of the week

by John Nevins Andrews

The publishing interests of the Seventh-day Adventists originated through his instrumentality. He began the work of publishing in 1849, without resources, and with very few friends, but with much toil, self-sacrifice, and anxious care; and with the blessing of God upon his efforts, he has been the means of establishing an efficient office of publication, and of disseminating many important works throughout our country, and, to some extent, to other nations also. The publication of the Advent Review and Herald of the Sabbath, the organ of the Seventh-day Adventists, was commenced by him in 1850. For most of the years of its existence, he has served as one of its editors; and for all its earlier years, he was both publisher and sole editor. During this time, he has also labored with energy as a minister of the gospel of Christ.

The wants of the cause demanding an enlargement of capital and more extensive operations, to this end an Association was incorporated in the city of Battle Creek, Michigan, May 3, 1861, under the name of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association. This Association owns three commodious publishing houses, with engine, power presses, and all the fixtures necessary for doing an extensive business. There are about fifty persons constantly employed in this work of publication. The Association has a capital of about $82,000. Under God, it owes its prosperity to the prudent management and untiring energy of Eld. James White.

The Advent Review has at the present time (Nov., 1873) a circulation of about 5000 copies. The Youth’s Instructor, a monthly paper designed for the children of Sabbath-keeping Adventists, began to be issued in 1852, and has now attained a circulation of nearly 5000 copies.

The Advent Tidende, a Danish monthly with a circulation of 800, is published for the benefit of those who speak the Danish and Norwegian tongues, of whom a considerable number have embraced the Sabbath.

The S. D. Adventists have taken a strong interest in the subject of hygiene and the laws of health, and have established a Health Institute at Battle Creek, Mich., which publishes the Health Reformer, a monthly journal, magazine form, having a circulation of nearly 5000 copies.

Numerous publications on Prophecy, the Signs of the Times, the Coming of Christ, the Sabbath, the Law of God, the Sanctuary, &c., &c., have been issued within the past twenty years, and have had an extensive circulation, amounting, in the aggregate, to many millions of pages.

The ordinary financial wants of the cause are sustained by a method of collecting means known as Systematic Benevolence. By this system, it is designed that each friend of the cause shall pay a certain sum weekly proportioned to the property which he possesses. But there is no compulsion in this matter. In this manner the burden is borne by all, so that it rests heavily upon none; and the means needed for the work flows with a steady stream into the treasury of the several churches, and finally into that of the State Conferences. A settlement is instituted each year at the State Conferences, in which the labors, receipts, and expenditures, of each minister are carefully considered. Thus none are allowed to waste means, and none who are recognized as called of God to the ministry are allowed to suffer.

The churches sustain their meetings for the most part without the aid of preaching. They raise means to sustain the servants of Christ, but bid them mainly devote their time and strength to save those who have not the light of these important truths shining upon their pathway. So they go out everywhere preaching the word of God, as his providence guides their feet. During the summer months, the work in new fields is carried forward principally by means of large tents, which enable the preacher to provide a suitable place of worship, wherever he may think it desirable to labor.

The Seventh-day Adventists have thirteen State Conferences, which assemble annually in their respective States. These bear the names of Maine, Vermont, New England, New York and Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas, and California. These Conferences are designed to meet the local wants of the cause. There is also a General Conference, which assembles yearly, composed of delegates from the State Conferences. This Conference takes the general oversight of the work in all the State Conferences, supplying the more destitute with laborers as far as possible, and uniting the whole strength of the body for the accomplishment of the work. It also takes the charge of missionary labor in those States which have no organized Conferences.

There are about fifty ministers who devote their whole time to the work of the gospel. There is also a considerable number who preach a portion of the time and devote the remainder to secular labor. There are about 6000 members in the several Conference organizations. But such is the scattered condition of this people (for they are found in all the northern States and in several of the southern), that a very large portion have no connection with its organization. They are to be found in single families scattered all the way from Maine to California and Oregon. The Review and Instructor constitute, in a great number of cases, the only preachers of their faith.