We know that many think it big to be an editor, hence before and
ever since we entered upon this work we have feared and dreaded
being actuated by such motives. When we go out to work in the field
and we just tell God to let the Trumpet stop if it is his will and
we will keep right on evangelizing, the Spirit's voice soon compels
us to return to this sacred charge.
Once when we had the office up in the city, God tried us
thoroughly. We had no money to pay the printer, and he was out of
meal-tickets, which must be paid in advance. We were sent for to
come to a meeting in Terre Haute. A brother wrote that he would
pay our fare, so we borrowed the money and went down on Saturday
morning. We told the Lord that if he did not want the paper to
continue, to let the printer leave and get work somewhere else. As
we walked from the depot to the office on our return, Monday eve,
we said, If that young man is in the office it is the wonderful
dealing of God. We entered and found him cheerfully working away.
On Saturday he ran the press all day without a bite to eat. As he
told us this our heart was melted. We entered our little sanctum
and poured out our soul to God, and he sent the Spirit as the dews
of heaven upon our heart.
When we started for the Camargo camp-meeting, we had a few dimes.
Having been provided with a free pass, through the kindness of
Brother ----, who wrote that for months he had not thought of the
camp-meeting without seeing us on the program and that we must
be there without fail, we left with Wife all our change but two
nickels. Told our printer that as we had no money to give him he
might quit if he saw fit and hunt a position where he could get
his pay. We remarked that as the Trumpet was not ours we had no
choice whether it lived or died. Well, it cost us five cents to
reach the depot by street-car, and the other nickel to carry us
and baggage from the train to camp-ground, so we just had enough.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Though we were brought
there by the direction of God's Spirit through Brother ----, the
high priest in charge, probably out of self-interest, gave us no
place in the pulpit. But God gave us a field to work in, and the
hearts of the "people who do know their God," and, blessed be his
name, in that meeting he gave us over sixty-one dollars. So the
Trumpet still sends out the certain sound. Here is a sample of many
letters received the last few months. It will show how others see
the Trumpet in relation to God's will and Satan's dread:
"Ah yes, Brother Warner, it is the Trumpet the devil wants stopped.
You may evangelize all you please, so the Trumpet goes under, and
the devil doesn't care. Do stand by the Trumpet at all hazards."
Of course we know that all such expressions relate to the awful and
offensive truth of God that we give place to in the Trumpet, and
not to any ability we possess to write or conduct a paper. We are
too sorely and constantly pinched by a sense of our own ignorance
to think anything else.
In the November 15 number, under the heading, The Trumpet Will Go On,
we have the following:
God has blessed us with excellent health and strength. Praise his
holy name! We can work without apparent fatigue from 5 A. M. to
11 P. M., and we propose doing so, by the continued help of God.
We feel that the gates of hell can not stop the truth. And if we
can not issue the paper regularly every two weeks, we will issue
as often as we can, and give everybody his or her full number of
papers. The Lord holds us to this work, and he can not forsake us
in the work whereunto he has called us. Let all the readers of the
Trumpet obey the voice of the Spirit of God, and there will be
means both to enlarge and carry on the paper for the glory of God.
Oh, if the God of salvation could but reach some who are blessed
with means and draw out about two hundred dollars it would pay all
the Trumpet debts, get the necessities to enlarge the paper, and
provide a good little stock of paper to start with. We will work,
and pray, and trust, and God and the dear people will provide the
means.
At the beginning of the second year the price of the Trumpet was
raised to one dollar.
For some time before the Trumpet raised to one dollar, nearly
everybody sent us one dollar instead of seventy-five cents.
Thus the Lord has fixed the price, and he will provide for its
enlargement.
The enlargement came with the first issue in February. It was made a
six-column, four pages--15 by 22. In the first issue of the new size
we find the following editorial:
We printed two thousand papers this issue. It is quite a task on
our hand-press; but, praise God, he gives us blessed health and
strength, and we are perfectly satisfied to work on with the means
the Lord has furnished, until he sees proper to give us others.
Early in the autumn of 1882 the publishing office was moved to
Cardington, Ohio. Here was a congregation of saints among whom the
publishing work could be better supported. A very pleasant office,
warm and well lighted, was rented for thirty dollars a year. Brother
Warner acknowledges his enjoyment of the great kindness, love, and
cooperation of the true saints there. It seems, however, that even
there the work did not make much progress. The old press had by this
time become very unsatisfactory. Brother Warner sought to hire his
printing work done elsewhere, but his effort resulted in his having
to print the first issue of 1883 on a job-press, with the paper
reduced in size to a four-column 11 by 15. The price was dropped to
seventy-five cents, then to fifty cents. The following editorial will
give an insight to his situation: