Preface
Seventh-day Adventist editors from all parts of the world met
in Washington, D. C., in August, 1939, to participate in a General
Editorial Council, the first to be held. As a source of inspiration and
guidance to this group, the leaders of the denomination arranged to
have placed in their hands the E. G. White instruction which had
been directed to our writers and editors through the years, drawn from
both published sources and manuscripts. This counsel and instruction
was distributed to the editors in the form of a little paper-bound work
entitled Counsels to Editors. Additional copies were furnished to the
members of the Boards of Directors of our publishing houses and to
others concerned with our publishing interests throughout the world
field.
Five hundred copies of this little work were printed, and the stock
was soon exhausted. There has been an increasing call for the book
by Seventh-day Adventist workers generally. Inasmuch as the writing
for our journals and the production of denominational books is done
largely by our worker group throughout the world, and inasmuch as our
evangelists with their radio ministry are entering more and more the
field of writing in the preparation of their scripts, it seems appropriate
[6]
to make this volume of counsels generally available through a new
edition, which is now issued as a permanent publication.
The reader will observe that certain of these messages speak plainly
of detrimental policies and of dangers which have threatened the work.
Specific publications are referred to and publishing houses named.
These counsels have been a source of guidance in the work of the
past, and their inclusion here should not be construed to constitute a
condemnation or criticism of these publications and publishing houses
today, but, rather, as cautions against a repetition of former mistakes.
Some journals are mentioned which are not now issued. As an aid to
the reader in identifying these, footnotes have been appended. The
fields which they served are now cared for by other publications. The
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