May 28, 2019
By Rev. D. Scott Smith
The Sabbath Recorder Editor, 1982-1989
A few years ago, our family did something that Seventh Day Baptists began doing in 1871. We packed up our material possessions and resettled in North Loup, Nebraska. The first settlers came here seeking open land to farm. They wanted a place that was free from the “overcrowding” they were experiencing in Wisconsin. With the help of friends and family, they loaded small freight wagons with everything they could fit in and began the long and daunting task of crossing the vast American prairies. They traveled 10 to 15 miles a day. When they arrived in this fertile valley, they thanked God and worshiped Him together along the banks of the slow-moving river.
Our journey here was different than theirs. 144 years later, friends and family helped us to load our things into a rented moving van and we headed west down the Interstate Highway System. We covered 1,150 miles in a few short days and arrived on Sabbath morning just in time for church. Like our predecessors, we thanked God and worshiped Him together.
Somewhere in those old freight wagons, our Seventh Day Baptist predecessors probably carried a few copies of The Sabbath Recorder. By the 1870’s, it was already a mature publication. It’s look had changed a bit since its beginnings in 1844. For those settlers, it was a rather large 22 by 28 inch newspaper. Their subscription cost them a significant amount of money: $2.60 for the year! For that investment, however, they received a densely packed publication that was filled with not only news from other Seventh Day Baptists, but news of the world around them as well. There were advertisements, articles on modern farming techniques, and the value of good manners. There was poetry, inspiration, and admonition—all in one place.
When we arrived in North Loup in 2015, our copy of The Sabbath Recorder found us quickly through the mail. But we did not need to wait. We could check the latest SDB news through computerized digital devices—something the original settlers here would have never imagined.
Through all of the intervening years, with all of its stylistic and size changes, The Sabbath Recorder has always been a connection between individuals and churches across the country and around the world. With all of the change it has gone through, the publication has always adapted to the newest technologies of the time. Who knows what the future will bring for the Recorder and for Seventh Day Baptists? God alone knows. Then, now, and in the future, we can stay aware of the work of our people through this publication’s printed and electronic pages.
