Messenger of the Lord

A Significant Vision

Printer’s ink flowed through early Seventh-day Adventist veins. At Dorchester, Massachusetts, in November 1848, Ellen White had a significant vision outlining the power of the printed page. Speaking to her husband, she said: “I have a message for you. You must begin to print a little paper and send it out to the people. Let it be small at first; but as the people read, they will send you means with which to print, and it will be a success from the first. From this small beginning it was shown to me to be like streams of light that went clear round the world.” ⁶ MOL 362.5

This remarkable vision, at a time when the Whites were penniless, has been dramatically fulfilled. ⁷ MOL 362.6

The story of the rapid development of Adventist publishing has been well-documented elsewhere. ⁸ But the point we make here is that at critical moments in this development, when the future was indeed bleak, Ellen White’s messages kept her colleagues on course. ⁹ MOL 362.7

When publication of Present Truth was in jeopardy in 1850, she received a vision, of which she wrote: “I saw the paper, and that it was needed.... I saw that the paper should go; and if they let it die they would weep in anguish soon. I saw that God did not want James to stop yet; but he must write, write, write, and speed the message and let it go. I saw that it would go where God’s servants cannot go.” ¹⁰ MOL 363.1

In November 1850, the Whites saw wisdom in combining Present Truth and Advent Review into a new journal, The Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, now probably the longest regularly published religious journal in America. But those were difficult times. Ellen White wrote: “We suffered many privations.... We were willing to live cheaply that the paper might be sustained.... We had much care, and often sat up as late as midnight, and sometimes until two or three in the morning, to read proof-sheets.... Mental labor and privation reduced the strength of my husband very fast.” ¹¹ The Whites measured commitment by personal sacrifice and total concern for passing on the light of truth to others. This commitment was never more apparent than in their sacrifices setting up printing facilities in their home until others realized that a publishing house was necessary. ¹² MOL 363.2