Chapter 21—Writers and Royalties
Justice and Love Side by Side—I have been repeatedly shown
that we must sacredly guard the interests of God’s cause as well as the
interests of His chosen people. I was shown that those who preside over
these institutions should ever bear in mind that there is a Chief Director,
which is the God of heaven. There should be a strict honesty in their
business transactions in every department of the work. While there
should be firmness in preserving order, there should be compassion,
mercy, and forbearance incorporated into their characters. Justice has
a twin sister, which is love. These should stand side by side....
The board of directors should ever act as under the divine eye, and
with a continual sense that they are only finite men and are liable to
make mistakes in judgment and in decisions and plans unless they
are closely connected with God. As they are only weak and erring
men themselves they should feel kindness and pity for others who may
err.... There should be the cultivation of universal kindness with every
worker. Seek counsel of God first, for this is necessary in order for
you to properly counsel together.—
Letter 34, 1886
.
Author Has an Individual Stewardship—In all our dealing with
one another, God desires us carefully to guard the principle of personal
responsibility to and dependence upon Him. It is a principle that
should be especially kept in view by our publishing houses in their
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dealing with authors.
It has been urged by some that authors have no right to hold the
stewardship of their own works; that they should give their works
over to the control of the publishing house or of the conference; and
that, beyond the expense involved in the production of the manuscript,
they should claim no share of the profit; that this should be left with
the conference or the publishing house, to be appropriated, as their
judgment shall direct, to the various needs of the work. Thus the
author’s stewardship of his work would be wholly transferred from
himself to others....
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