Chapter 2—Established in Sacrifice
Unreserved Consecration of Early Workers—Some of the men
of experience and piety, who led out in this work, who denied self
and did not hesitate to sacrifice for its success, are now sleeping in the
grave. They were God’s appointed channels, His representative men,
through whom the principles of spiritual life were communicated to
the church. They had an experience of the highest value. They could
not be bought or sold. Their purity and devotion and self-sacrifice,
their living connection with God, were blessed to the upbuilding of the
work. Our institutions were characterized by the spirit of self-sacrifice.
In the days when we were struggling with poverty, those who saw
how wondrously God wrought for the cause felt that no greater honor
could be bestowed upon them than to be bound up with the interests
of the work by sacred links which connected them with God. Would
they lay down the burden and make terms with the Lord from a money
point of view? No, no. Should every timeserver forsake his post, they
would never desert the work.
The believers who in the early history of the cause sacrificed for
the upbuilding of the work were imbued with the same spirit. They
felt that God demanded of all connected with His cause an unreserved
consecration of body, soul, and spirit, of all their energies and capabil-
ities, to make the work a success.—
Testimonies for the Church 7:216,
217
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Publishing Pioneers Practiced Self-denial—The work of God
is to be carried on by us as a people. We know how it started. My
husband said, “Wife, let us take only sixteen shillings a week. We
shall live very plainly and dress very plainly, and take the means that
otherwise would come to us, and invest it in the publishing work.”
The publishing house then was a plain, square building, 24 by 36
[first publishing house in Battle Creek, established in 1855]. Some
narrow-minded men who wanted the money for themselves said, “This
is altogether too large a building.” They brought such heavy pressure
to bear regarding this question that a meeting was called.
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