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Counsels on Stewardship
promptly to secure the advantages He points out. While we are not
to seek to wrest property from any man, yet when advantages are
offered, we should be wide awake to see the advantage, that we may
make plans for the upbuilding of the work. And when we have done
this, we should exert every energy to secure the freewill offerings of
God’s people for the support of these new plants.—
Testimonies for
the Church 9:271, 272
.
Danger in Extreme Position
It is right to borrow money to carry forward a work that we know
God desires to have accomplished. We should not wait in inconve-
nience, and make the work much harder, because we do not wish to
borrow money. Mistakes have been made in incurring debt to do that
which could well have waited till a future time. But there is danger of
going to the other extreme. We are not to place ourselves in a position
that will endanger health and make our work wearing. We are to act
sensibly. We must do the work that needs to be done, even if we have
to borrow money and pay interest.—
Letter 111, 1903
.
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Guard Against Mistakes on Both Sides
The question now before us is, Shall we try to secure the places that
seem desirable in price and location, when we cannot tell where our
money is coming from? Brethren------,------, and others are opposed to
the increasing of debts. But I am not prepared to say that we should not,
under any circumstances, purchase land to which the Lord seems to
have directed our minds, when there is no hindrance but the question of
ready money, and which property, in the providence of God, we could
soon pay for. We have to guard against mistakes on both sides.—
Letter
167, 1902
.
A Brake on Wheels of Progress
The idea that a sanitarium should not be established unless it could
be started free from debt, has put the brake upon the wheels of progress.
In building meetinghouses we have had to borrow money, in order that
something might be done at once. We have been obliged to do this,
in order to fulfill the directions of God. Persons deeply interested in