Evolution of the Seventh Day Adventist Publishing Work
The Publishing Work Grows:
In the spring of 1852, the Whites moved to Rochester, New York, and there established an office in which they could do their own printing. The brethren rallied to the appeal for money with which to purchase a printing press and six hundred dollars was raised to secure the equipment. How happy the early believers were when our papers could be issued on a Sabbathkeeping press! For a little more than three years, they lived in Rochester and published the
message there. In addition to the Review and Herald and the Youth’s Instructor begun by James White in 1852, they also, from time to time, published tracts. Mrs. White’s second pamphlet, Supplement to the Christian Experience and Views of Ellen G. White, was published in Rochester in January, 1854.
Battle Creek Becomes the Publishing Center:
In November, 1855, James and Ellen White and their helpers moved to Battle Creek, Michigan. The press and other pieces of printing equipment were placed in a building erected by several of the Sabbathkeeping Adventists who had furnished the money with which to establish their own printing office. As their work developed in that little city, Battle Creek became the natural headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. But it was with difficulty that James White maintained the publishing work.
As we study the background of Early Writings, it should be noted that the early Sabbathkeeping Adventists at first had a burden to reach with the Sabbath truth only their former brethren in the great Advent Awakening; that is, those who had been with them in the first and the second angels’ messages. Consequently for about seven years after 1844, their labors were very largely for Adventists who had not yet taken their stand on the third angel’s message. To one familiar with the circumstances, this is understandable.
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