The multifold ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in sharing the gospel began with publishing the message through the Review and Herald, or, as it is called today, the Adventist Review. During 1848 early Sabbatarian Adventists began an evangelistic emphasis through a series of Sabbath and sanctuary conferences in New England and New York. As the year began, there were at most a few hundred scattered and confused believers. As the meetings continued, more people began to respond and gather to study the message. As those early believers studied their Bibles, they wondered how the Sabbath was to be proclaimed as a part of the last message before Jesus returned. How would the seal of God described in Revelation go forward? How could it go more swiftly and have the broadest impact?
It was in connection with the last conference of the year, November 17-18, 1848, in the home of Otis Nichols in Dorchester, Massachusetts, not far from Boston, that God gave an important vision to Ellen White. Joseph Bates was present and wrote down much of what she said in vision. At one point she said: “Publish the things thou hast seen and heard, and the blessing of God will attend.”1 Ellen White later recollected that after coming out of vision, she turned to her husband and said: “I have a message for you. You must begin to print a little paper and send it out to the people. Let it be small at first; but as the people read, they will send you means with which to print, and it will be a success from the first.” She then gave the following commentary: “From this small beginning it was shown me to be like streams of light that went clear around the world.”2
Answering the Call
It was in July 1849, 175 years ago this month, that James White followed through on the divine counsel he received in Dorchester. A semimonthly paper titled The Present Truth began publication and continued until November 1850. The focus of the paper was to present the Bible teaching on the end-time importance of the Sabbath in connection with the heavenly sanctuary ministry of Jesus.
The same month that The Present Truth began publication, James and Ellen White’s second son, James Edson White, was born in Rocky Hill, Connecticut (July 28, 1849). Both Henry, their first son, and Edson were often cared for by trusted and caring friends while the Whites were travelling and building the nascent movement.
In November 1850 the first issue of the Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald,popularly called the Review and Herald, was first published. This paper continued to be printed in various forms to this day. It is the one of the longest continuously published religious papers in the United States and has truly been like “streams of light that went clear around the world.”
For the first 15 months the periodical was published by local printing houses, first in Paris, Maine, and then in Saratoga Springs, New York.3 In the February 17, 1852, issue of the Review and Herald, James White wrote: “We think the time has come when a press should be owned by Sabbath-keepers. Now our work [of printing the paper] is being done on the Sabbath, which is very unpleasant and inconvenient. It also costs much more than it would if we had an office of our own.”4 On March 12, 1852, an important conference was held in the home of Jesse Thompson, two miles from Ballston Spa, New York. At the conference it was decided to purchase a printing press and establish the publishing headquarters of the movement in Rochester, New York. As they moved to Rochester, a new era began.
The early founders and believers in the Advent message were willing to suffer anything for God’s dear cause.
With generous loans and donations from Hiram Edson and others, a Washington hand press was purchased, and the fledgling printing operation was established in Rochester.5 May 6, 1852, was an auspicious date. For the first time the Review and Herald was printed on an Adventist press operated by Sabbathkeeping Adventist workers. The printing operation continued in Rochester until October 30, 1855, when the press and headquarters were again relocated, this time to Battle Creek, Michigan.
Throughout this time James White was publishing. From July 1849 until they moved to Rochester in 1852, the couple were mostly traveling. James White recollected: “In 1850 I commenced publishing the Review and Herald at Paris, Me. . . . But those were days of poverty, deprivation, toil and anguish of spirit. We labored ardently to bring some to a knowledge of the truth, divided our scanty purse with them, and at the same time were suffering for the comforts of life. With feeble health we traveled from town to town, and from State to State, preaching the word and holding conferences; and at the same time issuing the Review once in two or three weeks.”6
James and Ellen White established the press in their rented home. They were extremely poor. To “furnish” the home, they purchased two old bedsteads for 25 cents, six chairs for a dollar, and four more chairs that were without seating for 62 cents. They could not afford potatoes, so they ate turnips. Butter was expensive, so they used fruit sauce provided by an Advent believer. Besides the turnips and sauce there was very limited and simple fare. Uriah Smith joined the Review and Herald in March 1853 and was provided only room and board. After Smith had been eating in the Whites’ home for a few weeks, “he remarked to a comrade, that though he had no objection to eating beans 365 times in succession, yet when it came to making them a regular diet, he should protest!”7
Trials and Affliction
Around August 1852 a cholera epidemic laid Rochester low, and little 3-year-old Edson White was afflicted. Ellen took her son in her arms, prayed for him, and rebuked the disease, resulting in immediate relief. When another woman began to pray for his healing, the little boy looked up and said, “They need not pray any more, for the Lord has healed me.” The same cholera epidemic afflicted the non-Adventist printer Lumen V. Masten, who was expected to die. He recovered and through the process became a Christian and a Sabbatarian Adventist. Sadly, he died of tuberculosis about a year and a half later on March 1, 1854.8
Cholera was not the only affliction Adventists faced in Rochester. Nathaniel and Anna White, siblings of James White, who came to Rochester, died of tuberculosis. They may have brought “consumption,” as tuberculosis was called in the nineteenth century, to the White home. Before he died on May 6, 1853, Nathaniel, who had been indifferent to religion, was won to Christ by the family worships. He accepted the Sabbath but died soon after. Anna White, an accomplished organizer and writer, became editor of the Youth’s Instructor and edited the first Adventist hymnal for children. She died on November 30, 1854, and is buried beside her brother in the Rochester Mount Hope Cemetery. Annie Smith, the talented hymn writer and poet, who was a sister of Uriah Smith, probably contracted tuberculosis from Nathaniel or Anna White. She returned to be with her mother in West Wilton, New Hampshire, where she died on July 28, 1855.
Additionally, Ellen White developed a heart condition that led to stroke-like symptoms. To their many financial and physical hardships were added vicious attacks by a dissident group in Jackson, Michigan, called the Messenger Party. The critics in Michigan fragmented soon after the Whites moved to Battle Creek in 1855, but while in Rochester they remained a real challenge.
“Trials thickened around us,” wrote Ellen White. “We had much care. The Office hands boarded with us, and our family numbered from fifteen to twenty. The large conference and the Sabbath meetings were held at our house. We had no quiet Sabbaths, for some of the sisters generally tarried all day with their children.”9
Today we have so many resources. What can God do through us if we will have the same commitment and sacrifice!
By June 1853 the Review and Herald was being published semimonthly in downtown Rochester next to the canal that ran through the city. After the Whites moved to Rochester, the Review and Herald had an increasing influence, and the message spread rapidly. It was the practice of James White and the publishing committee to print large numbers of each issue. About 2,000 copies were published and mailed to 1,600 homes. In August 1852 the Youth’s Instructor began with a circulation of about 1,000. This broad distribution had a significant evangelistic effect. The printing size of tracts ranged from 2,000 to 4,000.10 This, though, led to even greater hardship for the Sabbatarian Adventist workers in Rochester, as subscription receipts did not keep pace with expenses. James White recollected, “The autumn of 1855 found me much reduced in strength, in consequence of incessant toil and care, editing, publishing, journeying and preaching. . . . A change seemed necessary. Heavy debts were upon me, in consequence of printing large editions of our publications.”11
But through the difficulties God worked, and today we stand on their shoulders. Today we have so many resources. What can God do through us if we will have the same commitment and sacrifice!
The early founders and believers in the Advent message were willing to suffer anything for “God’s dear cause.” Everything was given to Jesus so that the precious end-time gospel message of the three angels could be taken to the world. Will we today have the same spirit of sacrifice and commitment so that God can work with power through us? The Review and Herald played a direct role in the establishment and growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. May the Adventist Review and other related publications continue to share precious truths from the Bible, God’s holy Word, and may the “streams of light” shine even brighter throughout the world until Jesus comes again.
1 Joseph Bates, A Seal of the Living God (New Bedford, Mass.: Benjamin Lindsey, 1849), p. 26.
2 Ellen G. White, Life Sketches of Ellen G. White (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1915), p. 125.
3 Joseph Bates, S. W. Rhodes, J. N. Andrews, and James White (publishing committee), in Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald (Paris, Maine) 1, no. 1 (November 1850), G. L. Mellen & Co., printers; James White (editor), Joseph Bates, Hiram Edson, and J. N. Andrews (publishing committee), The Advent Review ad Sabbath Herald (Saratoga Springs, New York) 2, no. 1 (Aug. 5, 1851), Davidson’s Printing and Stereotype Establishment.
4 S. W. Rhodes and James White, “The Paper,” Review and Herald, Feb. 17, 1852, p. 96.
5 The stories in this article are largely drawn from Merlin D. Burt, Adventist Pioneer Places: New York and New England (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 2011).
6 James White, Life Incidents (Battle Creek, Mich.: Seventh-day Adventist Pub. Assn., 1868), pp. 292, 293.
7 E. G. White, Life Sketches, p. 142; W. C. White, “Sketches and Memories of James and Ellen G. White: XIV. Beginnings in Rochester,” Review and Herald, June 13, 1935, p. 10.
8 W. C. White, “Sketches and Memories,” Review and Herald, June 13, 1935, p. 11; L. V. Masten, “Experience of Bro. Masten,” Review and Herald, Sept. 30, 1852, p. 86; “Obituary,” Review and Herald, Mar. 14, 1854, p. 63.
9 Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts (Battle Creek, Mich.: James White, 1860), vol. 2, pp. 191, 192.
10 J. N. Loughborough, Rise and Progress of the Seventh-day Adventists (Battle Creek, Mich.: General Conference Association, 1892), pp. 168, 179; W. C. White, “Sketches and Memories of James and Ellen G. White: XVI. A Visit to Michigan,” Review and Herald, June 27, 1935, p. 5.
11 James White, Life Incidents, p. 297.