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The Publishing Ministry
The matter, as opened before me, was that there was a fervor,
an enthusiasm, among authors to seek to excel one another in the
appearance made by their books.
I ask you to be guarded in this matter. The Lord would have The
Desire of Ages do its work. The illustrations will be no detriment to
the book, but an advantage in its sale. The investment of so large an
amount of money in illustrations was not essential, but that should not
in any way hinder the canvassers from handling the book. Canvassers
generally have much to say in favor of illustrations. Now, because
cautions and warnings are given to prevent the coming in of an evil
which no one suspected, some may refuse to handle The Desire of
Ages.—
Letter 76, 1900
.
Pictures Upon the Mind’s Eye—An extravagant outlay of means
has been made for illustrations. Thousands of dollars have been ex-
pended which has not tended to glorify God. A large number of
illustrations in a book will cause some persons to purchase it who
would otherwise not take it; but the benefit derived is not equal to the
disadvantages. God can make pictures upon the mind’s eye more beau-
tiful and correct than can be made by the greatest artist who has ever
presented to the world a representation of heavenly things.—
Letter
137, 1899
.
Artists Cannot Truly Represent Christ—The artist may do his
best to represent the things his eyes have never seen, but his represen-
tations are so far beneath the reality that I am pained as I behold them.
Neither God nor heaven nor Christ, who is the image of the Father,
can be truly represented by the art of man. If the Lord had thought it
advisable to represent Christ in this way, His person would have been
[220]
described in the writings of the apostle.
In the words of the disciple John, Christ is presented before us:
[
John 1:1-14
quoted].
Christ is to be all and in all to the believer. There must be none of
self, and all of Christ, whose we are by creation and by redemption.
The Holy Spirit takes the most attractive excellencies of the One who
is altogether lovely, and presents them in such a way as to engage
the attention and receive the best attention of the renewed heart. God
designs that the Holy Spirit shall keep before the mind’s eye scenes that
will attract and absorb all there is of the newborn soul. We need not any
external representations of the person of Christ. The imagination must