The Great Second Advent Movement: Its Rise and Progress

Issuing the First Pamphlets

For a moment we will take a retrospective glance at the facilities with which the pioneers had to work. In the fall of 1853, in the making up of the first book printed on the Washington press—“The Sanctuary,”—after a “bee” of sisters had folded and gathered the signatures preparatory to stitching them, the writer stabbed them with a pegging awl; and after the covers had been put on, Uriah Smith pared them with a straight-edge and a sharp penknife. This was done because of a lack of proper machinery to do that part of the work. GSAM 297.3

No further back than 1861 all the literature of the denomination was printed on one Adams power-press, driven by a two-horsepower engine. Now, in the different offices of publication, there are more than forty steam-power presses running constantly, printing present truth. These offices employ a total of over five hundred persons to carry on the work, while hundreds of canvassers are in the field selling the books among the people. GSAM 298.1

In the year 1862 a full set of all the publications issued by Seventh-day Adventists could be purchased for the sum of $7.50; in 1904, as has been shown, it would require $340 to procure a complete set. Surely something more than human devising has wrought in producing these results. GSAM 298.2

The rise of the publishing work among the Seventh-day Adventists, as predicted in 1848, has indeed been like the progress of the sun, “Grows warmer—sends its rays”—“Keeps on its course like the sun, but it never sets.” GSAM 298.3