Hymns, for God's Peculiar People, that keep the Commandments of God, and the Faith of Jesus

James White published the first hymnal of the Sabbath-Keeping Adventists in 1849. It contains 47 pages of words only for 53 hymns. This book was printed by Richard Oliphant of Oswego, New York. The fledgling group did not acquire its first press until 1952. Originally published in paperback, later copies were bound in brown leather lined with brown paper.
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In the Review and Herald, November 25 1851 issue, appeared the following notice:

"A Hymnbook"
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There are many calls for our little hymnbook,
but the small edition is exhausted, or nearly so.
​We wish, therefore, to publish a larger collection
of hymns applicable to our faith and hope.
​And we now invite all who feel interested in such a work
to forward to our address, appropriate hymns, either original or select.
We want a number of good hymns on the Sabbath.
​If the friends will help,
​we can have a choice hymnbook.

By the following July 1852
James White had finished the compilation of 139 hymns, titled..
Hymns for Second Advent Believers Who
Observe ​the Sabbath of the Lord.

Often they were hundreds of miles from other Adventists, and because of their different beliefs were criticized, ridiculed, and even persecuted. A deep longing for the coming of Christ and the earth made new characterized a large portion of the hymns they loved to sing.

- reference: Companion to the Seventh-Day Adventist Hymnal "The First Hymnal"