Yesterday morning I read your letter, in which you express your ardent desire to see a strong corps of workers sent to India and China and other Oriental countries. Last night instruction was given me that at present our principal efforts are not to be made especially for China or other fields similar to China. We first have a work to do at home. All our institutions—our sanitariums, publishing houses, and schools—are to reach a higher standard. Then the workers sent to foreign fields will reach a higher standard. They will be more earnest, more spiritual, and their labors will be more effective.
(8T 87.1)
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Years ago the Lord gave me special directions that buildings should be erected in various places in America, Europe, and other lands for the publication of literature containing the light of present truth. He gave instruction that every effort should be made to send forth to the world from the press the messages of invitation and warning. Some will be reached by our literature who would not be reached in any other way. From our books and papers bright beams of light are to shine forth to enlighten the world in regard to present truth.
(8T 87.2)
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Workers who are not benefited by the advantages they receive in connection with the cause of God should not be brought into our offices of publication. Neither should matter of an objectionable character be introduced into these institutions, for by so doing the sacred truth of God is placed on a level with common matters. And when outside work is brought in, a correspondingly large number of workers must be employed. This brings care and perplexity.
(8T 87.3)
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I have been shown that mistakes are being made in our publishing houses. There is a constant increase of expensive machinery for the doing of commercial work. A large amount of work has been brought in that has no relation to the work which in faith and love is to be accomplished for the salvation of human beings. Time and talent have been used in doing a class of work that has brought no glory to God. Much effort has been put forth in lines that do nothing to spread a knowledge of the truth.
(8T 88.1)
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It is high time that consideration be given to this matter. This mistake must be corrected. It is not wisdom to use money to establish enterprises that consume without producing. It is said that more room is needed in the publishing houses. But there is ample room in them, and when the right thing is done, it will be seen that there is sufficient room.
(8T 88.2)
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Far less commercial work should be received into our offices of publication, and not a line of matter containing Satan’s sentiments should be received. The introduction of such matter destroys all sense of the sacredness of the institution. The whole institution is cheapened. There is always danger, when the common is mingled with the sacred, that the common will be allowed to take the place of the sacred.
(8T 88.3)
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How does the Lord regard the using of the presses in His institutions to print the errors of the enemy? When objectionable matter is mingled with sacred matter coming from the presses, His blessing cannot rest upon the work done. Said the divine Teacher: “What have you gained by bringing in this outside work? It has brought you much vexation of spirit; and the workers have had to hurry and rush to get the matter finished in the specified time. This has occasioned confusion and strife. Harsh words have been spoken, and an unpleasant spirit has been brought into the office. The financial gain in no way compares with the loss which has come through rushing and driving and scolding and fretting.”
(8T 88.4)
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May the Lord help His people to see that this is not wisdom and that far more is lost than is gained. If less machinery and fewer workers had been brought together in one place while other portions of the vineyard were destitute of facilities; if more money had been spent in making plants in various places, God would have been better pleased. It is not sanctified ambition that has led to the investment of so much money in one place. It is a mistake for our brethren to run so many presses for the printing of merely secular matter. We are fast approaching the end. The printing and circulation of the books and papers that contain the truth for this time are to be our work.
(8T 89.1)
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There is a marked neglect of the cautions and warnings that have been given from time to time. When there is a seeking of the Lord and a confession of sin, when the needed reformation takes place, united zeal and earnestness will be shown in restoring what has been withheld. The Lord will manifest His pardoning love, and means will come to cancel the debts on our institutions.
(8T 89.2)
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God’s design in the establishment of the publishing house at Battle Creek was that from it light should shine forth as a lamp that burneth. This has been kept before the managers. Again and again they have been told of the sacredness of God’s office of publication and of the importance of maintaining its purity. But they have lost true understanding and have united with the force of the enemy by consenting to print papers and books containing the most dangerous errors that can be brought into existence. They have failed to see the evil influences of such erroneous sentiments on typesetters, proofreaders, and all others engaged in the printing of such matter. They have been spiritually asleep.
(8T 90.1)
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By some of the outside work brought into this institution the science of Satan has been presented to the minds of the workers. The printing of such matter is a dishonor to God. It has done its part in deteriorating the minds of the workers. The managers have agreed to print it at a low figure. The gain would have been loss if the very highest figure had been asked for the work.
(8T 90.2)
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I have received a letter from Elder Daniells regarding the addition of another building to the Review and Herald office. The answer I make to this is: No, no, no. Instead of making any additions to the buildings already erected, cleanse the office of the trash of satanic origin, and you will gain room in every way.
(8T 90.3)
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God is not pleased with the congested state of things in Battle Creek. If the workers were divided and plants made in other places, God would be better pleased, and the standard of truth would be planted in regions which have never heard the message. Before you add another building to the office in Battle Creek, make thorough restitution to the Southern field. This has not yet been done as it should be done. Every step has been forced.
(8T 90.4)
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The five thousand dollars which would be used in adding to the Review and Herald buildings should now be invested in the work in other places where the gospel of truth has not yet been preached.
(8T 91.1)
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I feel a terror of soul as I see to what a pass our publishing house has come. The presses in the Lord’s institution have been printing the soul-destroying theories of Romanism and other mysteries of iniquity. The office must be purged of this objectionable matter. I have a testimony from the Lord for those who have placed such matter in the hands of the workers. God holds you accountable for presenting to young men and young women the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge. Can it be possible that you have not a knowledge of the warnings given to the Pacific Press on this subject? Can it be possible that with a knowledge of these warnings you are going over the same ground, only doing much worse? It has often been repeated to you that angels of God are passing through every room in the office. What impression has this made on your minds?
(8T 91.2)
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You have given matter containing Satan’s sentiments into the hands of the workers, bringing his deceptive, polluting principles before their minds. The Lord looks upon this action on your part as helping Satan to prepare his snare to catch souls. God will not hold guiltless those who have done this thing. He has a controversy with the managers of the publishing house. I have been almost afraid to open the Review, fearing to see that God has cleansed the publishing house by fire.
(8T 91.3)
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The Lord has instructed me that those who cannot see the wickedness of co-operating with Satan by publishing his falsehoods might better seek some work in which they will not ruin our youth, body and soul. There is danger that the standard of truth and righteousness will be so lowered that God will bring His judgments upon the wrongdoers.
(8T 92.1)
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It is high time that we understood what spirit has for years been controlling matters at the Review and Herald office. I am horrified to think that the most subtle phase of spiritualism should be placed before the workers, and that in a way calculated to confuse and perplex the mind. Be assured that Satan will follow up the advantage thus given him.
(8T 92.2)
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The Review and Herald office has been defiled as the temple was defiled, only the result has been tenfold more disastrous. Overturning the tables of the money-changers, Christ drove the sheep and cattle from the precincts of the temple, saying: “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”Matthew 21:13. Worse even than the defilement of the temple has been the defilement of the publishing house by the printing of matter which should never have been placed in the hands of the workers in God’s institution.
(8T 92.3)
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God’s law has been transgressed, His cause betrayed, and His institution made a den of thieves. The work of printing and circulating stirring appeals for the truth, which should have been placed first, to which the time and the talent of the workers should have been devoted, has received little or no attention. The commercial work, some of it of a most objectionable character, has gradually assumed the supremacy. This work has absorbed the energies which should have been devoted to the publication of literature of the purest quality and the most elevating character. Time has been wasted, talent misapplied, and money misappropriated. The work which ought to have been done has been left undone. Satan’s sentiments have been exalted. His theories have been printed by presses which should have been used to prepare the truth of God for circulation. Men have coveted promotion when their principles were under the ban of God’s displeasure. Loss is infinitely better than dishonorable gain.
(8T 92.4)
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Oh, what will God do with the timeservers? Think you that Jesus will stand in the printing establishment, to work through human minds by His ministering angels, to make the truth coming from the press a power to warn the world that the end of all things is at hand, while Satan is allowed to pervert the minds of the workers right in the institution? The light I have is: Refuse to print another line of this pernicious matter. Those who have had to do with its introduction into the publishing house need to repent before God in contrition of soul, for His wrath is kindled against them. Let this class of work be forever excluded from our publishing houses. Give more time to the publication and circulation of the books containing present truth. See that your work in this line reaches perfection. Do all in your power to diffuse throughout the world the light of heaven.
(8T 93.1)
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The apprentices and the other workers must not be so rushed and hurried that they have no time to pray. The youth in our publishing houses should be educated as were the youth in the schools of the prophets. They should be prepared to take hold of the work in new places.
(8T 93.2)
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If the men who heard the message given at the time of the Conference—the most solemn message that could be given—had not been so unimpressionable, if in sincerity they had asked, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?”(Acts 9:6) the experience of the past year would have been very different from what it is. But they have not made the track clean behind them. They have not confessed their mistakes, and now they are going over the same ground in many things, following the same wrong course of action, because they have destroyed their spiritual eyesight.
(8T 93.3)
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