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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
What One Institution can Do for Another
In the providence of God the Battle Creek Sanitarium has been
greatly prospered, and during this coming year those in charge should
restrict their wants. Instead of doing all that they desire to do in enlarg-
ing their facilities, they should do unselfish work for God, reaching
out the hand of charity to interests centered in other places. What
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benefit they could confer upon the Rural Health Retreat, at St. Helena,
by giving a few thousand dollars to this enterprise! Such a donation
would give courage to those in charge, inspiring them to move forward
and upward.
Donations were made to the Battle Creek Sanitarium in its earlier
history, and should not this sanitarium consider carefully what it can
do for its sister institution on the Pacific Coast? My brethren in Battle
Creek, does it not seem in accordance with God’s order to restrict your
wants, to curtail your building operations, not enlarging our institutions
in that center? Why should you not feel that it is your privilege and
duty to help those who need help?
A Reformation Needed
I have been instructed that a reformation is needed along these
lines, that more liberality should prevail among us. There is constant
danger that even Seventh-day Adventists will be overcome with selfish
ambition and will desire to center all the means and power in the
interests over which they especially preside. There is danger that men
will permit a jealous feeling to arise in their hearts and that they will
become envious of interests that are as important as those which they
are handling. Those who cherish the grace of pure Christianity cannot
look with indifference upon any part of the work in the Lord’s great
vineyard. Those who are truly converted will have an equal interest in
the work in all parts of the vineyard and will be ready to help wherever
help is needed.
It is selfishness that hinders men from sending help to those places
where the work of God is not as prosperous as it is in the institution
over which they have supervision. Those who bear responsibilities
should carefully seek for the good of every branch of the cause and
work of God. They should encourage and sustain the interests in
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