Periodical Circulation
89
demoralizing literature becomes a habit, like the use of opium or other
baleful drugs, and as a result, the minds of thousands are enfeebled,
debased, and even crazed. Satan is doing more through the productions
of the press to weaken the minds and corrupt the morals of the youth
than by any other means.
Let all reading of this character be banished from your houses,
let books that are useful, instructive, and elevating, be placed in your
libraries and upon our tables, with the Review and Herald, our church
paper, and the Signs of the Times, our missionary paper, and the effect
upon both parents and children will be good. During these long winter
evenings, let parents see that all their children are at home, and then
let the time be devoted to the reading of the Scriptures and other inter-
esting books that will impart knowledge and inculcate right principles.
Let the best reader be selected to read aloud, while other members of
the family are engaged in useful occupations. Thus these evenings
at home may be made both pleasant and profitable. Pure, healthful
reading will be to the mind what healthful food is to the body. You
will thus become stronger to resist temptation, to form right habits,
and to act upon right principles.—
The Review and Herald, December
26, 1882
.
[135]
I have been reading the Review this morning. It is full of precious
matter. This paper should be in every family of our people, not only in
America, but in every country. It is our church paper for the world. I
shall endeavor to obtain subscribers for it in America and Australia.
I do not disparage the Signs of the Times. Both the Review and the
Signs should be widely circulated. And I hope the subscription list of
the Watchman may be greatly increased. I hope you will endeavor to
obtain subscriptions for the Watchman and for the Review, for these
papers contain important matter for this time.—
Letter 93, 1905
.
Promoting the Watchman—The question has been asked, Should
the Watchman occupy territory outside the Southern States? One night
I seemed to be in a meeting where this question was being discussed.
Some argued that it would not be wise for an effort to be made to push
the circulation of the Watchman in all parts of the field. They said that
the Review and Herald and the Signs of the Times should be given the
right of way, and that the Watchman should not be allowed to interfere
with the circulation of these two papers which have been so long in