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Selected Messages Book 2
lest we outgrow the simple, self-sacrificing spirit that marked our work
in its early years.
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You will not find it difficult to exert a wide influence in the san-
itarium at_____. If you will act an unselfish part, not requiring the
wages which you would naturally suppose you must draw, the Lord
will sustain you in your work. If, on the other hand, you ask for a high
wage, another, and still another, will think that they have a right to
demand just as high wage as you; and by this means the money will
be used that should be expended in building up the work of the cause
of present truth in other places.
In making important decisions we should study every side of the
question. We are ever to remember that we are given a place in the work
to act as responsible agencies. Some would follow a worldly fashion
in the drawing of their salaries; but the Lord does not view matters
as these men view them. He views our duties and responsibilities in
the light of Christ’s self-denying example. The gospel must be so
presented to the world that precept and example will harmonize.
Our sanitariums are not to be conducted after the customs of the
world. It is not to be considered necessary that even the medical
superintendent shall draw a large salary. We are the servants of God.—
Letter 370, 1907
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Physicians and Ministers Called to Self-Denial
I feel impressed to write to you this morning, and ask that you be
sure to treat all men with equity. I have been instructed that there is
danger of your taking a course with some physicians that will be an
injury to them. We are to do all in our power to encourage ministerial
talent, and also that of physicians, by giving them every consistent
advantage, but there is a limit beyond which we should not go.
When we were trying to find a physician to act as medical super-
intendent of the Loma Linda Sanitarium, one experienced physician
consented to come upon certain conditions. He stated a certain amount
for his services, and said that he would not come for less. Some
thought that, because it seemed so difficult to find anyone, we might
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invite this physician on his terms. But I said to Brother [J. A.] Burden,
“It would not be right to employ this doctor, and pay him so much,
when others who are working just as faithfully receive less. This is not