288
The Publishing Ministry
When poor ministers see these good and extravagant Bibles, they will
have them who are the least able, and as a result they cannot supply
themselves with works treating on our faith.—
Letter 2, 1880
.
Liberal Policy to Encourage Ministers—When the resolution
was adopted that this small source of income, [
That is, a profit from
the sale of our books.
] besides their small wages, was cut off from our
ministers in the selling of our publications, I said to myself, All wrong.
There will be a serious reaction from this. I am sure that the heart and
soul is being taken out of our ministers by these movements, and I must
not keep silence. The interests of every part of the cause are dear to me
as my life, and every branch of importance. I was shown that there was
danger of making the tract and missionary work so absorbing that it
will, through a multiplicity of plans, become perplexing and intricate.
“Too much machinery” was repeated to me by the angel.—
Letter 2,
1880
.
[334]
Fair Prices for Publications—Our houses of publication are the
property of all our people, and all should work to the point of raising
them above embarrassment. In order to circulate our publications, they
have been offered at so low a figure that but little profit could come to
the office to reproduce the same works. This has been done with the
best of motives, but not with experienced and farseeing judgment.
At the low prices of publications the office could not preserve a
capital upon which to work. This was not fully seen and critically
investigated. These low prices led people to undervalue the works,
and it was not fully discerned that when once these publications were
placed at a low figure it would be very difficult to bring them up to
their proper value.
Our ministers have not had suitable encouragement. They must
have means in order to live. There has been a sad lack of foresight
in placing the low prices upon our publications, and still another
in turning the profits largely into the tract and missionary societies.
These matters have been carried to extremes, and there will be a
reaction. In order for the tract and missionary societies to flourish, the
instrumentalities to make and print books must flourish. Cripple these
instrumentalities, burden the publishing houses with debt, and the tract
and missionary societies will not prove a success.
There has been wrong management, not designedly, but in zeal
and ardor to carry forward the missionary work. In the distribution and