“I Have Seen This Place Before”

The publishing house building that Ellen White would make her home for the next two years was situated on the corner of Weiherweg and Rudolphstrasse, and cost, with its machinery, more than $30,000. She was much pleased with the building. And it was not unfamiliar to her even before her arrival in Basel. The story is told in Life Sketches:EGWE 48.1

“When Mrs. White and her party reached the publishing house, Elder [B. L.] Whitney said, ‘Look at our meeting hall before going upstairs.’ It was a fine room on the first floor, well lighted and well furnished. Mrs. White looked searchingly at all features of the place, and then said: ‘It is a good meeting-hall. I feel that I have seen this place before.’EGWE 48.2

“Not long after this, those parts of the building occupied by the printing business were visited. When the pressroom was reached, the press was running, and Mrs. White said: ‘I have seen this press before. This room looks very familiar to me.’ Soon the two young men who were working in the pressroom came forward, and were introduced to the visitors. Mrs. White shook hands with them, and then inquired, ‘Where is the other one?’EGWE 48.3

“‘What other one?’ Elder Whitney asked.EGWE 48.4

“‘There is an older man here,’ Mrs. White replied, ‘and I have a message for him.’ “Elder Whitney explained that the foreman of the pressroom was in the city on business.”—Pages 282,283.EGWE 48.5

Ten years before, after a vision given to her on January 3, 1875, Mrs. White related to a large audience in the Battle Creek church that she had seen presses running in many countries printing periodicals, tracts, and books on present truth.EGWE 50.1

“At this point in her narrative, James White had interrupted her, asking if she could name some of these countries. She said she could not, because they had not been named to her, ‘except one; I remember the angel said Australia.’ But she stated that although she could not name the countries, she would recognize the places should she ever see them, because the picture was very distinct in her mind.EGWE 50.2

“In the pressroom of the new publishing house at Basel she recognized one of these places. A few months after this, during her visit to Norway, she recognized in the pressroom of the Christiania publishing house another of these places; and six years later, during her visit to Australia, she saw, in the Bible Echo Office in Melbourne, still another pressroom where she recognized the place and the presses as among those she had seen in the vision at Battle Creek, January 3, 1875.”—Ibid.EGWE 50.3

What courage it must have brought to Elder Whitney and the Basel pressmen when she recounted her vision. They were doing the very work that God wanted them to do.EGWE 50.4

A year after the vision, in an editorial in the Review entitled “Preaching by Steam,” James White challenged the believers with these stirring words:EGWE 50.5

“The advancing cause in Europe demands that there should be an Office of publication in Switzerland, as suggested in a recent report from our worthy missionary, Elder J. N. Andrews. We highly approve the measure.... Little has been accomplished in our own country without the press. The cause moved very slowly on this continent until we began publishing in good earnest. The work in Europe will amount to but little until our brethren there commence preaching by steam....EGWE 50.6

“We have three men of ability in Europe who are devoted to the cause of God, and we expect more will be raised up there to stand in defense of the truth. Mrs. White joins us in the pledge to give $1,000 for the mission and press in Europe before the close of 1876, and we shall expect that those of our brethren who have more than a humble competency will join us with a liberal hand in this important work. By the grace of God we will have a Publishing House in Basel, the central point for Switzerland, Germany and France.”—March 30, 1876.EGWE 51.1

But the European press did not open its doors until 1885, just prior to Ellen White's arrival in September. Until then all the work was done by commercial printers. Andrews’ first effort at publishing in Switzerland was in the form of tracts, first prepared by printers in Neuchatel, and later in Basel.EGWE 51.2

He began to publish Les Signes des Temps in July, 1876, and again a commercial shop did the printing. Andrews carried on his work with considerable success. The year of his death there were 6,000 subscribers.EGWE 51.3

The Swiss press in Basel, built at great effort and sacrifice, was followed shortly by new presses in Norway, England, and Australia. By the time of the General Conference of 1901, there were 20 publishing houses in different parts of the world—“preaching by steam!” Today there are half a hundred, preparing literature in more than 200 languages.EGWE 51.4