Dorchester Vision of 1848 and Our First Publishing Ventures
17
and his mother wrote: “We brought him home quite rugged.”—
Life
Sketches of Ellen G. White, 145
.]....
The Lord greatly blessed us on our journey to Vermont. My hus-
band had much care and labor. At the different conferences he did most
of the preaching, sold books, and labored to extend the circulation of
the paper. When one conference was over, we would hasten to the
next. At noon we would feed the horse by the roadside, and eat our
lunch. Then my husband, laying his writing paper on the cover of
our dinner box or on the top of his hat, would write articles for the
Review and Instructor.—
Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 136-145
.
[
The Youth’s Instructor was published from 1852 until 1970, when it
was succeeded by Insight.
]
Publishing Responsibility Transferred to Church—When my
husband became so feeble, before our removal from Rochester, [
In
1855 the brethren in Michigan opened the way for the office of publi-
cation to be removed to Battle Creek. See
Testimonies for the Church
1:97ff
.] he desired to free himself from the responsibility of the pub-
lishing work. He proposed that the church take charge of the work,
and that it be managed by a publishing committee whom they should
appoint and that no one connected with the office derive any financial
[25]
benefit therefrom beyond the wages received for his labor.
Though the matter was repeatedly urged upon their attention, our
brethren took no action in regard to it until 1861. Up to this time
my husband had been the legal proprietor of the publishing house,
and sole manager of the work. He enjoyed the confidence of the
active friends of the cause, who trusted to his care the means which
they donated from time to time, as the growing cause demanded, to
build up the publishing enterprise. But although the statement was
frequently repeated, through the Review, that the publishing house
was virtually the property of the church, yet as he was the only legal
manager, our enemies took advantage of the situation, and under the
cry of speculation did all in their power to injure him, and to retard
the progress of the cause. Under these circumstances he introduced
the matter of organization, which resulted in the incorporation of the
Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, according to the laws
of Michigan, in the spring of 1861.—
Life Sketches of Ellen G. White,
164
.