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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
A Neglected Work
In the parable of the good Samaritan the priest and the Levite
looked on the wretched man who had been robbed and wounded, but
it did not seem to them desirable to help the one who, because he was
helpless and forsaken, most needed help. The priest and the Levite
represent many, many in Battle Creek.
Many souls can be saved if the Southern field can have but a small
part of the means so lavishly expended in Battle Creek to make things
more convenient.
The Lord’s heritage has been strangely neglected, and God will
judge His people for this thing. Pride and the love of display are
gratified by the accumulated advantages, while new fields are left
untouched. The rebuke of God is upon the managers for their partiality
and selfish appropriation of His goods.
Something has been done in foreign missions, and something
in home missions; but altogether too much territory has been left
unworked. The work is too much centralized. The interests in Battle
Creek are overgrown, and this means that other portions of the field
are robbed of facilities which they should have had. The larger and
still larger preparations, in the erection and enlargement of buildings,
which have called together and held so large a number in Battle Creek,
are not in accordance with God’s plan, but in direct contravention of
His plan.
It has been urged that there were great advantages in having so
many institutions in close connection, that they would be a strength
to one another and could afford help to those seeking education and
employment. This is according to human reasoning; it will be admitted
that, from a human point of view, many advantages are gained by
crowding so many responsibilities in Battle Creek; but the vision
needs to be extended.
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These interests should be broken up into many parts in order that
the work may start in cities which it will be necessary to make centers
of interest. Buildings should be erected and responsibilities centered in
many localities that are now robbed of vital, spiritual interest in order to
swell the overplus already in Battle Creek. The Lord is not glorified by
this management on the part of those who are in responsible positions.
“The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,