Chapter 12—Counsels to Editors
“I Have Set Thee a Watchman.”—Solemn is the responsibility
that rests upon our houses of publication. Those who conduct these
institutions, those who edit the periodicals and prepare the books,
standing as they do in the light of God’s purpose, and called to give
warning to the world, are held by God accountable for the souls of
their fellow men. To them, as well as to the ministers of the word,
applies the message given by God to His prophet of old: “Son of man,
I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou
shalt hear the word at My mouth, and warn them from Me. When I
say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost
not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die
in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.”
Ezekiel 33:7,
8
.—
Testimonies for the Church 7:140
(1902).
The Sacred and the Common—The Lord’s work needs to be
distinguished from the common affairs of life. He says: “I will turn My
hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy
tin; and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at
the beginning; afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness,
the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her
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converts with righteousness.”
Isaiah 1:25-27
. These words are full of
importance. They have a lesson for all who occupy the editorial chair.
The words of Moses possess deep meaning. “Nadab and Abihu, the
sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and
put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which
He commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and
devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said unto
Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in
them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified.”
Leviticus 10:1-3
. This has a lesson for all who are handling the matter
that goes forth from our publishing institutions. Sacred things are
not to be mingled with the common. The papers that have so wide a
circulation should contain more precious instruction than appears in
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