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The Publishing Ministry
Testimonies for the Church 7:176-178
. (See also
Testimonies for the
Church 5:563-566
;
Testimonies for the Church 7:179-181
.)
Publishers to Deal Justly With Writers—In the past, publishers
have placed themselves as God, to dictate, to control, to manage as
they pleased, and to lord it over God’s heritage. They have done a
deceptive work in dealing with authors. I have been taken into private
councils, and have heard the plans laid down. Men have managed to
make an author believe that his work is naught, and that they do not
want to have anything to do with the book. The author has no means.
He feels that his hands are tied. Men talk and think over the whole
process, and succeed in bringing him to their terms, to take the royalty
that they offer on the book.
The dealing with----------was not true and righteous in all its points.
Justice was not done to him. The effort made to grind down----------and
to obtain possession of books, had made a most miserable showing,
driving him to an opposite extreme. Men’s brains have been bought
and sold.—
Letter 43, 1899
. (
Selections from the Testimonies Setting
forth Important Principles Relating to Our Work in General, 211
;
Special Instruction Regarding Royalties, 4
.)
Each Person to Manage His Own Business—The Lord would
have every person manage his own business and handle his own talents.
He does not desire His people to give away the only means they have
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to invest in His cause for their individual selves.
Some think that only a portion of their means is the Lord’s, but
this is a mistake. All is the Lord’s. All should feel their accountability
to appropriate the means as the different necessities of the work shall
demand. There are poor to be helped. If you put out of your power the
talents lent you by God to do this work, you are held responsible for
the work you should have done. You place man as God, and he feels
fully authorized to use the purchased talents just as he pleases, when
he might listen to the calls for help. You put it out of your power to do
the work you feel impressed to do.
All that we have, every dollar, belongs to God. Wise trading is to
be done, and every man and woman is to pray and work and study and
plan, all the time acquiring a more correct knowledge of how to work.
This is the plan of God. There are men acting a part in the work of
God who would help in an emergency, but they have placed thousands
in the hands of other men to use for them. They have given over their