ADVENTIST PUBLISHING BEGINS

Roaming New England after the Great Disappointment of 1844 was that venerable captain of the seas, Joseph Bates.  This former Millerite preacher had read a tract written in 1845 by T.M. Preble in The Hope of Israel regarding the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath and had embraced its truth.  Bates proclaimed the sanctity of Saturday worship, rejoicing everywhere he went that this was the news.

By the Spring of 1846, Ellen White had become acquainted with the charismatic Bates, a man thirty-five years her senior.  However, in spite of the fact that she found him to be a "true Christian gentleman, courteous and kind," his Sabbath convictions did not impress her at the outset, as she felt he was stressing disproportionately the fourth Commandment over the other nine. However, in August of 1846 Bates published a forty-eight page tract entitled, The Seventh-day Sabbath, A Perpetual Sign, From the Beginning to the Entering into the Gates of the Holy City, According to the Commandments.   

Also, in August of 1846 Ellen married her somewhat controversial traveling companion, James White and together they studied Bate's track regarding the Sabbath.  Ellen was shown in vision the special sacredness of the fourth Commandment in the Decalogue and before the year was out, the Whites had joined Bates in observing the seventh-day Sabbath.  Just as Ellen White had been leery of Bate's Sabbath convictions, he was likewise highly skeptical regarding the visions of young Ellen —  that is until he actually witnessed her in vision with the heavenly bodies.  Bates now concluded, "I believe the work is of God, and is given to comfort and strengthen His scattered and torn people since the closing up of the work in the world in October, 1844."  By 1847 the three pioneer leaders of Seventh-day Adventism, Joseph Bates, James and Ellen White had found common ground of faith and belief and began to work closely together, preaching newly discovered truths post-1844.

In Topsham, Maine, a conference was held between October 20-22, four years after the experience of the Great Disappointment.  The brethren "... began praying that a way might be opened for publishing the truths connected with the Advent message." [1]  About a month later, Brother Bates in his pamphlet entitled "The Sealing Message," reports that a small assembly of Adventists were assembled together in Dorchester, Massachusetts.  The brethren inquired of God the role Joseph Bates should play in the publishing of this message.  Bates was the logical choice of the early Adventists to publish the truth, seeing as he was already busy at work in this regard.   Ellen told Brother Bates "to write the things he had seen and heard, and the blessing of God would attend to it." [ibid]  Ellen was soon taken off in glorious vision and the publishing focus shifted dramatically when the prophetess of the Lord emphasized  a different direction: "After coming out of vision, I said to my husband:  "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 as 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." [2]

After Dorchester, correspondance arrived from Albert Belden in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, "... giving us a strong invitation to come there and live with them; they said they should consider it a privilege to administer to our wants.  We felt clear to go and felt that it was the way the Lord had opened." 

Ellen writes, "My husband was impressed that it was his duty to write and publish the present truth but he would be in doubt and perplexity as he was penniless.  There were those who had means, but they chose to keep it.  He at length gave up in discouragement and decided to look for a field of grass to mow." [3]  Just as the discouraged disciples had gone back to fishing to earn a living, James determined to go back to what he knew, mowing the hay.  Back at the Belden homestead, the Lord moved upon Ellen with new plans: "I saw that the Lord had blessed and strengthened my husband to labor in the field one year before but that the Lord would not now give him strength to labor in the field, for He had another work for him; that if he ventured into the field he would be cut down by sickness; but that he must write, write, write, and walk out by faith." [4] 

James abandoned the scythe and embraced the pen.  "We sat down to prepare the matter for that little sheet, and wrote every word of it, our entire library comprising a three-shilling pocket Bible, Cruden's Condensed Concordance, and Walker's old dictionary, minus one of its covers." [5]   The research tools used by James were remarkably similar to those used by William Miller when he sat down to study and preach the Midnight Cry message.  The only difference was that this time a prophetess of the Lord was by the author's side to ensure the paper's total accuracy. Ellen recalls, "When he came to some difficult passage we would call upon the Lord to give us the true meaning of His word." [4]   In total faith, James walked out of the Belden residence to Middletown in search of a printer who would believe in this project.  On the third floor of a brick building such a man was found - Charles Pelton - who agreed to print an eight-page paper on behalf of this enthusiastic, seventh-day keeping, Advent Christian, and then wait for  readers to send in donations in order to pay for the printing costs.  One cannot help but think of Jesus instructing His disciples to venture out to find a donkey never ridden by man, and an upper room in which they would hold the Passover feast.  Jesus bade His missionaries to go in faith, that all means would be supplied to spread the gospel.

James entitled this first Sabbath-keeper's paper, The Present Truth, dated July 1849. It was the Sabbath truth which burned fervently in the heart of writer James White. "The readers would be Adventists - those who had been through the first and second angels' messages - and it would carry them to the Sabbath truth of the third angels' message." Included in this first issue was a declaration that the little eight page sheet was free to all, but he added "Those who are interested in Present Truth, and esteem it a privilege, are invited to help pay the expense." [6] 

The time had come to start bringing the copy to the printers, to set type and receive proofs.  Ellen recounts the experience, "Several times while the matter was being set, he had walked to Middletown, eight miles and back."  She then adds this painful footnote, "... although he was then lame." [7]  Finally the day arrived when the printing job was complete, James borrowed Brother Belden's horse and buggy to go pick up 1,000 copies of  "The Present Truth".  "The precious printed sheets were brought into the house and laid upon the floor, and then a little group of interested ones were gathered in, and we knelt around the papers, and with humble hearts and many tears, besought the Lord to let His blessing rest upon these printed messengers of truth.  When we had folded the papers, and my husband had wrapped and addressed copies to all those who he thought would read them, he put them into a carpetbag and carried them on foot to the Middletown post office." All present knew this first paper was primarily the work of one man, for Ellen wrote, "We ... asked the Lord ... to let His blessing rest upon the feeble efforts of His servant." [8] During a three month span from July through September, four issues of Present Truth were published, each containing eight pages.

The prophetess of the Lord humbly writes, "Soon after the sending out of the first number, we received letters bringing means with which to continue publishing the paper, and also the good news of many souls embracing the truth." [7]  A receipt is on record for $64.50, payment in full for the first four issues of Present Truth, made to the trusting printer from Middletown, CT. 

Almost unnoticed in the excitement and early success surrounding Present Truth was an editorial move made by James White. The goal of the publication was to be semi-monthly but then James would "bind them in pamphlets of more permanent nature." [6]  Sister White's earliest writings would appear - in pamphlets -  later to be transformed into books, and the rest is Adventist publishing/colporteur history.

References

[1] Life Sketches (LS), 116;

[2]; LS 125;

[3] Letter 5, 1849;

[4] LS 259-60;

[5] R&H, June 17, 1880;

[6]Early Years, 165;

[7] LS, 126-7

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